Sorry… I tried to avoid it but then news like this one appears and I have to revive it.
Please also post news of tourons biten by moose, those are my favourite and usually don’t reach my sphere of influence
Sorry… I tried to avoid it but then news like this one appears and I have to revive it.
Please also post news of tourons biten by moose, those are my favourite and usually don’t reach my sphere of influence
I feel a bit sad that I got to visit some of these places (Prague, Venice, Barcelona) before they were quite so badly over-touristed, but my kids won’t.
What worked for me for visiting was to go after a major terrorist attack. It was a little tricky to book, most of the tourists killed were from where I was living at the time. The
security forces had held their ground in the firefight, so I figured the calculus was in favour of safety.
We got a really good, knowledgeable tour guide the first day and booked him for the week. We did end up with an army escort for the Abydos and Dendera trip, with a surprisingly senior officer in charge. The captain (?) helpfully assured us that sugar cane had been cleared back from tourist routes to a distance where an AK-47 bullet wouldn’t get through an average car door. Certain areas, we didn’t stop.
We had the Temple of Seti I at Abydos and the Temple of Hathor at Dendera to ourselves.
That’s never going to happen again.
We felt bad for the locals, 6 tourists at a site that’s been a draw for 3000 years.
Having said that. If you want to visit MY (or any) country responsibly my recomendation will be always treating it like visiting a friend (or even better. Make friends there, then visit them!): Be respectful of the boundaries, don’t take anything for granted and leave your entitlement out of the door.
I had a super trip to Florence where I just wandered away from the core and had dinner at a local Trattoria that clearly didn’t get tourists. It was also solidly off-season.
Your assurances are appreciated. At the same time, I’m reminded of an ad I saw for the Toronto Transit Commission, posted over the Allen Expressway: “You aren’t in traffic, you are traffic.”
Perhaps it’s time to accept the wisdom on this poster and dedicate myself to building something crazy enough to become a tourist attraction by itself…
I wouldn’t be the first in Ontario to do that…
In spain we have the Catedral of Mejorada. Justo entered a monastery in the 40’s but was expelled when he contracted TB, to avoid spreading the contagion among the other members. He recovered in Madrid and returned to his native town in Mejorada del Campo, where he decided to build it’s own place of cult, with or without the permission of the church.
He died in 2021, at the age of 96, his Opus unfinished.
Still, is something different:
The Sindicat de Llogateres (Renter’s Union) has stopped the forced eviction of the first renter of the Casa Orsola. In a massive protest that brought hundreds of people to stop the police we managed to bring the situation to a standstill and while the eviction itself has been rescheduled for the 18th of February, the owner is considering just selling the building and take it the loss. In the inteview the motherfucker complains that parasites also need to live and that “violent ocupations” are not the solution. Well, we have news for you, the neighborhood doesn’t need more “short-term rents” (an euphemism for tourist buildings), when we already have a 70% of that in our neighborhood.
The city major has decided that this protests are too costly and has offered itself as mediator between the parasite owner and the renters to find a solution. The union welcomes the mediation but insists that the only solution includes no evictions.
Sorry all news in catalan. But they say an image…
Excellent! I needed some good news! Good work!
I know it serves as little consolation on countries where oponents can simply coopt gun owners to disperse protests, but organization works! The Renters Union has not always been able to stop evictions but has forced the issue into the public eye to the point the two past mayors (Colau and Collboni) had been forced to acknowledge the issue and action on it.
BTW: Barcelona had a history of rich men hiring guns to disperse, harm and kill protesters. We occupied the city, burned their churches and homes, and killed them where they stood. The war ran so deep the military had to intervene… But we got the 40h week.
I have even more good news!
The Orsola House has been bought (below market price, so previous owner did not got much except the collected rent during the period) by the town council, so the current tenants will be able to keep living there, and the free space will be destined to “protected rent” (basically half-financed rent for people that cannot afford a full rent - but who can?).
Also good news. Collboni, the town mayor, has announced hes bringing to the central state a reform to the current “rent limiting law” to also include short-term leases, as many renters are trying to pivot to that model to avoid the rent freezes. If passing, it will mean most renters will start losing money, specially if interest rates get up (most renters are paying the mortgage of the buildings they lease with the rent they collect). He also announced that the current measures are starting to have a small but noticeable impact: rent prices have gone down – debatable, as stats don’t include short-term leases, and most new offers are short-term, hence the reason he wants to freeze those too – , big tenants (blackstone, cerberus, cevasa) are already offloading buildings in the BCN area, citing that the bussiness model is not sustainable anymore – big news, never was --.
On not that good news, there are many buildings like the Orsola House, and the town council just can’t buy them all. So the fight is still on. But is a start.
Good to hear! It’s nice that some people have functioning governments that aren’t entirely hostile to the people’s existence.
Meanwhile Mallorca (that has suffered from 8 years of liberal¹ goverment) is getting ready for the touron season. None has fell from a balcony yet to signify the start of the summer season but with the crazy weather we having tourist come earlier and earlier in the year.
¹ Not your liberals. In Europe they are more like Randians and Vienna School lovers. Think Thatcher.
Yet another unintended ramification of Brexit?