RufusTFirefly

Traveling makes me appreciate my home town, my home, my family, and my friends all the more every time I return. I love to travel, and I love Westminster, Maryland. I love the friends I've made while traveling, and I love my friends at home. I love the cuisines of most of the places I've visited, and I love my familiar hometown restaurants and cafes. I love the amazing sights and sites around the world, and I love the rolling green hills and forests of Maryland.

Of course, I grew up traveling from the time I was an infant until moving here to Westminster 21 years ago at the age of 35--the longest I'd ever lived in one place before that was just short of 3 years in Bamberg, Germany. So actually having a home town was the unique experience to me, not traveling.

simpsonc510

I travel a lot but always enjoy getting back to my small midwest town. The thing I miss, when I get home though, is the fresh market atmosphere in Europe and Asia. I'd love to grab my basket every day after work and go to the markets and pick up fresh veggies, fresh chicken or fish, fresh fruit, etc and go home and cook. If you can buy fresh, you don't need the big freezers we have. Fresh tastes sooooo much better! About the only thing we have is the farmer's market on summer weekends. They sell their tomatoes, cantelopes, cucumbers, etc in season. They are always better tasting than the ones at the super mkt.

jmb67

When I returned from my first trip to Italy, I compared everything in my home town to Italy. I like my town even less than I did before. Even though I live in a heavily populated area, public transportation stinks, there are no markets to buy really fresh foods and there is no character to the architecture. I'd rather live in Italy. We certainly can learn something from the way Europeans live.

bardo

Why not just change the dynamics of the marketplace?? When I am back at my hometown I will: Choose not to live in the suburbs, chose not to buy you food at commercial grocery stores, choose to buy bread only from the local baker, choose only to buy cheese from the local cheese guy, get produce from te farmers markets, choose to spend time longing at the local parks, chose to have wine at all meals, choose to drink my coffee at the cafe and not in carboard cups, etc. etc.

Surfergirl

I discovered in my home town (L.A.) that it was designed on a grid, meaning you can walk around the block and arrive at the same place you started. And, except for downtown and commercial areas, between the sidewalk and the road, the streets are lined with grass and trees.

Calamari

Bardo - If I were to follow your suggestions and lived here as if I were back in Florence, I would be driving all over the bloody place, sitting in traffic, looking for parking spaces! At least in Italy, you can walk all over and find what you need although even in the outskirts of Florence they now have supermarkets.

BrimhamRocks

I like bardo's suggestion, but unfortunately, Calamari is right. When my husband and I go back to the States to see family, the same thing always happens to us: we spend more time driving around and looking for parking, than actually doing what we set out to do!

Having only about one more year left in England, we're trying to enjoy as much as we can here in the time we have left, before we move back to the Land Of The Big Stinky Traffic Jam. Sigh...

bardo

Perhaps this is a suburbs vs center city question. The reason everyone now needs to drive everywhere in America is because, in the 50's 60's, everyone of means felt the grass was greener outside of town. If we had stayed put, our cities would be as livable as those in Europe.

Elena

quote {"Has your persecptive changed about your home town after a wonderful vacation?"}

No, my hometown is equally depressing before and after trips.

omalley

My hometown seems a bit grimmer after each trip. After spending time in northern Portugal I realized how impoverished our lifestyle can be. I was amazed at the amount of public space in the towns and villages set aside for simple enjoyment: parks, gardens, riverfronts, cafes, village squares. And the Portugese people really seemed to be enjoying life to the fullest. In my town people race around from place to place, always working, always stressed, fast food on the go, no sidewalks, strip malls everywhere. What a way to live!