While working on my upcoming book about the value of thoughtful travel, I’ve been thinking about how having a guide (or a friend who functions as a guide) who actually lived through the local history heightens the experience for a traveler.
When I was just 14 years old in a dusty village on the border of Austria and Hungary, a family friend showed me the excitement of history by introducing me to a sage old man. As he spread lard on my bread, he shared his eyewitness account of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 (which sparked the beginning of World War I). That encounter instilled in me a life-long interest in history.
In Prague, I walked the path that my Czech friend Honza walked night after night in 1989 with 100,000 of his countrymen as they demanded freedom from their Soviet overlords, and finally won it. The walk culminated in front of a grand building where Honza said, “Night after night we assembled here, pulled out our keychains, and all jingled them at the President’s window, saying, ‘It’s time to go home now.’ Then one night we gathered…and he was gone. We had won our freedom.” Hearing Honza tell that story as we walked that same route drilled into me the jubilation of a small country winning its freedom from a big one.
My Norwegian uncle Thor gave me a similarly powerful experience in Oslo. While gazing at mosaic murals in the Oslo City Hall that celebrate the heroics of locals who stood strong against German occupation, Thor told me stories of growing up in a Nazi-ruled Norway. I wondered to what lengths I would go to win back a freedom lost.
In Ireland, I had a guide determined to make his country’s struggles vivid. He introduced me to Belfast’s Felons’ Club — where membership is limited to those who’ve spent at least a year and a day in a British prison for political crimes. Hearing heroic stories of Irish resistance while sharing a Guinness with a celebrity felon with the gift of gab gives you an affinity for their struggles. The next day I walked through the green-trimmed gravesites of his prison-mates who starved themselves to death for the cause of Irish independence.
El Salvador’s history is so recent, tragic, and fascinating that anyone you talk to becomes a tour guide. My Salvadoran guides with the greatest impact were the “Mothers of the Disappeared.” They told me their story while leafing through humble scrapbooks with photographs of their son’s bodies — mutilated and decapitated. Learning of a cruel government’s actions with those sad mothers left me with a lifetime souvenir: empathy for underdogs courageously standing up to their governments.
Tourists can go to Prague, Ireland, Norway, and Central America and learn nothing of a people’s struggles. Or, if traveling to broaden their world views, they can seek out opportunities to connect with people (whether professional guides or accidental guides) who can share perspective-changing stories.
People can be so beautiful, kindly, generous, and so on. And people can be so cruel, murderous, horrible, and so on. And, sometimes we are both at the same time. I think travel and mixing with each other at least builds up the better, and diminishes the latter. I wish I had an Uncle Thor from Oslo, or from anywhere. He sounds special, like he builds long boats or something and belongs on the Kon Tiki sailing o’re the waves.
This summer I had the great honor of hosting a man who was a living history book. He now lives in California, but was returning to Europe to show his children and grand children where he had grown up in Hungary. They flew into Munich and then stayed with us for a few days before heading for Budapest. He was a jewish survivor of the nazi death camps. Now in his 80s, he is a charming, generous, humorful, kind person. His strength really humbles me.
On the 21 day Europe tour by your company, we had the privilege of a tour led by Herr Jung in Bacharach. He really brought the WWII era to life
In 2000, my German cousin introduced me to a dedicated leader of the “Bundesmaiden”. (forgive me for not fully recalling the name of the organization). It was a national organization for women in Hitlers Germany that worked in support of some of his policies. I sat at the kitchen table of this old, but still very alive woman and asked questions to my hearts content…even the very sensitve ones. She answered them all, sometimes her brilliant, piercing blue eyes flashing and her voice rising, tense with anger at me, the questions, the history and the demons. I decided to stand toe to toe with this woman because I wanted all she had to share. We drank a lot of coffee and she smoked a lot of cigarettes. Finally she asked me to help her gather walnuts in her garden, filled with fallen autumn leaves…from at least one tree that Hitler gave her as a gift. I still have the nuts in a German beer stein and from time to time think of her stories. Her defenses of Hitler and Germany and her condemnations of the same. I have always valued her version of events from the inside and it has helped me not to become a victim of the one dimensional demonization people practice against each other. I don’t care what the history is, I just want to know it as honestly as I can get it.
An excellent post today; thank you. It is absolutely crucial for those who travel to expend effort getting to know the local people and allowing them to share their stories. These are the experiences that help build strong bridges of enlightened humanity. This desire to experience life is what continues to motivate me to study new languages, read about history, and travel. I find that my body does not allow me to go nearly as fast to where my mind continues to lead me. Would that I could travel unendingly, study more hours, and meet those who still have stories to tell us. What a great escape you have provided me today; grazie mille.
Very thought provoking, and an interesting way to connect with people of differing cultures and opinions. Perhaps Rick will now take that same curious but non-judgemental attitude all around the United States and get to know some citizens of his own country. He could expand his horizons and meet some US citizens that don’t have the opportunity or desire to travel the world, and who don’t listen to NPR and hang out in bookstores. For example, maybe if Rick had actually talked with that marine back at the San Diego airport, instead of blurting out the usual anti-war slogons and jumping into the safety of his taxi, he would have had the kind of dialogue that could lead to a little more understanding and acceptance of differing American viewpoints. I think Rick understands (likes?) Europe and Europeans more than he understands his (likes?) own country and countrymen.
Sometimes it’s hard to talk to people we’re not familiar with. We have to give things a fair chance to get to know others. It just takes a little extra time, patience and care. We may find we actually like them and have things in common to talk about. We’ll have made a real friend.
get to know some citizens of his own country. Why would someone “assume” Rick doesn’t know and love people in his native country just because he loves other cultures, too? Using that logic, I guess an orthopedic surgeon only loves bones, since that is his main interest and his line of business.
Joe, Quit beating a dead horse. It’s as bad as Rick repeatedly using the “smells like ze feet of angels” quote.
Rick…I spent five wonderful days in Prague in the summer of 2007…its my second favorite city in all of Europe…with Honzas permission it would be fantastic to know the route of the freedom walk through Prague…I would like to take it on my return there..maybe it could appear in your next book covering Prague..thanks for all you do
EDITOR’S NOTE: Terry, sights related to this walk are covered in Rick’s “Prague & The Czech Republic” guidebook, which is co-authored by Honza. Check out “The New Town” chapter of that book. (This is also covered in the Prague chapter of Rick’s “Eastern Europe” and “Best of Europe” guidebooks.)
One of the great things about my Rick Steves tour of Berlin, Prague and Vienna was Kristoff’s stories about growing up in the DDR (East Germany). His first hand accounts broadened our view. Pam
I do like your Blogs,Rick. Known you since 1993, but this year Bonnie told me about Rick’s Blog. I’ve had privilege of ‘touching’history sometimes. We knew ‘Lights’Lightoller -the officer who actually went down with with the Titanic,then surfaced & survived. Also Mr.Whitwell a servant in the Royal Mews(stables)who actually taught King George V’s children to ride.After retirement he worked in our riding stables. And as a child I lived near Hampton Court where Gen.Eisenhower had the US Headquarters in Bushy Park after 1941. Anne T.
JOE, if you want a book written on the U.S., great, write your own…..Otherwise, Rick, great post. Informative and interesting.