Rio de Janeiro

i have met many Europeans as i have traveled, & what fascinates me about them is how much they travel. i think i already mentioned the 23-year old on the boat to Panama that quit his job so he could travel for many months throughout Asia. There was a young woman Camille that i met at the hostel in Olinda who has traveled for 10 months in Asia & is currently traveling in South America for an indefinite period of time. There is the young fellow in my dorm from Wales. He & his buddy, "sick" of their jobs, quit their jobs, took their savings & booked in advance an intinerary that includes all prepaid airfare, deposits on all hotels & hostels, safaris in Africa, & travel around the world for the next 18-months! Another fellow in my dorm, John from Amsterdam, 2-years my junior, has quit his job on at least 2 occasions & consummated two 10-month traveling stints including Africa & Asia. He says in Europe, the reputation of Americans is that we work too much. When I said something to him about "2 weeks per year time off for vacation", he shrugged, chuckled & said it´s funny, because he says that to Europeans, "America" symbolizes "freedom", yet what Americans do with this freedom is work.