Well? What does travel mean to you?

cruais

Travel for me is to get on a little green plane and get the feck outta this little green island for a fewdays/weeks.

I love the holiday vibe you get the minute you have landed, the sun, the sand, the sea, the smell of sun creams, the feeling you have to get all romantic with himself ;-), food, drink and site seeing! Pure bliss!

Sappa

Sappa wrote: »

The whole point of travel is living in a different country for a while without your dummie to suck on.

In your opinion.

fortwilliam

Cadburys Chocolate Fingres...

Larianne

Stepping off a plane, boat or train knowing nobody knows me and the feeling of not knowing what to expect.

Experiencing the food, the people, the country's culture and comparing it to others. Looking at the architecture. Trying to figure out the public transport.

Making friends with the locals and sometimes brought to places you'd never find yourself.

Go looking for a magnet to stick on the fridge for when you get home.

hondasam

Time to relax and enjoy different things, get away from everyday life. As much as I like to travel I love when it's time to get back home again.
If I'm on a city break I would research it first and mark the places I want to see and then often get sidetracked and do something the total opposite of what I had planned.
I love the buzz of the airport and people watching.

Dudess

Sappa wrote: »

Ehh no you shouldn't,the whole point of travel is living in a different country for a while without your dummie to suck on.

No it isn't. It's what you personally make it.

kissthesky

I love going to a really out of the way place, maybe off the beaten path in the middle of the jungle somewhere that takes about 3 days through malaria infested swamps and and making my way upriver while dodging opportunistic cannibals. Its all worthwhile when I watch the sun rising and the morning mist is beginning to lift.
Then, if I'm lucky , I'll find an ancient monument that has hidden beneath the vines for millennia and unseen to human eyes for centuries. After carefully examining this wonder of the world for signs of damp/mildew
I BLAST IT WITH PISS and then laugh at the Gods on whose behalf countless tribemembers were sacrificed. I then cover it up again and sheepishly head for home thru the aforementioned swamps, cannibals etc

fortwilliam

kissthesky wrote: »

I love going to a really out of the way place, maybe off the beaten path in the middle of the jungle somewhere that takes about 3 days through malaria infested swamps and and making my way upriver while dodging opportunistic cannibals.

That is where I live right now !

Eve_Dublin

I love travelling and why? I'm a people watcher and just love to wander round observing how the locals go about their business and how they enjoy themselves. Love watching their body language, how they flirt, how they argue, how they relax, how they are with their kids or how kids are with their parents and how old people spend their day. Love comparing and contrasting to what I come from.


I love the feel of a new place and I love me grub. Love going somewhere local and trying out what they'd eat regularly. Love the sound of a different language around me and guessing what they could be talking about from intonation and body language.

Love getting into random chats with the locals if we've a common language. Love finding something in common to laugh about and feeling a sense of unity with them and realising we're not all that different regardless of where you go.


If I've been away long enough, I always try to find similarities to home to stave off homesickness. Travelled around S. America on my own for 11 months and on occasion I'd seek out the familiar to not feel so alone.

I love travelling because it takes me out of myself and give myself a break from being me in my own world.

I've seriously itchy feet and hope I get going again soon....

LH Pathe

Travel is.. sitting down in my favourite armchair to think outlandish thoughts

Jesus Wept

Going door to door offering to sharpen things for people.

Smidge

Ordinary architecture
And by that I mean not just the "Big" stuff like The Eiffel tower etc,
The side streets
The beautiful old houses that have been around for hundreds of years and still have people living their lives in them

dave3004

Experiencing a different outlook/perspective on life for a few weeks/months.

eth0

Sitting on a plane for at least 5 hours to get to a place where everyone speaks English

Work in some dingey shop that pays half the minimum wage until your visa expires

Hang out in pubs full of Irish people acting the gobsh1te

Shag random beours from whatever country you visit, smoke weed while in their crappy insect infested apartments.

Go home and spout off about your enlightening cultural experiences you had with these beours you shagged, call people who don't do the same thing as you did insular backward ould fools.

revell

constipation

NakedNNettles

diarrhea

Eve_Dublin

revell wrote: »

constipation

Constipation? You lucky, lucky bastard...I would've loved some constipation back then I would, particularly when I was poo-pooing out of me arse and simultaneously puking into the sink after being struck with food-poisoning for the trillionth time....

