City Breaks Without The Box-Ticking

by Kate Lockhart
(Edinburgh, Scotland, UK)

Has it ever occurred to you that if you randomly stop anyone in the street, they'll have travelled to most of the same places and cities as you, done the same old stuff, ticked all those boxes and you might feel that you haven't really 'been' to the place you thought you'd just visited but simply crossed it off a list.

I was always irked when friends wanted to compare holiday notes which almost became an expected part, if not, for some, the purpose of the holidays as if it has somehow become a collective experience. Sound ridiculous? I know people who have gone off round Europe in a car and never eaten out or even spoken to a local as they were so busy getting to as many places and landmarks as they could cram on their list just to say they had been there.

Just think about it. If you have ever been to Pisa, Paris or London, I would be surprised if you have not sought out the leaning tower, gone up the other tower or visited London's very own. I have done it all myself but a few years ago, with the Statue of Liberty in clear view from the prime spot I had elbowed myself into at the top of the Empire State Building, and after two days racing around New York, making sure I had 'done' all the right places, I felt absolutely no desire to go and visit Lady Liberty in person. So I didn't.

That trip taught me a big lesson, that my holiday should be about making my own experiences and discoveries and meeting new and interesting people, so nowadays I am much more likely to lose myself down the back streets of Florence or Venice where I have discovered amazing food, places to eat and drink with the locals or just to sit and watch kids playing football in the street and people hanging out washing and in a bar in Donegal, on the west coast of Ireland, I once found myself making palm crosses with the other locals by candle-light when the electricity went down in the village.


I discovered a deserted park in busy Kowloon on another trip, not featured in any travel guide, and sat by a waterfall watching the beautiful flamingos wandering along the water's edge and old men practicing Tai Chi then an afternoon watching the boat people in their coolie hats out on their rafts hanging fish to dry in the middle of Hong Kong city.

I can buy postcards of the Statue of Liberty, the Tower of London or Sydney Opera House or indeed I can just listen to friends' stories and look at their holiday snaps but I have seen places and discovered things and met amazing people that you can't get on postcards and you have probably visited all the same places I have. I was born in Edinburgh and, especially in summer, this beautiful, medieval city is bursting at the seams with tourist.

But it makes me sad to think of all the amazing places and things most of them will probably never see like the summer Cardboard Boat Race (a local secret) or the neck noose outside Duddingston Kirk where they put thieves on display at the entrance to be frowned upon by the Sunday church-goers.

There are a few websites and city guides that do encourage people to go off the beaten track and I am more inclined to scan these and mix and match my random and quirky city wanderings than doing the usual suspects so next time you go off on a trip, be brave, close your eyes and just let it happen. You might surprise yourself!