Old School Backpacker vs. Techy Flashpacker Travel

Clearly my 40 year span of solo travel affords me a perspective that the many 20-somethings traveling today can’t help but lack:  The arguably vast difference between backpacking with a smart phone, a netbook, a Kindle, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Skype, Instagram, et al vs. . . .

none of the above.

Indeed, when I first backpacked a summer in Mexico (my first foray outside my native land), it was with my two young daughters (then 8 and 5 yrs. old) nearly 4 decades ago.  I can still vividly recall my littlest one with her petite rucksack, while the older one toted her own FRAMED neon orange backpack that towered above her head (we dubbed her “the pack with legs”).  I also managed to talk a chum (another single mom, with an 8 yr. old son) to tag along with us.  So we were a crew of 2 solo lasses with 3 young kidlets tagging behind.

Pre-trip research?  Um… I’m not at all sure how I even managed to figure out how to get down to Mexico – likely the only guidance I had was from the (then, only) definitive Mexico travel “bible”: “The People’s Guide to Mexico” – a book that was originally pecked on a portable.typewriter in the early 1970’s whilst the authors camped on beaches in Mexico – OMG, it’s still in print!: The People’s Guide to Mexico (Kindle edition)!

In any case, somehow I managed to buy us all round trip air from Coos Bay, Oregon to Nogales, AZ (on the U.S./Mexico border), where (given that we were decidedly on a shoestring) I’d coincidentally somehow arranged to stay gratis at some Catholic mission for a night.  And the next day, we caught the 24 hr. train to Mazatlan.  From there, it was camping on beaches (and splurging on a cheap hotel every few nights to take showers and regroup) down the coast to Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco (nearly a thousand miles!) via rickety, crowded “chicken bus”(indeed, often with live poultry!)

No smartphone, no TripAdvisor, no Google Translate, no nuthin’.

Thus needless to say, it is with an extra dose of glee (along with a smidge of condescension from my 1970’s self), that today, I’m blithely clicking my way around this online Slovenia bus schedule site and that Croatia couchsurfing host profile.  Wading through pages of TripAdvisor recommendations for where to stay at Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, and Googling for local hammams in Istanbul – complete with photos, pricing, directions and email contact info.

I once wrote briefly about the oddities of those neanderthal days of travel (“Travel Tips From the Ancients”), but in my present dizzying online research for my upcoming month+ romp ’round Eastern Europe, the vast differences in trip prep loom crystal clear.

Honestly?  I’m not sure that either way is better or worse.  Having benefit of intimately knowing both the “old school” organic and the new “techy” modes of travel and trip planning – it seems to me that both have their pluses and minuses.

On one hand, I don’t recall that the lack of definitive info at every blessed turn in our spontaneous skip around Mexico back in the 70’s proved all that troublesome.  If anything, the feeling was one of wandering with the wind – every bend in the road utterly surprising.   And later, we (this time solo with a bit older daughters) the three of us roamed for 6 months in Europe – still with no mobile phone nor internet – though we did have an updated copy of “Europe on $5 a Day” – yes, you read that right, on 5 DOLLARS A DAY!

Well o.k. there WAS that little problem with forgetting to reset my watch (analog, natch) for the time change on the overnight train heading south into Italy from Switzerland.  Um yeah – the destination on our tickets read “Perugia” (about 2 hours north of Rome) as we choo-chooed our way through the Italian countryside – well past Perugia en route to Rome.  Suffice the conductor was more than a bit angry that we were still on the train – and indeed, actually threatened to force me and the kidlets (then age 8 and 11 yrs.) off the train at the next stop in.the.middle.of.nowhere.  Until… I (uncharacteristically, and to this day am not sure if I was faking it) suddenly burst into tears right there in the train aisle.  Whereupon the several matronly Italian ladies witnessing the drama, fairly LEAPED to my defense, verily physically ATTACKING the conductor for berating a poor, defenseless mother and her two adorable (blonde/blue-eyed, especially admired in Italy) children.

Yeah, a $600 smartphone that spontaneously adjusts for such trivial matters of time zone changes might well have come in handy there.  That and… a selfie-stick to document the whole hilarious scene to share with my grandchildren. 😀

Speaking of selfie-sticks, I of course had no cute little digital pocket camera to snap images left and right as we traveled across Europe.  It was all f.i.l.m. back then and sadly, I have precious few pics of our many adventures:  all three attending school in Avignon, France, camping on the isle of Corsica, and that memorable day (July 4th) when the girls opted to turn a white pillowcase into an American flag with their crayons – and hang it from the balcony of our wee Perugia apartment.  That cave on the southern coast of Crete that my two young adventuresses begged to sleep in (they lost the battle, btw), Alyson clopping around in those red wooden shoes she simply HAD to have in Amsterdam, oh and the time I caught them red-handed collecting empty bottles and returning them for lira (for there was no Euro back then, indeed no European Union) to buy candy in the plaza in Perugia.

Ah, but that was then, and this is now.  Then, we had no connection whatsoever for months on end save for the occasional “airmail” snail letter or an extremely pricey, static-filled telephone call – made only after waiting in line for two hours at the post office in Avignon.  Nope, no daily posts on Facebook so friends and family could follow our every move.  Indeed, out of touch with everybody for weeks on end.

And somehow – we survived.

Not only survived, but necessarily honed our problem-solving skills, deepened each our well of resourcefulness, and bolstered our individual and collective self-confidence in maneuvering on foot through a half-dozen foreign lands.  All this, while coincidentally learning a good bit of French and a smattering of Italian (without the aid of Google translate nor Duolingo thankyouverymuch!)

Today, I can Google for all manner of both vital and trivial info about the far-off lands I’m headed to “explore”.  Indeed, what with the plethora of background info on every blessed corner of the globe at our digital fingertips these days, one has to wonder if the whole notion of “exploring” became archaic with the release of Windows XP.

For my planned 6 weeks in Eastern Europe next month, with a bit of Googling I can view the precise predicted temps on any given day amid the Austrian Alps vs. The Cappadocian desert.  And I have a boatload of phone apps to smooth my way at every turn:  GateGuru to make sense of convoluted airports and monitor my standby flights, downloaded audio tours of Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany and ancient Ephesus in Turkey, digitally mapped walking tours of Munich, Salzburg, younameit.  And more.  An online visa application for Turkey, complete color-coded diagrams of the Istanbul Metro, detailed profiles and instant contact with couchsurfing hosts along the way, an app to locate free wifi, a currency converter…

it’s really a bit depraved.

Ah but don’t get me wrong.  These days I’m as much of a “flashpacker” as any 20-something with a backpack and a pair of Keens.  And I most passionately embrace all nifty technos that no doubt add to the ease and pleasures of my travels.  Nonetheless, I likewise am adamant about drawing the line on all this connectivity once I’m on the trail.  Yes, (dare I admit it?) this will be my first trip with a {{whispers}} selfie-stick, but…

All this pre-trip research, and all these handy new apps?  It’s all dispensable.  Indeed, all passive info that will go straight out the window the moment the wheels of my plane touch the tarmac in Munich.  The data’s there, but I’m never married to it.  Good to know my options (and yes, I shall try to drop a Facebook post and/or stray Instagram along the way).  But I remain ever free to follow whatever whim presents itself, and let the muse of serendipity guide me just like in the “good ol’ days”.

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