On Being a Tourist

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people's reality,

and eventually in one's own.
Susan Sontag

On a jaunt the other day, I saw things that made me want to be a tourist in my own city. A Carnival cruise ship was docked for the day in the city's harbour. Cruise ships anchor just a few accessible steps from our city's historic Gastown with it's many tourist attractions and old town feel.

While snapping the cruise ship, I saw tourists riding by on the city's only trolley. The trolley is an enclosed trolley, not like the ones in San Francisco which are open on the sides. Moreover, it's sole function is to take tourists to all the main tourist attractions in the city. You can embark and disembark, as you desire, all along the trolley's route.

In the bus below, you have a choice between being in the open air or being fully covered. This comes in handy if you are not able to sit in the direct sunlight, or if it happens to be raining and you don't want to get wet!

Sometimes it is just nice to be a tourist in your own city and experience the sites and sounds of where you live, through the eyes of those that have never seen it before.

I might just have to hop on one of these buses before summer's end.