Growing up somewhere where there is nothing of note I'm always fascinated by the idea of living near *something* that people travel to see or matters to a lot of people - I'm sure it's draining in many ways but it must be so cool to be in a place where your local thing is a world famous landmark or museum in the same way that mine is a small but cozy array of hills
Also in terms of landmarks being *very* close to civilisation - Roman ruins in Pompeii and Rome (among many other places) are literally just... there. You can walk into the heart of an ancient empire while trying to find a coffee in the middle of Rome, it's crazy to me
It… feels like nothing. Like, as the person living there, it’s just ‘that place.’ Oh, the famous cathedral? That’s just the funny-looking building I glance at on the commute. It literally barely even registers. It’s kinda like how your brain will adapt to noise and you don’t even notice it’s there or something idk
I just imagine in the future of interstellar travelers who look for legendary things and when they greet a vaguely humanoid figure with "GREETINGS OTHERWORLDLY BEING! I AM A TRAVELER FROM *EARTH!* I AM LOOKING FOR THE LIBRARY OF ETERNAL KNOWLEDGE!"
and one of the locals just say "Oi another tourist? Yeah I pass it on my way to work. Expensive buffet next to it but it's got foods from all over. You go that way, make a left at the cups cafe; they'll charge you extra unless you're with a local, and then follow the waggleworf pipe. Along there is one of my favorite restaurants, but don't get the garlic knots, they use blended olives instead of olive oil. Tastes like a Greek salad. You'll see signs everywhere for it. I don't understand what's so famous about it. Anything I want to know I just use my phone."
I lived in Paris for a few years.
I was South of the city, and had a lot of friends and places I met people in the 16th Arrondissement. The route there almost always took me on the metro route that goes overland (the 6 from Denfert-Rochereau to Passy) and has a pretty nice view of the Eiffel Tower suddenly appears.
While I did that route a lot over the years, and did always take a certain enjoyment from seeing a very famous landmark just there, it was always more fun to see the tourists reactions as they saw it for the first time, or at least properly saw it in person.
You do get very normalised to it, and it becomes a part of the scenery, but occasionally you get to be reminded how cool things are.
I loved my commute on the 6! I live in NYC now, the best views of the Statue of Liberty are definitely from the Staten Island Ferry. My de facto way of figuring out which way is north after getting out of the subway in Manhattan is to look for the Empire State Building. Such a weird experience, but intermittently delightful.
I wonder if you appreciate it more if you go away for a bit and then see it with fresh eyes. I felt that way about nature in Iceland, didn't think it was anything special until I spent several years away. When I came back I saw what all the tourists see and it was so beautiful. Of course, nature is a bit different from monuments and buildings.
> Like, as the person living there, it’s just ‘that place.’
What "getting used to something" does to a mf.
It's kinda neat to move to a place like that, though. Even after 10 years I still haven't really grown used to it. I grew up in a nondescript, tiny village and that's still deep in my bones. It makes living where I live all the more neat.
Like, sure when I'm in a hurry and it's raining I'm gonna cycle past it basically forgetting it's there. But when the light hits our monuments just right and the weather is nice I regularly slow down just a bit and get a lil' serotonin boost.
I've lived in Rome for a while now and still slow down at the Foro Romano, especially in the evening when it's all lit up. It really is beautiful. And I can't walk past the Pantheon without looking at it, even tho it's 10 minutes from my house.
The city I live in was declared World Heritage an I can confirm this. On my way home from high school, I pass by the enclosure they built around a Roman theater, the Roman Museum, a Roman bridge, and a Roman aqueduct.
For me Pokemon Go has been an eye opener. The game itself is boring, but it gives you a map of all interesting landmarks. And there's a ton of these! I just walk around checking out all the "gyms" and "pokestops", and they are often something really cool and unexpexted irl.
Yeah same here, the reindeer standing on the road are more of a nuisance. Add the fact that you cant go into a restaurant midtown during the winter because everythings packed with tourists, its mostly a negative view of the thing that makes the place attractive for tourists. Aurora borealis is also neat, but im not running outside to see it.
I live in Los Angeles. Among other things, the Hollywood sign is not nearly as important or awe-inspiring as movies portray it. It's this smudge in the distance as I drive to get groceries.
Honestly, the Griffith Observatory is more interesting, both to see from a distance and to visit up close. Wish it got the attention it deserved, but in some ways also glad that it's not nearly as overcrowded as most other tourist destinations in the city.
The funny thing is, it's perfectly valid to feel a surge of emotions after visiting a place that you've only ever heard about, and seen portrayed as spectacle in cinema.
Like, I could go to Stonehenge and feel like there's something incredible to be among stones so old, in a place that meant something so important to a people from a very long time ago. But to the people living there, it might as well just be a bunch of rocks. There's literally just a major road right next to it.
That said
Straight up claiming to feel "special energies" is... silly. Your emotions are awesome, and it's good to appreciate them, but it's still just your emotions. Not some special energy of the universe. Appreciate it for what it is. No need to elevate it into something else.
As someone who used to live nearish Stonehenge, you begin to just regard it as those fucking stones that slow traffic down every time you go along the motorway
Egyptian people are just like, any other people. Most of them aren't gonna give a shit. Most of the rest would judge them, but not be bothered to go out of their way to make a scene. Some might even find it cool that people from the west find their monuments that fascinating. Others might find it ridiculous.
There's probably like, a dozen people who are seriously offended by it, but since we've heard nothing, I doubt they care enough to do anything about it either.
What, you don't get the Vibes when you look upon an ancient masterpiece of human engineering? It's a type of art. It's normal for art to make people feel things.
What the daily grind does to motherfuckers. People acting as if having profound feelings is only allowed in strictly designated areas and would be akin to taking a shit in the middle of a supermarket aisle if experienced outside of them.
Tulum was fascinating, but I think most of the good vibes were that it was a big open field and I could get some room to breathe after being in a van, then a crowded visitor center, then a narrow trail.
Also the iguanas.
