Travel: It’s ‘Stuff White People Like’*
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 02.18.08 | 4:13 PM ET
Just like microbreweries and Sarah Sliverman and expensive sandwiches. The word about white people’s affinity for travel comes not from an Onion story, but from the satirical blog Stuff White People Like. Travel is post No. 19, and it lands a few funny blows at the expense of backpackers.
Every white person takes at least one trip to Europe between the ages of 17-29. During this time they are likely to wear a back pack, stay at a hostel, meet someone from Ireland/Sweden/Italy with whom they have a memorable experience, get drunk, see some old churches and ride a train.
What’s amazing is that all white people have pretty much the same experience, but all of them believe theirs to be the first of its kind. So much so that they return to North America with ideas of writing novels and screenplays about their experience.
Upon returning home, they will also find an affinity for a particular beer or liquor from a country they visited. They use this as an excuse to mention their travels when at a bar. “Oh, I’ll have a Czechznlishiyush Pilsner. You see, that was my favorite beer when I was travelling through Slovenia and the Czech republic.”
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor-in-chief of World Hum.
John M. Edwards 02.18.08 | 7:47 PM ET
Hi Michael:
Absolutely hilarious! I feel like a honky whenever my prop plane lands anywhere without a Le Bon Pain.
Maybe I’ll throw in a copy of Tarantino and Roth’s “Hostel” into my grand malfunctioning DVD gobbler, to relive the nightmare of unrestricted backpack travel in the eastern quarter of Europa.
It’s funny, I haven’t checked it out yet, but I think this Tarantino cat was a friend of mine at “collitch.” Whenever I bumped into him, flying high on highballs, I aggressively greeted him, “Tarantula!!!” Great, now he’s this famous film director dude, ordering around everyone left and right, and I don’t even have my blanking breakthrough travel book, Fluid Borders, quite yet released to the public yet.
Anyway, I’ll drown my sorrows in a zrmzlina frappe, don my fancy jackét from Target (pronounced Tarjay), and roam the streets in search of five minutes of fun. Hey, I might even throw the dice, land on cat’s eyes, and blurt out, “Life’s a gamble!”
R C O 02.18.08 | 8:28 PM ET
MICHAEL, JOHN, you guys are both so funny but yet so right in both of your comments and since i am 35 years old and have not traveled abroad, when i decide to do so, i will come back here and give you my comments, for now you are the weakest links, good-bye
Ling 02.19.08 | 4:43 AM ET
I’ve met lots of ‘white travelers’, and there’s a few things that they all have - Back pack, map, guidebook, questions like ‘where’s the nearest ATM?’, and they all want to speak the native tongue, and it’s a horribly painful experience to watch someone try to speak a few words of another language with a terrible accent.
Roger 02.19.08 | 1:23 PM ET
This article sounds a bit tongue in cheek, I know. This may be wishful thinking, but if only more young people would go visit Europe, as a right of passage, and an opportunity to learn, it would be a great and rewarding thing for our nation.
TambourineMan 02.19.08 | 1:53 PM ET
HA! Funny site. Thanks, Mike.
Jedzea123 02.19.08 | 10:48 PM ET
Your countries sure do not have a problem taking are money. Many of spent time in the peace corp before we made that trip.