Friday, November 13, 2009
Page 11
AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)
Vacation Blog Keeps Family Close
By J’AMY PACHECO
Boy, has travel communication changed.
Back in the day, people would set off on fantastic adventures by ship, train or even covered wagon. Their loved ones would never know how things were going until they got a letter, a postcard—or the travelers returned home with souvenirs and presents.
Eventually, other means of communication developed that allowed travelers to send messages from long distances. Even travelers on the Titanic could send messages home—until the machine was needed for more important things, anyway.
I remember being amazed the first time I saw telephones in the seatbacks of an airplane. I don’t think I ever tried to use one, but I thought it was pretty cool to be able to make a call from 30,000 feet over Ohio.
Then came cell phones, which allowed people to make a phone call from anywhere a signal was present. Those “can you hear me now?” calls could come from ocean-going voyages, mountain peaks and any other place a fake pine tree would grow.
Today’s technology makes letter-writing look positively prehistoric. Travelers can blog and tweet constant updates to those of us left behind.
I know this because my mother and brother are currently halfway through the trip of a lifetime. They left a week ago, stopped over in New York, then headed to Venice, where they boarded a ship. Their travels will take them through Greece, Italy and Croatia—at least the parts of those countries that touch the ocean.
They brought a laptop computer, and my brother decided to blog their travel experiences.
At first, I thought it was going to be tedious. His first post was sent from New York, where blog followers (two of us at that point) learned that he’d forgotten his camera charger and that their hotel was in an industrial area 12 miles from the airport.
But it was good to know they’d arrived safely.
His next blog entry was a good one. What should have been a quick and simple cab ride into the city to visit an iconic camera shop for a new charger turned into a traveler’s nightmare when the Big Apple had the audacity to schedule a ticker tape parade for its beloved Yankees.
My brother’s blog contained details of bailing from a train that got stuck a few stops before his destination, and of hailing the one cabbie in New York who needed to ask his West Coast passenger for directions.
It was pretty funny, and my sister and I breathed a collective sigh of relief upon reading that our mother had remained behind at the hotel.
His next post was sent from Venice where, we learned, American computers don’t work without a power convertor to go with an adapter. Their room contained one usable plug, located in the bathroom, and he quipped about “blogging from the bidet.”
He told of the rain that greeted them on their first day in Venice and the difficulty they had of finding a restaurant near their hotel on a Sunday, when it appeared most of Venice shut down.
In Venice, he blogged, “English” television consists of a never-ending infomercial for some kind of ultrasound butt-shaping device; a sports channel, BBC and CNN. They spent part of their day watching Mr. Bean which, he opined, is quite funny in Italian.
Pictures finally popped up on their first day at sea: my mother at the Grand Canal; snuggled in a blanket on the balcony of their cabin, standing next to a post in front of a city I don’t recognize. But she looks healthy, well-rested and pretty darned happy.
When the most recent blog was posted, I vowed to get my brother something special for Christmas. He posted pictures of our mother in Santorini and described in great detail the kindness with which the Italian crew helped our mother—who uses a walker—go through the process of getting to land.
I was so touched that I got tears in my eyes.
There have been times when I thought before getting a blog, people should have to demonstrate they’re capable of writing something worth blogging about. Now I think everyone should have one—when they’re going on vacation, at least.
It’s like being there—but without the need for seasickness pills.
Copyright 2009, Metropolitan News Company