Rick Steves takes international travel one step further on Bainbridge

Renowned travel writer ruminates on traveling thoughtfully in his latest book and at the Bainbridge High School Commons, Oct. 22.

In his latest book, “Travel as a Political Act,” renowned travel writer and international tour guide Rick Steves remembers fondly the confusion he felt when he first met someone who wouldn’t trade passports with him.

“I assumed anyone with half a brain would aspire to the American Dream,” Steves writes. “But the vast majority of non-Americans don’t. They have the Bulgarian Dream, or the Sri Lankan Dream, or the Moroccan Dream. Thanks to travel, this no longer surprises me. In fact, I celebrate it.”

Steves will make a visit to Bainbridge from his nearby home in Edmonds to discuss that realization, his newest book and the various facets of why we travel at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at Bainbridge High School Commons.

“In the book, I provide insight on how the other 96 percent of humanity lives and how travel experience can inspire any of us to become better citizens of our planet,” Steves said.

The author draws on more than a quarter century of world traveling in making the case that there’s more to travel than good-value hotels, high brow art and tasty cuisine. Americans who travel as a political act, he said, can have the time of their life and come home with a better understanding of the interconnectedness of today’s world, and just how our nation fits in.

Steves wrote his first book “Europe Through The Back Door” in 1980 and has written 35 different European travel guidebooks since, while also producing numerous documentaries for pubic television, speaking on public radio and in person over the years.

“Travel as a Political Act” takes the author’s immense international knowledge one step further.

In the new book, Steves takes on prevalent global issues such as globalization, drug policy, socialism, secularism, sexual relationships and life after war through ruminations on his travels to Europe, Sri Lanka, Denmark, Yugoslavia and beyond.

Perhaps most interestingly, the author steps also steps into the troubled world of the Middle East for a dispatch from Iran, aiming to humanize a country that, he says, “so exasperates our own.”

Travel connects people.

“A great way to better understand our world,” the author explains, “is to experience it.”

LISTEN TO STEVES talk about “Travel as a Political Act” at a free community event at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Bainbridge High School Commons, 9330 NE High School Road on Bainbridge. Info: www.ricksteves.com.

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