Today is Saturday. We spent part of it driving across town to shop for a new microwave. The old one had a disastrous 3 and half minute run in with knedlik, but that's another story. There is no public transport here on the weekends; the bus service available during the week is extremely limited, runs no nearer than 1 mile from our house, and doesn't go to the other side of town. So, we had to put about 40 miles (that's 64 km) on the car today. Knedliky, kilometers, public transport---all of this reminded me of a question I was asked more than once in Europe: Why don't Americans travel more? My intense annoyance at being asked this question every time I go abroad, almost always by Europeans who have traveled to the US once or maybe twice if they have at all, has started me asking that question myself.
This is my answer: America is a big country, so big, in fact, that all of western and central Europe, and a part of eastern Europe would fit inside of the continental US. Draw a line from the Shetland Islands north of Scotland, to Petersburg, to Ankara to Lisbon and back up to Scotland. All of this would fit, with room to spare, inside. France is smaller than Texas; England would fit inside Georgia; Italy is no bigger than Florida; South Carolina could hold all of the Czech Republic. So, Americans drive a lot. On average, 15,000 miles (24,000 km) per year. And how far is that for say, someone living in Prague? It would be like adding together round trips to all of the following places: Rome, Barcelona, Paris, Athens, Edinburgh. London, Munich, Budapest, and Istanbul. These are driving miles, not airmiles. By the way, while I lived abroad in Europe last year, my family and I traveled to 10 countries and 3 continents in 9 months. Consider this, as well: Italians have an average of 42 vacation days per year, Germans 35. (Even the industrious Japanese take on average 25 days per year.) Americans have about half that much, 13 days per year. From all of this, it is evident that perhaps the question should be, "why don't Europeans travel more?" They've got more vacation, an amazing mass transit system, and more countries to visit in a space that wouldn't even get a southerner out of the deep south.
Indeed it is a shame that more Americans haven't traveled abroad, but maybe the reason for that isn't xenophobia or just pure cussedness. Maybe we're tired. And busy. A more important question should be asked about America: why can't we make better beer and wine?
