Ed Buryn on the unexpected

"Bear in mind that the special advantage of vagabonding is the experience of not really knowing what happens next, which you can obtain at bargain rates in all cases. This kind of happy uncertainty keeps you in the qui vive, the best stance for seeing and learning. You don't know who you'll meet, what experiences you'll have by staying out of the rut, what things you'll learn that aren't in the guidebooks. ...The challenges you face offer no alternative but to cope with them. And in doing that, your life is being fully lived."
--Ed Buryn, Vagabonding in Europe and North Africa (1971)

I discovered Ed Buryn's Vagabonding books in a Tel Aviv bookstore over a year after my Vagabonding column debuted in Salon. It was definitely a surreal moment. Buryn had some great insights into travel, however, and I quote him often in my own Vagabonding book.