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I don't mind his shows, but he does get on my nerves a bit after awhile. True story: Many years ago, on my first night in Ireland, I was in a pub a bit north of Dublin, and my companion & I were discussing tipping culture. So I asked the barmaid, "Can you tell me how you feel about getting tips?" and my companion said, "I heard it was looked at as an insult in Irish pubs." The barmaid sighed a heavy sigh and said, "I flippin' hate Rick Steves."
My buddy and I traveled all through southern Ireland without tipping because we heard the same thing. Oops!
Rick found his niche, he's spent what, the last 40 years building his brand, way before the internet age and it has made him quite wealthy and famous. I've traveled all over the world, including Europe, and while I have never used his travel guides, sometimes when I'm watching TV (which is rare) and flipping through the channels and see him on PBS, I'll watch the rest of the episode, sometimes to see if it's a place I've already been to. Like others have said, he does have that soothing kind of voice!
When we went to Europe, I borrowed one of his books from the library. It had a good little plan in walking through one of the cities we had visited, what buildings to check out and what to look for---it was nice, because it gave you a bunch of things to look at in the area but you could also pick and choose. Then I sort of chuckled because I saw a bunch of people doing the same thing with the same books.
You can't be a good world traveler without degrading people who don't do it like you?
Fair point Joshua. When I referred to my "ignoramus" cousins I didn't mean that all people who travel like them are ignorant. I am sorry if it read that way. My cousins are very ignorant people in general and I described them that way to reflect how I think they behave generally, and certainly not to reflect that everyone who does Europe by cruise is an ignoramus.
Fair point Joshua. When I referred to my "ignoramus" cousins I didn't mean that all people who travel like them are ignorant. I am sorry if it read that way. My cousins are very ignorant people in general and I described them that way to reflect how I think they behave generally, and certainly not to reflect that everyone who does Europe by cruise is an ignoramus.
I've done it both ways. Cruising allows you to see cities, staying in one place allows you to see cultures.
Do your poor cousins know that you look down on them?
I've done it both ways. Cruising allows you to see cities, staying in one place allows you to see cultures.
Do your poor cousins know that you look down on them?
Yes and they are not poor; they are just ignorant. I look down on them because they act like idiots, not because of their financial situation (which is just as good as mine).
My first trip to Europe was a high school exchange program to Germany- cost them something like $900 and we 'made back' $800 of that in airline vouchers when a problem with the tickets (travel agency that booked the trip didn't communicate correctly with the airline), seats we had purchased were partly given to others, and my travel group voted to accept that voucher amount if we let American rebook us with a connecting flight through Manchester, UK.
Things I got out of the trip other than general cultural appreciation:
1. A trip to the fence between West Germany and the DDR that left me with the strong belief that any time a country has to put up a fence to keep people from leaving it, it's fundamentally a messed up and flawed place no matter how they try to spin it
2. A day trip to Aachen about how one person-Charlemagne- can play such a huge role in keeping the lights on in dark times
3. A nice trip to the US Virgin Islands. My schoolteacher father was chaperoning the trip and the 2x$800 airline vouchers pretty much covered the plane tickets for that subsequent trip.
Lol. I admitted to being a Democrat but am NOT going to blame President Trump for Bourdain's death. I loved Bourdain's shows but was very happy when he left politics out of them, which was most of the time. I travel to explore the world and learn about different cultures, architecture and food, etc., and I don't care what Anthony Bourdain thought of Trump. I actually thought one of Tony's all time best episodes was West Virginia, where he very clearly was of a different political ideology than the people he met, but he went out of his way to say how welcoming and proud they were and you really got the sense that he admired them.
Agreed. Bourdain also did a show in west Texas with a bunch of ranchers and had tremendous respect for the people working off the land. Rick Steves and Bourdain I enjoyed their shows, but I just hate when politics are brought into it.
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