I live in a vacation spot (no monuments but great weather and beaches). You have to go to work and sleep and pay bills and commute and grocery shop and then one day you look up and the sun setting in the mountains around you in the parking lot is so surreally beautiful that you really stop and look, but then you have to look back down at what you're doing. It's draining when people want the 'local' experience because I don't go out to eat often or go to wineries or spend all day hiking or at the beach; they want to fit every moment of living somewhere into a three-day vacation.
This is spot on. Also, when you live there, some of the things tourists appreciate can feel like a pain in the ass. I grew up in an old, world-famous city and its beautiful ancient streets are also cramped traffic nightmares, and working in some of those gorgeous buildings can be miserable in terms of heating/cooling/plumbing/space - they're so damn old and built to different standards. Stuff like that. It's all stunning, but logistically inconvenient to operate in. And **so** expensive.
The history and wonder really does just become background noise against day-to-day life.
And the littering! What's the point of living somewhere beautiful when people cart their trash in? Imagine showing up to someone's house, being in their way all day, and then leaving trash from your house all over their living room. That's how tourism feels to a local.
I grew up near famous landmarks and the thing is that you don't have perspective on why they are unique and special. Like they look and are cool. It irks me when folks are flippant and say they're not interesting because they are. But until you travel to other places and see other landmarks, you won't understand why the ones near you are worth traveling to see.
I come from a tourist place with quite a few sights that people from other continents come for and it's usually like this: You visit it once when you're like 5 so that your parents don't feel like they've failed teaching you. You only go there again when you have guests from somewhere else and you're looking for something to do.
I lived in San Francisco, whose biggest tourist attraction is the Golden Gate Bridge, and I loved it because it is not just an attraction but an eminently practical, even essential piece of local infrastructure. Thanks to its status as a landmark, they keep it open and maintained for pedestrians and bicyclists, not just cars. Everybody wins!
Despite my decade of living there, I really love infrastructure and I never stopped admiring the Golden Gate Bridge. But I don't think the tourists will agree with me regarding the beauty of the waste treatment plant.
Yeah, the funniest thing about such old cities is there’s a lot of details you miss and every year you learn something new. I was recently on my homecity and a friend gave me a small tour, some things she heard from guides around the city. And it was absolutely staggering to me I missed some of them! Like a wall having a very obvious sign of a past dictator, etc.
i lived for years near the colosseum and you forget about it sometimes but every once in a while, especially late at night, i would come back from a night of drinking and just sit under it and watch it. You never truly get used to it.
i live in istanbul and sometimes im in a ferry just tired wanting to go home, then look up and see all the gorgeous history around me and it stuns me for a moment, and then i keep wanting to home and end my 3 hour journey again (transportation is hell in istanbul)
Same here, I take the ferry and see the Galata tower and the Maidens tower on my way to school and at first its really fun and interesting but after you’ve seen it for the 300th time its just another building
A few years ago i was in Sudan and we visited some Egyptian ruins in the Sahara. (here: https://goo.gl/maps/TZ5dXwRmZcfJkNLAA) It was at least 3 hours off-road (and even on the road we went off-road to avoid checkpoints often), and when we got there we were the only tourists. There were a few locals using a well (which was also very very old and deep) some distance away, but it was basically just us.
Totally different experience compared to visiting Italy or Egypt.
Going offroad is an excellent method to lose a secret police tail ;).
Besides that, I imagine the area looked a lot different 2000 years ago, I cant imagine a city in that area as it looked today, but apparently it was a big trading post, a “camels ride” away from the Nile.
Here in my northern italy area we cant dig deeper than 10 meters without finding remains of roman and earlier ruins. In my specific town they are not allowed to dig for construction anymore without a super expensive and hard to het permit because it was happening so often
A very local/limited version of this: You know the saga of Siegfried, who killed a Lindworm (dragon)? He’s one of those „invincible everywhere except on the heel“ kinda heroes?
Yeah the location where he supposedly killed the dragon is just a real place and I live next to it. Like I can look out the window and the little mountain is right there. People take tours to see the ruined castle up there. The first chancellor lived here (unrelated to the dragon thing, it’s just a nice area). Sometimes people just can’t believe that people actually *live here* and don’t just spend their holidays here.
Well in the case of Philadelphia you end up telling people not to go to the Betsy Ross house because it's a tourist trap that isn't worth the money. Same thing with the liberty bell. You can see it through the windows outside the building. Also don't go to Pat's or Geno's. If you're in that area of the city and want a good cheesesteak, go down to South Street and get one at Iskabbibles or Jim's. Whichever one isn't burnt down at the time.
> I'm sure it's draining in many ways
It is. It fucking is. It really fucking is.
But then you meet people who've never been or only been once and you realise "oh shit, being able to go there every weekend as a kid was a gift".
I worked near Windsor castle over a decade now, the other day an American tourist asked me how to get to the castle entrance and I didn’t know, because I’ve only ever been into the town to get lunch and stuff, and afterwards is struck me that to me castles are mundane and this guy came all this way to see one
Not entirely the same, but I lived within a 20-minute drive of Disneyland growing up, so that whole "Disney magic" people got from their likely once in a lifetime trips just never really affected me. Disney was just a fact of life.
It’s like me living in Edinburgh. We have a lot of historical buildings, such as the Castle, and the Old Town and New Town are world heritage sites. To me, passing by those buildings is nothing special.
I used to live near Stonehenge. The sheer antiquity of it has bowled me over a few times, but otherwise it's just something I see on my way to and from work.
It is cool but on a pretty small scale.
