How To Soak Up The Culture No Matter How Short The Trip
Night view of the Guggenheim Bilbao
I’ve taken lots of different types of trips in my life and although some aspects of travel aren’t as much fun as they used to be I still love it. As I mentioned before it is not so much the planning as the being there. Wherever I go and however short a trip I still try to have an experience that makes it worthwhile. Let me give you some examples of how you can get something from a trip of any length.
Same day business travel
One of the shortest trips I ever took was a one-day trip to attend a conference in Saint Lucia. It was a case of leaving the plane, grabbing a cab and heading to the conference centre then doing it all in reverse at the end of the day. To get something out of the trip, I used the cab driver as a tour guide and got him to explain the sights I could see on the journey. I have still got to go back there but at least I learned a little bit about the country.
Short business trip
On another trip I visited northern Spain where a lot of the metals industry was based. I took cabs to the offices I needed to visit. Again my cab driver was able to tell me about the locations I was seeing — it helped that I spoke relatively fluent Spanish — and I found out a lot about the area. On one of the trips I needed to grab a bite to eat and the cab driver took me to a roadside cafe where I had a delicious Basque fish and vegetable dish. I was also able to walk around downtown Bilbao and have a look at the Guggenheim.
Two-week vacation
One of the dangers of having a holiday for this long is that you can wear yourself out trying to see everything. I don’t do that any more. Instead I make a shortlist of the places I really must see with an additional list of places like to see if the journey permits. I try to combine these geographically so I can make the most out of any excursion. While I’m in a place I also like to try local dishes (preferably from somewhere outside the hotel) so I often wander around and see where the locals are eating. It’s also great to soak up the atmosphere by walking through the local market. Getting off the beaten track also helps. When I visited the Costa del Sol, I stayed away from the beaches around Torremolinos, preferring to head for quieter spots where the locals were hanging out. (And I got to try some freshly grilled mackerel, too – yum!)
Living abroad
If you know you’re going to be in place for a while then you probably treat it slightly differently. There’s no big rush to see everything within a short period and you can spend more time getting oriented and soaking up the atmosphere. A good example of that for me was the year that I lived in France. For the first few weeks I concentrated on finding out where the markets and supermarkets were, the buses that took me to my part-time job and the most affordable cafes and restaurants. I eventually got a bicycle so that I could be more mobile and then started planning longer trips either to spend a day or several days in various locations in the south of France. During the course of the year I saw many towns and cities in Provence and along the Cote d’Azur as well as visiting Spain, Germany and passing through Italy and Switzerland.
My point is that no matter how long the trip or how short you can still get a good cultural experience as long as you use the resources that are available to you.
(Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/basajauntxo/323275150/)
Tags: culture, travel, Travel Tips
