One of the rewarding things about
traveling to unknown places is that you’ll always be surprised in unexpected
ways by what you’ll encounter along the journey. The surprising factor can be
anything unique to a place from a peculiar scent to a colorful landscape to the
flavors of typical dishes. Yet, the one factor that always brings a smile to my
face and a very particular feeling of joy is people’s acts of kindness,
especially when they happen randomly, when you don’t see them coming.
A couple of weeks ago I was in Calgary,
Canada on a short business trip and, as always, I was not disappointed by
Canadians’ known hospitality from the very minute I arrived. The highlight of
this trip, however, was my venturing out into the public transportation system.
I was asking the receptionist of the hotel for directions when, suddenly, one
of her colleagues intervened to suggest a shorter route, after overhearing our
conversation. Before I could even grasp her directions she asked me to follow
her. As we were walking towards the nearest bus stop, a bus was about to leave,
so she started running and yelling to the driver to wait on us. Next thing I
know I was on the bus, out of breath, without a clear idea on where exactly I
was headed because everything had just happened so fast. Luckily, the driver
was patient enough to explain me where to get out, what train to take, etc. and
I made it to my destination (and back to the hotel) smoothly. These two people not
only helped me find my way around but also provided a moment that I’ll always
remember fondly.
I had a similar experience on my
trip to Greece for the turn of the century. One of my closest friends from
elementary and high school and I decided that Mykonos would be the place where
we’d receive year 2000. After spending a couple of lovely days in Athens, we
made it to the island without any problem. Until that point, we were thinking
we were such good travelers. What happened later would prove us wrong. When we
wanted to exchange currency, we came to the realization that banks and pretty much
all businesses were closed for the holidays. We only had US dollars on us and
no debit or credit cards so the situation wasn’t looking good. We were wondering
how we were going to make it through our stay without an acceptable currency. At
that moment a woman walked by and after seeing our hopeless expressions asked
us if there was anything wrong. We explained our situation to her and she
immediately checked her purse to see how much cash she was carrying. Then, she proceeded
to buy some dollars from us only so we could have money for the next couple of
days.
I’m certain I’m not the only one
who’s encountered such kind gestures from strangers while traveling. This alone
should be an incentive to continue visiting unknown destinations. Why? Well, human
kindness tends to make an appearance during special circumstances. Now, is
there anything more special than traveling?