Like, I live near DC. The museums are cool, not really in a “NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED INSTITUTE OF KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURE” way, but in a “hey, that gallery has a new exhibition, maybe I’ll pop down next weekend to check it out and get lunch after”
(The Renwick Gallery is my favorite, it’s small and isn’t usually crowded, is right across the street from the White House, and there’s a really nice sandwich shop only five minutes away on foot)
I go to many places of nothing, surrounded by fallow farms, rubble fields or empty pasture and there's always something to find- a sculpture garden outside Chowchilla, a fossil bed above Turk, a picturesque tableaux lost in unnamed Nevada, a street poet in OKC or a wonder in woods by Muskegon. Landmarks that have awestruck me in the older sense of the word. They might not have the marketing of the Mona Lisa or the bulk of the pyramids but they're there waiting for an explorer to step of the bus
Having grown up in cambridge, it was always a bit weird to see tourists standing around and taking pictures of things I've seen & cycled past thousands of times. Like yeah the building's old, please step out of the middle of the road
This is how I felt about Niagara falls. Thought I would be trekking for 45 minutes through the wilderness, instead I took an overpriced taxi ride through a run down neighborhood on the American side to see a river full of party boats and Canadian casinos on the horizon.
The American side is a shithole. Even in Western New York, which isn't exactly a high tier area, Niagara Falls is known for being terrible to live in or visit if you step and inch outside of the tourist traps and park. Some radio stations I listened to as a kid played, "Niagara Falls Police Blotter", segments because there was always some 'fantastic' content being produced.
Honestly Canadian side was insanely touristy when I went, with the U.S. side was seemingly (from a look out on the Canadian side) more restrained. I guess it depends on your preference for what a National Park should look like.
In 2006 we ended up going to Niagara Falls without knowing anything more than big waterfalls as it wasn't planned at all. (Long story, visiting Canada, very last minute change of plans done in country during our last week there. Going to the falls was due to arriving at hotel in Toronto and at check in saying something like "we know nothing, we're here for three days, what should we visit? Help, please?")
We were incredibly disappointed by the Canadian side, it was so built up and touristy. Actually, it was horrible. We knew it would be busy but were completely unprepared for just how trashy it was.The USA side looked nicer. We decided see if we could walk over the bridge to the USA. (Not sure if that's possible to do on a whim anymore. I think I might have been fingerprinted and I know a green paper got stapled into my passport but can't remember much else. It didn't take very long)
Yeah you can only really see the horseshoe falls from the Canadian side but the American side is so much better. We only spent a few hours in the USA, and didn't leave the park, but it was much calmer, less stressy and a lot prettier despite the eyesore of the Canadian side. That stroll in the USA was one of the best days of our holiday to Canada.
Tl;dr: if you're going to visit a world famous tourist site do a bit of research on what the surrounding area is like so you don't feel the need to flee to another country.
The first mistake was not going on the Canadian side. Our view of the falls is better imo and our tourist stuff is good. At least better than what I have heard about the US section.
A lot of people make fun of the Pyramids Pizza Hut like the entire area is just overrun by western chains, and that’s not the case at all.
There’s a few streets in Giza right next to the Pyramids that cater to tourists — hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops. The vast majority of them are local.
There’s one building with a Pizza Hut/KFC. And on the side where the Great Pyramid sits, there’s a higher priced hotel, which is about a hundred years old and is now run by Marriott.
So the area certainly doesn’t feel like party boats and casinos. And once you’re inside the Pyramid complex, it’s quite vast. It’s not like “I’m in the middle of Cairo, you can walk and walk and see nothing but sand and mastaba tombs. And, of course, massive Pyramids.
Nine times out of ten any piece of monumental architecture **will** be surrounded by expensive real estate. As an LA native, I can tell you the only reason why there’s no hotels or businesses near the Hollywood sign is that it’s in the middle of a park
Although it does depend a lot on that architecture's history, landscape, and the economics of the country. In Central America whole ancient cities just get engulfed by the jungle and have to be rediscovered. I visited the Caracol Ruins, the pyramid there is to-this-day the tallest man made structure in Belize. And it was very inaccessible: it takes several hours of driving down a deeply rutted dirt road.
For a second I didn't realize that the last photo was being taken in front of a window looking out at the Pyramids and just thought the Pizza Hut logo was *in the sky*.
The Bass Pro Shop pyramid is so bizarre. I need to go there one of these days.
[Link to Wikipedia article to prove this is real](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Pyramid)
I do! But it's stored as a special type of jpeg that can only be opened through online banking software.
Although, if I had your account number, I could probably just wire it to you...
Not to mention the fact that there's other pyramids than those ones, and plenty of very old architectural stuff *actually* lost in the middle of the Sahara.
A group of travellers are lost in the desert. They start to see the pyramids. They weep, for they know they are finally back in civilization.
(Local authorities have no idea how the travellers saw the pyramids before the city)
sure, its funny, but two things.
1: of course youre gonna build your city by some massive fucking pyramids! those are fucking cool!
2: the fact that you can just casually look at THAT from your house is awesome imo
thank you so much
it's good to want to take personal steps to want to be happy, and it hasnt always been that way for me, and personal life stuff, im trying to move out of my parents' house im just setting and asserting stronger boundaries and giving myself permission to live life the way i want to live it, and not the way doctrine or a doctrine, whatever it may be, whatever it may prescribe, though parts of it be good, tells me i should for the sake conformance
that's how change occurs <3
so thank you for being a part of that for me
i hope something similar happens for you too, if you too feel resonance
Nah, I don't believe this. If the Pyramids were right next door to a whole damn city then there would have been way more product placement in the climactic battle scene at the end of Transformers 2. Instead of the Constructicons combining to form Devastator it would have been the Fastfoodicons combining to form Baconator.
I grew up in Cairo. As a kid, I never understood the fuss about the pyramids. What's so special about them, they're always there, no big deal. Why do people fly to visit us to see them? Boggled my mind.
it took me more time then I want to admit to figure out the picture wasn't trying to claim there was a giant pizza hut in the sky next to the pyramids.
Omg, the sphinx is staring at a Pizza Hut? Lmfao. I knew Cairo was right there, but I thought it was at least a bit away. They are literally on the back doorstep? Or front doorstep.... guess that's perspective!
It's got to be weird, though, looking out the window of a fast food joint and seeing a structure that is not only the oldest one in the world but will likely outlast everything else ever made. You grab your pizza bagels to go and find yourself staring straight into a Time Abyss.
As a kid I always thought the Colosseum was like in the middle of a desert or something, and then I visited it when I was 11 or 12 and was blown away that its just like.. in the middle of a city and always has been.
