How many countries have you visited?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by sdp

You don't forget memorable experiences. Trips are usually that.

It's often easier to remember things from when you're a kid than things from just a few months ago. I believe there's a term for that called photographic memory or wtv. Sometimes you can forget what you were just about to do now and yet, at the same time, remember a commercial that aired on TV 20 years ago.

[sdp]

commercials are a bad example, those things were repeated so many times that being nostalgic about them is some sort of Stockholm syndrome. I get what you're saying but it's memories are formed when something "important" to remember for your brain, when you are an adult and go day to day doing nothing, the days mesh together, if you do things differently, try new things, go out and explore you start to see the difference. Time also stops going by so fast when there are more changes in your life than when you're not.

I used to travel a lot as a kid because of my parents then stopped travelling during my early/mid 20s, but I then realized just how much travelling enriched my mind that I've been crazy about travelling since then. The world is huge and I want to visit as much as I can and that's at least to me more fulfilling than having all of the NECA TMNT figures YMMV, I mean they are damn cool but I can live with only having a smaller collection and have more money for trips.

[CyberCubed]

Traveling is expensive I don’t know how you have the money for it. There’s plane tickets, hotel rooms, car or transportation rentals, food which is very expensive on vacations, and whatever tourist stuff you might buy. Add all that together and each vacation costs around $1000 or so.

And considering most people only spend 1 week traveling usually, spending that much money blowing it in about 7 days is a lot.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Traveling is expensive I don’t know how you have the money for it. There’s plane tickets, hotel rooms, car or transportation rentals, food which is very expensive on vacations, and whatever tourist stuff you might buy. Add all that together and each vacation costs around $1000 or so.

And considering most people only spend 1 week traveling usually, spending that much money blowing it in about 7 days is a lot.

Traveling is a lot like buying action figures. If it's your hobby you find a way to spend the money and make it happen.

There is also another truth about traveling that the "proud travel-people" won't ever tell you. They will only tell you about their magnificent trip so as to bolster their own "worldliness" to others. But often traveling is a huge pain in the @$$, with stressful logistics, pressure from timelines and a feeling to run around cramming everything in, and even then usually only for the "photo evidence" that you "did it".

People who travel for real reasons without social clout actually probably take one picture of the experience or none.

[triplexxx]

What I believe the biggest challenges are about international travel is making sure you have enough local currency and know enough about the local language and customs beforehand.

Originally Posted by sdp

No, different US states do not count, get real.

Harry: We grab ourselves a couple of phony passports and we hightail it to some foreign country.
Marv: Arizona?

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

The other problem with visiting countries over the years, is as the years go on, you forget everything anyway. Like if you visited a country 10 years ago, how much are you really going to remember outside a few things here and there? It'd almost as if you were never there at all.

That's what photos and souveneirs are for.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Traveling is expensive I don’t know how you have the money for it. There’s plane tickets, hotel rooms, car or transportation rentals, food which is very expensive on vacations, and whatever tourist stuff you might buy. Add all that together and each vacation costs around $1000 or so.

And considering most people only spend 1 week traveling usually, spending that much money blowing it in about 7 days is a lot.

Nowadays it's probably more affordable than ever to travel within Europe with all the low cost airlines and airbnb apartments. Just book a flight on eaysjet or ryanair and stay at a cheap but decent enough place.

Originally Posted by IMJ

Traveling is a lot like buying action figures. If it's your hobby you find a way to spend the money and make it happen.

There is also another truth about traveling that the "proud travel-people" won't ever tell you. They will only tell you about their magnificent trip so as to bolster their own "worldliness" to others. But often traveling is a huge pain in the @$$, with stressful logistics, pressure from timelines and a feeling to run around cramming everything in, and even then usually only for the "photo evidence" that you "did it".

People who travel for real reasons without social clout actually probably take one picture of the experience or none.

Airports can be stressful yes.

Anyway, some people have a different idea of travelling than others. I personally don't see what's the point in, let's say, spending 2 weeks at some Caribbean resort and never leaving it. It's fine to like pools and the beach, but I always like to learn a bit more about the place I'm in and some of its culture.

A lot of British tourists travel to the Algarve in Portugal to spend most of their time either at a hotel or at British owned bars where they can watch the Premier League and read British newspapers and eat fish and chips. It's their right to do whatever they please with their money, but I don't understand that kind of mentality. Why not just stay in the UK instead of travelling all the way to Portugal if all you're gonna do is interact with other British people and consume British food and TV?

There's also people who just aren't into culture and think museums and other similar places are boring. For example Amsterdam has the van Gogh museum, but nearly everyone only seems to go there to smoke weed and check out the Red Light District. If I was Dutch I think I'd be a little annoyed by the fact most foreign tourists only go to Holland for drugs and possibly hookers as well.

Personally, I'm more of a city visiting person. But I do enjoy some nature as well. Norway is a country with rather small urban areas, so its nature is definitely the most impressive part of the country.

[frank_one]

I'm just like you, Prowler. It's all about city visiting, museums and learning new cultures for me. That's my ideal vacation. Resorts? No, thanks.
And you are right: thanks to company like Ryanair you can go everywhere in Europe without spending much!
Also, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam was one of the highlights of my trip there in 2005!

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Personally, I'm more of a city visiting person. But I do enjoy some nature as well. Norway is a country with rather small urban areas, so its nature is definitely the most impressive part of the country.

Absolutely agreed, 100% with the spirit of what you are getting at here!