>tfw you will never be born at a time when if you lived in a village/town and ran into the endless woods you would be lost forever
>you will never stroll around a medieval structure watching as the moonlight cascades it's architecture and create unique shades across the ground.
>you will never look into the night sky and softly hear church bells ringing in the distance
>you will never experience a world of fire lit torch brightness
>you will never experience a world without cars
>you will never stroll down to your local marketplace and meet exotic merchants you have never heard from and stories of fantastical far away places like The Middle Kingdom and the South Pacific.
>you will never know what it's like to be truly isolated.
you have to go a long way to get lost these days
this summer i'm going to go to the forest and eat a bunch of psilocybin mushrooms
>>27569807
haha are you being accompanied by anyone?
Oh, how I yearn to live in a time period in which everyone dies at the age of 28 due to cholera or tuberculosis.
>>27569746
/trv/fag here. I feel your feels strongly, Patsy. I can't imagine how much more exotic far-away places would be if I were growing up even at the beginning of the twentieth century. Imagine taking horses and trains and boats across Europe, from the filth of industrial London off across France and Germany and the Balkans to Turkey and the seat of the former Ottoman Empire. A place like Istanbul must have seemed so exotic a hundred years ago.
I can't imagine how magical and thrilling and dangerous it must have felt for early explorers to spend time in the courts of India or China or Mongolia. You'd be entering a totally different world that would have been practically unseen and alien from your own in every way, from geography to language to culture and appearance.
Pic related is Kashmir. I can't imagine going to a place like that, which is a little off-the-radar now, after the insurgency, back during the days of Mughal rule, having to cross over mountains and deserts to get there.
>tfw you will never live in a world that makes travel difficult and time-consuming enough to be utterly blown away by foreigners and different countries
Fuck my life.
>>27570062
I feel like with the connivence of the www it's definitely helped billions but it takes away some of the magic of it. Now you can just research anything and have an overall expectation of something if you do enough research. Of course imo this will never beat the experience of actually going there but I feel like we a humans have lost this utter sense of isolation, ignorance that makes new experiences and places so thrilling to visit.
I love that imagery you put of being completely oblivious of a place and suddenly going there. A culture completely not your own and you have to make of it what you will. Now I feel like if I want to know more about China I can just research it and while this is definitely a good thing there's just this sort of magic missing when you prematurely spoil something even a little bit. Sorry if I sound cheesy af
>you will never just "swim" in a river without authorities getting on your ass
>you will never travel by horseback long term
>no qt foreign af gf
>>27570052
don't ruin the magic mane!!!!!!!
>>27570052
I'd rather die a happy with a peaceful agrarian lifestyle at 30 than wagecuck until 70
>>27569746
>tfw live in PA
>tfw huge state game lands and forests to explore
>>27570266
Peasants still had to work n shit though. Also you can't shitpost anywhere if you can't read or write
I do like the idea of living in a little town though. Your dad was a blacksmith so instead of going to school you learn an actual profession from when you're a kid. Maybe you go to some sunday school classes with like the 40 other children in town and learn how to charge people money or something. Everyone in town kind of knows each other and helps eachother out if they need it.
Though realistically if you go to a small town nowadays people are just going to seem like retarded hicks and will want nothing to do with you.
>>27570233
Nah, it doesn't sound cheesy. Like I said, I'm a /trv/fag, so I completely get where you're coming from. It might sound stupid on my part, but I've made an effort on my last few trips to not do too much research on the cities an countries I've visited ahead of time. For instance, I've been going to India often since 2013. I was just there from early December until late February.
I'd never been to Kolkata, didn't know anything about West Bengal, but thought the place sounded like it might be interesting. I went there and wound up loving it. The same thing happened when I went to Colombia - I took a look at ticket fares on SkyScanner and settled on a flight to Bogota because it was the cheapest. Colombia wound up becoming one of my favorite places that I've been.
But still, I wish there was more mystery in destinations. Throwing away the map doesn't discount the fact that it's available for viewing whenever you desire to do an ounce of research. I guess it's easy to romanticize strenuous travel from the comfort of our twenty-first century homes and lives, but I fucking wish with a whole heart that I could get that insane, blown-away sense of wonder explorers back in Medieval times must have gotten when they took a pilgrimage from Spain to Jerusalem or traveled from London to Rome on business. Cultures which don't seem terribly dissimilar now would have represented a complete change in lifestyle.
Kind of sucks, DESU, that we live in a time where the world has been fully mapped but we don't have access to the outer space.
I'm not going to complain too much, though. The world is a big place and I think it's more than enough to keep me occupied until I die.