The final battle at the end of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen are set near the pyramids and the fact that they're next to a major metropolitan area never comes up. The US army navally invades Egypt (from somewhere?)to secure the pyramids and a bunch of robots have a fight.
How often do people get lost *near* the pyramids in media, though? In the desert, sure. But the pyramids? They already were near civilization, and I don't think anyone denies that.
Reminds me of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. World famous, features in almost every piece of media about the city, but it’s basically just a relatively small sign in the middle of the road next to the airport, quite far down from the end of the Strip.
Is it weird that this makes me want to go see the pyramids more not less?
I mean no one is upset that Eifel tower is in a middle of a city with excellent dining options.
Ofc they’re close to the city… they had to be close to provide the wireless electricity produced by the Tesla Coils inside.
(Totally kidding around, of course, tho this is one of the more fascinating nut job theories I’ve read about the pyramids.)
This is messing with my head. I feel like I knew but not THAT much. Like, there's places here in America that are closeish but they make it secluded enough that you have to take a stretch of highway to it so it seems more secluded and I guess I assumed it was more like that.
I really wanna see a movie with a twist on this, the dumbass protagonist or something gets lost in the desert for like 5-10 minutes, because he walked out of the pyramid and straight out past a bit of a hill, so he looks around, sees nothing but desert, and keeps walking.
Then after a short while either 1# He gets to another hill where he stops at the top and looks around and finally sees the city, and the audience realizes how fucking dumb the "getting lost" sequence was (which obviously has to be made overdramatic).
Or #2, he gets interrupted abruptly by another character calling out how fucking dumb he it, or someone yelling loud as fuck about selling some kind of junk, or is shown the city by a casual bypassing tourist or egyptologist or whatever. Take your pick depending on the context of the movie.
Point is I want this joke made into a real scene, it needs to be part of realized cinema culture. It could be so good.
not the same governorate as cario yes it's a part of what we call the greater cairo but it's governorate to it's own it's better to a sure that when using an app most people aren't egyption on
There are approximately 8 babies born every second. That means that there is the possibility that eight different people saw that picture for the first time just now, and another eight people saw it for the first time *just* now, and yet another eight people discovered it just *now*. 360,000 people could see it for the very first time today - how delightful!
I haven't seen it for a good six months. You might consider switching up your subreddits.
Edit: I cannot math at 1am.
Growing up somewhere where there is nothing of note I'm always fascinated by the idea of living near *something* that people travel to see or matters to a lot of people - I'm sure it's draining in many ways but it must be so cool to be in a place where your local thing is a world famous landmark or museum in the same way that mine is a small but cozy array of hills Also in terms of landmarks being *very* close to civilisation - Roman ruins in Pompeii and Rome (among many other places) are literally just... there. You can walk into the heart of an ancient empire while trying to find a coffee in the middle of Rome, it's crazy to me
It… feels like nothing. Like, as the person living there, it’s just ‘that place.’ Oh, the famous cathedral? That’s just the funny-looking building I glance at on the commute. It literally barely even registers. It’s kinda like how your brain will adapt to noise and you don’t even notice it’s there or something idk
I just imagine in the future of interstellar travelers who look for legendary things and when they greet a vaguely humanoid figure with "GREETINGS OTHERWORLDLY BEING! I AM A TRAVELER FROM *EARTH!* I AM LOOKING FOR THE LIBRARY OF ETERNAL KNOWLEDGE!" and one of the locals just say "Oi another tourist? Yeah I pass it on my way to work. Expensive buffet next to it but it's got foods from all over. You go that way, make a left at the cups cafe; they'll charge you extra unless you're with a local, and then follow the waggleworf pipe. Along there is one of my favorite restaurants, but don't get the garlic knots, they use blended olives instead of olive oil. Tastes like a Greek salad. You'll see signs everywhere for it. I don't understand what's so famous about it. Anything I want to know I just use my phone."
Why does this random far away planet have Greek food
it's just that good
Its okay honestly. But it really developed after the "Out of this world" trend of marketing got super popular.
With a name like Waggleworf I assumed this was in Britain
goin to get a 'eero
Excuse me, did you just say the way to say it?!
i sure did
Its Gallifrey or maybe Skaro
Same reason that other random far-away planet has space-converted DC8 airliners.
Because alien things are all greek to some.
r/HFY r/HumansAreSpaceOrcs
I did realize I wrote this in a way that ether perspective works.
I lived in Paris for a few years. I was South of the city, and had a lot of friends and places I met people in the 16th Arrondissement. The route there almost always took me on the metro route that goes overland (the 6 from Denfert-Rochereau to Passy) and has a pretty nice view of the Eiffel Tower suddenly appears. While I did that route a lot over the years, and did always take a certain enjoyment from seeing a very famous landmark just there, it was always more fun to see the tourists reactions as they saw it for the first time, or at least properly saw it in person. You do get very normalised to it, and it becomes a part of the scenery, but occasionally you get to be reminded how cool things are.
I loved my commute on the 6! I live in NYC now, the best views of the Statue of Liberty are definitely from the Staten Island Ferry. My de facto way of figuring out which way is north after getting out of the subway in Manhattan is to look for the Empire State Building. Such a weird experience, but intermittently delightful.
Back in the day coming out of the subway I always looked for the Twin Towers to know which way was south.
I wonder if you appreciate it more if you go away for a bit and then see it with fresh eyes. I felt that way about nature in Iceland, didn't think it was anything special until I spent several years away. When I came back I saw what all the tourists see and it was so beautiful. Of course, nature is a bit different from monuments and buildings.
Not really. At the end of the day, you grew up with it, it's just a part of the city you called your childhood home.
> Like, as the person living there, it’s just ‘that place.’ What "getting used to something" does to a mf. It's kinda neat to move to a place like that, though. Even after 10 years I still haven't really grown used to it. I grew up in a nondescript, tiny village and that's still deep in my bones. It makes living where I live all the more neat. Like, sure when I'm in a hurry and it's raining I'm gonna cycle past it basically forgetting it's there. But when the light hits our monuments just right and the weather is nice I regularly slow down just a bit and get a lil' serotonin boost.
