GilesGuthrie
Staff Emeritus
- 11,038
- Edinburgh, UK
- CMDRTheDarkLord
In March, I visited Australia. I did a lot of the usual tourist stuff, which generally involved wandering about, looking at stuff that was there to be looked at. Quite a lot of sitting in street cafés, drinking beer and watching the world go by. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world to be doing.
This month sees the Edinburgh International, Book and Fringe Festivals. The city is hopping. It's choc-full of tourists, and a lot of the bars simply aren't closing. And the ones that do have licenses until 3am. In past years, the sheer busy-ness of the city has been a real pain. It's difficult to get to and from work, or get any shopping done, or go sit in your favourite pub, because suddenly 50,000 Italians have moved in. Trust me, Edinburgh residents generally hate the festival.
I had an arrangement to meet a friend, and was like an hour early. With little to do I thought "Well, it's a nive day, I'll get a beer and sit outside, and watch the world go by". It was fantastic. It was really similar to being in Melbourne again, although obviously the scenery was different and it was 5 degrees cooler.
I saw Edinburgh the way tourists see it. I watched the people sitting on the buses, heads down, reading books, or the paper, just waiting and wishing to be home, or wherever they were going. It seemed a huge waste of time, and something that's an endless source of frustration, and it's not something from which I'm immune, as I'm usually pretty grumpy on the bus home from work. It bugs me that it takes an hour to go 6 miles.
It almost transformed my view of Edinburgh and the Festival. I've been to three shows this year already, and loved them all. It's totally party time here, and the residents should get into it a bit more.
The saddening thing though is that we as a species seem so hellbent on "seeing the world", that we often miss what's under our noses. The fact is that there is beauty everywhere, so why do I feel the need to travel 10,000 miles to see this:
When I can travel 6 miles and see this:
They're both different, and both majestic, so why do I take one for granted? Why is it pretty much "not there" for me?
Is this a worldwide phenomenon, or is it just the Brits who feel they have to travel to see stuff, even when there's plenty of cool stuff under their nose?
This month sees the Edinburgh International, Book and Fringe Festivals. The city is hopping. It's choc-full of tourists, and a lot of the bars simply aren't closing. And the ones that do have licenses until 3am. In past years, the sheer busy-ness of the city has been a real pain. It's difficult to get to and from work, or get any shopping done, or go sit in your favourite pub, because suddenly 50,000 Italians have moved in. Trust me, Edinburgh residents generally hate the festival.
I had an arrangement to meet a friend, and was like an hour early. With little to do I thought "Well, it's a nive day, I'll get a beer and sit outside, and watch the world go by". It was fantastic. It was really similar to being in Melbourne again, although obviously the scenery was different and it was 5 degrees cooler.
I saw Edinburgh the way tourists see it. I watched the people sitting on the buses, heads down, reading books, or the paper, just waiting and wishing to be home, or wherever they were going. It seemed a huge waste of time, and something that's an endless source of frustration, and it's not something from which I'm immune, as I'm usually pretty grumpy on the bus home from work. It bugs me that it takes an hour to go 6 miles.
It almost transformed my view of Edinburgh and the Festival. I've been to three shows this year already, and loved them all. It's totally party time here, and the residents should get into it a bit more.
The saddening thing though is that we as a species seem so hellbent on "seeing the world", that we often miss what's under our noses. The fact is that there is beauty everywhere, so why do I feel the need to travel 10,000 miles to see this:
When I can travel 6 miles and see this:
They're both different, and both majestic, so why do I take one for granted? Why is it pretty much "not there" for me?
Is this a worldwide phenomenon, or is it just the Brits who feel they have to travel to see stuff, even when there's plenty of cool stuff under their nose?
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