On Fri, 26 Jan 2001, Olaf Greve wrote:
About what Dirk had previously written:
>
> >Man, after reading all this theft stuff, hell if I'm ever going on a trip
> >to Italy. I'll watch the video, thanks. I feel a heck of a lot safer in
> >Wash, DC than I would anywhere in Italy, despite all the data about bad
> >stuff happening in DC.
>
> Well, this is _exactly_ the kind of feeling/fear I was trying to prevent by
> typing the above :)
> What I meant to say as a one-liner is: When traveling in places you don't
> know, be aware of the possibility of getting robbed, but DON'T let your
> concerns spoil your vacation.
IMO, A lot of these fears are ethnocentric. The fear that things are
meaner "over there", when in reality, they're far more likely to happen in
Washington D.C. The differences are that Dirk knows the city he lives
in, and that knowledge and familiarity give him a sense of security.
It's a statistical crapshoot, and one can bias the odds in one's favor
by practicing Olaf's recommendations (and others) and by famliarizing
oneself with the area before arriving.
A lot of people have an idyllic notion of travel, that it should all
be like a trip to Disneyworld. It's not. It's a lot like where you live,
only (for the most part --- in Europe) far safer. Like any other real-life
situation, you're always taking chances, large and small. Probably the
riskiest part of travel is the ride from one's home to the airport and
back.
*= Doris Fang =*
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