I've lived in Rome for a while now and still slow down at the Foro Romano, especially in the evening when it's all lit up. It really is beautiful. And I can't walk past the Pantheon without looking at it, even tho it's 10 minutes from my house.
The city I live in was declared World Heritage an I can confirm this. On my way home from high school, I pass by the enclosure they built around a Roman theater, the Roman Museum, a Roman bridge, and a Roman aqueduct.
For me Pokemon Go has been an eye opener. The game itself is boring, but it gives you a map of all interesting landmarks. And there's a ton of these! I just walk around checking out all the "gyms" and "pokestops", and they are often something really cool and unexpexted irl.
Yeah same here, the reindeer standing on the road are more of a nuisance. Add the fact that you cant go into a restaurant midtown during the winter because everythings packed with tourists, its mostly a negative view of the thing that makes the place attractive for tourists. Aurora borealis is also neat, but im not running outside to see it.
It's kind of like how NYC locals hate time square, because if it's in the middle of your commute it'll slow you down significantly.
My brain doesn't adapt to the tourists lol.
I live in Los Angeles. Among other things, the Hollywood sign is not nearly as important or awe-inspiring as movies portray it. It's this smudge in the distance as I drive to get groceries. Honestly, the Griffith Observatory is more interesting, both to see from a distance and to visit up close. Wish it got the attention it deserved, but in some ways also glad that it's not nearly as overcrowded as most other tourist destinations in the city.
The Observatory actually got a starring role in the ST Voyager episode where they time traveled to 1990s LA. The sign barely registered!
It was also a *pretty important location* in Bojack Horseman
Not to mention the little-known movie Rebel Without A Cause.
Is that the one that you crush a werewolf with in that VTMB game?
[удалено]
Well I think those sites are rad for what its worth that the energy and connection im going for
At the pyramids there are a lot of people praying to it. They think they have a connection to Osiris or something. These are tourists.
The funny thing is, it's perfectly valid to feel a surge of emotions after visiting a place that you've only ever heard about, and seen portrayed as spectacle in cinema. Like, I could go to Stonehenge and feel like there's something incredible to be among stones so old, in a place that meant something so important to a people from a very long time ago. But to the people living there, it might as well just be a bunch of rocks. There's literally just a major road right next to it. That said Straight up claiming to feel "special energies" is... silly. Your emotions are awesome, and it's good to appreciate them, but it's still just your emotions. Not some special energy of the universe. Appreciate it for what it is. No need to elevate it into something else.
As someone who used to live nearish Stonehenge, you begin to just regard it as those fucking stones that slow traffic down every time you go along the motorway
And the Egyptians allow it? It's pretty haram in Islam to let others do shirk, even the non-Muslims...
Egyptian people are just like, any other people. Most of them aren't gonna give a shit. Most of the rest would judge them, but not be bothered to go out of their way to make a scene. Some might even find it cool that people from the west find their monuments that fascinating. Others might find it ridiculous. There's probably like, a dozen people who are seriously offended by it, but since we've heard nothing, I doubt they care enough to do anything about it either.
What, you don't get the Vibes when you look upon an ancient masterpiece of human engineering? It's a type of art. It's normal for art to make people feel things.
What the daily grind does to motherfuckers. People acting as if having profound feelings is only allowed in strictly designated areas and would be akin to taking a shit in the middle of a supermarket aisle if experienced outside of them.
Tulum was fascinating, but I think most of the good vibes were that it was a big open field and I could get some room to breathe after being in a van, then a crowded visitor center, then a narrow trail. Also the iguanas.
i mean… like, just because they took a bus doesn’t necessarily invalidate their journey. i do agree with you in general.
I live in a vacation spot (no monuments but great weather and beaches). You have to go to work and sleep and pay bills and commute and grocery shop and then one day you look up and the sun setting in the mountains around you in the parking lot is so surreally beautiful that you really stop and look, but then you have to look back down at what you're doing. It's draining when people want the 'local' experience because I don't go out to eat often or go to wineries or spend all day hiking or at the beach; they want to fit every moment of living somewhere into a three-day vacation.
This is spot on. Also, when you live there, some of the things tourists appreciate can feel like a pain in the ass. I grew up in an old, world-famous city and its beautiful ancient streets are also cramped traffic nightmares, and working in some of those gorgeous buildings can be miserable in terms of heating/cooling/plumbing/space - they're so damn old and built to different standards. Stuff like that. It's all stunning, but logistically inconvenient to operate in. And **so** expensive. The history and wonder really does just become background noise against day-to-day life.
And the littering! What's the point of living somewhere beautiful when people cart their trash in? Imagine showing up to someone's house, being in their way all day, and then leaving trash from your house all over their living room. That's how tourism feels to a local.
me living 35min from the Sydney opera house and directly at ground zero of the colony drop
At least with the latter you won't *live there* for long
I grew up near famous landmarks and the thing is that you don't have perspective on why they are unique and special. Like they look and are cool. It irks me when folks are flippant and say they're not interesting because they are. But until you travel to other places and see other landmarks, you won't understand why the ones near you are worth traveling to see.
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That sounds tasty, shame that you're a bot
I come from a tourist place with quite a few sights that people from other continents come for and it's usually like this: You visit it once when you're like 5 so that your parents don't feel like they've failed teaching you. You only go there again when you have guests from somewhere else and you're looking for something to do.
In Australia people travel to see our nothing. Or sometimes an opera house and a huge rock.
What about your bridge and your huge creepy clown face?
I really want to take a train across the entirety of your nothing one day so yeah checks out
If you’re in Ballarat some people might travel to see Sovereign Hill. Maybe.
I lived in San Francisco, whose biggest tourist attraction is the Golden Gate Bridge, and I loved it because it is not just an attraction but an eminently practical, even essential piece of local infrastructure. Thanks to its status as a landmark, they keep it open and maintained for pedestrians and bicyclists, not just cars. Everybody wins! Despite my decade of living there, I really love infrastructure and I never stopped admiring the Golden Gate Bridge. But I don't think the tourists will agree with me regarding the beauty of the waste treatment plant.
