Am I really a tourist??

A look at tourism, and it's place in study abroad.

The Parthenon - one of the biggest tourist attractions in Greece, and a cool piece of Greek history

So I’m writing back and forth with tech support, trying to create some sort of photo album on the blog.  Hopefully we’ll get this figured out soon, so I can show you a bunch of my pictures.  In the meanwhile, today’s topic is: tourism.

Ever since I’ve been traveling abroad, I’ve had qualms about being a “tourist.”  Seeing the sites with all of the other camera toting, baseball cap wearing, hole-in-their-pocket vacationers felt awfully cheap.  Did I really fly thousands of miles and spend a small fortune to see a guy selling trinkets with “Made in China” stickers on the back?  I don’t think so!  I came to experience the essence of a different culture, to soak in all that is not modern America.  So whenever I found myself in a tour group, or snapping pictures that would be on every postcard in the city, I felt a little embarrassed – I was just another tourist.  But this past week, I took two trips, and realized a few things.

First, our class took a field trip to the Acropolis, the fortified hill in the middle of Athens that houses many structures dedicated to Athena.  The most impressive of these is the Parthenon.  (I’ll explain more about the Acropolis when I get my album working.)  What really struck me, though, were the crowds.  I never pictured the Parthenon with throngs of foreigners at its base.  But then I got thinking, and imagined ancient Greeks doing the same thing, in their togas, or whatever.  In fact, the Acropolis has been around for thousands of years, and has been occupied by various nations and groups for most of its life.  So that means the site must have been a huge tourist attraction for a long time – for the very people I am studying!

I also took a weekend trip out to the island of Santorini this weekend with some of my classmates.  (Again, I’ll tell more about it in the album.)  While on the island, we did all of the touristy stuff – ate Greek food on the beach, walked on a volcano, rode a donkey up the cliffs, and swam in hot springs.  But when I thought about it, the obvious truth became clear to me – Santorini seemed very touristy because it was a tourist island.  During the warm season, tourism was the center of the Santorinian’s life.  So in effect, by being the tourist, I was in fact experiencing the culture of that island.

Greece makes money in two primary sectors:  shipping and tourism.  So for better or worse, tourism is a large part of Greece’s economy and culture.  In the case of many of its monuments, tourism is also a big part of its history.  So maybe by experiencing that part of the Greek life, I’m really getting a taste of the true Greek culture.  Sure, there’s still a lot to be said for venturing off the beaten trail in your travels, but maybe the beaten trail in Greece isn’t the worst one to take either.  

Next up: Ten-day field trip to Crete – I’ll try to post from there if possible.