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Welcome to Travel Buddy
Join Rachel Satow and Ian Andersen as they explore the transformative power of travel. From breathtaking views in Switzerland to unexpected adventures in Paris and serendipitous connections around the globe, this episode uncovers the moments that make journeys unforgettable. With candid stories, laughter, and thoughtful insights, our guests share why travel is rarely about the destination—and almost always about the people and experiences along the way. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that will change the way you see the world, whether you’re planning your next adventure or reminiscing about travels past. *Chapters* (00:01) Awe-Inspiring Travel Landscapes (03:37) Unexpected Adventures and Mishaps (19:36) Memorable Encounters with Strangers (29:56) Places That Feel Like Home (37:55) Lessons Learned from the Journey *Connect with Switchfly* Website: https://www.switchfly.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/switchfly/ X: https://twitter.com/switchfly YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SwitchflyOfficial
Transcript
Brandon Giella (00:01.603)
Rachel, what is one travel memory that left you speechless?
Rachel Satow (00:06.868)
speechless. It would probably have to be standing at the top of Young Frau in Switzerland. I have never seen a view that cool. It was, it, like I was truly speechless, truly speechless at the top.
Brandon Giella (00:25.231)
I love that you said that. I wrote down Lauterbrunnen, which is near, which is like close by. Lauterbrunnen, that area, like in Switzerland, is the most, it's like you're looking at a painting that you can like put your arm into. It is so wild.
Rachel Satow (00:29.823)
really? Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Satow (00:40.494)
Yeah, so picture- it's so picturesque there and I- it's obviously one of the most beautiful countries in the entire world, but when I say I was speechless- and I've been to a lot of mountains, I'm from Pennsylvania in Appalachia, like I've been to mountains. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! It's more than what you have in Florida.
Brandon Giella (00:43.811)
Yeah, yeah.
Ian Andersen (00:56.933)
of their mountains.
Brandon Giella (00:57.731)
Are there mountains in Pennsylvania? Are there mountains in Pennsylvania? Yeah, that's fair point. Fair point. Fair.
Ian Andersen (01:04.411)
Fair. Fair enough, yeah.
Brandon Giella (01:08.171)
Okay, yeah. Yeah, totally agreed. And that's also why like a bottle of water there is like $20 because it is so beautiful and everybody wants to be there. But yeah, it is. It was also the inspiration, people say of Rivendell in Lord of the Rings that Tolkien was traveling there and thought it was so beautiful that that must be where the elves live, which fair enough. But yeah, it's beautiful. I have pictures that don't do it justice. It is so
Rachel Satow (01:08.184)
But yeah, was, it's truly beautiful.
Rachel Satow (01:14.978)
Yup.
Brandon Giella (01:37.903)
gorgeous. gorgeous. Ian, what about you?
Rachel Satow (01:40.652)
I'm Cree.
Ian Andersen (01:44.615)
mine's a tad more local, I guess. The, I have a kind of few ideas that, that spring to mind, but I think the one that really stands out that I really remember just sort of in the moment.
just kind of being in awe. was, we were driving from Portland, Oregon to Madison, Wisconsin. My parents, my son, and we go through Montana on I-90 and you come sort of out of the mountains and you overlook the north side of Yellowstone and like big sky.
and you're sort of up on one mountain, you know, and then there's, I don't know, however many miles of valley, but then on the other side is big sky. And it's just, mean, it's one of those places that like, that you feel utterly insignificant, you know, in kind of a good way of just like, this is like, that scene would have been the same 500 years ago, you know.
Brandon Giella (02:50.916)
Wow.
Brandon Giella (02:59.865)
Hmm.
Ian Andersen (03:00.001)
thousand years ago, whatever. It was very just breathtaking.
Brandon Giella (03:06.959)
I'm glad you said that it is that feeling of insignificance in a way, totally, humans are important, yourself is important. But it makes you like that self forgetfulness that is awe inspiring. Like it just releases your mind of so many anxieties and things that we think about. And it's that great C.S. Lewis quote that says it's not about thinking less of yourself, but thinking about yourself less. Yes. And I just, I love that quote.
Ian Andersen (03:33.073)
Think of yourself honestly.
Brandon Giella (03:37.133)
Yeah, and it's also a nod that there are many amazing, beautiful places in America. You don't have to go to Europe.
Ian Andersen (03:43.591)
I our country is freaking enormous. Like it's easy to forget just how big it is. Especially when you're kind of flying everywhere or whatever, like it really is. But it's bigger than Europe, you know. It's what, two thirds the size of all of South America. It's like, yeah, our country is enormous. there's, so I'm from the Southwest, but I...
