Why people travel PART II

From the Middle Ages to Romanticism, studying in another country was very popular.
Most of the students where men, whose goal was to obtain knowledge, which could not be obtained in their own country.



They were also expanding their language skills and learning to understand different cultures and customs. Maybe you did so as well ? What are your favorite places, cultures and countries? Why ?



In the end, those men were much better educated and different from those who never traveled and had no idea about what was happening in other places. King Henry Walezy saw a fork for the first time during his stay in Cracow. There he also saw a disposal the first time, which he ordered to mount in the Louvre after his return to France. Travels were also a great inspiration for writers.



Telling stories to simple people about distant lands, incredible creatures or strange rituals, gave the story-tellers a high position on the ladder of social hierarchy. It did not even matter if they spoke the truth. There were not too many people who could travel and check if the story was true. Do you think it works the same way in present times ?



Examples of such unusual journeys can be seen almost in every literature. Starting from the ancient journey of Odysseus to the Baroque Martin Borzymowski travel to Lubeck, and to the contemporary literature, which also has such motifs.



A specific case of travel is vagrancy. Admittedly, it is difficult to treat vagabonds as travelers, because such a lifestyle is often imposed by external circumstances. However, one can not underestimate the enormous number of places and situations in which these people had the opportunity to find themselves and things they had the opportunity to see.



Similar is the case of displaced persons, refugees and exiles, who typically, not of their free will, travel and shape their knowledge about the world. There have been many nostalgic books written on this topic. For example, the Polish Siberians’ book, written in the nineteenth century, dealing with the everyday life in the Far East of Russia, is still quite popular among young people. Hitchhiking may look a little like vagrancy.



But in this case we are dealing with tourism. With a desire for adventure and acquiring knowledge about the world at low cost. Such people decide to do it voluntarily, and are not compelled by their individual situation. By the way have you ever hitchhiked ? What were you purposes ?