The last time that I was in Europe I tried very very hard not to look American. I failed. Even though I dressed a little bit nicer than I usually do, and only spoke in French when I was in public, everyone knew I was American. "You are from New York?" people would say after I asked for something in French. Sigh. "No, je vien de californie..." "ooh, you are from Hollywood (pronounced "Holy-wood")". I would shrink in embarassment when American tourists got onto the metro with their huge backpacks and dangling cameras talking very loudly. David Sedaris talks about this in "Me Talk Pretty One Day". I even remember a pair of girls getting on the metro one night belting some kind of acapella version of Amazing Grace. I was mortified.
This time around, I don't have time to care how touristy I look. I'm only in each country for a couple days, max, so I gotta have the camera easily accessible. And, my cousins and I haven't been pouring over the train schedules from say Bratislava to Prague for the last few weeks, so occasionally we have to discuss our next travel moves in route...in English.
The funny thing about this is that there are so many other tourists traveling in these parts of Eastern Europe. Who would have known. We were in the main square in Prague today and this guy was staring at Ingrid and I. I thought he was going to ask me about my hair or something (which no one has, not a huge shocker, but you know, I thought I'd get a couple comments...), but instead he asks "Why is everyone standing here?" We were standing with a crowd of about 500 other people waiting for this huge, complicated clock to do its thing on the hour. Someone else taps me on the shoulder and asks "did you drop this memory card?" he had an Australian accent. Anyway you get the idea. There aren't very many Czech people trompsing around these parts of the city. Which shouldn't be that surprising, afterall when was the last time I went to Universal Studios?
This time around, I don't have time to care how touristy I look. I'm only in each country for a couple days, max, so I gotta have the camera easily accessible. And, my cousins and I haven't been pouring over the train schedules from say Bratislava to Prague for the last few weeks, so occasionally we have to discuss our next travel moves in route...in English.
The funny thing about this is that there are so many other tourists traveling in these parts of Eastern Europe. Who would have known. We were in the main square in Prague today and this guy was staring at Ingrid and I. I thought he was going to ask me about my hair or something (which no one has, not a huge shocker, but you know, I thought I'd get a couple comments...), but instead he asks "Why is everyone standing here?" We were standing with a crowd of about 500 other people waiting for this huge, complicated clock to do its thing on the hour. Someone else taps me on the shoulder and asks "did you drop this memory card?" he had an Australian accent. Anyway you get the idea. There aren't very many Czech people trompsing around these parts of the city. Which shouldn't be that surprising, afterall when was the last time I went to Universal Studios?
1 comment:
Wonderful.
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