Wanderlust

[oloriel]

One of the secretaries is going on a two-week trip to Brittany, France.

As my boss has travelled to France about a thousand times, she's gone to his office in order to get some insider information on where she absolutely should go, what she can safely miss, etc.

Guess where that office is? Yup, right next door to my desk. For over an hour now, I have been hearing second-hand travel advice to Brittany.

The result, of course, is that I WANT TO GO TO FRANCE, LIKE, NOW. *whimpers*

Personally I think this counts as "cruel and unusual".

*fingertwitch* I could just drive to France instead of university this afternoon. That's only like, three or four... ok, it's Friday, so perhaps five... hours. Yes. No. ARGH.

(The scary bit is that I actually could. THIS. IS. EUROPE.)

Comments

[etoilepb.livejournal.com]

Many Europeans wonder why we Americans don't see much of the world, but it's a 7-hour flight to London or a 9-hour flight to continental Europe if you start from Boston / NYC / DC...

I wanna go to France, too. If it was within driving distance, I probably would!

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

And you may well need 7 ours to even reach your immediate neighbouring countries! When I was younger I found that incredibly hard to imagine.
(Although to be fair it seems to me that, relatively speaking, more Europeans have been to America than Americans have been to Europe, even though the flight is no shorter in the other direction! ;))

If I were to fill my car's tank and drive for seven hours, I'd be out of my country. No matter what direction I chose. From where I live it's about three to four hours to Denmark, one and a half to the Netherlands or Belgium, three to France, three to Luxemburg, six to Switzerland, seven to Austria, six to the Czech Republic or Poland.
And that's by car - not counting fast trains or cheap flights...
Occasionally I forget how lucky we Europeans are.

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

It's about six hours from where I'm sitting to Mexico. When I'm home in Tucson, it's about two. I've made the trip many times, but not so much recently, as Mexico's political situation is unsettled, and it can be dangerous for non-Spanish speaking Gringos to travel there.

On the other hand, I have been to Europe... and never, so far as I can recall, to Canada.

[etoilepb.livejournal.com]

From where I grew up you could be in Canada in an 8-10 -hour drive, but from where I live now, yeah, either Canada or Mexico would both be day-long drives.

As for Europeans tend to come here more than we go there, it's becuse on your side of the ocean, they value vacation time. Most of us under 40, if we get vacation time, get 10 days per year. Yes, ten. That doesn't include Christmas, July 4th, and other federal holidays, but it *does* include any time we want to take around those (like December 24 or 26).

It means that if you want to have the time to get to Europe and back, and enjoy being there, you have to sacrifice the entire rest of the year. It's why I haven't been since I stopped being a student.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

That definitely makes sense. >_>

[eruannath.livejournal.com]

The scary bit is that I actually could. THIS. IS. EUROPE.

That is amazing...

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

It IS. For all my whining about the EU and its stupid decrees, I shouldn't forget the advantages of living in the middle of Free United Europe: Easy travel because of a) relatively short distances (ok, that's geography, not anything the EU brought about), b) easy border crossing (as in, most of the time all you see of the border is a sign saying "DENMARK. General speed limit: 110 km/h on freeways, 70 km/h off freeways, 50 km/h within towns" or something) without passport control or customs, and very often (though not always) a common currency...

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I can't recall that I have ever had any desire to travel to France. At least, not since I actually did so.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

To each their own. Can't say I'm interested in Mexico, myself ;)

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

The truth is, I'm not particularly interested in Mexico, either, as demonstrated by the fact that I don't speak Spanish, in spite of it being so prevalent in Southern Arizona.

The Sea of Cortez, however... that I'm interested in. Great diving, great snorkeling, great sailing....

I have often thought that the US should have just shelled out the little extra for Baja California, and extended Arizona all the way down to Rocky Point.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

But if all that was Arizona now, you'd never have been to Mexico? ;)

Oh, you don't have to speak the language in order to be interested. Germans travel to Majorca by the thousands without doing any better than "buenos dias", "por favor", and "sangria"...

[yoodi.livejournal.com]

Europe rocks. 'Nuff said.

[independence1776]

The scary bit is that I actually could. THIS. IS. EUROPE.

And I'm slightly jealous. Just a few years ago, I lived in Florida. Most of my extended family lives in Michigan. It's an 18 hour car trip. It's a five day drive coast to coast. The US is huge.

I've actually been to Europe (Spain and France only), and I'd love to go to the former. The latter didn't impress me, but my school group never left the touristy areas of Paris, so that could have something to do with it. And one of these years, I will be visiting England.