Said Rick Steves, quoted in "Rick Steves Says Hold On to Your Travel Dreams/The guidebook guru discusses a year and a half without seeing Europe, the next chapter in post-pandemic travel, and why you should order whatever beverage the locals are having" (The New Yorker).
He's saying to timid Americans that they can be "cultural chameleons," and what does it really matter if they blend in from the point of view of the people of the traveled-to environment? They're getting tipsy — getting woozy — on the local beverage and with the encouragement of the ultra-accessible travel writer, their drink is a magic potion. Disney serves up the magic in Florida, but you can — you really should — go to Europe and drink your mind into a magical state....
What's the difference really — where you go or what you do to manipulate your mind? You could stream a Disney movie right there on this screen — why not that one in the clip? It's set in Scotland. Sip a glass of Scotch and travel the glens and moorlands of your mind.
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I think that when Rick Steves is back home in Seattle, after a hard day of work, he kicks back with a bowl of Phishhead Kush.
The Greeks I know (actual Greeks) hate ouzo...they never drink it...they prefer Napa Cabs...go figure.
Steves himself is part of the problem. Every American tourist traipses around Europe with his guide books glued to their face like a second iPhone.
They all go to the same churches. Look at the same art. Eat at the same quaint bistro. It is the equivalent of travel paint-by-numbers.
As for laughing when viewing the Pietà, what the hell? Is he some sort of Philistine?
"The Pietà (Italian pronunciation: [pjeˈta]; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form of the Lamentation of Christ in which Jesus is mourned by the Virgin Mary alone."
Hilarious.
Well Rick Steves has the dorky bit down just right. But his travelogues are almost always interesting--and his advice to enjoy the local food and beverage is spot on. My wife and I visit the grandkids in London each year. We always take a short (kidless) break on the continent. Now if Rick would just do a special on Berlin, curry wurst and beer, I might get her to agree to Berlin, and the Tiergarten--and curry wurst.
I really like Rick Steves. His travel shows are top notch and he set the standard for them and I do not think anyone comes close. (Joseph Rosendo makes me groan)
Part of the attraction is that he isn't pretentious. I love that he is a liberal and pro-capitalist and he's a Christian. But not pushy about any of it. It's all very quiet. Tho - my non-Christian liberal friends find his obsession with the local European churches and museums to be annoying. not me. I love it.
These same local pals of mine have been traveling for the past 20 years - all over. They share the same philosophies with eating and drinking. Find out what the locals like and don't be afraid to ask about it. The locals love sharing what THEY like, and appreciate it when set-in-the-ways Americans ask.
For instance, when they were visiting New Zealand a few years back, they were at some restaurant and they asked the bar tender what local beer was on tap. The bar keep was surprised and happy to be asked that question. Said he rarely is asked.
Most American tourists want something familiar they can get back home. (boring!) Well, the question paid off, as the bar keep gave them 2 free local beers.
What's the difference really — where you go or what you do to manipulate your mind?
There is a difference. Murakami, in the article your post refers to, talks about his urge to have a cheeseburger and fries when he's in the States. After eating a burger in a burger joint, he feels that he's really in the States. Sure he could eat the same meal in burger joints in other countries, but it wouldn't be the same. There's a myriad of subtleties that make for an ambiance that can't be replicated.
I heard a good one this morning on twitter:
Asking a friend from Orlando, "what do think of EPCOT?"
"We don't go to EPCOT, we go to Europe; it's cheaper."
I live in Orlando and work in Kissimmee. Please. Go to Portugal. We're full and the traffic on I-4 sucks.
"What's the difference really — where you go or what you do to manipulate your mind?"
No difference, and all the difference. It doesn't matter where anyone goes and how they manipulate their mind. At the same time, (almost) nothing in life matters more than where you are and how you manipulate your mind.
Of course, you can and do manipulate your mind independently of going somewhere to do it. But going somewhere to do it is one good and often pleasant way to do it. Steves has a point, and travel-skeptic Althouse has a point, and other people have a point.
Justifying or opposing or dreaming about and remembering travel is a prime way to manipulate your mind.
As I read this, I thought Rick Steves. Our first trip to Europe was 2001 and it was with his Paris book. A great way to travel. Good hints. Now, sadly we’re done traveling, but we still watch his programs and wish we could go again.