BraziliaNZ

Who am I kidding to me it means getting f*cked up in different cities and trying to sleep with the locals

Eve_Dublin

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

Who am I kidding to me it means getting f*cked up in different cities and trying to sleep with the locals

Ah yeah there's that too

seanmc1980

new adventures and experiences

Mickey Dazzler

Having sex with Asians.

Dudess

Dudess wrote: »

No it isn't. It's what you personally make it.

The poster on about pampering is talking about holidays.. If she goes to spain and sits on a beach, thats a holiday. Not travel.

"A stinking hot south east asian city" shows that she thinks the world is Ireland and a few other nice places to relax.

Cee-Jay-Cee

99% of the time when people 'travel' theyre on holidays and so dont have to work or get up early in the morning, they can eat out every day and generally relax and do nothing. At least thats what i enjoy most about 'travelling' and oh yeah going somewhere that you can at least be semi guaranteed a bit of decent weather (I knows it 26deg here today but io'm at work so it doesnt count!)

Agricola

Travel to me is experiencing something you cannot at home.
Its stepping off the plane into a furnace, where the airport tarmac seems liquid from the heat haze. Its getting lost in deserted, narrow winding streets and battling your way through open markets which are rammed full of plodding tourists, bored looking locals and over-eager hawkers. Its walking into an ancient temple or a cavernous cathedral and marvelling at the scale and detail. Its standing in a place or touching an object that people stood in or touched thousands of years before you. Its turning a corner and seeing that picture postcard shot that you've known all your life but have never seen in the flesh until now. Its also about experiencing a different kind of amazing natural beauty to the one we have here at home.

Other cherries on this travel cake would include dropping into Irish pubs to drink overpriced Guinness and to complain about cost of it, deciphering menus and finding something to eat that wont look back at you from the plate, and sitting in a street side restaurant, or overlooking a turquoise sea late into the evening, with a warm breeze and good company.

Now I want to go book something!

Dudess

Deleted User wrote: »

The poster on about pampering is talking about holidays.. If she goes to spain and sits on a beach, thats a holiday. Not travel.

"A stinking hot south east asian city" shows that she thinks the world is Ireland and a few other nice places to relax.

No it doesn't. Why are you pretending not to know my username and referring me in the third person btw? The OP asked what travel means to people - it means different things. I just gave my take and I should have known it would get jumped on by the "I'm better than you, I lived in a hut in Tibet" crew. Each to their own - as I already said. If someone gets enjoyment out of roughing it in a searing hot climate, that's them. It would not appeal to me, that's all

Chamone MF

Personally I never leave the first world. I don't want to be kidnapped by a corrupt police force for drugs I never had, or have my head chopped off as part of a ceremony.

In the wise words of Karl Pilkington: 'I can't be doin with this'.

Teyla Emmagan

New and exciting food. And old and exciting buildings. And just being able to soak up the atmosphere of a place - cities that have souls of their own that you get to know by spending a few days sitting in parks and wandering through narrow winding streets and drinking wine while you people watch, learning the smell and the noises that make each place unique. Standing in a site of such natural beauty that your breath is taken away and you wonder at how lucky you are to live in such an awe inspiring world. Walking though somewhere mentioned in the Old Testament. Marvelling at other nation's public transport networks. Being able to take your time, in art galleries or on walking tours - not having to rush everywhere. Listening to Roger Moore walking you through the Forbidden Palace. Sitting by shady rivers watching ducks. Having a day full of brilliant new experiences instead of your usual 9 to 5 routine. And being able to choose a new restaurant/cafe/noodle stall for each and every meal.

Eve_Dublin

Deleted User wrote: »

The poster on about pampering is talking about holidays.. If she goes to spain and sits on a beach, thats a holiday. Not travel.

"A stinking hot south east asian city" shows that she thinks the world is Ireland and a few other nice places to relax.

Spent 11 months in South America and it was an 11 month long holiday. To pretend it was anything more than that is pretentious.

