As a traveler, I’ve often found that the more a culture differs from my own, the more I am struck by its essential humanity.
Travel challenges truths that we were raised thinking were self-evident and God-given. Leaving home, we learn other people find different truths to be self-evident. We realize that it just makes sense to give everyone a little wiggle room.
Fear is for people who don’t get out very much.
I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective...
I believe, very strongly, that it is the responsible, adult, recreational, no apologies necessary, ‘it just makes my music more fun,’ recreational use of marijuana is a civil liberty.
I would like travelers, especially American travelers, to travel in a way that broadens their perspective, because I think Americans tend to be some of the most ethnocentric people on the planet. It’s not just Americans, it’s the big countries. It’s the biggest countries that tend to be ethnocentric or ugly. There are ugly Russians, ugly Germans, ugly Japanese and ugly Americans. You don’t find ugly Belgians or ugly Bulgarians, they’re just too small to think the world is their norm.
Globetrotting destroys ethnocentricity, helping us understand and appreciate other cultures. Rather than fear the diversity on this planet, celebrate it. Among your most prized souvenirs will be the strands of different cultures you choose to knit into your own character. The world is a cultural yarn shop, and Back Door travelers are weaving the ultimate tapestry.
Regardless of your journey, you can put a little pilgrim in your travels and find your own personal jubilation.
To me, understanding people and their lives is what travel is about, no matter where you go.
France is Europe’s most diverse, tasty, and exciting country to explore. It’s a cultural bouillabaisse that surprises travelers with its varied, complex flavors.
Travelers recognize that the results of an election here in the US can have a greater impact on poor people half a world away than it does on middle-class American voters. My travels have taught me that, even if motived only by greed, you don’t want to be really rich in a desperately poor world. With this in mind, I think of it not as noble or heroic, but simply pragmatic to bring a compassion for the needy along with me into the voting booth.
In Denmark, “social trust” – a general feeling that you trust your fellow citizens and the pillar institutions of government, law courts, police, hospitals, and so on – is generally found to be the highest in the world. A perfect example of Danish “social trust” is the image of babies sleeping in carriages outside a restaurant while the parents eat inside. You might say, “But no one is watching!” A Dane will say, “Everyone is watching.
I asked my new friend, “Were you born here?” He thought about it, paused, and then said, “No, ’twas ’bout five miles down the road.” Later, I asked him, “Have you lived here all your life?” He winked and said, “Not yet.
The City: Today’s modern financial district, called simply “The City,” was a walled town in Roman.
While the traffic is enough to make you scream, people are incredibly good-humored on the road. I never heard angry horns honking. One time, while stalled in a Tehran jam, people in a neighboring car saw me sitting patiently in the back of our van. They rolled down their window and handed Majid a bouquet of flowers, saying, “Give this to your visitor and apologize for our traffic.
Firenze Card when you arrive in Florence.
Vienna’s population has dropped to 1.8 million, with dogs being the preferred “child” and the average Austrian woman having only 1.4 children.
Noticing the twinkling lights strung up in honor of the holy month of Ramadan, I thought “Charming- they’ve draped Christmas lights between their minarets.” But a Turk might come into my house and say, “Charming- he’s draped Ramadan lights on his Christmas tree.
In this global age, the world’s problems are our problems.
Almost everything of importance to tourists is within a few blocks of the Acropolis, in the Plaka, Monastiraki, Syntagma, and Psyrri neighborhoods.
Acropolis Loop” pedestrian walkway bordering the base of the Acropolis.