BUDAPEST, Hungary — Budapest. Beautiful, brilliant Budapest. I spent my entire Sunday at a music and art festival on the Chain Bridge here, an architectural wonder that overlooks the Danube River. Local bands played folk music on platforms that lined the bridge and artists and shop-keepers filled the space between them. I didn’t spend my last day here sightseeing, running around on the metro trying to squeeze in every last tourist attraction before I head out for Vienna. But, after traveling around Europe for the past three weeks, I’ve come to discover that my favorite times are those when I get to live the cities. I get to hang out around the local people and get a good feel for the personality of wherever I am. In Paris, it was the massive hill in front of Sacre Coeur where my friends and I lounged for hours and discovered that all the young, captivating couples of the city have no problem with PDA. And in Amsterdam, during class in the park, people from all over the world sat in circles around us, and although they were all going at a slower pace than those of any other place I’ve been, I could still feel the air of excitement of every inhabitant for all that the city “tolerates.” Prague. Well, nights in Prague were just insane. It was young, it was incredible and it was amazing. When I wrote this, I was laying on the side of the Danube with two of my best friends and not regretting for a single moment that I didn’t make an effort to see every single “important” sight in every city I’ve been to.Because I have been too busy taking the time to get to know these places, to love these places not for the monuments or the museums or whatever else the “must-see” signs point me to, but for the opportunity they gave me to see what other people from around the globe do from day to day, how visitors and locals conduct their lives. From eating to walking the streets to people-watching to partying, it’s different in Europe. It’s wonderful.Cathryn is a 20-year-old English major from Crowley.—–Contact Cathryn Core at [email protected]
Travel: Visiting local haunts makes a better trip abroad
July 13, 2009