Inspired by [this question](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/comments/vs6l71/how_common_is_it_in_your_country_not_to_have/), I’m curious about just how special is it is for you to travel abroad?
I’m wondering how to best equate it to my experience in the USA. For me to go to one state or another is not special at all, given that we share a mostly common culture and language. Perhaps there’s a little culture shock travelling from Michigan to El Paso where the default language is Spanish, but at least English will be spoken.
For me as a person from Michigan, even travelling to Canada is no big deal. The border is a pain in the ass right now, but for most of my life, it had been quite opening, meaning, although there was a border agent, no documentation was usually checked.
Mexico, though, is special. The culture is completely different (unless you’re Mexican-American), and the language is different.
When I lived in Germany, travelling to neighboring countries _was_ special to me, because being in Europe was special to me. But I’m not sure if the same goes the same for someone who’s grown up there. I know Cologne people might balk if they have to go to Düsseldorf and drink different beer, but yet travelling to Ghent and having a beer there is… cool? Nothing to think about? A pain in the Arsch?
So tell me, is it a big deal, or just, a “that’s nice” type of event?
24 comments
For us it became less and less special with years. It is probably still very special for the older generation, but for the most of milllenials it is not a huge deal. However the farther you go, the more special it is.
We have a joke “my grandpa lived in Poland, Hungary, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. He never left his house”.
Hm somewhere in between.
It is relatively easy and has become much easier in recent years but at least for me it is still somehow always a little bit special as there are many tiny details which tell you that you are in a different country.
I’d call it a big deal yeah. They’re different cultures. Yes Sweden is similar to Denmark but I wouldn’t say it’s comparatively as similar as Canada and the US (or Germany and Austria).
Quite special, I’d say. Like even just a quick trip to Antwerp, Ghent, Aachen or some other city that’s just across the border still feels a lot more special to me than visiting Amsterdam or any other mayor Dutch city. The different architecture, the different language or the different food all contribute to that fun “vacation” feeling for me even if it’s closeby and I, luckily, don’t have to deal with the hassle of border controls.
Well define “going abroad”. Hopping over the Czech border to buy cheap cigarettes is nothing special for many people. Spending a holiday in Prague is.
I’d say it depends on
– if it’s your first time. I’m sure the first couple of times are special for anybody..
– distance, whether you need a passport, how you get there – car / train, or plane, whether it’s on a different continent. You get it. The more the trip inconveniences you, the more it registers as special.
– difference in culture, or if you simply didn’t know that much what to expect. That is, ofc, bound to make your experience memorable, and, no matter if you’re only there with work, you automatically slip into tourist mode, at least a little bit.
People say the older generation tends to find travelling more special.
But i guess it’s people who simply got to travel less, so all of the points above are stronger for them.
Not at all. I grew up some 10 km from the border, so even when we had trips with school we often went abroad because it was simply closer. For concerts as well, Antwerpen is closer than most Dutch venues.
And I often just cross the border to get fuel, because it’s a lot cheaper in Belgium.
Since i live near the border, traveling to the neighbour country wasn’t special at all. It was öike travello7ng to the next City.
Hm, I guess it’s a changing goalpost.
Growing up in the furthest eastern corner of Europe in ye olde late 1900s, going to Spain was pretty special. Exotic, even. France seemed so far away at the time, and the UK might as well have been China. The advent of low-cost airlines changed the game by A LOT. Travelling abroad became special because it was exciting and *accessible*.
Now that I’ve been living in central Europe for almost a decade, it’s a lot more of a mundane experience. Every border is so close, and so easy to drive through, or take a train across. Heck, from my home I can cycle get to Germany in half an hour. Kind of loses the glamour like that.
Something I still always find exciting and cool is when a special exhibition or a festival is in another country, but it turns out it’s not actually that far away. Way back when, a festival taking place in Barcelona was just as accessible to me as one in Australia, but now the possibilities are almost endless.
And it’s still exciting the further you go. There’s still a lot for me to see, and that’s cool to look forward to.