Brandon Giella (03:46.851)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Brandon Giella (03:58.767)
See ya.
Ian Andersen (04:11.917)
lived in, think about every region of the country, in the contiguous US and everywhere you go, you know, there's just some really awesome, amazing, very unique, you know, stuff to see that that is as beautiful. live, I live 15 miles from the third biggest river in the world, you know, and it's, it's easy to sort of just take for granted and then you drive over the bridge.
Brandon Giella (04:20.953)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (04:34.627)
Huh.
Ian Andersen (04:41.667)
And if you think about it and you're looking at the Mississippi of just like, holy crap, this thing is huge. You know, especially if you travel like around Europe and you, you hear, you know, you, you always hear of the Ryan or the sun or, or there's a rinky ding little reverse compared to, you know, like there might as well be a stream compared to the Mississippi or, or the Missouri or Ohio or any of the big rivers like
Brandon Giella (04:41.668)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (04:48.771)
Yes.
Brandon Giella (04:57.582)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (05:04.867)
That's right. That's right.
Ian Andersen (05:10.873)
right by where I live, you know, it's pretty incredible.
Brandon Giella (05:13.007)
I want to say it's the largest I could be misquoting and I'm thinking of Mark Twain or something but I want to say it's like the largest by volume River like output at the mouth of the river or something like that. There's some kind of statistic. It's like anyway That's great Yeah, especially in Texas. I live in Texas. You can drive through Texas for like hours and you're still in Texas. It's just crazy
Ian Andersen (05:25.553)
Yeah, there's some weird stat like that, but I mean, it is unbelievably big, you know?
Ian Andersen (05:40.258)
My, when I was a kid, my mom was a teacher. Her school, her best friend at the school, was from Boston originally had lived out in, from Western New Mexico had lived out there for a couple of years, went home to Boston, met somebody at like a conference, a teacher's conference who, who he then flew. He had.
weeks later had something in Dallas, something going on in Dallas and thought, like I drive to Connecticut or Rhode Island all the time. Like New Mexico's a state away. I'll drive over there. And like 14 hours later, yeah. So yeah.
Brandon Giella (06:21.262)
LOL. that's great. Mad respect for Thomas Jefferson's scale of his real estate purchase many, years ago. Okay, we girls could gab forever and Rachel has more things to say, but the last thing I also wrote down St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, in the Vatican. I walked into that building
Ian Andersen (06:35.661)
Yeah, right.
Ian Andersen (06:47.205)
Yeah.
Rachel Satow (06:48.332)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (06:50.286)
and by the way the pope was speaking if you go on wednesdays apparently he like he talks and there's like a zillion people listening to the pope and he was this tiny little speck across the square but anyway but that building just looking up at these like 200 foot tall ceilings and you're just like holy crap which is a whole other historical problem that we could talk about for many other reasons but
Ian Andersen (06:52.99)
wow.
Ian Andersen (06:57.223)
Yeah.
Ian Andersen (07:04.389)
Yeah.
that.
Ian Andersen (07:11.505)
There's something and whether it's, don't like, so I've been to the Vatican, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. And then even like near where I grew up, there's kind of holy places for Native Americans like Canyon de Che or Chaco Canyon or something. And like wherever you are, whatever religion,
Brandon Giella (07:26.253)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (07:37.934)
Never been there.
Ian Andersen (07:41.742)
Somewhere a big preponderance of people feel as holy. There is something about that place. you know, I don't know if it's just kind of in your head or what, but there is something about a place that people feel as holy, you know, whatever the religion or belief system is, it was incredible.
Brandon Giella (07:48.974)
Hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (08:00.035)
Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. I like that. I like that. Respecting the holiness of this place. Whatever your beliefs may be. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the, think it's the only time I've ever in a building literally left speechless. Like I was like, it's amazing.
Ian Andersen (08:11.578)
Yeah.
Ian Andersen (08:18.363)
Yeah. And then it's just everything you've seen everything before on postcards and in movies and whatever, but like there is something about like seeing the Sistine Chapel for yourself of just it being sort of mind blowing. Yeah.
Brandon Giella (08:25.122)
You
Brandon Giella (08:29.112)
Yeah.
Okay, Rachel, tell us a story of when you were traveling and things did not go as planned. What did it teach you?
Rachel Satow (08:37.205)
Yes.
