Speedy Boarding with Emily Dieckman
Eight quick-ish travel questions with Substack's very own misadventurer
Welcome to Speedy Boarding, a brand new bi-weekly series on Not That You Asked that is great news for those of you who are getting sick of me. That’s because it’s a series where I ask some of my favourite writers on Substack eight quick-ish questions about travel. So, the vast majority of the words you’re about to read weren’t written by me but by someone else.
This week the questions are being answered by the writer of one of my favourite Substacks,
from . Emily lives in Colorado, USA with her dog and partner, but she lived in Spain for awhile. While she sometimes worries this is the most interesting thing about her, she knows there are bigger things to worry about, and she worries about those too. She writes about her travel mishaps (and really, all sorts of mishaps) at her blog, .I highly recommend it to readers of Not That You Asked.
I’m so excited Emily agreed to be the first person interviewed on Speedy Boarding. And with that, let’s get to the questions.
What’s the best place you’ve ever been and why?
This, of course, is always going to feel a little bit impossible to answer, because every place has its own beauty and uniqueness, and how do you compare different kinds of beauty and blah blah blah. But that’s not an answer!
Maybe Girona, Spain. We lived in Spain for a year, and I signed up to run a half marathon there. I figured it would give us a good push to go to a place we might not otherwise get around to. I kept marvelling at all the little streets and saying, “If we lived here, I bet I could write a novel for real.” As if I would be able to focus on writing a novel while living in such a beautiful place.
Where is the place you most want to visit?
I don’t have one dream travel destination, but I’d love to go to Thailand. My uncle used to work for an airline and travel a lot, and he said it was one of his favourite places he went. I’d also like to visit central and South America, especially Costa Rica. And Scandinavia! And Turkey!
Who’s your dream travel companion?
I’m really lucky that my partner, Jeff, is pretty much the ideal travel companion. He keeps me sane when things are crazy. Like when we stood in the security line at the Amsterdam airport for four hours and almost missed our flight. Or when we were running up a hill in Granada, almost missing our time slot to see the Alhambra. Or the many times we’ve missed buses. I could go on.
Great news! I’m going to buy you a hat. The catch is that you have to wear this hat on every future travel trip at all times. What kind of hat would you like?
Thank you for the hat!
*Googles “types of hats”*
As tempted as I am to ask for one of those beer helmets where you can attach a can to each side and drink out of a fun swirly straw, I understand that may not be practical for every future travel trip. I suppose some sort of boater hat or floppy hat would be good for sun protection.
Where is the place you never want to go back to?
Hm. I’m both a lucky and an optimistic person. So, most of the places I’ve been to are either wonderful or seemed wonderful to me. I will say that on mine and Jeff’s first overseas trip together, we booked the cheapest flights we could find. This meant that on the last day of our trip to Portugal, on which I started to feel a cold coming on, we started our journey home at 21:10.
We flew from Portugal to Dublin for a six-hour layover, Dublin to London for a six-and-a-half-hour layover, then London to Phoenix, then drove a few hours home. In Dublin, when I had to explain our schedule to the customs agent, she said “Why would you do that?” And all I could think was “Because we are idiots.” Anyway, my cold hit full force in Dublin and I slept on one of those vinyl restaurant seats at the airport. Comfortable as airport sleeping goes, but would not particularly like to go back.
You’ve been given a million pounds to live your best life in one destination for a year. The problem is – you’re trapped there and can’t leave. Where would you go?
I would live in Italy—probably Florence or Rome. I could work on my Italian, and I found it particularly easy to make friends in Rome. I really don’t see myself getting bored of either of those cities in a year.
And finally, what’s the one thing you never leave home without when travelling?
A book! Right now I’m struggling through Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo in Spanish (just because my Spanish is bad, not because the book isn’t good) and am also working through Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird and Theodore Zeldin’s An Intimate History of Humanity.
That’s the end of the first ever Speedy Boarding. Thank you so much to
for being the first person to take part, but perhaps even more crucially, the first to say yes. If you liked this post then I have good news: Speedy Boarding will land in your inbox every two weeks. Next up in the metaphorical hot-seat will be . Standby for some excellent headgear. | A guest post by
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“I kept marvelling at all the little streets and saying, “If we lived here, I bet I could write a novel for real.””
The number of times I have said this to myself...😂
Loved this… but One should never be limited to one hat 🧢🎩👒