Traveling Han-Style (Solo) vs Wingman’d

traveling alone? then who took the picture?

Random Observation/Comment #202: I consider myself a quiet guy with a lot to say.  It requires a bit of prying, but it’s quite easy to get me on some weird topic rant.  Since I try to gain a little bit of knowledge in everything, I’m sure it won’t take a long time of searching to find something we have in common or something we can just debate about.  With this being said, I guess I play more of a responsive role as a travel partner.  I walk around making observations and enjoy the new environment with open senses, but I’ll put in my two cents when the time arises.  There’s this side of me that gets lost within the moment and feels the need to be secluded, but another one that wants to talk about what I’m seeing and express those sporadic jokes that run through my head (instead of just taking a picture of it to laugh about it later).  I write this entry to answer a question that has been bugging me: Should I fly solo or look for a travel buddy?

I know some people who absolutely hate traveling by themselves.  They feel unsafe in an unfamiliar city and they feel so empty and quiet without a wall to bounce off some ideas.  I, on the other hand, love the solidarity.  I love walking at my own pace and seeing things that interest me.  I feel no need to follow someone else’s schedule and there’s a degree of freedom that brings everything together.  Plus, if I am in a social-type of mood, I can always meet new people at a hostel and jabber away about career ideas and similar topics of conversation with a new perspective.  There’s something about meeting a stranger that adds adrenaline to the equation.  After the first hour of going through the regular chit-chat introductions, there’s just an open slate of questions to keep a conversation rolling into different topics.

If I traveled with a best friend, we would definitely have these sorts of conversations with some inside jokes included, but your best friend’s image in your mind does not become tainted or boosted with any exchange of words.  The words don’t pass through a judgmental barrier, which is great between friends, but a little anti-climatic with my surroundings.  I guess the amount of new things you can learn about a friend (or the new things you want to learn without ruining a friendship) arrive a happy medium that should not be disturbed.  There are many cases where long road trips stuck in a car with someone for 15 hours at a time will drive one of the people crazy – especially if it’s just two people, sometimes you just run out of things to say.  Then you get this awkward silence and glowing evil vibe that makes everything uncomfortable.  There’s always the possibility of strengthening a friendship, but always that danger of mucking it up.  However, in the traveling situation, what are the chances that the person you meet half way around the world would become your best friend?  I’m open to the possibility, but the reputation you exude doesn’t make a difference – what matters more is your character.  I guess you could technically just lie about everything.  That wouldn’t be a bad social experiment…

Anyway, I’ve avoided traveling with someone I know really well to reduce the chance of messing up the relationship that already exists.  The solo traveling is probably not as safe, but it’s definitely much more flexible.  So, my quirky personal interests and weird walking habits have made me choose a solo-traveling solution?  I started to think it was the better choice until I actually found someone I like traveling with.  Maybe I just never gave it a chance or had the opportunity arise, but traveling with Natasha has actually been quite fun.  She enjoys the same activities as I do and we explore each city fulfilling our own role.  The conversations come in small waves, and in between, we just observe and make commentary where necessary.

I guess that’s the best part – the random commentaries that are floating in my head devoured in the moment.  The friend is just there for you to call his/her name and point at that clever little observation.  It’s that feeling of sharing that thought directly to someone – like twittering anywhere you want.  Hmm… it’s like being able to twitter anywhere at any time without any electronic device.  It’s genius.  The only down side is that it’s only with one person, but at least you know when this person is reading your tweet and whether or not he/she is interested.  Luckily, this service provides the visual clues of interest in the topic.  Plus, it has full voice recognition capabilities and responds with a set voice as well.  Brilliant!

So, I guess the key to traveling with a wingman is to have a good wingman.  You have to share the same habits in traveling and the same interests.  For example, a museum go-er would most probably not enjoy a huge hiking scene.  Or a lazy person would not want to explore the whole city by foot.  Frugal travelers may not always agree with the traveling styles of those who want to live luxuriously on their vacation.  There’s just a long list of ground rules that must be followed or else traveling together could just mean sleeping in the same hostel (which is cool too).  I guess the best course of action is to plan the trip together and see the common interests in activities.  If you find an interesting person with a similar taste, then the trip will be that much more enjoyable.  A base familiarity at least helps remind you of home.  When you’ve been traveling as long as I have, you start to miss home. Sigh.