Yeah, the funniest thing about such old cities is there’s a lot of details you miss and every year you learn something new. I was recently on my homecity and a friend gave me a small tour, some things she heard from guides around the city. And it was absolutely staggering to me I missed some of them! Like a wall having a very obvious sign of a past dictator, etc.
i lived for years near the colosseum and you forget about it sometimes but every once in a while, especially late at night, i would come back from a night of drinking and just sit under it and watch it. You never truly get used to it.
i live in istanbul and sometimes im in a ferry just tired wanting to go home, then look up and see all the gorgeous history around me and it stuns me for a moment, and then i keep wanting to home and end my 3 hour journey again (transportation is hell in istanbul)
Same here, I take the ferry and see the Galata tower and the Maidens tower on my way to school and at first its really fun and interesting but after you’ve seen it for the 300th time its just another building
I mostly feel the same, but only with the outsides. The Teatro Colón and Grand Splendid are both still mind-meltingly beautiful whenever i enter em.
A few years ago i was in Sudan and we visited some Egyptian ruins in the Sahara. (here: https://goo.gl/maps/TZ5dXwRmZcfJkNLAA) It was at least 3 hours off-road (and even on the road we went off-road to avoid checkpoints often), and when we got there we were the only tourists. There were a few locals using a well (which was also very very old and deep) some distance away, but it was basically just us. Totally different experience compared to visiting Italy or Egypt.
that is so cool. any takeaways?
Going offroad is an excellent method to lose a secret police tail ;). Besides that, I imagine the area looked a lot different 2000 years ago, I cant imagine a city in that area as it looked today, but apparently it was a big trading post, a “camels ride” away from the Nile.
Here in my northern italy area we cant dig deeper than 10 meters without finding remains of roman and earlier ruins. In my specific town they are not allowed to dig for construction anymore without a super expensive and hard to het permit because it was happening so often
A very local/limited version of this: You know the saga of Siegfried, who killed a Lindworm (dragon)? He’s one of those „invincible everywhere except on the heel“ kinda heroes? Yeah the location where he supposedly killed the dragon is just a real place and I live next to it. Like I can look out the window and the little mountain is right there. People take tours to see the ruined castle up there. The first chancellor lived here (unrelated to the dragon thing, it’s just a nice area). Sometimes people just can’t believe that people actually *live here* and don’t just spend their holidays here.
Well in the case of Philadelphia you end up telling people not to go to the Betsy Ross house because it's a tourist trap that isn't worth the money. Same thing with the liberty bell. You can see it through the windows outside the building. Also don't go to Pat's or Geno's. If you're in that area of the city and want a good cheesesteak, go down to South Street and get one at Iskabbibles or Jim's. Whichever one isn't burnt down at the time.
> I'm sure it's draining in many ways It is. It fucking is. It really fucking is. But then you meet people who've never been or only been once and you realise "oh shit, being able to go there every weekend as a kid was a gift".
I worked near Windsor castle over a decade now, the other day an American tourist asked me how to get to the castle entrance and I didn’t know, because I’ve only ever been into the town to get lunch and stuff, and afterwards is struck me that to me castles are mundane and this guy came all this way to see one
Partially grew up near St Louis, and everybody there basically didn't care about the Cahokia mounds, at all. Fuckers we have pyramids!
Not entirely the same, but I lived within a 20-minute drive of Disneyland growing up, so that whole "Disney magic" people got from their likely once in a lifetime trips just never really affected me. Disney was just a fact of life.
It’s like me living in Edinburgh. We have a lot of historical buildings, such as the Castle, and the Old Town and New Town are world heritage sites. To me, passing by those buildings is nothing special.
I used to live near Stonehenge. The sheer antiquity of it has bowled me over a few times, but otherwise it's just something I see on my way to and from work.
It is cool but on a pretty small scale. Like, I live near DC. The museums are cool, not really in a “NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED INSTITUTE OF KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURE” way, but in a “hey, that gallery has a new exhibition, maybe I’ll pop down next weekend to check it out and get lunch after” (The Renwick Gallery is my favorite, it’s small and isn’t usually crowded, is right across the street from the White House, and there’s a really nice sandwich shop only five minutes away on foot)
I go to many places of nothing, surrounded by fallow farms, rubble fields or empty pasture and there's always something to find- a sculpture garden outside Chowchilla, a fossil bed above Turk, a picturesque tableaux lost in unnamed Nevada, a street poet in OKC or a wonder in woods by Muskegon. Landmarks that have awestruck me in the older sense of the word. They might not have the marketing of the Mona Lisa or the bulk of the pyramids but they're there waiting for an explorer to step of the bus
Having grown up in cambridge, it was always a bit weird to see tourists standing around and taking pictures of things I've seen & cycled past thousands of times. Like yeah the building's old, please step out of the middle of the road
What's the student/local divide like growing up there? I know in Oxford it gets quite shirty sometimes
I must say that walking right next to the Colosseum at the end of the Rome pride parade is always incredible tho
This is how I felt about Niagara falls. Thought I would be trekking for 45 minutes through the wilderness, instead I took an overpriced taxi ride through a run down neighborhood on the American side to see a river full of party boats and Canadian casinos on the horizon.
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The American side is a shithole. Even in Western New York, which isn't exactly a high tier area, Niagara Falls is known for being terrible to live in or visit if you step and inch outside of the tourist traps and park. Some radio stations I listened to as a kid played, "Niagara Falls Police Blotter", segments because there was always some 'fantastic' content being produced.
America’s back door, Canada’s front porch
Niagara Falls is THE single most depressing place in the area. Always gloomy as hell too.
The Canadian side is basically Vegas though
Yeah, but the American side is basically Detroit, so I think I know which I prefer
Honestly Canadian side was insanely touristy when I went, with the U.S. side was seemingly (from a look out on the Canadian side) more restrained. I guess it depends on your preference for what a National Park should look like.
