I fell down a rabbit hole of Marvel Super Heroes recently which started with the movie Spiderman: Homecoming.  From there, I went to the movie theatre to see Spiderman, Far From Home (yes, I know out of order) which led me to Avengers: Endgame which led me to the only East Coast exhibition of Marvel, Universe of Super Heroes at the Franklin Institute in my hometown of Philadelphia (there’s still some time left to visit as the exhibit is ongoing until September 2nd).  The Franklin Institute Science museum is a must for any Philly visit and often has really fun and cool special exhibits like the Science Behind Pixar and the Lego exhibit, The Art of the Brick.

My Marvel Superheroes History

I grew up reading comics of all kinds including Marvel superheroes. I think my dad was initially more interested in the comics but at some point I fell into the world where a boy gets bit by a spider and has powers and then on television I watched the super hero shows of the 70’s/80’s.  The Marvel universe was all around me as well as the DC Superhero universe (Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Justice League, etc.) and of course Star Trek: The Next Generation and the original three Star Wars movies. My dad had two girls so we grew up with superheroes, science fiction and sports.

When the Marvel movies started eons ago, I still remember my friend making me sit through what felt like a forever and a day’s worth of credits along with two other people in the theater for the special clip, a spoiler in some cases for what was to come. Little did I know then how many movies were yet to come and how our secret geek group of four who sat through the credits would slowly grow as more learned of the bonus scene(s).

The Franklin Institute – Philadelphia’s Science Museum

One of my favorite “Philly” iconic views is at the Franklin Institute.  Between the front entrance and ticket area is Ben Franklin statue in the soaring domed atrium.  I’ve been visiting Ben for over thirty years now, he doesn’t age and frankly my sense of adventure doesn’t either – I’m still a kid discovering something new in the science museum. I wonder what he would think of the science, imagination and the storytelling that Marvel begat.

Visiting Marvel, Universe of Super Heroes

The timed ticket is good for a 30 minute window so my 9:30 entrance ticket sold at 9:45 was good to enter the Marvel exhibit up to 10 am. The ramp up to the entrance is a bit long and during peak time will be filled with folks waiting to enter. As it was early Sunday morning, there was no line and my only wait was a few minutes as there is controlled entry to view the short film before beginning your visit.

And with that I was led into the Marvel universe,

Did you Know? The Marvel universe was created in less than two years primarily by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. 

The short film gives you a peek into the early days when Stan took over a fledgling paper.   Once the 12 minute film ends you can begin the visit. There tends to be a bit of a bottleneck here to read the panels and see the first comic book produced (worth millions!).  Once you get past this hallway the exhibit opens up and gives you the freedom to wander about.

Marvel Superheroes – The Photo Options

Fancy a picture with a superhero?  There are a few to choose from – The Thing, Spiderman, Black Panther and The Hulk.  A few folks planned ahead – kids in Spiderman masks, kids with hulk hands, etc. Such creativity on display for the perfect social media post. But it was the adults having a bit too much fun with their superhero t-shirts and multiple selfies with the characters.

A Marvel Walk Through Comic Books History

Each superhero is given his or her area with detailed boards and a few bonuses like comic books, original art, art mock ups and movie costume and props.

Did you know?  Stan Lee has had a cameo in every Marvel movie made until his recent death earlier this year.

Entering the World of Marvel is falling down a rabbit hole of your childhood, teenage years and adulthood.  How you relate depends on your age – did you grow up with the comic book stories spending your allowance on the next story?  Or did you dive into the film and streaming world?  Either way, there’s something for every fan and non-fans too. The toughest question of my visit was “Who is your favorite superhero?”

Captain America Comics and Movie Props

Captain America was born out of war time as a super solider and appeared in the first comic in March 1941 by Timely Comics, the comics before they became Marvel Comics.  He became popular during World War II and then faded in the early 50’s and reemerged in Avengers #4 in March 1964.

Spiderman

We all know the story of Peter Parker and have probably watched some (if not all) of the movies with different actors portraying the web slinger.  The displays at Marvel Universe of Super Heroes highlights Spiderman over the years in the comics, art, props and newest entrant, Spiderman, Entering the Spiderverse, which received an Academy Award for animated feature.  The Spiderverse introduces us to Miles Morales and the many universes of Spiderman. Spiderman continues to be a fan favorite and new movies are planned for the future.

The X-Men Comics and Artwork

The X-Men created in the 1960’s are primarily mutants born with an “X” gene which gives them superhuman abilities.  They fight for a world of acceptance for all humans and mutants.

