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Filling the Gaps – Somedays you just gotta get out
Sometimes you find yourself in a long gap between trips, time starts to drag and you feel the need to get away growing. Sometime it just really isn’t possible to get away on long trip, to do the whole hearted travel, separating yourself from everything in your day to day life. It’s these times when you need to take part in micro tourism.
Fuck me that sounds like wishy washy sales talk.
Basically the idea is that you need to travel to somewhere that’s a little closer to home and just go for a short trip. A day or two perhaps of just exploring somewhere near to hand and getting to know the places in your own backyard. Like so many things on here it sounds simple, but actually it ends up being something that we never do.
How many of the tourist attractions near to you have you ever been to? Many of us will travel all over the world turning up in far flung destinations and furiously taking in every facet of them that we possibly can. How often have you been out to see the tourist attractions in the next town though? Or even your own town? It’s like we need to block these things in the day to day life and then because of that we forget about them, they become part of the background and somehow we never notice them again.
Take the time to go out and notice them. Really do.
The problem can sometimes be just taking that first step, getting out and taking that different perspective. viewing things through that different set of eyes and viewing things almost like a visitor from elsewhere might. Sometimes its easiest if you just start venturing down those streets you walk past and exploring the little corners that you haven’t looked in before, finding out what behind various alleyways and buildings.
Another method to viewing things differently is to take a camera with you and turn the whole thing into a project. Set out to document the sights and sounds that you see almost as if you need to show everything that there is to offer and every little niggling detail that people should look out for.
Lonely Planet did a very interesting book of other ideas that can be adapted for days like this called Experimental Travel (The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel ISBN 1741044502). Some of them seem a little strange at first and almost certainly some of them you will look at and think that there’s no way that you’re ever going to do that. But give one or two of them a try.
They may help to brighten an otherwise dull weekend.
