A stranger in a strange land – vacationing in your own country

 

It is amazing how much life changes after a two-hour train or plane trip. One moment, you are in harmony with the world around you. In a (long) blink of an eye, you are in an alien landscape. Even if the language and signs are the same, you feel in a foreign land.

It is easy, convenient and relatively inexpensive to experience this transformation. A 45-minute commuter flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco drops you into the other California, one that lives to a different drummer than the Angelinos, with a far more European beat. An equally short but far more up-and-down flight from Paris to Nice seems to drop you in the slow zone, where time is to be enjoyed, not merely exploited. In Israel, a two-hour train ride takes you from Karmiel, some 20 kilometers from the Lebanese border and the constant noise of planes, helicopters and birds, to Tel Aviv, where the pace of life is frenetic and the density of people and cars seems overwhelming. Yet, in all three cases, the country and language are the same and are about the only common denominators.

The differences are both physical and psychological. Every region has its dominant topography and layout. A location may be rural and spread out or urban and compact. Nature and water may divide areas in some places while cement and roads fulfill the same tasks in others. More subtly, the pace of life in some places is slow and leisurely, even in some big cities, whereas in many metropolitan areas everybody seems in a hurry and anxious to show achievement. This difference of pace creates an internal dissonance in the confused visitor, who asks, “How can people live like this?”. This difference in rhythm is as disconcerting and maybe even as exciting at the same time as the experience of a baseball hitter trying to hit a 98-mph fastball after an 82-mph breaking bitch (or the equivalent in cricket). The shock goes beyond the physical effect and calls into question our ability to read the situation.

Despite the moments of feeling overwhelmed, it is rather entertaining to visit the alternative worlds so close to us. First of all, it is not necessary to suffer the inconvenience and unpleasantness of long international air travel, which has lost most of its charm in the last 20 years. Second, these other places provide opportunities for experiences unavailable where we live. For example, some cities provide a plethora of shopping possibilities while other locations allow a person to literally do nothing. Third, seeing how “those” people live reminds you how happy you are where you live and helps you appreciate what you have, or maybe not. In any case, it clarifies one’s perspective. Thus, the benefits of traveling close to home are both short- and long-term.

Therefore, when time, money and energy are short, there is much to recommend for a vacation to a place physically close by but so distant in vibes. These places can be as foreign as a distant country but without the high financial and physical cost of getting there and back. They also help us define what aspects of life are truly important. It is possible to be a stranger and then again a native within two hours, while never crossing an international border.