Travel - Backpacker
I don't mind staying at backpackers/youth hostels, but outside the doors of my hostel I strive to become invisable, to blend in.
I try not to carry a back pack. I keep my camera in my pocket and take photos carefully and quickly. I learn essential elements of the language, this includes enough knowledge of the language to keep the average stranger from discovering that I really am a global tourist.
Often I am embarassed around other Americans or near heavily touristic areas. I avoid them as much as possible other than the initial first glance. I lose myself to the local nature and surrounding neighborhoods.
Some of my favourite places to visit in other countries are the local grocery stores. Here I can often find the escape that I am looking for from loud tourism, and I can see some local culture played out right in front of me. I try the local vegetables and fruit. I discover the prices and the way the scale works, (do I need to weigh my own produce?) I trick the cashier into thinking I am not a tourist by clever dialouge and polite discourse. And I walk out with the cheapest meal in town. McDonalds is not even an option.
I travel to see other culture and assimilate to my surroundings as best as possible wherever I go. I want to be highly capable of adaptation to each cultural event/situation. But yet I still love the backpackers/youth hostel where the travelers share their stories and travel advice.
In Lisbon I met a man in his upper twenties who was from Serbia. He told me first hand his experiences of life as a teenager in his country while bombs affected and threatened his life and the lives around him. Under Mt. Blanc I questioned a white South African about life in Johannesburg, and I learned from his point of view. In New Zealand, I met other europeans and they would tell me about their views on Bush and America. Everywhere I went I learned about what it was like to experience these global trends from the specific points of view, young and old, men and women of different countries and religions, students, backpackers and those with professional jobs.
I feel that I learn about life through other people and the books will expand my curiosity of the world and send me on my way again.