ITT: If you're a cultured user, write about your travels

ITT: If you're a cultured user, write about your travels

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I went to Japan
I enjoyed the maid cafe
It was great desu

but im poor

gtfo this thread

ok

europe is fine and okay
except for spain
and the UK
where it always rains

america is NY and LA,
but you need a car in California
and the bars close early
so let's do away with the pretense
that it shouldn't just be called NY and friends

south america is dangerous but cheap
the maghreb really gets old quick
china has good food
but the air is poop
and the people rude

In most places I think
'This place is a shithole,
I wish I was at home
drinking coke and reading'

bad poetry for bad posts

Texas here, traveled to Mexico once before all the be-headings and shit was more or less like a giant flea market and they looked like they wanted to steal the Troy Aikman jersey off of my back. Also drove to Idaho before kind reminded of Texas but with mountains, I like to call it Mountain-Texas.

I separated myself from the group to explore York for a bit. It was probably my favourite city in the UK out of the ones I had been to. It had a very humble, lively medieval charm to it, expressed through its winding, narrow cobblestone streets and peasant-like marketplaces just a block away from a towering Gothic monument to God. This suited me more than the austere, oppressive classicism of Bath, or the self-consciously modern shit-around that was London.

At that point I explicitly considered myself a "convert" to Christianity, not yet having gone through the Catholic rites of baptism and confirmation, and I retrospectively picture myself walking around in the cloudy English afternoon with a copy of Mere Christianity tucked under my armpit, though this never occurred. After hesitantly stumbling through underground bookshops, I headed toward the Cathedral. There were well-dressed male and female guards standing outside the doors, with wires and earpiece, and they charmingly told me that there was a ceremony going on inside. The consecration(?) of the new Bishops. I should mention that I was well-aware the whole time that this Cathedral, though built by Catholics, was currently run by the Church of England. I was investigating more out of tourist curiosity than a desire to join in.

I went around the side and watched. Happy men and women (the Anglicans practice female ordination) dressed in religious garment poured out through large doors to a crowd, exchanging hugs and kisses with family, friends and churchmen. I'd really never seen such a large display of such a classically communal religious activity back in my own country, and I wanted to run around to all these cheery faces of devoted men and women and join in something that I imagine my grandparents doing naturally in their lives. At the same time I also felt scorn toward the entire institution for being heretical and irrelevant, and I wasn't sure at that point whether I was meant to shamefully quell that feeling or righteously act on it.

I walked a little bit around to another side of the Cathedral, where there was a friendly looking church with families going in and out, and where the innocent fever of the festivities was equally present as it was near the Cathedral doors. I talked to an energetic greeter for a bit before going in, where I walked around investigating the old-timey church as the priest talked with a few departing families. I was looking around uncomfortably, straining my neck sideways as in a bookstore, when the priest came to me and started a conversation with me - I could tell he noticed me as a curious outsider. He was cheerfully enthusiastic, and sort of looked and sounded like a religious Ricky Gervais. He sat me down - continually trying to shoo his little daughters away in a very endearingly fatherly way, which also made me understand the custom of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church, which I felt cruel for thinking - and prayed for and with me.

>went to identical hellish grey sludge of city as the one I come from
>was drunk and fucked up on drugs for a week
>banged sloots in hostel to forget about creeping nihilism
>come home and want to blow my brains out
t. people who like to travel

I traveled to my local public library, where I read stories from authors from not only across the glob but through time itself. SO now that humans can use write language to write this stories via the Internet you can hear me in a way as well.

So you don't have to have the biggest wallet in the room, to be the most cultured. The more you know~

The best travel piece of literature I've ever read was the "Trip to London" chapter in Against the Grain.

this is adorable

>go to mexico
>interesting but dark, depressing, and warranting situational awareness
>go to Japan
>interesting, chill, beautiful, people are antisocial to say the least
>go to India
>poo in loo

Shortly after my 21st birthday I left my home country of England and my girlfriend of 3 years behind, aboard a merchant ship headed across the atlantic. The trip lasted 11 days, during which I read and wrote.

