How to tell a good travel story.

Jon Carroll writes a great column. I really liked today's...

Bad things happen in good travel stories. A good trip makes a bad story. "Oh, we had a wonderful time and we ate and we slept and we enjoyed the tropical breezes and saw big blue birds." Not a great tale, although the elaboration would be even worse: "We went to a luau one night that was sort of touristy, but we had a great time. They roasted a whole pig in the sand, and we met this great couple from New Jersey, Andrew and Ann, and it turned out ..."

You ought to read the rest. Bad things happened, and it's a great story.

I'm hoping not TOO many bad things happen while I'm in Sweden. This blog is partially for my benefit (being able to look back and think "wow, that was awesome") and also for the benefit of people who know me and want to know what it's like.

John Flinn, who writes a travel column in the Chronicle says, "Spare your friends the description of the Taj Mahal. Yes, it’s beautiful. And, yes, of course, the Great Barrier Reef is awesome. Everybody knows this. And we don’t need to hear about the seventh hole at Pebble Beach. What we want to hear are stories.”

Well, people who read my blog may have to put up with my occasional description of a castle or a natural Swedish wonder. I'll try to keep it brief. Or post pictures.

"Travelers should be able to tell a good bus story, bathroom story, airplane story, animal story, hotel story, food story and guide story." Got it. So the key is that travel isn't about WHERE you went as much as it is about what you EXPERIENCE along the way.

Here are some travel stories you can read, in case mine start to get uninteresting, though I hope some of my stories over the next six months will be good reads.

21 days til takeoff! Ha en trevlig resa!