Red Hand

I read a lot about different countries/cultures as a child and I'm afraid the few places I have been have been pleasant, but a little disappointing, if that makes sense. So, to me traveling, means getting on an airplane, getting off the airplane, sleeping in a different bed, wandering around a city that is unfamiliar, looking at stuff that I have already read about/heard about, seeing more people of a different nationality than I would usually, eating food that I usually wouldn't and then going home again.

I can kind of understand people who travel so as to end up "living in a hut in Tibet" as Dudess puts it, in that they want to experience the "other"...but at the end of the day, people are people, they eat food, sleep in beds and work, so trying to genuinely experience "the other" is difficult. Maybe if there were neolithic people still around.:P

Getting drunk and watching TV in a different timezone.:P Sums it up!

Sappa

Ads by Google wrote: »

Dudess wrote: »

No it isn't. It's what you personally make it.

The poster on about pampering is talking about holidays.. If she goes to spain and sits on a beach, thats a holiday. Not travel.

"A stinking hot south east asian city" shows that she thinks the world is Ireland and a few other nice places to relax.

Couldn't agree more with ya,there the very type who go abroad and look down there nose at the local population if it does not conform to her inflated self standards.

im invisible

Its funny, but everywhere i go, there i am.

Scanlas The 2nd

beks101 wrote: »

Learning something new about the world and about myself.

What have you learnt about yourself on your travels thus far?

Eve_Dublin

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

Spent 11 months in South America and it was an 11 month long holiday. To pretend it was anything more than that is pretentious.

Unless you spent 11 months in one resort, I think you did a bit more than go on a holiday. What's pretentious about saying 11 months travelling around south america is "travelling".?

Dudess

Sappa wrote: »

Ads by Google wrote: »

Dudess wrote: »

No it isn't. It's what you personally make it.

The poster on about pampering is talking about holidays.. If she goes to spain and sits on a beach, thats a holiday. Not travel.

"A stinking hot south east asian city" shows that she thinks the world is Ireland and a few other nice places to relax.

Couldn't agree more with ya,there the very type who go abroad and look down there nose at the local population if it does not conform to her inflated self standards.

Are "they"? Not that you have the faintest f'ucking clue about me, but a quick scan of your previous posts would easily reveal you're the last person who's in a position to bemoan people looking down their noses at others. Travel for me means enjoying myself, not being tediously pompous about how much I test myself in an inhospitable climate and then, oh yeah, looking down my nose at people who don't...

OP, you asked what does travel mean to individuals, as in, their personal take - unsurprisingly a handful of people have taken it upon themselves to tell others that their personal take is wrong (which is retarded - how can a personal take be "wrong"?) and have also advised people of other stuff they think, despite presumably not being mind-readers.

Dudess

Agricola wrote: »

Travel to me is experiencing something you cannot at home.
Its stepping off the plane into a furnace, where the airport tarmac seems liquid from the heat haze. Its getting lost in deserted, narrow winding streets and battling your way through open markets which are rammed full of plodding tourists, bored looking locals and over-eager hawkers.

The rest of your post is wonderful but the above is sheer awfulness IMO - however in order not to appear a philistine, better pretend I'd like it. :pac:
Amusing the way travel know-alls think they're the ones so full of independent thought, when they're sleep-inducingly conformist...

sunflower27

I love travelling and have been to a lot of places. It is one of my favourite things

old hippy

Travel for me, also means getting away from the incestuous, hateful backstabbing, one upmanship you find on these forums :D

old hippy

eth0 wrote: »

Sitting on a plane for at least 5 hours to get to a place where everyone speaks English

Work in some dingey shop that pays half the minimum wage until your visa expires

Hang out in pubs full of Irish people acting the gobsh1te

Shag random beours from whatever country you visit, smoke weed while in their crappy insect infested apartments.

Go home and spout off about your enlightening cultural experiences you had with these beours you shagged, call people who don't do the same thing as you did insular backward ould fools.

That's for insecure teens and twentysomethings, though.

Balmed Out

To me its seeing diggerent places and cultures, meeting different peoples who look at things differently then I do. I get itchy feet every know and then and have an urge to experience something different.


What I enjoy about it most is the appreciation it gives me for Ireland and the Irish people when I go back home. Its a nice reminder that despite what many say we do have it very, very good.

