Have you ever visited a foreign country?

Interesting to note that some countries have changed their names, or have reverted to original spellings. The Czech republic is now known as Czechia, and Turkey (on holiday brochures etc.) as Turkiye.
oslooskar said:
Unfortunately, few people outside Turkey know much about Kemal Atatürk and the progressive policies he implemented to transform Turkey into a modern, secular, and democratic country. He was truly a progressive leader with a genuine concern for the well-being and advancement of his people, so I would proudly hang a portrait of him on my living room wall any day if I had one.
Click to expand...
An American that I worked with - and a real 'character', related a tale that once when in Turkey he had an argument with a taxi driver over the fare. In the course of the argument, he took some notes and threw them down on the ground, and was promptly arrested for disrespecting the portrait of Ataturk. He seems to have got away without being thrown in jail.
 

Childhood: a rich relative gave my family money for a brief stay over in Hawaii. Also stayed with relatives down in California.

Travelled across Canada during my work life. But in my 30s, had truck-camper travels down into Arizona & New Mexico for Grand Canyon, and Navaho & Pueblo indigenous areas (and cactus parks). Hiked in Yosemite Park in southern Cal.

Later, Mexico (north & south) on the cheap. We discovered Rick Steeve's travel guides, bestowing the low-down on traveling inexpensively (but richly) in Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, and southern Sweden. A Canadian tour group took us into Cuba for a few weeks.

We met people we really liked in all these places.
 
Most foreign to me was Belize … didn’t like it at all. Was built up in promotions as a wonderful country to retire - I saw none of that.. only poor and dirty.
Was very happy to get back home.
 

Capt Lightning said:
Interesting to note that some countries have changed their names, or have reverted to original spellings. The Czech republic is now known as Czechia, and Turkey (on holiday brochures etc.) as Turkiye.

An American that I worked with - and a real 'character', related a tale that once when in Turkey he had an argument with a taxi driver over the fare. In the course of the argument, he took some notes and threw them down on the ground, and was promptly arrested for disrespecting the portrait of Ataturk. He seems to have got away without being thrown in jail.
Click to expand...
Well, while in Turkey, yow has to avoid being given a fair trial and hanged, by never disrespecting the revered portrait of the illustrious and highly respected Atartuk..

That can definitely spoil your vacation there.

Kemal Atatürk

BTW When in China, the Taxi driver showed me a portrait of Mao Zedong and I made absolutely sure to nod reverently.
Mao Zedong - Wikipedia​
 
Last edited:
Capt Lightning said:
An American that I worked with - and a real 'character', related a tale that once when in Turkey he had an argument with a taxi driver over the fare. In the course of the argument, he took some notes and threw them down on the ground, and was promptly arrested for disrespecting the portrait of Ataturk. He seems to have got away without being thrown in jail.
Click to expand...
Absolutely true! We were told that if money bills blow away and you are chasing them, NEVER step on them. Highly disrespectful and highly dangerous.
 
oslooskar said:
Unfortunately, few people outside Turkey know much about Kemal Atatürk and the progressive policies he implemented to transform Turkey into a modern, secular, and democratic country. He was truly a progressive leader with a genuine concern for the well-being and advancement of his people, so I would proudly hang a portrait of him on my living room wall any day if I had one.
Click to expand...
He was also a feminist, placing women in several high positions in his effort to raise the status of women in Turkey. He had his faults, to be sure, but he loved his country.
 
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/op-ed/demographic-transformation-of-turkiye-aging-crisis-looming

According to the latest data, there is a serious decrease in Türkiye's annual population growth in 2023. The population, which increased by 7.1 per thousand in 2022, has increased by 1.1 per thousand in 2023. This is the lowest level in the history of the republic. Before this, the lowest annual population growth rate was experienced in 2020, when severe pandemic conditions were effective, with 5.5 per thousand. The population growth rate was seen at 7.1 per thousand in 2022, the second lowest level of the previous period.​
​
There is also a striking decline in the fertility rate. We see that the fertility rate in Türkiye was at 2.1, which is the "golden ratio (replacement level)" in 2017 and has decreased to 2.01 in 2018 and 1.97 in 2019. As of 2022, the fertility rate has decreased to 1.97. A population growth rate below 2.1, which is the renewal rate of the population and referred to as the "golden ratio," is an indication that a country is rapidly heading toward an aging crisis.​
 
On our first business trip to Germany, we caught a taxi at Frankfurt airport and headed off down the autobahn. My colleague was very impressed by the road and mentioned this to the lady driver. She turned with a look of pride and said, 'Hitler gave us these'. We soon realised that area was still very nationalist and anti Semitic. We were quite shocked by the things we heard there.
 
JustBonee said:
Most foreign to me was Belize … didn’t like it at all. Was built up in promotions as a wonderful country to retire - I saw none of that.. only poor and dirty.
Was very happy to get back home.
Click to expand...
Many of the Caribbean islands are a tale of rich people and extremely poor people. It can be very depressing to see such poverty on an island tour and then see a movie star’s estate on the other side of the island. Our poor people are rich in comparison to their poor people.
 
jujube said:
Absolutely true! We were told that if money bills blow away and you are chasing them, NEVER step on them. Highly disrespectful and highly dangerous.
Click to expand...
Imagine some American in the USA attacking tourists if they stepped on some dollar bill with the image of some revered political figure. such as Thomas Jefferson or George Washington.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top