A Bit of Relief: Rick Steves' Travel Dreams

[0] We are recording.

[1] Okay.

[2] Hi, Rick.

[3] Sam, nice to see you.

[4] Rick Steve's one of my favorite people on the planet.

[5] Sam, nice to hear from you again.

[6] We had a good conversation a while ago, and now it's a whole different world.

[7] Yeah, so I profiled you.

[8] My profile of you came out in the New York Times Magazine last year, and part of the reason I wanted to call and talk to you was you and I are supposed to be hanging out.

[9] That's right.

[10] It was one of the last things I deleted from my calendar.

[11] I'm Sam Anderson, and I'm a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine.

[12] And last year, I wrote a profile of the travel guru, Rick Steves.

[13] Hi, I'm Rick Steves.

[14] For many travelers, the quintessence of Spain is found here, Andalusia.

[15] So Rick Steves, for anyone who doesn't know, he's really an evangelist of travel.

[16] Today, like Turkey in general, gazeliot is Muslim.

[17] The power of Rick Steves is that this is not just a business for him.

[18] It's a whole life philosophy.

[19] Akkavit, what does that mean?

[20] It means the more tough life.

[21] And it tastes like that when it goes for the herring.

[22] Okay, well, this is the learner's dose here, but I'll give it a go.

[23] He wants to empower average everyday Americans who might not otherwise leave the country to get out of their comfort zone and go explore the world.

[24] They give an insight into a people who in a thousand years have evolved from fearsome, marauding Vikings to people like me. And I've been thinking about a moment.

[25] a lot since we've all been hunkered down because here's a guy who's in constant motion.

[26] He just thrives on moving from one place to the next.

[27] He's always traveling and suddenly the entire world is shut down.

[28] It's like a switch was flipped and his whole life mission is just canceled.

[29] All these dreams that have been dashed are actually put on hold so I was wondering what does Rick Steves do with his time and maybe an even bigger question.

[30] If Rick Steves can't travel, then who is Rick Steves?

[31] There was nothing on my calendar.

[32] It was just a complete blank slate for my future.

[33] Wow.

[34] So what have you been doing day by day instead of hanging around with me?

[35] Well, the big part of my life is a part that was always squeezed away by my workaholism, and that's just enjoying being alive in this privileged little world.

[36] I've got a nice place in Edmonds, half hour north of Seattle.

[37] I've got a view of the mountains.

[38] It seems like the volume of the birds have been cranked up.

[39] When I step out of the morning, there's less traffic and more bird sound.

[40] And I've been thinking about dusting off old passions.

[41] I got out my trumpet, and the valves hadn't wiggled for literally decades.

[42] And I could still play the trumpet, which is fun.

[43] I didn't even know you played the trumpet.

[44] I thought I knew everything about you.

[45] I like to keep a few things to pull out later.

[46] What other elements of life have you been finding yourself enjoying?

[47] I mean, it sounds ridiculous, but I have never cooked in my whole life.

[48] I have never cut into an onion in my entire life.

[49] What?

[50] I had never really made pasta until now.

[51] Oh, my gosh.

[52] I've had a bad attitude about it.

[53] I've always, you know, I've been at parties and people put on a, on a, on a, what do you call it a, um, bib or what was that, yeah, apron?

[54] An apron, yeah.

[55] Yeah, that's called an apron.

[56] They put it on an apron and they're everybody having a good time, convivial, slicing, you know, mushrooms in the kitchen.

[57] And I just was awkward and I would just go to the living room and I'd sit there alone with my gyps and dip, you know.

[58] Uh, and now I'm realizing what I've missed.

[59] Wow.

[60] It's like somebody just told me there's a whole new word.

[61] world out there.

[62] You can do something more than go out to eat, bring home, you know, leftovers and make picnics.

[63] So, I mean, that's just a delight.

[64] So you're really expanding your horizons.

[65] Yeah, well, you know, I'm learning to travel without, without any airplane tickets.

[66] Wow.

[67] This is a huge change.

[68] It's a great thing.

[69] But I have to be mindful that I'm really privileged.

[70] And I hope that, you know, when people think about this, they think about it mindful of the fact that it hits a lot of people who don't have the ability to weather it as well as we do pretty brutally.

[71] But one way or another, we'll get through this.

[72] I guess one of my big hopes, Sam, is that social distancing doesn't become the norm.

[73] I just love the way the French kiss each other on the cheek.

[74] I love a nice high five when I get to the top of a little peak in Switzerland.

[75] And you want to sit next to a stranger and share your French fries in an English pub.

[76] I think one of the great pleasures that you provide people all the time is the fun of traveling vicariously.

[77] And I remember people telling me that you often get letters from prisoners saying that even in prison, people watch your show and feel like they're out in the world.

[78] And so I wonder if that aspect of your teaching is even more powerful now, if you've heard anything from people about that.

[79] I actually have, because one of my themes lately is this virus can stop our travel plans, but it cannot stop our travel dreams.

[80] We're not in business to make money right now.

[81] Our mission is to keep people's travel dreams alive and to give people something positive.

[82] We just a couple days ago designed Rick Steve's Europe bingo.

[83] where the cards have all of the little goofy clichés that show up in almost every one of my shows.

[84] And we've made that available.

[85] And you can turn it into a drinking game if you want, but it's just...

[86] Okay, okay, hold on, wait.

[87] What are the key triggers in the Rick Steve's travel drinking game?

[88] Oh, well, it's a bingo board, so you've got all of your...

[89] If I use alliteration...