~See Lemons Zusammen

Join Me Backpacking in August!

Looks like planning.

Random Observation/Comment #201: Over the past 6 months, I’ve become a travel guru. I wonder if I have to wear any special attire.  In boy scouts, the badge I sew on would probably be of a guy wearing a backpack with a hiking stick.  In real life, my uniform would probably include sandals and the same badge, but with me also fighting a tiger.  I could always use that huge Europe Lonely Planet guidebook as my weapon – that’s pretty much the only use I have for it anyway.  FYI, everything in a guidebook can be found online.  I think you’re just paying for the binding.

When I first started planning, there were many – well, I guess they can’t be labeled “mistakes,” but I’ll call them “miscalculations.” It was very – what’s the word I used? – Oh yes, Anal.  The way I did it before, I basically saw everything there was to see through other people’s blogs and photographs.  I used Google Earth, Google Maps, and Street view to actually walk through the major cities to the point where I recognized the exits to the underground stations in London.  Everything about the city was mapped out in my mind before even arriving to a detail that made me wonder why I even needed to go.  It was definitely a lot of work, but it was quite comforting for me (but mostly my parents) knowing that every step was planned along the way.  Since then, I have learned a great deal about traveling and created my own refined methodology.  I’ll try to stay on topic this time and write about this travel-planning process with the results for this August.

Knowing the Givens

It’s very difficult to plan a trip without at least some major givens.  For example, it is essential to at least know: 1) Time allotted, 2) Budget, 3) General area of travel (a continent would be nice), and 4) Personal preferences of you and your travel buddies.  The last part is the most important because you will not be able to make any decisions without at least having some opinion about the place.  If you have a list of dislikes towards weather, cultures, or certain parts of the world, then it will be easier to narrow down your travel location.  If you already have a list of must-sees, than that’s even better.

In my case, I have all of August with a tight budget and the general area of Northern Europe.  I bought a Eurailpass for Germany, Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), France, and Spain for this month so I am much restricted.  Although restriction may sound bad, it is necessary for making these tough choices.

The Eurailpass is suggested for non-EU travelers because you’ll save a lot of money and you don’t have to worry about buying and printing tickets ahead of time.  A spontaneous traveler will appreciate this freedom.  I bought a 10-day 4 country select pass for August.  This means that the two months after activation, I can use any 10 days and take any train (including ICE) for free.  Great deal for only 310 EUR considering some one-way tickets can easily cost 125EUR.

Narrowing Down the Location

Based on your personal preferences, your travel time, and budget, the list of locations for your vacation should start to look a little more manageable.  I personally spoke with friends that have been abroad, or who are from these countries, to get a better idea of the sights that are most famous and most “underground.”  To get this advice, I suggest going to parties and bringing up this travel aspiration.  Surprisingly, everyone loves traveling and has their own little suggestions for places to go and things to see.  The guidebooks can give you this historical background and a few good tips, but I think locals and friends with your common interests can give you a little bit more relevant advice. Plus, if these friends live in the area and have a place for you to stay, it’s a little hard to resist adding this to your itinerary.  For people traveling in Europe, you will probably be using the super-efficient railway system.  Planning your route with this based on the travel flight should also give you a good idea of what you can see.  Remember not to be too ambitious and maintain within the area to reduce time spent on overnight trains.

