By Samuel Strait, Reporter at Large – January 27, 2021 For those of you that regularly read the Crescent City Times, you will no doubt know that I enjoy traveling around the world experiencing new and strange places, and meeting new and interesting people in those places. I suspect that is a big part of travel for many people without them even being aware of those sometimes brief bits of pleasure talking to someone you have just met in a restaurant asking about CD's produced by local musicians, wrestling over the thorny problem of purchasing a metro ticket in Hungarian, or trying to get back to the ferry on the eastern side of the Bosphorus from a taxi driver who only speaks Turkish. Those and many other delightful experiences have littered my travels over the past seventy two years. While spending time in Cairo, Egypt, my wife and I were frequent visitors to the main market, Khan al-Kalili, in the center of this large frenetic city. Having the opportunity to spend nearly a month prowling through the city, it seemed one of the most interesting and regular part of the trip was sitting in a chair sipping mint tea while my wife examined, quite thoroughly as you can imagine, the wares of a silversmith. While patiently waiting in my chair in front of his shop, I became somewhat of a fixture in the market and was often greeted by local shopkeepers in the area and encouraged to talk about how different America was from Egypt. In the process I learned a great deal about Cairo and the people of Egypt. On our last day in Cairo, my wife had to take one last trip to Mr. Hasan's jewelry shop. Upon arriving, the shop was closed. As we turned away in disappointment the shopkeeper across the way shouted, "A moment Mr. Sam, Hasan has a fire at his house. I call him and he be down, ten minutes only." Some how Hasan appeared, both arms bandaged to open his shop to my wife's delight. He had hoped to see her before we left as he had made a beautiful silver necklace for her as a parting gift. Just one of the many delightful experiences we have had. The young man in a restaurant who waited our lunch table in Montmartre, who had spent eight years in Detroit's music industry and recommended several French bands who produced CD's to my wife's specifications. Soon to be had in a giant Virgin record store we were directed to by the young man. Over the course of lunch we learned that he also was the member of a local band and invited us to a club where he was playing. VIP treatment at the club, front and center table, and introductions around. It was a very stimulating evening. Hungarian is not the easiest language to negotiate, and buying tickets for the metro from the lady in a ticket booth who spoke no other language was an adventure. The adventure was soon resolved when a young woman who turned out to be a local school teacher stepped into the breach and in perfect English asked me what I needed, then proceeded in a bewildering fashion, hand gestures included, to not only relay my request, but proceeded to pay for the tickets. Refusing to accept reimbursement, my wife invited her to lunch. She readily accepted and we spent the next hour learning about how education had changed since Hungary's separation from the Soviet Union. Quite revealing. She had learned her impeccable English as the daughter of a diplomat and had spent six years in our nation's capital. As I look back, in just a few short years we accumulated experiences of a lifetime. Not to be left out, travel in the United States can be just as magical. While waiting for a trailer repair in 1950's New Orleans as a child, spending time on the sidewalk outside the shop,, my sister and I, were being solemnly educated in the ways of the local neighborhood by a young black child of ten. The repair shop owner's wife buying us a bottle of soda pop out of an old fashion soda machine, and providing buckets to sit on under a near by tree for shade. Then, when the repair was to take longer, directing us to the neighborhood swimming pool for a refreshing dip. Those and many more experiences crowd my head with the pleasures of relating to people while traveling. It is something every one may enjoy, in places where things are done differently than at home. For some it may take some adjustment, but listen and learn, and you might just be surprised by how friendly people can be in places that are very different from what you may be used to.