I smell a Portugal theme today. Wait...that was me commenting previously that I have Portugal on my list of Preferred Escapes. But it's been on my list for awhile and lately I've seen a huge uptick in people mentioning Portugal in conversation or reading magazines/articles/blogs on travel. So what's up? Americans are looking at Portugal, or being told to look at Portugal, which means I probably need to focus on some new place for me. Like Lake Como or Singapore or someplace else.
But I agree with Steves in that you owe it to yourself to eat and drink like the locals. I learned to love brandy old-fashioneds while working in Wisconsin years ago. Steves mentions ouzo. I drank ouzo in my younger days in the Detroit area- never having left home. Detroit had a huge Greek population and it was not uncommon. Overseas or even Canada? I eat/drink what they point me to. (bacon on everything in Canada)
Going to another place, a different US city or a foreign country, and working to make it seem like you've never left home is something out of "The Accidental Tourist". You're missing the experience of being there if you're trying to be here. It's like you've never left
Amendment to my last comment. I mentioned Portugal previously because the post had mentioned Portugal. The theme was from our host.
I grew a droopy Sam Elliott mustache prior to my Yucatan Mexico adventure in August. Coupled with my wild swimmers tannned athletic physique, I blended in with all the other tall and fit middle class central Mexico European heritage tourists. The reef diving was off the hook, Chicken Itza was breathtaking, and the jungle humidity and tropical heat was invigorating, the scooter ride along the vacated southeast coast of Cozumel had a post apocalyptic flavor, but unfortunately we missed out on smoking DMT frog venom in Tulum. Next time.
Ann Althouse said...
>"...you can — you really should — go to Europe and drink your mind into a magical state....What's the difference really — where you go or what you do to manipulate your mind?"<<
Steves said nothing about drinking your mind into a magical state, nor about manipulating your mind. And nothing close to that either. He said when in Rome try drinking what the Romans drink just for fun and because it might enhance the experience of being in Rome a little. It's a traveler thang; you wouldn't understand.
My mom gave me a Steves guidebook when I first went to Italy 30 years ago. She loved his show, which I thought was a bit folksy for my taste at the time. When I got to Rome, I realized the book really was useful for a newbie traveler. The bit about drinking local drinks is a classic Steves way of restating "when in Rome...".
I was sad to hear he's gotten into the political side of travel commentary, but not surprised. It would seem that people see everything as an opportunity to pontificate about their political views. Tiresome, really.
Alliterative editorial correction: when I'm in Scotland I order a sex on the beach with a melting ice cap, I mean cube?
Yes! We've traveled to Scotland 3 times and couldn't agree more. I've even promised my wife a two week trip back there, but she has friends of friends who were on vacation when the Covid lockdowns started and she's afraid of getting stuck somewhere like they did.
Probably be years before she's ready to leave the country again.
I'd love to see Rick's carbon offsets.
I guess he's a climate change denier.
Not good for guy who did ads for The Nation.
Portugal is on my list; no Disney site will ever get a dime from me.
And that's not because of their recent adherence to the CCP, it has been my stance since childhood. My wife used to propose visiting Orlando while our son was young, but I had no intention.
I traveled to many places in my 20's. After marriage 33 years ago I like being home and I like a few favorite vacation spots to be stress free with my wife where we spend an extra amount of time practicing making little children and look out at the Pacific Ocean at sunset with a Zinfandel.
I have no desire to revisit places like Saudi Arabia where, when I was there, there was an international controversy over two British subjects sentenced to a flogging for building a still to make moonshine. To hell with the place.
I've learned to make most types of ethnic food and brew my own beer. Ingredients for everything can be found in ethnic grocery stores located within 25 miles of my house. I find my skills at cooking and brewing are as good as any restaurant within 200 miles which is as good as any restaurant in other countries.
Do that many Americans really go to Orlando for every vacation? Don't Yellowstone, Yosemite, Washington DC, and New York City fit into the rotation somewhere?
Are we really sure that Rick, or the Europeans, would really appreciate it if millions of American tourists were to show up all of a sudden? Doesn't the worship of "travel" mean going to places where mere "tourists" don't venture?
And didn't "cosmopolitanism" cease to have much to do with Europe when we discovered that there were other continents and other cultures? Fifty or sixty years ago, we thought taking French in high school made us worldly and sophisticated. Today it looks more like a recipe for provincialism.
Rick Steves was married to a Jenkins woman from Omaha. Large family. One of her brothers is President of Notre Dame. Another brother was my high school classmate. He got kicked out of a NOLA French Quarter Bar that opened at midnight.