In my case, I felt the need for a change of scenery.  I had visited so many old European museums and German places that the thought of a sunny beach makes me want to weep in joy.  Not only has Germany weather been overcast for most of the days, but I also haven’t gone body surfing for almost two years.  Yeah, there were those times in Japan, but I didn’t count them because the waves were so boring.  I miss those summers with huge waves and constant fear of jelly fish or crabs stinging me or clipping off a toe.  Good times.  Anyway, I will spend the bulk of my time in Spain and pass through Amsterdam, Belgium, and Paris.  This was partially due to my Spanish group of friends at Hamburg passing their advice on the main attractions.  I originally planned 10 days in Spain, but it kept expanding to more cities and more must-see locations.  Now, I’m thinking 20 days will let me see San Sebastian, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, and Ibiza.

Creating a Broad Itinerary

I used to write these itineraries in a word document, but I found that making revisions and seeing multiple overlapping itineraries were quite difficult.  The much easier solution is to keep an excel sheet with the columns: Date, Day of week, IT1: Country/City, IT1: Transportation details, IT1: Activities, IT1: Sleeping location, IT2: Country/City, IT2: (etc.).  With the time available for travel, you could just write out a few different itinerary plans and see which one works best.  To help with this decision, it is important to know exactly the length of the commute and the prices.  If you take all of your desired locations as nodes in a network, you can assign the weight to the line connecting these nodes as the travel time and then use any of the famous algorithms to solve for the best path.  Too complicated?  Just make a circle.  I would suggest flights from major airports like London Heathrow or Paris because the flights are more frequent and therefore cheaper.  Once you’re in the heart of Europe, I would suggest finding an itinerary that maintains the shortest travel times by train.

For example, if you have decided you want to see France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany and your flight is arriving and leaving from France, I would suggest a broad itinerary like: 3 days in Paris, 3 days in Amsterdam, 2 days in Berlin, 4 days in Munich, 2 days Brussels, and 1 day in Paris.  Although Brussels and Amsterdam are close to each other, it makes more sense to have a stop between Munich and Paris to reduce the travel time.  This becomes much more relevant for my particular case because a train from Hamburg to Spain takes around 16 hours. Without a stop in Paris, not only would I spend a whole day on the train (which I will probably have to do anyway), but there would also be a problem with the length of usage for the eurailpass (if the train ride is from 8AM to 4AM the next day, you will need to use two days on the eurailpass).

For my case, I will be starting in Hamburg, going through Spain for 20 days, Paris for 5 days, back to Hamburg for 2 days to get my stuff, Amsterdam for 2 days, and then London to return home.  The cities of San Sebastian, Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia make a weird rhombus on the map of Spain so it’s a little bit difficult to decide which way to go.  I decided to see San Sebastian first because it’s the closest to Hamburg and I really want to jump right into the beautiful beaches and scenery.  After 2 or 3 days there, I’ll go to Barcelona for 4 or 5 days before the locals start their vacation.  Next is Madrid for 4 or 5 days for some culture, museums, and a cheap place to stay.  Lastly is Valencia and Ibiza for some relaxing beaches and party islands for the rest of the time.  This may sound like most of the work is already done, but research on accommodations and activities can change the broad itinerary.

Where to Sleep?

There are loads of cheap hostels in major cities with incredible free tours and maps that tell you all of the major attractions.  I found that, even though I did all my research before hand, I wound up “winging-it” when I arrived because I wanted a local tour guide’s opinion.  I would often arrive to the hostel, walk around for the night to get a feel of the city, and then just go to a free tour the next day to hear some history and ask some questions about places to eat or specific museums to see.  In fact, I think it’s enough to go to Frommers [www.frommers.com] or Wikitravel [www.wikitravel.com] and look at their attractions highlights.  Full-on itineraries are available, but you’ll find that these are completely unrealistic to follow.  Walking around the city with a full path planned and exact places to look makes it seem so robotic. I rather just use my sense of direction to guide my way around the city first.  It’s interesting how getting lost and then looking at the map later after finding your way back makes you more aware of how the city fairs in size.  Anyway, I won’t make generalization because I know some people who are just terrible with directions.

Another option is to use couchsurfing.org.  This is basically a community built on a trust that backpackers and hosts will follow the rules of conduct and provide a place for someone to stay in exchange for some stories and hopes that they will grow their network to allow more couchsurfing opportunities in different countries.  It sounds sketchy, but I can attest that it’s quite safe if you do enough research on the right person and make contact with an open mind and transparent itinerary.

