Some thoughts about being a Tourist
I was walking around Hyde Park in London by myself an hour ago, wrapping up a business trip to London that was extended due to the Klasi3r03ALK39A3KJKJ Volcano erupting and bestowing mayhem on an otherwise orderly world.
I was mentally reviewing my trip and my stolen chances to be a tourist in my off hours from work and I think I nailed this trip. I have never been out of North America before, and this was a good shallow-end-of-the-pool trip for me. And, I discovered that I am more interested in how people live than some of the big sites and typical tourist destinations.
I did go to all the different tourist spots -- White Hall, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, etc. I'm terrible at relaxing and I usually am worried that I would be in a place like London and miss something cool. I saw a lot of the lesser known areas, too (Shakespeare's Globe, Hyde & Regent Park, Camden/West End, Kings Cross/St Pancras, London Eye, South Bank, Canary Wharf... one of my favorites was Churchill War Rooms Museum). Next time I see a movie set in London, or read a book set in London, it'll mean more to me, too. But, one of the coolest things I did was the very first day I arrived, I walked around an area where I was staying. The hotel was on a main street and I walked up and down it, then I took off down Avon Street to Gladstone Park. The area was a residential street with a few people and house along house, crammed together with cars parked on what would be the lawn.
Seeing how people live, to me, is more interesting that seeing some of the major attractions in the area. Buckingham Palace looked like a big gray building, maybe a large old public library. Westminster Abbey & Parliament were awesome, but they didn't stack up to the tidy row houses and the people playing in Gladstone Park, square in the middle of millions of people but no where near the touristy Central London.
I want to know what kind of furniture people have, how big their fridge is and what is in it. How does their toilet flush, is it a button like at the Windmill Hotel in Cricklewood, or a big door-knob device like at the Baywater-Rhodes hotel. What do you see when you look out their window?
Being a tourist is tiring. I'm actually on a business trip, but every chance I get I've been walking around, doing stuff. And, when I'm not doing that, I'm upping my Oyster card for the Tube, or getting laundry or finding a place to eat. Eating on the road is exhausting. I'm not as adventurous as a true adventurer, but I'm more adventurous than a lot of people. I don't mind trying new things. But, it gets tiring to eat pretty much at a different place every night, going through the sit down, order (new accent with the new server), eat (varying quality, price, taste), then pay (whoa!!! For that meal?!?). You don't have the familiarity of home at least once in awhile, then you get tired. It's ironic, because getting away from home for a bit was very enticing for me when I left home almost three weeks ago. I guess what would be ideal would be short trips away more frequently.
Oh, and Skype for business trips is AWESOME!