Funny, I've always thought of England and Europe as theme parks. Though, at least in the Alps you can ski. Love Rick Steves
Watching a movie about the Parthenon is not the same as being on top of the Acropolis. You can see lots of Icelandic waterfalls in a documentary, but it won’t compare to actually standing near the foot of Skógafoss. It’s one thing to see a documentary about Knossos, it’s quite another to stand in the throne room of King Minos. So, yeah, Rick Steves has an important role to play.
Lots of people like travelling. Once this Covid hysteria passes those who like to travel will travel again. No need to read an article to get to the meat of the matter. Portugal is on my list for next year conditions permitting.
My husband and I, when we were young and callow, bought (and, ahem, frequently returned after carefully reading and taking notes) many Rick Steves books in preparation for travel. But even by then, his "through the back door" had become a thriving thoroughfare. Go to one of his hidden gems and be swamped by other "through the back door" tourists, guidebooks in hand, all wondering how this place had ever stayed hidden with so many people visiting it.
That said, I'm still glad we did the hostel thing and not the tour bus thing.
Our tastes now run to a little more reliably comfortable lodgings, but we still ask the server at the place where all the tourists are eating where she goes on a Saturday night.
"Travel the world", he says. "Culturally appropriate", he implies. Meanwhile, he spends $1 million a year on advocacy for climate change. Hint for the travel guru, an Americans family trip to Disney, even by jet powered flight, is far more environmentally friendly than that same family's trip to Portugal. Drink that tea cold, because heating it up heats up the Earth, or so your advocates have told us.
At the end of the day, Rick Steves is just one more elite doing what elites do. He does what he wants and then on one hand tells us "You need to try what I do and quit being so insular and nationalistic" and on the other hand "You doing what I do destroys the world, so you shouldn't be allowed to do it".
No, what he's saying is experience and enjoy the local food, drink, culture and customs and don't try to find your own in a different country. And forget about blending in - Americans are easy to identify in a sea of Europeans because we walk differently, dress differently, talk differently and usually louder and act differently from Europeans. Just be aware this means there isn't a pickpocket or scam artist in Europe who can't identify you as a visiting American who is unlikely to be around for the court date if he gets caught in the act, hence you're a preferred mark. Fortunately, there is an easy and effective solution to this problem: put your money, passport and credit cards in a money belt inside your clothes or invest in some type of a zippered shoulder bag with a thick strap that you can strap across your chest where you can see it. Also remember that while every gypsy (Roma if you prefer) is not a pickpocket or scam artist, almost every pickpocket or scam artist is a Roma, particularly the one trying to push sprigs on you on the street or in the train stations while her urchins go through your pockets or try to steal your watch. Rick Steves has some excellent tips on places to visit and food to eat, but he is too politically correct on some subjects.
Regardless, you cannot get even a remote understanding of any culture by reading books or watching You Tube videos. You have to get out among the people and use all your senses to really appreciate another country or another culture. At least that's what I had to do in the sixty two countries I've visited, worked in or lived in, mostly in Europe and Asia. If you don't feel comfortable doing that, take Althouse's advice and read a book or go to a theme park instead. Just don't think that's a good substitute for the real thing.
That's been the worst thing about the pandemic for the left. Not the counterproductive policy. Not the death. Not the economic destruction. Not the destruction of American culture.
The fact they've had to cancel their summer trips to Eurpoe...
...two years in a row...
I’m (hopefully) going to be in Italy in 10 days. There’s no substitute for actual travel. I’m sorry, sipping tuscany’s finest while watching The Da Vinci Code doesn’t quite cut it.
I guess this explains his video about the Amsterdam "coffee shops".
The best part of travel for me has always been trying to experience life the way the locals do. When I spent a semester in England in college, most of our group sought out American beer and cigarettes and avoided local options. I didn't smoke, but I wanted real ale, porter, and Cadbury bars. I had my first single-malt whiskey (and became hooked). During spring break I'd set out by train in a different direction each day, aiming to arrive at my destination by lunch time where I committed to going to the first likely looking pub and having the daily special and the local beer. I ended up eating way more steak and kidney pie than I ever wanted, but I stuck to it.
Even before AirBnb, we always looked for rental apartments or houses rather than hotels, just to get a better feel for daily life. We once had a wonderful two-month stay in central Prague with a walk-up apartment. My wife loved the process of getting off the tram each evening, going into the bodega at the tram stop, and buying whatever we needed for dinner, rather than buying two weeks of groceries, loading them into the trunk of our big car and driving them to our suburban home. And Czech pilsner is great!