>>27570294
I hate you. Take me with you fggt
I too feel all the feels felt in this thread.
I want to go on an adventure. A real adventure, via horseback or a small sailboat. They say that it's not the destination so much as it is the journey, and that's so true. You can get on a plane and be on the other side of the world in less than 24 hours. That ain't right. You can't truly appreciate a new land unless you worked damn hard and traveled really far to get there.
>>27570407
There is definitely still great places to see. Yeah going to England on a trip is going to seem pretty boring if you don't like museums or architecture, but going to somewhere like Thailand is fucking amazing.
My dad owns a small cottage on some island there and I used to visit it when I was in my teens. The locals barely spoke English but were all super friendly. No real regulations anywhere so you can do whatever you want unless you wander into the rare hotel. Everything is super cheap and if you want to do some real exploring there are literal jungles in your back yard.
We asked some locals if they ever went to look around and ended up basically paying some guy $20 to just make sure we didn't get killed by some snake while we walked around in the jungle. Left after an hour though cause its legitimately terrifying.
>>27570375
>The world is a big place and I think it's more than enough to keep me occupied until I die.
That's very true. I feel like we would only regain this complete sense of oblivion and wonder when/if we ever journey to outer space. Unfortunately though I feel like the feelings we are expressing are not going because:
*You went to India right? In my knowledge I still feel like you should have done some research as India has some very good and downright awful places. This is one of the times I'm thankful for the internet because if you were an OBVIOUS foreigner, I still wouldn't just venture off into a place like Kolkata without doing some research prior. Or did you do the research once you got there by asking locals etc?
Apart from there yeah I do appreciate this feeling you have of "the complete unknown" or something. Now talking to you I'm beginning to wonder if it's a good feeling. I feel like it's sort of the same as morbid curiosity. If you see a snake you don't know, your morbid curiosity could tell you to touch it which could be fatal. But if you know not to touch it or know it's safe, it's a win win for you but it "takes" the magic out of it. Now I'm debating if this "magic" feeling is really all that worth it
>>27570366
haha kek. nowadays (industrial revolution and beyond) do you think it's even worth staying in small towns anymore?
>>27570407
There's this video by that john green guy of how people reacted when railroads slowly replaced horses and I feel like it was overly sentimental but I can understand that when you have this technology that literally no one had seen before there was gonna be some backlash
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYAk5jCTQ3s
>>27570594
My first girlfriend is from New Delhi. I've been to India about five times over the course of the past three years and lived in the capital for about a year and a half. I'm an obvious foreigner, for sure, but I feel almost as at home there as I do here in the United States. The biggest risks there for men are petty thievery and maybe mugging in very rural areas. After having traveled to much more risky destinations like Iraq and Colombia, I feel confident and street-smart enough to keep myself out of trouble.
Of course, I do some research when I'm going to places I know might be dangerous. Kolkata just doesn't have a bad reputation. However, I did a lot of reading on crime statistics and dangerous areas in Bogota before going there. But after I spent a couple of weeks in La Candelaria and Chapinero Alto, I just went on to Medellin without any preparation. I find I'm good as long as I know how to get from the bus station or airport to wherever my hotel is, or wherever the hotel and hostels tend to be located.
It might not be a strategy that works for everyone - and it might not even be smart, in some regards - but I try to keep things open and flexible.
In my opinion, it's more of a thrill than anything. I don't think I'd count it as "morbid curiosity" so much as a desire to be put in a situation so novel that it makes your heart race. You know you probably aren't going to get hurt or severely endangered, but there's a mixture of elements like danger and discovery that keep you on edge when you're walking through unfamiliar streets and can't understand a thing going on around you.
>>27570688
Nah, from what I've seen pretty much everyone with half a brain has either already left for the city or is planing to. I can really only speak for North America and Russia but the people left in small towns seem like they have some kind of birth defects.
Not trying to sound like hot shit or anything, but they are all really slow and and always have some kind of odd health problems. They look 20 years older and half of them cant function past the age of 50.
The cities I visited in Europe (pre muslims) and Asia seemed different, but I've never actually lived there so I cant say.
you guys are fucking retarded, there is nothing stupider than romanticising the past. it's just a fact that the further back in time you go, the shittier life was. your asses would be complaining 24/7
>>27570829
>le epic "dude you guys are stupid le wromg generatiom retards XD" XD guy
Oh fuck off asshat.
