Being a tourist in your own home town

It is always amazing how many people move overseas with the grand intention of travelling to all the exotic destination in the nearby or not so nearby vicinities.
Speak to them a year later, and more often than not, they may have been out from their town once or twice, but it will invariably not be anywhere near the intended amount. Ask them what they have done in the town that they are now living in? ... very little - after all, they live there now :)

I have this plan that I want to be a tourist in my own home town (which is for the moment, Plzen). The week-end starts to approach and the internet sites are smoking up a storm, retrieving every last shred of tourist information. The only problem right now, is that we are in a state of some climatically enforced limbo. It is not cold enough for the winter tourism (skiing - hoohaaa) and not Spring enough for the summer tourism. Most of the castles and chateauxs only open in April, including in-town tours and sightseeing. Ask the locals what they would recommend doing ... the response is always, "nothing really until the spring".

Well, failing formal tours and sightseeing excursions, I have now planned to open the map book of Plzen in the mornings, look for someplace we haven't been yet (which is most of Plzen); or look for a park or a dam; find the bus routes that will get us there and just have an outing. This morning I was all geared up that we would explore along our little river towards the north and find the nearby sports club that has the tennis courts. Not even 50 metres along the river and Sarah is already complaining that she is tired and she wants to go to the park. Well, we managed to go another few metres, long enough to find out that the entrance to the sports club is on the other side of the railway line and that we would anyway have to go back the way we came to find it. The end result is that we ended up at the kids play park next to our house and sat on the park bench watching the girls clamber about the jungle gym. At least we now know what 100m north up the river looks like and that tomorrow when we go looking for the entrance to the sports club, we will explore another new road. Tomorrow, we are also planning to do the Plzensky Prazdroj brewery and museum tour at my work (at least that is open all year round).

Digressing entirely: This morning when we woke up, I mused to Colin: "how about a cross the border trip next weekend?". The answer, as predicted, was "sure, why not!" (this has become quite common now for any new or radical suggestion). Now, from Plzen, cross the border has so many new meanings. The first question, is "which country?" There are so many to choose from.... So, the whole morning and the entire evening, I have spent online looking for an answer to that question. The first thought was Germany, we are only 70kms from the border. So, we researched places of interest near the Czech republic, then how we would get there (planes, trains or automobiles?). Then, while looking at the bus trips, the price for Prague to Vienna scrolled by for CZK300 and then there was suddenly a whole new thought - what about going to Vienna? So another frantic search frenzy - and we now have 2 very possible options for the week-end and 2 very detailed budgets for each scenario (sorry, can't take the project manager out of me on any given Sunday ;). It looks at this stage that our favour is towards Vienna - I mean - just how divine can you get!

But seriously, have you ever considered the fact that we travel thousands of kms to a new destination, to look up tourist information about sightseeing tours and interesting sights. But how many of us have ever done that for our own home town and actually pretended to be a tourist for a week-end. Next time I am in SA, how about we go for a shebeen tour to Soweto?