The Avengers Art and Movie Props

The Avengers were brought together as a team in the 1960’s (September 1963) to fight against Loki, the brother of Thor. The original Avengers were Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Ant Man and the Wasp.

Did you Know? The Wasp was originally a housewife who divorces The Ant and becomes a powerful heroine for feminism in the 1960’s.  She named the group “The Avengers”.

The Avengers continued to add to the roster as you’ve seen in Infinity War which includes Dr. Strange, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America and many others.

Marvel – Wall of Aliens

The world of superheroes needs not only villains but a world of aliens to encounter and potentially fight off world destruction.  The map of alien worlds along with threat level and background information is truly for the superfan.  You need to know which aliens are which.  For me, after recently seeing Captain Marvel, I focused on the Kree because frankly that’s all I could remember. For the guy behind me with his Gen-X friends, they got a bit more intense into the deep dive of the aliens and didn’t need to read the boards.

Marvel Superheroes – New to Me

There are a few Marvel superheroes I’ve not heard of – the Street Level Heroes – Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Misty Knight, Jessica Jones and the Punisher.  All of whom have found their stories come to life on television and streaming services like Netflix.  The X-Men spawned the New Mutants in 1982 (never heard of them either). The Runaways was created in 2003 which follows the children of super villains and their struggles with their inherited powers (that sounds like an interesting story to follow)

Did you know The Hulk had a cousin? SheHulk decides to incorporate her inner Hulk into her outer appearance (leave it to a woman to decide this is who I am).  I’m sure it was about all the ripped clothes and budget, right?  Who wants to buy so many great clothes only to rip them apart every time you get angry?

Final Thoughts – Marvel, Universe of Superheroes Exhibit

If you are a fan of the comics, you’ll enjoy the exhibit. Love the movies? Then the props and costumes will make you happy.  Know nothing and are along for the ride with your passionate partner or kids? No worries, I think you can enjoy the show too.

If you do a drive by with highlights and selfies, you can do both rooms in an hour.  If you want to read everything and view it thoroughly then allow two hours at least. If you are in your 40s/50s and come wearing your Captain America tshirt and bring your friends, well, let’s say you might want to bring snacks with you as you discuss who is the best superhero and villan.

While your wristband allows you to come back into the Science Museum, the Marvel exhibit doesn’t allow you to exit and reenter.  As it is spread across two rooms, same thing there, once you say goodbye to The Hulk to go to the other room you can’t go back.  The ticket price of $35 is a bit steep but totally worth it in my opinion as it also includes access to the science museum and a few extras like Planetarium, live shows and demonstrations (IMAX and Take Flight Simulator are additional).

So I leave you with words from Stan Lee…..

The year my dad passed, my mom boycotted Thanksgiving – there would be no turkey, no football, no family gathering for dinner as our family was one man down and we all were trying to cope.  Mom was pretty steadfast to veto all turkey day options.  At the time I was planning my Australia RTW trip, Thanksgiving was a consideration until Mom boycotted it so I ended up with my Thanksgiving in Paris staying with a friend. While you can try to run away from grief, it is never that far behind no matter how magical a place may be.

Thanksgiving in Paris

Before I left, I researched all the Thanksgiving in Paris dinner options (there are a few for the American expats and friends like Breakfast in America) only to find that my friend had planned to host his first Thanksgiving to celebrate with his international friends, which was more exciting.

For Thanksgiving in Paris to work, you need:

• A Turkey, of course, and in France, that turkey might come with its head and feathers my friend told me which frankly scared me (he may have lied to freak me out and get a laugh).  Luckily, my friend got the requisite Butterball turkey (it pays to have friends in the Embassy!)
• The other American thanksgiving requirement – cranberry sauce in a can (my friend’s mom brought that a few weeks prior)
• A plethora of vegetables for side dishes (easy to shop for at the markets in Paris)
• French Requirement:  Visit the cheese shop for a very stinky cheese his friend loved (the refrigerator smelled every time I opened it).
• Bread: Usually Pillsbury crescent rolls or biscuits but we made do with fresh French baguettes (sorry Pillsbury Dough Boy, I love baguettes)
• Alcohol (the more family, the more alcohol needed to preserve sanity) – French Wine was definitely up for the task! Champagne is also a great option.
• To dine early (usually 5 o’clock) so you can have leftovers later at night.  In Paris, dinner started at 8ish so I had to pre-eat.
• Lots of pies, cakes, more pie and desserts – As I’m the dessert person, I ordered an indulgent chocolate torte from the (famous) Maison Dupuy patisserie on Rue Cadet.