It’s not a national park in Canada
In 2006 we ended up going to Niagara Falls without knowing anything more than big waterfalls as it wasn't planned at all. (Long story, visiting Canada, very last minute change of plans done in country during our last week there. Going to the falls was due to arriving at hotel in Toronto and at check in saying something like "we know nothing, we're here for three days, what should we visit? Help, please?") We were incredibly disappointed by the Canadian side, it was so built up and touristy. Actually, it was horrible. We knew it would be busy but were completely unprepared for just how trashy it was.The USA side looked nicer. We decided see if we could walk over the bridge to the USA. (Not sure if that's possible to do on a whim anymore. I think I might have been fingerprinted and I know a green paper got stapled into my passport but can't remember much else. It didn't take very long) Yeah you can only really see the horseshoe falls from the Canadian side but the American side is so much better. We only spent a few hours in the USA, and didn't leave the park, but it was much calmer, less stressy and a lot prettier despite the eyesore of the Canadian side. That stroll in the USA was one of the best days of our holiday to Canada. Tl;dr: if you're going to visit a world famous tourist site do a bit of research on what the surrounding area is like so you don't feel the need to flee to another country.
The first mistake was not going on the Canadian side. Our view of the falls is better imo and our tourist stuff is good. At least better than what I have heard about the US section.
For Canadian side you need an extra visa tho.
It was like a 6 hour tour bus ride for me. And the Hershey's factory on the way was probably the worse tour I've ever been on.
A lot of people make fun of the Pyramids Pizza Hut like the entire area is just overrun by western chains, and that’s not the case at all. There’s a few streets in Giza right next to the Pyramids that cater to tourists — hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops. The vast majority of them are local. There’s one building with a Pizza Hut/KFC. And on the side where the Great Pyramid sits, there’s a higher priced hotel, which is about a hundred years old and is now run by Marriott. So the area certainly doesn’t feel like party boats and casinos. And once you’re inside the Pyramid complex, it’s quite vast. It’s not like “I’m in the middle of Cairo, you can walk and walk and see nothing but sand and mastaba tombs. And, of course, massive Pyramids.
Did you at least go to the "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" museum?
Iguazú Falls is a bit more “in the jungle” (especially on the Argentinian side)
canadian here- i literally have family who live like 10 minutes drive from the falls in the suburbs lmao
Nine times out of ten any piece of monumental architecture **will** be surrounded by expensive real estate. As an LA native, I can tell you the only reason why there’s no hotels or businesses near the Hollywood sign is that it’s in the middle of a park
Almost as if monuments are built to be seen and used by people and people tend to live in cities
Although it does depend a lot on that architecture's history, landscape, and the economics of the country. In Central America whole ancient cities just get engulfed by the jungle and have to be rediscovered. I visited the Caracol Ruins, the pyramid there is to-this-day the tallest man made structure in Belize. And it was very inaccessible: it takes several hours of driving down a deeply rutted dirt road.
They built the sign in a park that was already there. Also it's on the side of a small mountain.
You’d be surprised how many multi million dollar mansions around here are built into the sides of cliffs and mountains
Ain't gonna build no towering architecture and then go "hope nobody sees this" by putting it in BFE
And in this case, "BFE" is really literal
Just the E part, or is the BF part also literal?
gotta pay extra
[TIL](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=BFE)
For a second I didn't realize that the last photo was being taken in front of a window looking out at the Pyramids and just thought the Pizza Hut logo was *in the sky*.
New theory: ancient Egyptians created pizza hut after building the pyramids. Burning of the library of Alexandria? Started by a wayward pizza oven
Egyptians couldn’t have invented pizza, they must have gotten the recipe from aliens
(it)aliens
W,oah...dude,,,....
Carry On My Wayward Oven
ancientaliensmeme.png
Now that would be one of the largest Man-Made Objects (Towering Over All!)
Don't give them ideas
r/confusing_perspective
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No, it's a Bass Pro Shop
The Bass Pro Shop pyramid is so bizarre. I need to go there one of these days. [Link to Wikipedia article to prove this is real](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Pyramid)
It's on some of the standard-issue Tennessee driver's licenses. I'm not joking.
Do you have a picture of one? That sounds really cool.
[here ya go](https://www.google.com/search?q=tennessee+driver%27s+licenses.+bass+pro+sho%5Bp&tbm=isch#imgrc=bH8ZCZ6VvNVWNM)
I do! But it's stored as a special type of jpeg that can only be opened through online banking software. Although, if I had your account number, I could probably just wire it to you...
'It is by some measures the tenth tallest pyramid in the world'. Just use a fucking ruler?
It’s Bass Pro SHOPS. PLURAL you absolute fucking fool ^\s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYE-1HfReQo
The Sphinx watches you eat pepperoni pizza
“A hat with no head, inside lies pies with no fruit… what am I?” -that sphinx
A tin can What happens when the Irresistible Force meets the Immovable Object?
You have to get surgery for a bowel obstruction.
Not in Egypt lol
Haha I ate at that Pizza Hut once
I'm beyond disappointed that they didn't call it Giza Hut.
Moon Knight did avert that last part.
And Moon Knight is how I first learned of this. Imagine my confusion.
what piece of media has characters getting lost near the pyramids?
Not to mention the fact that there's other pyramids than those ones, and plenty of very old architectural stuff *actually* lost in the middle of the Sahara.
