travel is not only an effective antidote to ennui, it is a prophylactic treatme of ethnocentrism. It lifts the veils of custom from the outside world and exposes the latter to view with all its wonders, excitement and novelties. Travel is the outcome of insatiable curiosity of man for knowing and exploring his environment. It is this curiosity which has been urging bold and imaginative men to undertake extensive travels over land and sea to chart different routes and discover different peoples and countries. Thus Columbus underwent horrendous privation to discover the New World (America). Vasco-de-Gama found a sea-route from Europe to India. Marco Polo achieved first hand experience of the works and ambitions of the Mongol conquerors and the splendour of Imperial China.
Meghasthenese diabused theGreeks and other Europeans of the superstitious notions they had entertained about the life and achievements of Indians and wrote first hand account of the glorious achievements, life and people of Chandragupta Maurya's times. Travel has thus not only liberated people from personal prejudices and superstition, it has also whetted the appetites of scholars to understand and unravel the famous civilizations of the world for the last 2500 years.
Travel educates a person by broadening his outlook. So convinced were the English men of the importance of travelling that tour of the European continent became a compulsory part of the education of English youth who flocked every summer to European countries regaling themselves with the sights of Eiffel Tower and art galleries at Paris, the gladiatorial at Rome, Gothic temples of Italy and boating in a gondola in Venice.
Travels and tours by students and Aristocrat went a long way in cross fertilising the cultures of different European nations so much so that a new hybrid European culture sprang up. European Community is a standing monument to the spirit of mutual admiration and mutual concern which the continental towns have been cultivating for many centuries in the past. Most of the time, we live an entirely circumscribed existence being slave to a dead routine. Going to and coming back from schools and offices make up the only journey we undertake for days on end.
