Icbites,
 
Not only are you well informed, intellectual, ruggedly handsome and devilishly witty…
 
You exposed the faulty democratic stature in american democracy by this rant alone. Givin the time, Im sure you could verbally tousel even the wittiest politician.

 

whose blog did you copy and paste that from??

All my words mate.
I’ll take that as a compliment?

just seems like one of the first times I ever recall you mentioning anything to do with travel. 

I’d be happy to pick up and take off if I had the money.  Anyone been to Cape Town?

Icbites,
 
I see what you’re saying.  I don’t completely agree, as I think that the popular places too are worth seeing.  Al lot of places are worth seeign and experiencing; it’s just that some have already been “discovered” and others haven’t yet.  But I see where you’re coming from. 
 
You mentioned the Eiffel Tower…funny you bring it up.  Even in France, which is the world’s #1 country-destination, visitors don’t really get to know the country.  It’s a highly misunderstood country, and the same goes for the rest of Southern Europe.  People go see the Eiffel Tower, they then visit the Louvre where they rush past all the Reubens’, Van Dyck’s, Goya’s, David’s, Delacoix’s, and Titian’s just to catch a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, and then leave.  They don’t actually experience any aspect of the “real” Paris, let alone the real France.  They spend most their time on the Champs Elysées, and then return home to complain about how rude the French are (which would be like a French person going to New York, visiting the Statue of Liberty, then spending their entire time at Times Square, then rushing home to tell people all the things they learned about America.)  It’s ridiculous.  You have newbie posters at Eurotrip asking for a great fondue restaurant in Paris (which is like asking for a great Cajun restaurant in New York…fondue is a speciality of Switzerland and the adjacent French region of Savoie…NOT Paris).  And of course the rich ones who visit Paris for a weekend once or twice a year just to do their Chanel shopping, and never interact with real French people except for the Chanel salespeople; these “tourists” can’t pronounce Châtelet-les-Halles if their lives depended on it (do they even use the Métro?), and they yell at the locals in English, as if raising your voice will solve the language barrier problem (while living there, I encountered MANY such people who didn’t know I was a Yank.  When people were rude to me like that, I just pretended I didn’t understand English, and moved on.) …and then they have the audacity to complain that people in France are rude….people in France have always been sooooo kind and warm to me in my times visiting, traveling about the country, and living there.  The average Eiffel-Tower-and-Mona-Lisa-only tourist would experience this side of France if they tried being polite to the locals.  The French and South Europeans don’t kiss ass.  They’re not going to put on a fake smile for customers.  It’s not like America.  They treat you the same way you treat THEM.   Treat people with respect, get respect in return.  Be rude, get rudeness in return.