So you’ve got eight hours top get
back to the ship. You’ve read about Alfama. You’ll get over there on one of
those three-wheeled conveyances, get the driver to cruise along Remedios and
stop when you see a great photo, which you take from the seat of your
conveyance, down some set of stairs.
This is grab-and-run tourism,
that treats a neighbourhood as their amusement park (and river their parking
stall, waterfront their audio field, city their mall, but let’s keep the focus
local). So they tour up and down the streets, gawking. No
photo op = no interest, no interest = don’t give a shit that people live there.
The walkers get their bodies in gear, at least—cradling the lens of their
camera in their left palms, hungry for the next shot. There, a playground. Let’s
lean on the fence and take pictures of the kids playing!
These tables need some serious
turning. For my part, I’ve glared at tourists, talked to local business owners
about tourists, stood watching and taking pictures of tourists. Next, guerrilla
action against the conveyances, and a stern talking-to I’ll deliver to the
bridge of the Orchestra by sundown.
To be fair (about time!), I’m a
tourist myself. And these small linguistic pics/tics I offer are my version of
grab and run, usually more of a sit and watch. I’ll take my pics home and edit
them a bit, I suppose, as they will theirs. I did feel a moment of fear for the
tourists, when I saw a local guy bomb downhill on his motorcycle, his kid
behind him, no helmets, along the route the tourists prowl.
Why should I have to hear the ding-dong that precedes on-board announcements on the Orchestra? Why, in Alfama, should people have to feel
that their lives are on display for the consumption by a few hours’ worth of a
visitor?
2 comments:
So where's the border between local and tourist? How far would the so-called local guy have to bike to be considered a tourist?
To the suburbs.
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