Rachel Satow (08:45.035)
So, I mean, we all have these. When I was first thinking about this topic, I was originally thinking, okay, I've had so many, especially when it comes to work travel, where things just do not go as planned. And there was one instance I was traveling for work. We were flying out of Gainesville Regional, which is a pretty small, like two to three gate kind of airport. And I was traveling with my coworker.
Brandon Giella (08:58.018)
Yeah
Rachel Satow (09:14.305)
And was just the two of us going and we were ready to get on a plane. It was a 6 a.m. flight. It was the very first flight out of Gainesville. We were so excited to get out there. We were going all the way to California. We were so pumped. It was like, all right, cool. It's gonna, we're gonna get there with plenty of time to do something. The plane was then delayed 12 hours and we sat there in the Gainesville regional and I was thinking to myself, I am less than 10 minutes away from my house.
Brandon Giella (09:35.31)
You
Brandon Giella (09:44.334)
huh. huh. huh.
Rachel Satow (09:44.621)
I could go home and work for the rest of the day. We ended up sitting there in the airport, in this two gate airport for the full 12 hours and finally made it out there. Everything else went out, went off without a hitch. But one of the bigger ones and obviously the more entertaining one was we went to Paris. I went to Paris in 2018 with a really good friend of mine to celebrate his graduation. And one of the things that we both
Brandon Giella (09:57.196)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Satow (10:13.662)
really wanted to do was go to Versailles, obviously. It's so wonderful out there. It's so wonderful out there. So we embark on our journey to make it out to Versailles and we take a look at the metro and the line on the metro to get to where we needed to go was closed down. And I don't know if it was arrogance. I don't know if it was steadfastness. It was a feeling of
Brandon Giella (10:17.333)
Obviously. Yep.
Rachel Satow (10:43.052)
We could just, we'll take a couple of other lines and get around the fact that this line is closed. That didn't happen, obviously, because we, neither of us speak French, neither of us can read French, and neither of us had working cell service at the time in that specific area where we were. And so we went into it with a ton of just, you know what? If we get there, we get there, if we don't, we don't. We ended up...
Brandon Giella (10:48.142)
Yeah.
Rachel Satow (11:13.456)
in, I couldn't even tell you what area of Paris we were in. And we, obviously after a couple of hours of attempting to make it out there, we were hungry, we were tired, we were thirsty. So we stopped in to what looked like a mall. And I mean, malls here in the US are very different to over there. And we walk into this mall and there is a water park inside the mall.
Brandon Giella (11:35.075)
Yes.
Rachel Satow (11:43.051)
where you can purchase from a vending machine bathing suits to go to the water park in the mall. So we just ended up walking around, like checking out the water park for a little bit before ultimately being like, we need help to get home. So we ended up asking the people at the front desk of the mall, but it was just such a random thing to stumble upon and we never made it out to Versailles. That's the sad part.
Brandon Giella (11:43.534)
Huh?
Ian Andersen (11:48.689)
You
Brandon Giella (11:51.79)
What?
Brandon Giella (12:13.037)
gee whiz that was an emotional roller coaster. I did not know there was a water park in Paris. I need to look this up. It sounds fun. Yeah I never... Well for good reason I never I never try to go to a mall when I'm abroad. Interesting okay.
Rachel Satow (12:14.105)
I know.
Rachel Satow (12:22.408)
Yep. You need to go to the mall.
Ian Andersen (12:22.831)
You need to go to mall.
Rachel Satow (12:31.404)
You
Ian Andersen (12:31.557)
I, you know, what strikes me though, in especially, and maybe it's mostly in Europe, but of there are differences in malls, but like how similar many of them are just to being an American mall, it gets like disappointing. In 2018, I went to Budapest and I forgot, I don't know, like socks or something, like just kind of a random.
Brandon Giella (12:46.155)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ian Andersen (13:00.411)
thing and happened that I was staying at an Airbnb and there happened to be a mall across this across from me and I was just like every store here is the story I can go back into and Cape Girardeau, Missouri like it's not
Brandon Giella (13:10.861)
Your stories are highlighting expectations. When you travel, lower your expectations. As excited as you may be, you just never know if you're gonna get there. But Versailles.
Rachel Satow (13:31.916)
And you never know when you're gonna stumble upon a waterpark in a mall.
Brandon Giella (13:36.385)
That's right. That's right. Yeah, I was saying this before we recording. I was talking about how I was recommending to somebody recently that was going to Paris for the first time that you let Paris happen to you. Like just leave time in your schedule. I know you're going to print out that itinerary from Chachi BT, but leave a space for wandering. Just wander. Let nothing be on the schedule for this block of time and just go walk. You'll enjoy yourself.
