fnarf999

It might have to do with cars. The people who make Seattle wake up, at least the parts I see, arrive in cars and park in garages, so you never see them until they switch the shop lights on. And no one in Seattle would ever dream of coming out and sweeping the sidewalk in front, or any of the other little duties that make this such an interesting experience.

My vote for the most dramatic wakeup is to be down in the Wall Street area of New York just as the first wave of subway commuters comes up the stairs. One moment it's deserted; the next you're surrounded by a million hurrying people.

nbujic

" Sleepy small towns the world over are pretty much alike "

Evidently, you have not visited northern Ontario.

VeeBee

i do believe it's any city as it wakes up -- funny, i just emailed a friend/collegue this am who's currently in Shanghai with the same advice. I did this last year as I was in Shanghai for work - got up and walked the downtown streets at about 7am - wonderful to watch even a big city in Asia come to life in the am.

BTW - IRA/EKELLYGA - I live near Madison - in Conyers, GA and we also have all the wonderful amenities and fine dining of ATL suburbs. Can't wait - only 16 more days and off to Paris, Switzerland, Provence, CT and Venice -- no more Conyers fine dining for me!!

walkinaround

i've seen interesting/atmospheric 'waking up' of cities and towns here in europe, in america, in asia and just about everwhere else. i don't have any overly romanticised views that it's any more interesting here overall than anywhere else.

clifton...europe is a diverse place and some people have demanding bosses and others don't. we don't, in general, have less pressure to get to work or get things done for work. working in the US, i noticed that many more people have flexible arrangements where they can work from home if they want. in some ways, it's more relaxed than here. in general, we are way behind in flexible working arrangements (hours, location, etc).

here in the UK, the 'school run' is particularly hectic due to a poor use of public transport in getting children to school. there is a lot of pressure and stress on working families (just like almost everywhere).

ira

Hey eke and VB,

We can start a GA contingent.

beaupeep

VeeBee, I went to high school in Salem MA with a couple that now live in Conyers. I will see them at my 35th HS reunion in July. Deb and Mike, he works for Delta.

VeeBee

beaupeep.. racking my brain for a couple with that name i might know..although we moved here 7 yrs ago from California - don't get around too much in community except for gym and church...i'll think on it.

DAX

It's so easy to enjoy watching a city/town wake up, however it's a lot harder to enjoy a city closing down even though the workers are actually happy that they are going home.

ekellyga

I am guessing that the biggest part of it has to do with the US predominance of commuting by private auto.

scatcat

I live in a very small town in Texas and it's not fun to watch it wake-up. Everyone is driving like mad, dumping their kids at school, and I've never seen anyone sweep the sidewalk. We don't have cute flower markets. It's way different for me in Europe and I love it.

annhig

hi, ekellyga,

last year I loved getting up early to see Venice wake up.

not many shops open, but markets were starting, cafes were opening up, all manner of goods were being delivered by boat, workers were going to and from the station.

it was so lovely, that having done it the first morning, i did it every mornnig, then went back to my hotel for breakfast.

my DS [then 15] loved doing it in Rome, making it his job to get up and buy our breakfast from the little cafe opposite our apartment. later in the day, people he met in the morning would greet him as we hobbled home from our sight-seeing.

here in Cornwall, towns don't tend to wake up until about 9am, but early mornings can still be fun - eg on the early King Harrry ferry across carrick roads [a stretch of water!] or out on the waterfront at Falmouth. don't so that often enough - you've given me an idea!

regards, ann

tomassocroccante

It's the piazza, the plaza, la place ... the town square.

So far the typical European town or city has a variety of shops and cafes and services facing the square, and others just off it. That's the little bit of soul that is waking up together. The square has often been described as the town's communal living room.

It will be interesting to see if the increased use of air conditioning changes that ...

Some US towns have a quality like that, with a town center that is still the center, not a hollowed out core. Not many. It's the cars, and the distances between things. New schools are built around the edges of town, with plenty of parking (have been for 50 years) and shops and professional offices moved to strip malls etc.
European towns have suburbs or modern "outer cities", outside the town walls, but they don't seem to have signalled the death of the old center of things, the "centro storico" ...

