On the road again ...

... I can’t wait to get … You may recognize, it’s a song from “Shrek” and whenever I go on a journey, this melody is my ear-worm i.e. it is constantly playing inside my head.
The most pleasant season for traveling is in summer, at least for me. While deciding on the holiday destination, people usually differentiate between a touristy place (crowded and noisy) and one off the beaten track (secluded and not well known). Some people prefer visiting museums, theatres, cathedrals (churches, temples, mosques, synagogues etc) to spending all the vocation lying on a beach. I sort of belong to the first group.
As soon as you know the place you’d like to visit and have calculated possible expenditures required for this, you start thinking how to get there. There are three basic ways people can travel i.e. by air, by land and by sea. Let’s dwell upon each of them separately.
Air travel: you book a ticket in advance (business, first or economy class); arrive at the airport, go to a check-in; have your luggage weighed (BTW – luggage BrE, baggage - AmE); an airline representative gives you a boarding pass; you go through passport control and after that you normally have some time left which could be spent either in a departure lounge or duty-free shops. Next step to do is to board your plane having passed though the corresponding gate and after all these procedures flight-attendants ask you to fasten your seat-belt and the plane takes off. I do advise you to consult somebody before your first flight or be very attentive and make sure that you have passed all the required procedures not to get into trouble, believe me. If not, just try to follow the stream of other passengers.
If you’re lucky, and no turbulence encounters your plane during the flight, you will land in your point of destination, although you may be suffering from jet lag after flying a very long distance, especially because of the difference in time between the place you left and the place you arrived at.
On the whole, air travel is the fastest and correspondingly the most expensive way. It is comfortable but you never know if a flock of birds is not around and you have to land into the river, if there is one.
I remember watching the movie “French Kiss” where the main female character was scared to death to fly. And when she had to fly for the first time she was asked how she could have spent whole life without flying. And she replied: “I get around as nature intended...
in a car.” So, a car is one of the most popular means of transportation and show-off nowadays. You can come across various vehicles on a road such as sports cars, buses, coaches, vans, lorries etc. Of a special popularity and great danger, at least in our L’viv, are mini-buses or marshrutkas. Not only their inconvenient construction, but also their notorious drivers contribute to a general impression this means of transport makes.
Another popular way to travel by land is using rail. A passenger train with sleeping cars is specially designed for this purpose. You can lie down and relax in your compartment on condition that no one is snoring nearby.
And finally - traveling by sea. This may be an exciting experience if you are not seasick. You can use a yacht, boat, liner or ferry to check it. One thing that I like about the sea is a lighthouse – a symbol of hope and rescue for sailors. Be careful with the articles used with “sea”. Remember, when you say “to go to sea” = it means to become a sailor, “to be at sea” = to be on a voyage (as passengers or crew). But “to go to or be at the sea” = to go to or be at the seaside.
Coming back to the title of this podcast, it should be mentioned that there are many idiomatic expressions with the word “road”. I bet you know a couple of them and will recognize them in the P.S.
P.S. I don’t know whether all roads lead to Rome, but I do know that we are to go down our own road. However, before we hit the road, we may have one for the road.


VOCABULARY COMPREHENSION

I. Essential vocabulary:

1. ear worm - song that is stuck in your head
2. off the beaten track/path - a place that is off the beaten track is not well known and is far away from the places that people usually visit
3. check-in - a place where you report your arrival at an airport, hotel, hospital etc
4. boarding pass - an official card that you have to show before you get onto a plane
5. departure lounge - the place at an airport where people wait until their plane is ready to leave
6. gate - the place where you leave an airport building to get on a plane
7. turbulence - irregular and violent movements of air or water that are caused by the wind
8. jet lag - the tired and confused feeling that you can get after flying a very long distance, especially because of the difference in time between the place you left and the place you arrived at
9. notorious - famous or well-known for something bad
10. to snore - to breathe in a noisy way through your mouth and nose while you are asleep

II. “Road” expressions:

1. on the road -
a) travelling in a car, especially for long distances: I've been on the road since 5:00 a.m. this morning.
b) if a group of actors or musicians are on the road, they are travelling from place to place giving performances: They're on the road for six months out of every year.
c) if your car is on the road, you have paid for the repairs, tax etc necessary for you to drive it legally: It would cost too much to put it back on the road.
2. go down a/this road - to choose a particular course of action
3. one for the road - spoken a last alcoholic drink before you leave a party, pub etc
4. along/down the road - in the future, especially at a later stage in a process
5. middle-of-the-road -
a) middle-of-the-road ideas or opinions are not extreme, and so most people are likely to agree with them
b) informal ordinary and not new, different, or exciting: Their first album was quite good, but the second was very middle-of-the-road stuff.