full fledged tourism

I've been abroad for about 5 months now, and I've felt like a tourist for about 96% of the time while travelling. I hate tourists, and I hate feeling like one even more. Many of you know my aversion to post cards for that very reason (sorry), and I'm not the biggest fan of maps either. So the following outlines some of my consternation regarding tourists-inspired in Istanbul but a compilation from the whole trip.

First off, tour guides. Where do they get off telling people all about things that frankly, you can learn for free on wikipedia (or, you know, those things...books)? We've gotten by just fine and had many an educational adventure sans tour guide in pretty much every place we've been to. Honestly, I give them credit. Make money reading a high school text book and being charming and friendly to people willing to pay you to herd them around like sheep. Well done. I'll admit, there are some people who are really good at this and could give an excellent tour, but on the whole, I'm not a fan. What's more is that most of the tour guides I've come across have this weird sense of entitlement. Like because they are so learned and wise in the bare minimum of information about whatever, they can take up side walks, yell in museums, cut lines, and be generally obnoxious.

Another thing that will never cease to intrigue me is the Asian contingent of tourists. The really serious ones at least. It's incredible; the parasols, the hats, the gloves, the cameras. They're like a perfectly constructed machine that runs like clockwork. Point A to point B in exactly 28.2 minutes and not a second more. In one spot, take pictures, scurry off to the next, etc. I'm not saying this is a bad thing at all. In fact, I'm all about efficiency, I just don't think it will ever quite make sense to me. The fault I have found with this method is the video taping. Are you really going to go home and watch 2.5 hours of footage from the coliseum or the Hagia Sophia? Really?? If so, you should rethink the excitement in your life. Although, come to think of it, maybe that's part of the method, video taping so you can see absolutely everything really fast and then ACTUALLY seeing it later via video? Again, I'll never get it. Oh, and last thing, please don't take pictures of me when I'm smiling for someone else's picture. Don't. It's just weird.

My last gripe deals with Americans. If people don't actually wear cowboy hats in America, why would you promote the stereotype by wearing one in Turkey? I'm pretty sure people will know you're not REALLY Turkish without the hat. This brings me to an interesting conversation I was having with someone the other day regarding Americans' impressions of somewhere new like Turkey. Personally, I was captivated every time I walked into a mosque, and it took more than a few minutes for the sight of pretty much every woman around me wearing a headscarf to not seem foreign. I loved hearing the call to prayer 5 times everyday over the loudspeakers, and I had a weird urge to take pictures of the prayer service we went to just because I thought it was 'cool'. I'll sadly admit that I am the epitome of a product of my environment. That is to say, I have lived in the same little bubble pretty much my whole life, and pretty much everything outside of that holds a certain splendor, no matter how ordinary. Now, the argument comes in when you relate this to other countries. Someone argued that this 'cool' part I found of the culture of Islam (I won't say religion because Turkey was an incredibly secular place, and I think my awe was more with regards to the everyday aspects, rather than just the religion), was uniquely American, and to an extent, I agree. It's just not something I've been exposed to, and now that I am, it's great. BUT, I could say the same thing about many aspects of life and culture in any of the other countries I've been to, and is it really something so American, or is it just something of foreigners in a new place? I would like to think of myself as an educated, informed individual who knows better than to judge things based on the news I see on tv, but this friend's argument was that a country wielding as much power as America (yes, I run the risk of sounding too chauvinistic) has a uniquely uninformed view on the rest of the world, and it's population is directly affected by that. Maybe part of this is geographical, but I think there's something to be said for seeing a culture so different from what I know. Part of me is almost ashamed to be so fascinated with peoples' everyday lives, but the other part of me thinks that it's normal, no matter what country you come from. I think I'd feel (and have felt) the same way in other countries, but is that the issue, or is there something more political involved? I'm still not really sure I've answered my own question, but those are just my thoughts...

Despite everything, in a city as huge, wonderful, and overwhelming as Istanbul, I've realized that sometimes, the best route is to accept being a tourist. Obviously I'll never fit in, so why not take out the map and camera and embrace it.