My friend cooked all day while I joined a walking tour of Paris Street Art (lucky me!).  Returning back to the flat, I entered to smells of turkey from the kitchen and in that moment, I could have been home in the U.S. but the French television program quickly brought me back to Paris.  While we waited on our international guests to arrive – French, Ukrainian and Italian, I decided to FaceTime my mom at home (thankful for technology).  Past Thanksgivings abroad, I either did the collect call trick with dad (pre-internet, mobile phone) or texted.  Mom asked about my trip to Australia, I told her about Sydney raining on my birthday parade (she wasn’t surprised), the Paris Christmas Markets and how my flight home was affected by the strike. She seemed in good spirits as she told me all the invites she had declined and yet there was a ton of food deliveries from her friends.  She and the dog had enjoyed a relaxing day of football.

Later as our guests sat ready to experience Thanksgiving, we each said what we were thankful for.  I was thankful to have found Thanksgiving in Paris to help lessen the pit of sadness over my first Thanksgiving without my dad.  Had I stayed home with Mom’s boycott, I would have been alone in a sympathy boycott.  Thanksgiving was never going to be the same and I’m still getting used to that.

So whether you are sharing Thanksgiving with friends, family or are traveling alone to a new adventure, make sure you take time to be thankful for all the good things in your life.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Note: I originally posted this at Thanksgiving in 2014.  My Thanksgiving in Paris is still a powerful memory of a crappy year that really questioned what I could be thankful for after such a sudden loss. I’d like to make this an annual rememberance post to remind me to be thankful every day. 

Since my Travel Sabbatical, as it’s listed on my resume (and prompts curious queries during interviews), I have had a bunch of friends who have realized that they are not happy in their jobs, careers or lives.  I have two friends who sold their homes in Philly and relocated to the West Coast (traveling with cats) in search of their next chapter. Another relocated to Florida.  I have a friend who is taking a career break by leaving her job and embarking on her YOLO (you only live once) trip in Europe by taking a transatlantic cruise like I did.  She has an open ended return opting to see where the wind takes her.  Another friend and her husband are taking a year to travel and taste the world (they are food bloggers) – with their U.S. cross country road trip complete, they are now living in Lyon, France before moving to Asia. In one year, more friends made massive changes in their lives than have in the past twenty years!

When I returned from my trip, I was naïve to think that I could easily get a new job in Philly or London (stupid visa rules).  I was fabulous, my resume was awesome and yet I was thrown into a new world that didn’t make sense. There’s no logic, there’s a lot of networking to do and with daily rejections my job search became a full time job – one I didn’t like nor did I apply for.  Some days there were highs, some days madness and other days, I wallowed in chocolate, albeit a new $8 artisan chocolate bar addiction.

What I could tell you about this time would make you laugh, would make you cry, and would make you want your own chocolate with a bottle of wine. I started replying to recruiters who said I was overqualified, overpaid and overeducated saying “I disagree with all of that, however, if you said I was overweight, well I’d give you that”.  When you’ve been rejected for silly reasons, you need to find the humor in it – they definitely won’t forget their conversations with me.   I started writing about it and maybe someday it will become a book – a funny, sarcastic, sad story with a happy ending.

After my birthday trip to London in November (a much needed break during the job search madness), I came back with a restored spirit to continue forward.  I was volunteering at the local university, taking classes to start my own travel consulting and planning business (Arden Road Travel) and looking to map out a new strategy in my war with the job search.   As the New Year began, I wished for a bidding war over me – if I can’t have two guys fighting over me, why not two or more companies?  Be careful what you wish for!

Sadly, Prince Charming and another Prince (are there other Princes out there – not named William and Harry?) were not dueling over me, however, I did end up with two offers (yeah!) that drove me to more chocolate as I had a hard decision to make with one happy company and one disappointed company. So now, one year after my door closed on that job that led me to my EPIC Adventure, I’m now getting ready to turn a page to begin another chapter in Job 2.0 and Sue 4.6.

