anti-tourisim

I grew up in a tourist town in the mountians. Downtown the tourists meander the streets as though cars do not exist. They video the totem pole (as though it were about to do something interesting). They browse the shops for kitch decorated with squirrels and moose (despite the fact that there probably has never been a moose in the San Jacinto Mountians ever), they wear flannel and those who get vacation cabins furnish the entire cabin with rough hewn wood furniture and plaid upholstry…
Now I live near San Francisco. Tourists arrive in inappropreatly cool clothing (thinking that all of California is like Bay Watch). You can spot them wearing the I (heart) San Francisco polar fleece bought at the pier, the home made t-shirts worn with shorts and visors. They ride the cable cars for $5 each way to get to Fisherman’s warf and buy canned clam chowder served in a hunk of sourdough bread…
There are also “Visitors” who actually look around and pay attention and appreciate things that they are not proscribed to look at. These are the ones who do not waste their money buying themed refridgerator magnets and cheaply made T-shirts. Visitors are encouraged to visit the beautiful places I live. Because of my strong anti-tourist leaning I think I go out of my way to not do what tourists are expected to do.
In London there are double decker bus tours, which are just about as appealing to me as riding the cable car to work. In addition to their appeal, they cost £22 (aproximatley $45). However lame it is to be a tourist, there are indeed many sights worth seeing in London. As a happy alternative, my travel companion, two of the girls from the hostel and I took public transit (also a double decker bus) to see the sights…

Prince Albert was 11' tall and made completely out of gold... do not look directly at the royalty or your retenas will be burnt.


two of my fellow anti-tour companions...

Parliament and Big Ben were much more impressive than I thought they would be. We turned the corner and actually gasped. It took a moment for me to even realize where we were... once you see the clock tower it's a bit of a give away though.

The whole day of touring town cost me a little less than £4 and I didn’t feel like I was riding a cable car of shame.