fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2190 ]

[ SECRET POST #2190 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2190 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

__________________________________________________

07.

__________________________________________________

08.

__________________________________________________

09.

__________________________________________________

10.

__________________________________________________

11.

__________________________________________________

12.

__________________________________________________

13.

__________________________________________________

14.

__________________________________________________

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 064 secrets from Secret Submission Post #313.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 2 3 4 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A friend from China is coming to visit me in UK at the end of January, and the things she wants to see and has heard of are generally not the things I'd have thought to show her.

She wants to go to Madame Tussauds and visit Lincoln for the cathedral. She's keen to shop in London, and wants to go to Selfridges but hasn't heard of Harrods. She really wants to go to Stratford upon Avon, but was rather nonplussed when I asked about Edinburgh.

I'm perfectly happy to take her where she wants to go, but I would equally like to use my experience to show her around.
Museums and the Dungeon over MT; York rather than Lincoln; Harrods, Liberty and Fortnum and Mason as well as Selfridges*; the literary tours, and other sights, of Edinburgh.

Anyway, it made me think. Has anyone else experienced this? In your experience is it better to show people what they want to see or what you think they'll enjoy? Do visitors to your area seem to want to see not the wrong things, but not the best things either?

*Maybe even Rigby and Peller

Do a mix.

Some things you want to see, because you have heard about it. And it might be what you want to get out of a trip. Even if it isn't necessarily the most interesting.

If you go to Paris you want to see the Eiffel Tower and so on. Then again some of my favourite travelling memories is when I randomly ended up somewhere. Like the time I went ice skating right by The London Eye, when my friend and I where supposed to go to a Musical.

I think my surprise was that some of the things she wants to see I wouldn't have thought of as 'Eiffel Towers'. Thanks for your comment, a mixture it is. :-)

Seconding the mix idea.

Going places she wants to can be a really cool experience for you, too. The last time I visited my in-laws, my husband and I took his mother with us to all the touristy places in their small (US) city. I had read up on all the museums and places of interest but they'd never been to any of them and in most cases had never even heard of them. While we were going from place to place, they pointed other things out to me that they wouldn't have thought to if they had been going past them and it reminded them of all kinds of anecdotes they'd have never shared otherwise. We also ended up going to all kinds of places none of us had thought to before. Usually on my visits we just hang around their house and only go out to restaurants a few times and run to the grocery store and stuff like that. It was so cool to do other things on that trip and we all had a lot of fun.

That sounds like a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing :-) I'm really looking forward to showing her around.

Part of visiting a new place is going to the things you've heard about so you can tell the folks back home, "Yeah, I went there!" and they know what you're talking about. So I'm echoing the mix idea - let her get her tourist on, but also coax her into going to a few locally-known places.

When my partner came to visit me in California, I spent time taking him to the well-known things (amusement parks, mostly) and I did add some of the local spots, but to this day, I'm still sad I never took him to In-N-Out or a roadside fruit stand. I totally plan to when we go back, but yeah - you should totally add in the non-touristy spots!

Yeah, I'm looking forward to doing a mixture. I think I was more surprised at what she had picked, if I was thinking "touristy UK" I wouldn't have necessarily guessed at what she's thinking, but I think that's part of the trouble. It's hard to see what your environment looks like to an outsider.

I would want to see the buffalo wing factory, the world's tallest pile of road salt, and the mall.

There is something about the phrase "buffalo wing factory" that sits very oddly with me.

1) Why should buffalo have wings?
2) Why should we need a factory to make them, surely the buffalo could achieve that themselves

What an excellent question! I've been on both sides of the equation: when I go to visit friends, I try to let them lead the way, but I usually come armed with a few "must do" things just in case they're feeling swamped and don't want to play tour guide for me. When people come to my hometown, I always try to take them off the beaten path, since there are so many things that they can do in other places (i.e. chain stores, similar restaurants, etc.) But I've had that backfire on me, too. One time, when my in-laws came to visit, I was taking them to all the cool local places I'd found and my mother-in-law asked me privately later if we could, in fact, do some of the big touristy things so that my brother-in-law would be more entertained.

So I guess the roundabout answer here is start out with the things that your friend wants to do. I mean, she's the one making the huge trip, and she may her heart set on places for a reason. Wait and see what her reaction is like: is she totally happy with all her choices? If not, or if she's making noises about being disappointed, then you can use your own cool knowledge and swoop in and save the day. Either way though, isn't it going to be fun hanging out with your friend? :)

(P.S. Selfridges but not Harrods? I'm as confused as you are.)

Thanks for sharing. Oh yes it's going to be awesome spending time with her. I think I'm so excited that I'm desperate to make it brilliant, and am overthinking it a little; I hope that when she gets here we'll relax into it.

I've taken everyone's comments on board, I'll make sure we arrange for teh things she really wants to do, but she's here for almost 4 weeks so I'm going to take a couple of days to show her some thigns I think she'll enjoy. I'm not going to be so mean as to drag her around London pointing out the gift shop that is on the site of the bank Sherlock Holmes used and other hidden "gems" of the fannish mind, but there's plenty else to entertain.

And I will definitely be taking her to Harrods :-)

You're only avoiding taking her to Lincoln because Lincoln itself is boring. I see your ploy!

(It's okay, I live in Lincoln. I think it's boring, too.)

Hehe, honestly it's not that.

I was just rather surprised when she asked to go there. I asked why and she said she wanted to see the cathedral. If someone had asked me for famous UK cathedrals/cathedral towns, until that moment Lincoln would not have been top of my list.

Still, I've never been so it could be a fun experience for both of us.

:-)

When my American cousins came over (to England) we were walking through the park and they were all
"What's that broken wall?"
"What?"
"That broken wall that's fenced off right in the middle of the park."
"Oh that. That a roman wall." *looks at sign* "Oh it as built in 275 AD. That's nice."
Cue them being pretty amazed ("Your country is old!" and "It's just sitting here? Why isn't it protected/in a museum?") and demanding to be shown round all the ruins in my town that I'd never really looked at twice.

The moral of this rambling story is- honestly a tourist might be interested in things we consider normal, because it's not normal for them.

My advice is let her go to the places she wants to, but also list off some usual sights too. A day in London never hurts.

Thanks for sharing, I'm feeling really good about doing a mixture of stuff with her now.

And I can do evil things with a day in London

- Gift shop that used to be the bank Sherlock Holmes banked in? Check
- UK's smallest police station, now used as a cleaners' cupboard? Check
- Previous site of my favourite bookshop? What do you mean you're not interested?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #2190 ]

If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?

Re: If you were visiting your country/area what would you want to see?