Travel to Europe vs Living in Europe
Just thinking about the traveling possibilities that Europe has, I just stopped for a moment to understand up to which point a very touristic city is at same time a good place to live in. Provided that you don't hate tourists, it shouldn't be any problem to live in a touristic city, don't you think so?
Well, after burying my head into the past and trying to remember some places that I have seen and lived in, I can tell you it couldn't be more different. There are amazing cities in Europe, cities where you could spend hours and hours and when the time to go home arrives you would never leave. You would ask somebody: "Hey, come on, why don't we come to live here"?
It's not a strange feeling and I think it is nothing wrong with it, but up to which point do we know the cities that we visit? A first important topic is the one of what we consider touristic places. We visit the center, we admire some cathedrals, churches, populated narrow streets, museums... That's OK, but the real city is not there.
Looking back to my home town, Barcelona, I must admit that even if I try to convince myself that it has a real reason to be so famous, I really can't find it. Yes, we have the famous "Sagrada Familia", "Parc Gaudí", plus some other old buildings belonging to some crazy head architects we had some years ago. Great guys, really. It doesn't look bad at all, but I think that when a city needs a touristic bus, and one of the most emphasized things there in exploring the city is taking the touristic bus... well, take care, because it definitely means that you need to be brought to the places to admire, and the rest possibly will be not that fun.
From my point of view then, it is not a city that transmits any special feeling or positive vibration. The only thing that could make it different should be the people, but nowadays with the kind of society that we are developing constantly, even the people feels too much stressed and does not have time to give you their smiles.
Interestingly, I have found thousand more smiles in Stockholm, Sweden. Considering that their habitants are famous for being "cold" persons or unsociable, I have discovered that far from being an absolute myth, it is simply an appearance that the tourist gets when going to the city. True, they live on their own, very independent, their faces on the tube are absolutely inexpressive... But you enter a shop, and they provide you the best customer service I have ever seen. You ask somebody where a street is, and they will even walk some steps to the direction where this street is, and even ask you if you need anything else.
To put this in a few words. If you don't interact with them, they keep on their world. But when you do, they are a lot more enthusiastic than many south Europeans that I have met.
Far from trying to criticize my own country, which has never been into my plans when writing this article, I want to make people understand that what it seems from outside is not always what it is inside. Stockholm may not sound that much as a touristic destination, but I can promise it offers a lot more to see. In fact, it has many more architecturally amazing buildings and, as a main reason for being one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen, every street you walk really gives you the feeling of being a tourist, even when you have been here for more than a year.
That's what makes a city really interesting to live in. When those streets make your everyday routine be different.
Apart from all that, I just wanted to note that on this article I did not wanted to get insight into issues as green zones, security problems, economic level, etc. Everybody knows that the conditions are a lot better in Nordic Europe, but I wanted to keep this apart and really focus on the feeling itself that the city transmits.
See you soon in Stockholm!
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Dani Alonso
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