Upon arriving near Philadelphia, I journeyed up to New York, where I stayed just over a week, before heading down through Washington DC (where I remained a few days) and making my way to North Carolina.

I joined up with some family there I had never met, who lived near the beach. I learned deep sea fishing aboard their boat, studied, wrote and read for nearly 7 weeks. I fell in love with the Southern charm and the laid-back way of life, as well as how cheap everything seemed to be compared to England and even when I was up north. Everyone seemed much friendlier, too.

Leaving, I travelled down to Florida, where I fished in the Gulf of Mexico and caught a large Marlin, living out an Old Man and the Sea-esque fantasy; I headed West, stopping at New Orleans for a week, then making my way into Texas, where, being a lifelong fan of Westerns, I enjoyed the 'cowboy experience': learning how to ride, shoot, and camping under the stars.

After time spent in Texas I made my way to Las Vegas, where I stayed again just over the week, losing myself in the lights of the strip and watching the sun come up every morning. It was beautiful. After Vegas I headed to LA to see Hollywood, then up to San Francisco where I found myself enjoying the 'sunny' mentality.

With just over a month left before intending to return home, I made my way back to New York across the north of America. I chopped down a few trees, had the experience of sleeping in a log cabin. It was colder than I expected. I crossed over into Canada for a little over a week, then came back over, saw Niagara falls, and finally caught a plane from NY back to England, where I sat my second year uni exams... just this past May.

Been an incredible experience. I finished a short novel while I was travelling and still found ample time to do my university assignments. There are other places I'd like to travel- I'd like to go on safari in Africa- but I ticked a great deal off my bucket list of things to do before I'm thirty. I can see myself eventually settling down in small-town NC when I'm ~30.

Prior to this colossal trip I'd spent time in Russia and Spain, and France/Paris many many times due to family there.

>Be me
>Live in a small town in Missouri just outside of St.Louis
>Go to college for a semester
>Decide it isn't for me
>Wanted adventure
>Never been west of Kansas City
>Join Marine Corps
>Live in San Diego for some time
>Get stationed in Japan
>Go on a ship
>Sail to the Philippines, Thiland, South Korea, Austrailia
>Even get followed by a submarine from North Korea at one point
>Now back in San Diego
>Lurk here and read and shitpost with you pretenious assholes
>Seen all this and turned 21 in January
>Going back to school after I get out

>tfw going to fuck immature college girls straight from highschool who are turned on by all my worldly experiences

Feels pretty good brehs

I'm quite buzzed right now, please excuse my shitty spelling in advance, though I'm sure it'll trigger someone's autism regardless.

Gypsies are poor too, they still travel. Git gud m8

both cool stories, thanks for sharing anons

Yeah man, I've hitchhiked across the country. I've been to Italy, Norway, Dubai, the States, you name it, I've been there. *drags on cigarette* I've really seen the world man, it was eye-opening, I've seen things *shakes head silently* things you wouldn't believe. I've written some short stories about my travels, like this one time when I got drunk in Venice and met these travelling musicians who told me all about how, get this, how "life is a process of finding yourself", I mean, damn.....

>which also made me understand the custom of priestly celibacy in the Catholic Church
Off-topic, but I have to ask out of curiosity - assuming this is based on real experience - could you explain how that follows?

I travelled to all kinds of McDonald's

The priest was torn between two important duties. His duty to his family, and his duty to his parishioners. He doesn't have room to neglect either, but one or the other will end up suffering because 'father' and 'Fr.' are both demanding roles.

The Catholic clergy in the Latin rite have no immediate responsibility other than for their congregation, and so they can focus all their attention and energy on providing for people in the church. The kind priest I was talking to was interrupted by both me and his daughters. I was sort of interrupting him as a father by being in the church, and his children were constantly interrupting us by trying to get their dad's attention while he was doing important churchly stuff.