Rachel Satow (13:45.664)
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Satow (13:59.863)
Yeah.
Ian Andersen (13:59.932)
Paris? Paris? I mean, you know, and you could say the same for New York, London, Rome, whatever, but like cities like that that are so historic and have so much of those kind of like bucket list items that you want to hit. I'm sure places like Tokyo and Beijing and stuff are similar. I've just never been, but like,
Brandon Giella (14:13.357)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (14:21.387)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ian Andersen (14:26.691)
You're never going to experience everything you want to, especially on like a week trip or whatever. Like the loop. You could go spend a week there, you know, just going back every day and hitting a new part. So like you're you're never going to hit every single one of those. So I totally agree. Like maybe have like an idea of what you want to do. You know, we're going to work our way towards the Eiffel Tower or whatever, but.
Brandon Giella (14:32.757)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (14:37.663)
Yes, agreed.
Brandon Giella (14:44.055)
Yeah. Yes.
Brandon Giella (14:54.327)
Yep.
Rachel Satow (14:55.264)
Yeah.
Ian Andersen (14:56.389)
you know, then just let it happen.
Rachel Satow (14:58.612)
Yeah, I think that's one of the things that that experience taught me, because I am a serial planner. I will have every second of every minute planned out, knowing exactly where we're gonna be when we're doing things. It's one of my greatest flaws and my greatest strengths. I recognize that about myself. But in that moment, I had to relinquish that kind of control of the itinerary, because not only did we have no idea where we were, we had no idea how to get back, and we had no idea what was around us.
Brandon Giella (15:05.249)
Hahaha.
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (15:22.198)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (15:27.703)
Mm-hmm.
Rachel Satow (15:27.754)
So it was, it's honestly one of my funniest memories is like just the two of us and I can remember the look on his face when we walked in, we saw this water park and we wouldn't have had that super laughable moment if it weren't for the fact that something went wrong and we just had to go with the flow. And I think that's like one of the best parts of when things go wrong, you kind of have that humbling moment of you just gotta go with it. You just gotta go.
Brandon Giella (15:32.192)
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (15:48.237)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (15:52.535)
Yep.
Brandon Giella (15:57.698)
Which by the way, is the entire point of travel, is to have those moments like that. my Paris story is we were on our honeymoon and I did not plan.
Time of things well, I got time zones wrong I didn't think about we're gonna be super jet-lagged and you're gonna be real tired and it's the morning but you feel like it's four o'clock in the morning and you're exhausted and you've been up all night because you didn't sleep on the plane because nobody sleeps on the plane when you're near the cattle car and you spend $300 on your ticket to Paris So we were staying in a five-star hotel because it was our honeymoon and they did not have a room available for five more hours and so we left all of our bags and
we walked to the Arc de Triomphe and my wife sat on the step or the area near it and wept because she was so tired. And it was the first day in Paris on our honeymoon. And so we eventually, not a great start, and we went back to the hotel. It's a very nice hotel. And we were like, well, we just...
Ian Andersen (17:00.229)
Not a great start.
Brandon Giella (17:10.785)
we just need to sleep. We're just, we're miserable. And so we slept in the lobby and they were not happy about that. But we learned that day that if you would like to get a room faster, fall asleep in the lobby at a five star hotel and they will find a room for you. And they eventually did, which is great.
I also wrote down, everybody in DFW Texas can relate to this, but going to Love Field instead of DFW, which is 45 minutes away, common mistake, it's like a rite of passage. So those are my stories.
Ian, what's your story? What did it teach you?
Ian Andersen (17:56.348)
The one that comes to mind was mentioning going to Budapest in 2018. My flight connected through Madrid and at first I'd even tried to think about, I'd never been to Spain, I really still haven't other than spending a layover in Madrid airport. But I'd...
Brandon Giella (18:02.891)
Yeah, okay.
Ian Andersen (18:25.777)
thought about trying to kind of squeeze a day in there or whatever, but events and I just kept the same itinerary. Well, we got to Madrid and similar to Rachel, our flight was delayed like 18 hours, but they never really told us like, it was like, it's delayed an hour or, you know, two hours maybe.
you know, for 18 hours straight. I couldn't like leave the airport and go wander around. I had to stay there. That was that was pretty miserable. So I don't know what lessons that really taught me other than try to avoid what's the Iberia Airlines or whatever.
Brandon Giella (19:15.104)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Rachel Satow (19:16.331)
I feel like the lesson learned there is always bring something to do. Other than your phone, you know? Make sure you have a coloring book for the kids and a book for yourself for entertainment for 12 hours.
