tourist tuesday and the st. augustine above my head

I love downtown St. Augustine but sometimes I become too narrow focused on the throngs of tourists visiting here.  I walk around trying not to step on the sandaled toes of all these sunburned strangers. Who exactly do they think they are walking all over my town?? 

"Too many people here, somepinkflowers!" I say to myself. "I am tired of stepping over and around these people with their mammoth maps, clicking cameras and little bottles of imported spring water."

I often must step off the sidewalk onto the street to avoid yet another mishap with an over-loaded baby stroller. I am not even sure there are real children sequestered away inside these silver Beamer-Volvo-Eddy Bauer model baby strollers with the MP3 player, the embedded GPS, and the customized ice cooler tucked there underneath the baby's bottom. I mean, really! I have taken fewer items for a 6 weeks trip to a foreign land. Give me a break.

"Just drive in, see the sights and quickly leave," I long to say with a pleasant but, OK, artificial smile on my face. But, of course, I say nothing, being as I wear those same clunky athletic walking sandals when I play tourist in far away Mediterranean locations. I actually have two pairs.

Fair, after all, is fair. Tit for tat. Not that I would carry so much stuff, but, then again, I travel light with a discreet Rick Steves' day pack on my back and I push no infant in front of me. When I am in someone else's hometown, I do my best to appear as a native, pulling out only the teeniest of maps when necessary. Some things are best carried out in private.

Right off the train I walk with purpose though most foreign cities, as if I have passed this way many, many times. Other tourist ask ME for directions. When they do this I feel like such a phony, unless, of course, I can actually point out the way. Sometimes I am forced to pull out my teeny map from its secret location. I don't mind.

Why do I do that? Why do I walk with purpose in a new city?

I use to think it made me safer. Everyone knows that pickpocketeurs only go after the weak, the weary and the fumbling map-holders. I try to walk strong and sleep-filled no matter how many time zones I have crossed in the past 24 hours.

I will say this: So far, so good. Or, maybe no one wants what I have. Either way, I travel on and DO MY BEST to humor travelers who make their way to my own Florida town. I try to send out Waves of Welcome in a sincere, mindful way even as they lost block my path with their rented cars.

I try to be creative and see the good side of things. Meandering tourist slow me down and help me stay In The Now. Or something.

A few days ago while visiting one on my favorite blogs I saw this posting by Merisi. In Vienna city workers were taking down sculptures that had been on the top of a fire station for years and years.

I do not know why the sculptures had to come down. I do not know where they ended up. Maybe the sculptures interfered with much needed remodeling and expansion due to population growth. Maybe the sculptures interfered with a new-improved state-of-the-art fire-fighting communication tower. I do not know. But I loved the beauty of what once was on top of such a historic and functional building. It set me thinking about the sights I miss that have been there all along right over my head.

Today's Tourist Tuesday posting is brought to you by Our Lady of the Looking Up. Her prayer is not to stop and smell the roses; her prayer is to stop and stretch your neck, chin held high, and look around. See there what you have been missing.

Looking higher you can find all kinds of surprising treasures. You miss the sandaled feet of strangers and see the art against the clear blue sky. Who knew?

I hope you enjoy these snaps taken of places slightly above sea level here in old downtown St. Augustine, Florida. Thanks, Merisi, for making me think above my head, for making me think outside my brain box.

Comments

[tongue in cheek]

What wonderful views. Thank you for the tour!

[Ashwathy Nair]

Wow - wonderful photos.
Thanks for visiting my blog.

[Merisi's Vienna]

Oh, you are the sweetest of all the pinkflowers around! Thank you, no, a double thank you, because I looooved St. Augustine, I spent two weeks of vacation nearby at the beach, and we enjoyed your town every single day at least once.
I have to come back to your blog later with more time, for now I just wanted to tell you that my next post will be dedicated to the pink flowers I photographed Sunday (by coincidence I have been planning to do so! *g*).
A big hug from Vienna and hello to your lovely city,
Merisi

[rochambeau]

Dear Ms. Pinkflower,
I've never been to St. Augustine, so thank you very much for the 'Grand Tour'! So pretty your pictures!

One positive thing about tourism is that it brings $$ to a community, and create jobs. Sometimes, people couldn't live where they live without the tourists.

On another note about tacky tourists, have you heard or read David Sedaris' story of The American tourists on the Paris Metro? It's in the book 'Me talk Pretty one Day'. If you can get a podcast of Ira Glass's "This American life" (from last week), you can hear David reading it. It's hilarious!

Thanks for visiting Rochambeau. May your dreams be filled with colorful Passementrie!

[Paris Cerise]

Me too! Me too
I totally identify
In New York I have to walk sideways like an Egyptian and the TOURISTS are all wearing WHITE!
Eeeek! not black
And I agree about walkin' tall-makes you look like you are NOT an easy mark as they say.
Pretty views
merci!

[somepinkflowers]

tic & an,
thank you so much for dropping by.
walking around here
on a sunny day taking photos
is a fun exercise in more ways than one.

~~~~~~~
merisi,
glad you liked my tourist town.
i had no idea you had visited st. augustine!
some big difference compared to vienna.
did you look UP while you were here?
~~~~~~~
rochambeau,
you are the 2nd person this week
asking me if i have read david sedaris.
i have read him a bit some time ago
but now feel compelled to crack open his
**Dress Your Family**
which waits patiently in a pile beside my bed.
i saw him on david letterman
and almost died laughing!

my entire town is tourist dependant
one way or another,
so i know all about the importance
of these traveling strangers.
without fail i have discovered helpful people
when i travel,
so i do my best to pass it forward.

mostly, i like people one-on-one,
but not so much en mass...

:-)