I don't doubt there are priests who balance their lives well, but priestly celibacy reemphasises that being a priest is being another kind of father.

>has seen the world
>first thought about it is "it'll get me laid lol"
You're definitely a jarhead.

I bet you're still a monolingual pleb.

Why I have no interest in traveling? I believe 90% of the places in the world is just exactly like your city/neighborhood but with a different skin. My friend that traveled a lot insists that I'm wrong but I still don't have the motivation to go traveling and see who is right.

>and the UK
>where it always rains

How exactly this is bad? I love a rainy day.

I bet you though you were being really clever and condescending while you wrote that post, but it just comes off as pathetic. Keeping yourself from enjoying things by setting up imaginary barriers, and actually convincing yourself to feel proud of your condition.
You could help yourself, if only you wanted to.

>I believe all food is exactly like bread but with a different texture.
How can you possibly think you know what a thing you have absolutely no experience of is like?

A rainy day can be nice once in a while, but when it rains for months the novelty gets old quick.

So it is actually like that in England, and not a meme?

yeah

Go hitchhike across Wisconsin you tryhard normie.

>temperature
>illumination levels
>human elements
>nature elements
>people talking another language but doing exactly the same

Also there's this terrible trade off. My house is really comfortable and offers anything I wish. Why spend money and time in an uncomfortable situation if I can do anything I want at home?

Oh, you poor thing.

"This place is a shithole, I wish I was at home drinking coke and reading"

Every day of my life.

I'm a huge believer of there's nothing new under the sun. Stop reading fiction for a bit and try some history, you gonna see they had good days and bad days. They didn't had the internet to waste their but it doesn't mean they were more productively. Sometimes I discover something new about technology jut to learn later that some nigga already used a similar technology back in the past.

I really like reading about medieval europe. Some people on Veeky Forums will say that europe at that time wasn't important and asia was much more blablabla. Then why not learn about medieval asia and all this wonderful history? They were exactly the same agrarian society but with asians instead of europeans. It's like in aoe where you have a lot of civilizations that play the same even tough having some small differences.

Sorry but everything is very similar no matter where you go or when you go.

>doesn't like to travel
>doesn't read fiction

are you by any chance both fat and a redditor?

I can only express my condolences that you do not share in the great wonder that has abided within man from the dawn of time, and hope that someday you too shall feel its warmth in your soul.

'’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.'

Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand,
As epitaph:
He chucked up everything
And just cleared off,
And always the voice will sound
Certain you approve
This audacious, purifying,
Elemental move.

And they are right, I think.
We all hate home
And having to be there:
I detest my room,
It's specially-chosen junk,
The good books, the good bed,
And my life, in perfect order:
So to hear it said

He walked out on the whole crowd
Leaves me flushed and stirred,
Like Then she undid her dress
Or Take that you ****;
Surely I can, if he did?
And that helps me to stay
Sober and industrious.
But I'd go today,

Yes, swagger the nut-strewn roads,
Crouch in the fo'c'sle
Stubbly with goodness, if
It weren't so artificial,
Such a deliberate step backwards
To create an object:
Books; china; a life
Reprehensibly perfect.

The whole southern half of arizona is a shithole. Stay north of prescott.

dam nigga u aint been to china

I'm too happy with too little.

Last month climbed a small mountain with friends to see OMG the beautiful stars. I almost freezed to death just to see the same fucking sky I can see from my backyard. My last trip was with family 3 or 4 years ago. I remember talking and cooking with them. OK we can do exactly the same shit at our city for 1/100000 the price.
Sailing to see the ocean? Why? Water moves the same and smells the same be it from a river or from the middle of the ocean.

What happened to me? I'm below 30 but I already enjoy staying at home too much, I don't give a shit about meeting new people, seeing the fucking world or making tons of money. Do I have fucked up brain chemistry?

