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Globe Trekker 101 By Jaq Greenspon
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few years ago, at age 40, I embarked on one of the scariest adventures of my life. Due to a variety of intersecting circumstances, I found myself boarding a plane in Las Vegas with a final destination that day of Malmo, Sweden. Over the course of the next three months, I would visit 15 countries, traverse thousands of kilometers, make and visit new friends, ride trains, buses, planes, ferries, funiculars and one contraption designed solely to make me sick to my stomach. I would pay off cops to keep a drinking buddy out of jail, and I would watch helplessly as a fellow traveler was escorted, at gunpoint, off a train for having an expired visa. I would see places where hundreds of thousands died, and meet people who were awaiting the arrival of a new life. What I didn’t realize at the time, though, was how thoroughly these three months would affect
and change my life — as it opened me up to a whole world beyond my comfort zone. A couple of interesting statistics: Depending on sources, anywhere from 60-85 percent of Americans do not hold passports. This rate did decrease in 2007 when international requirements made it necessary to hold a current passport to go to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda, all spring break hot spots (except Canada, but there are plenty of other reasons to head north). Also, of those who do hold passports most get them for a singular trip (the aforementioned spring break or Alaskan cruises, which have a port stop in, you guessed it, Canada) or only travel for business. Now, to be fair, the United States is a big country. And there are a number of cultural, linguistic and geographic variations to be
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