I can relate. Ireland is to Italy what Venezuela is to England. And you're probably like me, 43 years ago. Move to a new country, no friends, no customs, completely different culture.
But the distance between Venezuela and England compared to Italy and Ireland is so far off! How long does it take you to get to England (if you had a straight flight) including the time to and from the airport? I am sure that
MypinchofItaly can get back to Italy much faster.
I suppose it is difficult for some of us in Europe thinking about the wide distances you have to cover from a city to another in the US.
It's also difficult for a person from a country that uses the metric system and a person who uses the American standard of miles to relate distances (unless they are very familiar to both), which is why I often post it in travel time instead of miles when discussing how far away something/someone is in the US to make it easier.
I have a sister who lives in Seattle, Washington which is very far NW on the Pacific Ocean. If I were to drive to visit her, it would take about 37 hours in a car not including stops for food, fuel, sleep, etc. By plane it would be just over 5 hours (not including driving to and from the airport).
Another sister lives in Austin, Texas, and it would take me about 20 hours driving straight through with no stops and just over 6 hours by plane including a layover because there are no non-stop flights available at this time.
Just the state of Florida is amazingly vast. I drove once to Key West when I lived in Destin and it took me about 14 hours to get there. It takes a little more than 5 hours to drive across the northern part of the state from the Alabama state line to Jacksonville on the Atlantic Ocean side.
This makes me curious how long it takes to get across some of the EU and SA countries.
karadekoolaid, how long does it take to get across Venezuela? Is there decent transit there? How is the infrastructure, do you have good roads? How about other forum members countries, how quick can you get from one side of your country to another, and what means do you choose to travel?