By Bob Corbett
Tomorrow is travel day, or at least travel day # 1 and I’m excited. I’m always quite excited at this point.
Packing is a very quick affair for me, but quite orderly. I got up, neatly made the bed and will use the bed as my “packing table.” This process takes little time for three reasons:
The backpack itself already has some colored ribbons on it from my last trip, so I don’t need to do that again. These make it much easier to recognize when it comes down the baggage ramp.
Also, since on my last trip, as many of you will remember, I had everything stolen in San Jose, Costa Rica, first theft I’ve ever experienced in several DOZEN trips to foreign countries. So, a few weeks ago I went out and purchased a quite lovely and very light weight travel vest. It has pockets in places I don’t even yet know, all over even inside and I’ve worn it three times already just to check it out. Since the lower front pockets near the waist are fairly large I’m able to carry a book in one and my notebook, pen and glasses in the other, thus I no longer need my little shoulder bag at all. Just the vest. That saves one item of packing.
In a few minutes I’ll go in and print the check list and then take my daily walk by going up to Schnucks grocery store to get the few items I will need – the smaller travel versions of everyday toiletries – a small can of shaving cream, small shampoos, a small tube of toothpaste, little items that are more expensive in those small sizes, but cut down on the bulk I have to carry.
As always my guess is that ¼ the weight of my bag will be my books. I’m taking several classics of ancient Greece, plays of Sophocles, Homer’s Odyssey, other Greek plays. I have one modern novel set in Turkey, a couple travel books, an assortment of other modern novels including going back to Hemingway again (which I’ve been doing systematically the past year – this time I’ve chosen his The Sun Also Rises) and some poetry, even Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales which I try to re-read every five years or so. And notebooks so that I can write commentaries for all the books I read. My backpack is as much a book bag and clothes bag.
I am not much of a “sight-seer” at all. I go more to be in a different sort of place, preferably a different culture and different language with different food and interesting drinks. I like to just walk about and GAPE. I RARELY visit “tourist sights” and on Tuesday, our first full day in Athens, while Sally goes up to see the Acropolis, I’ll just walk about the Plaka, which I do love, and do things like get our ferry tickets for the trip to Santorini and such and let Sally tell me all about the Acropolis. Now I do have fond memories of a few years ago sitting on the balcony of a great room my son Brian had at some cheap hotel, sipping our own wine and staring off at the Acropolis which looked like it was just a few blocks away!!!! That was enough “Acropolis” for me. I will look forward to sitting at outdoor cafes, reading of course, and sipping a bit of ouzo, which I don’t particularly like, but like when I’m in Greece!!!! I’m also hoping to find some place that still serves absinthe which is getting harder and harder to fine.
And I love to eat. Athens is, quite honestly, not a place I much like. (That a gross understatement), but we’ll only be there a couple days. Then it will be off to Santorini, one of the most wonderful places I’ve ever been and where the food is just great and fresh fish is delicious if the seas are such that the fishermen can get out. If not, well, then there are always kabobs and such.
I am feeling so utterly relaxed today. It’s like I am now letting go of all my daily activities and plans for my work here. Always the day before travel is my “let go day,” and, yes, packing, but that’s just a few minutes. It’s more a psychological UNPACKING. Letting go. And at 8:30 AM I’ve already done so and I’m feeling very very mellow. One more “job” -- I did finish a simply marvelous novel yesterday. The Kite Runner by Afghan writer Khaled Hosseini and I wrote my comments on the book last night, now I will head off to a coffee shop, have some breakfast, and edit this book review before posting it to my web page this afternoon. But THAT work, my book reviews, I do carry with me, but I still feel much less pressure to MYSELF when I’m traveling than I do when I’m home. I don’t write those reviews for others, but really for myself. Nonetheless, I feel obligated to myself most of the time, but not when I travel. So THIS review is pre-trip and thus carries obligations, then next book (still unchosen) will not carry that burden. Yep, today is a day for psychological unpacking while doing a bit of physical packing.
Bob Corbett corbetre@webster.edu