It became more special during the pandemic tbh, I’ve only been to Slovakia this winter. I’m young and a few years back I wasn’t really able to communicate in english so that’s why foreign countries felt real “foreign”
Im waiting my time to go out of the peninsula yet. I visited Portugal, I dont want to offend any portuguese here, but our languages and culture are too similar that its like we dont cross any border😅
Not very special. I’ve lived outside my mother country for 10 years, am lacking 14 countries to do every single one in Europe and am close to hitting 50 overall.
This comes from a mix of business and pleasure. But all in all, I just love exploring the world, the cultures and especially the food scenes everywhere. But nationally, but also locally.
I find it interesting to visit any country, sometimes even parts of my own as well. However I don’t know if I would consider it special. Visiting Jerusalem was a unique and different experience, I learned I’m actually Jesus – nobody else knows, but I am Jesus.
Not special at all. I’ve been abroad twice this year so far and will probably go again one or twice more.
I love new experiences etc but we are well connected with Ryanair being cheap and going a lot of places and Aer Lingus to back it up
Honestly it’s special in two circumstances; during the summer and if it’s for an extended period of time.
When I studied abroad for my Erasmus, while it normalised Europe in some way it did feel special that I was just jumping from one city to another part of the programme. Just thinking that I would live in Prague for 6 months was amazing.
Then when I go on a summer holidays it is special.
But winter trips in Europe suck imo. I just don’t like them. Some cities really suit the winter but I just don’t like it as much.
Sometimes I just view everything through a mass tourism globalised lens and when I do that, it makes it not very special. For instance I was in Sofia(and Bulgaria) last week and in Sofia I remmebered this is where IT is located for my work. In a way that really takes you away from the exoticness but then you have to think, for how long will it be like this? Isn’t it extraordinary that worlds overlap in this 21st century. Who knows it may not always be like that
For me personally it depends. My parents live in Poland, so going there (which I do multiple times a year), is not special at all. I guess bc I do so often (and I lived there a while, too).
But I went to Vienna and Luxembourg for the first time in December, and that was pretty special, since it was a new place to visit.
If I go to a different place multiple times, some lose the special feel, some don’t. For example, going to Rome is still as magical as the first time, whereas going to Cremona is less so.
Quite, of course, in recent years it has become very easy to move around the Schengen area, and in fact, I often go to France and Slovenia, but it is always stimulating to go abroad, to get to know foreign cultures and languages.
To me it is a big deal.
I’ve been abroad only a couple of times and to only a few countries (Germany, Austria, Italy, Czech Republic; Netherlands and Slovakia doesn’t count because it was only a couple of hours or less). I’d say I’ve been abroad less than 10 times. And the fact that when I used to go to university I couldn’t travel abroad during vacations makes this even more special.
Like, last year I finally went on vacations abroad after a few years hiatus and I was really excited. Or rather: I would be, if I wasn’t going on vacation totally exhausted after work. But I was still hyped about that. Just being somewhere where people don’t speak your native language makes the experience special and exciting. Travelling somewhere within your country’s borders is not the same, because it’s kinda “meh”.
Depends where I’m going. I live 20 minutes away from both Germany and Switzerland’s borders and people from my area and the “Germanic world” share a lot in common, so when I travel there, I enjoy my time and love these countries, but it feels familiar in many ways so I don’t have the same excitement as the one I had when I went to Ireland for example.
Ireland was my first time among an English speaking nation, people’s attitude and social codes were different, landscapes looked very new from what I knew, so I was ecstatic.
I travelled abroad more when I was a kid and was too young to really appreciate the differences because I wasn’t interacting with people and just following my parents around, but I remember going to Croatia was very exciting too because of how much it changed from my area.
Basically : when it’s a direct neighbouring country, it’s cool but not that much of a big deal. When it’s further away, the cultural change is bigger so I’m more excited because more things feel new.
I live near to the border with Germany and it’s even normal to live here in Czechia and work in Germany. Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) is very close to Vienna (the capital of Austria), so a lot of people from Bratislava work in Vienna. My school makes a trip to Dresden (Germany) for the Christmas market every year.
