Having a Torrid Affair

There are many different styles of travel. Some like to travel in luxury, others like to rough it. Some people like to have a Whitman's Sampler of a vacation, others more of a six-course feast. I like to have a brief, hot and heavy affair with a new city. Not a superficial, shallow one - just one where the knowledge that it isn't forever makes it all the more enjoyable.

Like in a passionate fling, you can get a lot more out of a vacation if you just abandon yourself to the city. Do what the locals do, or do what the locals find totally lame - go to a small homestyle eatery and order the most ethnic dish you can find, ask how best to eat it, make friends with your server or other patrons because it's not weird to talk to strangers if they speak another language. Then go to the most tourist trap club or attraction or historical site. Worry about embarrassing yourself by being rude or ignoring local customs, not by pulling out a map in the middle of the street and identifying yourself as gasp a tourist. Do things you'd never do at home - take the bus, eat red meat, sing karaoke.

Another advantage to approaching a trip in this way is that it makes everything more charming. Much like your honey's habit of singing off-key to every song on the radio, things that might annoy you in the long term can be at least tolerated and at best actually enjoyed. The metro "just doesn't stop there" today? No problem, get off somewhere else and have a new adventure or get in a long walk. Feel like the waiter is studiously ignoring you? Take advantage of the fact that you can sit at the table, converse, and consult your guidebook as long as you want without paying for more than a cup of coffee.

Bearing in mind that your visit isn't the beginning of a serious commitment, you can focus on just what you want without guilt. You wouldn't feel like you had to attend family Thanksgiving with a brief liaison, so if that famous art gallery or music venue just isn't your scene, don't feel pressure to go.

That's how I like to vacation. The best part is that, even though your mother warned you that sort of hanky-panky never led anywhere, you might accidentally fall in love with your new city.