Wow Italy, just wow...
So after the dirty ending to Romics, I was left to my own devices for one day. I wanted to lounge about in the room, but I needed to get out into Rome at least for a little bit. So I snagged the graffit-laden train and headed into the city. I had no destination in mind just the next major train stop.
I was kind of glad for having gone out into the city. It was early in the day and so many businesses weren't open or had signs on shuttered doors stating they'll be back soon. Luckily, one of the businesses that were operating and open and staffed was a video game store, where I got a charger for my DS.
Earlier I had written about the differences of business versus pleasure travel. In Italy, I realized that I wasn't able to break out of business travel. Even if I had, I don't think I would've ever gotten the buzz of "OMG ITALY!" that so many others get. Why? I'm an Asia guy. I studied Japanese and Japan like crazy. When I went to Japan, I wasn't disappointed in its infrastructure, online or offline. Things going smoothly make me happy. Rome was none of that. And culturally speaking, I have very little knowledge of Europe. I just don't care. It's not in my ethnic background, it's not in my cultural background, it's not in my academic background. If I was taken to the Coliseum or Sistine Chapel or anything amazing like that, I might go, "Cool," and take a picture. But I'm not going to go out of my way for stuff I don't really give a damn about. It's not relegated to just Italy though, even stuff at home like Mt. Rushmore, I just don't give have a bucket of crap about. Not a fan, just don't care.
I'm not losing out on life by not caring. After all, the Italians really don't care about their country much either with the way they take care of it. There was garbage all over the streets. The streets were poorly maintained with half-assed patchwork construction. Plastic bottles and cans littered some areas. People would just kick it about if a scrap of paper or something got in their way. I watched at one train station where a newspaper page was sitting on this woman's foot as she walked back and forth on the platform. Seriously. She couldn't be bothered to bend over and take it off of her foot and throw it away. It was like a major metropolitan area in the United States in the 1980s.
So far, in the past couple of hours of being in Brussels, I'm liking it better. The airport was much better maintained and planned out. The hotel I'm at is full of conveniences and is even much more attractive than the stuff I saw in Rome. If "OMG History that still stands today!" means not maintaining everything around it, I'll take Not Rome any day.
I was kind of glad for having gone out into the city. It was early in the day and so many businesses weren't open or had signs on shuttered doors stating they'll be back soon. Luckily, one of the businesses that were operating and open and staffed was a video game store, where I got a charger for my DS.
Earlier I had written about the differences of business versus pleasure travel. In Italy, I realized that I wasn't able to break out of business travel. Even if I had, I don't think I would've ever gotten the buzz of "OMG ITALY!" that so many others get. Why? I'm an Asia guy. I studied Japanese and Japan like crazy. When I went to Japan, I wasn't disappointed in its infrastructure, online or offline. Things going smoothly make me happy. Rome was none of that. And culturally speaking, I have very little knowledge of Europe. I just don't care. It's not in my ethnic background, it's not in my cultural background, it's not in my academic background. If I was taken to the Coliseum or Sistine Chapel or anything amazing like that, I might go, "Cool," and take a picture. But I'm not going to go out of my way for stuff I don't really give a damn about. It's not relegated to just Italy though, even stuff at home like Mt. Rushmore, I just don't give have a bucket of crap about. Not a fan, just don't care.
I'm not losing out on life by not caring. After all, the Italians really don't care about their country much either with the way they take care of it. There was garbage all over the streets. The streets were poorly maintained with half-assed patchwork construction. Plastic bottles and cans littered some areas. People would just kick it about if a scrap of paper or something got in their way. I watched at one train station where a newspaper page was sitting on this woman's foot as she walked back and forth on the platform. Seriously. She couldn't be bothered to bend over and take it off of her foot and throw it away. It was like a major metropolitan area in the United States in the 1980s.
So far, in the past couple of hours of being in Brussels, I'm liking it better. The airport was much better maintained and planned out. The hotel I'm at is full of conveniences and is even much more attractive than the stuff I saw in Rome. If "OMG History that still stands today!" means not maintaining everything around it, I'll take Not Rome any day.