[quote]mazilla wrote:
vroom wrote:
mazilla wrote:
it’s because they have never left the U.S. i was also “unhappy” until i went to europe and saw first hand how much the rest of the world blows, comparatively speaking of course. every time i hear somebody talk about “how shitty” it is here, i just tell them to travel outside the borders.
I don’t think it is quite that simple. If you stay out of the third world locations, you will find good and bad in most countries.
The real problem for not so experienced travelers seems to be the “differences”.
What, you don’t have Tim Horton’s, or my brand of food and drink, and your store hours aren’t the same as mine. Wauuuugh. Seriously, people get all uptight because things are DIFFERENT and not easily recognized.
If you get out and about enough and start to see past the differences, or heaven forbid, even enjoy or relish the changes, then all of a sudden things start to look pretty good again.
you have a good point, and i’m not an “experienced” traveler so i dont know if it get better. i can tell you on my month in italy i never missed the good old US of A soo much. the people were rude, the streets were crammped, most of the food was awwwfullll.keep in mind i am a cordon bleu chef and always open to new taste’s but 95% of the food i had was real crapolla, and believe me i ate EVERYTHING i could get my hands on. you just get this wierd feeling when your out and about, you can tell everybody hates Americans. they all loved my tatoos, but thats about it. i’m not saying the entire world is all that crappy, i know there are some really great places out there. i could just do without the people.
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I’ve travelled a fair bit, and I agree with Vroom, that once you get used to the little differences, you can really appreciate other countries’ and cultures’ perspectives and customs. In fact, some of the little differences are what make them amazing!
I love Germany in particular. I met great people there, who took me and my travel companion in, housed us, took us to parties, hung out with us in the park with beer, hosted BBQs… In Germany you can drink beer in the park. I don’t even like beer, but I dug that! The food was great - I’m not a fan of schnitzel, but oh the chocolate, and the amazing whole grain breads you could buy. The shopping was awesome, and the parties. Oh those Germans know their music.
The canals in Amsterdam were incredible. Some other things in Amsterdam are also incredible.
France wasn’t my favourite, and I was sick in Florence, but it sure was a gorgeous city.
Some of my best travel times were actually in a third world country - Guatemala. Again, that was due in large part to wonderful company, one of my very best friends who is also fluent in several languages. Chicken buses weren’t convenient, but we had a blast at the Baule Beach hotel.
Of course I did develop a renewed appreciation for Canada when I saw people with no health care. And when I learned that our gracious host at the Baule Beach hotel, who made us feel at home and taught me to salsa, was murdered just months later. Of course the police investigation consisted of “he was shot in the head. Case closed”…