To start this new chapter, I have the awesome opportunity to go to Miami and jump on a cruise.  This time as a guest of Fathom Cruises to the Dominican Republic on a social impact cruise (they start sailing to the DR in April and to Cuba in May, alternating weeks with the one ship). Perfect timing before I start the new job to clear my mind of the job search craziness.  I’m super excited since I first met Fathom and learned of their mission at the NY Times Travel Show and featured them in my “5 Offbeat Travel Finds”.  I wondered then how a group of 724 guests converging on the island every other week will be able to make an impact in the various projects in the long term and now I’m going to see first-hand.

A year ago, my world changed and what an EPIC adventure it has been – one involving old & new friends, new loves (sadly chocolate counts here), new foods, shoulders to cry on and tears of laughter.  So I hope you’ll follow my Fathom Cruise adventure (#traveldeep hashtag for guests), come back to read all about it and contact me to help you plan your own EPIC Adventures.

UPDATE: Sadly, my Fathom Cruise was delayed and ultimately canceled in a whirlwind 24 hours of tears, tequila and teamwork.  I came home in shock and gutted that I wasn’t able to experience the Fathom adventure prior to the start of my new job.  

Read about the Fathom Cruise Cancellation Experience – Tears, Tequila and Teamwork

Read the Hotel Review of the Holiday Inn Miami West where I was assigned to stay during the delay

I started this blog at the end of 2012 after amazing trips to Easter Island and Africa.  Each year, I try to summarize my year in travel blogging (Year 1 Update, Year 2 Update) –the highs, the lows, a bit of sappy and the lessons learned along the way.  2015 has been quite eventful if you’ve been following along, if not, time to catch up! Here’s my third year of blogging –

Losing Control

There comes a point in travel when you throw your arms up, wave the white flag of surrender and learn to feed your feelings with wine or chocolate (or both).  This is the day that you realize despite the finely tuned itinerary, you have absolutely no control over your travels.  Sure, you planned every minute of it – that much you can control – but once you leave your house with packed bags all bets are off.  There are weather delays, traffic snarls, taxi strikes, missed connections and a host of other scenarios that affect your travel.  How you deal with the travel madness can make or break your vacation and/or relationships. Meltdowns will happen! This uncertainty has resulted in my bag of snacks, a folder of alternative travel scenarios and learning to compromise.

For my third year of blogging, control or lack of control seemed to swirl around me from the get go both in my travels, my professional life and my life in general.  Upending my entire universe wasn’t on my resolution list last year, it wasn’t on my five year plan nor was it in my sightline.  I was happily ignorant in the life I had. In 2015, I was blindsided and yet at the end of the year, I can see how this loss of control has allowed me to stand back and discover so much more about the world and myself.

Starting in January, I trekked to the New York Travel Show to learn about new trends, new destinations and meet other travel industry professionals.  I decided my travel plans for 2015 would finally include The Galapagos (solo friendly vendor) and a surprise Mother’s Day trip to Ireland and London for my mom in business class using my British Airways Travel Together Voucher (essentially a buy one ticket with Avios get one free).  I was super excited to plan these two key milestone trips, having saved for a while.  But then my job was moved overseas (without me) and suddenly my world had exploded without a backup scenario.  Travel is easy to fix……Life is a different story…..

There Will Be A Gap

Having surveyed my job prospects (or lack thereof), I decided this was the best time to take a few months off to travel.  While many questioned my sanity, questioned my finances, questioned how I would explain the gap (note U.S. folks don’t quite appreciate travel gaps, while the rest of the world embraces them – we really need to appreciate the value of travel!) – I knew it was what was best for me to mourn the job loss and try to find out what my next move would be.  I had no idea when I left in April on my travel sabbatical that I would return in July with a fractured foot, no idea the role the small island of Gozo would play in changing my life, no idea that it would take many months to look for a new job.  I’d have a love affair with travel again – wandering freely without a care in the world, questioning life and my place in the world, indulging without worrying about calories all while trying to formulate how I wanted my next chapter to begin.

Trying the New Foods

Tough questions, but first lots of food (and thankfully no scales to compare before and after).  I would just indulge….

Working out every day before leaving on my travel sabbatical, I would cede gym time to my pension for walking everywhere (until I couldn’t walk anymore figuratively then literally).  I rediscovered the flavors of the city and country drinking Cava in Spain, literally Devoured Barcelona, sampled the wines and gelato of Florence and attended Expo15 in Milan, a world showcase of food.  My Italian tour guide would ply me with plates of food to taste and chide me if I didn’t at least try something new.

