12 Ways to Feel at Home in a Foreign Place Part 1

  12 Ways to Feel at Home in a Foreign Place

 Part 1

Your first day in a new place can be both riveting and disorienting. The goal by the end of your stay should be to remain riveted, but be anything but disoriented. It's not as easy as it sounds; the feeling that you missed something, or that you never quite got a handle on the quicksilver nature of a place, can linger long after you leave.

"the best way to get a quick feel of a place and get at least a basic understanding of the people is this: Go to their food markets and their local photography studios."

This got us to thinking about other ways to get the feel of a place quickly and intimately;

1. Two words: two wheels.
"Rent a bike, if you can. You cover a lot of ground quickly, but must pay attention to what's going on around you. A Razor scooter works well too and fits in a backpack. I did Paris on a scooter and a Metro card, and had a blast."

A scooter or a bike offers two very good benefits: speed, in that you can cover a lot of ground fairly quickly (probably just as quickly as a car in many places), and openness, as it has no windows to close and shut you off from your surroundings. Shoobs offers a bit more advice: "The scooter worked really well, and if I were to do it again I'd bike or use an adult scooter. An outfit called Xootr makes them and they're great. You see lots of them in NYC."

2. Or your own two feet.
Gabe Winkler, a rowing coach and world traveler, advises: "Go for a run. You'll see the real parts of the town and you'll work off your jet lag." I agree completely; this is what I did in Beijing, before five in the morning no less, and it was one of the most memorable and enlightening parts of my visit there. Read more about my morning runs, the resulting run-ins with people and sheep alike, and more, at Beijing Dispatch: Glimpses of the Real China.

Gabe has done runs in places from Rome to Phuket, Thailand. In Ketchikan, Alaska, running is the best way to see all the totem poles, he says. "Some of my best discoveries of a city were by running. You get away from the tourist sections and get to see the real place. Sometimes you'll run in places where everyone will stare and point at you. Other times, you'll look like a local and people will ask you for directions. If you are a runner that covers a lot of ground, you just might be able to give them the directions (that is, if you can speak the language). It's at that point that you 'know' the place."

New Jersey-based lawyer Karl Piirimae agrees with Gabe and Adrian: "Nothing beats going for a run or, if readily available, a bike ride. Last year I rented a bike in New Orleans and rode all over town and down to Jazz Fest. You can get to know the place with all of your senses."

A number of correspondents recommended walking, as well -- and walking a lot if you can handle it.

3. Or try public transportation.
Igor Belakovskiy, a software engineer in Boston, advises that you "take a train/bus/subway somewhere -- [there's] always an interesting amalgamation of characters on public transportation."

  "Take the bus. And not the tour bus -- the local public bus. Many tourists find public bus networks confusing or intimidating, so you'll be riding mostly with locals, and it always offers an interesting peek into the culture -- everything from the music the driver plays on the radio to the ads on the sides of the vehicle. My favorite bus experiences have come on small, brightly painted vans in the Caribbean, where I've discussed American politics with locals and listened in on exuberant conversations between young girls on their way home from school."


4. Search for the best place to eat lunch.
Dining out can be an unreliable way to get to know a place -- even in my tiny home town, many restaurants show only an extremely small sliver of local life, and a couple cater mostly to out-of-town folks and tourists, so you wouldn't interact with locals almost at all, save for your server. Even your Yelp or Urbanspoon shaker apps can sometimes be just as likely to steer you to a tourist trap as to a local hangout.

However, there is one meal for which Google/Bing/etc. searches will most often direct you to the local joints: lunch. Lunch is the meal that takes place during working hours for the vast majority of folks -- and as such is the meal for which the most glowing reviews will often mean that the locals are happy. And when the locals are happy, they go back to a place again and again. And when they go back to those places, well, when you go, you get to mingle with the locals.

Give it a try -- go to your preferred search engine and type "best place for lunch in..." and then add a favorite city or upcoming destination. Even in a giant city like New York, among the top results I found a tiny cafe, a hardcore deli and a mobile food truck. It won't fail you.

For a more specialized search, Ceci Flinn, an American based in London who travels frequently for business and pleasure, uses Roadfood.com, a growing database that can help you "find authentic regional eats"; it's worth a look.

Email:     greenplanettravelers@yahoo.com
Blog:      http://greenplanettravelers.blogspot.com/
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/GreenPlanetTravelers/
Web site:  http://greenplanettravelers.globaltravel.com/