Blog Archives
Orange is the New Awesome
Today, I am wearing my orange gingham J. Crew button up shirt, black jeans and a pair of faded black Converse high tops. Why? I’m glad you asked.
It was one year ago, on the Friday night before the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park in NYC, when I decided to take a stroll in the early evening around the neighborhood of my hotel when…
Yes, that is Dave Grohl! And he voluntarily took the picture himself!
For the full recap of how the entire day/weekend unfolded (and there is more to this story and day), please check it out!
Not only is orange one of my favorite colors (the Dutch), but by wearing this shirt on this day, I was reminded of how great it felt to just wander a little bit. Every now and again, it’s really nice not to have any plans and to simply walk outside and let life happen.
We are living in a world that is increasingly organized and scheduled down to the minute. There are times when it’s really nice to know when something will happen. Having structure is not bad, but there still needs to be plenty of random moments when getting a little lost is okay. Sometimes, that’s when you find what you are really looking for or hoping to find, even if you couldn’t think of it beforehand.
It took me only a matter of minutes to turn off the hotel television and walk outside for a routine stroll around the neighborhood in the early evening before meeting a girl for dinner (check out the link above). Just a casual decision.
And yet, here I am, still writing and thinking about that day one year later.
Taking “This Room Comes with a View” to a New Level
The streets are packed. Bustling with men, women and children, street vendors each attempting to lure customers to their products/food with the branding, “The Best…” and that beautiful girl in between the commotion with a face that stops time like the circus tent scene in the movie “Big Fish.” Bodies are encapsulating me in the narrow space reserved for my family’s walk to our destination. Some of those going about their daily ‘dance of life’ are questioning my families’ very presence. Existing in their bubble of reality can sometimes require an escape in the literal sense (to be more incognito) as well as the metaphorical sense.
How will this chaos stop and change into a friendly place to mingle and get a little lost in? Most times it can be alleviated in just a few predetermined steps. In some cases though, it may require an athletic hop, skip and a jump (as was the case in downtown Cairo).
Whether enduring the camel two-step on the way to the awe-inspiring ancient Pyramids of Egypt or the economic metropolis of Hong Kong with its towering presence, each cannot be fully seen without a proper entrance. Sights of the mythical desert Sphinx, a pristine beach on the Seychelles Islands and the ceiling of a Norwegian barn were crisper, sounds of giant flies in the Australian Outback, crashing waves off the Sydney Harbour and the swoosh of snow while the snowmobile ahead of me is trying to avoid hitting an adult buffalo in Montana were heard with tremendously clear acoustics and smells of spices, fish and heat itself shocked my nose because of how and where I arrived at each of these various locations.
A reservation and simple entrance, made after an exhausted day of traveling in planes, trains and automobiles, can make all the difference in establishing a destiny of an exciting journey or tour bus boredom. It’s the contrast between television’s regular definition and high definition. Quite literally, there is no comparison.
Walking into the right hotel lobby in cities and countries all around the world has repeatedly solidified incredible enjoyment of countless vacations and trips (A quick shout-out and “Thank You” to my parents as I have been very blessed to travel and stay in the places I have). A busy European downtown, Swedish countryside or Canadian ski town can open up and reveal itself in ways so spectacular that they are nearly impossible to observe otherwise. You no longer feel like a visitor or tourist, but as one of the locals. You see small shops on the corner and quickly scurry in to take a gander at the delicious treats. Disguised restaurants down alleyways are discovered and result in being a wonderful adventure in more ways than one. You transform into an unrestrained explorer.
A grand, uniquely original, expensive and inexpensive hotel alike can take your trip and turn it 180 degrees into a once in a lifetime vacation.