It’s “Groundhog Day” Everyday

What they don’t tell you about being unemployed it that it’s really not logical –every day you wake up with a plan, you execute that plan, you fail to succeed and then you go to bed only to repeat the process the next day, changing this and that hoping for a new outcome.  So while looking for jobs, attending networking groups, trying to fix all the sideways pictures that occurred with a blog update, I’ve had time to move a cat to California and take advantage of a crazy fare to London for my birthday (job rejection emails from the bots find me no matter where I am in the world).  You don’t need to be unemployed to be living in your own version of “Groundhog Day” but you do need to know how to recognize how it’s affecting your outlook on life and figure out how to make a few changes.  Traveling is the quickest way to change your story.

Discovering More

I am more than my job, this I realized many years ago when I made major changes in my life.  I am more than a title, more than expectations, more than the role I am to play (sister, daughter, girlfriend, etc.), I am more and I expect more of myself.  Having a bit of time this year to really question who I am led me to appreciate more along the way albeit with a lot of tears and chocolate. It led me to finding happiness on the road, to falling in love with a life I want and map out a roadmap in my quest to achieve these new goals. I can control my part, now fingers crossed that others see the same potential in me.

A New Year, a New Beginning

While not as bad as 2013 “The Really Sucky Year” as my sister and I call it when we lost our father, 2015, my third year of blogging on (resume) paper doesn’t look good if you judge me by my job (or lack of one).  But 2015, in memories, was pretty good. Hopefully soon, I’ll land a new job and surprise Mom with Ireland/London because that’s who I am – a traveler who wants to share the world with family, friends and you, the reader. So I’ll be back at the New York Times Travel Show in a few weeks with a new perspective to learn about everything new for 2016.

A BIG THANK YOU to all of those who shared kind words of support on blog posts, on twitter, Facebook, liking my Instagram posts and via emails, it has really meant a lot to me this year.

When it comes to finding the travel deals (and travel hacking) you need to be ready.  There have been so many times when I was shut out of a great deal because I wasn’t a member of the frequent flier club of a particular airline, didn’t have this credit card/membership or wasn’t quick enough.  This time I was ready and waiting for the deal… the British Airways $2,015 Business Class Sale to Europe.

I woke up to a plethora of emails, tweets and Facebook posts declaring the great two day business class sale to Europe from British Airways which was good until July 2016! A business class flight to Madrid from Philly could be had for $362!!  How could I not try to find my own deal? While I’m looking for a job (which I could do from anywhere on my laptop), it made no sense to plan out next years’ travel so I focused on the short term holiday – Thanksgiving (and my birthday). Every year I tend to travel for my birthday (last year Iceland, the year before Australia RTW) so I looked at my options (less than a month away).  Having spent three months earlier this year on travel sabbatical in Europe I wasn’t sure where to go to celebrate in November.  Should I visit the cities I missed because of my foot injury (Brussels, Bruges and Ghent) or should I keep it simple and catch up with friends in London?

London Always Wins

It’s my birthday so rather than spend it alone, I decided to be with friends in London, and it doesn’t get better than that (although the sun would have helped a bit).  I also applied for a press pass to The Taste of London food event at Tobacco Dock as well as a hotel site visit at Z Hotels in Soho.  A mix of blog business and pleasure.  So how would I make this work because I didn’t have $2,015 to spend?  I read a few posts from The Points Guy and One Mile at a Time because they are generally the first to fill my social media stream and they offer step by step “how to” take advantage of the deals. I was so tempted to buy tickets for summer 2016 but without job certainty, I couldn’t risk it as the tickets in I class were non-refundable and changeable for $500 fee + fare differential.

My Travel Hacking Tools

To know why this $2,015 fare sale was a BIG DEAL, you had to be prepared to whittle the fare down with everything you had available.  I had the following:

1. I was a member of the British Airways Avios program
2. I had a Chase British Airways Visa card for the 10% online booking discount
3. I had my new AARP membership card (ok, I resisted this one for a while as I’m not old enough but there’s no age requirement) for the British Airways discount of $400 in business class

Finding a Ticket to London

I logged into my AARP account (my best friend tortures me about this but it’s a savings tool) hours before the end of the sale and clicked on the British Airways link. From there I could search fares and the discount was automatically applied to the prices on the screen. For a business class ticket to London, the discount is $400!!! (Membership fee is as low as $16 a year, I’d say totally worth it. Discounts vary by class) so the fare was showing as $1,600 and change.  That’s still a lot of money with or without a job so next I had two options

