Good Quotes: The Glory of Traveling

"But that's the glory of foreign travel, as far as I am concerned. I don't want to know what people are talking about. I can't think of anything that excites a greater sense of childlike wonder than to be in a country where you are ignorant of almost everything. Suddenly you are five years old again. You can't read anything, you have only the most rudimentary sense of how things work, you can't even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses."
— Bill Bryson (Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe

Other Good Quotes about travel:

Photo: Gregory Han

Comments (11)

you never know exactly where you are; you never know exactly what people are saying; you can't express exactly what you mean. i would describe it as living in a constant state of ignorace. and it was very liberating. every moment was an adventure!

posted by erinalter on July 8th 2009 at 1:36pm
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fantastic description of what travelers --as opposed to tourists-- experience. i recognize hong kong in the photo.
katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

posted by fishgirl on July 8th 2009 at 1:51pm
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I laughed while reading the comment about endangering your life crossing streets because it is so true. Once in X'ian China, despite having the standard crossing signals, we decided that when the sign with the illustration of a man walking turned green it didn't mean it was safe to cross but only this was your best chance! I think it took several hours to go a few blocks!

I agree that speaking a different language can be liberating. France is the only place where the language barrier truly bothered me.

posted by dmstudio on July 8th 2009 at 1:51pm
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LOVE LOVE LOVE

posted by abby on July 8th 2009 at 1:55pm
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dmstudio - I LOVED the language barrier in France! I loved eavesdropping just to listen to the dialects and rapid fire conversations . . and the pure passion! Call me a romantic, but it was delightful. I felt the same about Vienna. Though I found both to be quite accommodating to the non-fluent.

fantastic quote!

posted by Limeliteshines on July 8th 2009 at 2:33pm
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is that my beloved Mon Kok in the picture?

posted by Philip_Littell on July 8th 2009 at 2:37pm
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Nice to see a Bill Bryson quote here on Apartment Therapy.

posted by Alaricus on July 8th 2009 at 7:52pm
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I love Bill Bryson.

posted by ohjodi on July 8th 2009 at 8:27pm
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@Philip_Littell: yes, indeed it is...snapped during a work trip to HK and Southeast China a few years ago.

posted by gregory on July 8th 2009 at 9:21pm
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Love Bill Bryson :-)

posted by michpc on July 9th 2009 at 9:55am
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Aww, I miss HK!... love how the photo looks so miniaturized.