Culture is going to Franconian beer festival with a friend from Baden-Württemberg then almost getting into fisticuffs with an inebriated Franconian because my friend wasn't Franconian and I was an Auslander, but then ten minutes later be toasting, chatting, and laughing with him.

It must be exhausting to be flanner.

Sorry Bluey-culture is not confined how the middle class lives. Each class influences the other and even middle class people differ in how the approach the world.

Most people here are defining culture for their own purposes, how they live, what they are interested in and how the travel, rather than a broader meaning of culture.
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As for Flanny:

I do not think I have seen such a random insult as putting David Axelrod and Walmart in the same coupling. In an attempt to show his knowledge of contemporary American occurrences, he simply throws words and things together to fill the minimum words he needs for a screed.

His other random insult, "grisly New York subscription theatres," shows a total ignorance of the theater. There is everything from Classical Stage Company which presents revivals with well-known actors who work for scale to The Roundabout to tiny experimental troupes. I also assume he is not referring to the dance companies, the symphony, or the Met Opera.

Had to look up David Axelrod, another tax evader

opps, I see Walmart is bit of an evader too

Not to turn this into a political discussion but google corporations that do not pay taxes.

Interesting discussion.

FlannerUK says "It's a perfectly reasonable use of English to talk about "culture" and exclude opera, art galleries, serious theatre and archaeology. If your culture at home doesn't involve that, why waste your life getting involved with it on holiday?"

It strikes me that we want of the culture we are visiting what we want at home. We go to art museums and galleries at home, and we love doing so in other countries. We aren't opera buffs, but we do love other kinds of classical music and have gone to concerts in other countries as we do at home. We go to theatre at home and we like to do so (especially in London) when we are overseas. I've always been fascinated by archaeology and read about the places we plan to visit, and often visit specific places because of the ancient ruins there.

We don't eat fast food at home, and don't eat it when we are traveling either. Having zero interest in sports, I don't go to sporting events at home and wouldn't go when I was in a foreign country.

So we (fortunately) want different things when we travel, just as we want different things at home.

"I'm at a loss as to how these people are defining culture. Do they mean trying to live like a local (difficult when you're in a new city/country every other day)? Are they talking just about cafes and pubs? Or?????"

I think, as mentioned above, this has to do with getting a glimpse of everyday, local life. I enjoy it when it happens. Once, visiting a church in a small Mexican town, I happened upon the town's First Communion Day. Great to watch the kids and the proud parents, and to sample the home cooking at the feast outside following the ceremony.

I find my usual touring strategy,visiting museums, galleries, archaeological sites, churches, mosques and temples, battlefields, cemeteries, castles, walks in the countryside, eating and drinking locally, to be rewarding, but memories of events like the communion sometimes make the trip.

What FD said. In Puno, Peru we stumbled across a parade celebrating somethingorother. Our memory is of what a good time those people were having. Kind of infectious.

I agree that a country's culture is much more than museums - although many museums (not just art, but history museums, folk museums, natural history museums and the many other types found everywhere) are certainly a good place to start for a general perspective.

But the many of the posters asking about "culture" don;t seem to be talking about architecture, social history, current political situation, or any of the literature/arts - based on the very limited knowledge expressed in the posts.

I know someone mentioned that a having a beer in a beer hall is the culture of Munich - and granted that is very typical of the city - but only a minute part of the city's culture. and if that is what you want to do that is fine. But why come here saying you want to experience the culture of the city (in two days) when what you really want to know is where to eat and drink.

I have no problem with people's decisions and desires for their trips - if people just want to go and sit with a million other foreign tourists on a beach downing umbrella drinks for 2 weeks that's just fine - but why are they asking about experiencing the country's culture?

l Iove the passion of all the responses! Culture is definitely a big topic and one of the pulls for people who like to travel. It is the food we crave when we walk out our front door. I am always humbled when I encounter the expressions of another culture. As I write this out there is a picture of 'The David' on the wall of my study. I am so grateful that it still stands in Florence and draws people to gawk at all it conveys. And I weep when I see photos of sledgehammer wielding ISIS members destroying the ancient statues in Mosul. Culture is the fragile and robust echo of human's complex existence. What a gift to taste and see. It is the moveable feast!

elberko nails it, I think. No way you can visit, let's say, six cities in twelve days and appreciate the "local culture" if that means something other than art museums and architecture.

Unless you have a lot of time to stay in one place, I don't think you can get any of the local culture on your first trip to Europe. Most first timers (including me) aren't going to spend all there time in one place on a first trip.

