Hippy Backpacking Gypsys

Hippies
Growing up, my mom was anti-hippy. In contrast, I have always considered myself to have a special affinity for hippies. My ex is a modern-day hippy, and her mom certainly was and is.
I think because of this my mom sort of likes hippies now. However, my friends insist that I am a yuppy; not a hippy at all. While that was sort of confirmed in SF, when after Dana's birthday, we went to my fave 80's bar in the Mission, Delerium, and one of my friends overheard the bartender asking "what are all these yuppies doing here?" I actually sort of revel in that.

I guess this sort of disturbed me because in Washington, DC, I definitely thought I was as countercultural as one can be. OK, so I don't do drugs, or act in a "free love" manner, I shower regularly, and I don't recycle. I actually used to do all those things a lot more because I respect it all. (Alumni Directors should wear cord jackets with elbow patches, not nose rings). Doesn't ideology count for something? So, either I am a deactivated hippy or I am not a hippy. Whatever.

Backpacking
So, my mom and I "travelled" around Europe (Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic) after I graduated from college. I always said we backpacked, but these same friends call me on that lingo as well. They insist that backpacking requires backpacks and staying at hostels. So, yeah, my mom and I did wheel around luggage - true. But, we travelled for 3 weeks without any plan at all. We took trains, and experienced all kinds of adventures -- including sleeping on a sketchy Amsterdam houseboat where I couldn't even fit my whole body in the room, my mom getting locked in a bathroom in Prague, staying in a strange Turkish suburb of Berlin and almost freezing to death, and jumping out of a moving train in Frankfurt. My mom had never travelled this way before. And, I have backpacked before. And, even though our primary luggage wasn't a backpack, our experiences were more similar to those of a technical backpacking trip than they were to a normal trip to Europe.

Gypsys
So, I made fun of gypsys the other day. I basically said something like Borat would say, but far less comedic. Anyway, I was also called on this because this group is very oppressed in Europe because of these stereotypes. I responded that in our country they are not oppressed, so it is not a problem. He countered, well, what if black people weren't oppressed in Europe and a local person starting raising stereotypes about crack. I see his point. Not sure if I can justifiably make gypsy jokes anymore. Does it make me as bad to just think it?