This is the first volume in the True Tales of a Traveller series. The True Tales of a Traveller series of short stories and novellas consists of several dozen real-life travellers' tales covering three and a half decades. Although presented in a short story format for reading convenience, these stories are not fiction. Apart from some of the characters' names, which have been changed to protect their identities, everything in these stories is true.
The first of this series of stories, Goodbye Sinai, is set in 1982, at the time of Israel's return of the Sinai peninsula to Egypt, during my time working as a volunteer on a kibbutz in the nearby Negev desert. This is the story of a hitchhiking trip to the southern tip of the Sinai. As well as being a lesson to be mentally prepared for possible hardships when hitchhiking, and to keep an open mind and disregard stereotypes when dealing with the people you meet, it also provides a glimpse into life in the region as the Israelis were pulling out.
The second of this series of stories, Working Holiday, is set in a hotel just outside Athens, Greece, in 1982, where I worked with two friends from the Israeli kibbutz. A seemingly perfect working holiday turns into a very difficult situation as it becomes apparent that the hotel manager does not pay his employees. A showdown with the manager over pay results in him pulling a gun on us. The hotel was still in operation at the time of this book's publication.
The third of this series of stories, The Long Way Home, is set in not one but half-a-dozen European countries, in 1982 and 1983. At over 17,000 words, this story is a short novella. In addition to being a travel story, The Long Way Home is also a love story, and a story about the unexpected twists and turns that can occur in personal relationships.
The fourth story in the series, Alternative Medicine, is set mostly in Greece and Egypt in 1983. At around 13,000 words, this is a lengthy short story which may need more than one sitting. As well as being a travel story, Alternative Medicine is also a story about career hopes, delusions, expectations, and opportunities.
The fifth story, A Career in Travel, is at nearly 40,000 words a substantial novella-length account set mostly in Britain in 1984. The story is about a young traveller's attempt to integrate his love for travel into a regular, settled lifestyle in London. Although humorous in places, this is also a thought-provoking story that goes to the heart of what it means to be a traveller, the differences and similarities between a traveller and a tourist, the differences and similarities between a traveller and an immigrant, and a traveller's place in society. Travel in the British Isles and a number of nearby countries is related as the traveller tries hard to come to terms with self-imposed travel limitations and the challenges of settling down into a more sedentary, and hopefully matrimonial life. Like the other stories in the series, it provides not only an entertaining read, but also information on all the places visited, some relevant only to the era in which the story is set, but most still relevant at the time of this book's publication.
