Charm of the Big European Cities

Every city has its own secrets, each has its own soul. I don’t want to pressure anyone to find the soul of the city he travels to or that he has to like everything he sees on his trip. Or that he has to imagine the whole life happening 2000 years ago while visiting the ruins of Roman Forum. Everyone has to see the city as he wishes. And travel just to escape the every-day energy and to live a whole new world which he’s going to describe to his grandchildren. I want everyone to enjoy and take as much time as he likes to think what a certain city means to him because this is the only way the city can touch a person. I think it’s important for everyone to sit in the middle of his favourite square or park in silence and simply listen the beat of the city. Or to walk a few streets and take a hundred photos in each street. Or write his impressions on paper before he goes to bed. And how easier this was in time when there was no wi-fi. Back then you could think about your day while lying in bed with a smile on your face or tears in your eyes. Today the temptation is too big to not check your Instagram or Twitter profile just one last time before you fall asleep. But I still try to write a letter or a poem to the city I’m leaving. I spend so many rides with buses to the airport with a notepad in my lap and eyes brimming with tears. This is my goodbye to the city and one of the most emotional moments in my trip.

Everyone can find the soul of the city somewhere else. My search starts while watching a movie, reading a book or listening to music when I can imagine how my favourite characters used to live. And I tell you, mysterious Thames is made for flying over with brooms. Paris is always going to be the city where Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein were drinking coffee in the Parisian coffee shops or the theme of Edith Piaf’s songs.  I always want to feel the city from the past. I want to know how Parisians used to walk by the river Seine or how they used to live in mansions. Sometimes I dream so much that I forget the present. And now London is so much more than changing the guard. We can’t find only the stereotypical Englishmen (actually they never did), drinking tea and standing in line. Today these are cities where you can listen a woman in Desigual jacket and a woman in hijab talking in front of a Polish store. Sometimes the city charm was different, sometimes there were horses strolling on the Oxford Street with rich carriages and in shops, ladies were choosing their white gloves for the dance. But today we can see elegant black taxis and famous double deckers which have since then developed a lot. Current ladies are shopping in Primark where they try on cheap clothes, made in Bangladesh. Every time has its charm and adds to the history.

And exploring canals in Amsterdam is just as exciting as admiring the old buildings in Puerta de la Sol in Madrid. Even though the modern buildings inspired less poems than the old wells, they still have its own charm. And even though we won’t see an old abandoned house on the underground, we will still find polite Englishmen who will want to approach us when we’ll get lost in the map or when we’ll be worried for the safety of our luggage in Barcelona. And locals still give the real soul to the city. We can find them everywhere, despite crowds of tourists. Every city has squares and streets that belong only to the locals. We can see them in coffee shops, pubs or when rushing by us.

 

And how do we visit a city? First we have to have a plan. Which part of the city do we want to visit? How to get there? Big capitals can tire you if you walk too far in one direction. But they usually have good public transport, which can take you wherever you want. A guide is certainly important in the city, if not for anything, for getting to know the history of the city and buildings. It doesn’t tell you everything but it’s your best help while planning the trip. In big cities there are a lot of things worth visiting and someone just has to tell you what is worth seeing. My favourite guides are DK Eyewitness Travel, because they have a lot of photos and maps so you can get around easier. I don’t like Lonely Planet since they called one village in Spain ugly and not worth seeing. One guide is enough is what my co-travellers tell me, but I have at least two with me. And about three books which I usually never open. My must have object for travelling around the city is also a map. I just like to look at it and get to the right place. My first time travelling was around the city Rome and I was the most happy when I got to the Castel Sant’Angelo. It didn’t matter that I got lost before that because I was too proud to look at the map. A camera also goes with me to every trip. And when I have an inspiration, I take more photos than the Chinese. I don’t photograph only dead buildings, but also the flow of the city. I photograph the cars in front of traffic lights just because I’m impressed at how broad the streets are in the city centre or how much motorbikes there are. I photograph every possible contrasts of the city. But taking photos can change. Sometimes only five people took photos of the monument on Dam Square in Amsterdam, but now everyone takes selfies with it.

Sometimes it can happen that we don’t have time to completely see the city. Then we just visit things that really interest us. If you’re a sports enthusiast, you can find a big stadium in every city, that is worth a visit because of the atmosphere, even though you can be a Real Madrid fan in Barcelona. If you’re a fan of plainchant of old churches, you can find them everywhere. There is also a lot of theme tours of our favourite characters. In Amsterdam we can research Anne’s story with help of The Diary of a Young Girl and feel the destiny of Amsterdam during World War II.

Of course we also have to sleep somewhere during our trip. And sleeping in hostel is fun, even though there is nothing wrong with sleeping in a hotel where you can get a massage and a good breakfast. In hostel you can meet new people in a comfortable couch or you can be up all night because someone in the room is snoring. An unknown house becomes your home for a while. It is exciting because you never know how your hostel will look like. You read all the reviews, but when you’re there, it is a whole new world. While choosing a hostel, for me it is important to have a kitchen where you can prepare a meal or a lounge where you can hang out and meet other people. Location is also important. In Paris, I, as a fan of cemeteries, would choose YCA hostel Le d’Artagnan which lies near famous catacombs. Because I always wanted to sleep in a palace, I would choose hostel Formelo in Rome which is in a mansion. I would feel like a court lady. And in London there is a great offer for bigger groups in hostel Thameside if I ever wanted to travel with friends. It is also not important for the hostel to be in the city centre, you can choose one that is located in the nature like hostel Villa Castora in the middle of nature, 60 kilometres outside of Madrid. And in Barcelona, I would chose hostel in the street Rambla, which is always full of life, let this be at 9 a.m. when smoothies stands are set or at 9 p.m. when restaurants start to get full. Rambla is also next to the sea and the harbour, where Columbus landed. And what could be more perfect than that? In Amsterdam my choice of hostel would be in orange house named Stayokey in the city centre, but its exterior reminds of the houses from the countryside.