If it's different why should I care? Why should I want to see it? I just unable to care.

You might be on the spectrum senpai.

>Do I have fucked up brain chemistry?
No, you're just an idiot shut-in. If you really think you can equate the water coming out of your faucet with the crystal clear waters of the Bahamas or that you can taste the fresh peppers of the Sichuan province from your pepper shaker, you're just a stupid person. Get off the internet, stop reading books, and go talk to people.

If you don't care to experience new things--good. I will, and it'll be less crowded, and more people will be interested in my story, which will be better written because it's influenced by many more things. You can be aimless and monotonous. I'll be adventurous and curious.

You sound like a high schooler who's mad at his parents for taking him out on the boat when he wants to play Call of Duty.

Maybe. I wake up, do some exercising, go to college, study a lot, play vidya at night and cook. This repeats til infinity but I enjoy this so much. Traveling/partying feels like a pain in the ass because I leave my routine just to experience something worse.

I use imagination to write, I write when I feel like it and I have no intention in competing.

>but this way you'll never improve
I don't care, I write to cease the desire to write, I have no intention in creating something other people will enjoy. Why? I don't care maybe because I already got all I want from life.

you know, I'm not one to normally throw this kinda stuff around on the internet, but I think your attitude warrants it. kys pal :^)

>Dis nigga tryna get Gervais and Merchant to bankroll him
>Dis nigga dont realize Karl Pilkington already exists

>Get off the internet, stop reading books, and go talk to people.
Fuck off normie.

>I live in New England
>Literature Heaven
>I never plan on moving away
>I've experienced everything from ultra-rich socialite parties to drugdens and city projects
But I'm not cultured enough, so I need not apply.

Since when does not being braindead make you a normie?

I went to a very dark place when I was younger and never went back.

>creeping nihilism
You're a nihilist because you suck, not because the world sucks

Veeky Forums is not /r9k/ you infant.

The ppl who live there already did those things and so have many other tourists, its nothing really new, its just new to you, sorry youre so bored that you need little new, external visceral pleasures that you quickly tire of and then move on to the next new shiny object,

Saying"[g]et off the internet, stop reading books, and go talk to people" makes you a normie.
Veeky Forums isn't a place to tell people not to read, shithead.

No, it doesn't. You're just desperately trying to fit into the "non-normie" category to make yourself feel better by some odd contrarian logic. There is nothing "normie" about being curious, having the urge to explore the world, or just being a reasonably social creature, you meme-loving fuck.
Also, he's not really telling you not to read books, he's telling you to do other things as well. Which should be obvious.

i went to louisiana for a wedding. i didn't know either the groom or the bride but i had an inkling that i was somehow related to one of them. it was strange being in louisiana because there were hardly any sidewalks in the residential areas and there were open gutters on either side of every road.

i slept in a room that was a basement with a window. it was fixed up to look like a real bedroom with carpet and everything but it still felt like a basement. i remember the first morning i woke up in that room because a snake slithered across the grass just outside the window.

only two other things are clear in my mind about my visit. the first is the time i spent playing on the swings with the girls who lived in the house where we stayed. even though i was young and they were likely related to me i felt attracted to them both. that they were both very welcoming and physical in showing their affection didn't help.

the other is riding in the back of a truck with someone named thurston. i only remember him because one of the aforementioned girls had a crush on him which made him my enemy even though i was younger than all of them and really had no chance. i hated him so much that i seriously considered pushing him out of the truck.

what was wrong with spain compadre

wrote this poem about some travs.

No one knows what the fuck is going on.

I took a pill in Ibiza, just to prove to Avicii that I was cool. Then when I got sober I felt 10 years older.

Darwin, Einstein, DaVinci, Newton, Jesus, Buddha, etc

Sure about that?

honestly? spaniards for the most part. people talk shit about the french, but in five years in france i've been treated poorly maybe twice, in spain, in the span of a week, i lost count.

