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Hey kids, it's Mr. Worldly again, back for yet another round of what to do when you go wherever it is you decide you wanna go.
Today's subject? Traveling Overseas
Now, I've taken 'em all. Boat, train, car, plane, walk, greyhound, taxi, family vacation, you name it, I've done it. All except the South American Chicken Bus, and the oriental rickshaw. I leave those for the natives. Neither one looks like all that much fun anyway.
One thing I have to say about going overseas however...OK, a couple things maybe. First, if you're going to go somewhere, try and remain in your own general band of the earth, from north to south. What do I mean by that? Well, let's go there. Ever watch "The Monsters Inside Me" on Animal Planet? If you have any sense, don't. It's gross. All I'm saying is, stay within your band. Whether or not it's North or South of the equator, stay in your general climate, whatever climate it might be that you're used to. In other words, Germany? Cool. Brazil? Works for me. Most areas of Australia? Perfect. China? Acceptable. South Africa? Don't see why not.
Columbia? Peru? Chile? Turkey? Indonesia? Nigeria? I wouldn't advise it unless you've thoroughly investigated the matter. Don't stop at general vaccinations, really look into the "wildlife." Some of the insects in these places...Bot flies, mosquitoes, ticks, just to name a few...all those nasties carry even nastier parasite ridden diseases in places like that. I won't go into it. If your curiosity borders on morbid, I already plugged the show, check it out for yourself. Bring a big bag for throwing up, you might need it.
2nd, I'd like to say that tour groups, or trips with large family groups (including tons of kids) take all the fun out of vacationing, especially in other countries. That's what America is for. Vacationing where you live should always be a family affair. If groups are what you're all about, I strongly suggest cruises. That way, everybody has activities they can do to keep them busy.
Tour groups take all the fun out of going to another country. Your "itinerary" generally includes a massive amount of really boring crowded group activities where they insist you stay with them. Basically, anytime you see something interesting outside of where you're touring....tough. There's no going off on your own. Trust me. Go by yourself, or just with the wife. If it's a family vacation? Wait til the boys are old enough to go off on their own. And keep your daughters right under your arm. Don't let 'em get more than 2 feet away from you. Movies like "Taken" should be reason enough to believe me there. And if it's going to be a family vacation, and you're just stuck with it? Don't count on seeing or doing a lot of whatever it is YOU want to do. Do what you need to, but I'll say it again, if you want to get the most out of your vacation, then do it alone. Believe me when I say that, when you're in Germany and the older Germans start dragging you down to their table, wanting you to drink with them and buying you a beer (for no other reason than just that they're happy drunk people when they party), you'll be happier that the wife wasn't there to pull you right back out again.
Depending on the type of person you are, you might want to try out different things when you go to other continents. If you're the physical type, seeing Germany (as well as other countries who have adopted this method as their own) utilizing the Volksmarch is a great way to see....well, EVERYTHING (Volksmarch is German for "the people's march). These people rarely miss anything traveling like this. You go approximately 10 km (get used to the metric system if you're in Europe...well, just about anywhere, besides here in the U.S.) on an outdoor trek, usually someplace very interesting.
If you're not the "outdoorsy" type, well then just go out and find things that excite you. Art, architecture, night-life, music and more are not only easy to find, they're usually better that anything we've experienced in America. You have to remember, we're about the youngest country on the planet, everybody's got it over on us, where culture and just plain old "Having a good time" are concerned.
Where to go, exactly, always seems to be an issue. There's so much to see that you've heard about!! Well, I'll tell you, if you're going to Europe, a lot of places there are massively over-rated. Try and keep it simple. Don't jump for the big places you've heard about all your life, like London, Kiev, Paris, Tokyo...these places are New York City, just on other continents. Most are loud, crazy with people, and very expensive to experience. Now, if you're really into something in these places...you know, like art (so you want to see Paris), your family tree (your parents were from London), or you're curious about the tech world and want to go to where tech is a household given (Tokyo), then I fully recommend those places. No, where you want to go is really as far away from places like that as you can. I spent a good amount of time with a German family in an area of Germany that wasn't very populated once, and I had such a good time that I never went back to the big cities of most countries again, where before I had always zoomed in on places like that, like I'm sure most of you do. Amsterdam. Dublin. Nuremberg/Berlin, Manchester, Madrid, Athens. After you've seen the biggie stuff that everybody sees, then head for the hills and smaller places. Once you get a load of the people that aren't big city, you'll wonder strongly why you went any other way.
I'd have to say that the most important thing about going to other countries though, is watch what you eat. The people that are indigenous to these countries are used to eating their own food...that's why it's called German food or Indian food...because those people eat it the most. They have their own little immunities that they've built up to their own germs and so on, so of course they lived after they ate...whatever that is...that doesn't necessarily mean that you will. Try to stick to foods you recognize, and for God's sake, make sure it's COOKED. If you see any red whatsoever, RUN. Most importantly though, stay away from Sushi or steak tartar (rare beef.) See paragraph 3, above. Don't ask your Aunt Hilda what she ate when she went, her dementia could very well be due to what she ate and got out of eating it while she was there, you don't know. And if you're philanthropic in nature, say you give whole blood or plasma, or you are an organ donor, due to your curiosity, and while in Rome, doing what the Romans do and eating what they eat could very well put an end to that sort of activity (i.e., Mad Cow's disease from eating beef in the UK, for instance).
Well, that's my installment for today. Smile!