In my case, I know a few people in Spain, so I should be able to save some money on my trip.  To accommodate these people’s time schedules, I also needed to adjust my own itinerary accordingly.  For other cities, I used hostelworld [www.hostelworld.com] to pick the best rating and price.  Since August is peak season for travelers, I would suggest: 1) exchange your money earlier (rates go up in the summer), and 2) make bookings to your hostels earlier (to ensure you get a room).

Refining for the Final Itinerary

To reiterate, the main factors that determine your final itinerary include (but are not limited to): personal preference on weather, festivals/activities in specific places, friends’ accommodations, friends’ preferences, type of transportation (eurailpass), transportation travel times between cities, and whenever you run out of money.  The excel sheet of choices really helps.  Below is my itinerary:

Date	City	Details	Sleeping	Railpass stuff
Sat Aug-1	Hamburg – San Sebastian	16 – 22 hrs need to take day train because eurailpass does not work otherwise	Sleep on train	Railpass3 (3)
Sun Aug-2	San Sebastian		hostel
Mon Aug-3	San Sebastian		hostel
Tue Aug-4	San Sebastian		hostel
Wed Aug-5	San Sebastian – Barcelona	5 hours	Barcelona hostel	Railpass3 (4)
Thu Aug-6	Barcelona		Barcelona hostel
Fri Aug-7	Barcelona
Sat Aug-8	Barcelona
Sun Aug-9	Barcelona
Mon Aug-10	Barcelona – Madrid	3 hours		Railpass3 (5)
Tue Aug-11	Madrid
Wed Aug-12	Madrid
Thu Aug-13	Madrid
Fri Aug-14	Madrid – Valencia	3.5 hours		Railpass3 (6)
Sat Aug-15	Valencia
Sun Aug-16	Valencia
Mon Aug-17	Valencia
Tue Aug-18	Valencia	Take boat to Mallorca or Ibiza
Wed Aug-19	Valencia	15 hrs from Valencia to Paris, 9 hours from Barcelona to Paris – need to take 6AM train
Thu Aug-20	Valencia – Paris	(Natasha will be here)		Railpass3 (7)
Fri Aug-21	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Sat Aug-22	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Sun Aug-23	Paris	(Natasha will be here)
Mon Aug-24	Paris
Tue Aug-25	Paris – Hamburg	8.5 hours		Railpass3 (8)
Wed Aug-26	Hamburg
Thu Aug-27	Hamburg
Fri Aug-28	Hamburg – Amsterdam	5 hours		Railpass3 (9)
Sat Aug-29	Amsterdam
Sun Aug-30	Amsterdam – Brussels – London	EUROStar, 5.5 hrs		Railpass3 (10)
Mon Aug-31	London
Tue Sep-1	London – US	LHR – JFK Leave @ 3:35PM, British Airways, Arrive in JFK @ 6:10PM	Plane	Underground

I haven’t booked the hostels yet, but after some feedback from some friends, I can refine this itinerary some more and start making some last minute plans.  It’s important to print out the booking information and relevant maps to get to the hostel.  After that, you can pretty much wing-it.

Many of the anal planning has been left behind.  Based on the research I’ve done, I already know I’ll have an amazing time at each of these places, so I don’t think it’s necessary to list all of the specific activities (and definitely not plan the itinerary down to the hours in a day).  Damn, I was nerdy.

~See Lemons Guru-Travel

cout >> “Dear World,”;

Random Observation/Comment #200: As a tribute to this 200^th post, I will do a little happy dance. *Does the happy dance*.  You didn’t see it, but it was actually performed.  With the amount of time and effort I put into this blog, I think I could have written a book by now.  Actually, a lot of the material is relevant to something like a Truth North self-help finding-ones-self type of book.  I guess I thought about this whole book thing because I thought of a random goal to achieve in the next 10 years.  I want to be on the Colbert Report.  The only minor detail to this ambition is my need to write something relevant to current events and politics, publish it, and have it as a best seller.  I guess before I can be a part of the Colbert Report, I need to be famous, and I’m wondering if that’s what I want.  In my own little competition with myself, I probably just want to do something that sounds cool.  “I was on the Colbert Report.” “That’s pretty badass.”

