It's weird to be with someone who has traveled more than I have, by a long shot.
I'm used to being the worldly one. It's been over thirty years since I left the peripatetic lifestyle of my childhood, during which I lived in 5 different countries before graduating from college, and travelled to many others. I still see myself as a world traveler. In a group of non-Foreign Service brats, I'm usually the one who has been everywhere.
So dating Greg has been an eye-opener, and somewhat humbling.
He has been everywhere. His everywhere far exceeds my everywhere.
Whenever we plan a trip, it's always an exercise in whittling down options to places he hasn't visited. And we rarely succeed.
With our first trip together in the spring of 2021, when there were still lots of COVID restrictions in place, I said, "what about driving down the PCH? I've never done that."
"Oh, I've done that. I did it with an old girlfriend. We argued a lot."
"OK. How about a road trip through Idaho? It's so beautiful and I've never been."
"I did that a couple of years ago."
We've gone through multiple rounds of this over the years. Ireland? He's been many times. Prague? Yep. Spain? Claro que si´. Portugal? Indeed. Cambodia and Vietnam? Check. Turkey? Uh-huh.
At some point, I may have said, "oh for fuck's sake."
When we settled on Iceland, I took a certain satisfaction in having been there before, whereas he hadn't.
With the Alaska cruise, I had been to Alaska to run a marathon a million years ago and he had never been, so that was another check in my ledger.
That's where the list ends. But I can get a leg up if and when we go to Cyprus, Venezuela, Israel, or Egypt.
The good thing is he doesn't mind going places he's already visited. Another good thing is he always has great ideas.
Because of my work schedule, it's easiest for me to take a trip when school isn't in session, i.e., in June after the school year ends, or over winter break. But winter break is a particularly expensive time to travel.
A few weeks ago, we were spitballing about winter trip options, and he mentioned skiing in Europe. Maybe the Dolomites, and we could also see Venice.
"Oooooh," I responded. "That sounds amazing!"
I have never skied the Dolomites (or anywhere in Europe). I have never been to Venice. Of course, he has done both, but is happy to go back.
So I started looking at flights and discovered that they were outrageously expensive in December.
Then I thought, what about later in the winter? Maybe in February over my birthday?
The flights were a third of the December price.
So that's what we're going to do. We got our tickets three nights ago.
I've started looking into developing a schedule for where we'll be and when. Checking out hotels.
Greg, on the other hand, likes to wing it as far as making reservations goes.
"I've traveled all over the place and frequently don't make reservations - we can just find something!"
No.
We will not be doing that. Ever.
He actually suggested that when we were planning our 2021 Iceland trip, during which we would be road-tripping around the country. In one of the only countries in the world that was allowing travel-starved tourists in. Over the summer solstice, which is the high season. Or we could just rent a camper-van.
Again, no.
I ended up making reservations without telling him.
For skiing in the Dolomites, the pass gives you access to a bunch of different resorts that are near each other. You can do these incredible tours and ski from resort to resort and town to town.
"Where do you think our home base should be? Which town?" I asked via text. "I can start looking for hotels."
He responded that we'll be skiing from town to town and he'd need to map it out.
I was confused about the logistics.
"Where will we stay? Will we be staying in a different place every night?"
The answer was yes. Under his plan, we would ski with backpacks carrying toiletries, shoes, and a change of clothes.
In my head, I was Gary Coleman. Whatchu talkin bout Greg.
"Where will we put our other stuff?"
"A locker."
"A locker where? I don't understand."
"Any hotel or train station."
No.
So today I went online and found a company that will transfer your luggage from hotel to hotel in the various ski towns. I don't want to ski while carrying around my clothes and toiletries and shoes. I don't want to spend three days wearing the same change of clothes. I want to have my stuff and be able to go out for a nice dinner and not look like a shlub.
He agreed that that would be a viable option, even though he didn't think carrying our stuff in a backpack was a big deal.
Then he sent me a gif of Zsa Zsa Gabor wearing a fur coat, dripping with diamonds, and drinking in the back of a limo.
I'll admit that it cracked me up. He's a funny dude.
I dunno. I feel like there's a happy medium between the woman who said, "I've never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back," and being 53 and skiing with a backpack and traveling like a college kid with a Eurail pass. I'm a grownup, dahlink.
In any event, we have a solution.
Now I can fire up my Mango app and start brushing up on my Italian.
I used Mango to learn Italian six years ago, when my parents went to Lucca for a month after my mom retired from the State Department. It's not a program that is going to take you to fluency, but it's great for learning enough to speak comfortably as a tourist.
As with many language learning apps or books, some lessons focus on a particular sentence or phrase that you work on. Mango's most hilarious offering came in the section when you learn about cooking and food and how to order in a restaurant.
"Prendo il baccalà mantecato, un piatto tipico del nord italia."
I'll have the creamed cod, a typical northern Italian dish.
At the time, my mom and I were both using Mango to study the language, and the baccala mantecato lessons cracked us up to no end. We would practice speaking with each other and no matter what we started talking about, some how we brought it around to creamed cod. Which neither of us has ever eaten, largely because it looks and sounds disgusting. I'm not a fan of creamy fish.
Before we go on trips, Greg likes to watch YouTube videos about the places we'll be visiting. Other people Netflix and chill. We watch YouTube and yell at the people who post boring travel videos.
"No one is interested in the fact that you got the check-in time wrong for your hotel, bozo!"
One of the videos we watched takes you through the nightlife in Cortina d'Ampezzo, one of the ski towns that is supposed to be super fun and have great food.
Including, the guy said, creamy cod, a dish that is popular in northern Italy.
My eyes grew wide. "Baccalà mantecato! Baccalà mantecato!! A typical northern Italian dish!!!" I exclaimed.
Greg looked at me like I was deranged.
I was very excited.
Nonetheless, I'm not going to be ordering creamed cod when we go to Italy.
But if I did, I could do it in Italian.