Ian Andersen (19:21.115)
Yeah, yeah.
Brandon Giella (19:22.072)
man, yes.
Brandon Giella (19:28.384)
Yeah
Ian Andersen (19:30.873)
Yeah, thankfully I was by myself. If I'd have had my kids with me, I don't think we would have lived. That would have been, that would have been rough. Yeah, right.
Brandon Giella (19:36.012)
that's what an ipad is for but also that's when you learn that's what bookstores and an airport are for they allow you to buy some entertainment yeah that's right so these cities are made up of people of course rachel tell us about some of the people or persons or person that you have met while you're traveling and
Ian Andersen (19:46.496)
And why they charge, yeah, five times the amount is a bookstore anywhere else, yeah.
Rachel Satow (20:05.307)
Yeah. So, I mean, I've met a ton of wonderful people while traveling and there have been individuals who took me and my significant other in during COVID while we were traveling and we just ended up not having a place to go and they opened their home. There have been people I met when I was in Amsterdam on the same trip as our Paris trip who were sitting at a bar and all of a sudden someone
Brandon Giella (20:06.241)
what you learn.
Rachel Satow (20:35.135)
that I went to college with shows up and like is sitting next to us and I was like, wait, what is happening? But one of the most standout ones is it was a while back ago before I started mountain biking. And as you all know, I'm an avid mountain biker now. So trips look a little bit different, but my significant other, he was going to ride this one trail that I just knew that I couldn't do it because it was well beyond me at that point in time.
And so it was like 30 miles away is Amakalila Falls. This is in Donnsville, Georgia. It is the tallest waterfall in Georgia and I think the third, third or fourth tallest east of the Mississippi. It's a big waterfall. It's a beautiful waterfall if you haven't been. But there are multiple ways to hike it. And I set out, I was like, he's gonna be gone for a couple of hours. I'm gonna go drive over there. I'm gonna do the hike to the top. It'll be great.
Brandon Giella (21:21.356)
Sure. Dead to that.
Rachel Satow (21:35.688)
start the hike, it's wonderful. I'm by myself and there are people all around kind of doing the same trail. And I noticed that me and another female hiker were just kind of like going back and forth. Like I would stop for a break and she would go ahead and then she would stop for a break and I would go ahead. And at one point we both just kind of stopped and we were like, do you just want to hike together? It would probably be way easier and we could have somebody to talk to.
Brandon Giella (22:02.047)
you
Rachel Satow (22:04.171)
Her name was Rabina and she's wonderful. We're still friends on Facebook. Shout out to Rabina. But she made the whole hike so much more entertaining because I didn't feel like I was just out here trekking along on my own. then I got to meet somebody and learn all about them and what brought her to travel by herself, to do Amicalola by herself. And when we got to the top, we took each other's photos and then walked back down.
Brandon Giella (22:13.865)
Mm.
Rachel Satow (22:33.119)
Since then, I mean, we haven't spoken, but it's nice to still follow along on her different journeys and vice versa. And it's kind of fun, like the different connections you can have when you're just doing a shared activity with complete strangers and whether or not you can make a friend along the way. But she was great.
Brandon Giella (22:38.582)
Hmm. Hmm.
Brandon Giella (22:51.148)
I love that. love that. Travel is better when done together. Even with strangers. Yeah, I like that.
Rachel Satow (22:57.163)
Exactly. Exactly. Especially with strangers in some, in some standpoints, you know?
Brandon Giella (23:03.052)
Your college friend's story made me think of on our honeymoon. I saw a friend from college that was our flight attendant on our flight on the way to Paris and I was like what a strange small world and you just never know who you're gonna run into on when you're traveling.
Rachel Satow (23:17.99)
Isn't, right? Isn't that the funny thing about like when we're talking about the people who travel and like, you know, a while back we were talking about how whenever you're traveling, just be cognizant of the fact that you're traveling to somebody else's home. It's so kind of crazy that when you meet these people across the world, whether you are the tourist or they are and...
you just, you're interacting with someone in your travels. You know, when you look to the right of you and there's somebody that you graduated college with 10 years prior and you haven't seen or spoken to them, it makes the world feel so small. And you have to think, what are the chances, right? Like, what are the chances? That was a one in a million, I'm sure, scenario where someone I knew was traveling at the same, same,
Brandon Giella (23:52.278)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (23:58.378)
Yep. Yep.
Brandon Giella (24:02.454)
Yep. Yep.
