Americans Shouldn’t Be Afraid To Travel


Obama is a Muslim. The Moon landings were faked. The South should have won the Civil War.

People believe a lot of stupid things, and one of the stupidest is that Americans are somehow at much higher risk than other nationalities when traveling. Many Americans I know won’t travel to foreign countries, and I’ve even seen Americans wearing Canadian flags in the hope that it will make them safe. Many Americans seem to think they’re targets, especially in Muslim areas. My own personal experience says otherwise.

Although I’m Canadian, I lived in the States a long time and have an American accent. Most people assume I’m American, so I know what it’s like to travel as one. I’ve been to lots of places that my American friends think I’m crazy to visit, like Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Palestine and Somaliland. Instead of being threatened or insulted, I’ve been welcomed.

Again and again I’ve told my American friends how surprisingly safe it is to adventure travel around the world, yet they persist in the belief that what I do is crazy or brave or just plain stupid, when in reality the only real threat I face is from the microbes. Oh yes, foreign microbes have kicked my Western ass on numerous occasions. Damn foreign microbes. The people have been much nicer. Here are two examples of “exotic” locations where I was assumed to be American and treated well.In Isfahan, Iran, I got into a conversation with a religious teacher at a madrasa. This guy decided to give me a driving tour of his city. I hopped into his car and we zipped around Isfahan to see the sights, including the many beautiful blue-tiled mosques.

At one point he asked, “Do you have mosques like this in America?” He seemed surprised when I told him I wasn’t American. His treatment of me after he found out I was Canadian was no better or worse than it was when he thought I was from the Great Satan. While he probably wasn’t terribly fond of the U.S. government, like most people he could distinguish between people and governments. Yes, I’ve said that before, but it bears repeating.

In the predominantly Muslim city of Harar, Ethiopia, I was a regular member of a daily qat chewing session. One of the younger guys there talked to me every day in order to improve his English. The Arab Revolution was all over the TV so we had plenty to talk about. Several weeks into my stay he asked, “You are a Jew, yes?”

“No, I’m not,” I replied.

“But you are American. Ninety percent of Americans are Jews.”

“Actually it’s more like two percent, and I’m not American anyway.”

So this Muslim guy not only thought I was an American, but a Jewish American and still had no problem hanging out with me.

That’s not to say that I’ve never had problems while abroad. I live part time in Spain, and four or five times I’ve had Spaniards start bitching to me about “damn Yankees” needing to go home. Every single time they’ve been lone, older drunk guys – losers, in other words.

And are you really going to shut yourself off from the world just because of a few losers?

For a slightly different take on this from a real American, check out Dave Seminara’s post on National Pride While Abroad.

Photo courtesy flickr user Cali4beach. One of these ladies is actually Australian. Appearances can be deceiving!

In Praise Of National Pride While Abroad

The book “Rick Steves’ Guide to Germany” weighs in at more than 700 pages but devotes just three sentences to Heidelberg, one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. Steves’ authors opine that Heidelberg, home to one of Europe’s oldest universities and one of the better preserved old town centers in Central Europe, isn’t worth visiting on a three-week visit to Germany because it’s “overrun with Americans.”

The book doesn’t list a single hotel, restaurant or attraction in the city, apparently in the belief that lemming-like readers will avoid the place simply because the author has instructed them to. I have a lot of respect for Rick Steves and I like his guidebooks, television programs and podcasts. But when I’m advised not to visit a place, it piques my curiosity. Is Heidelberg really that bad? And does it make sense to avoid a place simply because there are too many Americans there?

Heidelberg has been a stop on the American’s Grand Tour of Europe itinerary, particularly for college students, for a very long time. I have no doubt that there are plenty of Americans in the city in the summer but I’ve just spent a few days there and found it to be anything but “overrun” with Americans. In fact, very few of the tourists I encountered were English speakers, and quite a few of those were Canadians. (More on them later.)But even if the city was crawling with American tourists, would that be a legitimate reason to avoid the place? I have mixed feelings on this issue. On the one hand, there’s no point in spending a king’s ransom and losing a night’s sleep flying around the world only to hang out with Courtney and Trent from Connecticut. And David Farley recently raised some good points in noting that a place can seem less than authentic if other Americans are in the house.

But I have to laugh at Americans who completely eschew even making eye contact, let alone conversation with Americans they encounter abroad. I’ve met Americans overseas who act as though they’re almost ashamed to be Americans when they leave the country. As Americans, we carry a lot of baggage when we travel outside the country. In many places, we’re perceived as big, loud, monolingual rubes that have only a superficial understanding of the world outside the USA.

The stereotype doesn’t fit most Americans who take the time, effort and expense to travel overseas but some of our countrymen act as though they’re vaguely embarrassed of their countrymen – even when there’s no reason to be. That said, I have been to places that are so overrun with tourists that I have a hard time enjoying them. For example, there are 227 inhabited Greek islands, but two of them – Mykonos and Santorini – attract more American tourists than all the rest combined.

I’m not enamored with either place, not because I have a problem encountering Americans overseas but because once the locals to tourists ratio tips too heavily in the tourist direction – no matter what the nationality of those tourists – the place loses something. It’s hard to feel like you are in Greece when you hear more Swedish than Greek.

I grew up in Western New York State just a few minutes drive from the Canadian border and over the years, I’ve met scores of Canadian travelers overseas. Many of the Canadians I’ve encountered wear their nationalities on their sleeves, hats or backpacks much more readily than we do as Americans. I’m sure part of this is because they’re proud of their country but they’re also trying to advertise the fact that they’re NOT AMERICANS!

Sean McLachlan pointed out the futility of this tactic a few years ago, but estimated that only half of those who use the Canadian maple leaf on articles of clothing are actually Canadian. I’ve never met a fake Canadian in my travels, but I don’t doubt that the phenomenon exists.

Yesterday, while waiting in line at a bakery in Heidelberg, I met a nice group of Canadian college students from Oshawa, Ontario. There were dozens of them in the city and each and every one was wearing a bright red jacket with the word “CANADA” emblazoned in a large font on the back. We’re one of the more patriotic countries on earth, but I can’t really imagine a large group of American college students wearing blue USA jackets (unless they’re part of a national sports team, which this was not). In fact, most of the time I see people overseas wearing clothing or hats with the US flag on it, the person is not actually American.

I’m not suggesting that we should travel the world draped in American flags. I keep a low profile when outside the country and always make an extra effort to be a respectful visitor so as not to become a walking stereotype. But there’s also nothing worse than an American who leaves the country and becomes a self-loathing American. We have our issues, perhaps more than most countries, but there’s no reason to walk around with one’s head hung in shame. And please feel free to visit Heidelberg. It’s a great place, no matter what Rick Steves and the gang says.

[Photo credits- 1) Editor B on Flickr, 2) Dave Seminara]

Note: I haven’t seen the 2012 edition of “Rick Steves’ Guide to Germany,” so it’s possible he’s corrected the Heidelberg slight.