And so it goes with travel. A person who would bring knowledge home with him must take knowledge with him.
 

I stopped at DC's Uniion Station this afternoon, and I noticed this motto above one of the entrances.

I agree. I know to a limited extent where I want to go and what I want to see. After I make my visit, I know a heck of a lot more than I did before I went. It may never earn me a dime, but I love seeing places and learning more about places, people, and events about which I knew very little, or did not know about at all. <BR>I may leave home with a little knowledge, but so far every time I come back with a lot of knowledge that is new to me, and I find it to be a heck of a lot of fun. Invariably, I learn about something of which I had no prior knowledge, and that is always a welcome surprise. It tends to make want to go out and see what else I can find.<BR>

And if we are lucky, kind people here will share some of that knowledge ~

The inimitable Mark Twain wrote: "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."

I don't remember who said this, but it's one of my favorite quotes.<BR><BR>You can't find beauty<BR>unless you bring it with you.

This is something that I try to do~<BR><BR>Live in the present.Do the things that need to be done.Do all the good you can each day.The future will unfold. <BR>from Uncommon Prayers

This is just like "you can't find fluorescent pink jogging suits unless you bring them with you".

To cdf: I like that!

I'd like to add that this is only true for those who go into a country with an open mind. I've seen so many tourists that come into a country and don't look up or are oblivious to the beauty unless it is in their guide book or their checkoff list of things that must be seen. They eat fast on the outside tables in the street/piazza/square and harrass the server for the bill and are annoyed with his "slowness" after so little time, instead of relaxing and taking in the life of the culture and realizing that locals can stay at the table for hours and enjoy the beauty, life and social atomosphere.

Let's do travel quotes:<BR><BR>"I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train." -- Oscar Wilde<BR><BR>"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness." -- Mark Twain<BR><BR>Buon viaggio.

Ooops, sorry Wes, you did the Mark Twain quote.<BR><BR>On 01-01-02, "Mark" on Fodor's quoted: "in the alleys of Marseilles, on the streets of Kathmandu, on the high roads of Peru, people meet and touch and go. But the wind of change will blow and another dance will start...."<BR><BR>"Cherish union and the light in a stranger's eyes."<BR><BR>

"Lord, I'm one, <BR>Lord, I'm two, <BR>Lord, I'm three, <BR>Lord, I'm four, <BR>Lord, I'm five hundred miles from my home.....<BR>Five hundred miles<BR>Five hundred miles<BR>Five hundred miles<BR>Five hundred miles<BR>Lord, I'm five hundred miles<BR>From my home...."

"It is not money which travel demands so much as leisure, and anyone with a small, fixed income can travel all the time. The beaten track is often the best track, but devote most of your time to the by-ways. In no other way can you so quickly reach the heart of a country." Frank Tatchell, Vicar of Midhurst, Sussex.<BR><BR>"All travel has its advanages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it." Samuel Johnson<BR><BR>"One town, one country, is very like another; civilized nations have the same customs, and barbarous nations have the same nature: there are indeed minute discriminations both of places and of manners but which a traveller seldom stays long enouth to investigate and compare. The dull utterly neglect them, the acute see a little, and supply the rest with fancy and conjecture." Again, Samuel Johnson<BR><BR>"...to give a few universal rules to a young traveller, I should seriously counsel him thus: - In Naples, treat the people brutally; in Rome, be natural; in Austria, don't talk politics; in France, give yourself no airs; in Germany, a great many; and in England, don't spit." Prince Hermann Puckler-Muskau

My favourite quote: "being blind it's not a disgrace. Much worst would be if I were black". Stevie Wonder

Wherever you go, there you are. The "geographic cure" seldom works.

To add to Roula's thoughts--it is a shame to travel out of the US and expect it to be the same except for the history, architecture, etc. As Roula notes, enjoy the culture and the differences and learn from them. Travel to Europe and elsewhere is such a wonderful part of life, don't waste it by regretting it's not like the place you left.<BR><BR>j

How odd...<BR><BR>I spent several hours researching travel quotes on Saturday for a website I am developing...<BR><BR>One of my favourites is:<BR><BR>Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. <BR><BR>Mark Twain<BR><BR><BR>I found a WHOLE lot of others, I will check when I get home for them, might be tomorrow night, I am out this evening meeting another Fodorite for dinner...

This was one of the others:<BR><BR>Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. <BR>Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great one Kavey!<BR>I like this for those who are reluctant to try new things/places:<BR><BR>Footfalls echo in the memory <BR>Down the passage which we did not take<BR>Towards the door we never opened into the rose garden.<BR>T.S. Elliot

How about:-<BR><BR>Travelling is the ruin of all happiness! there's no looking at a building here, after seeing Italy.<BR><BR>Fanny Burney<BR><BR>or <BR><BR>For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.<BR><BR>RL Stevenson; who also said<BR><BR>To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.<BR><BR>But I can give you some right negative ones too<BR><BR>Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation<BR><BR>Elizabeth Drew<BR><BR>and See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river, and see all.<BR><BR>Socrates<BR><BR>