Comments on: Travellin’ Travellin’ Travellin’ (Spendin’ Spendin’ Spendin’)

By: la_di_da

la_di_da — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:58:41 +0000

@Robin I agree with navigateher, for serious? It’s not so much that we don’t want to go, as much as it takes crossing oceans and spending 3 or 4 months worth of rent just to get there.

That being said, living in NYC means that its $120 round trip to Montreal, which is my next vacation. That is the closest “foreign” country I’ve got.

By: Liz McClendon@twitter

Liz McClendon@twitter — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:33:23 +0000

TIL Logan lived in Norfolk (in Ghent?).

Why would you ever fly to NYC from Norfolk when you could have taken the Chinatown bus for $40 round trip? It only took an alarmingly quick 5 hours sometimes on Apex Bus (probably part of the reason they got shut down). I have heard of the mythical $1 fares, too, but never actually found them.

By: navigateher

navigateher — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:50:50 +0000

@bgprincipessa Agreed, it takes me an hour or two to get to several European capitals, and for as little $50-$100. It’s so easy and cheap that going to for example Tallinn or Stockholm doesn’t really even count as “travelling” in here. Flights to some destinations can sometimes be a lot more expensive though than in Central Europe or USA.

By: bgprincipessa

bgprincipessa — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 12:39:41 +0000

@navigateher I completely agree with what you said here. Family and friend obligations can make it very difficult to plan travel strictly for fun to where YOU want to go – and this isn’t a complaint! I understand and am grateful that I have family/friends that want to see me. Also, I don’t think it’s fair to say we don’t like to travel outside of our country – do you have any idea how big this country is? It’s much easier to travel from one country to another in, for example, Europe, as the countries are much more systemized together (EU) and usually closer together.

By: navigateher

navigateher — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:28:00 +0000

@Robin Seriously? Just because someone hasn’t been travelling outside their home country a lot during a certain period doesn’t mean they wouldn’t like to, I thought this much was obvious. There are numerous factors, such as time (!) and money (!) that prohibit people from doing what they want to. Also, if you have to travel inside your own country as much as Logan for example (family & friends in different states, travel for studies, work etc.) there’s not that much money left to travel anywhere else. I think this piece made at least that very clear.

By: Logan Sachon

Logan Sachon — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 03:01:49 +0000

i don’t know that you’re supposed to get anything, but to be clear: i love travelling outside the u.s. but, hard/expensive to do in a weekend!

By: DillyBean

DillyBean — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 00:26:20 +0000

To the extent that you can generalize from the experience of one person to a country with a population of 311 million. Also, depending on where you live, the nearest foreign country can be very, very far away. I live in Maine, and aside from Canada, the nearest foreign countries are all about 1000 miles away.

By: Robin

Robin — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:58:55 +0000

So… Americans really hate travelling outside of the USA. Is that what I’m supposed to get from this?

By: probs

probs — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:12:54 +0000

@Logan Sachon it is a bummer, because I want to like the train, but instead I hate it. As noted by RachelG, the Northeast Regional is a big exception. I took the train from Richmond to Durham and it was terrible. DC to Wilmington I did twice even though it made little sense. I even took the train from Richmond to Fredericksburg (???), but I was basically bad-trip high on post-graduation feelings. The train, man.

By: RachelG8489

RachelG8489 — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 20:11:48 +0000

@Logan Sachon I have seen the $1 fares! Once I bought a $15 fare and then it displayed the $1 fare as the next ticket. That was depressing.