If you want to travel to see things while keeping your life as "normal" as possible, then I'd suggest buying a picture book and staying home.
"Europe Through the Back Door" always sounded a little risqué.
It was always a surprise to learn that all the PBS travel show guys were straight.
Rick Steve's observation that when you are in another country you ought to give the local libations a try is quite the revelatory hot tip, huh. Who would have ever thought of it on their own? Plain vanilla advice from a plain vanilla travel guide - who btw is the ruination of untold erstwhile cool places.
When living in Tokyo we lived like Japanese...sure, wealthy Japanese, but our apartment had no western amenities and we ate at mostly Japanese restaurants.
It's great when you're in Tokyo. In Nigeria not so much...
I wonder if elitist Steves has ever been to Orlando. I lived there for eight years and found it to be quite a pretty, mid-sized city. I could write a Steves-style guidebook listing all the great non-touristy places to eat, great local bars, beautiful countryside, etc and never mention the parks.
Wifey and I were in Rome a few years ago for our 25th and used Steve's guidebook extensively to help us figure out what to do with our limited time in the city. Went to the Vatican museum, it was wonderful and insanely packed. Being a geography and cartography fan, I really wished I could have sauntered through one of the galleries to study the maps, but it was not to be with the crush of tourists.
My brother in law is in Rome for work this month. He posted a picture looking into that same gallery through the entrance doors. There were 5 people in there. It might be worth being part of the Great American Vaccine Experiment just to go to the Vatican and walk through that gallery again.
The quote made me think about travelling back in time through this country - trying to work out what the ambiance was at different times. What would I, now exiled by time and a corrupted government from Former Land, drink with a movie from one or another of those distant eras to bring back the feeling? Say it was The Apartment or Sleepless in Seattle. There I would sip whiskey. But ET or Star Wars or Jurassic Park - it would have to be Coke with crushed ice and a vat of buttered popcorn. Slurping, not sipping. Foreign movies especially dark movies by Ingmar Bergman would have to be preceded by a sophisticated foreign meal - spaghetti with a wine other than Riunite, sweet and sour pork with Chinese beer. I would sip coffee, espresso perhaps. And lose interest at the start but remain attentive having been trained by years in school to absorb what will be useful for pretentious situations. But with a friend I would, right now, get a box and a carton of Dunkin, turn the movie off and reminisce.
Ah drink what the locals do. In the 80s I travelled to Italy on business a number of times--sometimes with another American or two or three in tow. One of our agricultural subsidiaries had purchased a tomato seed company in Parma. Parma is a bit off the beaten tourist track. But nothing would do than three businessmen--and one lawyer--me-- should go down to Parma and spend a couple of days working with the local staff. Fly to Milan, rent a car and go pounding down the A1 Autostrada to get to Parma. And being Southern Californians we wanted to see how fast the rental Lancia sedan would go. It was fast, but not fast enough to keep up with the Swiss motorcyclists who passed us doing maybe 150 mph.
One of my memories from that particular trip was watching the company's marketing VP trying to teach the young woman behind the a bar how to make a Manhattan. Now a bar in Parma is not a cocktail lounge. It's more of a neighborhood snack place. You can get paninis, a roll or two, wine, an espresso or beer. You can play the jukebox in the place--and a person with no Italian can teach a person with no English how to make a passable Manhattan. As I recall I settled for a Moretti beer and watched the "floor show" behind the bar while listening to "Stand By Me" on the jukebox.
On a subsequent trip to Parma I managed to arrive in mushroom season. And my local contact there insisted that I eat a lunch with six or seven courses of mushrooms prepared in various ways. As he said, "Food in Parma is a religion, and I'm a priest".
I'll go for--and have had--haggis in Glasgow--but won't eat scrapple in Philadelphia. You have to set some boundaries.
Huell Howser takes the same approach but to a much more entertaining level in his travel shows around California (California's Gold, Visiting, etc.)
If you want to know the out of the way, well-known, little known, really interesting, and wouldn't-expect-to-be-interesting places around California, he is amazing. He's like an overgrown kid just loving what he is doing.
I also really like the travelogues that Michael Palin did, though can't seem to find them streaming anywhere.
The recent travel show that put together William Shatner, Henry Winklerm George Foreman, Terry Bradshaw, and Jeff Dye (Better Late than Never) was also fun.