>you need to travel to be cultured

I've travelled more than 99% of Veeky Forums, and in the end I find myself deferring to Joyce's conclusion - namely, that the universal lies within the particular.

You cant know everything, no matter how powerful your brain is, because then you would know what you know and it would be a never ending paradox.

Would check out from the library

/r9k/ has to have the greatest concentration of collective mental illness the world has ever seen. I honestly cannot comprehend what is wrong with you people

28yo, read 700+ books mostly non fiction, traveled around 30 countries and now in a 2 year trip.

I feel nothing particular this time.

When I was younger (18-20) it would change/open my mind on a lot of things but now that I see humans for what they have in common more than differences I feel like everywhere is the same, China included.

I feel good because I have no home anymore and have all the freedom I could wish for, but I can't wait to settle down with my Veeky Forums gf when I come back.
We're writing long messages again like we did at first so that's a plus I guess.

If you're young or never left your country it's worth doing even if it's a big meme travel like The main problems are

>you don't speak your native language so can't have deep conversations like you would at home
>hostels are full of extroverts with that joyful attitude 100% of the time who agree on everything, "normies" if you want, especially in poor countries
>traveling is extremely easy anywhere if you're a bit prepared, also there's internet/Veeky Forums access everywhere you go

pic is the puppy in my hostel, I've been in Tirana for 3 weeks now

>I honestly cannot comprehend what is wrong with you people
Extreme levels of narcissism, delusional self-importance and bitter contrarianism.

I didn't want to be derogatory toI said "meme travel" because your trip can look boring to some because you met mostly average americans and did typical american activities.

But it sounds like a great experience and you don't need to live adventures or see the most exotic cultures to learn a lot about yourself and the world.

I lived in Vietnam, Czech Rep and Canada. Now currently living in California but I prefer Canadian weather, Czech landscape and Vietnamese cheap everything. Too bad I will never have that

how are you paying for this 2 year trip?

>There is nothing "normie" about being curious, having the urge to explore the world, or just being a reasonably social creature
I didn't say that there was idiot.
You do know where this place comes from right?

>never see this clip before
>can literally manually aurally hear the music being played despite no literal music, literally
>literally look up clip on youtube
>literally be dat irish jig
>literally Look At All The Fucks I Give

>deep conversations like you would at home

>the Veeky Forums came from /r9k/ meme again

...

>more people will be interested in my story

Yeah, I'm sure you're the life of the party friendo.

In Lyon, France, every work day morning, no matter how early I got started, I had the distinct impression that I was late for everything. Everyone else knew what was going on and I had not gotten the memo. By lunch time, the tide had begun to ebb. Wine for lunch, at the factory caf - de rigeur. Ask if your computer was made in the morning or afternoon. Prefer morning. By evening, I was way out front. First one there, last one standing. Morning commute - an auto race of Paul Newman-level amateur quality. Evening commute, a shambling procession of zombies.

Three hours in Switzerland - the Swiss are not humans. They are humanoid aliens who have established their little "neutral" beach-head in the Alps and, in fact, have the rest of us under surveillance.

It is possible Iceland is either a Swiss franchise of similar humanoid aliens, or vice versa. Iceland may be their fallback redoubt in case of discovery. The volcanoes obviously invoke strong suspicions.

Scoff. Jeer. Dismiss. But Inverness, Lake Champlain, and Okanagan are all at the same latitude. They are all three very deep, cold water, oligotrophic canyon lakes in relatively remote locales with historical access to watersheds of enormously greater drainage than they have today. Just sayin. Okanagan is by far the most spectacularly beautiful of the three.

If you find yourself in Barcelona and have ten bucks to spare on a Sunday, go to the bullfights. Just shut up and go. Get six beers for 3 Euro and watch the pageantry. Listen to the crowd. Then tell me. Then, not now, then.