>>27570769
Oh man I think I have that same flexible mentality/capability as you. Earlier this year I went back to Malaysia with my family and we were strictly gonna do only "important" things like passport renewals, bank account statements, insurance, health checks etc. no fun. Additionally since I'm Chinese we had to take this long ass roadtrip to my grandmother's gravesite and do this really strange chinese ritual where after 5 years you exhume the grave, chant and re bury it so "the soul can be at rest". Since she was Christian as well we also had mass.
ANYWAY what I mean is my brothers all got physically sick from moving around too much and I was a ok. They HATED the trip but I loved it. Southeast Asia (and asia in general) is just this giant melting pot of cultures that are so old, living together and prospering with mixed results.
I feel confident that you're smart enough to make your own wise decisions in India as you definitely are street smart since you've been there lotsa times. Would you say your gf helped you with that a lot?
And with the morbid curiosity thing, Yeah I feel like I was over exaggerating. Maybe this "magic" feeling isn't quite the same as "fight of flight" but I feel like it's such an amazing feeling that I can associate it with something such as life or death
>>27570366
>He thinks peasants worked forty hours or more per week to live
good goyim
>>27570829
>fact that the further back in time you go, the shittier life was
Yeah I heard life got a lot better real quick after Rome became and empire and became even better once it fell apart.
Seems the middle east is going much better now than it was during the Persian Empire times.
The USA is doing just fine compared to the 60/90s if you ignore the fact that everyone is obese, nobody has any money, and despite putting harsh safely laws on everything the average joe is less healthy than some Russian serf 200 years ago.
>>27570949
Theres no doubt their work was more rewarding than what most people do nowadays but they still worked pretty hard in comparison to the 1/2 of the board that lives off of GBP.
>>27570052
>he fell for the humans are less vulnerable to diseases in 2016 than 1016 meme
awesome
>>27570812
This practical idea of town vs city first came to me when they installed fiber optic internet in my neighbourhood. It got me interested to see the other installations plans going on in New Zealand and here it was the standard "cities get it first then towns" sort of thing. Then it made me think
>Why would anyone want to live in a town now? far away from everything, usually no good healthcare, no university, not as good job prospects, generally boring etc.
In NZ I think really only the people who live in towns (as in they want to) are rich motherfuckers who probably own multiple farmlands and just built they're own house in the middle of nowhere.
>>27571019
this tbqh
>mfw ancient greeks were literally healtier than the avg american today
>>27570829
can we just not dream my son?
>>27570829
>t that the further back in time you go, the shittier life was.
hmm
>>27569746
Tis a bad feel indeed.
>>27571113
>tfw you will never navigate your boat by using the light of the stars and a chinese compass
why even live?
>>27571053
sauce my good m8
>>27570366
My father, and his father before him, and my mother's father, were all drafted. I've always wondered what that was like, going off to the ends of the earth for my country.
>>27571230
>>27571112
pic quite related my senpai
the Mediterranean diet was very healthy
>>27571053
greeks were black
>>27570936
I wouldn't say that she directly helped me with it. I took my first long-term trip a few years ago and went to Turkey, Greece, Iraq, Georgia, Armenia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, India, and Kazakhstan. I spent a couple of months in India with my ex-girlfriend. We didn't leave Delhi except once, which was to visit Agra and see the Taj Mahal. A lot of people tried to rip me off and redirect me to tourist offices, but I couldn't have fallen for their scams and lies even if I'd wanted to, since I was stuck in the city on account of my relationship. I got to talking to some of the people working with foreigners and learned a lot about how cons and scams work in Delhi.
The next year, after me and my then-girlfriend were in the process of breaking up, I got an apartment and a lower-income job. I saw a whole lot of Delhi and then went back just a few months after leaving. On my most recent trip, I learned how to ride a motorcycle and went all around Delhi, Noida, and Ghaziabad. I mean, I've been around enough that my Indian friends in Delhi ask me for advice on places to live in the city; I even once gave a girl directions back to her house 20km away when her taxi driver got lost.
Again, I definitely see where you're coming from. India is very interesting, because, like you said, it's a fusion of old and modern, as well as dozens of cultures and languages.
For some reason, I tend to enjoy poorer countries more than developed ones. I liked Iceland, for instance, but am always dying to go back to places like India and Colombia and Serbia and Turkey. I guess those places are just more colorful and vibrant and accommodating to outsiders (to an extent - India can be an awful hassle if you don't burst of the tourist bubble, which is very hard to do even if you're an Indian traveling within the country).
I've only been to Thailand for a week. What else is good in SEA?
