Traveler Profile: toby | Matador

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Screen name:

Age:

40

Gender:

Female

If you must know:

I'm single

Travel status:

Traveling soon

Hometown:

Berkeley, CA

Currently in:

Berkeley, CA

Favorite places I've been:

Just back from France and Spain, which go near the top of the list. I've been to the basics (that's Mexico & Canada, for Americans) and I have 48 of 50 states logged -- the most recent acquisitions are Alaska & Hawaii. Long ago traveled in England, Poland, Israel, and hope to return.

Places I want to go to:

Must hit those last 2 states (Montana & N.Dakota). I'm curious enough to enjoy going almost anywhere, but Europe probably tops the list right now, starting with the "Hemingway tour" of Northern Spain, which had to get lopped off the itinerary of my last trip. But first I'm off to Japan in a couple of weeks, to attend a friend's wedding -- if friends insist on getting married in distant, exotic places...then we must go!

About me:

Berkeley native, college English teacher, writer. Most of my writing has been poetry, or dreary academic stuff, but I'm now exploring travel writing. Three years in a rock n' roll cover band in San Francisco; now I'm just strumming quietly on my own.

Profile URL:

http://matadortravel.com/travel-community/toby

Read more about toby

I'm fired up on:

Writing (prose/poetry/songwriting), the outdoors (hiking/backpacking/kayaking/skiing), 20th cent. art & design, veggi food and wine...I go through "fired up" phases on lots of different things. The more I learn about something, the more into it I get!

Tunes I rock out to:

Devotchka and Lucinda Williams right now. I used to be able to do a "human jukebox" kind of thing, where I could play at least one verse/chorus from almost any top 40 hits, 1950s-80s. Don't know how much I've retained, though....

Travel style:

I am more of a backpack traveler, though now I stay in much nicer hotels more often than I used to! I like traveling with friends best, but now that I am trying to write about travel more seriously, I'm finding that traveling alone is probably the best thing -- it's just too hard to bow out of whatever adventures your travel companions have going on when you're in some exotic place, so that you can sit in a hotel room and take notes.

Quote:

'Tis ever common that men are merriest when they are from home. ~Shakespeare

Sports I do:

Jog, kayak, mtn. bike, x-c ski

Favorite artist(s):

Chagall, Eva Hesse, Emil Nolde

Favorite books:

on this last trip, The Sun Also Rises; Gloria Naylor's Mama Day, anything by Toni Morrison, poetry of Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, Kay Ryan

Who I'd like to meet on my travels:

The cabdriver, the bartender, the shopgirl, and the grandmother

I want to make a difference by:

Writing

Languages spoken, other than English:

a little bit of French

I felt the most immersed in a foreign culture when:

These moments I find hard to predict -- I'm just traveling along, and some situation catches me off-guard; you suddenly realize "wow, I'm really HERE!"

Why I travel:

The unexpected moments. To see people, and how they live; to explore the variety of the planet, geographically/environmentally as well as culturally.

Ideal place to watch the sunrise:

I just saw it in Cadaques, Spain, and it was so beautiful I don't need to see it again!

Ideal place to watch the sunset:

I'd like to see it from somewhere I've not been yet

Before I die I'd like to:

Run a marathon, publish a novel...this list could go on forever....

Let's collaborate:

I'm eager to see who else is involved with Matador, and what plans people have, and go from there. My initial interest has been in finding a place for my travel writing (a place with readers!). But writing can be lonely work (as can traveling), and I enjoy collaboration and I "play well with others." I have traveled with photographers before, and would like to do so again, and am open to larger projects as well. However, any high-intensity collaborative work would have to be in the summers, when I am not teaching!

My links:

www.nanowrimo.org

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by jollyhippo | 2007/01/11

Haha yeah La Rambla is a giant toilet bowl during the night, though more cleaned up during the day. It's amazing how two-faced Barcelona really is! The last time we were there (for spring break last year) we got caught in riots on St. Patty's Day, and somehow it ended up being a ton of fun, but that's Barcelona for you!
Have you been up in Normandy and Brittany? That's my next stop and I'm looking for tips!

The Veggie-Traveler Quiz

By toby | Location: Japan | 05/21/07 | Pics: 1

I’ve been some kind of vegetarian since age 7, so as I’ve grown and gotten (a little) more mature, I’ve become pretty comfortable with making up my own rules as I go – what to eat, what doesn’t feel okay, etc. But traveling does present that extra challenge, where foods you never expected...

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Alcohol and Intestines of Europe

By toby | Location: United States | 01/14/07 | Pics: 3

Not that alcohol is the most appropriate topic to continue writing about, but, after all, it is that season when most of us need our cockles warmed (in this northern hemisphere, anyway), and the strong stuff does provide an interesting way to travel without going far from home! No, I’m not...

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Travel by Map: Hiking and Drinking in Gigondas, France

By toby | Location: France | 01/04/07 | Pics: 3

As soon as we realized the trip to Paris could really happen, my friend Sandy, a professional travel agent, immediately started focusing on when -- she planned and booked the flights. I, however, immediately started focusing on wine -- it seemed a shame to go all the way to France and not track down...

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