Joel Thornton

A common sense conservative.

What I Carry With Me When I Travel Internationally

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Often the hardest part of any trip is deciding what to carry. There are a multitude of decisions that have to be made. There are also a multitude of questions that we have to know the answer to before we can make the decisions necessary for the trip to be successful. First, remember that you are not traveling to a third world country—unless of course, you are traveling to a third world country. Even then, there are many things you can buy locally rather than packing.

The most important thing to remember is to pack light. Rick Steves, the budget travel guru, says that he has never heard an experienced traveler say, “I wish I had carried more stuff with me.” Or something like that. I find that the more I travel the less I think I need to take. I have also found it valuable—on the keep things light side—to keep my wife out of the room while I am packing. She wants to add clothes that I know I will not be wearing. I usually humor her and unpack after she moves on to her next task.

I travel heavier than most people. I am an insulin dependent person who has recently had open heart surgery. I do not let those obstacles keep me from traveling, but I do carry more supplies than the average person because of the medicines, needles, etc. that I use on a daily basis.

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WHY TRAVEL?

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            There are literally dozens of reasons to travel. We each have our own reasons for traveling, reasons that cause travel to rise to the top of our list of options of how to spend the next week. I travel because I have a wanderlust. Early in my career as a lawyer my boss called me a vagabond. He laughed and said, “Joel, you are a vagabond, have bag, will travel.” Perhaps I would have been better placed to have grown up in the age of Jack Kerouac, hopping on and off trains as a “hobo.”

            Nonetheless, here I am stuck in the 21st Century, lost in an age when security precautions and family concerns make it unrealistic to ride the rails like they did less than a hundred years ago. So, I’ll make the best of life and travel in the era into which I was born.

            Why do I travel? I travel because travel opens the world to everyone of us. When I travel I expand my borders. I expand my understanding of different cultures. And in the middle of those two great reasons to travel, I get to see some of the coolest things a person could ever see. I get to experience some of the most different views of life, views that I could never experience sitting in my living room watching television.

            I also travel because I love the process of traveling. There was a time when I was not able to go. In those days, I would spend hours planning trips I never took. I would work on where to fly from and where to land. How to get from the airport to the city center. How to travel from town to town. What sights to see while I was in town. What day trips to take. How to navigate the subway systems of the city where I was planning my imaginary trip. I did all this just for the fun of planning the trip.

            I have spent most of my time traveling in Europe. Since 1980 I have been to Europe at least forty times. I have traveled from country to country by train, by car, and by plane. I have wondered around cities, walking from sight to sight. I have driven around major European cities looking for a place to park. I have ridden on their subway systems, which are some of the best in the world. I have wondered cities and villages alone and with family and friends. I have experienced Europe in virtually every way that you can experience Europe. Every time I went, I went as an American, a fact that is hard to hide because of the way we dress, the way we talk, and even the way we walk. I have lived and worked in Germany and France.

            The purpose of this blog is to help open the doors of the world to you and your friends. I hope to provide information that will help you make decisions on where to travel, what to take, and what to do when you get there. We will explore countries, cities, sights, and all the little details that help make a trip successful.

            Sit back, relax, let me do the work for you. If there is something you need to know that I am not talking about write to me. Let me make it easier for you. Let’s explore the world together.

If you are thinking about traveling and would like some more information, contact me at [email protected]. You can also ask to sign up for our travel newsletter (we are beginning it soon) and to keep up with tours that we are currently planning. We can help you make memories to last a lifetime!