My family’s vacation’s have taken me to: the original Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, a Stabbur in Norway, the unforgettable Club SA (Salvation Army) in Reykjavik, Iceland, a hotel next to a prison in Chiang-Rai, a gorgeous beach side resort in Bali, the stunning resort in the Seychelles off the east coast of Africa, a hotel in the jungles of Costa Rica, a hotel literally in the shape of a crocodile in Kakadu National Park in Australia, a hotel in Berlin, Germany where we, no joke, slept in the floor (each room was different & one had coffins…), a castle in Dublin, Ireland, an ultra-modern and high-tech tower of a hotel in Cardiff, Wales (best beds on the planet!), in the middle of the Wahiba Sands desert in Oman in a black and white tent with no electricity and in a room in the docked Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, to name only a few.
Goway Travel Experiences Ltd. online
Taber Holidays online
Condé Nast Traveler online
Rooms that are cramped with bunk beds are not viewed with a heavy sigh, but instead laughed at with amusement. A hidden and ‘experienced’ (code word for old) hotel in the less populated and less glamorous area of the old town can be viewed as a once in a lifetime moment off the beaten track of every other traveler (FYI-Old Dubai and New Dubai are correctly distinguished as such).
But now, I have a much wider view and appreciation of Dubai than most because of the unconventional choice made in regard to the hotel that night.
The decision to stay at a luxurious hotel for a night in Hamburg, Germany during the 2006 World Cup proved to be a sound decision. As luck would have it, the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team was staying at this hotel! It became clear on the drive up that there was something going on or somebody special was staying there because the surrounding area was blocked off with heavy security. Not only was it special to see the players casually walking around, but the room was magnificent. It is without question one of the moments from that trip I will never forget.
Those same jam-packed streets that are reminiscent of episodes of “The Amazing Race” were soon seen as a charming means of visually capturing the culture on the way to a museum with ancient artifacts and treasures. Hotels are vital to not only a night’s sleep, but is directly related to the experience and consequential memories that greatly define our perspectives. They are an important ‘first step’ during trips/vacations.
Perhaps most importantly, the right hotel will grant you a temporary resident’s visa with a uniquely special suspended outlook of the grand nature of a city, town or village. Your acclimation to your new surroundings gin up an adrenaline rush that is both exciting and full of curiosity. There is this freedom of knowing that you are just visiting and that there are very few (if any) consequences to your decisions while staying inside the boundaries of common decency and respect.
It sparks a renaissance within yourself about life and the world.
Even domestically, choosing a hotel is paramount. It was only a few months ago I was in a familiar city: New York. I picked the hotel for its surprisingly affordable price and because of its proximity to Central Park for a concert the next day. Hotel wise, I was staying in a new area and decided to take a stroll on that Friday in the early evening. As a result of the hotel I picked, I happened to walk past (& ultimately returned to) this gentleman on the street who I recognized standing in front of his hotel.
Once again, it was an amazing pleasure to meet you Dave Grohl.
“There Goes My Hero!”
It all started with a Facebook post from the Foo Fighters one August afternoon reminding fans to sign up for online activism. With just a few targeted clicks, registered members spreading the word on eliminating extreme poverty would automatically be entered into a lottery for the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park’s Great Lawn in late September.
For those wondering, this effort is further evidence that social media is here to stay, in one form or another. This is the age we live in now. Anything can change and happen in an instant.
Having never seen Foo Fighters live, this seemed like a very good/necessary proposition to check out. Once a ‘global citizen,’ then articles needed to be read, videos watched and then shared through social media. These efforts amounted to points and when 3 were earned, our name was entered into a lottery for free tickets to this huge concert/festival. Taking few chances, somewhere between 12 and 15 points were accumulated. The articles and videos are heartfelt and are enlightening as variations of extreme poverty around the world and the individuals leading incredible change are highlighted. They are powerful moments.
The time would soon come for the digital wheel to spin and hope for the best. I was cautiously optimistic.
A few days later, one solitary e-mail brought about an excitement so grand it was as if I was going to be in the presence of a Victoria Secret model (to some degree yes, but more on that later). In reality, here is the e-mail that caused an ecstatic reaction:
Congratulations — by taking part as a Global Citizen, you’ve won two tickets to the Global Festival!
