This is one of my favorite times of the year, but not for the reason you may think. While everyone takes off for summer travels around the globe for the next three months, I re-trench in my favorite city – New York – where I am lucky to call home.
Over the summer, the Beatrice Inn actually takes my calls, the maître d’ at Babbo cracks a faint smile when I ask for a table sans reservation, and the Hamptons is a quick weekend getaway.
The Hamptons kicks off our summer issues at Galavante, and of course she has new tricks up her sleeve. While I have no doubt we’ll be dancing table-top at Sienna an evening or two, thankfully some things never change, like a chill dinner at Nick and Toni’s and rosé at Sunset Beach.
For the first time at Galavante, we are covering Vienna, the city that in retrospect, started this entire adventure. I didn’t grow up traveling around the world. The first time I got on an airplane was as an exchange student at the University of Business and Economics in Vienna. My due diligence for the trip was watching the movie Before Sunrise. I barely spoke a word of German, and after a housing snafu, ended up without a place to live.
The first lesson I learned was how to make friends quickly. As fortune would have it, I met a group of people who would teach me about life. Pam taught me how to navigate public transportation, Erin gave me a place to live, Emily kept me on track with school, and Karen and Kevin taught me all I know about travel. Up until a few years ago, I had traveled to more places around the world with Kevin than my own husband. My dear Austrian friends Sabina, Julia, Klaus, and Christian opened up my horizons to appreciating other cultures. Christian was our local resource for the Vienna feature, and it’s nice to see his tastes have also evolved from the bar at Haus Erasmus. Ironically the Ethan Hawke series of movies seems to parallel with the cycle of my life.
The latest movie, Before Midnight, is coming out this summer. Like the movie, a lot has happened in my life since wandering the streets of Vienna all night. But I will never forget my first passport stamp.
The Vienna feature got me thinking philosophically about travel. Why do we do it? I think the reasons are so personal – as diverse as the destinations you can visit around the world. All that matters is that you travel – there are so few passions like it in life. I travel for a lot of reasons. I was recently in Russia for the first time – no fear, you will see the coverage this summer – with Franziska and Keiko, who have become known as my triplets and lifelong travel partners. Traveling with them reminded me that one of the best aspects of travel is experiencing life with friends.
We look forward to hearing about your summer travels.
