Foreign Travel?

[WinterDeere]

When a cute 20 year old Italian girl approaches a middle-aged American man asking for directions, or to borrow his phone, you're about to see someone lose their wallet or phone.

 

[kenmbz]

funniest was in Rome when I was about 20 (yes, a long time ago), we approached a very pretty young lady and got charged by her chaperone from across a large square.
I had never seen a women that large move so fast before.

 

[JasperFrank]

Naples was not too bad, just like anywhere, know where not to be at night.
Train station is not marked well, ask for some help and you become very welcome and people will walk you over and make sure you get on the right train.

Paris used to be bad for "welcoming" but not so bad last time we were there.
Pickpockets and people watching our luggage was pretty funny, when we start to stare back.

No pocketbooks for the ladies and no fanny packs and all is well in most places.

"ask for some help and you become very welcome and people will walk you over and make sure you get on the right train. Italians are very good about this. They go out of their way to help you. I do love that country, cause they act that way. It is in their nature.

 

[NoTrespassing]

This is typical in Manila. Security is very tight there, metal detectors at all mall entrances etc. I don't know if the guns are loaded but I wouldn't want to find out the hard way.

 

[California]

I knew I had been in Venezuela too long (in Maracaibo, where the New Jersey refineries sourced their petroleum back then) - when I greeted an obvious newly arrived Texan oilman and his family, and got a cold rejection.

But on the other hand I enjoyed going to see regional villages by bus on my Sunday's off, and a coffee shop waitress out in the boondocks admiringly asked if I were a Spaniard due to an accent she hadn't heard before.

Long ago and far away. Nothing is the same there now.

 

[WinterDeere]

Long ago and far away. Nothing is the same there now.

That's a problem, everywhere. Even 80+ years ago, Hemingway was lamenting the fact that by writing about the running of the bulls, he essentially destroyed everything he loved about Pamplona.

The world used to be so much more varied and interesting, before global mass media started causing worldwide homoginization.

 

[kenmbz]

It's still pretty wild outside the cities though.
One of the differences in working within a country vs. just visiting.

I have been way off the beaten path in a lot of countries.

But yes, the global access to internet and media has deeply affected a lot of places.
Can really see it in Japan and especially parts of Europe.
Seeing crowds in foreign dress (compared to normal European dress). Restaurants that look like anything you might find in a US strip mall, etc.

In Japan, there is less bowing, but also less mumbled Gaijins.
Japanese food is also changing.
China has modernized and instead of bicycles everywhere like when my wife worked there, now it's clogged with cars in Beijing.

Everything changes over time, but in the last 30 years it has accelerated.

London looks so different then when I first went there in the 80's , even the south side of the Thames is all rebuilt and nice.

 

[California]

global access to internet and media has deeply affected a lot of places.

Fer sure!
Friends visited from Ecuador and brought a young lady who just graduated from university, to be nanny for their toddler. She said she had visited NYC and wanted to see San Francisco. She has approximately zero English (and fits the profile ICE is picking up, Latino people who arrive on a tourist visa with no convincing reason to return home) so I was asked to chaperone her for a day of tourism in San Francisco.

She dressed hottie style, something we hadn't seen before. As we approached SF on the bus she got excited and photographed a women's clothing store (Nordstrom's?) that she said all her friends photograph and consider essential to visit when they come to the US.

When we got to San Francisco she pulled out a list of sites to see ... all the places the recent Barbie movie was filmed. She posed at each for her Instagram, instant cred! Later I saw only one of the photos, one I had taken for her with her camera, it had a rainbow of stars over her head, and music.

Next day she was back to unassuming nanny with her nose in her phone. Apparently Zuckerberg's Instagram is her reality. In Spanish.

​

 

[California]

I just mentioned introducing the tourist sites of San Francisco to someone who had never been there.

If anyone is interested in San Francisco tourism, below is a YouTube video that approximates where we went.

My photo in the previous post is at Palace of Fine Arts (restored, originally built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition). Then Pier 39 and the Ghirardelli Chocolate factory building, (now tourist shops), the USNPS Maritime Museum, photos at the Hyde Cable Car terminus, and the Waymo driverless taxis. Shopping in Chinatown, and Market Street.

Views across the Bay to Berkeley, Oakland, Alcatraz Island, Marin.

Then - exceding what the YouTube tourists (below) did in a day - a rock concert in Golden Gate Park, Japanese Tea Garden, the DeYoung Museum. Back across the park to catch the Muni bus to Golden Gate Bridge Toll Plaza where we used the final credit on our $20 bus passes for the hour trip north up the freeway. Parking at any of our stops could have cost that much.

We went everywhere in the City on Muni buses same as the locals would do it, avoiding the nightmare of time wasted searching for parking when there isn't any.

For anyone who wants to duplicate this ... Enjoy!

Stock photo. It was becoming night when we got here.

Golden Gate Bridge Plaza (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

Some happy tourists.

 

[kenmbz]

We were so disappointed in down town SF as to how run down it was and how many homeless wandering the streets, most of the stores by the Palace hotel/Market st. were closed down.
The Palace hotel, which used to be so expensive it was mind boggling, is now cheap and empty. We stayed there and it's an amazing place, that we hope can stay in business.
The pier has become a strip mall and if you take the trolly buses after dark, you better know where to get off.
The parks still look great like the fine arts palace and presidio. But getting out to Muir was very welcome. Even though you have to reserve a spot in advance.
The tourist areas were still full during the day and safe. Same as when you got out of the market st area.
Not having been there in a few years, the difference was striking.