Home and away

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/06/2019 (2326 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Parents, travellers and local authors Daria Salamon and Rob Krause picked an apt title for their gap-year book. Don’t Try This at Home: One Family’s (Mis)adventures Around the World is a funny, frantic and heartfelt glimpse into the road less travelled.

Salamon is the author of the novel The Prairie Bridesmaid and has written for the Washington Post, the Globe and Mail and Today’s Parent. Her husband Krause is a former zoologist, lawyer and record-label owner who has been published in the Globe and Mail, Winnipeg Free Press and the Canadian Journal of Zoology.

Don’t Try This at Home chronicles the Winnipeg couple’s yearlong adventure to 15 different countries, which began in 2015. Krause and Salamon sold their car, rented out their home and took their children on a 12-month journey around the world. Their son Oskar was eight at the beginning of their journey, and daughter Isla Blue was five.

In this dual retelling of their year away — the book features Krause’s account starting from one side, and Salamon’s from the other side when the physical book is flipped over — both writers admit that planning is not their strong suit.

“It caused me no shortage of anxiety whenever I would meet other travellers who had their entire trip, or large parts thereof, planned and purchased far in advance,” Krause says.

This travel shame extended to encountering what Salamon calls the competitive traveller: “They mainly exist to make you feel bad about your disorganized, travelling s— show, to check clichéd things off their travel bucket list and to expand their roster of Instagram followers with innovative hashtags like #Blessed, #DreamLife, #NoFilter.

“Meanwhile, we use tags like #SendHelp and #HaveYouSeenOurDaughter?”

Their down-to-earth writing style — individually and collectively — makes the couple inherently likable, as they provide a goofy warts-and-all account of their trip.

Many of Krause’s recollections could be delivered on a standup stage. “We had a crude plan for our travel and budget, and we were actually trying to stick to it. When we did have a big expense, we tried to offset it in the following days by minimizing our activities or not letting one of the children eat for a day or so. They’re resilient that way.”

The family’s trek included a dizzying array of locales — from New Zealand to the Amazon. But one of Krause’s most noteworthy descriptions is of La Paz, Bolivia: “The entire city looks as if it could come tumbling down at any moment, one listing house knocking over the next in a domino effect triggered by something as innocent as a child kicking a soccer ball against a wall.”

Salamon’s account of their journey is more about the emotional effects. “You lose your first-world, organic safety, or just general staying-alive standards and allow yourself to be immersed in the experiences themselves,” she says.

As for how the couple afforded the year away, more information about how they did it would have been ideal. Salamon references taking time off from teaching, but there is little information about Krause’s career. Sharing details about what percentage of travel funds were earned doing freelance from the road, how much debt they accrued over and above their budget and how the children reintegrated into school would have been helpful to understand the real-world consequences of their incredible journey.

Nonetheless, Don’t Try This at Home is an entertaining romp. Salamon and Krause share realities, triumphs, heartbreak and lessons with an openness that would invite even the staunchest homebody to join their adventure. And for those who like to travel, there are some experiences that resonate — apart from the lugging-your-family-along-with-you bit. That would be crazy.

Deborah Bowers is a marketing and communications professional who loves to travel, but is a more high-maintenance traveller than Daria and Rob.