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The locals don't know

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Re: The locals don't know

#151

Post by interloxia »

anitil wrote: post #106

I live in Sydney, does anyone have any recommendations on things I should do? Things I'd like to try - * Visiting the tank stream (I believe there are tours) * The Greater Sydney Bike Trail * Walking from Manly to Bondi (80km along the harbour) Things I've done but recommend if you visit - * Walking the bridge (free) * Catching a ferry to Manly or Taronga * Climbing the bridge (expensive!) * Centrepoint tower (since…

Lots of touristy and proper hiking in the Blue Mountains. I like the cliffs and waterfalls loops at Wentworth Falls.

Random blog with photos https://www.walkmyworld.com/posts/wentworth-pass

Rent bikes and cruise the Olympic site. Or cut through briefly to the Cooks River and ride to the beach.

Walk through the glow worm tunnel in the mountains or find someone to take you canyoning. Eeevblog has a video. (Not public transport friendly)

Walk through the the coal terminal at Balls Head.

Walk the start of the Great North walk. Or the length of the Royal national Park (Bundeena to Otford).

Bike/walk the Seven Bridges loop.

Go snorkelling / swim the various rock pools.

Swim at the North Sydney Olympic Pool (if they finish it).

Visit Cockatoo Island / picnic on some of the small islands in the harbour.

Go up the pylon on the bridge.

Re: The locals don't know

#152

Post by apelapan »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #47
apelapan wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think people should get ripped off just because they can afford it. If you visit Sweden, don't buy ice cream in the historic area of Stockholm ("gamla stan"). As an American you might think "$10 for a single scoop of vanilla, that's nothing. A minimum wage worker packing groceries earn twice that in an hour back home". But you are not helping a starving ice cream labourer with your purchase, you are simply be…

> As an American you might think "$10 for a single scoop of vanilla, that's nothing. A minimum wage worker packing groceries earn twice that in an hour back home". Is this a joke? $10 for a single scoop of ice cream in the US is a lot of money and also the US minimum wage is only $7.25/hour. You can barely feed yourself with the US minimum wage and you definitely can't pay for shelter or healthcare or anything else y…

Minimum wage is set by the states, 7.25 is just the national minimum. California has 16.90, Washington 17.13 etc.

If I'll update the icecone example to a single vanilla scoop costing $8.45 it still stands for a Californian.

By the way, USD 16.9/hr is on the low end of normal pay level for a IT technician or junior nurse in Sweden. Tax is highly progressive, so at that point they'd only be paying about ~18% total income tax though, perhaps that would be higher in most US states?

Re: The locals don't know

#153

Post by tetromino_ »

What you have to do, as a local, is regularly invite some out-of-town friends or relatives to stay in your apartment for a weekend to get yourself unstuck from your rut. You will need to show them around, take them to art museums and downtown views and restaurants, help them to not get lost on the train system etc., and in the process, you will get to do things you don't normally do as a townie.

Re: The locals don't know

#154

Post by futune »

Apologies for wasting time on this fluffy comment, but:

They're using Finland of all places as an example of somewhere with a reputation of being happy all the time?

This is bizarre to me. As a Scandinavian, the thing Finland is known for is being unusually depressed and alcoholic...

Re: The locals don't know

#155

Post by adammarples »

futune wrote: post #154

Apologies for wasting time on this fluffy comment, but: They're using Finland of all places as an example of somewhere with a reputation of being happy all the time? This is bizarre to me. As a Scandinavian, the thing Finland is known for is being unusually depressed and alcoholic...