World: why are you filled with such bitter and sweet?  There are days where you’re a living Hell and others that just make me believe there’s no Heaven because it can’t get any better. Of course, I would be naïve to think that the majority of good I see could replace, or compare with, the suffering around the world, but everything has its moments.  I stay optimistic about you because you provide for me this medium of happiness.  I see you as a container of mixed nuts – you’ll always have the cashews, but sometimes the almonds will sneak in with their dry texture and evil ways.

Unfortunately, it is our nature to see evil much more than good.  Our criticisms just point out the mistakes because it makes good news.  We see a molding piece of bread in a batch and tend to throw them all away in fear of contamination.  And the weird thing is that it’s true.  I’m not about to speak religion in any way, but morality and this notion of evil does spread in weird ways.  It’s difficult to argue against the fundamental laws of humanity; the ones we find obvious, not by nurture, but by logic and understanding of our environment.

We want others to feel the same pain we feel when we’ve felt pain – I’ve seen this often with jealousy and violence.  But will the cycle ever end?  Does this mean we are allowed to make excuses for our own actions based on some general abandonment of hope?  I’m brought back to a Michael Jackson song (of course, I must make a reference): Man in the Mirror.  If you haven’t heard it, you should.  “If you want to make a world a better a place; take a look at yourself and make a change.”

World – it’s not your fault that humanity is flawed.  We’ve done some shit that we’re ashamed of, but there are moments of joy that make everything worth it.  It’s how we muster the strength to defend what is important – we have that desire to make those good times come again.  So World, can’t we all just get along?  This could be a plea from one that is aware of eventual destruction in this insignificant creature’s life in the marvels of the universe, but just give us a little bit longer?  I just need more time.  Four months was not enough.

~See Lemons Sincerely Clementine

A Hungarian Tribute

I'll miss all of you!

Random Observation/Comment #199:  The past 4 months have passed by unbelievably quickly.  It felt like just yesterday we were all drinking our first beers in public, dancing on tables, and finding valid excuses to party every day of the week.  I’ve had an absolutely wonderful time getting to know everyone, especially the “Hungarian group” (to which I will dedicate this entry to).  I hope we will all stay in touch through tweets, status updates, and random pokes through facebook, email, or any other social network.  If anybody (Hungarians and everyone else I’ve met abroad included) visits New York, you will have a personal tour guide and possibly a place to stay.  Either way, I hope we will always be international friends.  It’s incredibly sad to see this Hamburg University Chapter come to an end, but as with all good memories, it will have a fantastic finish tonight.  Let’s make the last party rock the house (dormitory/apartment/whatever).  May our paths cross again in the future…

In most of my journal entries, I think about the beginning and then flip through my mental photo album of these moments to find the right words.  Each quirky personality comes to mind through the crooked smirks, embarrassed smiles, and uncontrollable laughter memories we shared together.  I can’t quite pin-point how I exactly became a fellow-Hungarian, but our relationship grew from just being with each other in our happiest times.  Whether it was a relaxing walk through Berlin, a well-cooked dorm goulash dinner, or another alcohol-filled night at the bar downstairs, the time we spent together will always remind me of freedom and friendship.

Interestingly enough, I was accepted into the group with open arms.  It might have been the massage-hands or my tendency to take pictures of everything (which they find adorable), but I really felt missed when I couldn’t make it to a party – like I was a genuine part of their group from the start.  It was only a small amount of attention, but it pulled me into this temporary family and I’m happy that I was a part of it.  Each of you has made an impact on me and you deserve your individual tributes.

