"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these”. Mark Twain
I believe that it is therapeutic for us all to experience the stress of a travel in a country where you don’t speak the language….just a slice of the immigrant experience.
There are three phases to a trip.
1. Planning the experience
2. The experience
3. The memories good and bad from the trip.
Some of our most hilarious family gatherings have centered around remembering the things that went sideways on family vacations. Emptying the septic tank of our RV rental comes to mind.😂
Best advice: go with low expectations and you will ever be disappointed.
I've largely not found that with the travel/tourism thing, and I hate to position myself as an outlier from the norm.
I traveled to Finland 20 years ago (to do a thing I live - go to a music festival) and noticed an incredulity among Finns when I didn't have earplugs. I've worn them ever since.
I went to Paris and stumbled into a night of art across the city and it opened my eyes to what art could be. Not the Mona Lisa/Louvre, admittedly, but I've sought out that kind of art since.
And I always look forward to seeing how other cities are constructed in a way we cannot do remotely, so that I can return and appreciate my home in a new, different way.
Thanks! Yes, it's a contrarian piece, but I think it makes a good point that for many travel is a way to "see things" and "experience" them, but not be fundamentally changed by the experience. In that sense, it's not much different than going to a new restaurant, another way of consuming experiences. Obviously, not everyone experiences travel that way! But perhaps we have a pro-travel bias across the world because we assume it makes us more humanistic, exposed to different minds and points of view. Maybe that's right, but like... maybe not?
I think about a recent trip to Italy with family. It was obviously lovely. I derived great pleasure in seeing Bernini's sculptures and walking around Siena, and ambling through the stunning interior of St. Peter's. But nothing really rubbed off on me. I don't know if I changed my understanding of Europe or wine or even Renaissance history! But on the contrary, living for a few months in a cramped dormitory in Dijon, France shaped me in ways that I think about often. Perhaps the difference is one's intentions with travel?
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these”. Mark Twain
I believe that it is therapeutic for us all to experience the stress of a travel in a country where you don’t speak the language….just a slice of the immigrant experience.
There are three phases to a trip.
1. Planning the experience
2. The experience
3. The memories good and bad from the trip.
Some of our most hilarious family gatherings have centered around remembering the things that went sideways on family vacations. Emptying the septic tank of our RV rental comes to mind.😂
Best advice: go with low expectations and you will ever be disappointed.
…never be disappointed.
I've largely not found that with the travel/tourism thing, and I hate to position myself as an outlier from the norm.
I traveled to Finland 20 years ago (to do a thing I live - go to a music festival) and noticed an incredulity among Finns when I didn't have earplugs. I've worn them ever since.
I went to Paris and stumbled into a night of art across the city and it opened my eyes to what art could be. Not the Mona Lisa/Louvre, admittedly, but I've sought out that kind of art since.
And I always look forward to seeing how other cities are constructed in a way we cannot do remotely, so that I can return and appreciate my home in a new, different way.
Anyway.
Thanks! Yes, it's a contrarian piece, but I think it makes a good point that for many travel is a way to "see things" and "experience" them, but not be fundamentally changed by the experience. In that sense, it's not much different than going to a new restaurant, another way of consuming experiences. Obviously, not everyone experiences travel that way! But perhaps we have a pro-travel bias across the world because we assume it makes us more humanistic, exposed to different minds and points of view. Maybe that's right, but like... maybe not?
I think about a recent trip to Italy with family. It was obviously lovely. I derived great pleasure in seeing Bernini's sculptures and walking around Siena, and ambling through the stunning interior of St. Peter's. But nothing really rubbed off on me. I don't know if I changed my understanding of Europe or wine or even Renaissance history! But on the contrary, living for a few months in a cramped dormitory in Dijon, France shaped me in ways that I think about often. Perhaps the difference is one's intentions with travel?