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Shakespeare tried to teach us that it is the essential nature of a person or a thing that matters, not the name. What we call a flower does not determine its scent and what we name a person does not determine his character (read Freakonomics for a fascinating case in point). But does this same rule apply for cities? Would Paris still be as glamorous if it were called Furtwangen or Dippoldiswelde? (I hate to pick on the Germans, but after studying their language for six years I am the first to admit its guttural tones defy romance.) Would San Francisco be as cosmopolitan if it was known as Chugwater (it’s in Wyoming) or Hohokus (New Jersey)?

I am guilty of judging a place by its name. In leaving southern California, where most of the cities boast saucy Spanish monikers, I had serious reservations about moving to the South with its towns like Buford, Dahlonega, and Dunwoody. We found a lovely house that seemed perfect for making our cross-country transition, but I was hesitant to buy it since it was located in a place called Alpharetta. What kind of word was that? It conjured visions of all the wrong stereotypes–dueling banjos, corrupt sheriffs, and missing teeth. I finally agreed to the purchase but only on the condition that I would list Atlanta as my address on all professional correspondence. This may seem a strange hangup for a person who went to high school in a city called Schenectady, but maybe that’s the root of my bias. I don’t want to be judged by the merits of the name of my hometown. (I have, of course, since learned that Alpharetta is a lovely locale inhabited by enlightened people who don’t marry their cousins or fly the Confederate flag.)

So will we be influenced by the names of places in honing our itinerary? Perhaps. I recently read an article by a travel writer that suggested one way to choose vacation spots is based exclusively on name. He argued that you might visit Djibouti just because the name has always made you giggle, or Abu Dhabi or Timbuktu because they sound mystical. If I had to choose one place based on its name, I think it would have to be Zanzibar. Can you think of any place that sounds more exotic? The fact that there are abundant beaches, spices, and butterflies seals the deal for me, but I’ll have to work on Tom. It’s currently not in the plan. I also love the sound of Tripoli, but even though Qadafi has changed his ways, we’re not ready to take the kids to the former terrorist breeding ground just yet. Though the Slavic languages share German’s lack of euphony (I studied Russian for three years), they’ve come up with a few places that sound intriguing. We’re excited for Dubrovnik, especially after seeing pictures of cascading orange tile roofs rising up from the misty shores of the Adriatic. Ljubljana in Slovenia is fast becoming a tourist hotspot and seems to merit a visit if only to figure out how to pronounce its name.

The one place we have visited exclusively for its name is Dax, France. We named our eldest son Dax, not because we adored the city or the French, but because Tom had a friend whose brother was named Dax. We liked it, stole it, and took him to visit the city in the summer of 2000 during an extended trip to Spain. It was a little run down and they seemed more than a little surprised to see the Clampetts roll into town. The tourism trade in Dax caters primarily to working class French who visit the local hot springs to cure rheumatism and other assorted afflictions. Luckily the annual bullfighting festival had just ended (Dax is just across the border from Spain) so there were plenty of souvenirs for our Dax to bring home to his friends. We captured the experience by taking Dax’s picture in front of Dax-emblazoned trash cans and street signs, and just so McKane wouldn’t feel left out, we took his picture too in front of the anti-Dax sign.

In 50 weeks and six continents I’m sure we’ll find that some places live up to their names while others defy them or fall short. If you’ve got any suggestions, or have a place you’d like us to check out, let us know.

Technorati Tags: Itinerary, Round-the-world, RTW, Travel

Almost 20 years ago, I took 2 years off from my normal life and served a full-time mission for my church. I abandoned the comforts of a dorm room with built in entertainment of every kind and a dining hall flush with food and headed off to Japan where I abstained from most forms of entertainment and cooked and cared entirely for myself. Most of my days were incredibly busy, and if they weren’t, we did everything we could to make them busy. Even so we always found time to talk about the things we missed – music, sports, movies, and of course girls. You would expect these things to be of particular interest to 19- and 20-year old boys, but you might be surprised that what we missed most often was food.

The foods we missed were simple things. We would have loved one of Dad’s steaks or Mom’s spaghetti, but those weren’t the things we talked about. We longed for simple staples of our daily lives: maple syrup, mayonnaise, peanut butter, black licorice, beef jerky and root beer. We missed them so much we learned how to make them ourselves. I still have the mayonnaise recipe from my Grandma, but ironically I now prefer Japanese mayonnaise. Maple syrup was probably the biggest reminder of home as we had pancakes every chance we could. Every week we made a batch. Maple syrup extract to missionaries was like cigarettes to prison inmates. Whenever someone would transfer into our area, we would make a quick inventory of his food. Few things would bring more relief than finding out the new guy had his own maple syrup extract and wouldn’t be draining our finite resources.

These comfort foods were so much a part of our palette and daily lives that we didn’t expect to miss them. We always had these foods and expected to continue to have them wherever we were. It turned out the Japanese palette was significantly different. We had fun watching their faces as they tried to make it through a large spoonful of peanut butter or the spitting attack brought on by a bite of black licorice. Of course this was a two-way street and they had fun feeding us fermented soybeans, salted fish guts, or fish testicle soup. As the family gets ready for our big trip, we have talked about which foods will be our fermented soybeans or fish testicles. I recognize the world has become much smaller in the last 20 years. Foods have become much more global and fast food chains much more ubiquitous, but there will be foods for all of us that will be our maple syrup or mayonnaise. What will they be? And which will be the items we dislike at first, then learn to like and finally miss after we return. What will be our Japanese mayonnaise this time?

Technorati Tags: Food, Mission, puppy, Round-the-world, RTW, Travel