An Ode to Let's Go

It's my last post for the summer and I'm sure you are all going to miss them (all meaning probably my mom and maybe, just maybe, one friend).

I had trouble thinking up what I should write for my final Let's Go blog ever. It's kind of a milestone for me because it's my third time research-writing and the process, the lifestyle, the loneliness it's all really grown on me. It will certainly be hard moving on to some 9-to-5 job where the geographic parameters of my day consist of the walk from my desk to the water cooler to the bathroom and, finally, back to my desk again. In thinking about what I would write for this blog I thought I'd try and pinpoint one thing that I love about my work for Let's Go. What I came up with was less a thing, and more a feeling, some kind of metaphysical reality that surfaces after the process of "r-dubbing," as we refer to it. Let me try and describe it for you.

I still remember my very first day as an RW. It was June of 2007 and I had just set foot in a tiny town called Eger in the northeastern corner of Hungary. It was my first time really traveling on my own with nothing but a few shirts in my backpack (yeah, I was inexperienced so I forgot to bring shorts, ok?) and looking back now I am completely floored. The reason I say I'm floored is that I really, truly cannot believe some of the things I've done with Let's Go. What I mean by this is not as dramatic as it sounds. I don't intend to say that I've sailed with pirates, found buried treasure, ridden giraffes, burned chameleons to get high off the smoke, or even worn the Emperor's new clothes in public. What I have done, though, is get to know cities, people and by extension, countries in a way that I never would have had I just traveled to them. Because being a Let's Go research-writer means that you aren't merely a traveler, and you most certainly aren't just traveling. That's a given. Imagine going to a city and literally walking down every single street in that city. I don't think I've done that in the city I spent sixteen years of my life in. That one thing that is truly fascinating about my work with Let's Go is that I know, really, truly know so many cities, towns, and villages in the world. I can remember the way they smell because I waited in front of a restaurant for two hours asking people what they thought of the cuisine there. I remember the way they taste because I sat in a pastry shop trying every single piece of cake (for free, mind you) to make sure I would suggest the best one. I remember the way they sound because I've sat at the only table in the corner of a nightclub until it closed at 5am, right by the speakers blasting jams that a live DJ was pumping out, so I could observe the way people dress, the way people interact and (most importantly, I suppose) the way people stumble around. I remember the way they feel because after an entire day of running from church to castle to cafe to club to hostel there is nothing, nothing, as refreshing as jumping into an ice-cold fountain filled with the locals in the middle of the town square. So I guess that's why I love Let's Go. Because I've gotten to know cities inside and out. I've been able to "feel at home" in the obscurest of villages and in the noisiest of metropolises. A Let's Go writer starts out the traveler, but becomes the informant.