51–60 of 130 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great idea... in a safe city
The same behaviors will get you mugged in safe cities and unsafe cities. Wonder like a local. Look casually disinterested just like you're walking home from work.
One of my favorite flânerie times was wandering from the Arc De Triomphe to the Sacre Coeur in Paris. It took hours. I saw amazing scenes I'd never seen before, moments of tranquility, of bizarreness, of beauty, just because I didn't take the metro or e-scooter. Snacked in a super cool cafe that I'm sure wouldn't have appeared in any travel guide. Meandered through parks that also get no mention but were swelling with local life. I highly recommend visiting places like this.
This is probably one of my favorite activities in foreign cities - walk or take public transportation aimlessly for a few hours. Buy a snack that catches my eye, or find a cafe or pub to linger at long enough to see the ebb and flow of foot traffic. Directed tourism is fine, but seeing a few randomly sampled slices of a culture and place gives the experience 'roots' for me in some intangible way.
Great idea... in a safe city
One aspect of flânerie is that it goes beyond strolling _for one's self_. The point isn't to stroll aimlessly with an empty mind. It in fact is to help one understand the city in which they are in, to better comprehend it, to feel it. You are in it in order to see it. I think the more often one practices flânerie the better they are at discerning what part of town they just wandered into, and can thus decide whether…
I arrived at the train station, wandered around, found a hotel, checked in, went out, forgot to remember where my hotel was, wandered around some more, decided to go back to the hotel, then realized I had no clue where it was, so wandered around a hell of a lot more, finally wandered back to the train station, then retraced my wandering steps to the hotel, and found it again! No regrets, it was a wonderful time!
Along the route I found several different Space Invaders made of tiles on the sides of buildings at various locations around the city. There are also a bunch around Amsterdam and other cities, but I was surprised how many I just happened to run across in Paris, during that one long walk. Always look up on the sides of buildings, don't just stare at your feet, you'll spot more space invaders that way!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invader_(artist)
https://www.space-invaders.com/world/
https://www.space-invaders.com/world/paris/
https://www.space-invaders.com/world/amsterdam/
(press arrows to scroll!)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great idea... in a safe city
I remember such a stroll Eddy St. in the Tenderloin one fine midnight. No muggings, but a number of fellow citizens were very curious about whether I would like to buy stuff from them.
Hotel Essex, at the corner of Ellis St. and Larkin St., in The Tenderloin, San Francisco.
https://gedris.org/node/327.html
Close but no cigar:
https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/479000110337911544/
Up from the deep: The Tenderloin
https://upfromthedeep.wordpress.com/uptown-tenderloin/commen...
>Hotel Essex. 684 Ellis Street. Hotel with 128 rooms and seventy-two baths. Architects: Righetti and Headman. 1912.
>Though unique amid the surrounding architecture, the Art Nouveau-inspired facade of the Essex was nevertheless crafted to blend in by its designer, James Francis Dunn. The hotel’s neon blade sign is especially fine. Now owned by the Community Housing Partnership, the Essex began undergoing renovation late in 2006.
>Night-Sign---Essex
>By the end of April 2008, its renovation was complete. The paint job is unfortunately garish and unbecoming, but the new marquee and restored blade sign are spectacular, although it seems the latter may still have some electrical problems. Even so, the corner of Ellis and Larkin is utterly transformed after dark by the torrid glow of neon.
UNC Chapel Hill's campus is very well suited for this. I did it all the time without knowing the corresponding french vocabulary word for it :) Many a great idea came to my head during such scrambles.
This is probably one of my favorite activities in foreign cities - walk or take public transportation aimlessly for a few hours. Buy a snack that catches my eye, or find a cafe or pub to linger at long enough to see the ebb and flow of foot traffic. Directed tourism is fine, but seeing a few randomly sampled slices of a culture and place gives the experience 'roots' for me in some intangible way.
Great idea... in a safe city