Rick Steves’ tips for making travel a political act
Rick Steves’ tips for making travel a political act
The great value of travel is the opportunity it offers you to pry open your hometown blinders and broaden your perspective.
[...] when we implement that worldview as citizens of our great nation, we make travel a political act.
Make itinerary decisions that put you in touch with locals.
Why do many Muslim women wear scarves?
Eat with your fingers in a Sri Lankan restaurant that has no silverware, dip your fries in mayonnaise in Belgium, smoke a hookah in Greece, kiss a stranger on both cheeks in France, or attend a hurling match in Ireland.
Climb Rome’s Scala Santa (Holy Stairs) on your knees, feeling the pain while finding comfort in the frescoes of saints all around you.
Why would a modern, well-educated Egyptian be willing to take a bullet for the newest military dictator (as my friend in Cairo just told me)?
Why, in some struggling countries, does stability trump democracy?
Get a French farmer’s take on force-feeding his geese to produce foie gras.
Ask a Spaniard why bullfighting still thrives — and why it’s covered not in the sports pages, but in the arts section of the local newspaper.
Read local culture magazines and attend arts and political events.
Take alternative tours to learn about heroin maintenance clinics in Switzerland and maquiladora labor in Tijuana.
Meeting desperately poor villagers living with a spirit of abundance, ponder how so many rich people live with a mind-set of scarcity.
Think of yourself as a modern-day equivalent of the medieval jester: sent out by the king to learn what’s going on outside the walls, then coming home to speak truth to power (even if annoying).
Back home, be evangelical about your newly expanded global viewpoint.