Has your persecptive changed about your home town after a wonderful vacation?
Oct 18th, 2003, 09:24 PM
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 243
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Has your persecptive changed about your home town after a wonderful vacation?
I live in New York City and just returned from an excellent month long vacation in Amsterdam and other cities in Holland. When I got home, I realized that my perspective of NYC changed. I saw it through the eyes of a tourist (with I am sure rosy glasses).
I know that NYC is an exciting city, I've lived here four nearly fifty years. It's just that I began to see my city as a tourist would see it.
In Amsterdam, my apartment was a block away from a park, and often, I would grab a brodje, and go there to read, take photos or just sit and watch the "Passing Parade". I live a block from Central Park and the other day it struck me that I haven't been there just to sit and read and watch its passing parade. It is a superb park for doing just that.
I have gone to the Metropolitan Museum and The Museum of Natural History more often than I have after this last trip.I dawned on me that 'visiting a museum' was something I happily did on a trip, and something I did as a duty here at home. That changed.
I lauded the public transportain in Europe and knocked ours at home. Ours is complicated but really is far better than I thought it was.
I don't want to do a laundry list of how I began to really enjoy my city, but I wondered if you have had the same experience.
By the same token, some of the short-comings of my city spring to mind. One is how we are constantly ripping down beautiful buildings and replacing every generation or so.
Last note, I grew up in Norristown, PA a small town of 40,000 or so and visit fairly often. It is a small town, its only fame is that it is close to Valley Forge. My travels made me look at it as a foreign visitor might do and I began to like my home town which I left a long time ago.
H0w about you? Has your hometown looked differently after a great vacation, differently either positive or negative.
I know that NYC is an exciting city, I've lived here four nearly fifty years. It's just that I began to see my city as a tourist would see it.
In Amsterdam, my apartment was a block away from a park, and often, I would grab a brodje, and go there to read, take photos or just sit and watch the "Passing Parade". I live a block from Central Park and the other day it struck me that I haven't been there just to sit and read and watch its passing parade. It is a superb park for doing just that.
I have gone to the Metropolitan Museum and The Museum of Natural History more often than I have after this last trip.I dawned on me that 'visiting a museum' was something I happily did on a trip, and something I did as a duty here at home. That changed.
I lauded the public transportain in Europe and knocked ours at home. Ours is complicated but really is far better than I thought it was.
I don't want to do a laundry list of how I began to really enjoy my city, but I wondered if you have had the same experience.
By the same token, some of the short-comings of my city spring to mind. One is how we are constantly ripping down beautiful buildings and replacing every generation or so.
Last note, I grew up in Norristown, PA a small town of 40,000 or so and visit fairly often. It is a small town, its only fame is that it is close to Valley Forge. My travels made me look at it as a foreign visitor might do and I began to like my home town which I left a long time ago.
H0w about you? Has your hometown looked differently after a great vacation, differently either positive or negative.
Oct 19th, 2003, 03:38 AM
#2
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 319
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
My current "home town" is a suburb for which there is no "main street." Thus the experience of Europe with its many walkable streets, squares, and feeling of community--especially when we always stay right in the heart of the old town part of any city we visit--always leaves me cursing the suburban lifestyle with its dependence on driving rather than walking from place to place.
Oct 19th, 2003, 03:40 AM
#3
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 74,699
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi Fam,
Interesting post. After return from a few weeks in Italy, I realized that my hometown (Madison, GA) is really starved for good cheap wine, decent baked goods and gelato.
But I knew that before I left.
Interesting post. After return from a few weeks in Italy, I realized that my hometown (Madison, GA) is really starved for good cheap wine, decent baked goods and gelato.
But I knew that before I left.
Oct 19th, 2003, 04:20 AM
#4
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 10,392
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Yes.
Streets I thought were narrow looked a lot wider after I came home.
Parking lots looked immense, even when busy.
I realized how geographically isolated so many towns and cities are in my country, and how this has come to affect the kind of food we eat and the way we buy and store it.
Before, I really didn't think much about how vastly spread out we are, now I do.
Streets I thought were narrow looked a lot wider after I came home.
Parking lots looked immense, even when busy.
I realized how geographically isolated so many towns and cities are in my country, and how this has come to affect the kind of food we eat and the way we buy and store it.
Before, I really didn't think much about how vastly spread out we are, now I do.
