Travelling
Travelling
Travel is the movement of people between relatively distant geographical locations. It is the act of
traversing through a landscape or moving from one place to another. This can be temporarily or permanent and can be for a short or long period of
time.
People travel for different reasons; they travel to work, to school, on business or they travel for pleasure. Travelling abroad
for the Slovaks has recently been made easier with our entrance to the EU and the introduction of Euro. Today, we only need an ID card to go
abroad within the EU, we don’t even need to exchange our money in the most member states. In every season of the year, airports, railway
stations, seaports and bus stops are full of people traveling for long or short distances. Travelling is the best way, how people can acquire some
information about foreign countries, another cultures and another ways of living. Many people consider travelling as their passion. Some people
don´t like travelling and rather stay at home and feel safe. Some tourists are eager to know the foreign country to the tittle some want to see
only the most important landmarks. Tourists like staying at the seaside, lying on the beach, getting a suntan and relaxing, while others are
interested in local traditions, history and culture. Many tourists like to practise a foreign language with local people. Some people, mainly
students, travel because they want to learn a foreign language. They usually live in a host family and attend a school there. This is a good
preparation for real life without parents and family.
Travelling for business can be fun for young people without families, but it is hard
for these people to find a future partner. Needless to say, we must travel to head towards a good life.
Means of
transport
Water
The main fact is that water transport has relatively small costs. That is why rivers,
seas, and oceans are continuously being filled with new cargo and passengers vessels. Ferries, ocean liners and other steamboats take quite a long
period of time to carry you to the place of destination, though. The advantage is that one can take almost as much luggage as one likes. In general
not many people have the courage to board a ship although the trip is not expensive they can still become sea-sick. One of the major cons of a
water transport is a risk of shipwrecking, from time to time the victims are passengers, but mostly it is the environment and sea life that suffer
from breakdowns of oil tankers.
Air travel
Unlike sea travel, going by air consumes huge sums of money but it
is the fastest way of travelling. Despite the frightening catastrophes the world has witnessed over the years, air travel is considered as the
safest way of transport. An air ticket ensures us a comfortable seat (not on a low cost airline company) on the plane which can fly us to any
place in the world within a few hours. The air transportation system is thus the one most strictly dependent on the timetable. At the airport,
passengers have to show their flight tickets and passports. Their luggage is weighed and they go through the customs. For air traffic safety both
people and luggage have to be checked and metal objects have to be detected. Some rules even forbid passengers from having containers filled with
any type of liquid in their hand luggage. When we are lucky and our flight is neither cancelled nor postpone we can look forward to safe landing
on the runway of another airport. In the plane a steward or stewardess shows passengers their seats and give them safety information. During the
flight passengers are offered some meals, refreshments and drinks. Seats are usually divided into two classes, which are the Economy class and the
First class. They differ in service, comfort but most importantly in price. After landing, passengers disembark and go to the arrive hall, where
they wait for their luggage. After showing their passport and visas to immigration officer they are free to enjoy the country where they have
landed.
There are also another types of air traveling: helicopter, hot air balloons, blimps, gliders, hang gliding, parachuting, or
anything else that can sustain flight.
Travel on dry land
Land offers the greatest variety of means of transport.
There are motor road vehicles and bicycles on the one hand and rail on the other. Person vehicles, motorcycles and cars are the most popular.
There are also other means of transport on four wheels- busses and trolleybuses. Of rail vehicles, which are almost exclusively designed for
public use, we could mention train, trams, and the underground.
Cars and motorbikes are expensive to purchase and in addition one also
has to pay for petrol, which if the vehicle has a big consumption, costs a lot of money as well. For short and middle distances a car is fast
enough unless, however you can get too tired by travelling especially when you get into the traffic jam. Also the space for luggage in the trunk of
the car is quite large. The best thing about car is that they will take you almost anywhere at any time. Modern cars with soft seats and a lot of
space for the legs are sometimes even more comfortable than the interior of the plane. To get a driver’s licence one must be 18 years old, know
how to drive and know the traffic rules well. One of the rules says that cars are to be driven on the right side of the road. This isn’t true in
the UK, Japan and some other countries, where people drive on the left.
Buses and trains
The most frequent public
means of transport are buses and trains. The network of bus and trains stops covers most inhabited places. Public transport is cheaper, but also
less comfortable. They can provide transport either between villages or towns or in the town. The bus and train stops in major cities are called
stations. London is famous for its red busses called double-deckers. In Slovakia travelling by train is cheaper but also slower than travelling by
bus. An ordinary railway station looks like this: a big hall with a ticket office where one can buy a single or return ticket and the seat
reservation, the departures and arrivals board, a left luggage office or lockers, telephones, waiting hall, restaurant, a drink machine, a book
stall, a barber’s shop and a lavatory. From this hall one goes through the underpass directly onto the platform. From the platform we hop on the
train and look for free seat in the (non-)smoking compartment. If all the seats are occupied we must move into another carriage and try again
there. When we have been seated and the train starts, we can spend the time talking with the fellow passengers, observe the landscape out of the
window, eat some food, play cards with a friend or sleep. When the conductor comes we hand him the tickets and he checks them. In a lot of trains
ticket machines replaced the conductor.
Coaches are buses for long-distance travel. They are fast and comfortable, with reasonable priced
tickets. In our country many people prefer coaches to trains.
Underground (subway)
In big cities underground
with several different tracks have been built in order to relieve the trams and buses. They are the fastest means of urban transportation and the
underground trains usually go every five minutes on average. Many workers and pupils depend on the underground every morning. It can take them at
low rate from the suburbs to the city and back.
