Expedition Happiness basically sums up my life philosophy. If you haven’t seen the movie, check it out on Netflix. I watched it yesterday and it speaks to me for several reasons. First, I totally want to convert a bus and drive across the country. Second, their outlook on travel is so similar to mine and my wife’s. When we travel we try to keep as loose an agenda as possible. We usually book a hotel the first night, but after that, its game on. Sometimes we spend too much time finding a place for the night, but more often than not, it leads to tons of mini adventures. Case in point. We were in Turkey, traveling to Greece. We took a ferry from Bodrum to the Greek island of Kos. Our plan from there was to get to Nisyros. We had no idea where we’d stay in Nisyros but once there found a great place for the night. The next morning we asked when the ferry back to Kos was scheduled (since we never checked, assuming it ran daily) and discovered a ferry may or may not arrive due to it being a Sunday…hmmm, okay. Fortunately, a ferry did arrive and we loaded onto it going back to Kos, but it left a wee bit later than expected. See, I had a flight back to the States in 2 days’ time and I had to get to Istanbul, which meant I needed to be back to Bodrum tonight. We got back to Kos but were dropped off on the far side of the island, the ferries to Bodrum were clear across the other side of the island and there was one bus we had to catch to make it, we missed that bus by 5 minutes. We started hustling making our way to the ferry as fast as we could but we missed the ferry to Bodrum by minutes… Now what? We spotted a travel agents office and began walking up to the office when this crazy Greek man pulled up in a BMW yelling at us, “need a place to stay! I’ve got a great place!” We told him we were good. “No no, I’ve got the best place on the island!” Being a little suspicious of unsolicited offers we brushed off this overly enthusiastic Greek man and made our way to the travel agent. There we discovered, the next ferry was tomorrow evening, the likelihood of me making my flight was becoming slimmer. For right now, we just needed a place for the night, then we could problem solve. Suddenly, the doors to the travel agents office burst open and Crazy Greek man rushes in, “need a place to stay?! I’ve got a great place!” Dude we just saw you 10 minutes ago…We again tried to brush him off but he was so persistent. The travel agent said something to him in Greek, which we’re pretty sure was something to the effect of, “stop spooking the tourists and they’ll probably stay with you.”
Well, next thing I know, we’re driving in the back of Crazy Greek’s BMW headed to his hotel. We told him our issue and he promised he could get us back to Bodrum tomorrow morning, “we’ll see”, I thought. Next morning we wake up and he’s at the room door informing us he’s got a ride for us back to Turkey. We pack up and head down. Turns out there’s a private boat tour that runs daily roundtrip excursions to Bodrum, and Crazy Greek man knows them. He graciously offers to drive us down, which we accept. It’s a short drive but due to the sidewalk, he can only get us so close. He drops us off and points us towards the boat. Just as we get to the boat a moped pulls up next to us and gives a little honk, it’s being driven by some enthusiastically waving man. It’s the Crazy Greek guy! He raced back home, grabbed his moped, and raced back to make sure we found the right boat. I love that Crazy Greek man. Needless to say, I made my flight.
Although there were some stressful moments, that trip, and the Crazy Greek, is something my wife and I still talk about. None of it would’ve happened had we had a firm plan, you might say that would be a good thing, I disagree. I don’t want a predictable life. I want to get lost. I want to run into crazy Greeks. That to me are the things that make traveling…well, traveling.
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