Finland is also famous for coming top of happiness surveys all the time

Re: The locals don't know

#156

Post by stackghost »

cucumber3732842 wrote: post #134
stackghost wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason people use "When in Rome..." or "do as the locals do" is because that's how you get an accurate taste of what life in is like. If you don't want to experience a glimpse of life in Paris, then sure go eat at a tourist trap. The quote below from TFA is an inadvertent own goal, I think: >But today I imagine you visiting my hometown and spending a day with the locals. You’d probably end up watching reality TV,…

>The reason people use "When in Rome..." or "do as the locals do" is because that's how you get an accurate taste of what life in is like. >There's a reason tourists flock to New York City and not to Schenectady. Ah, yes. The masses of tourists flocking to NYC so they can experience the grind of working your ass off, every entity you interact with trying to get one over on you hoping that you'll have a) banked enough…

I love sarcastic, passive aggressive comments that add nothing of value

Re: The locals don't know

#157

Post by cucumber3732842 »

stackghost wrote: post #156
cucumber3732842 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The reason people use "When in Rome..." or "do as the locals do" is because that's how you get an accurate taste of what life in is like. >There's a reason tourists flock to New York City and not to Schenectady. Ah, yes. The masses of tourists flocking to NYC so they can experience the grind of working your ass off, every entity you interact with trying to get one over on you hoping that you'll have a) banked enough…

I love sarcastic, passive aggressive comments that add nothing of value

Your opinion is contradictory and based on falsehood. Nobody goes to NYC to experience what the locals experience.

There, better?

Re: The locals don't know

#158

Post by legacynl »

zarzavat wrote: post #7

The corollary of this is that if you are a local you should do some more touristy things. I don't mean to go to a tourist trap and get scammed, but just enjoy your city a little more and do some things that usually only tourists do. For example, despite living most of my life in London, I've never been to the Tower of London. Why would I? It's for tourists. Except it's probably quite fascinating, especially for a loc…

I've heard online from (American) immigrants to the Netherlands that Dutch life can seem pretty boring. But I think this just signifies a major cultural difference between the US and other more traditional cultures.

For a dutch person (and I suspect many other countries), life is not measured in the amount of 'cool' stuff you have or do. To me life is about friends, family, health and purpose. If I have that, I'm perfectly happy for every week to be the same as the last, for the rest of my life.

Re: The locals don't know

#159

Post by triceratops »

adammarples wrote: post #155
futune wrote: post #154

Apologies for wasting time on this fluffy comment, but: They're using Finland of all places as an example of somewhere with a reputation of being happy all the time? This is bizarre to me. As a Scandinavian, the thing Finland is known for is being unusually depressed and alcoholic...

Finland is also famous for coming top of happiness surveys all the time

> Finland is known for being unusually depressed

> Finland is also famous for coming top of happiness surveys all the time

"And Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer"

Re: The locals don't know

#160

Post by dangus »

dalocals wrote: post #89

I think this author misunderstands the intent of the expression "do what the locals do". It does not mean "do what an arbitrary or random local does" or even "do what the median local does". It implies seeking the experiences and places that are popular with the locals and not popular with the tourists. It means finding a killer teriyaki or pho place in Seattle and avoiding the space needle, even if an average Seattl…

I think there’s still a lot of merit to the overarching idea to this article.

The “do what the locals do” tip is almost like a form social pressure to resist doing what you actually want to do with your time as a traveler.

Doing something “touristy” is considered tacky or low brow.

You’re doing this right now, if you think about it. Why are you telling us to avoid the space needle? What if my whole goal is to see it even if it sucks?

Following local tastes is also something that’s sometimes impractical or undesirable as far as the “infrastructure” of tourism goes.

Let’s say I do this in Japan, and I’m doing what the locals do. Well, now maybe I’ve ended up at restaurant where nobody speaks a word of English and everyone doesn’t want me there. I might not be allowed in at all.

Or, perhaps local customs and culture just isn’t something I’m comfortable with at all. For example, I’m not interested in ever being in a sauna despite it being a very common activity in Finland. I just don’t like it at all.

These are just a couple of random examples. Obviously, yes, it is a good idea to seek out good experiences that locals enjoy. But in the age of the Internet is anyone really having any difficulty doing that?

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