It's Hunting Season. Oh, I Meant Tourist Season.

They come in all sizes, shapes and colors. They arrive from all over the world and I'm pretty sure their main goal is to annoy the heck out of me. Who are they? TOURISTS! I know what you're thinking "But Elana, you're a tourist right now." That is where you are so incredibly incorrect. I am NOT a tourist, but a traveler. As the English novelist G.K. Chesterton said "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see." As a visitor in a foreign land, I choose to blend in and very often stand back to observe the unbelievably similar, yet completely different culture that exists in the vast city of London. 

Is this a new dislike that I have only recently developed due to the number of tourists who very often block my path by stopping dead in the middle of the sidewalk near city landmarks because they are completely lost or dying for a photo? Absolutely not! I packed this issue in my suitcase right alongside my lacy underwear and tea tree shampoo. Where did this all begin? Let me take you across the pond to a city I like to call New York and a destination commonly known as Times Square. I, however, see it as the downfall of Manhattan and do my best to avoid it at all costs. I know that New Yorkers are typically seen as obnoxious and unsympathetic, but that is not the case. Rather, we are usually just in a rush to be somewhere, whether it be work, school, dinner, or the all important drink with friends. Do you know the most dangerous obstacles that New Yorkers face? Don't guess erratic cab drivers or piles of police horse doodoo. It is nothing more than a camera toting tourist, who instead of paying attention to what is happening around him, is walking while staring straight up at skyscrapers that famously dot the New York skyline and often stops short without considering the domino effect that occurs behind him. 


I do my best to not be a tourist and all I ask is that when you are traveling anywhere, please try not to inconvenience the locals because they will learn to hate you too.