Re: The asterisk

On 20/06/2012 10:35, Ellen Rawson wrote:
> --- On Wed, 6/20/12, Everett Warren <ellyssian@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> When I was a tourist in NYC, people were awesomely
>> kind. PHILLY is where
>>> people were terrifying.
>>>
>> What? The city of brotherly love? You've got to
>> be jok... oh, yeah.
>> Eagles fans. Probably Eagles fans.
> Philly sports fans have been voted the rudest sports fans in the US by American sports writers. I can't remember which years, but I do recall reading it.
>
> In the mid-'80s, I was visiting my family. I was walking in Center City Philly when an older couple from Kentucky stopped me and asked me for directions.
>
> I admitted I'd not lived there for a few years, but I was pretty sure I could them going in the right direction. I gave them detailed directions.
>
> They thanked me profusely and told me that I was the first person who would even stop and talk to them; everyone else just brushed them off. When I told them that I actually lived in Colorado and was visiting my parents, they laughed. :)
>
> I am fairly well travelled. I admit that I've never been to Africa, South America nor Australia, in terms of continents. I really want to visit Africa and South America, in particular. And we have friends who own property in Kenya and plan to retire there, so we have an open invititation to visit them in Malindi. But I've been all over North America, I've been to Central America and through a good chunk of Europe, and I've visited Asia. I suppose what bothers me the most are not tourists, per se, but people who act like stereotypical tourists and purposely stick out like sore thumbs -- and are just plain rude, as with the folks I mentioned earlier who almost injured a woman on crutches because they couldn't wait for her to exit the train in their eagerness to get on said train. The crazy thing is that a guard was right there. The guard would have kept the doors open if the train was running late because she took a long time to depart; it's not as if they
> would have missed their train. They were just plain mean -- and they were fined for their rudeness. Boy, did that upset them!
>
> Ellen
>

I prefer to be a traveller and a visitor, not a "tourist". I try to
learn a little about where I'm going before I get there, have some maps
so I'm not completely lost, and learn a few essential phrases in the
local language. I mostly travel alone. When I'm struck dumb by the
sight of something wonderful, I try to step to the side and not block
the thoroughfare when I take photos. I look around for somewhere I can
sit down (coffee shop, park bench) to examine my maps.

Edinburgh gets a lot of visitors - it also gets a lot of tourists.
Tourists tend to arrive on coaches, get dumped off by their guides/coach
drivers in the city centre with no idea of where they are or what
they're looking at. It was a 'tourist' who complained about Edinburgh
Castle being on top of a long steep hill - "why didn't they build it
down next to the railway station where it would be accessible?" (yes,
that was a real complaint that was made to me in the days when I worked
in the Tourism industry) It was also a tourist who asked where the
Highland cows were on Princes Street. (Edinburgh's main street - a major
shopping centre - not exactly where you would expect to find a herd of
shaggy dairy cattle). I've also been asked if we had running water and
electricity in the hotel - by someone standing at the hotel reception
desk. (no ma'am, we just pee out the windows - gardey loo <g>)


--
Jette Goldie
jette.goldie@gmail.com