When in Russia, avoid the fish. And if she asks you to buy her a drink, consider leaving for another liquor establishment immediately. Trust me.

Yawn poor man's Hemingway

I'm from a really rich euro country and live frugally.

I started working at 16 and it's actually the 3rd time I can take a 10 months+ vacation.

This time I was a bookseller working 4 days a week and in 25 months I saved a bit more than 30k euros.

Just made my first post on a blog I intent to use for future travel writing
wordstrobe.wordpress.com

Could someone read it and tell me what they think?

Shan't.

it's on my time in Southeast Asia. if you like it I have several more pieces to post

Beautiful. I happen to be travelling now and this place is a shithole, I wish I was at home drinking coke and reading.

If you want advice, which you don't but idgaf, the best results I've had are from travelling alone and then finding someone to travel with.
I went to London alone and met a Spanish girl to explore the city with, we had a great time and I still remember it.
Travelling with someone is better than travelling alone, but meeting someone new is the whole point in my mind. It really sticks with you.

Why should I read it?

I think it's good and I want someone else to enjoy it. Or give me a reality check. I'm proud of it.

The French do not talk about wine as it were a fetishized object. They just know what they like and order it.

If you were planning on doing anything in Frankfurt after ten pm, you better already be on your way to Mainz. Frankfurt rolls up the streets at 10 and stores them until morning.

While riding in your taxi or Uber throughout the BeNeLux, when you feel the urge to comment on the driver's choice of The Police' 1984 classic, Synchronicity --- let it go. No one's interests will be advanced.

Think of Andorra as the concept album of western Europe.

The Britbongs by no means invented the concept of over-selling their tourist destinations. Nor, in general, are they particularly virulent about it. However, it is time for someone to point out that Stonehenge is in the middle of a working sheep farm. The actual thing is a little ring of stones in the middle of a vast, working sheep farm. With sheep. Just milling about and doing sheep things. None of which emit aromas one normally associates with pleasant tourist experiences. Stonehenge = Sheep farm. You've been warned.

Scotland is the beneficiary of all the climate change effects which have robbed the Baltic of anything that could be called seafood. Go directly to Oban, go to the single seaside restaurant, order the platter. If you can make it there by five, you can observe the entire supply chain of your dinner, from boat to dock to barrow, to kitchen to your table. Do ask how to use the toolkit. Do not imply that they are speaking a foreign language when they try to explain how. Follow the mimed instructions. The story for later is half the fun.

I don't recommend attempting to pride-drink with Russians on their own territory. I've seen more than on Bong try it, and it never ends well. You might think that the 5:15 aperitif, followed by the 5:30 martini and the 5:45 wishky-and-a-splash is just an opening bluff on what cannot, surely, be a continuation of that pace and variety on a sustained basis. It's not. When, between the entree and desert the host opens a 2-litre of the local vodka and throws the cap into the wastebin, you should, with the last of your remaining good judgement, internalize the ontologically established fact that you are over matched, and not by a little. Just take the ribbing. It will hurt less, and in the morning, they won't remember either.

>The Britbongs by no means invented the concept of over-selling their tourist destinations. Nor, in general, are they particularly virulent about it. However, it is time for someone to point out that Stonehenge is in the middle of a working sheep farm. The actual thing is a little ring of stones in the middle of a vast, working sheep farm. With sheep. Just milling about and doing sheep things. None of which emit aromas one normally associates with pleasant tourist experiences. Stonehenge = Sheep farm. You've been warned.

Kek

become a homeless wanderer

You've seen more of America than many Americans.

>I feel everywhere is the same, China included

What the fuck did you think China would be like?

get out normies

This guy is a shit traveller. Everyone can safely ignore him.

my travels are limited, but ive always wanted to go abroad. ive only traveled throughout and camped in states through the US and its famous parks. im more of a social writer

traveling if for plebs. you can know the whole world in a hut.

Albania a shit, come to Macedonia

american detected