Elise
McMullen - Ciotti
McMullen - Ciotti
The Galavant Girl
New York City is my home, and whenever I leave this resonating island, I always feel distant... far... I miss its streets, its people---no I miss my streets, my people. But, even with this deep love for my home, I continue to answer the call to distant shores, meet characters not easily conjured in fiction (or reality TV for that matter). I photograph them, eat with them, learn about their lives and have adventures. It is within the Galavant Girl blog, where I'm able to bring you directly to their table.
T H E G A L A V A N T G I R L, a blog first sponsored by navigate360, a travel company known for its very individualized tours, began during the winter of 2009 in Italy. I visited cheesemakers, olive oil makers, chocolate festivals, and much more. You can read about these and other journeys---good, bad... or ugly---in the blog. The Galavant Girl continues to contain essays about places in Europe and the U.S.
Being a tourist is not the same as being a traveler. A tourist likes to maintain the safety of his or her own cultural cocoon. Tourists will make sure that they understand every word they hear in their own language if they can help it. They keep an imaginary plexiglass window between them and what they experience.
Travelers risks a deeper change. Open and vulnerable, they dare to be up close and personal with a place and its people. They may get a little bruised, confused or spend time in a bathroom wondering what ingredient in the food put them there, but in the end they come out reveling in a new, more open consciousness. They have grown, because opening a door into another world, opens a door into themselves. Henry Rollins said, "You never know, until you go." True. That knowing is also in oneself.
I take this a step further and say, "You don't know someone until you eat with them" It's better in French, "Il faut diner avec quelq'un pour connaître quelqu'un." Thus, this will also be a gastronomic adventure. I hope you join me, and that this sparks the traveler in you.
---Elise McMullen-Ciotti
P.S. The spelling of "galavant" is intentional. There is more than one way to spell this word. The most common way is "gallivant", which is nice... but then it would not be the wonderful combination of "gal" and "avant" equaling "gal-avant" as we have seen in "avant-garde" for example. I invite you to take a tour through etymology. You may find some interesting things.....
