Before I came, I read in my guidebook that there are souvenir shops just about anywhere you look, selling t-shirts, tacky (probably Made-in-China) novelty items, and postcards. Of course, most people who know me know that I was on the lookout for postcards from just about when I touched down. But my first couple days, I was dismayed to see not a single postcard or souvenir shop in sight. It occurred to me that this was probably because I don’t exactly live in a touristy district. And having explored the centre of the city, I was confused as to where exactly the tourist district was.
So, I can expect a postcard when?
ReplyDeleteHow different is naming a street "Tourist Street" than naming it "Wall Street" or "Broadway"?
I think it struck me differently because whereas "Wall St" and "Broadway" describe objective physical attributes of the street, "Tourist St" defines the street by something that I generally think of as almost a hush-hush topic. That is, people don't like to be described as tourists, and areas don't like to be known as "tourist traps." I think it might just be in the States, but "tourist" tends to have a negative connotation, so when I see other countries embracing the idea of "tourists," (of course, this happened a lot in Egypt, too), it seems pretty blunt. And tourists even like to avoid the "touristy" areas and attractions, so Tourist St seems self-defeating. (Unless they are trying to keep us away... Hmmm... The General Intelligence Agency Museum is on Tourist St.)
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