1. Use my 10% online discount with the Chase BA Visa card for $160 savings and a net fare of $1,460. Again a fantastic price when compared with the normal $5k fares from Philly to London or against the high summer coach fares
2. Use the “pay with Avios” feature to reduce the cost of the fare. If you choose this option, you can’t stack the 10% option as the code is invalid. There are many points options to reduce the fare, I chose the largest option.  For 30,000 Avios points, I received a fare reduction of $743 which meant the ROI on the points was about 2.5%

Final Pricing

So I found the Philly – London ticket, via Manchester, on a British Airways codeshare with American Airlines. The bonus to the American Airlines flight is that due to the merger with USAirways, the plane equipment (USAirways) has a configuration of 1-2-1 on business class.  The BA flight (Club World) has a 2-4-2 configuration (BA First Class is 1-2-1).  So the American flight gave me a window seat and aisle access as if I’m flying in First Class (sadly no pajamas).  I would also have lounge access in Philadelphia, Manchester and London Heathrow on this ticket as well as earn full mileage points on British Airways.

The flight to London via Manchester meant a change of plane so I decided to go carry-on (hand baggage) only.  I called British Airways to confirm that the connection time was legal and that I wasn’t going to need to run through the airport (I made sure there was a later flight just in case of delays/missed connection).  Connection times are very important as I wasn’t familiar with Manchester airport and the time was less than two hours to go from international through immigration to domestic. I was told it’s a small airport and I should be fine (it was a bit nerve wracking, but that’s a separate post to come).

I used the AARP price and reduced it further with the “Pay with Avios” feature so that with taxes, the final business class flight to London cost $855.71.  By comparison the coach flight was about $650 so my business class ticket is $200 more.  Not a bad birthday present to myself.

London Hotels

I’m decided to use my Starwood SPG points for the hotels in London finding the newly added Great Northern Hotel and the newly renovated (still under construction) Sheraton Park Lane for only 12,000 a night (ROI of 2.5% as the rooms are over £200 per night/$300+). I broke up the hotels with a stay at a friend’s house outside the city so my total time in London would be 11 days.

Costs for 5 Nights Trip to London

• Business Class flights on American Airlines (1-2-1 config) – $852 + 30,000 Avios
• Three Nights (Couchette Room) at The Great Northern Hotel – 36,000 Starwood points
• One Night (King Room) at The Park Lane Sheraton – 12,000 Starwood points
• One Night (Standard Room) at The Sofitel at Heathrow due to early flight – $200
• Airport Train from Heathrow via the London Underground Piccadilly Line – estimate $30 with Oyster Card
• Miscellaneous – Chocolates, Cupcakes, Food, Wine, Pub, Fun

So are you ready for the next fare sale to pop up?  Where will you go?

There was snow on the East Coast and I was going to be stranded in London.  I had planned for this when I changed to the earlier flight from Paris (reason to have a great travel agent), where the snow had also fallen and the unusual weather caused Eurostar trains to be stranded in the Chunnel (reminder to travel with a good bag of snacks and accessories). Planning to be stuck at Heathrow gave me more options as I had many offers by colleagues in London to stay and/or work if necessary.

I went about my normal routine at Heathrow knowing that the monitor which said “on time” was wrong given the almost two feet of snow falling in Philadelphia. Security decided that this one time they would confiscate my contact lens solution which they hadn’t done the previous three trips earlier in the year. While I argued this point with the staff (never a good thing), I walked to Boots to replace the solution. It was already a long day and I was exhausted even before the real stress would begin.

In the quiet lounge, I began planning for my overnight in the airport (my first time stuck at the airport due to snow) by stocking up on bottled water and snacks (back when they had these options available).  I dialed the five star airport hotel, the Sofitel Heathrow, in Terminal 5 to check on availability, knowing that it was well outside my budget but a convenient reward for a stressful travel day. The front desk understood my plight, had a room and would hold it for me (I wasn’t going to give out my credit card info while seated in the lounge). When the flight was canceled, I was directed to a secure area to go through security again (it looked like an employee area) and was let out in baggage claim to retrieve our bags and then go to rebook our flights.

While waiting on my bags, I saw a few students upset not knowing what to do next.  We started talking and they were flying back home after a semester abroad.  One girl was on my flight from Paris and going home from Philly and I adopted her after I heard her parents yelling at her on the phone about the canceled flight.  Really?  She was already upset and unsure what to do so the stressful call didn’t help.

