I know that I may ruffle a few feathers with this post, but I don't care, truly. My home-folk can get pissed with me for what I am going to say, but hopefully you will reflect on it and those of you to whom this is applicable will have to acknowledge, somewhere deep inside, that this is YOU!
I've been traveling and living in Europe, mostly Scandinavia for many years and when I'm on tour I spend most of my life in hotels and airports. During the endless hours I spend waiting for flights or having breakfast, lunch or dinner in the hotel or local restaurants, I enjoy people watching. I find mankind fascinating and quite curious. People from all walks of life and from nations far and wide can be an interesting and quirky lot. But, vive la difference!! The things that make us all so different, make us all so special. But...of course there is a but and a big BUT! I often, on way too many occasions, find myself cringing at listening to my fellow countrymen on my travels. Just this morning I sat enjoying a lovely breakfast while listening to a table of American tourists visiting Norway, bitching about the fact that they had to "suffer through" eating this European breakfast. Where was the American style breakfast they were used to? Why does this hotel have these strange foods for breakfast? Because you're in NORWAY!!!!! This is what Norwegians eat for breakfast!! You want pancakes, STAY HOME!! Why do we expect people to conform to the way we do things in their own country? 20 minutes ago, I stepped outside to take a walk through Oslo center, because the weather is spectacular and on the West Coast we haven't had much of a summer. As I am strolling down the street, window shopping, I see the same group of my countrymen standing outside of the hotel, looking up and down the street, and they looked a bit confused. Being from the South, my manners kicked in and I asked if they needed some help. They proceeded to complain to me saying that they were looking to find someplace to eat that had "normal" food. Seriously? "Normal" food? I asked them what exactly did they categorize as "normal" food? This country has some of the best seafood in the world, the beef, pork and poultry is all free range and there are no factory farms. The produce is mostly grown right here in Norway with very strict rules on anything that has to be imported. I'm from Louisiana where we eat turtles, alligators and some folks in Southern Louisiana eat far stranger things than could ever be imagined here! One of them spotted a TGI Friday's a half block away and they were on cloud nine! I had to just walk away before I said something less than polite about this jaded, silly behavior.
The reason we travel abroad is to experience the lives, culture and food of others. Why cross the Atlantic Ocean to find a TGI Friday's or McDonald's? You don't have to like everything that you try, but at least TRY. Explore life a bit. The world would be a much better place if we stop being so critical of other people's way of life and just try to understand it. It's rude to go to someone else's country and complain about how it's not like home. It's not supposed to be like home. If that's what you're looking for, STAY HOME!!
Later-fa-you!
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I could`nt be more agree with you.
ReplyDeleteIt`s sad that they come here and expect it too be just like their own country.
And also very childish too say that the norwegian breakfast did`nt taste like the things they eat at home.