Why travel?

I like making new friends and traveling allows me to do so. It is the best chance to share the experience with someone new and learn about other people, exchange points of views and opinions. Im planning a trip to Greece and Im looking for airport transfer recommendations, like Thessaloniki Taxi Transfer. Any suggestions?

I like the idea of traveling, but I don’t deal with change very well. For instance, I really loved Barcelona, but I came down with walking pneumonia due to the stress of traveling, new place, finding my way around those twisty streets without getting turned into a road pizza by an entire country of people who view traffic laws as vague suggestions, and so on.

I think I’d really like taking a cruise on a cargo ship. They leave you alone to pretty much do whatever the hell you want, so long as you don’t get in their way.

But seriously, what is up with European traffic patterns? It’s a wonder any of y’all live to adulthood. :smiley:

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Hmm.… can’t say I experienced any pedestrian angst abroad that could compete with the occasional abject terror I deal with here in the City of Angels.

OTOH, I have yet to visit Barcelona. :smiley:

Have you ever been to NYC?At least in LA I feel that many folks respect crosswalks, providing the illusion of a barrier while crossing the street. The drivers in NYC make me remember that it’s just paint on the road, and I’m in their way. (I grew up in NYC before moving to CA.)

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NYC? Only one day. Boston, now… I had 4 years of school in Cambridge. Talk about a metro area where traffic laws are considered mild suggestions… :open_mouth:

The problem here is not that drivers disobey laws so much as they just don’t notice pedestrians. I’ve been struck once and had many near misses… in crosswalks.

Wow, SD, that’s horrible. I am very sorry to hear it, and hope that you had a full recovery from any injuries.

Jim

No injuries, thank heaven. But I’m getting a flashing light before I walk after dark again.

Indian traffic patterns make European one’s look staid. Driving in India will teach you about near death experiences on a daily basis. You have to be on the look out for dogs, hogs, camels, asses, chickens, goats, cows, water buffaloes and elephants. What to speak of children and people pushing hand carts and an assortment of other traffic. And they have speed bumps on the highways. Hitting one of those at high speed at night and you will find out what re-incarnation is about. Very messy.

And did I mention that the law is that you must continuously honk your horn as a safety feature? What the rational for that practice is I have no idea.

They have no enforceable traffic laws.

Walking on the foot path is a real challenge. You have to keep your eyes peeled about where you step because, aside from dog skat, in most cities (can’t think of any) they do not use poured cement. Rather they cut slabs of stone and lay them over a multi purpose trench (sewage pipes, electrical cables etc). The problem is that the stones are roughly hewn and easy to trip on. And there are gaps, sometime large, between the slabs, large enough for your foot to fall through and seriously hurt yourself. And sometime a whole slab may be missing leaving a large hole here a foot path should be. And if there is any flooding during monsoon walking or driving the streets could be a real hazard because you could easily fall through a hole in street and get stuck or hurt.

Pedestrians are at risk of serious injury from traffic.

But one thing is for sure. If a pedestrian is killed or injured by a vehicle the driver usually “absconds” as the papers will tell you. Why? Because they would often be killed or badly beaten on the spot by the angry crowd, especially true in rural areas. Even if you hit a goat you do not stop unless you want to face serious instant karma.

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Hi xiamenese,

Wow!! (recognizing this is a bit of a delayed response …)

And I thought I had traveled the world. My hat I off to Mr. X!

Now I get to sit, think, code and write about how the world will adapt long after I am gone.

scrive
:thinking:

I had never read all of these replies! Loved reading them now, though :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I hope you’re all safe and well, ja! :four_leaf_clover:

When I first went to India in the late 70s, it was not unusual to meet people who had driven to India from UK, Germany or some other EU country. Today only a well equipped army would try it.

In 2006 I did meet a Serb in India who told me that he had hitch hiked from Serbia to India in the early 1990s in order to avoid being drafted into the Serbian Army. At first he was able to avoid the draft by pretending to be insane. But when they drafted him the 2nd time he was told that insanity was not an option as those kind were put on “mine clearing detail.” Mine detectors were in short supply so they just had them walk through the mine field to “detect” a mine. Life expectancy was nil. So he decided to leave the country and hitch hike to India. It was very dangerous and he would never have done it except that staying in Serbia was even more dangerous.

I love to see, and get to know the natural world and so I am very drawn to go on “adventures” but these are not usually very interesting to others (just my wife, who is similar to me in that respect).

We love to roadtrip, we have roadtripped all of North America (all Mexico, all USA and now all Canada too) and we just go and visit different natural areas such as national/state/provincial parks. We visit small towns, we love to hike everywhere we go and we love to take pictures of everything, plants animals old pieces of architecture… I guess my enjoyment of it is being able to see as much as possible of the world in the time I have.