Brandon Giella (24:08.916)
Yeah. Yep.
Rachel Satow (24:12.785)
same time as me to the same city, sat down at the same bar at the same time, and I happened to know.
Brandon Giella (24:18.315)
That is the crazy, like think of the statistical odds of that happening. Christine ran into a friend, my wife ran into a friend outside the Redwood forest when we were just traveling to California. We just ran into each other and we were like, what the heck are you doing here? Like that has happened like multiple times. That's weird. Anyway, yeah.
Rachel Satow (24:19.807)
Great.
Right?
Ian Andersen (24:29.287)
Yeah.
Rachel Satow (24:35.123)
It makes the world feel so small.
Ian Andersen (24:35.495)
to that.
The Redwoods are the only place, the Redwood Forest is the only place I've ever felt claustrophobic in my life. After college, drove, I moved from southern Mexico up to Portland, Oregon, and I decided to drive straight to the coast and just go up Highway 1 until after San Francisco, I took kind of a little jaunt in to go through the Redwoods, and I happened to hit it sort of right as the evening was coming in and...
Brandon Giella (24:44.457)
Really? Huh.
Brandon Giella (25:06.251)
Mm-hmm.
Ian Andersen (25:08.175)
the fog starts coming in and the fog was, you know, maybe like 30, 40 feet over my car. And you're going through this like narrow little winding road with the fog over and these trees are just so ungodly enormous that yeah, I felt, I felt truly claustrophobic. It was a weird, weird feeling.
Brandon Giella (25:10.667)
Hmm.
Brandon Giella (25:21.483)
Yeah
Rachel Satow (25:23.243)
Yeah
Brandon Giella (25:25.184)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (25:30.005)
That's fascinating. That's fascinating because I went and it was gorgeous weather and we just saw these 300 foot tall trees and you're just like it's just gorgeous. But claustrophobic is funny.
Ian Andersen (25:39.228)
Yeah.
Brandon Giella (25:44.265)
Well, for me, I didn't have any particular person, but I had lots of flashes of all these characters that we've run into. Total strangers, know, our cooking instructor, random people we met in Italy that like could speak Italian and kind of gave us some great recommendations and, you know, just all these kind of random characters. But anyway, but it's always fun meeting people.
Ian Andersen (26:06.151)
I, one of my wildest, weirdest travel stories, right after college, I sold my car so I could buy tickets to Greece and spent a few weeks in Greece. Yeah, it was great. And my first night there, like I got in, I stayed at a hostel because I was 22 and before I had...
Brandon Giella (26:20.747)
That's cool.
Brandon Giella (26:29.929)
Yep.
Ian Andersen (26:30.885)
back issues and money to steal and stuff. So I stayed at a hostel, but it was, it turned out to be, I didn't know this beforehand, but it turned out to be kind of a business traveler hostel, hostelry. And there was a group from Turkey who were there on business in Athens and got to chatting with one of the guys from Turkey who had gone.
Rachel Satow (26:32.106)
Do
Ian Andersen (27:00.615)
to college in Texas, at University of Texas, and was just so excited to have somebody to talk football with, because anyone, you spend more than five minutes in Texas and you're addicted. So he invited me out with them. They were gonna go to this Turkish restaurant that they knew that was apparently this amazing, very authentic Turkish meal.
Brandon Giella (27:13.95)
It's true, yeah.
Ian Andersen (27:28.935)
We go and it was beautiful and it a really nice night. uh, we're there about 10 minutes before the waiter comes up and is like, you know, we recommend you guys going back to your hotel because there'd been an international incident between Turkey and Greece that evening. And there were like threats on Turkish national nationals going on and stuff. And here I am this like 22 year old white boy from New Mexico.
Brandon Giella (27:54.635)
You
Ian Andersen (27:55.888)
Like I have no idea what's going on. I just happened to be in this group that is now like getting threats and stuff. And on the walk back to the hostiller of like people yelling at yelling at our group and it was, it was wild. There's this like uninhabited group of rocks basically in the Aegean that are claimed by both Turkey and Greece. And they're always doing flyovers with their air force and stuff. And I guess.
Brandon Giella (28:10.092)
Jeez.
Ian Andersen (28:25.649)
pilots being pilots are always like playing chicken and ended up running into each other. These two fighter pilots, the Turkish pilot survived. The Greek pilot died. The Turkish pilot landed in the sea and was picked up by a Greek fishing boat. He had a pistol and like held the Greek fishermen at
Brandon Giella (28:34.581)
Jeez.