Friday, September 28th at 8:55 a.m. was the first flight of the day to Reagan National Airport and then onto LaGuardia. Problem was that the scheduled flight to NYC was cancelled due to weather conditions, yet word spread quickly among my fellow passengers that it was not even raining at our hopeful destination from their friends on the ground. Hmmm? The next step was to get in line at, and by this I mean sprint, Customer Service. These were the last two words anybody wanted to hear.
I was in the first third of the line and by some stroke of luck behind a very pretty girl. Mustering up the courage to talk to her, we ended up having a nice conversation. As it turned out, our hotels were fairly close to each other and we decided to split a cab into New York city.
Before venturing into the city, I asked her out to dinner. To my surprise and elation, she said yes with a smile. It seemed almost like a movie. Two strangers meet before a rescheduled flight who are from the same state going to the same incredible concert for the same bands and are staying within two football fields of one another in one of the biggest cities in the world.
As Steve Martin’s character from “The Out-of-Towners” said at the end of the movie after crazy, unpredictable and amazing things had happened, “Only in New York.”
We both decided to wind down on our own after a long day of flying and driving. My late afternoon stroll would come to be the best and worst decision I made that day.
On my way back from venturing around the neighborhood of my hotel, I passed dozens of people. They were mostly all a blur. Then, I saw somebody slowly pacing up and down in front of his hotel. I thought I was seeing a mirage. As I passed this individual who was on the phone, I got about forty feet down the sidewalk and turned back, still in disbelief. About a minute went by and I was casually looking to see if the phone conversation had ended, wondering if I should go back? It then struck me that this was one of those “one in a million” opportunities. I nervously and excitedly strolled back to meet “my hero.”
Me and Dave Grohl!!
“Mr. Grohl, could I get a quick picture with you?”
(Happily) “Yeah, sure.”
As I went to hand my phone to one of his friends, he took my iPhone 4s, tapped the reverse camera button and took the picture himself while saying, “Here, I do this thing all the time.”
“Thank you so much!”
“No problem.”
“I came from Columbus to see you tomorrow!”
“Right on.”
As it turned out, returning to my hotel room after this unbelievable encounter plus the time spent making a reservation actually cost me the date for that very reservation. Her friends likely had arrived into town earlier than she initially thought and she was already out. These things happen. Talk about a pendulum swing of a high and low in less than half an hour! Sometimes that’s just how the ball rolls.
Many things could be written about this weekend, including: standing in line outside Central Park and at the concert with a good friend from college from 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. (should have gone East Gate), the sheer atmosphere of 60,000 people flowing into an outdoor concert on the Great Lawn, seeing actress Olivia Wilde and Victoria’s Secret model Erin Heatherton speak during the concert, the ‘girl from the line’ and I trying to spot each other at the concert by texts, watching the Black Keys and Foo Fighters perform live for the first time (w/ Foo Fighters going on hiatus afterwards), getting Belgian fries in the lower east side or riding the 2:00 a.m. train to the Bronx.
Listening to the Foo Fighters, as with countless other fans, is more than just about a rocking sound or cool lyrics. It’s about resonating to the messages and emotions of their songs. The economy is weak and like many people, I am not exactly at my ideal job. However, winning tickets to an outdoor festival in Central Park with great bands plus one of my favorite bands, meeting a girl and coming within 20 minutes of a uniquely New York evening on the town and meeting one of my all-time favorite people in Dave Grohl on the street were all validations that big and amazing things can happen with just a few clicks, a few tweets or a spontaneous conversation one afternoon. In a moment’s notice, greatness can strike. These events were immediate confirmations of the songs I listen to, love and know by heart sung Saturday night by, and I can confirm, ‘the nicest man in rock.’
Never in a million years did I imagine I would meet, let alone get a picture with, Dave Grohl. Perhaps I should have been thinking in miles as opposed to years…
Jimmy's Daily Planet 