My house is a bloody disaster. There is laundry literally everywhere. There is packing gear intermixed with it. My bed is unmade, soap bottles and makeup brushes and shoes are strewn around the house, I have a cooler that is slowly warming I don’t want to deal with that I am hoping my husband takes care of, I need a shower, and as a tidy person, this is amongst my top functional nightmares.
You wouldn’t know it by looking at it, but in less than 24 hours, I leave for 12 more countries. And crazy still, I haven’t booked a single hotel, AirBnB, or excursion. I have a tent, a cooler, a husband, a relatively-moody and run-down car, literally no plan…and we will be going straight through them without returning home in-between.
Why a run down car you ask? Well we’ll get to that.
My house looks as if it has been treated like a viciously shaken snow globe because only two days ago, I returned from my tour through Portugal, Switzerland, and Leichtenstein. In the mad rush to get in meetings, appointments, and help facilitate a military fundraiser, I have still been living out of the bags and leaving a trail in my wake.
Thank god for girlfriends, because a number of them came to my rescue this week. Short notice dog sitting - I’ve got it. Raffle tickets I didn’t know I was going to need - a teacher friend whipped some out of her basement. An extra cooler - I found two.
And in the midst of all the running I was talking to a friend. She asked where I was off to next and I gave her the list.
Her eyes bugged out, “You are going where?! Uhh, I am not so sure you should be traveling there.”
Our list includes: Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, and Slovakia.
You see dear readers, we are choosing to venture away from the quintessential touristy places that western Europe is known for, into some of the places less travelled in eastern Europe. Factually speaking, a few of these places have higher levels of crime, higher levels of poverty, and are countries who are most immediately dealing with refugee migration, and its second and third order effects.
The run down vehicle - the US State Department pages on several of these countries discourages displays of any wealth as a means of creating personal safety.
I take this opportunity to remember however, that these statistics say nothing about the character, kindness, or good will of the people as a whole, but rather tells us how lack of access to resources shapes the survival mechanisms of people in need. I take seriously what other people’s need for survival means for me and my husband, so we have done our due-diligence in safety and route planning.
I am excited to travel to these places. Of course I am a touch nervous but nerves are a healthy and respectful response to venturing out of ones comfort zone and into ones learning zone. We are curious people who are eager to see these places, eager to learn while simultaneously traveling a little more ethically. We have done our research, reading state department pages on travel advisories, and trying to learn as best we can where we safely can and cannot go (though this information can be somewhat limited and constantly evolving).
But beyond pure travel, I am most eager to see how the culture of these places is shaped by landscape, tradition, and yes…policy. While I am going for pleasure, I am also going with the intent to learn about these places, their policy, their people, and how the landscape of humanity is being shaped and reshaped by how these regions are approaching the growing landmine of problems they are shouldering in relationship to depleting resources, migration, and trade limitations. And still more than this, I am eager to meet the people.
I am creating content while on the road, and even I am excited about it, because even I haven’t seen content like this before.
In the picture above you can see a studio with a window in the background. I snapped this picture as I was talking to a potter in Leichtenstein about what the people of Leichtenstein are proud of, and what the world can learn from their small and proud country. We talked of art and taxes, education and technology, and trans-border employment. Afterwards, we shared a cup of coffee in the studio. His direct quote is on Instagram under the corresponding picture.
This has become my favorite part of travel. Talking to the people. My husband says I make friends everywhere. Other’s say that my trust and curiosity is going to get me into trouble.
And maybe both statements are true. But I want to know people, and I think people want to be known.
I have the privilege of seeing the world, and while I see it, I am figuring out my place in it. For now, my job is as a writer and a story-teller, and I take that responsibility seriously. The policy we write is a reflection of our understanding of one another…so what is more important than understanding each other in our fight for better policy.
For too long we have taken our ink and crossed out the parts of human experience that are imperfect. That are not profitable. That are not familiar. And when the language of diversity or need has emerged, it’s as if we have taken the ink bottle, and poured it out over the words, darkening that part of the story entirely.
This is why we have not developed a connection with these stories, and removed ourselves from these human experiences. This is why we are often afraid to venture into countries less familiar to us, and less known for travel on the global stage. This is part of the reason why we comfortably embrace only certain areas of travel and certain parts of the human experience.
But I am trying to mop up the ink and embrace the flooded parts of the page, for I am not afraid of the dark, where the ink has spilled and bled. And I hope, alongside me, you aren’t either.
Taylor Patrice
See you soon, from somewhere far away.
BLOGS
New blogs are in the works, but have been on a longer hold than I had hoped. We have been rebuilding the site in the background which has caused the site to go on and off line. I don’t want to put out new content if the site is not accessible at time of publishing. So in the meantime, check out this old blog - it fits with the theme of responsible story-telling, and responsible travel.
PODCASTS
Once I return from the next leg of travel, I will be throwing myself into the next podcast. Newsletter followers will be the first to have access to it, so thanks for staying tuned here. If you missed the last once, thanks for checking it out now.
SOCIAL MEDIA
You can follow my travels most closely on Instagram and Facebook, as I will be updating those most frequently (due to ease) from the road. My hope is to get a short email out as well from time to time. If you haven’t seen what I have been doing on the IG page, check the details below to see what I have been researching and creating. Here is a graphic sample.
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES:
Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter: @policyoutloud
Clubhouse: @taylorpatrice
Clubhouse is now open to Android users. By following me, on the app you can see what upcoming talks I am hosting.
See you all over the place!