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Getting Lost: Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad
"When you travel, things go wrong." That might not sound like uplifting advice, but in this hilarious collection of stories about mishaps in faraway places, award-winning humorist Dave Fox proves otherwise. At age eight, Dave moves to England and nearly starts a riot in Northern Africa. As a nerdy teenager, he smuggles illegal radio equipment into Finland on his way to spending a year in Norway. In his college days, he discovers it is not wise to seek inner peace inside an Icelandic volcano, and he thwarts the Italian Mafia, only to find himself surrounded by machine gun-toting cops in Greece. A few years later, he does something exceptionally reckless. He becomes a professional tour guide. Whether he’s chasing down runaway sheep in Ireland, munching antibiotics in Turkey, interviewing drunken nomads above the Arctic Circle, or helping diffuse knife fights in the Vatican, Dave travels knowing that when things go wrong, they might not seem fun at the time, but the resulting stories are worth the chaos. Getting Mishaps of an Accidental Nomad spans 30 years of adventures and misadventures overseas, from Dave’s year as a British school boy, to his teenage days as a foreign exchange student, to his so-called "adult life" as a professional traveler. He weaves together tales both poignant and funny in this memoir of a travel-obsessed geek.
268 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 11, 2019
I really enjoyed this book and found myself giggling more than a few times at the author's misadventures. Neat to find out that Dave Fox graduated from my state's Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison. Badger Proud!
February 14, 2023
Light hearted, fun, and funny travel adventures. I enjoyed it thoroughly!
December 5, 2022
The best funny stories from the road
October 12, 2012
As a professional tour guide, Dave Fox’s travel philosophy (articulated on page 7) is “When you travel, things go wrong.” Not that he necessarily thinks that this is a bad thing...on the contrary, it is often exactly when things go wrong during a trip that we learn the most about the places we visit. And the entire point of traveling is to learn about other places and other people.
This book is a memoir of the author’s earliest travel experiences, which helped lead him on the path that ended with him embracing travel as a profession. Fox is almost as neurotic as Bill Bryson, and writes with a similar, ironic sense of humor. There are many places that caused me to laugh out loud, especially when he puts the Pink Floyd lyrics “How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?” into the context of an English grammar school from the viewpoint of a student more familiar with American schools.
The events described in this book do seem to support his thesis that things do go wrong when you travel, but they also show how that can, in the end, become a good thing to a traveler willing to embrace the experience. It certainly makes me want to read more about his travel experiences, and possibly even employ his services as a tour guide. One thing’s for sure, traveling with him isn’t likely to be boring!
This book is a memoir of the author’s earliest travel experiences, which helped lead him on the path that ended with him embracing travel as a profession. Fox is almost as neurotic as Bill Bryson, and writes with a similar, ironic sense of humor. There are many places that caused me to laugh out loud, especially when he puts the Pink Floyd lyrics “How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?” into the context of an English grammar school from the viewpoint of a student more familiar with American schools.
The events described in this book do seem to support his thesis that things do go wrong when you travel, but they also show how that can, in the end, become a good thing to a traveler willing to embrace the experience. It certainly makes me want to read more about his travel experiences, and possibly even employ his services as a tour guide. One thing’s for sure, traveling with him isn’t likely to be boring!
July 7, 2008
A great read for anyone who has ever gone abroad, or wishes to.
April 11, 2011
Bit of a laugh this book. I bought it along with the Journalling book by the same author. Nice and easy to read. Sounds like he had fun!
October 7, 2011
I like his way of telling his stories. Humorous and enticing at the same time. He always makes me want to travel more
October 17, 2012
This book had my laughing from start to finish. I've been reading stories to my friends. Dave Fox is a great humor writer.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews