Renowned travel writer Doug Lansky visits CMU
What to pack? What to eat? How to pay?
These were several topics that Doug Lansky covered during his "Get Lost" presentation Wednesday night in Warriner Hall's Plachta Auditorium.
"I love traveling. It's something I'm passionate about," Lansky said. "I want to change the way that you look about traveling."
After a brief presentation on Central Michigan University's Study Abroad program, Lansky told stories of his adventures and gave advice about traveling to the about 100 students in attendance.
Lansky, a self-proclaimed "travel writer," has visited more than 100 countries, returning with photographs, stories and memories from each different location. His accounts have been published in magazines like Esquire, Men's Journal and National Geographic.
"Go find the adventure," he said. "Instead of thinking about what you want to see, think about what you want to do."
Lansky began traveling during his college career. However, it wasn't a pleasant experience for him, which prompted him into traveling even more.
"I had such an awful junior year abroad, and I knew it could be better than that," he said.
Lansky began traveling more, starting with his next spring break, and continuing from there.
"After awhile, I felt like I could conquer the world," he said.
Lansky presented a slide show packed with photographs, maps, and Web sites for any future travelers to reference.
Allegan senior and Program Board president Matthew Burza, who had a large part in organizing the event, figured that the presentation would be a good way to kick off spring break.
"Doug really shows you how much is out there," he said. "You don't really get to see it until you do it yourself."
Canton freshman Jack Distel enjoyed the presentation.
"I thought it was pretty cool," he said. "I think we should have more events like this."
Distel especially enjoyed some of the fun stories Lansky had to share.
Many of Lansky's stories are about the voyages he made to get to his destinations, rather than visiting the actual destinations themselves.
Lansky explained some of the voyages he made while traveling on yachts, camels, cars, buses and even ostriches.
"Don't think of it as, 'oh, wait till we get there,'" Lansky said. "Getting there is the trip."
university@cm-life.com
