i spent the afternoon working in the travel department. all my collegues hate it there, but it is my favourite place to be: calm, quiet and surrounded by travel guides! while up there, observing the people around me, i came up with the following list.
the best places to people watch:
1. London, heathrow, terminal 4: all, and reall ALL, of humanity can be found here. i know, as i spent large chunks of my childhood rushing up and down that long hallway of shops. i once saw brad pitt shopping in the harrods. another time my mother ended up conversing with boy george (having no idea who he was). i think within one hour you could find every nationality, faith and colour of person in that terminal. but it has to be specifically terminal 4, the others dont compare.
2. laduree, the terrace, champs elysees, paris. ok les champs is tacky and i hate it, but the terrace at laduree is a great place to watch the oddest show of arabs and russians anywhere around. flashy vulgar wealth on display.
3. laduree, inside, place de la madeline. same place but totally opposite crowd, watch the dysfunctionality at work. also leads off onto faubourg-st honore, a great street worth of people watching.
4. the fountain at Ohotni riad shopping mall, moscow. i love just standing there and watching the dyevs go up to the fountain, pose absurdly, while their boyfriends/ fathers take photos. this is a strange russian habit i will never get.
5. sitting by the door at Leopolds, mumbai. india is a very odd mix, and you can see it all from one chair, if you choose correctly here. on the street outside you have guys hawking any type of merchandise imaginable, combined with beggers and petty theives. inside, you have somewhat wealthy indians, aussie tourists, lost souls, british backpackers, famous writers, and everything else that ever found its way to india, by what ever means.
6. the Malecon, havana. this street is know as havana's communal living room, and i would say with good reason. everyone takes an evening stroll down this street, stopping to smoke or make out half way down, sitting on the railing, before continuing...only to stop again a few moments later.
7.coffee bean, tverskaia, moscow, actually, it is not the watching so much as the listening in on other peoples conversations that makes this place such a good laugh.....just listen to them! (especially the woman!)
8 any cafe overlooking .the streets of phuket, watch the people, and then try to figure out the relationship behind THAT story. is he married back home? how old is he? how old is she? how many people are living off her earnings?
9. boulevard de sabana grande, caracas. same deal like szechenyi in pest: guys playing chess....but here there is alot more besides...
10 any rave-beach party on mykonos, greece. goa sucked by comparision. mykonos featured some of the most equisitedly beautiful and exotic people i have ever seen.....such a pity they were almost all GAY!!!
11. mall of america, minneapolis minnesota. this is the most stunning tribute to comercialism i have EVER seen. and watch the people. then guess what size they wear....
why do we people watch? of course this is a strange habit, but i think we all indulge in it to some degree. i dont know what exactly is the anthropological explanation for why we want to watch the lives of others. i have neer understood, for example, watching big brother (but then i dont have a tv) but i do admit that i sometimes watch other people in social settings. when i was young, at terminal 4, for example, i think it was out of sheer curiosity. there were so many different kinds of people from places i had barely heard of, and it was all quite thrilling. now, i think it is just about trying to understand. there are so many worlds out there, even within the boundaries of one city: how can we grasp it all? observation is the only tool.
6 commentaires:
Hi,
Another nice idea for a list. And what a fabulous list too.
But I have to disagree with number one!
"London, heathrow, terminal 4: all, and reall ALL, of humanity can be found here."
Never forget that the vast majority of the world's population can not afford to buy a plane ticket to anywhere, let alone to London!
What you see in Heathrow isn't representative of all of humanity at all - just its very richest and most priviledged section.
But no less interesting for that!
of course the majority of the world never gets on a plane....but what you see at terminal 4 is representative in the sense that it has people from really every country imaginable: every colour, every creed, every age. sure, it isnt an economic cross representation of the world, but i think it is in other ways.
and not EVERYONE is rich there. it is also the reception point for immigrants, scholarship students, refugees, and family members being brought over by sucessful offspring. some of my earliest memories there include seeing an elderly indian woman in a sari terrified of getting on the escalator, as she didnt know what it was. so yes, the majority are priveledged, but not every single individual, which is one of the reasons i find it so entertaining.
Hello again!
I know I come across as a really argumentative so-and-so! I am so sorry!
And, of course you are right when you talk about poorer family members coming over. It's right there in Terminal Four that you might see a representative of the world's majority poor population - but even then, cases like the grandmother you saw are very rare indeed.
If she is from outside the EU, before that grandmother can even board the plane she would have first had to convince an Entry Clearance Officer at her nearest embassy that she can support herself entirely by her or her family's own means for the duration of her stay!
Non-EU immigrants to the UK are - as condition of entry - able to support themselves without aid in the UK and therefore can hardly be called 'poor'!
As for refugees, again - these are the better off. Most refugees can't afford plane tickets! In fact, the people in this world most needing refuge are the least likely to get it!
So, yes I agree that Terminal Four is a great place to watch people. But you're seeing the world's elite in that arrivals hall. It's only a cross-section if you ignore the category of class.
And then enjoy!
By the way, I love the conclusion to your list! I'd never thought about the why's of people-watching before!
I have been waiting for this list...
thank you!!!
let me add two more places
old (now closed) cafe next to Goethe institute in Budapest on Andrassy ut when you sit outside.
+
sitting on a wall in Kalemegdan on a nice day, any time of the year. I loved listening to the guided tours )))
@marcus: cheers! i also never really thought about the whys of people watching until i started to write this list...then i began to wonder, why am i doing this? why do i do that so often? but what i wrote is just my view, feel free to add
@masyamba: totally agree on old goethe cafe, i am still offended it is closed. and i agree on kalemegdan too, but for belgrade maybe a cafe on terazija would be better? or even plato? or that yacht club, but then we were only there once, and badly dressed for it!
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