Jacek Walkiewicz used to say that travel is an education, but only for the educated. That people go to Egypt, stand at the foot of the pyramids and say, “Look how short it is, I thought it'd be taller,” and that's the end of their reflection on 3,000 years of history.
Other continents, countries and places open your mind.
Go to Thailand at least once to see that you can be smiling, kind and content every day, no matter what job you do or how much money you have. And that four people can ride one scooter, dinner can be cooked on the street, and crossing the road can be a real challenge.
See how people in Japan respect each other and how attached they are to tradition.
Take a trip to Denmark and see how Scandinavians live, how they dress, how they furnish their homes and how much they love buying furniture in local antique shops.
See the African sense of rhythm and local rituals, or just sit in an Italian café and watch life buzz by while you soak up the southern sun.
Traveling, you'll appreciate what a wonderful country you live in. For me, that's Poland. Hardly anything matches the quality of food in Polish restaurants. We have great engineers, delicious bread, low taxes and really good tap water. We have beautiful landscapes, the Tatra and Bieszczady mountains and other amazing places, and the list of things you take for granted is long, even though they're anything but a given.
Still, I'm no stranger to parochial, stereotypical thinking. And although today it seems bizarrely funny, even downright stupid, just 15 years ago I was convinced that only Gypsies lived in Romania. My knowledge of the subject came down to a childhood memory of driving through on the way to a vacation in Bulgaria.
Since then I've had the chance to get to know the work culture in several countries and to work with people from all corners of the world. It turns out that we Poles are very frank, straightforward and usually have very strong opinions, and hardly anyone else is like that.
For the past 5 years I've worked with Danes every day, and at first I had a real problem with how some things get said gently, between the lines. Or with the fact that when someone is really upset, you can barely tell. It's impossible not to fall in love with the Scandinavian work culture, built on trust, support and mutual respect.
All of this taught me that everyone has the right to live their own way, and what seems strange to you isn't strange at all to others.