One of the blogs I read, one that is written by someone who is not an American, suggested that Americans have a very narrow vision of the world, and that we are rather unaware of the world in general. In some ways I'd agree with the author, but I was quick to point out that it can take Americans a LONG TIME just to get to their own borders. We are a surprisingly well traveled community, but we may be less well traveled than our counterparts in Europe, simply because we have to travel so far to get out of our own country.
With that in mind......here is a list of the cities that my oldest niece will visit in the next few days:
Almaty (Kazakhstan), Atarau, Uralsk, Astana (the capital of Kazakhstan),
Istanbul, Ankara, Turkey,
Baku (the capital of Azerbaijan),
then Moscow, London and finally, Perth, Australia.
Not bad for a little Midwestern girl, huh??? *G*
I may be the least well-traveled of my family, and I've been to Western Europe and England twice, and I've been to Canada a number of times. I hope there will be more travel (both inside and outside the US), in my future, and I can promise that I will be a well mannered tourist. I may not be able to speak your language, but I'll do my best to know your customs and behave myself.
I'll have to give it some thought and compile a list of places in the world my family has visited. I think South America may come off with the fewest hits. We've managed to cover almost every other continent except the Antarctic! Way to go, family!
Comments (4)
and it's not just the distance you have to consider either but cost! when you live in the middle of such an enormous place it does tend to be expensive to get over those borders!
Posted by bod | January 14, 2008 4:32 PM
Posted on January 14, 2008 16:32
You're absolutely right, bod! It's not so bad getting out of Chicago, but in Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, North and South Dakota and some of the other central plains states, there are a lot fewer flights scheduled, and they have to cover half the country just to get to a coast. With the cost of gas as high as it is, I suspect there's a lot less long distance vacation travel than there once was. We'll have to hope that we keep our eyes open to what's happening in the world, even though we stay at home.
Posted by Registered User
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January 15, 2008 7:41 PM
Posted on January 15, 2008 19:41
In looking at time zones, it seems that Europe occupies 4 - the US occupies 4 (without Alaska or Hawaii). Russia is the heavyweight though at 11 time zones. I think that helps illustrate the difference in size of the countries.
Posted by bogie | January 16, 2008 4:20 AM
Posted on January 16, 2008 04:20
Bogie, I've never looked at Europe from a time-zone perspective. I suppose if you are flying from England to Bosnia, that's like travel in the US. Your point works if you look at Europe as an entity, rather than looking at it as individual nations.
I'd be the first to admit that there are huge numbers of Americans who never get further away from home than 12 blocks, but, as a whole, I think we are more well-traveled than most people realize.
My niece and her husband will be living in Kazakhstan later this year. This particular couple, who consider themselves to be Americans, are actually the front wave of what will become global citizenry. I don't think that global citizenship will happen in MY lifetime, but I don't think it's far off.
Posted by Registered User
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January 16, 2008 8:06 AM
Posted on January 16, 2008 08:06