Planes, Boats and Trains

The Mrs. and I don't usually rent cars when we travel. Aside from the fact that neither of us is keen on driving in strange places, we think that getting around via public transit is a great way to immerse ourselves in the local culture. Not "culture" like museum culture or history-book culture but rather the everyday culture of what the average person really experiences on a daily basis. The stuff that by and large passes undocumented, unnoticed and straight into the proverbial trash can of history.

It may seem unusual for a couple of control freaks to completely give themselves over to the vagaries of other people's scheduling, but that's part of what vacation is all about, isn't it? Relaxing and letting go.

I still hate to fly though, but so does everyone else who flies commercially I suppose. It's a necessary evil if you want to try to see what's out there in the world in these depressingly paranoid times. You know things are bad when decisions have to be made on how to best drug yourself to get through the ordeal. Should you try to get some Xanax from the doc? OTC sleeping pills? Or just the old standby of getting as plastered as possible before boarding the plane? They all have their pluses and minuses.

I am really looking forward to the boat trips to and from Sweden and Finland and the rail travel within Finland. Not to mention the "beer tram" in Helsinki though that's only an hour or so.

The only thing I'll miss about not spending any time in a car is that I probably won't have time to find any interesting radio programs. When we visited that odd country called America last summer(Indiana specifically) one of the first things I found on the radio in our rental car was an infomercial selling an audio course in how to be an evangelical preacher and build your own congregation. This is the sort of thing that renders satire meaningless in the 21st century. Real life is far more interesting and absurd than anything any writer can come up with nowadays.