Darren Barefoot is talking about only 20% of Americans own a passport and the funny knowledge of geography this creates. Teddy
asks how long you need to be in a country before you can say you have visited.
For me they are your travels, your rules.
If you only ever want to visit places in your own country or continent, fair play. Some people in the pit of a town where I live never leave that town. No kidding. Going 15 miles is a major culture shock for them. But if that is how they like it, no bother to me.
We were on the train going from Antibes to Nice listening to student year-out travellers. They considered quite seriously that because they had been to London the weekend before, had seen south of france and were on their way to Monaco that they had done europe. They were serious!
I live in Europe but I wouldn’t say I have “done europe”. I have been to Italy twice, both for a day while on vacation elsewhere in a neighbouring country. I can say I have “been” to Italy but I could never say I have “done Italy”. Been to Germany a couple of times, once on business and another on vacation. Same there. In fact if you only visit one city you can only say you have been to that city. I wouldn’t even say I have “done the UK”.
How representative of a country is a single city or region. Not very much I reckon. It always makes me laugh when people say “do a british accent” or “do an irish accent” like there is only one accent for the entire country. This is why people think I am scottish even when I am amongst british ex-pats. Oh, and the people who think UK=England=London really crack me up. They think you need to sound like the queen, Dick Van Dyke from Mary Poppins, possibly the Beatles or if they are really hip, Coronation Street/Liam and Noel from Oasis to be English.
Mind you once people find out I live in England there is sometimes one bright spark who says “I know someone in England, you might know her”.
Travel is a strange thing, it does make you think differently. What always surprises me is where ever you go people complain about the place you are visiting. Almost like they can’t believe you are there on vacation. “You came here, why?”. People in Calgary and Vancouver complain about traffic. Try Paris or London. Try a city with more than a couple of million residents. They complain about litter, what litter? Oh, that piece of gum over there. Try living in a country where there is zero civic pride like I do. I don’t think kids or adults here know where litter is meant to go. Heh, forget litter, they don’t know how to use a toilet!
Everywhere is becoming more the same. More Americanised. Everywhere now you can get a big mac (usually full of Americans) so travel isn’t the adventure it once was, you need to find more exotic places just to get the same affect. I am not into the too exotic personally, and am not into vacations where you are surrounded by poverty. Call me names, but that is how I am.
It’s a shame we don’t get stamps in our passports so much now. That was one way of measuring “where you have been” but I think the best way of looking at it is collecting memories and experiences rather than names on a map. That is where the lasting value lies.
re: Why are you hear?
You cannot imagine how many questions like this I got when I spent a week in Beograde two summers ago. Why would I choose a city like that?
Oddly enough, a week there, and I think I got a goood feeling for the city, and for Serbs in general. Of course, longer is better, but then again I did get adopted by a Serb family, and lived int heir flat for the week.