I told her to join me in the business class line to rebook the flights knowing that we could do it quicker than the hundreds waiting in coach. She waved her friends with us (yikes!) and I told them to act normal as this was the British Airways Club World line.  Telling teenage college students to be cool was too much to hope for as they called friends and family, loudly saying that they skipped coach to get into the business class line. Of course, this alerted the other passengers in the queue and staff so they were asked to leave but my new Philly friend was able to stay as I said she was with me.

Flying business class, I was able to get a seat the next day but wasn’t offered the compensation I knew I was entitled to – a meal voucher and a hotel room. When I asked about the hotel, I was told it was off property.  I asked “what about the snow on the ground now and tomorrow”, does the hotel have a shuttle?  She didn’t know and I already made my mind up to stay connected to the terminal at the Sofitel (I do love the Sofitel St. James in London).

When they wanted to rebook my new friend via Boston, an airport I know she’d get stuck at even further once handed over to USAirways.  I stressed to the agent book her direct to Philly (next flight in two days). Since it was less than a week until Christmas, all flights were full and one woman with three kids had to wait almost a week to get home!   My new friend, like a little duck, followed me to the Sofitel armed with her “parent’s emergency credit card” (she was still angry at them yelling at her).

We both checked into the hotel and having never stayed at a luxury hotel she said she was going to stay in the room and order room service for two days before the flight home (if you want to make your father pay for yelling at you, this is one way to do it).  All I could think about was how my father would have killed me about the costs (when he calmed down he would rethink his actions and be happy I was safe but money was still a sore subject) so I felt bad for the part I played in the cost but felt good that she was safe. As we both entered our rooms on the same hallway, she thanked me and that was the last that I saw of her.

Have you encountered an act of travel kindness at the holidays or in your travels?  What happened?

I wonder if the tourists today gliding by my window feel the same way I did back then? I remember the musicians on our boat filling the air with song to serenade us. It really was a bit of magic in the canals.

[embedyt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQlF_6ju6HA[/embedyt]

Now, I hear the singers and the music outside the window of the Airbnb flat which is often by interrupted by a water taxi or delivery boat which seem to rip the dream like sequence apart. The longer I watch the boats during the day, the sadder I get as I begin to see the assembly line that this experience has become – one boat after the other sharing the canals with others rather than alone to themselves to luxuriate in the history – maybe they don’t care, maybe they can check the “Venice gondola ride” box? Maybe no one told them to get lost in the streets and find a lone gondola station?

The gondoliers are now in the routine of it all as well – a few are smoking as they go, others checking their phones (is there a no driving/texting law in Italy for gondolas?) and then there is the trash talking and funny faces they are making with each other. Funny what you see from the window looking at a scene playing out in front of you like a real life movie.

The buildings have history and the more I visit Venice, the more I get lost in the lanes, the more the movie plays in my head – the people, the lives, the water, the Doges… One of my favorite movies starring Venice is Dangerous Beauty (1998) telling the story of a courtesean in the city.

But now the world is going by and I’m sitting on the side lines curious and wanting to yell out the window “go find an empty canal with one gondolier and experience the magic of the water, of the buildings, look up and imagine another world”.  Instead, I signed up for a Row Venice lesson to get myself out into the canal to row a boat (not a gondola but an older version) to connect with the city anew.

A gondola ride starts at €80 for up to six people (this is a city job so prices are set by city and posted at each gondola station). Musicians are an additional cost.  There is one woman rowing and one non-Italian rowing in the city, both exceptions to the history steeped in Italian men.  In my opinion, your first taste of the Venice canals should be magic so invest wisely and pick a location that will be memorable for you as you watch the world float by.

Everything was pretty last-minute – the research of the hotels, flights, trains, etc. to put together a preliminary itinerary. What would normally take months to plan, I did in two weeks by staying up to nearly 3 a.m. each night.  I had to set up holds (mail, newspaper and magazine), cancel trash collection, pay/schedule bills in advance, set up cash transfers for ATM withdrawals, find a friend to be my go to person here at home.  Plus a whole lot more.  I shopped for new clothes to bring with me as I attempted to pack in one new suitcase for temperatures that would vary from 50 to 90 degrees taking me from Spring to Summer. In a word, my friends and family (and the voices in my head) all seemed to agree that I was “crazy”.

