180 words on Travel
Not that this comes as a total surprise – but the U.S.A. are a huge country. You can fly over it in a plane for hours and hours and it doesn't end. Given that my idea of country sizes is that one or two hours on a plane should get you all across it, that's pretty huge. Having such a huge country, makes travel much harder. Not only is there much more distance to cover (are there people who can claim they have seen 'all' the major attractions in the U.S.?), but also infrastructure is much less dense.
Having the same density of motorways throughout the country as there is in Europe, say, would be a tremendous waste of resources – and spoil the landscapes. Still, it means that you'll have to drive longer detours to get to your destination. And the speed of cars doesn't increase proportionally with the size of the country they're in.
A few numbers for my amusement:
| area | population | |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 355000 km2 | 80 million |
| California | 410000 km2 | ? |
| U.S.A. | 9530000 km2 | 280 million |
Canada area: 9,984,670 km2
Population: 31 million
Now you might have a vague notion of what it’s like for us Canuks! I have had friends come here from Europe, thinking that they would likely be able to meet up with old friends visiting other parts of the country. Once they get here, though, the abstract numbers become reality. :)