The scene you describe, ekellyga - and I like it just as much before and during the siesta, when the square becomes quiet again, and in the evening when the passegiata makes it a "scene" - is why I prefer staying in a town to the "country villa" style of hotel or apartment. For me the town, the people, the cafe are among the main attractions.

NeoPatrick

I think Carrybean had it right. I've gotten up at 6 in Manhattan, and I sense the same sort of thing -- but then I'm not preoccupied with running off to work.

I'm not disagreeing with you -- early mornings are very "romantic" and wonderful times in European towns and cities. But I really think it's not all that different back home -- if you take the time and effort to stop and smell the coffee instead of just gulping it.

Clifton

walkinaround, you're right of course... Europe is a diverse place. I certainly haven't covered anywhere close to half of it to discover how diverse either. So, being in London yourself, you've likely seen far more of it than I have.

I suppose I'm trying to put apples to apples, but other's who've posted since I have done it better. It wouldn't make sense to compare Littleville, Iowa to Paris, nor New York to a small town in Germany. Cities bustle, small towns less so just in general. Actually, large cities are sort of hard to compare. They tend to have history and immigration patterns in a way that a small town doesn't. Big cities seem (at least to me) to have rather more unique characters and always felt that using New York, for instance, as an example of the US was rather a isolated case and not a very illumative choice.

In Asia, any size town seems to run circles around it's counterparts, but maybe I just notice the activity more because it's not the type of activity I see back home.

I guess I just mean that what you'd see going on at 5am in a typical 1000 person, non-tourist town in the US (the OP did say small town) is quite different than what you'd likely find going on in most of continental Europe. On the other hand, the UK and Ireland, or at least my limited knowledge of it, seems more similar to the US than any party would care to acknowledge. Could be other countries would be the same. But with the existance of bedroom communities and inner city pressure cooker type jobs (my uncle for instance lives in a village but commutes into London where he writes flight control and management software for the London area. I have to think that's a major source of stress, keeping planes from bumping into each other over greater London). I, on the other hand, come from a town of 250 people. And honestly, in that case, his hometown and mine probably don't function that differently. However, I'd have to imagine that his village and those in it have quite a different life than those, say, in the Maramures region of Romania, where people's mornings typically involve fetching the wooden rake from the shed and riding the horse cart out to the fields for the day.

Which I suppose was where my head is at. That range of typical lifestyle differences just aren't as broad in the US, regardless of proximity of a major city. And while that may mean that ekellyga's memory of a small town may be quite different than mine, there's a much higher chance that both of ours are very different than any variations you might find in the US. Which I realize also makes your point about diversity, but doesn't put Europe and the US back in comparable situations - and I'm not sure you'd intended to make that last point anyway.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Clifton

You know, I'd fix all those typos and mis-edited grammatical mistakes, but there's just so many of them. I think you get the idea.

I'll just fix "illuminative". If you're going to use a ten dollar word, get your money's worth, eh?

BettyBoop

As I watched My Fair Lady last night enjoying the short scene where the city wakes up, I had the same thoughts as the original poster and many others.

Unfortunately for me, that was my 2007 overseas trip.

nukesafe

I think you are on the right track, Clifton.

The fascination, IMO, about watching a European town wake up is that so many of us in the States seldom have that experience. We live in very dispersed communities, by European standards. When most of us walk out of our doors early in the morning we see nothing but the neighboring houses, the street, and the neighbors pulling their cars out of their garages.

In order to see shopkeepers opening their doors, waiters setting tables, etc., we must hop into our cars and drive some distance. That is why it is so enjoyable to come out of our French hotel, walk a few steps, buy a paper, walk a few more steps to a cafe, relax, and enjoy the city coming to life.

For me, this is a daily ritual. I'm up and about shortly after 06:00. My DW does not appear on the street until 08:30 or 09:00. What is a poor fellow to do, but sit, sip, read, and watch the passing parade?

Just lovely! Best part of the day!

DAX

It's always more fun to watch a TOURISTY town wake up because it feels like the locals are setting up for us, the tourists. We can appreciate the complex process of how they make their town come alive for us.

From the same selfish perspective we find it rather sad to watch them close down as if they are sending a message "game over".

DanM

Madison is such a great town. Some friends own a B&B there. My grandfather was the project manager for Lake Oconee (sp?). WE always go and my grnadmother likes to talk about how he "built this lake."

RM67

The city never sleeps.