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Rick Steves taking a break from filming in Italy’s Dolomites. Steves visited Charlotte to speak at a lecture for the World Affairs Council of Charlotte on Thursday, Feb. 15.
Courtesy of Rick Steves’ Europe
A little over halfway through his lecture, travel writer and TV personality Rick Steves quoted the prophet Mohammad: “Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled.”
The message, which was delivered to the World Affairs Council of Charlotte on Thursday evening at the Knight Theater, may not have been a direct quote of his own but fell in line with his overall thesis: You have to get out there to better understand, not only the world, but yourself and the worldview around you.
It was Steves’ third trip to Charlotte with his last visit taking place in 2013. He said he’s always impressed with the city. “It just seems like a very smart, modern city. I like it. It reminds me I should get up and get to know our country a little better.”
The celebrated travel writer and host of Rick Steves’ Europe on PBS said he has traveled 100 days a year for decades and mostly in Europe (which he refers to as his “beat”.) “When you write a chapter, you hope it has a long life and then you just tweak it every year when you visit. That’s generally the case, but certain things have major changes,” he said.
“Berlin used to be two cities, now it’s one after the fall of the wall. So, you’ve got to bite the bullet and reconfigure the whole chapter because it’s been redesigned… when I made the initial review of all these countries, deciding what would be in the book, it’s pretty accurate. But you realize, oh, I should have done that city and then you go to that city and you like it and you have to add to the book.”
To him, Europe is the springboard for traveling abroad. He said he encourages Americans to venture “past Orlando.”
“There’s a general affluence (to Europe). When I started traveling, there were a lot of no star hotels. Now, they don’t have any no star hotels. Everything’s good. Everything has potential,” he said.
“The second cities are great in Europe… Of course we want to go to Edinburgh but you’ve got to check out Glasgow. Of course you want to visit Lisbon but you should check out Porto. You want to go to Paris, but you have got to see Marseilles. All of the crowds are in those first cities, none of the crowds are in the second cities. So if you want to get out of the crowds, you can do it. But most people don’t prioritize (that).”
As an American, it is easy to be sucked into the concept that we’re treading on Europe as the “ugly American tourists” – armed with big sunglasses and hats, snapping pictures everywhere and funneling out of tour buses in front of the Roman Coliseum or Big Ben like cattle. But Steves says that perception is more restrained among Europeans than it might be portrayed in the media.
“I think the perceptions of the American government (in Europe) goes up and down.. sometimes they don’t like our policies. But when you travel, they don’t know what party you are. They don’t know what your politics are. You’re just a person from the United States and they’re happy to see you,” Steves said.
“I’m always impressed by how they cut us slack in our politics and you’re just seen as an interesting visitor from far away. If you’re curious and if you’re not judgmental, and if you’re there to learn and have a good time, Europeans would love to be your friend.”
For Steves embodies transformational travel when he makes his 100 day trek away from home, and while he understands that a traveler or pilgrim style trip is not what everyone would want, he encourages Americans to give it a try to better expand their understanding of who people really are across the world rather than what they’re designated to through sound bites or television news clips during major events.
Steves recalls a recent trip to Iran, where amidst the “Death to America” propaganda streamed down buildings, he found a people that weren’t too far from our own.
“You go to Iran and you realize they’re essentially just like us. They’ve got their frustrations with the government. Our government is more responsive, their government will lock you up or torture you if you do something wrong,” he said.
“I’d love for us to go and get to know the enemy, it’s tougher for them. They understand this better, it’s tougher for them to dehumanize us and for us to demonize them with our propaganda. It’s a constructive thing (to visit).”
At the end of the day, Steves wants you to leave every trip with some sense of perspective either on the place you just visited or yourself. As in the Mohammad quote before, Steves wants to know how many people you met and how many memories you made of human interaction rather than how many memorable sites you checked off your list or how many countries you got to.
“It’s never not constructive to travel and talk to people. I’m a coastal elite, privileged white guy that travels a lot and has all these highfalutin ideas. It’s important for me to get out and talk to people around the country and find out what people’s life stories are. My worldview is shaped by something and the person over there is shaped by something else,” he said.
“It’s good to know each other.”
Steves’ work can be found at ricksteves.com and on PBS where his television program airs. This is the third visit he has made to Charlotte to speak with the World Affairs Council, the last time being in 2013.
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Zach Dennis
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