My mom will tell you that I’m a bag lady. I have a weakness for bags of all sizes, colors, shapes, and functions, and I hoard them shamelessly. In a single day, I might use three or four different bags.
When I studied in London last summer, the occasion indisputably called for a new bag. I needed one that I could put a substantial amount of “stuff” in, everything from my wallet to my camera, guidebooks, and a snack or two. But more importantly, I needed it to be “pickpocket-proof.” In addition, I wanted something stylish and
non-touristy because I knew it would appear in all my pictures and I wanted to look like a hip local.
My mom rose to the occasion and found me the perfect bag—a mid-sized paisley Vera Bradley bag with a shoulder strap for easy transport and a zipper flap that kept my belongings doubly protected.
Last Christmas, I was in need of another bag. This one also had a special niche to fill. I needed something professional that I could take to work and on interviews, but I still wanted it to have some personality. Yet again, my mom hit the nail on the head and found me my “professional, yet funky” bag. It had all the essentials of the type of bag I was looking for: durable, big enough to hold a laptop, and professional in design. But on top of that, it had a little extra that endeared me to it: a funky pattern that said, “This is the bag of a professional—but a young professional.”
I like to think of this magazine like my bags. First and foremost, this issue of Stowaway contains all the essentials that make it Stowaway. While we are always striving to make each issue better than the one before it, we still want to hold onto the essence of Stowaway. We have written, edited, rewritten, designed, and reworked every article in this issue to ensure that the essentials are better than ever before, bringing you fun, informative, and inspiring travel tips and tales—exactly what you would expect from a travel magazine.
In addition to these essentials, we’ve worked very hard to give this issue that “little extra” in order to provide you with some of the unexpected. Among other things, we take a trip across the globe on the back of a horse in “Equitrekking: See the World from the Saddle” (page 42). We ask you to jump in and let us push you down a hill in a giant plastic ball in “What the ZORB are you talking about?” (page 56). And we invite you to join the trend of gourmet-on-the-go with “Food Trucks: A Taste for Travel” (page 48).
I hope that when you read this issue, you feel it speaking to you like my bag speaks to me, saying, “This is the magazine for a professional—but a young, fun, and funky professional.”
Lindsay Brown
Managing Editor