Ian Andersen (28:54.459)
like back with his pistol until a Turkish ship showed up to pick him up. so all of Greece was rather pissed off at Turkey that day. And it was not the best day to meet a group of international Turkish travelers. we're friends on Facebook and we still wish each other happy birthdays and whatnot. if I see, yeah, if I see Texas.
Brandon Giella (29:01.045)
Jeez.
Brandon Giella (29:09.333)
Jeez. That's... Facebook, connecting the world's travelers.
Rachel Satow (29:13.354)
You
Rachel Satow (29:20.362)
Yeah.
Ian Andersen (29:22.681)
If I see Texas football won or lost, I might say something every now and then, but yeah.
Brandon Giella (29:27.691)
funny that's great it's like the Trojan War all over again right I mean they've been fighting in that area for 3,000 years so the world is small and history repeats itself those are the two takeaways from this conversation just a little resignation for your Tuesday afternoon so okay last question is to talk about a destination that is a home away from home
Ian Andersen (29:32.229)
Yeah, they've been fighting that forever.
Rachel Satow (29:32.392)
Yeah
Ian Andersen (29:39.183)
A few takeaways. Nothing you do will change anything.
Rachel Satow (29:39.21)
True takeaways.
Rachel Satow (29:48.458)
Ha
Brandon Giella (29:56.733)
and what made it special beyond just your tourist experience. Rachel, you go first.
Rachel Satow (30:03.974)
So I wouldn't necessarily say this was like a set out to travel. It was before I had moved to Florida because I was born and raised in I was, know, obviously, you know, in high school, all students kind of, you know, get to make the decision of where do I want to go to college if I want to go to college? Where would I like to end up?
And I was in my search, I was traveling a bunch to different colleges and whatnot to go tour. And when I mentioned this to my aunt, who at the time lived in Florida, she was like, have you ever considered a Floridian college? come down to Florida, it's warmer here. And I didn't have any on my radar actually. And so that summer, as I did every summer, I came down for a couple of weeks.
to visit them and she convinced me to come to the University of Florida and tour the university. And at that point I had seen quite a few schools and there were a couple that were absolutely stunning, like beautiful castle style schools up in the northeast. But when I walked onto the campus of the university I was like, this place feels sunny, it feels warm, it feels, and not
because it's literally in Florida, but it just like had that essence of that comfort feeling when you're at your home. I've like a nice warm cup of tea is really like the feeling that I had when I walked onto the campus and I went into the stadium and like, it was almost like the decision was made for me in that moment. I was like, this feels like a place where I can come and I can be comfortable in myself and learn. And...
That was really like when I decided, okay, I'm fully moving to Gainesville and I have stayed since. Since graduation, I'm still here because I had such a calling to be here. It was one of those moments like when you're just traveling that you find a place that feels right and it felt right to me here.
Rachel Satow (32:21.545)
And I've had a couple of those places. Chattanooga is one of those places too. I have a lot of friends that live up there and it's just, you go and they're showing you all of the things that make their day to day so special and it feels, it's like, I could move here. This is nice and it feels like home when you're there. But yeah, there have definitely been a couple, but that's the one that, and I'll shout it from the rooftops. I love Gainesville, it's great.
Brandon Giella (32:25.0)
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Brandon Giella (32:47.636)
That was the day that Rachel became a Florida man.
Rachel Satow (32:50.569)
Florida woman and a gator. That was the day. That was the day I became a gator.
Brandon Giella (32:58.452)
That's great, that's great, that's great. This Florida man memes are always so funny. No, I love that. And I love that it was college that did that. Because yeah, college can mean so many different things to so many different people, but it'd feel like you're at home in a place that's far away, across the country. It's really special.
Rachel Satow (33:09.491)
Mm-hmm.
Ian Andersen (33:10.215)
you
Rachel Satow (33:14.985)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. And with hundreds of thousands of more people. I grew up in a small town. I grew up in a small town and the university definitely has way more, way more students than than residents of my hometown. So it was, it is definitely, yeah, I love it here.
Brandon Giella (33:21.382)
Yes. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.
Brandon Giella (33:36.682)
That's great. I had a similar feeling in a college town and I wrote down Oxford, England. That to me, I've always known I would like Oxford. All my favorite writers are Oxford men. Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis, so on. And when I got there, was like, yep, this is about what I hoped and dreamed it would be. And it has forever been that. And I've been, I think three times now.
Rachel Satow (33:44.336)
Okay.
