Stage 2: Lost
Stage Two
LOST
One of the largest plights of traveling is not knowing exactly where you are. It doesn’t matter how many websites you have on a travel board on Pinterest or how long you have stared at Google Maps, once you land it is easy to take a wrong turn.
Your internal GPS glitches out because you have no idea where you are.
Nothing is familiar. Everything is novel. Which makes it easier to get turned around.
And while we are exploring, we are bound to loose a few things along the way. A backpack, hostel keys, or favorite pair of earrings. Pieces of us go missing and found in other people's way.
But it isn’t just a physical location or losing an object that gives us a sense of misdirection, sometimes we feel lost in life. Our compasses can be demagnetized, and we use travel as an escape to figure out where we need to be going.
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Today on the episode, we are lost. Travelers will tell us stories about being disoriented in every sense of the word. We will lose important objects, get turned around, be lost in translation, and lose ourselves in the ideas of others. As we try to find our way, we will see what being lost can actually do for us. Have your GPS out, we will need a good sense of direction.
We will discuss:
How being lost is different than wandering.
How to not lose your passport while traveling.
How to not lose items while traveling.
How to not get lost in new cities.
How to not get lost while traveling.
How getting lost can be good.
How to not be lost in translation.
What it’s like to be lost in translation.
How to not get lost in a dream.
How to not avoid your problems.
How travel doesn’t fix your problems.
Guests
Castaway with Crystal
Losing items is inevitable when we travel. The packing, repacking from home to airport, hostel to hostel gives space for something to roll under the bed, fall out of our backpacks, or be left at a cafe. Cellphones, wallets, our favorite pair of earrings. But I think we have to lose some things in order to have a safe journey. When this happened to Crystal from Castaway with Crystal, she learned that sometimes you have to lose something to find something bigger.
Jessie on a Journey
If you ever had a question on how to make your travels richer, you should talk to Jessie Festa. She has circumvented the globe solo more times than she can count and has a successful travel blog and business school, Jessie on a Journey. But just because she has traveled on nearly every continent doesn’t mean she doesn’t fall into rookie mistakes. Every traveler has faced the frustration of being lost. You walk in circles. Take a wrong turn. Can’t remember if you walked right or left out of the hostel. That is what Jessie and her boyfriend faced the first day they traveled together in Nice, France when they misplaced their rental car somewhere near a cafe sign with a fish on it…
Rhonda Handsome
Rhonda Handsome has always been a performer. She is an acclaimed NYC comic, storyteller, and director. She has toured all over America and even opened for Aretha Franklin. But years before she traveled for work, she took a quintessential trip to Europe with her (now ex) husband. Their bags were packed, hotels booked, but there was one minor thing that could get in their way. Rhonda and her husband were an interracial couple. Back in the 80s when they were traveling, this was more of an issue. And Rhonda learned that it isn’t just languages that get lost in translation, it’s also perspectives.
Jeff Simmermon
Before Jeff Simmermon was an acclaimed NYC comic and storyteller featured on The Moth, This American Life, and produced his own comedy albums, he was extremely lost in life. While living in Richmond Virginia, Jeff found his life there to be rough and dragging on like pulling a canoe on a rocky shore. He was looking for anything to escape. Until he got a message on a website from a woman in Perth, Australia. Perth sounded like everything he was dreaming of, epic sunsets over the Indian ocean and desert lands surrounding it. Not to mention, the woman who was messaging him was wilder than he could have imagined. So he sold everything, bought a one-way ticket to Sydney and hoped for the best. But Jeff learned that boarding passes aren’t always the ticket to finding ourselves.
Strangers Abroad is a travel podcast hosted by solo female traveler and storyteller, Adrien Behn.