Helen’s Travel Corner

ExperienceLess from trourist on Vimeo.

Last summer four friends from trourist decided to embark on a 33 day journey with one mission in mind: ignite the ExperienceLess movement. What exactly is ‘experienceless’? The guys describe their newly coined term as one that embodies the person ‘who travel[s] to live destinations, not visit them.’ It’s a new spin on the old dialogue of authenticity and travel (eh hem, my own post on the difference of a traveler and tourist can be read here.)

The four friends covered Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Istanbul and Barcelona in a motorhome. Along the way, they documented their adventures with a blog and videos. In each city, they would sit and hold a sign that reads: “Help! I’m ExperienceLess. I don’t want to visit your city, I want to live it. Thanks.” The goal was to capture a local’s attention and have that person show the ExperienceLess guys the “real” side to the city they were in.

On their blog, they looked back on the trip and shared,

Admittedly, there were people who when they saw us understood nothing. Others observed us with indifference. Generally speaking, though, we were quite pleased with the hospitality shown. People gave their time and interest so that we could walk away from their cities with more than just mute stares from historical buildings and museums.

While the trip ended last summer, the movement lives on with guest travel bloggers and those who seek more than the surface experience of the place they visit. I for one, think ExperienceLess embodies a wonderful idea and hope that it continues to live on for years to come. Remember next time you step foot in another city to seek out the ExperienceLess and ‘live those experiences hidden to anyone traveling as a tourist… get to know cities with the help of others and enlist the participation of its people.”

For the ExperienceLess Flickr photos, click here.

For the ExperienceLess Vimeo videos, click here.

The same guys are behind trourist, a travel network that embodies much of the same ideology of being more than just tourists at destinations. The interface is sleek and user-friendly…I really like it. It could be the Yelp of cities, just a little more Euro-centric. I often find myself using Couchsurfing as a source to find information about cities, namely because it’s locals and travelers alike that share information on the message boards, but I can definitely see how trourist can be helpful in evaluating a place from people who share the same spirit of travel. I looked up New York and found this Experience titled ‘Horns’: “The truth is that besides the smell, there’s also a peculiar sound to New York, the hornos of the cars, specially taxi’s. It’s almost like a backrground sound, even music. Take notice of it while in any street of New York. If a Taxi does not horn you, you are not a newyorker!!!” I’d say that’s pretty accurate . For other experiences found on trourist, check them out for yourself here trourist.

I had to laugh when I was going back through photos and read the taxi sign in this one: ‘Complicating divorce proceedings since 1971.’ It somehow seems fitting for NYC!

These are decorated around my apartment, written in my journal, scratched on post-it notes and there to remind and inspire the travel mindset (not all are exactly travel-related, but work with me . Here they are for your own enjoyment. If you have any other ones, please share!

My favorite travel quotes and beyond:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain

Life is a daring adventure, or nothing. -Helen Keller

Home is not where you live but where they understand you. -Christian Morgenstern (discovered on a wall at the Guinness Factory in Dublin)

There are no strangers, only friends you have not met yet. -William Butler Yeats

You must have something to live for- a focus to work towards. -Amar, my favorite taxi driver

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Lao-tzu

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. -Aldous Huxley

A traveler without knowledge is a bird without wings. -sa’di

Travel is to spread your life all over the world. -Taxi Drive Wisdom

Because a day without love, laughter or dessert is a wasted day. -Mami Duni (Discovered on a menu at a Cuban restaurant in Dallas)

It is not the length of life, but the depth of life. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going. -Theroux

The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit. -Nelson Henderson

The world just does not fit conveniently into the format of a 35mm camera.  -W. Eugene Smith

If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else. -Yogi Berra

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you. -Aldous Huxley

I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself. -Aldous Huxley

Wherever you go, there you are. -Buckaroo Bonzai

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. -St. Augustine

Be the change that you want to see in the world. -Gandhi

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
-Robert Frost

Don’t worry about the world ending today, it’s already tomorrow in Australia. -Unknown

Have any more? Please share!