The terrible beautiful thing about information is the information. The whole world is at my fingertips; there is little I can ask Google or Wikipedia without getting an answer or at least another path to the answer. But all this information often poses a problem of sorts. We are assaulted with information and usually it’s more than we will ever need or could possibly retain for longer than a week or more. At least it’s more than I can retain for more than a week. This leads me to a malady I suffer when planning a trip:
“Beating it with a Stick” syndrome
Me, about six months ago: “Let’s go away next October, it’s a month marked with so much loss for us. Let’s just go to Mexico, a place we love and can just book and go without a bunch of fuss. We can sit on the beach for a couple of weeks and stare at the water.”
Me, a month ago: “Hey when we go to Mexico, I think we should take a bus trip to Palenque or maybe San Cristobel, I read an article about that place, near the ruins and looks like a pleasant little Spanish colonial town. One blogger said they felt like they were in Spain!”
Me, a few weeks ago: “The Girls invited us to go to Cannes with them and tag along with their hotel points? Yay! Let’s do that…”
Me about 8 days ago: “OMG! Chicago to Istanbul is like 500 bucks after taxes and fees!”
Me, about a week ago: “Y’know, we could go to Belize on the bus! Or how about Guatemala!”
Hmmm….what happened to “no fuss”? Is it ADD? The “benefit” of being plugged in all over the net? Thrill of the hunt?
All of the above. I do suffer from “oh shiny syndrome” a type of ADD; I get web alerts for discounted airfare (there is no such thing as cheap airfare these days except for the Istanbul deal which is just crazy cheap); I follow and read about ten different travel blogs. Most importantly, The Girl loves a good hunt and has the touch for finding fabulous hotels for very little dosh.
Our “sit on the beach stare at the water” vacation has now brought about the following options:
“Let’s spend a week on the road! The ruins in Palenque! We can take the ‘chicken bus’ to San Cristobal! Will the night busses make stops between San Cristobal and Cancun?…maybe just for the drug cartel to kidnap us, huh” (read that with the enthusiasm of a ten year old girl making plans for her first Justin Bieber’s concert and then picture my father fainting.)
Or
“Madam, your coffee and croissant are 25 Euros.” (Read that completely deadpan and then picture me fainting)
Or
“We can take a ferry from Istanbul across the Sea of Marmara and a train from there to Ephesus; which is a two hour bus trip to the Med.” (Read this like your Freshman English Comp teacher describing a fifteen page writing assignment and picture me hunkering down to start and everyone else in the classroom fainting)
The final hypothetical itinerary was met with a shrug and a description of a hotel in Palenque. I’m pretty sure I know where we are going; which is too bad because I had just devised a complex and intricate decision making method involving the phases of the moon, Kipper, and an Ouija Board.