Thursday, April 16, 2009

Review: Honeymooning

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Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner...loved it! It's a memoir of Franz who got dumped five days before his wedding. With non-refundable honeymoon reservations, he decided to take his brother, which sparked the idea that, "Hey, maybe we should quit our jobs, sell our houses, and see the world for a couple of years." And that is exactly what they did. Taking in trip in four different phases, they explored Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia, South America, and East Africa. Now, before you get inspired to do the same, let me preface with the fact that Franz's year-end bonus before he quit was $77,000. A $77,000 bonus, in case that didn't sink in the first time. Needless to say, taking two years off to travel was financially feasible for these 30-somethings who spent their nights in hotels instead of hostels. Franz's storytelling isn't bogged down with boring details that only serve as a reminder to the people who took the trip. He tells interesting and entertaining stories and makes some great observations, including a list of how to out-hustle the many hustlers encountered while traveling outside the U.S. The trip started circa 2000, so as I was reading, I had to question if such a trip would be possible in a post-9/11 world; they'd generally had welcome receptions everywhere they went and I wasn't so sure if Americans would still get that reception. But 9/11 happened right before the African leg of their journey, and the trip seemed to go forth as planned, so I was happy to see it addressed. Overall, an entertaining read I highly recommend. Just expect to get the travel bug after reading.

2 comments:

Salvatore said...

This sounds pretty funny. How did you come across it?

Kari said...

I must have seen something about it on TV, but I can't really remember.