How to: Tourism at home

If you had asked me a week ago how you can be a citizen in your own city or country, I would have told you I had no clue whatsoever. That's because I actually didn't, nor had bothered to try.
Usually we think about tourism as something we do when we go abroad, and last spring I admired Gary for the way he kept on showing us Scotland in new and different way.

This week it became my turn to be a tourist and a guide at the same time.



In 2014 I was in South Africa as a volunteer for two weeks. Here I met some of my best friends, and during this spring, Barbara wrote and said they were coming to Germany, and maybe we could meet up. So of course we had to, and we agreed that they should come to Aarhus. Veronica also decided to join us, and I went to pick her up from the train station on Tuesday evening.

Then a marathon walk begun on Wednesday, when I picked up her at her hotel at 11 AM. We went for a quick walk down my the water front in Aarhus and followed the (some would say river, and I guess, in Danish proportions it really is a river) river down to the main library, which has just been named the best public library in the world.

I tried to show Veronica the things I want to see when I go to new countries, and I needed to pick up a few things anyway, so after the library we went back to the high street. Then we went to my apartment because she wanted to see my apartment and my cats, and we also had a bit of lunch.

We went back into town after lunch, and here we started our walk in the botanical gardens where we walked into the gardens and into the growth houses as well, which was almost unbearable as it was hot outside already.
After the gardens we walked up to the campus of the university. There we walked through the university park and up to the buildings where I have classes.

 

Here we managed a little breather before going for much needed cake. Then we went onto the beach, and from there we walked back into town over the harbor and then into the Latin area of town.

Thursday Veronica and I went to pick up Barbara, her husband and cousin at the train station. We were there with time to spare, so I made sure Veronica had a taste of something so inherently Danish that there was a chance she wouldn't like it: licorice. It turns out she did like it, and she actually bought some to take home.

We picked up Barbara and co at the station with a lot of screaming, and I took them to their hotel. After that, we made our way to my apartment again because the cats needed more visitors, and I desperately needed to put on more clothes as Thursday was cold!
After my apartment we went down by the river and had lunch at an Italian restaurant. After lunch we walked next to the river again until we were able to see ARoS. We took a few pictures, and then we went to visit the Old Town.

Here we spent an hour seeing and visiting old houses and just enjoying the atmosphere. We finished that day in the botanical gardens, and Veronica took the others into town to see some of the things I showed her yesterday.

Friday was the last day I had the pleasure of being a guide, and we went to LEGOLAND to spend the day. Needless to say it was a long day, with an emotional 'see you later' ceremony. I still hate doing that, and it hasn't even gotten easier since I had to do it in Glasgow last year.

In just three days, I walked approximately 60 km. It's not something I would ever do if I hadn't had guests to show around. The sum of this is that everyone can be a tourist in their own city or country. Often we take things for granted: how green things are, how clean they are, how few stray dogs there are... if we try to release ourselves from the daily routines, and maybe just take a different road home, I would even count that for tourism.