Travel Archives, page 4

These posts are about the act of traveling, moving from one place to another, often going someplace to see something.

All the things she did for luck

While Stephanie and I were in Thailand last year preparing to go to India, my sister Katie was preparing to quit her job and travel across Europe for 3 months by herself. Though it would have been very cool if our paths had crossed—we arrived in France a few days before she flew out of London—in some ways I’m glad we didn’t because it made her journey wholly hers.

While traveling, she quickly realized the futility of keeping her blog up to date, which was smart, because instead she focused her attention on the experience itself—as well as capturing it with enough photos and keepsakes to fill several 3-inch binders. And yet, incredibly, she continued updating her blog with tales from her trip in the months since she’d returned home. There was a lull at the end of last year, but then in January the posts resumed with a vengeance, motivated, I think, by the approaching one-year anniversary of her trip.

Her accomplishment is a triumph in and of itself, but the stamina required to continue blogging about it for a year afterward boggles the mind. As a proud and doting brother, I wanted to celebrate Katie reaching the finish line of her blogging journey. One of the things in her posts that tickled me time and time again were all the things she did for luck, things I’d never heard of before, and probably wouldn’t have done myself. And yet there she was, dutifully following in the footsteps of countless others, performing these secret rites of European passage. She is very lucky indeed.

Lucky turtle and swallow mail slot at the Casa de l'Ardiaca (Archdeacon's House) in Barcelona, Spain (copyright Kathryn Watt)
“Finally, we saw an interesting mailbox that led into [the Casa de l’Ardiaca]. I was not paying attention at this point so I don’t know why things are on it, but you have to touch the turtle for luck. I did.”

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My second inflight blog post

Window seat shot on Virgin America shortly after takeoff from JFK
On the way home to San Francisco, taken shortly after takeoff

The novelty of blogging from the sky just doesn’t get old.

My first inflight blog post

Window seat shot on Virgin America from SFO to JFK
The view from 35,000 feet, between SFO and JFK

In a similar vein: How to update your blog from the middle of the ocean

Our container ship voyage across the Atlantic written up in Neue Presse

One of the four passengers on our transatlantic container ship voyage was German journalist and radio personality, Björn Stack. Besides fulfilling his lifelong dream of traveling to the “new world” by boat (just like in the old days), he was also writing a newspaper article about the experience for the German press.

Björn Stack and Justin Watt in the Hanjin Palermo's engine room
Björn and Justin in the Hanjin Palermo’s engine room

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Chris and Katie

While Stephanie and I were making our way across India and East Africa last spring, Katie, my sister, was traveling by herself across Europe. Our paths almost crossed—we arrived in Nice on June 5th just before she flew home from London on the 8th.

During her trip, on the way from Barcelona to Rome, she spent two nights with Stephanie’s mom in France, near Cannes. Keep in mind, they’d never met before, but apparently they hit it off—we heard so many stories from them that it seemed like they’d spent a whole week together, not just a whole day.

biot france chris katie
A great shot of Chris and Katie after visiting La Verrerie de Biot

All that to say, Katie has just updated her blog with a photo-filled post about their action-packed day, touring Grasse, Valbonne, Biot, Antibes, and Cannes. Check it out.