Greg has somehow become my pupil after these past few months of living in the same flat and partying (pretty much all the time).  I can sense that he has respect for my opinion and enjoys my company, so he invites me to his excursions and discusses random topics when he passes my room for his occasional smoke.  Although Greg is sometimes overstressed about certain aspects of his schoolwork, he knows how to have a good time and let loose at a party.  Drunk Greg tends to use very flashy hand gestures (which we all love to notice and mimic), and will always push for more shots of Jagermeister (good man).  It may seem like I did most of the teaching with the occasional English reviews, but you have taught me more than you realize.  I’m glad we became friends and I hope I can meet you in Hungary or Austria in 2 years.

Frank exudes the qualities of a professional like no other.  He’s well-dressed, current events savvy, and charismatic about all topics of conversation.  Even if he’s never been to a place, he is automatically crowned the guide, leader, and decision-maker.  I haven’t found this exact quality to his stride or the way he holds his conversations, but there’s a certain characteristic that makes his arguments very convincing.  Either way, I think I have learned one of his secrets: Frank loves the camera and wants to be immortalized in the most interesting poses.  It works out well – every photographer needs that fun-pose model.

For the sexy poses, I’ll, of course, yield the lens to the lovely ladies.  This is one of my outrageous hypotheses, but I think the girls competed for my attention to get more massage-time.  They each had their own strategies for getting my attention (or at least I saw it this way in my mind), but I found it interesting because they appealed to such different parts of my brain (I can’t choose a favorite so I think I fell for all of you in different ways =D).  I’ll be more specific: (It is a given that you’re all very pretty, so I’ll leave it out of the descriptions).

Ria appealed to the obvious and straightforward physical contact.  It is custom for European hugs and kisses, but it was more of an enjoyment than a formality.  In many ways, I felt like she was the awkward hand on the thigh stepping around the line of appropriateness.  We shared the sitcom inside-jokes with How I Met Your Mother and Friends references, which is always an interesting topic of conversation.   I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider it, but there was something with the grouping circumstances that made me more comfortable in a friend zone (going into detail about these personal dating rules would be too far off-topic).

Reka is adorable and really attracted that cute-sy, naming-stuffed-animals side of me.  She shyly smiles, and often shows a silent jealousy I’ve often noticed from my Chinese ex-girlfriend.  It used to work so much better, but I guess I grew up from that phase.  Because of this sheep obsession, her personality stuck in my mind and it made me buy her a sheep toy and draw a sheep-portrait for her.  The cute gestures continued, but my normal observation-driven drunken nights never lead me to common topics and inside jokes.  I feel like younger-timid-Clemens would have been captivated, but more-mature-Clemens wavered and explored a different world.

Juli is the youngest, yet fit in seamlessly.  I was unexpectedly impressed by her wit and our playful conversations.  I don’t think it had to do with age or innocence, but rather a very quick connection to normal wordplay.  I rarely say this, but she has a beautiful personality.  It’s not even that we know each other extremely well; I just find this combination of words to be very fitting.  The odd thing is that I don’t think anyone would disagree because I just said what everyone was trying to say, but just couldn’t find the words for. You’re welcome.

Vikky claims my educational and independence-driven part of my heart.  She really reminds me of Monica from Friends.  She’s responsible, organized, and very tidy with every aspect of her life – to summarize: she will be a wonderful mother.  The trips will be planned down to every detail and optimal efficiency would be achieved (efficiency = super sexy).  I think our personalities have much more in common than we gave time to explore, but (as expected) the positive and negative qualities of social intellectuals arise – we have much to say, yet we rather observe.  However, one who pries will find a topic that just makes us talk non-stop.  Her enthusiasm just so happened to be in volleyball, which – to put into my hobby gauge – matches my enthusiasm for ping pong (which borderlines obsession).

Orsi has the most extroverted personality with quite a contagious laugh and smile.  She floats around in her own world and sprinkles her happy mood on the group.  Not only is she quite the dancer, but I think I would consider her the most energetic.  Her playful nature is something anyone would love, and I feel like a livelier person in her presence.  She’s proof that happiness can be spread by example, and I’m glad I met someone with this quality.  Even though I haven’t called you Sushi since the first time I met you, the word will always remind me of you and your enthusiasm.

