Learning About Men. From Traveling.

You can learn a lot about men by traveling with them. Traveling with Husband is vastly different from going somewhere with girlfriends (my main travel companions when I was single for all those years). So, I was quite naïve, being the LBB, when it came to what to expect when traveling with a member of the opposite sex. (I had weekend trips with boyfriends, of course. But, it’s just not the same,either.)    

For one, you don’t have to fight with your girlfriends about taking a taxi to the cool restaurant. This is because they are wearing heels, too. They also understand that the cute outfit you lovingly packed and schlepped across the Atlantic Ocean clashes horribly with the subway train. Husbands do not get the big deal around this.    

(Lest you think I am a wuss, I believe in public transportation during sightseeing and the greater the hiking, climbing and stair-climbing the better. It’s hard enough to get a workout in during travel. You might as well get it in during cathedral hopping.)     

In general, Husband and I travel well together (provided we don’t ever enter France. We had a bad experience in Charles de Galle airport. Or, shall I say, a series of bad encounters. Enough said.)  

Traveling well together is a very good thing, too.  Because there is a long list of romantic (and some too scary to go to without a man) places I am dying to visit.  And, with Husband, I also get help with my bags, money exchange, and other romantic things not PG enough to mention here.

But, nothing will test your marriage mettle like international travel (house-building, aside).  Our destinations are always fabulous. But, getting from point A to B can be taxing.

My sister says the best travelers are those comfortable with uncertainty. Add the following items and you’ve got an ordeal ahead of you: sleep deprivation, snotty French guards people tired of dealing with the international public all day, negotiations over who sits in the middle seat on the red-eye, dehydration, different languages, culture and people, differing ideas of what constitutes adequate guest space, exchange rates, and I won’t even go into airline food because comedians all over the world have it covered.     

So, I put on the list of things all LBBs must do before they get married – travel internationally with Mr. Potential Husband. All kinds of things come up that are telling.    

For example:

• Does he do well with the unexpected? (My sister says the best traveler understand that nothing ever goes as planned. Period.)    
• How well does he do in long lines? (Patience is a virtue. And, this comes in handy when he has to wait for us for just about anything.)    
• Will he make you take the middle seat every time when flying “trans-atlantically”? (To me, this is a sign of chauvinism if he insists the woman must always sit in the middle. A friend of mine lovingly dubbed the middle seat the “sausage seat.” So, what are we, chopped liver?)    
•  How does he deal with the snotty French guards persons of authority who clearly are so over dealing with the public? (This is yet another sign of how he might deal with, say, moments of weakness we might display when woken up too early.)    
• Does he understand the cardinal rule of traveling? Thou can only be cranky if the other person isn’t. One at a time, please. And, yes, this goes for us, too.     
•  Does he offer to help you with your bag, even if it weighs a ton? (I say if he does this willingly, a knight exists in there somewhere.)    
• Does he make a mad dash for Customs, leaving you in the dust? (The answer to this one doesn’t even require explaining.)    
• Will he consult a map when you’re deep in the maze of Barcelona’s gothic district? (Enough said there, too.)    
• Does he understand the importance of food and watering during long treks around cities and country sides? (Offers to stop at cafes now and again for replenishment are another caring sign.)    
• And, last but not least, does he roll his eyes when you want to buy those great Italians boots in the highway robbery very expensive airport shop in Rome? (So long as it is your money, who cares?)    

What other things would you add to the list? Do tell!

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