Well, yeah I can see where that saying about youth being wasted on the young comes from. But I wonder about the complaining travelers. Travel seems wasted on some of them. When I returned home from my recent tour of the Baltic capitals I was standing at baggage claim next to a woman wearing an Italy t-shirt.
"I take it you are returning home from Italy."
Please notice my clever powers of observation.
"Did you LOVE it? I've been twice and cannot wait to go again! What was your favorite thing? Where did you go? (I can get excited about travel no matter how exhausted I am.) Isn't it the most beautiful place! Did you cry when it was time to come home?"
Bags went round and round in front of us as she tried to grasp my enthusiasm.
She stared blankly at me.
"Well...you know...I just didn't really like it that much. I mean the bathroom situation...everything is so different. They are speaking a different language."
She made this last statement with a childish look of surprise.
"But surely you must have liked something..."
"You know...the food was pretty good..."
As she talked I began to be more and more interested in where my bag might be...
"...I mean, I just wouldn't go back..."
OMG OMG --I see my bag! I've never been so excited to see my bag come around on the belt before. Are these the people who are clogging up the airports and museums? People who could be just as happy with a Big Mac watching American Idol?
Where does this idea of the Ugly American come from? From the woman at baggage claim and other travelers like her.
Only Americans travel the world and expect everything to be just like home only maybe with a pyramid or the Eiffel Tower...
People. We call it Vegas.
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