4 ms·

I feel that traveling for the landmarks and museums is exhausting and ultimately futile. If you're not an amateur art historian, a lot of paintings look the sam

I feel that traveling for the landmarks and museums is exhausting and ultimately futile. If you're not an amateur art historian, a lot of paintings look the same, once you've seen several hundred. How many Rosetta stones and busts of Pericles and Japanese castles do you need in your life? I still don't have a good idea of why I might want to travel internationally. In most locations, I think I'd have trouble integrating with locals and living in their environment, at their pace, in their language. I don't have friends I want to visit in Kolkata. Obviously, a lot of people like to lie on beaches in Hawaii and walk through California redwoods, but until you have a sentimental attachment to a particular beach or a particular national park, they're all kind of the same. And I obviously don't have a good idea about traveling for the experience of "sampling people," mostly because I'm pretty sure I have aged out of slumming it on a bunk bed at a hostel packed with Eurotrash teens traveling from one rave to another.

skybrian 4y ago
One possibility is travelling with people you know, just as something interesting and memorable to do together. It's true that, for example, after travelling for a couple weeks in the American West I don't really need to see another canyon for a while. I've learned to slow down. You don't need to see a lot on one day. But I'm still glad I took those trips while my dad was still alive and mom was still up to travelling.
- legerdemain 4y ago
  Every once in a while there's an article by a travel writer singing praises of an active vacation where travelers do eco-stays on working farms or help weave rope for hanging bridges. On one hand, that sounds cool. On the other, I've found it very hard to find stuff like that, and I wonder if those activities are just makework for bored rich tourists.
ido 4y ago
I do think it really depends where you go. I traveled to India for 2 months in 2004 knowing nobody when I went (but leaving having made the acquaintance of several people) and I still think about this trip almost 20 years later. Another European country with churches and castles (I live in Germany and used to live in Austria)? I probably don't need to go there unless I have someone to visit. Going to India was like visiting another world & it truly enriched my life (or I wouldn't still be thinking about it 20 years later!), I think there are plenty other places like that - might not be that easy to find which ones are the best fit for you though!
cafard 4y ago
If you've seen several hundred paintings, then art historian or not, you should be making progress on telling them apart. (To be sure, you will likely also be deciding that some aren't worth traveling to see.) I have so far got by with no Rosetta stones, busts of Pericles and Japanese castles. But I'd love another look at the Uffizi, the Louvre, or the Vatican museums.

skybrian 4y ago

One possibility is travelling with people you know, just as something interesting and memorable to do together. It's true that, for example, after travelling for a couple weeks in the American West I don't really need to see another canyon for a while. I've learned to slow down. You don't need to see a lot on one day. But I'm still glad I took those trips while my dad was still alive and mom was still up to travelling.

legerdemain 4y ago
Every once in a while there's an article by a travel writer singing praises of an active vacation where travelers do eco-stays on working farms or help weave rope for hanging bridges. On one hand, that sounds cool. On the other, I've found it very hard to find stuff like that, and I wonder if those activities are just makework for bored rich tourists.

ido 4y ago

I do think it really depends where you go. I traveled to India for 2 months in 2004 knowing nobody when I went (but leaving having made the acquaintance of several people) and I still think about this trip almost 20 years later. Another European country with churches and castles (I live in Germany and used to live in Austria)? I probably don't need to go there unless I have someone to visit. Going to India was like visiting another world & it truly enriched my life (or I wouldn't still be thinking about it 20 years later!), I think there are plenty other places like that - might not be that easy to find which ones are the best fit for you though!

cafard 4y ago

If you've seen several hundred paintings, then art historian or not, you should be making progress on telling them apart. (To be sure, you will likely also be deciding that some aren't worth traveling to see.) I have so far got by with no Rosetta stones, busts of Pericles and Japanese castles. But I'd love another look at the Uffizi, the Louvre, or the Vatican museums.