One day I was in Vienna talking to the hotel concierge and he shared a story that his grandma used to tell. This became my favorite travel tale that I shared with many friends and now with you guys!
Once upon a time, there was a wall city with only one entrance gate. Outside, a man was welcoming the visitors.
A traveler arrived and asked to the man: “How is this city?”. The man answered with another question: “How is the city where you live?”. “Ah, my city is the worst, the traveler said. Corruption, bad people, dirty, definitely is not a good place.” Then, the man answered: “Here is exactly the same. If I were you, I wouldn’t waste my time. Keep traveling and you gonna find a better place.”. The traveler appreciated the answer and move forward.
Later, a second traveler reach out the man with the same approach, and he reacts on the same way. The second traveler answered: “My city is amazing! I love to go back home as I love to travel. There is my family, my friends, I was born and raised there, I’m sure you would love to visit my city!”. The man opened a big smile and said: “Welcome to my city! I’m sure you are going to love here!”.
Both situations was being observed by a person who asked to the man how come he gave two different answers for the same question. “If you can’t like your own place, there’s no space to like anything else”, he explained.
I love this short story. Makes so much sense to me. Quite often I see people comparing places, trying to find comfort on what they can’t have and many times criticizing their country or city. And I guess that this story can be used in different situations of our life’s: work, relationship, etc. Is better learning how to deal with to good and the bad than create utopias that simply don’t exist.
Do you have your travel tale? Please, share! Would love to read 🙂
xoxo