How to see a city, without getting lost on internet.
Imagine, you go to a city and have no internet to use.
Your hostel/hotel has no internet too.
or you might just want to 'disconnect' and do a little experiment like I did in Bratislava and Prague.
Like me.
On one of the visits to a nearby city, I realized that my phone usage was quite a lot and I was mostly looking at my phone looking for directions or cool places to see. I was in a rush as if I could not come back here again or I had to do it all. This made me quite sad as I was not able to enjoy and know the history, and peculiarities. These things take time. So, I made a personal rule to never go to a new place for less than 3 nights. I understand that it is not possible for many.
There is an interesting scene in Star Trek: The Next Generation, S01E06, where the traveller visits the USS Enterprise and talks about travel.
Captain: "What is the purpose of your journey?"
Traveller : "Curiosity"
He travels for "curiosity" and that is my intent.
The method I explore here is for a minimum of three nights. You might need to have a bit of patience and constant rest. Frustration and getting lost is guaranteed. If your travel companion is not aligned with you, I suggest travelling alone.
Let's get back to the drill, shall we? What might be a way to then carefully visit the city without much frustration, tedious planning, and tiring days? To be clear, visit means to be able to get the essence of the city in a few days of loitering around and not be a 'checklist' traveller. Maximizing serendipitous encounters or places to see.
Here are some things you will need:
- A diary: Lamy and Muji make good ones
- A pen or Pencil: Pilot Frixon is what I like, Kohinoor for Pencils
- A camera: Digital and Analog. I have a Fuji X-E1 with 25mm for days 1 and 2, and 54mm for days 3 and 4. I use a disposable analog camera which I buy once a year.
- (Optional) Gluestick
PS: The order of these steps is not chronological.
Find the highest point
The idea is to start drawing a mental map of the city and locate what to see inside it. You can go to the tourist office and get a map or if you have more time, go walking and navigate to the highest point (Bratislavský hrad in Bratislava) in the city and figure out what you saw on the way.
At this highest point, you will have a nice reference on where things are. Do not worry about directions like North or South. But try to "get a feel" of the directions in terms of things you see from this high point. Make a mental map of things which we can fill up in the next step.
Check the postcard shop and travel information centre.
One of the other things, I do is go to a postcard shop. That will save you hours of searching for what to see. The "most" popular locations will have a postcard. Make a note of them and buy a few postcards too. Sometimes, if the cuisine is important, they might have a recommendation on things to eat around there. Like this postcard from Krakow which tells you about the famous pastries from the region. I can just go to any pastry shop now and point at them.
I usually make that list in my notebook. Now, we know more or less how the city is structured and we have a basic list of places to see and things to try. We need a map to follow. In most cities, you can get that map from a tourist information centre or even the same postcard shop.
Mark the places from the list on that map and locate yourself.
Draw a map a day
At the end of every day or when resting in a cafeteria, I make a small map of things I walked through during the day. I keep making them every day and then when traveling back home, I combine them together into a single map. I have observed that I remember things much better that way. Last year, I was a visiting tutor at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. I made a few trips every few weeks. I kept drawing my maps and now I virtually do not need a map inside of the main city. That is my map and it is very different from the google maps, but navigating with this map is very natural.
Here is the map of Bratislava
I have similar maps for Krakow and Prague.
Talk to people
There is no better way to see a city. Just have a slight smile. A tad bit less than the car salesman. Ask people about things to see and places to eat. Even directions to a particular place. You can even ask for metro directions. I once asked someone to write me the stops. People are quite helpful. Place to ask for recommendation:
- Museum gift shops (Food recommendations, uncommon spots to see)
- Cafes (Museum recommendation, cinema, concerts, music)
- Passerby (Cool Cafes, Points of interest)
- Monument help desk (Points of interest)
Show them your maps and ask them questions. They might be more interested.
Visit a supermarket
I am proudly called the “Supermarket anthropologist” among my friends. I spend 10-15% of my time going to supermarkets to try peculiar things and collect spices, tea, and snacks. I think supermarkets are a reflection of the society in some way. I find them insanely curious. So, yeah. Get to a supermarket and see what is there in these sections :
- Prepared spice mixes
- Ready to eat
- Fermented foods section
- Processed milk section (I love Latella from Austria)
- Fresh Pasta section
Like this crazy snack from Prague. It is corn puffs with a coat of peanut butter.
The spice selection in the supermarket tells you a lot about what people are trying to cook.
Wander a bit outside your comfort zone
Many times people just stay around the center of the city. I prefer to get my Airbnb/ hotel a bit further out. So, I can find new ways to get back to the city and back. It “may” be uncomfortable. Curiosity does not rhyme with comfort anyway. You can drink coffee in local spots. Meet random strangers and ask them questions. I remember in Prague, I was with my friend Nikhil in search of a kebab place near the big TV tower. We ended up meeting a really cool Turkish guy and chatted with him about his life and how he ended up here. He added us both on LinkedIn later.
I do not recommend doing crazy stuff like infiltration of gangs or meddling in local affairs. Remember you are a traveller. Like the traveller in the Star Trek: TNG, you mean no harm.
Walking>Cycle>Bus>Train
This is my suggestion on modes of travel. For the first day, I solely travel walking. This way I get a feel of the city much faster. I can immerse myself in the surroundings. See how people look, sound and how the city smells.
Then when I have some bearing, I use a cycle. Many European cities have a public cycling system that is cheaper than public transport. Cycles allow you to reach to the point where you left faster and even go to distant neighbourhoods. ONLY use cycles if the city has cycle-only lanes. Vienna and Valencia are an excellent example. Madrid is horrible. Barcelona is good.
Now, the public transport, I discourage the use of public transport except from the airport. It usually costs a coffee a trip. You will travel way faster than you can map the city. But there is an exception, Trams. Trams are amazing. Use them and combine them with walking. Many central and eastern European countries have them and they are cheap and can save you from hypothermia in these cities.
I think there is a tradeoff between contextual insulation and range. The level of insulation from the environment increases as you move from walking to trains. But your range increases too. So, use this strategy when you choose how to move.
Make a collage with all the paper you collect
The last tip. When you travel you collect lots of random pamphlets, tickets, written maps, pictures, Banana stickers etc. I usually like to combine them and make a collage. Most flights won’t allow scissors so use your hands and stick things together.
Many times it is quite bad but sometimes things are interesting.
This is made from random things. Kafka looks at you while you look at the world’s oldest clock, the cool Eiffel Tower replica and the amazing cake I ate there called “Medovnik”.
This is a picture from a Natego magazine with Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem and rhymes well with my visits to the Jewish quarters in Krakow and the tram tickets I used to get there.
Did you find it interesting? Let me know on Twitter @rohit7gupta :)
Happy wandering
Rohit