Rick is a smart guy - and he is level headed but he is also a democrat. (ugh)
Which of course means part of his smarts goes to the stupids, like this:
"In Travel as a Political Act, Steves wrote that displaying the American flag on car antennas "creates a fearful, schizophrenic dynamic that may stoke today's terrorism and tomorrow's international conflicts"...."
What's the difference really — where you go or what you do to manipulate your mind? You could stream a Disney movie right there on this screen — why not that one in the clip? It's set in Scotland. Sip a glass of Scotch and travel the glens and moorlands of your mind.
I sense a movie plot! Oh wait, it's been done. Total Recall.
I worked abroad quite a bit, and one of the more interesting experiences was eating in the workers' lunchroom in Barbados. Saw food there, like breadfruit, for example, that I never saw in the restaurants.
Like millions of other Americans, I love Europe, its history and culture, and would visit more often and for longer if I had the money.
When I was 11 my Oma and aunt Louise took me to the old world for three weeks. Oma still had friends and relatives there, and also some business to transact. We were in Frankfort, Hanover, Hamburg, Bremen, Bremerhafen, and Bokel bei Stubben, where Oma's nephew Heinz was able to take us to the little thatched half-house, half-barn where she was born in 1889. The place was built in 1817.
We ate and drank what the friends and family served us, outside the hotel and airline food.
The first fresh out of the chicken eggs for breakfast I ever had, cooked by Heinz's wife, an intense dark woman whose family had fled the Reds in 1945.
Rome was ghastly hot, but we were only there for a night or two; Vienna was much nicer, I thought.
I was sad to hear he's gotten into the political side of travel commentary, but not surprised.
Most writers are liberal, especially if they work in TV. Rick became more politically vocal after he came out of the closet. I guess it was liberating because he always seemed very cautious as one used to expect from PBS.
...But I agree with Steves in that you owe it to yourself to eat and drink like the locals...
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easy for Steves to say - has he ever had to pick up a tab?
is it still possible for Americans to be snobs about food, wine etc while being /localisme/
or should one be statusclassfluid also?
Rick's earlier shows are geared toward a more frugal travel experience. His newer more recent travel shows are more elite. yes - he's made a fortune. He splurges more. So what?
Rick Steves is dead to me after he compared Hungary’s Viktor Orban to Hitler.
He’s just another liberal asshole.
Steves did a one-hour PBS special The Story of Fascism in Europe which played during he Trump administration. I'm looking forward to The Story of Communism in Europe now that we have a leftist presidential administration.
The guidebooks that Rick Steves writes provide valuable guidance on things like tipping, how to get around cheaply by tram or bus, where to go to avoid the tourist traps, etc. I am not a drinker and feel no great desire to down a Guinness in Dublin, but knowing what sort of sights are not on the usual tourist excursions but worth a look-see, that’s useful knowledge.
The more you learn about fascism, the more you understand the Biden Administration, and how it came to power and how it rules. But I understand why it is so infuriating. Telling us that Trump is the fascist is like the guy in 1984 that insisted that you tell him he was holding up a different number of fingers than he was, and insisting that you believe it.
Politically Rick is just as dumb as the rest. His gal Hillary didn't win - so fascism is on the rise.
The left's collective inability to face a loss at election time is a mental disorder.
My guess is Rick probably excuses the left's modern version of nazi brownshirts in places like Portland - ANTIFA - based solely on the Antifa's hatred of Trump.
Trump rounded up all the gays and the Jews and sent them to the ovens - right after he instigated all those new wars!
Incidentally, the kind lady let me taste her breadfruit, and it does taste like bread.
Steves is probably going by the "liberal" Dictionary of Newspeak:
"'Fascism' = State coercion, real or imagined, we don't like.
"'Progressivism' = State coercion we do like."
It's all clear once you know the code.
I’m reading this as an American tourist in Luxembourg sipping on a margarita. But in front of me is graffiti that reads “viva Mexico”. So does this guy think I’m cool? Or not cool?
I've never understood why travel has to be politicized. Some of us are just curious about other places, maybe places our ancestors came from. Much of our travel is related to golf, and we've settled on Scotland for about 6 weeks in the summer precisely because it's not like our home in Florida, and we love the links golf and simplicity of the experience. Without meaning to be political, we also like the fact that most of the golf clubs (built around links courses no one outside of Fife has heard of) are relatively inexpensive and accessible to ordinary people, rather than fenced off for the rich and connected as in the U.S. I don't consider that any of this makes us either virtuous or evil; that's just not relevant to our experience.
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