Today was the eve of Children’s Day, so I got to be dismissed from work early owing to Children’s Day celebrations. Since I had the afternoon off, I went back to my previous workplace, which was a junior high school.
It has only been three months since I last saw my ex-students from my form class. But I couldn’t help but sigh at how things have changed so drastically. They were not only physically taller, but appeared to have matured somewhat, quietly listening to their Art teacher as she expounded on the horizon line and vanishing point.
It was great just being in their presence and soaking up the atmosphere. Something that as part of my daily routine but has since acquired the feel of a bygone era.
The places where I used to vacation as a kid but turned into tourist hotspots in the last years/decades
Places that used to be normal towns with locals, maybe one or two hotels. Now the beachfront is only hotels. On the analog pictures we were alone on the beaches, now they're 5 rows of parasols. Back then the ferry carried like a dozen cars. Now it's a huge ferry the size of a cruise ship.
The ski resorts that had one lift back then. The whole "resort" being 5 families and everyone ate lunch together - they turned the lift off while we ate lol. Now it's a huge resort with thousands of guests and dozens of lifts through the whole valley. And it isn't even cold enough to consistently snow nowadays.
It's bittersweet and I know many places like that all over europe. It's a bittersweet feeling and I can only share it with few people since back in the day middle and lower class people didn't vacation that much (and in this way) as we did
Thanks for writing such a detailed response!
How do you think the locals are taking to the influx of tourism? Do they see it as a necessary evil, or are they resigned to lose their conventions even though they are reluctant to ‘sell out’?
Can't say for sure, I have only made a few friendships (and those that I have boil down to instagram follows and less than yearly verbal exchange)
Barcelona and places like that seem pretty annoyed at the tourism - I think this applies to many big coastal cities. I know a few villages in the Italian mountainside where the locals are still very welcoming of tourists. This might be because they know their financial dependence is more direct and tangible. In big cities this cause-effect probably seems more abstract to the locals.
Idk can't say for sure
Thanks for thinking about it!
the stamping grounds of my youth
Poetic response, as always!
Capitol Hill….
Are you sleeping well these days, mate?
lol I’m not sure anyone is or knows what is going on. It’s such a mess trying to plan a hearing for 2 weeks from now but if we are shut down a week from today still we have to cancel it.
Be awaiting your updates when this madness is over
Zoos
The bittersweet part is knowing you were there before the transformation. You experienced its authenticity without the performance it now has to stage for visitors. That is a rare memory because as you said not many traveled that way in those years. In a sense you carry a version of that place that no longer exists outside your recollection.
It’s the way of beautiful places. First they belong to themselves, then they belong to those who stumble upon them, and eventually they belong to everyone. The gain is comfort and access, the loss is the quiet magic that needed no stage. You were there in the chapter before the spotlight, and that’s a rare thing to carry.