Life in Port

So I promised long ago that I would write about what life is like in port and even though we are essentially done with our time in port (only one day in Lisbon left and that’s it) I want to hold true to my promise.

Living and traveling on a ship makes our time in each country very different than it would be if we traveled there by other means. Two things make that the case: 1) we are traveling the world with over 200 potential travel companions and 2) none of us have cell phones.

Normally when I travel to a country I do lots of research about what I want to do, where I want to go and how to do everything while I’m there. And of course I always know who I am traveling with. All that goes out the window on the ship. Often times I’m too busy to do any serious research about where we are going or what there is to do there. And, because I usually can’t travel too far from the ship I find that NOT making plans that are too concrete actually works to my benefit. Leaving my plans open gives me the opportunity to join up with people at the last minute and usually have better, fuller days than if I had planned it all out.

Let me use Turkey as an example. I arrived in Turkey not knowing anything about Istanbul or what there was to do there. The most I did was browse through the Lonely Planet on the first day and jot down things I might like to do. The last few days before we arrive in a port are inevitably spent chatting about people’s plans and what they would like to do – it gives you the chance to scope out who might have similar interests and who is staying close to the ship and who plans to travel. Often times I will tentatively plan to do certain things with certain people but we always know that it is subject to change at any time if other plans come up. In Turkey I didn’t even make any tentative plans with anyone. I arrived totally blind with absolutely nothing planned. No problem there.

Each day I woke up with a couple ideas of what I might like to do – I thought if I found someone to do them with great – if I didn’t find anyone that’s fine too. Turns out that I didn’t follow up on most of my plans because better opportunities came up. At breakfast people will chat about what they are doing or what they might like to do and simply just invite each other to come along or decide together on a whim what to do together. On day 2 in Turkey just after I finished the AFP departures there were four staff members meeting on the gangway and they invited me to go along for the ferry trip down the Bosphorous – bingo – had something to do with my day. That trip then progressed into a trip to the Turkish bath, a great dinner and some time watching the Turkish team play soccer on TV…couldn’t have planned a better day. Another day I was feeling a bit tired so I laid down after breakfast and a friend knocked on my door to return something – we chatted about plans for the day and the next thing I know we are off for a day of shopping and exploring the old city. Some of the best and most memorable days in port have been days when I had no plans to begin with and I just “went with the flow” allowing things to evolve spontaneously and organically.

This method of “planning” not only allows me to squeeze in most of things I want to do in a port but it also allows me to spend time with lots of different people. One day with this person, another day with that person – we never get sick of each other or feel tied to traveling with just one or two people. This not only happens with whole days but in small pieces throughout the day sometimes as well. There might be three of us visiting one site and we run into a few others at that site – chat about the rest of our day commences and the next thing you know two folks from our group join up with their group and a couple of them join our group because we all want to do different things with our afternoon. Voila! Everyone gets to do what they want. The freedom and flexibility are great.

Some of this spontaneity comes from having so many potential people to travel with every single day but also because of our lack of cell phones. You chat with someone and realize you want to do what they are doing – you just have to go. There is no catching up or connecting later. Run into people in port and want to do the same thing with your afternoon? Join up now. Know that you are not going to be able to get of the ship until noon because of work and you run into one other person who won’t be heading off the ship until later? Join forces now and set a time to meet up and see how your day might develop.

Traveling on a ship, to me, is a very unique way to explore a country. I’ve never operated from such an extreme “go with the flow” attitude and had it work out so well so often. It’s been a good lesson to me to remember that planning, planning, planning doesn’t always create the best adventures or experiences. When this is over I’m going to miss being able to travel with so many different people throughout a single week and I’m going to miss the spontaneity of letting things unfold so organically.