I guess the reason why I like travelling is for that feeling where you don't know what to expect or what's going to happen next.
That's why I generally try to avoid the more popular destinations because everyone's been there, they've written about it and for some reason seem obliged to devulge every single little detail about a particular place. Just so anyone else who plans to go there will know exactly which bus, tram or train to take in, say [insert famous destination], before they've even gotten on the one back home to head off to the airport.
I find that it somehow dampens the charm and mystery that a place would otherwise provide were it not known by so many people. A bit paradoxical on my part perhaps.
It's for this same reason why I would like to stay longer in the truly great cities of the world - London, Paris, Vienna, just to name a few I've been to in Europe. Because if you stay only for a while, you can only see the things you're meant to see. Not the things you could see if you left your Fodor's or Lonely Planet behind and just walked around.
It's the most mundane things that people do in those cities - their daily commute, lunch at the neighbourhood diner, that give you a sense about what the city is all about. A city's soul is its people and without it there's nothing much except fabricated megaliths of monuments that don't really mean too much on its own.
I would love to go to Athens to see the Acropolis, but I would love more to see the people who built the city that surronds it.
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2 comments:
Spoken like a true anthropologist. :D
The way I see it, in order to travel sans-lonely-planet, you need to prepare in other ways: like knowing the language (so you can ask for directions), or being really really familiar with the bus/subways systems, so you can go anywhere on a whim and still find your way back.
I like getting lost a bit though, finding your way as you go. If you're on holiday it's great as long as its not a shady place. Like in big cities it's easy. Otherwise it can be stressful if you have to find a place where you have an important appointment or something and really need to be there.
Knowning the transportation system definitely helps but LP and other guidebooks tend to tell you so much it gives you too many expectations even before you go.
I did get yelled at and got stuff thrown at by a baker's wife (empty panadol box) in Malta because I begged the baker to let me stay and watch as be baked but he asked me to bugger off but I wouldn't right away. I thought they had Italian blood maybe so they would be friendlier but apparently not.
It was a bit annoying but fun at the same time. :)
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