 | | | Patricia Schultz Photo provided | | | | | | If travel journalist Patricia Schultz was an airplane, she'd be a supersonic MiG-25 Foxbat fighter jet. Or maybe a slightly slower, all-weather F-15 Eagle. At an appearance at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center Jan. 29, she piloted a sold-out audience on a 45-minute, Mach 3, whirlwind spin around the world.
Ironically, the intrepid traveler and author of New York Times bestseller "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" dislikes flying. "Here's my secret: I'm a nervous flyer," she said. "I hate to fly." She never indulges in thoughts of airline preference: "whichever one is going wherever I need to be," is her selection method. Courageous to a fault, but no fool, she said safety is paramount, jet lag is "something to soldier through," and if tomorrow, she had to pick just one place to live for the rest of her life, it would be Italy.
Long before Schultz contributed to guides like Frommer's and periodicals including The Wall Street Journal, she was a girl, growing up with a German father and an Italian mother. Her heart, usurped by her mother's blood (her 2011 paperback second edition has Germany, 18 pages, Italy, 50 pages), Schultz said Italy is the most revisited country in the world. "Do you have to see it before you die?" she asked, not waiting for an answer, but supplying it herself: "Yes."
Originally published in 2003, "1,000 Places" profiles Schultz's curated selections of the world's best locations and sights. Beneath postage stamp-sized photos, she offers reasons why visiting is essential and includes tips on hotels, prices, websites, and more. Schultz has added 200 new entries and 28 new countries to the updated edition; performing a magic act by merging original entries and maintaining the total entries at 1,000. Without increasing the already brick-like book's size, she's added places that hadn't been "on her radar" (Ghana, South Korea) or were too tumultuous, immediately after breaking away from the Soviet Union (Estonia, Ukraine, Slovakia). Everything received updated tweaks, requiring a two page list of collaborators.
"Once you get out the door, adventure starts to happen," she promised, before delving into the splendors of 30 locations she'd chosen to highlight in the program. From London, a city about which she said, "everyone starts there at some time," her rapid fire PowerPoint traveled in just four minutes through Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Scandinavia. "Do you know that a person from this country that I spoke with referred to Scandinavia as a country?" she asked, astounded. "It reminded me of the 30 percent of Americans who can't find Mexico on a map."
Scandinavia is a continent including three - and sometimes up to five countries and the Faroe Islands. When Schultz asked a young American boy how many countries Europe has, he guessed seven. There are 48 and she said Americans remain the most geographically ignorant people she's encountered.
Describing Norway's dramatic topography, waxing poetic about Iceland's Northern Lights and Berlin's proud, great museums (and a small village nearby, boasting nine breweries that hold Octoberfest in August to catch the tourists), she suggested she'd been to heaven, one-thousand times over. Like her book, the talk was filled with tips about train travel, cruises, tour guides (worth the money), and how respect can earn trust and lead to special insights. "You get back what you put out," she said. "If you are a well-behaved American, you will find people are always nice."
Susan Terzuoli, Alamo, and Ingrid Lara, Danville, hadn't traveled far to hear Schultz, but their globe-roving wanderlust made them seasoned travelers. Terzuolio has visited every continent except Australia and marveled at how Schultz managed to get her "favorites" list down to just 1,000. Lara said today's digital age offers opportunities to "explore" on YouTube, but virtual visits lack sensory experience and are not substitute for actual travel. And coming home is made all the more sweet by having been away. "Each time I come back to the Bay Area, I appreciate it more," she said.
Schultz answered audience questions with clipped, often pithy responses. When she travels, she's expected to see more in three days than most people see in three months. She's been known to literally run through museums and suggested each person must find his or her preferred mode. "I enjoy seeing a little of everything," she said, perhaps inspired by the Asian proverb fronting her book: "Better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times."
For more information about Schultz and her book, visit 1000places.com.
Don't Miss the Next Author Lecture at LLLC
The Lafayette Library and Learning Center will feature Dina Colman, author of "Four Quadrant Living: Making Healthy Living Your New Way of Life," at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20 as part of its Sweet Thursdays program. Colman will outline the principles of the four quadrants and discuss ways to reduce stress, live mindfully, eat well, exercise more, sleep better, engage in healthy relationships, and detoxify environments. For information, visit http://www.lafayettelib.org/calendar/sweetThursdays.html.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA