I have no idea what is going on with people these days. It's like a competition or a giant case of FOMO. While I haven't traveled as much as you I have lived in Thailand as a child and then as an high school/college kid in Germany when my father was stationed at the embassy there. I was lucky enough to see most of the bigger European countries and have seen 40 out of the 50 states in the USA including Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

But something changed in the past 20 years. I don't know if it's the internet and the rise of Instagram but you couldn't catch me going to Europe any time soon. Or Bali or Nepal or you name the hot tourist spot Du Jour.

A group of wealthy friends of mine travel like there is no tomorrow. One couple even took that round the world airplane trip that I think cost something like $100k each person. It sounds miserable. Then they come home and brag to all their friends. I wanted to pull them aside at a party and say do you know how much fuel they spent hauling your ass around the world?

I also think the destinations, especially in Europe have little meaning like they did back a couple of decades ago when nobody spoke English and it was a challenge to navigate around. Now there are Starbucks and McDonalds everywhere and you have google translate to instantly tell you what you are looking at.

My neighbor just came over two days ago and said they are going to Greece for two weeks with an infant (He is of Greek decent so I get it) but I am like why in August, are you nuts? Did you hear about the heat and the fires?

I remember visiting Rome and Pisa in the early 1980s. There were tourists for sure, but I hear about the lines and the mobs and the heat and I wonder why people torture themselves but I guess putting your pictures on Instagram is a powerful drug. Maybe it's me that's changed now that I am 60 but I don't know it sure sounds miserable out there in tourist land.