Now I'm in a
restaurant in Stockholm
And the waiter here wants me to know his name
And the waiter here wants me to know his name
And I can order
sandwiches in seven different languages
But every fucking
city is just the same - Paul Kelly, "Every Fucking City"
Paul Kelly's
iconic song about backpacking through Europe is a favourite with many
Australian travellers as it has been for me during my last eight
years of wandering the globe. But it re entered my mind when I was
actually sitting in a restaurant last week in Sweden's capital and
making a complete mess of ordering a sandwich in Swedish.
2012 Live version (with some modern twists)
It got me thinking
about whether Paul Kelly was actually right. Are all cities just the
same? For 10 days I'd been travelling through several cities in
Sweden and for the most part they were much the same. Nice old
buildings, some so-so castles beautiful little old towns and some
really pretty scenery. The more I thought about it, the more it was
quite similar to many other cities I'd visited in other European
countries.
The people I met
were similar too. In my time in Sweden, aside from one Swede (whom I
met in Scotland years ago) I spent my time with another Australian,
some Mexicans and a couple who were Finish and Russian and many of
their friends who were Hungarian. Did I really need to be in Sweden
for this? Couldn't I just plant myself in any European city and act
as a tourist and wait for all of the same experiences? Or is it
possible that I'm just becoming an old Jaded traveller?
Town square in Malmo
In Malmo, at the
south of Sweden, I met another traveller who introduced me to the
concept of there being an “order” to travel. As a Westerner, you
start in Europe or North America – safe, easy countries – and
then eventually move into the more developing countries in Asia and
South America, before one day you find yourself asking for a sandwich
in Baghdad. It's possible that after my recent travels in India and
Burma, that any Western country just doesn't feel different enough
any more.
I think in all
honesty travel through many countries has become a bit the same.
People want the same facilities and services in their hotel/hostel.
They'll tend to do the same kinds of things when they get to each
city – whether that be hop-on hop-off busses, tour museums or just
get drunk. And they'll tend to meet the same kinds of people who are
all doing the same kinds of things as them.
Town Square in Stockholm
Does that mean
that there's no point travellings to many of these places? Hell no.
While the differences may be more subtle these days, they're still
there. If you're willing to try different food, attempt to meet some
locals and in general get out of your comfort zone, you'll find
plenty of new things in each new city you visit. The unique and
different experiences are still there to find, you might just need to
leave Starbucks to find them.