>>27571301
WEEEEE WUZ PHILOSOPHER KANGS AN SHEEET
>>27571051
Its totally a valid point. Once you live in a city its really hard to go back to a town. The advantage though is that a town is far less lonely than a city. The bigger the city, the more apathetic everyone is to each other. I mean there are literally thousands of people around me at any given point and they don't even make eye contact. Everyone just mechanically follows their scheduel from morning till night every day of their lives.
Even the "friends" most people have here are really just people who have similar hobbies and you hang out with them because you're not "supposed" to be alone. One day you just wake up and you're a year older and literally nothing happened. You're still going to watch the superbowl with your 'friends' and maybe go get drunk with some people you happen to know but dont really give a shit about.
>>27571236
>born in russia but moved
>military service has always been mandatory
>tfw first male in literally thousands of years not getting ready to fight for his country
>>27571324
AY YO HOL UP ORIGINAL NIGGA
>>27571308
>I've only been to Thailand for a week. What else is good in SEA?
Haha I'm no expert but for the "poorer countries" type that are good I would definitely say Cambodia and Nepal. In general other places in SEA are good such as Malaysia and Singapore. Even though singapore suffers from the "no soul" meme I still think it's a very enjoyable place to visit.
>It's only a little bit expensive though
It's so fascinating that reading all you've written you've basically made India (specifically Delhi?" your second home since you've been there so many times already to the point where you're giving advice to people who live there! Haha you are very well traveled bud.
A long time ago I had this interesting conversation with a friend who has been everywhere in the world and he would constantly get remarks from people who said "wow! you're rich! you're in (insert country here)! I wish I had the money to go there!" Then he would argue that really if you're smart enough the only real expense is getting there in the first place and he was sick of people arguing that due to the fact that they are in a far away location that they were "rich". He argued that they stayed at cheap places, no fancy shit and were purely there for the experience.
How true do you think this argument is?
>>27570052
that's a myth desu, mortality was higher but the average person could easily live into their 60s
>>27571489
If you didn't die in a war/during child birth and weren't the complete bottom of the barrel you would be just fine. Many nobles or well off people lived well into their 80s as far back as ancient Greece. I mean there are tons of records of 70-80 yr olds in the Roman senate and there were a couple Medieval kings that ruled until like 90.
Yeah the average life span is longer now but do you really want the kind of life-prolonging effects that shit like Chemo offers? Rather die at 40 than spend an extra 10 years dealing with a thousand side effects of all those prescription pills you're on.
>>27571352
With the apathetic thing I feel like it's true but I feel like you can still make close friends in a big city. Maybe it's just harder to
>tfw ywn fuck a purple elf
Did you know they are 2.13 meters?all of muh dick
>>27571476
I agree with your friend to a very limited extent. I'm not made out of money, but I prioritize travel while balancing my budget and ensuring that I don't fall into debt or fiscal irresponsibility. It is true that you can travel extensively without earning or having tons of money. Traveling isn't inherently expensive for people who are living and earning in first-world countries. You can spend a month - albeit an uncomfortable month - in India for between $5 and $15 per day. I think the most I've ever had to spend was in Iceland, where a cheap beer in a bar ran for $10 and a room in a dorm hostel was near to $35. There were no inexpensive eating options like there are in New York City. I think there was a hot dog cart near where I was staying that sold dogs for about $3.50, and that was the only option beside from spending $30 at a restaurant or cooking spaghetti every day.
I will say this: compared to ordinary people in poor countries, you are rich. If you aren't rich, you are still extraordinarily lucky in comparison. I don't mean that in a SJW kind of way, either. I was hardly scraping by in India, but I always knew that I had an American passport and could go back to the United States whenever I wanted. Folks in the Congo and Egypt or Thailand or wherever else you might be don't have that luxury. You might have just as much money as them or even less, but, at the end of a week or a month or a year or ten, you at least know that you have the choice to escape if you'd like.
But yeah, I'd say that, in many cases, the biggest expense of traveling is just getting to wherever you're trying to go. A round-trip to India costs about as much as staying there for a month and a half for me.
Not that well-traveled, by the way. The thing about being a /trv/fag is that you always meet people who have been to ten times as many places as you. When I was in Colombia, I met an English woman talking about how she'd been to around 40 countries in Africa alone.
>>27571621
>Traveling isn't inherently expensive for people
Nigga
have you seen airfare prices lately
>inb4 take a boat
>>27571684
>who are living and earning in first-world countries
Also see the bit about prioritizing travel. I wouldn't expect someone who has to support a family or who opted to buy a new car rather than dropping a grand on a plane ticket to view travel as "affordable." However, if you're resourceful and avoid a lot of financial obligations, it does not drain your wallet to an awful degree.