The taxi (or cabs) in big cities can just be called by phone or hailed
while people pass by in the street. In Slovakia, taxis are considered as an emergency mean of transport, due to its price and availability.
Bicycle
Many people all over the world like travelling by bike. Some people travel to school by bike, others prefer
cycling as a sport or hobby. Many people go for cycling holidays, which is both healthy and exciting. This type of travel depends much on the
weather and therefore summer is the best season for cycling tours.
Young people usually don’t have much money and they use
hitchhiking. It is the cheapest way of transport but also the slowest and quite dangerous. Many people can be robbed and girls can be abused. Some
people love more romantic means of transport, e. g. going on a yacht, canoeing, gliding, hot-air, ballooning, windsurfing, skateboarding or
roller-skating. In Europe it is very popular now to travel by residential cars in which you can have everything for your personal use.
We can also dividing traveling by the number of people on - Individual
- Collective
It is normal
when people individual commuting to school or work, but some people also prefer to go on holidays alone. Solo travel can be the ultimate in
self-indulgence; you can rest when you want and pour it on when you're feeling ambitious. Another benefit is that your mistakes are your own, and
your triumphs all the more exciting. There's no worrying that your insistence on trekking all the way across town to a museum that was closed
ruined your partner's day; it's your own day to salvage or walk up to a learning experience. Of course, single travel has its perils too - such as
safety concerns, loneliness and the dreaded single supplement.
Most of the people prefer collective travelling. Since we were at
school we went on some school trips or excurses in the groups. Normally we went on the holidays with our families or friends, because with more
people around one can feel safer and in collective there is always a better excitement.
The way
how you spend
your holidays depends mainly on money. If you have a lot of money, you can go everywhere you want, with full service provided by travel agency
which you choose. But if not, you can find right way how to have great holidays without travel agency with their full service such as luxury
hotel, delicious food and another. You can try to travel on your own and stay for example at a campground or in rented bungalow or stay everywhere
you want to. You have got freedom. You can do what you want and when you want on your own.
There’s new type of holiday called
´home swapping´. That means, that you can exchange your home with home of family from another country. In my opinion it is a good deal, because
you pay nothing for accommodation and as soon as you come to this your ´new home´ you become a part of community with host’s friends and
neighbours. But sometimes it is also dangerous, because at the beginning you maybe know where are you going but do not know what can you expect
from surroundings.
Accommodation
When travelling on vacation we should look for accommodation appropriate to
our demands. In the first place there are hotels and motels which differ in price and comfort (both are on a slightly lower level in motels).
Before our arrival we should make a reservation, book a room in such a hotel. We can get a bed and breakfast or full board at daily or weekly rate.
All this can be taken care of reception desk where the desk clerk arranges everything necessary. Then we can enjoy our stay with help of some of
the hotel’s services- a restaurant, a bar, a coffee shop, a travel desk and a beauty salon or sports facilities like a swimming pool or a fitness
centre. In these hotels you can pay all inclusive packet and you can eat and drink whatever you want.
The motels are situated mostly
by roads. The guests can park their car at the door of their own room. A special kind of accommodation for young people is youth hotel (mainly in
the UK) where it is possible to stay overnight at the low rate but only for a limited number of times.
Travelling throughout the
years
Travelling has undergone many changes. With the development of human society and their needs to get from one place to another
travelling has developed too. Various inventions are closely attached to the development of travel techniques and methods. In the ancient times,
people travelled on their own by their foot. They had to go to places where they could find a favourable environment, where animals could feed on a
fresh grass, thus being a proper loot for human beings. Later, people learned how to domesticate wild animals and used horses. But many years had
to pass when the Sumerian wise men discovered wheel. The wheel was a ground-breaking discovery. It was maybe the most useful invention. It served
as base to chariots, wheelbarrows, cars and much other widely used equipment these days. People learned how to rule the seas and built ships.
These were powered by wind, human power, and later steam engines and combustion engines. The Wright brothers developed the first useful plane in
1903. Since that time, the air traveling has become a perfect alternative for long-distance destinations. Nowadays, the traveling is well
developed. Countries use sophisticated and high-tech ways to transport people and goods. Travel analysts try to estimate tourist destination that
will be popular in the future and describe future forms of travel. They say that Slovakia can be expected to be a popular holiday destination for
its national scenery and outdoor sports potentials. Therefore, we need to invest a lot of money into the infrastructure and tourist services. They
also presume that there will be new types of tourist destinations - aquatic and cosmic. Flying high above the Earth in airship or staying at an
underwater luxury hotel could become a part of our future summer holidays. The further research of space traveling may lead to interstellar or
even intergalactic journeys. The big question for the scientist remains the possibility of teleportation. It could allow any matter to be
transported with the speed of light. The development of transportation and traveling went hand-in-hand with people’s growing needs to go faster
and further. The world without transportation is unimaginable.
“A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home
to find it.” This quote basically means that people want to leave their country to discover and experience new thing but they often find their
way back to home, because that is the environment and background they know and can be productive in with the knowledge acquired abroad.
Quotes
“Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your
travel bag.”
The dearest thing in life we can possess is experience and knowledge, the more we travel and get to know people and
countries, the more we enrich our minds, we make ourselves a better person. We can view things differently. On the day of reckoning, we will be
treated based on our “travel bag”.
Zones.sk – Zóny pre každého študenta