Sunday, June 04, 2023

Short Takes: Alone Time by Stephanie Rosenbloom

 


Stephanie Rosenbloom, a travel writer for the New York Times, over the course of one year lived in, and explored, four different cities (apparently on her own dime), including her home base of Manhattan. The other three cities were Paris, Florence, and Istanbul. 

But here's the hook: she did it all alone. 

Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude explains the wonderful benefits of traveling alone and why Rosenbloom prefers that mode of travel and exploration. On a personal note, I think I should mention that because I've been blessed with one of the most understanding wives in the world, I've been traveling this way at least once a year for more than thirty years now - so I was already predisposed to agree with the premise of the book. 

The main reason I enjoy traveling solo so much (and I think it's also the strongest argument that Rosenbloom makes in favor of "alone time") is that my tastes can be a little eccentric. I enjoy traveling, especially when on long road trips, in a way that few others enjoy to the same degree. So as Rosenbloom puts it, this way I don't have to feel guilty - or frustrated - in trying to equally split choices with others who feel differently. For instance, I'm primarily a wanderer. When I come to a crossroads that offers near equally adequate driving conditions, I never know which direction I'm going to turn until I make the turn, and then there's no looking back. I just play a hunch...which has admittedly led me into a few "iffy" situations. 

And that's what leads directly to some of the other solo-travel benefits that Bloomberg speaks to in the book: meeting and potentially bonding with strangers who are either traveling through or live in the area; quiet time that allows for a full appreciation and absorption of everything around you (as she puts it: "bringing into sharp relief the sights, sounds, and smells that one isn't necessarily attuned to in the presence of company"); the opportunity for self-reflection and evaluation; and best of all, the chance to travel guilt free (my wife has told me more than once that she has seen enough old cemeteries now to last a lifetime. I'm sure she would still be willing to stop at one or two cemetery-discoveries a trip, but I know that I would go so quickly through them that I would be unable to absorb the atmosphere peculiar to each of them. 

The prose in Alone Time seems to vary from section to section in ease-of-reading, but that's likely more me than Rosenbloom because of the trance that prose heavily peppered with foreign place-names often leaves me in. That's probably why I enjoyed - and got through- the sections on Paris and New York most. It is intriguing to watch Rosenbloom look at her section of New York City through the eyes of a tourist, a skill she mastered by spending the first nine months of the year in the other three cities first. That's something I want to try with Houston soon.

There are lots of tips to help you enjoy, and stay safe during, solo travels at the end of Alone Time, so if you've ever considered solo travel, this is a good place to begin your research.

14 comments:

  1. Alone Time sounds like such a good book, especially with the tips for save travel solo.

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  2. I think you would enjoy the read - and the tips, while largely common sense, are especially relevant these days. A few of them are out-of-date because they are recommendations for specific web apps, but I'm sure that substitutes can be found for those.

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  3. I love travel memoirs and the kind of travel memoir I most enjoy is where the author was at a turning point in their life and so they hit the road hoping to find some answers. I have loved this type of memoir from the moment I read Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon many years ago. I want to check out Alone Time. And another really good travel writer is the actor Andrew Mccarthy. I have read some of the things he has written and he's really talented.

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    1. Blue Highways is exactly the book that got me hooked on travel memoirs, especially the ones that take a really long time, too. I still have a copy somewhere on my shelves. I haven't read anything by Andrew McCarthy; thanks for the tip,

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  4. I love travel memoirs like this one! I just wish I was brave enough to take off on my own like that. I've been to Paris, and have always wanted to travel to Florence and Istanbul. Until then...I will definitely be checking out this book. :D

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    1. I'm not sure that if I were a woman that I would be so eager to do long trips on my own either. Even my age makes me a little more leery about meeting strangers on the road than it ever was before. But I had a good friend who managed road trips on his own well into his eighties...and he's my hero.

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  5. This sounds like a good read even though I don't enjoy traveling in general that much. Still I think I would enjoy her observations. But I especially enjoyed your take on traveling alone and I think your insights are very good.

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    1. It's such a different experience from traveling with even one other person that I find it difficult to explain, Tracy. I absolutely loved the one I took with my youngest son when he graduated high school two years ago, but it was a totally different kind of driving and wandering. (He did get a kick out of choosing the direction we took at a couple of crossroads along the way, though.)

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  6. I kinda like the idea of traveling without destination or goals, but I wonder, in general, how many women feel comfortable doing it. I know they are bolder, stronger, less fearful than I was at 20 or 40 or now, but still...

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    1. I completely get it, Nan, and that's a shame that it has to be that way. I mentioned up above that as I age, I get much more cautious about some of the situations I find myself in.

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  7. I love a good travel memoir and it sounds like this one offers an interesting twist. Not sure I'd attempt a trip like that alone, but I'd like to read about it!

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    1. I totally get it, JoAnn. There's always going to be a huge difference in traveling solo as a man and doing the same as a woman.

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  8. I don't often read travel memoirs, but this does sound like a good one.

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  9. The author is pretty self-reflective, Jeane, and I found it a rewarding read despite struggling a little to get through a couple of sections of the book.

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