My friend from Washington State who I call “country mouse” was amazing to just drop everything and join me on the first leg of my adventure – the EPIC transatlantic cruise from Miami to Barcelona (which I’m calling Adult summer camp with alcohol).  While I planned out April and May, I left June open in my attempt to be spontaneous.  Packing my laptop for the first time, I planned to blog from the road a few times a week to see if I could handle the nomadic lifestyle (spoiler alert!  I failed miserably as I chose to enjoy my destination instead). When I returned from my EPIC Adventure, I can’t lie – I was sad to be back to reality.  My mom texted me “Welcome Home!  Back to reality, it sucks!”  Gotta love Mom and her words of wisdom!

So while I have been posting when I could – wifi on the road is a bigger deterrent that I thought.  I managed to write a bit as I went along but it was harder than I anticipated as I was lured away from working by the magic of traveling – exploring new worlds and eating/drinking without abandon (there will be hell to pay at the gym).

Now that I’m home, I will focus more to catch up with all the crazy from the road as I search for a job.  Believe me, there was a lot of crazy on this trip and many more “these things happen only to Sue” moments.  I was on Italian television being serenaded and filmed during my Row Venice gondola lesson by a journalist.  I tried Airbnb for the first time and the experiences varied greatly – I fled one dirty property after falling down the steps and spraining my foot which landed me in the local clinic and then a visit to the hospital.  My sprained foot would alter the course of my travels and my life.

There would be a taxi strike in Paris.  There would be striking workers who would decide to set fire to the Eurostar rails stranding me in Paris causing me one of the most stressful travel days I’ve ever experienced and bringing me to the brink of a travel meltdown on my way to London. There would be a London tube/underground strike.   I’d get manicures in three cities not speaking the language (chipped nails and bad polish transcends language so I just held my hands up with a sad face).  I’d camp out at a few hotels writing and surviving on room service and the on site spa.  I’d have three days of waiting time in Milan before meeting a friend in Malta (thank you Starwood points for helping me camp out at the Sheraton Diana Majestic last minute).

I’d get lost a few times in Naples,  take the wrong train to Ercolano for Herculaneum and figure out the crazy that is the Italian train system. I’d meet new friends, catch up with old friends and eat gelato daily pretending I earned it from all of the walking. I’d find the wash/dry locations in Spain and Florence and then learn to hang my wet clothes in the Gozo sun. There would be magical sunsets on the water, over the water and along a wind tunnel of a road.  I’d ship my clothes ahead (a bit of overpacking coming to fruition).  There would be hotel upgrades, disagreements, awesomeness.  I’d drive a manual Land Rover in a 4×4 adventure course outside of Barcelona then explore Florence in the ultra adorable, albeit miniature classic Fiat500.

There would be amazing foods (and food tours), wines and fascinating people/conversations along the way.   I would spend over twenty hours walking over two days at the Milan Expo15 before my feet rebelled and would walk no more.  There were spa visits, a shopping spree (thank goodness for Banana Republic and “big American” sizes!), broken sunglasses, a few broken spirits and thankfully no broken bones. More than 7,500 photos on my IPhone and countless more on my camera.  Tours by bike, foot, boat, big bus. 13 Hotels, 7 AirBnb properties and a friend’s house. There would be lots of chocolate and even more wine!

The FINAL ITINERARY looked like this:

Norwegian EPIC TransAtlantic Cruise (11 days)

TBEX Conference in Lloret del Mar, Spain

TBEX Post Conference Press Trip – Barcelona is Much More (so much fun, adventure and Cava!)

Barcelona

Naples, Italy

Island of Capri

Sorrento

Amalfi Coast

Florence

Venice

Milan

Island of Gozo (Malta)

Malta (overnight only to be closer to airport)

Paris

London

So they are just a few of the highlights (albeit some are nightmares/low points) but it was an adventure so stay tuned to see how it all turns out. I traveled by planes, trains, automobiles, cruise ship, electric car, golf cart, chair lift, vaporetto, gondola, a vintage Fiat500, zipline and ferry.  Upcoming posts will be a bit of this, that and the other as I jump around cities as some posts are easier than others. Any questions, just ask either in comments below or use the contact form.

The three months in Europe flew by and every day I was able to explore the world without worry or stress.  I forgot that I had no job, no income and no prospects when I got home.  For those three months, I was a world citizen enjoying the beauty of people, places and food/wine/gelato.  Thankfully, I had an emergency savings, a vacation days payout and lots of points to use to let me do this.  When people asked “what do you do” rather than go through the job loss speech, I replied “I travel” and for three months thats what I did carefree.

Have you ever thought about running away from life to travel?  If you lost your job, would that give you the opportunity and if so, would you take it?