Oct 19th, 2003, 04:50 AM
#5
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 10
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Dear Fam,
My perspective on my hometown changed after my first move - in country. I went from a suburb of Manhattan to Dallas, Texas and the culture shock was incredible. Now I live in Sweden and if I can't go back to NY or DC, I would happily go back to Texas!!
My perspective on my hometown changed after my first move - in country. I went from a suburb of Manhattan to Dallas, Texas and the culture shock was incredible. Now I live in Sweden and if I can't go back to NY or DC, I would happily go back to Texas!!
Oct 19th, 2003, 08:39 AM
#6
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,330
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi Famous,
I find my perspective has changed about how I use my hometown of Indianapolis. I encourage my brother, his wife and three kids to get to downtown Indianapolis and use some of the facilities. We go to the museums; we walk along the canal. We walk through the Memorial Park area. We recently rode the 1.25 mile elevated, driver-less, free tram that connects two downtown hospitals enjoying the bird's eye view.
It started early for me. My Mom would drive my brothers and me downtown just to look around in the afternoons. We went after lunch and before dinner and did free stuff because we couldn't afford anything else. I love my memories of going to the observation deck in the new (built 1961) City-County building that was the tallest building in Indiana for several years at a whopping 28 floor.
http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/wm/bu/118692/
I encourage my nieces and nephew to take friends downtown so they can enjoy it too. It really saddens me when I hear one of those 15 year old friends say they've never been downtown or to a museum there or didn't even know the canal walk exists.
I find my perspective has changed about how I use my hometown of Indianapolis. I encourage my brother, his wife and three kids to get to downtown Indianapolis and use some of the facilities. We go to the museums; we walk along the canal. We walk through the Memorial Park area. We recently rode the 1.25 mile elevated, driver-less, free tram that connects two downtown hospitals enjoying the bird's eye view.
It started early for me. My Mom would drive my brothers and me downtown just to look around in the afternoons. We went after lunch and before dinner and did free stuff because we couldn't afford anything else. I love my memories of going to the observation deck in the new (built 1961) City-County building that was the tallest building in Indiana for several years at a whopping 28 floor.
http://www.skyscrapers.com/re/en/wm/bu/118692/
I encourage my nieces and nephew to take friends downtown so they can enjoy it too. It really saddens me when I hear one of those 15 year old friends say they've never been downtown or to a museum there or didn't even know the canal walk exists.
Oct 19th, 2003, 08:52 AM
#7
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 3,122
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I envy the history of most of the places I visit. Being in a county so young, the buildings and neighborhoods just don't have the same feeling to me. I marvel at the architecture and am in wonderment of the things that have happened throughout hundreds/thousands of years. I also really like neighborhoods or parts of town you can walk around or hang out in regularly. A real "neighborhood". I know they exist here in the U.S., but I haven't lived in one in a while since I moved out of the city. I now live in a house built in 1957 and I love the "old design", but I realize that is nothing compared to some places,but it seems old to me.
Oct 19th, 2003, 03:48 PM
#8
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 1,407
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I've been stationed overseas off and on for almost 10 years. Every time I go back to my hometown (a term I use loosely, since my family moved around a lot when I was young. Never really felt like I set down roots anywhere.) in Arkansas, it feels smaller each time.
I know I'll probably get flamed for this, but I have to say that my hometown and the people I know who live there, seem to have become stagnant. I'm not sure if that's me being exposed to other cultures/languages, etc. or me just getting old!
I know I'll probably get flamed for this, but I have to say that my hometown and the people I know who live there, seem to have become stagnant. I'm not sure if that's me being exposed to other cultures/languages, etc. or me just getting old!
Oct 19th, 2003, 04:35 PM
#9
Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 817
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I come back from Europe wishing I LIVED in Europe. Unfortunately, the things I see most clearly when I come back are the litter, the billboards and mile after mile of ugly strip malls, the lack of public transportation - especially the lack of any centralized train system, and the isolation that most of us live in. We could be SO much better, there's so much potential here. But looking through a tourist's eye, I'm afraid I'd be a little disappointed.