Although I did not wind up a fluent Hungarian speaker (I’m surprised too), I’ve learned a great deal about the culture and customs.  At the end of the day, we were all study abroad students living a study abroad student life, but there was a definite connection.  Actually, I was probably drawn to the unbelievably hot group of beautiful girls.  It’s true – you make all of my friends jealous and I’m glad we have so many pictures together.

Cheers! Egészségedre! Kampai! Kippis! Salud! Salute! Skal! Na zdrowie! Budem zdorovy! Let’s get our freak on.  All the best and safe travels.

Your Sneaker,

Clemens

~See Lemons Miss Greg, Frank, Ria, Reka, Juli, Vikky, and Orsi (Sushi)

they're so cute...

A series of parties

old school first group picture

Random Observation/Comment #198: This dorm life I live is continuously surprising and ever-so lively.  Somewhere, a party lurks every night and sometimes they exist for the strangest reasons.  “It’s Thirsty Thursday – we have to drink.”  “Let’s party because it’s Wednesday and that’s hump day.”  “It’s Monday so I need a small low key party to slowly wean me off the alcohol withdrawal from the night before.”  “I felt like cooking for everyone in the dorm.”  “The bar’s open tonight.” “I’m bored…”  I’ve attended parties every day of the week and somehow it doesn’t get boring with such great company and excess alcohol.  I hope I’m always young and blessed with a healthy liver.

I’ve always believed in the phrase, “Everything in moderation (even moderation).”  I’m actually not exactly sure what it means in a broader sense, but I think it’s relevant.  Partying is a form of stress relief and a way to unwind.  In Japan, they take it to the extreme because people are so completely absorbed into their roles and the masks they wear in front of family and work that they never get to just let loose.  It’s actually a little depressing seeing adults in full suits passed out on the street next to a puddle of theirs (or someone else’s) old dinner and stomach acid (I’ve seen it often in Osaka).  Although this could be relieving, in one way or another, I would suspect that the hangover creates a bigger problem than just going home for a good night’s rest.  But, alas, people must be pleased and sometimes that self-sacrificing Asian characteristic just gets the better of their reality.

Europeans, on the other hand, just drink every night.  This does not mean that they’re alcoholics, it just means they really like the taste of beer with their meals.  If it’s a nice day outside, it’s a perfectly valid excuse to grab a beer from the automat at noon.  They basically drink it to quench their thirst and maintain its role as a social lubricant.  It’s not some idolized, freedom substance abuse to get this drunken feeling – no, it’s just something to do when watching a football match or in between chews.

The difference in the perspective of alcohol is also apparent by age.  I find the Japanese culture towards drinking as the cure to all their problems for that one forgettable night.  It’s like a frat party filled with people that want an excuse to make stupid choices.  The European culture still involves drinking, but the higher tolerance level just leads to louder chants and livelier conversations.

Unfortunately, the American culture doesn’t see this as a symbol of freedom or a daily routine, but instead, it is treated as a chance to rebel.  The 21 drinking age just makes teenagers feel like it is “cool” to get drunk.  This little nugget blooms dangerously, and if the law isn’t changed, I will proactively teach my child about alcohol in my own way.  You don’t just make it some forbidden fruit – don’t you know that just makes people want it more?  Don’t girls love chasing guys they can’t get?  (That comment may have been uncalled for).  The point is: Teenagers are going to get their alcohol somehow, so you might as well legalize it to remove the adrenaline rush of doing something illegal.

What is my proactive solution?  Class never goes out of style.  Nobody likes a drunken frat dude except for other drunken frat dudes.  If beer tastes crappy, then why drink it?  If getting completely plastered makes the next day unbearable, then why do it?  The answer is: because you are studying abroad and you can, so you should.  But, remember: in moderation (even moderation).  PS – Drink Guinness because it’s not just a beer; it’s a meal. ::Thumbs Up::

~See Lemons Partay for the right reasons