TravelChick

Nic rocks

Before I went to Beirut, I didn't know Nic very well. I had met him at my going away party in London at the end of October and we hit it off. He told me he was planning to do an internship in Beirut over his winter break and wanted to come to Damascus, so we exchanged e-mail addresses and kept in touch.

I wasn't nervous about going to visit him in Beirut, but I definitely hoped that the same dynamic we had at my going away party would still be there, and luckily it was. We traveled together well and made each other laugh a lot, even though we both got sick. Sometimes people get really cranky when they're sick, or when they're around sick people, but we managed to not let that affect us that much. He made sure I was warm and made me oatmeal one morning when I wasn't feeling well. I think that's pretty fabulous.

Nic's a really friendly, enthusiastic, open person, which really makes for not only being a good friend but also for being a good traveling companion. I think a lot of people wanted to talk to us simply because we made a rather odd couple - a tall, blond guy and a short, South Asian woman - and they wanted to know what brought us together. Nic used that as a vehicle to get into conversations with people, which made our trip a lot more interesting than it would have been otherwise.

I think it's pretty rare that you meet someone and you hit it off immediately. I felt like that happened with Nic and I'm glad that it did.

posted by Travel Chick @ 6:13 PM