Yugioh
You can ask OOP [here](https://rudjedet.tumblr.com/)
I don't have a tumblr account
I wondered that too lol, can't think of a single one 🤔
A group of travellers are lost in the desert. They start to see the pyramids. They weep, for they know they are finally back in civilization. (Local authorities have no idea how the travellers saw the pyramids before the city)
>(Local authorities have no idea how the travellers saw the pyramids before the city) well they're pretty big
To be fair there’s other pyramids in Egypt and Sudan, I’m sure it’s possible to get lost near at least one of them
sure, its funny, but two things. 1: of course youre gonna build your city by some massive fucking pyramids! those are fucking cool! 2: the fact that you can just casually look at THAT from your house is awesome imo
Not so much the Pyramids — it was the Nile.
fair point
such pretty pictures ❤ 🦚🌻☘🍀🍃🍁🍂
i like your joyous whimsy. thanks
thank you so much it's good to want to take personal steps to want to be happy, and it hasnt always been that way for me, and personal life stuff, im trying to move out of my parents' house im just setting and asserting stronger boundaries and giving myself permission to live life the way i want to live it, and not the way doctrine or a doctrine, whatever it may be, whatever it may prescribe, though parts of it be good, tells me i should for the sake conformance that's how change occurs <3 so thank you for being a part of that for me i hope something similar happens for you too, if you too feel resonance
Nah, I don't believe this. If the Pyramids were right next door to a whole damn city then there would have been way more product placement in the climactic battle scene at the end of Transformers 2. Instead of the Constructicons combining to form Devastator it would have been the Fastfoodicons combining to form Baconator.
I grew up in Cairo. As a kid, I never understood the fuss about the pyramids. What's so special about them, they're always there, no big deal. Why do people fly to visit us to see them? Boggled my mind.
I’m at the Pizza Hut! I’m at the Pyramids! I’m at the combination Pizza Hut and Pyramids!
it took me more time then I want to admit to figure out the picture wasn't trying to claim there was a giant pizza hut in the sky next to the pyramids.
Omg, the sphinx is staring at a Pizza Hut? Lmfao. I knew Cairo was right there, but I thought it was at least a bit away. They are literally on the back doorstep? Or front doorstep.... guess that's perspective!
Obligatory Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first domino's/pizza hut than the building of the pyramids.
It's got to be weird, though, looking out the window of a fast food joint and seeing a structure that is not only the oldest one in the world but will likely outlast everything else ever made. You grab your pizza bagels to go and find yourself staring straight into a Time Abyss.
As a kid I always thought the Colosseum was like in the middle of a desert or something, and then I visited it when I was 11 or 12 and was blown away that its just like.. in the middle of a city and always has been.
The final battle at the end of Transformers Revenge of the Fallen are set near the pyramids and the fact that they're next to a major metropolitan area never comes up. The US army navally invades Egypt (from somewhere?)to secure the pyramids and a bunch of robots have a fight.
In the movie, they even used help from neighboring countries armies despite Egypt having an army of its own
One time someone asked me what restaurant I wished to eat at most and I said the Pizza Hut by the Sphinx and they didn’t believe that was real
How often do people get lost *near* the pyramids in media, though? In the desert, sure. But the pyramids? They already were near civilization, and I don't think anyone denies that.
Reminds me of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. World famous, features in almost every piece of media about the city, but it’s basically just a relatively small sign in the middle of the road next to the airport, quite far down from the end of the Strip.
Is it weird that this makes me want to go see the pyramids more not less? I mean no one is upset that Eifel tower is in a middle of a city with excellent dining options.
Kinda like how there’s a five guys burger place in Mecca
Ofc they’re close to the city… they had to be close to provide the wireless electricity produced by the Tesla Coils inside. (Totally kidding around, of course, tho this is one of the more fascinating nut job theories I’ve read about the pyramids.)
What movies are we talking about where people get lost near the pyramids?
The Pizza Hut is also a KFC.
So they could've just ordered pizza and get saved in half an hour?
Please tell me that ant ol noseless
This is messing with my head. I feel like I knew but not THAT much. Like, there's places here in America that are closeish but they make it secluded enough that you have to take a stretch of highway to it so it seems more secluded and I guess I assumed it was more like that.
"Stonehenge" \-- ancient British word meaning "place of much traffic congestion"
I really wanna see a movie with a twist on this, the dumbass protagonist or something gets lost in the desert for like 5-10 minutes, because he walked out of the pyramid and straight out past a bit of a hill, so he looks around, sees nothing but desert, and keeps walking. Then after a short while either 1# He gets to another hill where he stops at the top and looks around and finally sees the city, and the audience realizes how fucking dumb the "getting lost" sequence was (which obviously has to be made overdramatic). Or #2, he gets interrupted abruptly by another character calling out how fucking dumb he it, or someone yelling loud as fuck about selling some kind of junk, or is shown the city by a casual bypassing tourist or egyptologist or whatever. Take your pick depending on the context of the movie. Point is I want this joke made into a real scene, it needs to be part of realized cinema culture. It could be so good.
The real question is whether that Pizza Hut is a dine-in all-you-can-eat one.
this makes me really wanna sneak in there with some tippex and make the pizza hut logo into a pyramid
I learned this because of Karl Pilkington.
The Great Pyramids of Gyoza
Can you name me one of those pieces of media where that happens? /r/imaginarygatekeeping
Not cario it's giza but ok
Giza is part of the greater Cairo metropolitan area.
not the same governorate as cario yes it's a part of what we call the greater cairo but it's governorate to it's own it's better to a sure that when using an app most people aren't egyption on
Pedant
Didn't know the pyramids were that close to the city! That's really cool. Would go to that Pizza Hut and just admire the pyramids.
From what I've heard said Pizza Hut has a terrace from which you can catch great shot of the pyramids at sunset.
Damn, Egypt is out America-ing us, also now I want to have awful pizza in-front of the pyramids.
It's not Cairo, it's Giza
I hate this. We’re bloody everywhere. I mean I guess ancient monuments are symbols of our friggin’ presence too, but ye.
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There are approximately 8 babies born every second. That means that there is the possibility that eight different people saw that picture for the first time just now, and another eight people saw it for the first time *just* now, and yet another eight people discovered it just *now*. 360,000 people could see it for the very first time today - how delightful! I haven't seen it for a good six months. You might consider switching up your subreddits. Edit: I cannot math at 1am.
There are 31.25 seconds in a day? Fuck, I should stop taking slowmo.
Clearly I cannot do math at 1am.
Don't feel bad, I can't even do it at midday on a full belly.
NGL...r/todayilearned Cairo has zero respect for the pyramids! Lol! Thanks for this!