General Chat

I know that travel is supposed to broaden the mind but some people may take their narrow minded attitude wherever they go.
Being ready and willing to listen to others from a variety of backgrounds is one way to educate ourselves, often without the need for "foreign" travel.

As a child of a British soldier, travelling was a way of life when I was younger. This was of more benefit when we lived "in the community" instead of on the army base. We also went to schools in the community (which taught in English). PR

The biggest culture shock I had was when coming back to England and going to school, the disrespect shown to teachers, sometimes coupled with a seeming reluctance to learn was mind boggling.

Travelling on public transport, shopping in local markets and stores, eating where the locals go, all these can help broaden the mind. Both at home and abroad.

Interesting topic, RR. I don't think that there is any one correct answer. There can be a great variety of people living in your own town, different ages, backgrounds and circumstances.
We can all learn from each other

Tess

we've all had fascinating experiences


RR ..... thank you for starting this debate :-D

I love going to foreign countries, especially when it is paid for by someone else. The army sent me to a few places, including the Middle East, what was then the Trucial States. The Arabian Peninsular was a real eye opener. Three years ago, my wife and I went house sitting in Switzerland, for which we were paid handsomely, travel each way, car hire for three weeks, and enough money left over to pay for our holiday in France. Regarding John Steinbeck, if you enjoyed Cannery Row, I would recommend Sweet Thursday, and also Tortilla Flat.

Having just returned from Iceland (our 53rd country we have visited) we were asked how much snow we encountered? I bet you were freezing?Did you see any penguins?( Did I hear right). Most of the island was basking in sunshine @17c or in some places on the east coast it was down to 6c .Most of the time we wore shorts and short sleeves. I say go find out for yourselves if you can afford it or at least join a library and read about places to know what to expect.
Some people would be better off at home with a crate of beer and a sunbed as they will never learn anything about other cultures and probably do not want to.
Travel broadens the mind.
We love going to foreign countries and meeting the people, who we have always found very friendly. We never compare countries with the natives unless we are asked about our culture.
It's nice to see that some people like to travel and see the world for real and not through the bottom of a beer glass.
PS. Only been to Spain once (Too many boozy Brits)

Harswell ......


taht made me laugh!!


I am so used to ignorant others asking .............

do you live in igloos?

do you travel by dogsled?

are the Indians dangerous?

are the houses modern?


as well as flaunting around in their mink coat because it is the North ............. although it's July and 25C


and on and on it goes :-)



I do have to say that the Americans seem to be the worst for knowing nothing about anywhere else ...... and I say that having lived in the south of the US.

We met people there who had never seen the ocean, and had no intention of ever going there.



someone (??AnnG) mentioned being surprised at the poverty seen when driving around the US

We spent most of our spare time exploring when we lived there .............. it was a complete eyeopener for us to see tar paper shacks, houses built of corrugated metal, children dressed in rags, signs at the boundary of a community saying basically that the water was not treated,etc etc

This was of course all brought home to both Americans and others when Katrina hit New Orleans 10 years ago, and the reaction to help those in trouble took longer than it took to react to such disasters in Haiti, and other third world countries.

Yes, the American Dream is not a reality for large segments of the population. Stray off the beaten track and it can get interesting, driving somewhere in rural Arkansas and getting lost, ending at a dead-end shack with a sign advertising 'Pawn, Guns, Live Bait', we did a hasty back-track!

I have American friends we met living in Spain.....and it depends what part of Spain it is,Harswell,as the part of Spain we lived in never met any boozy Brits ,

in fact the only English we heard spoken was by the few who worked in the bodegas as we lived in the South West in Sherry country.

The Americans who lived in the area went to an American naval base which was like little America and they never explored

Our friends were different.they had 3 children that she home schooled and as he worked as the manager for the whole of Europe for a seed company and was rarely at home, we helped deal with workmen and as we could get by with the language we became friends and explored areas that few of the people who go to the popular holiday resorts even know exist.
.
I think you have to find out for yourself and not get an idea of a country that may possibly have a negative image due to the media and the little parts that the Brits and other Europeans have made popular.

Oh dear i must be very narrow minded then because i have never been abroad, never even had a passport.. :-( :-( :-(

Stella, you may well have visited more parts of the UK than people who holiday on the Costa’s every year.

That’s something else which has always puzzled – why do people go back to exactly the same place year on year?

Much to our eldest’s annoyance, we didn’t go abroad with them until she was 16. However, she was taken to more parts of the UK than her friends have seen.

Watch travel programmes, especially those which avoid tourist hot-spots and it will give you a flavour. Unfortunately they can’t transmit the smells, both good and bad!

Stella....I don't think you are narrow minded.
...you have excelled in other ways...

I used to say...why do I want to go abroad as I live opposite a lovely beach and can choose the days I would want to go to the beach...funnily enough the weather after the main holiday season seemed to be lovely...I loved the stillness of September...and still do,so I hope we get a late summer this year!

Life is for the individual..whatever makes you happy.I know you write poetry very well and it makes you happy.

I like history and to go abroad and see things I've only read about pleases me,as does going away to new places in this country.

I want to go back to Cornwall where some of my roots are.

As long as we are all happy with our lives...that's the important thing! :-D :-D

DetEctTve
I'm one of those people who returned to the same place for holidays in Cornwall for the best part of 30 years. :-) :-)
For us it was partly to catch up with friends who also went and the rain is warmer in Cornwall.
I can't explain the rationale except for me it was a sort of spiritual regeneration and I still miss my visits now.

That is not to say that we didn't visit other places and have travelled to many places in Europe including working in Germany and studying in Finland. This was after I had graduated having returned to study in my 50's.
The last few years we have visited the USA and have had fantastic holidays and especially enjoyed the train travel from Washington to Chicago and Chicago to Los Angeles meeting lots of people and discussing life the universe and everything.

