This is what it looks like these days when you reach one of the top highlights of a city or country. The visitors themselves become attractions for other visitors.
I went to the Eiffel Tower early on a Sunday morning. The aim was to take photos without the crowds of tourists. The best place to admire the Eiffel Tower is either the centre of a street leading directly to it or Trocadero. A beautiful place, in the centre of Paris, right in front of the Eiffel Tower, the most beautiful view. In fact Trocadero was already quite busy. If it's already so crowded on an early Sunday morning, what will it look like in an hour's time? The moment I turned around and turned my eyes away from the camera to the big wide Trocadero world, this is what I found: A tourist's fairytale. A girl in a princess dress heading towards the balcony. Well other princesses have been there as well. And not only that, they also had their court with them. I mean, who can say they have a court of their own ...
Couples, maybe real but for sure fake marriage proposals and a ballerina. Trocadero totally crazy. What's going on in our world that fairy tales are openly staged not only to make others, but also themselves, enter a dream world?
What the pictures don't show is that each of these dream world designers made a right stressed impression. It's not so easy to stage yourself when several others want to do the exact same thing in the same place. Just as I have tried, only that I am the leading actress behind the scene. Same same, but different.
Bali is driven to the point of unrecognisability of "normal" tourism, not an issue. What you experience there is distorted into the ridiculous. The island is beautiful and is being devalued by tourism. But obviously not only there. I am fascinated by the question (from a psychological point of view) what motivates people to put so much effort and energy into pretending a perfect world and a perfect existence, when they could use the same energy to actually make things better and therefore more beautiful, just for themselve?
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