On February 2, 2008 I flew from London to Istanbul. I expected to spend the time reading a chapter or two in a book called Balkan Ghosts, which is about south-eastern Europe. I would be in Turkey rather than countries such as Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Albania but I may make it over to Bulgaria for a few days this summer so I thought to get a little idea about the history.
Melita Kabashi, who was sitting next to me, noticed my book and struck up a conversation. She is from Kosova and we spent most of the flight talking about her homeland and her experiences studying in the U.S. The conversation was memorable and I thought about Melita when I read the news of Kosova's February 17, 2008 declaration of Independence while in Eilat. Yesterday, I heard a lecture by Albania's ambassador to Israel explaining why Albania supports Kosova's having become independent and why other countries should as well (around 81 countries already have) and today Melita wrote to me pointing out her blog entry in which she shares her thoughts from her newborn country's independence day (http://lucididiocyblog2.blogspot.com/ --scroll down to March 3, 2008, the title is "Newborn").
Meeting interesting people isn't something you include in your itinerary but the discussion I had with Melita Kabashi on the plane was at least as memorable as the museum's or bicycles in Amsterdam or historic sites in Istanbul. Years previously, all night discussions with students leaving the city for an Islamic holiday during an overnight train ride from Cairo to Luxor was at least as memorably as the ancient sites that had motivated the trip.
Since being back in Israel, I have met up with or ran into a number of people I knew from previous trips and have made quite a few new acquaintances. Of course it isn't necessary to travel to meet interesting people but airplanes, youth hostels, and foreign universities seem like fertile places for to get out of one's social comfort zone.
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