We were one nation with Slovakia 33 years ago and still act like one nation in 80% of possible ways, so Czecho-Slovak families and distant relationships are absolutely normal, if there weren’t two different currencies you’d not even feel that it’s two different countries – we’re still together mentally. Also, there is a lot of Czechs who are going on a vacation to Croatia every year because of its sea, it’s even one of the biggest stereotypes about Czechs.
Check the borders in the city of Baarle, it doesn’t need my comment. Just check it on your maps app.
Who isn’t this lucky, are (for example) people from the Republic of Kosovo, who need to go through *a lot* of bureaucracy and money to even get a Schengen visa. Politicians promise the liberalization for years. But two of the EU members are still vetoing it. So they can’t travel abroad a much, unless they have the Albanian passport.
With younger and younger generations, who can speak English or aren’t too conservative to learn local languages, it’ll be more and more normal to move abroad and don’t even feel the borders.
To NI? Not really special, but to mainland Europe? Hmm…well, very special, considering I’ve never done it so far.
Quite special for older generations not so much for the younger. It’s been quite sweet seeing my old nan getting to go to all the places she’s read about over the years. For the younger gens it depends where you go I suppose. When it comes to holidays the richer people will go skiing in France while the poorer people go on an all inclusive to Spain or canary isles. So in the working class hearing that people are going to Spain is just normal but if someone’s off to France or America or Italy it would be seen as pretty special.
Within the Eurropean countries that belong to the EU of 27 member states, 22 participate in the Schengen area (4 out of 5 are obliged to join in the future). In 2006, 4 countries that are not EU members , (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland) have also joined the Schengen agreement. And finally three European microstates, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City maintain open borders with neighbours are automatically considered members of Shengen.
Shengen area includes all 29 contries that agreed to officially abolish all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.
Since 1985 travelling across EU gradually became trivial and together with the appearance on the market of low-cost carriers, flying became so affordable that we saw an exponential growth of people travelling across states. For a millenial who has never lived otherwise, travelling in Europe is normal and most travel often.
Just to throw out a few numbers for those who like it: The Schengen Area has a population of almost 420 million people and an area of 4,312,099 square kilometres (1,664,911 sq mi).About 1.7 million people commute to work across an internal European border each day, and in some regions these people constitute up to a third of the workforce. Each year, there are 1.3 billion crossings of Schengen borders in total.
Hoewer, there is a big difference with the US, when it comes to he cultural experience. Travelling across every European country, including the non Shengen, automatically involves the confrontation with completely different languages, and with that come different artistic or literarary references. Although in school we learn the ssme European history, eacah country’s school system emphasizes on their individual history. European countries have been fighting between them since ever and it is only since WWII that we are living a comparatively tiny but extraordinary age of peace (unfortunate exception of a dream destroyed by Putin).
However our war were also fought on the field of literature and art which have created extremely different cities, all beautiful expressions of our different heritage. Travelling across europe nowadays also take you to the discover a culinary journey sampling from a world of different tastes and flavours. And for many countries the culinary tradition and diet went through thousands of years of experimenting with local products and gradually integrating imported ingredients, then grown locally, to finally come to nowadays “cuisine”. différence
Then, to conclude this maybe too long comment…we must not forget that even within the same country you may find the same differences. The more striking being Italy as it was the very last European country to become a unified nation in 1865. So, although we share the commown national language every major city and regions have developed the same differences described above, after the gradual collapse of the Ronan Empire that had forged Europe 2000 years ago. So if you travel between say Venice an Napoli you will discover two different architectural styles, two dialects *languages* so different that people cannot understand each other unless using italian, a completely different gastronomy: in Italy we differentiate culinary traditions, we do not have an Italian cuisine like abroad. We differentiate between a Napolitan restaurant or a Restaurant from Bologna, Venician cuisine and sicilian gastronomy, the wine is also diversified. And all this diversity is favored by history as much as the hundreds of microclimate that characterises our territory and produces more diverse vegetables, fruits and sea products than in any other country.
These oddities are also striking, especially over gastronomy, in many other European countries although not as marked because their older unification has helped to reduce differences.
So yes, to a great extent, traveling across Europe is still a very enriching experience because you can still discover new wonders between the very different states and cultures.
Traveling is money dependent, not really culturally related. I think everyone wants to travel at least once so I don’t see the point in the question