I fully agree. When I traveled to Europe, I found myself taking "artistic photos" rather than documenting my trip from a journalistic perspective. I snapped candid photos, portraits of family and friends, and pictures in front of every famous tourist destination, but in the process failed to document the cultural phenomenons of the Italian, Parisian, and eastern European lifestyles.

I found myself in Berlin on May 1st, a day celebrating anarchy and demonstrating disrespect for anyone attempting to adhere to the law. I remember standing in Kriezberg at midnight, where drunken teenagers and adults ruthlessly chucked glass bottles at the police in a drunken state of debauchery -- where police stood huddled like cattle in groups of twenty, equipped with gas masks and weapons, occasionally charging the rowdy crowd in an attempt to arrest the rowdiest delinquents of the group. I stood on the sidewalk sipping on a beer, fearing for my own safety, when in retrospect I should have been documenting this incredible phenomenon - jumping in the center of the crowd, and documenting the immense energy that I witnessed that warm spring night.

Photojournalism has taught me the importance of jumping in the center of the action and showing through pictures what's really going on, rather than just taking "artistic shots" that only matter to me.

p.s. I fully agree with 3, 4 and 5 on your bits of travel advice. Especially the food bit. There's food you'd never think to try, that turns out to be phenomenal. For me, it was a delicacy- horse burgers in Slovenia. Delicious.