Having visited Italy a lot, I just started feeling the "local culture" a bit on our last trip to Sicily and Napoli, and felt it a bit in Peru on my second long visit there.

We don't say we want to observe the culture, but we are history buffs so historical sites and museums are important to us. Before we travel we read about the history of thesome too so it's natural for us to do it when we travel.

As for art museums, I don't think I really understood the great wealth that Spain derived from the New World until we visited the Prado. An insight into history from looking at art.

We're going back to France and Germany in the fall so I just finished reading two books about the kaisers and two about Napoleon and his nephew Napoleon III. I will never forget how stunned I once was to see the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna. Suddenly European history came to life. And that's why I love Rome--history under every footstep!

Most of the original works in the Prado were from the Spanish domain, which is why there are works by the Dutch. Over the years it has expanded considerably.

So...where do local politics fit in on the historical timelines of culture? Histo-culture? Well I don't know the answer BUT political culture was at it's best in Prague in March, 1993.

The split between CZ Rep. and adjacent Slovakia was 90-days old and we were in Prague as part of a 6-week trip (mostly auto, but also train and bus)through Central and Eastern Europe on a combined "business"/pleasure jaunt.

On a bitter cold, snowy day, we decided to visit Hradcany Castle overlooking the city. After walking through Golden Lane the Hapsburg goldsmiths once plied their trades, as the unusually low wind chill became more uncomfortable. We considered taking a cab back down the hill, but when we walked past the "west wing" of Hradcany where the President-Poet, heroic Vaclav Havel had his "oval" office.

We noticed several TV trucks with antennae, people with professional camera hardware, and my late wife insisted we go into the wing to warm up a bit...we did. There we were among more of the same...reporters/camermen all over the entry hall, all sporting "Press-Foto" badges.

I walked up to a badged woman who had been speaking Engish and German to another reporter and asked what was happening.

"President Havel's Press Conference is set to begin in 15 minutes," sez she. "He's going to meet with the Slovak PM tomorrow and will be prepping the press today."

I walked back to Roz and quickly announced what was happening. Her remark was not unexpected. "Get ready to walk through the security line, we're going to crash this tea party." As a constant co-conspirator at other similar gate-crashings, I was not surprised at her "chutzpah"...but I did ask myself, "what the hell are we getting into here?"

First off, our new found friend, the reporter from Germany, told us to have some ID ready and name who we represent. That was easy. Roz blurted out "The Los Angeles Times" and we took out our driver's licenses hoping that it wasn't enough to get us a warm weekend in a Prague Correctional Institution for whacko Americans.

When the 6'6" Czech trooper reached into his desk draw and drew out two Press-Foto badges, I knew we had pulled it off, thus far. When Roz blatantly pulled out a yellow-lined writing pad while we sat in the all-too-visible 2nd row in the arena style auditorium, I began to believe that we could beat the rap. And we did.

PostScript:
After the conference ended (we didn't understand one word for almost an hour) I was able to take some closeup photos of the now late Havel, a Czech patriot...then we bundled up to get some lunch at a nearby restaurant I noticed that morning...The "Zlaty Hruska" (The Golden Pear)...and wouldn't you know, Havel and his entourage were already seated for lunch at a curtained-off table.

Now we could almost honestly tell people in a stand-offish tone..."Havel? Yeah, we had lunch with him!"

(So that's what political culture was all about?. How quaint).

Please See photo proof below.

https://picasaweb.google.com/stuartt...59333203479570

Press Conference begings at photo #32...but look at them all if you wish...get an idea of how cold ans snowy it was.

stu

What has the above to do with culture, political or not? Especially since you didn't understand a word?

One way in which people mean they are experiencing culture is the way people in one country do things differently than people in the country a visitor comes from. The way people shop at small markets or street markets on a daily basis rather than the weekly trip to the supermarket; the way people stop at a cafe after work and before dinner to have a drink and socialize; the way people gather at a certain spot on a Sunday morning to sing and dance.

Student culture is different from place to place, and as a young traveler, it is interesting to experience the different ways young people meet and entertain themselves.

Talking to people about local attitudes, listening to people's stories, all this is a way of experiencing culture. I have read posts here that question whether people actually have the sort of cultural encounters I have described here, and I can only assure these posters that at least in my experience, they do happen, especially if one is open to them.

What I find the most puzzling is the attitude that people can not possibly encounter cultural differences in the way they say they want to. I have respect for people's ideas about travel, and if they say that a way of experiencing culture is to see the way people live, I take them at their word.

That's a great story Tower!

And I'm "always leery" of people who have decided that the time it takes people to do something is always the same regardless of who the people are.