Brandon Giella (34:05.247)
And every time I go, I feel like I should be there. But I'm not smart enough. So that's fair. That's fine. That's fine. Cambridge is great. I haven't been, but I should go. Ian, what about you?
Ian Andersen (34:08.997)
more of a Cambridge man myself.
Ian Andersen (34:21.063)
I think the one that immediately springs to mind is this little town called Mula, Mexico. it's on the Baja California peninsula and Baja California, sir, on the Gulf side. So not on the Pacific side. when I was a kid, we used to travel to Mexico all the time, just being right there. And
If you there's a town in Sonora called YMS that there's a ferry that goes across the Gulf and the ferry takes you just north of this town. Moulay that one year the first year we went like the truck my dad's truck that we were driving some happened and broke down and
So we were kind of stuck in this town for a night because they didn't at the time, it could be different now. I haven't been in probably 20 years, but at the time it didn't have like power lines connecting the town. Everything ran on these like big backup generators that only would run between like 11 in the morning and like four in the afternoon.
So every day during the day, during that time, everybody would be really busy trying to get everything done. And then the electricity goes off and, you know, and everybody lights candles and bombfires and everything else. And just basically as a party every night. And the first week we had gotten there early, early evening, like late afternoon, early evening. So the mechanic wasn't able to look at the car until the next day.
And we found this like little tiny little motel in thing that more of a kind of bed and breakfast kind of place that the people just like invited us in and you know, we hung out all night. We had spaghetti with clams that had been like dug out of the Baja like that day. And
Ian Andersen (36:48.709)
And it was just, it was, it was like a great, just a great little feeling. And then pretty much every, at least every other year, if not every year for the rest of my childhood, we, went back there and stayed at that little inn for a couple of nights. And, you know, it was, was always, always a lot of fun. I definitely want to go back sometime soon.
Brandon Giella (36:59.946)
Hmm.
Brandon Giella (37:07.946)
When was the last time you've been there?
Ian Andersen (37:11.815)
It was a while, it when I was in college, so probably... 2003, 2004, somewhere in there.
Brandon Giella (37:18.538)
Yeah, cool, yeah, do for a trip. That'd be really special. Take your own family back and do that whole thing. That'd be great. That's cool. I love that story. And I love the idea, this is romantic, but I love the idea of like, nobody has power after four p.m. We're all just hanging out. Yeah, that's pretty cool. That's cool, that's cool, that's special.
Ian Andersen (37:21.008)
Yeah.
Ian Andersen (37:24.476)
Definitely.
Ian Andersen (37:34.535)
Yeah, yeah, it was very odd, but it was a lot of fun.
Brandon Giella (37:44.266)
Anything else you guys would like to share about your favorite travel memories?
Ian Andersen (37:52.174)
No, no, think we tell enough anecdotes on here, we probably, I'm sure we'll catch it on the next episode.
Rachel Satow (37:55.657)
What were our takeaways? Our takeaways were travel with an open mind, don't try to have every minute of every second of your itinerary planned, and bring entertainment.
Brandon Giella (37:55.944)
Yeah, probably should wrap it up. This is supposed to be a short episode. Yeah.
Brandon Giella (38:05.662)
Hmm
Mm-hmm.
Brandon Giella (38:14.652)
Yeah, because you never know what's going to happen. Bring a book.
Ian Andersen (38:17.455)
you'll never know when you'll be without electricity.
Rachel Satow (38:17.481)
because you never know.
That's true.
Brandon Giella (38:22.162)
Yes, yes, bring a physical book with you. You will thank yourself later. But I think if I could distill it even further, it's travel is about people. I think every one of our stories, barring the view of the Swiss Alps, is it's about people, either people that told you to go someplace, the people you met along the way, or
Rachel Satow (38:27.792)
Exactly.
Brandon Giella (38:48.136)
being stuck in some place and having these memories that you could go back to and have these friendships with these people, mostly via Facebook, but that you can keep up these kind of relationships. Like that's the thing that makes travel memorable.
Rachel Satow (39:00.937)
Absolutely.
Ian Andersen (39:01.403)
Agreed.
Brandon Giella (39:03.848)
Well, thanks for your time. This was enjoyable. And I hope people listening will share their own stories with us. So please get in touch with the Switchify team and tell us your own travel stories. I would love to hear more stories. This is great. Thank you both. We will see you next time.
Rachel Satow (39:07.561)
Thank you.
Ian Andersen (39:07.687)
Thank you.
Rachel Satow (39:20.413)
Thanks, Brandon.
Ian Andersen (39:20.455)
Thanks, Brandon.
