Szilvia GombolaMapping A New Direction
February 22nd 2007 11:44
Here’s the thing. I love maps. Probably because I love travel, and travel and maps go hand in hand (literally).
To hold a new, unmarked map in your hand and plan your attack on a city or country you have just arrived in for the first time is, to me, the exact moment that fully captures the anticipation and excitement of travel.
I love looking at the map and circling the famous tourist icons, such as the Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, Times Square, or the Big Banana, knowing that soon I will be physically standing in front of and admiring these landmarks that I have long dreamed of visiting.
For me, that map and the anticipation it creates is the moment. And it is also the problem.
Because then you are there in front of that landmark, jostling with hordes of other tourists with maps as you pose for a photo holding up the leaning Tower of Pisa, standing in front of a neon sign of a giant cup of steaming noodles in New York, framed by the Sydney Harbour Bridge or licking the Big Banana (just me??).
The anticipation and excitement of having that fresh new map in your hand is gone, replaced by an unsatisfied realisation that you have ‘been there, done that, took the photo, bought the t-shirt and ticked it off the list’.
The question being posed here is: “has modern-day travel become far too formulaic?”
Are we all just following the same well-worn path to world sightseeing’s greatest hits? Who is setting the formula of what we apparently ‘must see’ and why are we following it?
Don’t get me wrong. I love travel. This is not meant to be the cynical whinings of some jaded traveller who moans about having to share his personal world tour with other people and says everywhere and everything has ‘lost its charm’ in the same way that serious music lovers only ever claim to like a band’s early stuff – “before they went mainstream”.
But travel destinations have gone mainstream, long ago.
However, the journeys and experiences on route to the destinations are still unique. These days you just have to look and try a bit harder to get them.
But what if there were some new maps to guide the way?
Well, there already are. ‘Experimental travel’ is the new buzzword in the travel scene with new titles from the likes of Lonely Planet encouraging travellers to take a new look at the world through non-conventional travel techniques such as turning your back on a famous landmark and admiring and taking a photo of whatever is now in front of you, going for a holiday at your nearest backpackers to home, getting a train or bus to the final stop on the line and seeing what is there, likewise with an obscure grid on a map such as A1.
This blog has caught the experimental travel bug and wants to help map its course by discussing innovative new travel suggestions, itineraries, lists, tips, news and thoughts as well as recounting those off-beat travel experiences, tales and trivia picked up along the way.
To hold a new, unmarked map in your hand and plan your attack on a city or country you have just arrived in for the first time is, to me, the exact moment that fully captures the anticipation and excitement of travel.
I love looking at the map and circling the famous tourist icons, such as the Colosseum, Eiffel Tower, Times Square, or the Big Banana, knowing that soon I will be physically standing in front of and admiring these landmarks that I have long dreamed of visiting.
For me, that map and the anticipation it creates is the moment. And it is also the problem.
The anticipation and excitement of having that fresh new map in your hand is gone, replaced by an unsatisfied realisation that you have ‘been there, done that, took the photo, bought the t-shirt and ticked it off the list’.
The question being posed here is: “has modern-day travel become far too formulaic?”
Are we all just following the same well-worn path to world sightseeing’s greatest hits? Who is setting the formula of what we apparently ‘must see’ and why are we following it?
Don’t get me wrong. I love travel. This is not meant to be the cynical whinings of some jaded traveller who moans about having to share his personal world tour with other people and says everywhere and everything has ‘lost its charm’ in the same way that serious music lovers only ever claim to like a band’s early stuff – “before they went mainstream”.
However, the journeys and experiences on route to the destinations are still unique. These days you just have to look and try a bit harder to get them.
But what if there were some new maps to guide the way?
Well, there already are. ‘Experimental travel’ is the new buzzword in the travel scene with new titles from the likes of Lonely Planet encouraging travellers to take a new look at the world through non-conventional travel techniques such as turning your back on a famous landmark and admiring and taking a photo of whatever is now in front of you, going for a holiday at your nearest backpackers to home, getting a train or bus to the final stop on the line and seeing what is there, likewise with an obscure grid on a map such as A1.
This blog has caught the experimental travel bug and wants to help map its course by discussing innovative new travel suggestions, itineraries, lists, tips, news and thoughts as well as recounting those off-beat travel experiences, tales and trivia picked up along the way.
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