Agricola

Dudess wrote: »

The rest of your post is wonderful but the above is sheer awfulness IMO - however in order not to appear a philistine, better pretend I'd like it. :pac:
Amusing the way travel know-alls think they're the ones so full of independent thought, when they're sleep-inducingly conformist...

I didnt venture past Irish or British shores untill I was 25 and 5 years on Im still relatively so poorly travelled compared to lots of people 10 years younger than me, that it would be almost embarrassing if I actually gave a shít in the first place.
To say Im a travel know it all is very wide off the mark. I simply know what I like and in the last few years Ive been to a selection of places that scratch that travel itch. Great weather and a different street culture are small parts of that, they are different, as I said from the outset. Im sorry if you find that pretentious / conformist. As you said to the previous poster, you don't have a f***ing clue about me though so.....

Dudess

That wasn't aimed at you!

Dudess

Dudess wrote: »

The rest of your post is wonderful but the above is sheer awfulness IMO - however in order not to appear a philistine, better pretend I'd like it. :pac:
Amusing the way travel know-alls think they're the ones so full of independent thought, when they're sleep-inducingly conformist...

You just seem to have a massive issue with "travellers".

paul_mcshane

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

What have you learnt about yourself on your travels thus far?

ive learned that most nationalitys are not as friendly or nosey as irish people

SIR PEADO BAILOUT

paul_mcshane wrote: »

ive learned that most nationalitys are not as friendly or nosey as irish people

and youd know dat

vangoz

Leaving all my worries and daily stress's behind me. It's a wonderful feeling knowing for the next x weeks/months there is not a single thing I have to care about.

Meeting new people, even the assholes to put others in perspective.

The ebb and flow of a different city, just how people mingle, interact and go about their daily business

FOOD!!!! Just tastes I would never have tried before, even if its bad.

BOOZE!!! No need to explain this one.

The excitement of the unknown

---

One thing I hate about travelling is how more smug it can make certain types of people. I suppose they were D1cks to begin with, in another life they'd be smug about cars, books, movies... you get the point.

Dudess

^^^

Can't believe you didn't include the mandatory-on-After-Hours "snatch"! What kind of "man" are you...? :pac:

Deleted User wrote: »

You just seem to have a massive issue with "travellers".

People who go to far-flung places for long periods of time, backpacking, roughing it, etc? Not in the slightest - if they don't use it as currency to look down on people for not being as "enlightened" as they are. And if they bear in mind that their appreciation for such a lifestyle isn't going to be shared by everyone - because people are different, not necessarily because those who don't enjoy what they do are narrowminded. I can confidently state I'm not narrowminded - but I just wouldn't enjoy the experience of hiking through the Andes or whatever.
I have no interest in beach holidays either. I wouldn't take more than a weekend away in Ireland unless there was a cast-iron guarantee of nice weather.
I like cities where you're not suffocating with the heat mixed with congestion. I wouldn't go to New York during hot weather. And while I like sea/countryside, I don't like them in extremely hot weather. That's just me - pale and Irish, not gonna pretend I've the constitution for searing heat.

Getting drunk and watching TV in a different timezone.:P Sums it up!

Yep. :pac:

Sappa

Dudess wrote: »

That wasn't aimed at you!

I have met ladies like you carrying the hair straightner on a trek,moaning how you hate the heat and would rather a gossip mag and a sundeck,that may be your type of travel but please stop knocking others if we choose to venture into these sweat pit markets to experience a real change of comfort.

aaronjumper

Trying the food I'd say. I have always loved pasta but actually eating the real stuff when I was there was just. . . great.

Novella

I love the buzz of the airport and the feeling that when you're away from home, out of your comfort zone, anything is possible. It feels magical.

Dudess

Sappa wrote: »

Dudess wrote: »

That wasn't aimed at you!

I have met ladies like you carrying the hair straightner on a trek,moaning how you hate the heat and would rather a gossip mag and a sundeck,that may be your type of travel but please stop knocking others if we choose to venture into these sweat pit markets to experience a real change of comfort.

Obviously you have the comprehensional skills to grasp that I haven't knocked anyone.
Tip re your trolling at the start: try to be more subtle.