Boldly Go Solo

  I had breakfast the other day with people from Lebanon, Israel, Belgium, Georgia (the American one, not the former Soviet state) and California. These guests at the Embassy Circle Guest House, a bed and breakfast on R Street, NW, in Washington, D.C., were engaged in a lively discussion about public education when I showed up.

The owners, Raymond and Laura Saba, were nice enough to welcome me to breakfast after I explained over the phone a week earlier that I write a solo travel blog. (Even though I wouldn't be paying to stay the night.)

So I rolled out of my own bed and showed up to join their paying clientele.

Even had a flaky croissant from an organic market. And some fruit salad that included raspberries and pomegranate seeds, along with melon, bananas, pineapple and other fresh fruits. Because I was busy "working," I didn't have time to really scout the food selection. So I missed the smoked salmon, the cheese, the hard-boiled eggs, the cereal, the scones and the other goodies in the continental breakfast.

But I was bowled over (no cereal pun intended) by the intellectual discussion. What do you expect when you show up at a dining room table in an international city? Where guests show up for things like neuroscience conferences, law enforcement conferences and the Washington Opera.

The conversation went from the quality of education in various countries, to one guest's admission that she'd like to start her own bakery business, to growing up in an orphanage and being schooled by French priests to someone's passion for photographing old U.S. theaters with Middle Eastern motifs.

In the short video that follows, the people around the table introduce themselves. Just trying to give you a sense of what I experienced. Keep reading after the video:

This was a way different atmosphere from my B & B stay in Fayetteville, Arkansas, several months ago. (Read down a ways in that post to get to the B & B part.) That breakfast table conversation was about small-town topics. Just as interesting, in a different way.

If you're at all willing to be social in the morning (breakfast comes with perk-me-up coffee), bed and breakfasts cut through solo travel isolation in a New York minute. I was sad that I wasn't able to return to the Embassy Circle and keep conversing with that fascinating and friendly group of people.

Owner Laura Saba says it's pretty typical. And she seems to do a great job of facilitating conversation. Even if she starts out with a simple, "What are you going to do today?" to guests, interesting things bubble up. And the B & B is a stone's throw from Dupont Circle, a great dining and shopping spot, and home to a red line Metro station.

And B & B owner Raymond! What a warm and inviting person (as is Laura). He loves to cook and guests are invited to join him and Laura for dinner if they'd like. No charge.

But, "Raymond the Enforcer" has a few rules. One is that you can't sit next to the person you came with. The other is that you must try to bring wine or beer from the country or region where you are from.

I'm wondering how I can get myself invited to one of these dinners, even though I'm not a paying guest. Conversations with wine or beer have to be even more fun than breakfast conversations.

Now, you may be the type who is not be interested in these "kitchen-table talks." Many B & B's set up small tables around their dining rooms. That way people can keep to themselves.

I've experienced both and there are positives to each. Such as sitting alone with the morning paper.

But when I'm on vacation alone, I prefer having the opportunity to sit down and talk with people. Or listening to others' conversation. Maybe that's why I love travel to begin with.

Next, if anyone is interested, I'm happy to "review" breakfast conversation at the Woodley Park Guest House, owned by Laura's sister. At another convenient D.C. location.

Video, Ellen Perlman: Embassy Circle Guest House

Photos, Ellen Perlman: Front of guest house. Dining room. Bedroom.