Can't stress the "prioritize" part enough, though. I don't go out to bars and spend lots of money on alcohol; I leave my debit and credit cards at home most days, to ensure I stick to a budget while at home; and I don't buy clothes or electronics or video games unless I really, really want something. The only things aside from ordinary bills I spend money on are dates with my girlfriend.
For example, I could probably afford to buy a new car if I wanted one. Instead, I drive a 2002 Jeep because I'd rather be able to take a three- or six-month trip somewhere than have to worry about a loan.
Like the other guy said, the most expensive part of traveling is often just the plane ticket. And nowadays you can fly from Chicago to Istanbul for less than $600, or from NYC to London or Stockholm for less than $150 one-way.
>>27571799
>from NYC to London or Stockholm for less than $150 one-way.
Bull fucking shit
>>27571585
You definitely can, its just that most normal people end up being really self absorbed and the only real communities are the super weird "fringe" ones. The older you get the harder it becomes. I feel like most people don't really have friends they just have people they hang out with so they don't feel alone.
The people that I know from cities have a really hard time forming a closer/more personal relationship with their friends and treat them with some formal distance.
>>27571621
With the Iceland thing, do you think it was expensive because it's an isolated rich??? country? I can understand in a place with 300k people there isn't going to be much alternatives haha.
So I guess with the travelling thing you can sorta agree. I guess it also really depends on the type of country you're going to. My friend had been specifically to Arizona only and South Africa. They are however quite rich and I didn't ask them about how they spent their money but they seemed pretty genuine about the whole experience thing.
I think we should feel very privileged about the whole second option thing. I still find it heartbreaking that the majority of people in this world don't have that second option thing and travelling is one of the last things on their mind.
Are all the pics you're posting OC btw?
>>27571829
Look it up, ese.
Right now fares are higher. However, you can still fly one-way to Denmark for around $200. The prices rise in the summer, but you can easily find a one-way flight to Scandinavia from NYC for less than $150. I know because I've seen the fares, and because I almost booked one going the opposite direction (from Bergen or Oslo to Boston for $110 in February or March).
>>27571684
if Syrians can do it so can you
>>27571836
ah yeah I can see that happening. When you;re in a world where you have to fend for yourself it's really easy to regress into a state of mind thinking that everything revolves around you which it feels it does. I really think it's the fact that city people in general are just less trusting, friendly or less likely wanting to talk to you
>>27571851
Yeah, all OC.
I think Iceland is just isolated. I don't know too much about their economic situation otherwise, aside from the country being very green and relatively affluent.
I'm probably going to go buy some wine and fall asleep soon, DESU.
>>27571897
>>27571910
Nope, quick google search reveals minimum fare from JFK is Norwegian airlines economy, 300 dollars one way
You're pulling these out your ass
>>27571924
>mfw he has no reading comprehension
>>27571924
Learn to read you fucking nigger
>>27571918
hahah all good :D It was awesome having this muh deep intellectual conversation.
btw are you in India right now atm?
>>27572056
>muh deep intellectual conversation
Have you been picking on me this entire time, senpai? Not nice. I was too tired to know the difference.
And no. I'm in the USA right now, at home.
>>27572072
no I'm not!!!!!!!!!!!! It's just I find it really rare to have good discussion on 4chan. trust me I really appreciate this.
Your photos are also really interesting. I think my favourite is the welcome to iraq one and the bus one. What the hell happened at the bus one?
>>27571955
>>27571960
what are you fags on about? I can't find one-way tickets from america to europe for less than 300 usd
Norwegian is an airline company, not norway specifically
>>27572298
he said you only get those fares in the winter
>>27572298
I'm not saying it's an around-the-calendar affair. In the winter you sometimes see one-way tickets to and from Europe with Norwegian for less than $150. Like I said, I almost booked one of them, albeit in the opposite direction. I also checked to see whether the fares were similarly cheap from North America to Europe, and they were about the same. I think you usually see this kind of thing from December until maybe March, since there aren't many people trying to go to Scandinavia.
If you want to think I'm lying, go ahead. I have no motivation or reason to do that, but if you wanna think that everyone on 4chan is le troll, fine.
>>27572166
The buses got their windows busted out by rocks and tear gas canisters during the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul. On the second or third day of protests, a huge mass of people basically forced the police away from Taksim Square, down a hill towards Besiktas, forcing the cops to leave behind vehicles and some public transit vehicles to get abandoned.
>>27572367
Fascinating. Turkey is definitely on my go to list for travelling mainly because it's always been this weird place of between Europe and the Middle East. Shame what's happening to it now with all the unrest now and in recent years.