I think we humans have been blessed with one thing: the ability to perceive we live in our own world, and it is our own playground, and we know it will end some time. So, I am taking approach of my time here to see as much as I can see, to know as much as I can know about it, to use the the ability I got (by no merit of my own) to perceive every information data available from our natural world and enjoy it.

I know how freezing cold and low oxygen conditions feel on top of a mountain and I know how the humid and heat feel in the rainforest. I have swam in lakes, rives and oceans in different regions and I can more see the patterns that repeat and those which are very specific from place to place… life is not easy doing these adventures, one needs to work hard and leave a lot of material possessions behind, but I enjoy my life exactly how I want it, and I enjoy it with the love of my life, so I don’t need anything else.

The definition of adventure is different for each person, so maybe, you need to find YOUR DEFINITION and that is the one that will attract you to it.

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Wow. This is the answer with which I have resonated the most so far. Thank you for such loveliness. Yes! The definition of adventure is different for everyone, I had never quite thought of it in those terms, I guess? Thought thinking about it now, it’s like “duh”, but yes, gosh, yes :smile: I don’t think I would personally enjoy leading a super nomadic lifestyle, since I need quite a bit of time and quiet (regarding both sound and movement) to recharge my batteries (big introvert here), but recently I discovered that one of those “if you had infinite money and time…” fantasies of mine is to travel while studying/working. Taking courses on all the things that call to me (cooking, baking, writing, reading, singing, being in nature, ethology, E T C E T E R A), getting to know people with the same interests and socializing in the context of classes and out of it as well, getting to settle down and live in a place as a local for a few months, aaaaaaaaaah, THE DREAM. Well, my dream, obviously.

Your life sounds amazing though, and I am so happy you and your wife found each other. I wish you the absolute best :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Cheers, and thanks again!
Rosario

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I am not a bug fan of traveling

A valid point, my fellow human.

I believe different people explore places or travel distances for different reasons. It is not easy to define the exact reasons. I am also an explorer.
Rather than a travel addict, I wish to be called an explorer. I am a programmer who has been working at an MNC in the ai services and machine learning sector. Given the nature of the job, I have to sit 8 to 10 hours in front of the computer. I am not complaining, I love my job. But the long sitting desk job will give you some headaches from time to time. The best medicine for that is to go out and explore. The amount of time I spend outside helps me relieve all the burdens. Above all exploring new places and meeting, new people freshens me up. For me the whole idea behind travel is to redefining oneself.

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I dislike traveling. My whole body refuses to adapt to new places, new hours, new foods.

At the same time, I like very much to live for some time in a different place. After landing or descending from the train or car, I need my time to settle in, measure my new room, know my bathroom.

After that, I’m part of the new world. I have days or weeks, or even months to live there. I can’t be second-class citizen. I read about all the concerts, the conferences, the events, the meetings in the area, and check if I have time for some volunteering.

I must discover my preferred bar, a library I like, a corner along the river or a public park where I like to walk during my free time.

Traveling would make me leave too many people back, before I can fall in love with them. And why going all that way far from home, if one can’t find a new love?

Paolo

They didn’t have organized trips at Club Meds, at that time.

Paolo

Yep, these past years I’ve been having some moderate to high level headaches and it didn’t take long to realize it’s because much time sitting down, I have a desk job and have had for many years now so it wasn’t a big surprise for me, specially because in my family is something of a common situation. Of course much of this was addressed with a proper chair, proper sitting position and doing stretch exercises every day but the majority (at least for me) is solved when going out and exploring nature because of the “burden relief” effect you mentioned.

As I stated before, me and the wife love to roadtrip so we have our “big” share of going out to nature. This summer for example it was the first time we were in the maritimes and we decided to go on a summer campaign and this time we took our niece and it was a total different experience, for the good of course. Kids always offer you a different perspective than us adults might have it bury deep down many many worries/responsibilities. One little constraint was that she was taking some math tutoring classes but fortunately it was all done online with this math 7 tutor online app, so nothing it couldn’t be included in our roadtrip without a major problem. The “burden relief” effect by being out in nature was enhanced this time since we were sharing it with our niece. She would look (like all kids) through a mesmerizing lens of wonder, everything is new, everything is incredible.

I get it, sometimes I feel like that, l said I like to travel but I am not travelling 100% of the time. The main reason is because I cannot afford it, but even if I could I really don’t see myself being on the road 365 days a year. I get it, I do like having my routine, having my favorite places and seeing everything is there where I know it is, and it comforts me. Now that I think about, back in the day I used to feel much more of what you described, it was with time that I have evolved to how I feel now about traveling. One thing that might have made the difference for me is that since many many years ago I’ve been with my wife so basically wherever I go I’m with someone I love and loves me back… hmm bever thought it that way before :thinking: