Americans need to get the hell out of this country. I’m totally serious about this. If I have to hear about one more vacation, honeymoon, spring break that included travel to an english speaking country at an all inclusive resort, or worse, on a cruise ship, I’m going to puke.
The Land of the Free, Home of the Brave needs to be re-named Land of the Sissy Pants, Home of Culturally Illiterate Moron.
I’m sick of seeing Americans travel in safe little bubbles, free from hassle, free from thought, free from intermingling. This kind of experience makes Americans the equivalent of a travelling zoo to the rest of the world. Take a hint: get off the tour bus!
Have an embarassing conversation with a poorly written phrase book already! Eat food you’d never eat under normal circumstances let alone be able to pronounce the name of. Get hassled and insulted by locals. Then allow yourself to be shown great kindness and pride by other locals.
Go somewhere scary. You know, like some place where you’ll have to think about what your seeing and doing rather than being spoon fed the local culture by a bored tour guide.
Shop in an actual market and get the hell out of the duty free line.
For Dog’s sake, go and see the world outside of the ordinary.
Carpe-freakin’-Diem, already people!
5 comments
Comments feed for this article
October 13, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Melissa
I plan on going to Russia. With no plans. A poor working knowledge of the language. And a camera.
October 14, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Ralph
Good call on the vacation recommendations. I had the opportunity to travel overseas on business a couple times last year and always gave myself a couple extra days to check out the culture (of course, it’s a lot cheaper to fly back on Sundays as well.) One of my best memories is wandering around Prague in an absinthe-induced haze, lost at 4 a.m. with some German kid I had met at the conference I was attending. We stumbled into some makeshift bar that looked like an industrial garage where the DJ was playing American rock music and the Stella was like a buck and a quarter a glass…
Cheers.
X
October 14, 2007 at 8:51 pm
inmate1972
One of the best travel experiences I ever had was busting a kid in Oman who was trying to pick my pocket and then being invited home to dinner with his family.
October 15, 2007 at 4:58 am
Melissa
Out of curiousity, Ralph, what is the absinthe like in the CR? I was really wanting to try some when I was in Poland a couple weeks ago but couldn’t find any in the small town I was staying in.
October 15, 2007 at 6:37 pm
inmate1972
Ralph, if yuo get back to this, I’m interested in the absinthe question as well. Is this the real stuff? Or is the reformulated version?