Oct 19th, 2003, 05:27 PM
#10
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,637
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Art, I love that description and your enhanced appreciation of home. I have to admit that I absolutely love traveling and seeing new places. And I've been so lucky to enjoy some incredibly places. But flying home to San Francisco never fails to take my breath away. It's such a beautiful place to fly in to. The blue, blue of the bay, the Golden Gate, stretching across the mouth, the tall buildings all crowded onto the hills, really reflect the diversity of this place that I love.
Oct 19th, 2003, 05:56 PM
#11
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 61
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I live in San Francisco, too--in the City for 30 years. It is of course very beautiful here (and very expensive housing). I do love living here but whenever I come back from Paris I am struck by how small and provincial it seems. I always think, yeah it's nice, but it's no PARIS! Kind of like comparing Eureka with its lovely Victorians to SF...yeah Eureka's nice, but it's no San Francisco. For me, Paris is the ultimate. But almost any place takes on a nice shine when you're there specifically to appreciate it...
Oct 19th, 2003, 06:00 PM
#12
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 34,738
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Art, what a lovely way to speak of NYC.
It is a nice town, isn't it?
Whenever we are in a foreign country, I compare everything with home. Home doesn't always win. But when I get back, I realize it isn't such a bad place after all.
It is a nice town, isn't it?
Whenever we are in a foreign country, I compare everything with home. Home doesn't always win. But when I get back, I realize it isn't such a bad place after all.
Nov 25th, 2003, 01:44 PM
#14
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,268
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I had the same experience when I spent 6 weeks in Paris as an exchange student in high school (my first time traveling for any length of time without my parents).
It's one of the reasons I love to travel still...the effects, the heightened awareness of what's around, the appreciation for architecture and people-watching, lasts a long time after coming home.
It's one of the reasons I love to travel still...the effects, the heightened awareness of what's around, the appreciation for architecture and people-watching, lasts a long time after coming home.
Nov 25th, 2003, 02:42 PM
#15
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,080
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I could have written "Uncle Art's" post.
Raised in PA., have lived in Manhattan almost 45 years! My husband (CT) and I once returned from a trip abroad and bought a green Michelin Guide for Manhattan and "did" it like tourists!
We also vowed to help any bewildered tourists we saw on the streets.
(PS for any future NY tourists: there are commuter ferrys on the East River now which give a nice view of Manhattan from 90th Street down to Pier 11.)
Raised in PA., have lived in Manhattan almost 45 years! My husband (CT) and I once returned from a trip abroad and bought a green Michelin Guide for Manhattan and "did" it like tourists!
We also vowed to help any bewildered tourists we saw on the streets.
(PS for any future NY tourists: there are commuter ferrys on the East River now which give a nice view of Manhattan from 90th Street down to Pier 11.)
Nov 28th, 2003, 09:28 PM
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 243
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hiya Grandma:
Thanks for the idea of taking the tour in your own home-town. There are, as you may know, many walking tours of the city and in my forty plus years here, I have never done it. I will now. Good suggestion.
Thanks for the idea of taking the tour in your own home-town. There are, as you may know, many walking tours of the city and in my forty plus years here, I have never done it. I will now. Good suggestion.
Nov 29th, 2003, 12:12 AM
#17
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,321
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
After a visit back to Florence to spend time with inlaws, I felt saddend that we (the people in my area) do not enjoy life like my friends & family in Italy do. There is not nearly the sense of community and fellowship here that we have over there. I wish it were different.
Nov 29th, 2003, 12:32 AM
#18
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,682
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I am a Londoner and have lived here all my adult life, apart from years overseas. I think those years, and travels throughout the nineties in central Europe, give me a contrasty, black-white, picture of London. On one hand the casual ill manners and street litter, on the other the centuries of bourgeois and libertarian influence and the present delightful multi culturalism. I think this us a common effect of travel.
The effect of advising Fodors forum readers for eight years on travel in London has been wholly one-way: you have told me to look with care at what we have, and to enjoy it. Trafalgar Square is not just a traffic roundabout that takes careful cycling, it is also a fine composition of buildings and monuments. Pubs are not just places for a quick half pint, they are also a place of public good.
[email protected]
The effect of advising Fodors forum readers for eight years on travel in London has been wholly one-way: you have told me to look with care at what we have, and to enjoy it. Trafalgar Square is not just a traffic roundabout that takes careful cycling, it is also a fine composition of buildings and monuments. Pubs are not just places for a quick half pint, they are also a place of public good.
[email protected]
