whoknew

P_M

It was a Kodak moment, as they say. She hasn't really looked me in the eye since. I'm sorely tempted when she passes me in the hall to hail her with a rather hearty "buon giorno", but fortunately my more rational half takes over.

Thankfully, I have a government job, I'm tenured and I get excellent evaluations so it would take some doing to get rid of me. However, I'll play nice as I always do. (But I think I'll wear my little italian flag pin on the lapel of my business suit next time I have to attend one of her meetings...and I'll make sure it's well within her view).

whoknew

cigelachanta: I guess that just goes to show one should never make assumptions based on appearance or last names! Now, if I married Mrwhoknew(I state here that that he is called Mrwhoknew because it is much easier than trying to explain), I would look like Mrwhoknew's WASP background and would no doubt suffer your same situation. (I love all your posts, BTW...I've not been to France yet but you certainly fan the flames to push me in that direction soon).

cigalechanta

thanks, whoknew. My parents names aren't Gambino but it's a well-known mafia name on the east coast.

mebanese

I always love the look on people's faces when we tell them we're going to/just came from Beirut. The stupidest comments I've heard include references to "Not Without My Daughter".

Giselle

The one person I don't like telling my travels to is one of my bils. That's because he kind of sneers at my cushy style - which is just as cushy as 2 star hotels in Europe can be or taking day walking tours.

He spent a year traveling in Africa for about $8,000. He's stayed in Asia for months and months camping. Next he's going to South America for 6 months to a year in the same style. He's 62.

He just doesn't understand me going to Venice for a week or England for 2.

Dori, good for you for hating travel snobs. People have a right to travel wherever they want: Disneyland or Dollywood. It's too bad they don't give you the same consideration, but that's life, as you probably know.

PatrickLondon

I don't think anyone has ever done this to me. Is it an American thing? If it did happen to me, I think I would probably say something like 'You'll never know what you're missing' and give a silent thanks that they won't be there.

Kate

Patrick, I was just wondering the same thing. Perhaps coming from a tiny island (UK) gives us wanderlust.

People here are only ever curious, envious or genuinely excited about my travel plans.

Currently amongst my colleagues, 1 is in Egypt, 1 has just got back from Russia, another has just booked a trip to India, and another is off the South Africa next week. Then there's another who's off the Croatia on Wednesday, another who just got back from Turkey, my MD is in the Italian Lakes, another is in Menorca and boring old me just got back from Greece (September is a VERY popular holiday time).

Yesterday some of us started talking about setting up a savings account to save for a trip to Beijing Olympics 2008. Hopefully not TOO many of us, or my MD will have a fit. She'd have to close the company down for a couple of weeks.

Queenie

Perhaps Americans are not as intrepid travellers as are western Europeans, as evidenced by the low number of Americans holding passports.

Kate

Queenie, could be, but that's not to do most Americans down. Obviously it is MUCH easier for Europeans to cross borders and experience foreign cultures, and when you've started travelling, I think it opens up your eyes a bit. If Dori's colleagues were more well travelled, then perhaps they wouldn't be so dismissive of India. I think seasoned travellers may not fancy going everywhere, but can appreciate why others might want to go.

PatrickLondon

That said, of course, there are plenty of tales of people in Britain who have never ventured far outside their home village, and many who have never been to London:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1314975,00.html

and plenty of reality about Brits who look for home abroad. We did it to an Empire, and now to various (mostly Spanish) resorts. Some people once wrote to their local paper to say they'd taken wrapped loaves from home on holiday to France, and what was left was still fresh when they got home.

And those of us who don't (me included) are perhaps too ready to look down our noses at people who go to Eye-biza to stay in San Antonio (rather than Portinatx in Ee-biza) or Faliraki rather than Patmos, or whatever.

So my take on this is 'live and let live'.

Queenie

That is true, Kate. However, I am an American living in Europe, and I find Europeans (with means) are more world travellers.

My husbands secretary just returned from Myanmar, seems like everyone here has been to Sri Lanka, and Thailand is a popular destination. These are long haul trips for Europeans.