Stella worry not.
Currently there is an exhibition of Joseph Cornell's work at the Royal Academy. Wonderful works and looking at the exhibition it was hard to believe that he never left his home town.

Whilst I think it is of course true that travel broadens the mind it certainly doesn't mean you are narrow minded if you haven't travelled far and even well seasoned travellers can be the most intolerant people ;-) :-D :-D

Thanks everyone, i do feel better after that, and yes i write poetry , i have and run my own poetry website and i do a fair bit of artwork too.

I never had the opportunity to go abroad but i have never worried about it to be honest.

<3

Stella, anyone who has read your poetry will know that you are not narrow minded. People who have not broadened their minds with travel can do it in other ways as you obviously have. You are content the way you are and that is what matters.

I didn't go abroad (except to Jersey and once to Paris) until I was in my 50s, we never took the children abroad, it was not the norm then. I felt no need to go abroad, loving our holidays around the UK.

As to returning year on year, yes we are guilty of that we loved our holidays in North Tenerife because we felt at home there and we returned to see Wendy. We miss it very much now but the apartment and area was up quite steep slopes/ hills and at 77 OH was finding it hard work. I have to say that we didn't see one boozy brit when we were in Spain and hope to return for the third time next year to the same spot, it is flat, the neighbours are lovely :-D and the restaurants are good. Oh and this yearw e are returning to Lanzarote because we love it. Each to his/her own. :-) :-)

Depends who is doing the traveling. Foreign travel did not seem to do much to broaden the mind for Erwin Rommel, Napoleon Bonaparte or Margaret Thatcher for instance. Others had minds as wide as an ocean without much foreign gadding about at all - Harper Lee, Doris Lessing, John Steinbeck, Woody Guthrie, Abraham Lincoln.

I have traveled around a lot 'cos of work, I prefer to stay at home for holidays. From it all my strongest memory was the sea otters in Monterey Bay while I was working in Santa Cruz. The aquarium is unmissable. The first sight of the Southern Cross is pretty unforgettable too.

These two phrases also stick in the mind:

"A rolling stone gathers no moss"
"Join the Army, travel the world, meet interesting people and shoot them!"
( I had three pips on my shoulder ).

My uncle who was once button boy on HMS Ganges used to go on about seeing the world with the navy but only seeing the sea.

I have only ever lived in two houses, half a mile apart and have probably spent less than a month of my life outside the British Isles.

When I was young, we went every year to Scarborough for the June Wakes weeks, that was from 1947 to about 1956. My parents continued going after 1956, but I was allowed to stay home (GCEs etc).

My parents in fact had gone to Scarborough every year from when they married in 1928 until 1939 (no seaside holidays during the war), and Mum and her parents had been going before 1928.

Now that is really continuously going back to the same place! :-D

I first went overseas to Austria over Christmas 1956, and then to Yugoslavia in summer 1957, but then not again until I left the UK in 1967. University vacations allowed me to find work in different parts of the UK.

A lot of the travel we've done since we married was connected with OH's work .............. built around a conference for example, or to botanize in S Africa, Australia, NZ, Fiji, etc etc

In the last 10 years, we have travelled across Canada from coast to coast by train 14 times, plus one return trip by train to Montreal. In October, we will be making another return trip by train to Montreal.

That's our version of repetitive holidays ............ but we have also been overseas (Europe, UK, and down under) and elsewhere in Canada and the US during that same period


I've got to the point though where I hate air travel ........... it's no longer the fun travel that it used to be, and it's basically uncomfortable unless you can afford business or first class.

The train is much more comfortable and pleasant, with excellent food, for our cross-Canada travels ............. as long as we have the 6 days needed for each one-way trip.

We've been going back to the same place in Wales for 34 years. We go every May. We do go to lots of other places as well but I'd hate to miss our week in May.

Never lived abroad but have travelled a bit - you don't need to travel to have a broad mind but it's nice to explore new places as well as enjoying familiar ones.

you certainly do not have to travel to broaden your mind, or to have a broad mind .............

many of the comments I mentioned before were and are the result of narrow minds ........ and I find that extremely sad.

I do think air travel is getting particularly uncomfortable. Partly because most of the places we go at the moment are serviced by the cheaper airlines and, not wishing to pay a fortune to upgrade to only slightly less uncomfortable seats we sit with our knees against the seat in front. But the other part of discomfort is the hassle of delays, cancellations, will there/won't there be strikes in IK or Europe? and luggage weight (different of different airlines), how many bags can be carried on board. Nothing is simple it seems.

However, motorway travel isn't exactly fun these days either. :-( :-(

Well we have returned to the same place in Cornwall for the last 5 years. We never intended to but the spotless, cedarwood cabin with 2 tellys and heat at the flick of a switch is like home from home. Glorious views, lots of wildlife and peaceful with only a few other cabins it suits us well. We haven't run out of new places to visit yet either. I have only had a few trips abroad, just to Europe by train or coach, train is best. I'd love to see far flung places like South America but we both hate flying.

I'm sure travel abroad like all of life's experiences can broaden the mind but my OH reads a lot of books about other countries so is quite knowledgable without ever having been there, but being there is still a different experience.

There are so many ways of broadening the mind. A visit to a mental hospital or volunteering at homeless centre for example can be an eye opener as can changes of career or job.

I suppose broadening the mind is expanding knowledge and hopefully understanding, making us more tolerant. If that's the case, the experience of seeing things from differing points of view and angles should also make us less inclined to wade in with fixed opinions and be prepared to consider and respect other points of view. As I get older I find things in life are often more grey than black and white.