Read an interesting article on Paulo's blog... sharing for benefit of all...
I realised very early on that, for me, traveling was the best way of
learning. I still have a pilgrim soul, and I thought that I would use
this blog to pass on some of the lessons I have learned, in the hope
that they might prove useful to other pilgrims like me.
1. Avoid museums. This might seem to be
absurd advice, but let’s just think about it a little: if you are in a
foreign city, isn’t it far more interesting to go in search of the
present than of the past? It’s just that people feel obliged to go to
museums because they learned as children that travelling was about
seeking out that kind of culture. Obviously museums are important, but
they require time and objectivity – you need to know what you want to
see there, otherwise you will leave with a sense of having seen a few
really fundamental things, except that you can’t remember what they
were.
2. Hang out in bars. Bars are the places
where life in the city reveals itself, not in museums. By bars I don’t
mean nightclubs, but the places where ordinary people go, have a drink,
ponder the weather, and are always ready for a chat. Buy a newspaper and
enjoy the ebb and flow of people. If someone strikes up a conversation,
however silly, join in: you cannot judge the beauty of a particular
path just by looking at the gate.
3. Be open. The best tour guide is someone
who lives in the place, knows everything about it, is proud of his or
her city, but does not work for any agency. Go out into the street,
choose the person you want to talk to, and ask them something (Where is
the cathedral? Where is the post office?). If nothing comes of it, try
someone else – I guarantee that at the end of the day you will have
found yourself an excellent companion.
4. Try to travel alone or – if you are married – with your spouse.
It will be harder work, no one will be there taking care of you, but
only in this way can you truly leave your own country behind. Traveling
with a group is a way of being in a foreign country while speaking your
mother tongue, doing whatever the leader of the flock tells you to do,
and taking more interest in group gossip than in the place you are
visiting.
5. Don’t compare. Don’t compare anything –
prices, standards of hygiene, quality of life, means of transport,
nothing! You are not traveling in order to prove that you have a better
life than other people – your aim is to find out how other people live,
what they can teach you, how they deal with reality and with the
extraordinary.
6. Understand that everyone understands you.
Even if you don’t speak the language, don’t be afraid: I’ve been in
lots of places where I could not communicate with words at all, and I
always found support, guidance, useful advice, and even girlfriends.
Some people think that if they travel alone, they will set off down the
street and be lost for ever. Just make sure you have the hotel card in
your pocket and – if the worst comes to the worst – flag down a taxi and
show the card to the driver.
7. Don’t buy too much. Spend your money on
things you won’t need to carry: tickets to a good play, restaurants,
trips. Nowadays, with the global economy and the Internet, you can buy
anything you want without having to pay excess baggage.
8. Don’t try to see the world in a month.
It is far better to stay in a city for four or five days than to visit
five cities in a week. A city is like a capricious woman: she takes time
to be seduced and to reveal herself completely.
9. A journey is an adventure. Henry Miller
used to say that it is far more important to discover a church that no
one else has ever heard of than to go to Rome and feel obliged to visit
the Sistine Chapel with two hundred thousand other tourists bellowing in
your ear. By all means go to the Sistine Chapel, but wander the streets
too, explore alleyways, experience the freedom of looking for something
– quite what you don’t know – but which, if you find it, will – you can
be sure – change your life.