We were in Oman this spring. Our friends in Europe were happy for us, our American friends were horrified. Just my experience.

Clifton

I'm not sure that's it completely, the difference in potential ease of travel, that makes the difference. We, (Americans) don't have it as easy as Europeans, but the most traveled people, as I've read on a couple of surveys anyway, are Australians. You can't get much more isolated than that.

I don't know. Most the people that do ask me about it also bring up the money thing. They never have any (kids or not). Likely raised by people who never considered travel and put no value on it as this generation grew up. We get pretty much a constant barrage of marketing here from birth to grave.

Cars, houses, clothes = material evidence of well being. Experiences don't have the same immediate effect and take more "work" to obtain. People can justify the logic of their decisions best by attempting to make the alternate choices, and those who make them, look wrong.

Hey, you got us to talk to Dori! I'd love to go to India someday. In the meantime, we can sit around as a group and talk about those non-travlers and analyze what in the heck is wrong with them.

USNR

My wife and I depart for India in six weeks. We are well into our 70s. And we get the same response from friends that we got when we told Greek-American friends that we were going to Turkey several years ago.

He responded that he would say a prayer for us (seriously) because of the years and years of anti-Turkish propaganda and downright falsehoods told him by family members.

So if your friends can't understand your willingness to go to India, their attitude tells you more about them than it does about your choices. Just be thankful that you won't have to put up with their whining and moaning should they have been your traveling companions.

We admire the attitude shown by an 85-year-old lady who went with us to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. She was up before dawn, ran us ragged, and could drink us under the table! What a girl!

Sue_xx_yy

Reading the last few posts, I can only say that whatever the benefits of being well-travelled, one cannot count among them the person or people concerned acquiring a sense of irony.

Patrick

Cigalechanta Soprano???

lindilindi

Half of Americans are ignorant, because the other half choose to ignore them rather than educate them.
I suggest that you explain why you are going, and then show them your wonderful pictures when you get back.
Why are people so afraid of sounding their opinion when its different from others???
If you want things to change, change them.

flanneruk

The question was "How do you handle it when people make rude comments about your choice of travel destinations?"

No-one's ever made such a comment to me. And fellow Brits really aren't backwards in coming forward about personal matters.

I suspect I'd just get new friends or colleagues if I had to put up nonsense like that. Dori has my sympathy.

Dori

This past May I was in Barcelona. I met a young man studying there from Columbia. He told me he does not like Americans and would never want to go to America because he thinks Americans have such a misconception about Columbians and that they would be mean to him. In fact, he told me I was the first American he ever talked to. We spent the afternoon together talking and going to lunch. At the end of the day he told me I was very nice and that may be he was wrong about Americans and one day he might visit America. It's nice to know you can sometimes make your little difference in the world, one mind at a time!

kittrdg

Dori - assume most folks are a bit jealous and let's face it we all know plenty of people who never stray from from home their entire lives. Consider yourself to be lucky and healthy enough to enjoy the adventures of foreign travel and do what I did - seek out folks like those on Fodor's to share your insights and questions with.

tcreath

This has happened to me quite often. Most recently was a few weeks ago when I told a coworker that my husband and I are considering a trip to Croatia. She looked at me like I was crazy and asked if I was scared! As stated above, I think people who ask questions like that are the people who think that traveling to Florida each year is exotic (no offense to Florida).

More aggravating to me are the people who make comments about how I must be paid well to afford trips to Europe every year. I hate these comments, and its ridiculous that I feel I have to keep some vacation plans to myself (such as our 4 night jaunt to Rome in December) because I end up feeling guilty by the comments I receive. Again, these are people who usually don't travel outside of the US and have the misconception that any trip to Europe requires tons of money and don't realize that the package I purchased to Rome was cheaper than the trip I took to San Francisco this summer!

I just try to blow them off. I don't like defending myself about any trip I am planning and think its absurd that sometimes we have to do so. My idea of a vacation certainly isn't Disneyworld, but I would never dream of making snide commends. To each their own!