Since some time, I have been observing how the approach to travel is changing and how different people may have different preferences when it comes to going somewhere. Where I work, we dedicate a lot of time to figuring out how to make long-distance travel easier for people. We aim to organize transfers so that travelers can easily change from a plane to a train or other means and reach different destinations, those beyond mainstream. The fact, that I travel much for leisure, besides my regular profession which is all about transport infrastructure, gives me other and more practical perspective to what I do professionaly.
Still, a harsh discussion has erupted in my country all about the project I am currently involved in, to construct a modern airport with a high-speed railway stations just beneath it. The amount of hatred against the project on social media is astonishing. Many people, including top politicians, think that their way and motivations for traveling are the only ones. They think, that because they travel they know everything about travelling and travelling needs. But they often refer to something I would call fast travel, which has flooded Europe recently with overcrowding to the extremes, and in some places became unbearable.
The extreme crowds of tourists have caused many historical cities in Europe to suffer from overtourism. The balance between livability and overcrowding has been distorted. Apart from the crowds in Europe’s most prominent historical cities like Rome, Paris, or London, extreme numbers of tourists can be noticed in many beautiful historical towns across Europe.
A photo I made in winter 2017 inside the Louvre in Paris, one of probably the most visited cities in Europe. The Louvre alone is visited by over 9 million people yearly, which means that on average over 24 thousand people visit it on a single day. I still did not upload photos I made a month ago in the Vatican Museums (Rome), which was also off the high-season, but the crowds had been comparable to those on the photo. When you enter such an overcrowded place, you barely hear your thoughts. We were told that if you want to escape from overcrowding and indeed enjoy the Museums, you need to come there in January.
The emergence of cheap air connections between regional airports in Europe and short-term apartment rentals has encouraged many people to take short trips with minimal luggage. It’s about weekend getaways to beautiful European historical towns, where people can spend time walking around and eating in restaurants serving local cuisine. Some getaways, especially among younger communities, are purely for fun and accompanied by drinking parties that last until the early morning. It’s best if there is a good air or ferry connection to a given place, point-to-point. You take a morning plane on Saturday or a late afternoon plane on Friday, reach the destination, party, sleep out, or even not, and make your way to catch the return plane on Sunday late afternoon or evening. It does no matter that the destination is a couple of hundreds or even a thousand kilometers away from home. Some destinations have become victims of their own fame. Besides overcrowding, tourists coming for entertainment purposes can be a real torment for local residents. Firstly, through short-term rentals, the rents are increasing for local residents. Secondly, the nights are loud for them in their own homes. Not to mention unbearable crowds.
The historical town of Gdańsk, a city in Northern Poland at the Baltic Sea. Yet another photo made off Summer season, in 2016 as I can recall. Besides Polish residents, it is one of the weekend getaway locations for Europeans from the Nordic countries and Germany. They come by plane and by ferries to spend a weekend or just a couple of days there. For some North Europeans, a visit to this city is not only about taking a walk and eating in local restaurants, but also often combined with shopping – alcohol is much cheaper and more accessible in Poland than in the North. Gdańsk’s historical town (or main city) is, however, only a small fraction of the entire city, so the majority of its inhabitants do not suffer from overcrowding. Still, those living in the main city do. In 2021 I spent a week there in September. As far as I can recall, the night silence lasts there maybe for three or four hours. This year I was told the in the historical town overcrowding was at some days unbearable.
Another problem is the crowds of ferry and coach tours that come for a few hours, not using any accommodation infrastructure, sometimes only visiting restaurants, and rarely exploring interiors where they would pay an entrance fee. In such cases, city residents are also impatient with tourists, as this kind of fast travel brings unbearable overcrowding but no income for the local community. And we talk here a thousand people or so arriving and leaving at same time.
The main square of the city of Bruges in Belgium. It is visited by 8 million tourists each year, and the most of them are day tourists, not sleeping in the city. The city is one the best-preserved medieval cities in the World, and it is huge when compared to other historical cities in Europe with many local residents living in the area. Many tourists come there by coach or by train, but the real problem are cruise ships. I must admit, I was there only for six or seven hours once, making a short city break while I had a job in Brussels and had to stay in Brussels over the weekend. With a relatively short distance and good train connection to Brussels, it would not make sense in my case to move for one night only from Brussels to Bruges and back. Still, I heard this year measures had been taken to cut back the number of cruise ships able to dock at nearby Zeebrugge port from five a day to just two to cut overcrowding. Cruise companies had been also asked to dock during the week rather than at weekends to help spread the crowds.
These extremes also have consequences for those who like to travel around Europe to sightsee, learn history, eat something from the local cuisine, and stay somewhere for a while to enjoy a place. You either have to learn to avoid these crowds or look for interesting places but away from the mainstream ones. Fortunately, there are still many of the latter in Europe. The problem is that it is difficult to get there. Slow traveling, as I call it, is not only about quick airport-to-airport jumping. It is about traveling itself. It is not about getting up too early in the morning to catch a plane, it is not about getting quickly through the airport. It is about enjoing travel through all stages of the journey.
This year, excluding business trips, I have been on the road for over a month, and it was indeed slow travel. In the summer season, I went to the Northern Europe, in early autumn I was at the Baltic Sea and North of Warsaw and in late autumn I went to Southern Italy, knowing in all cases that good weather was not guaranteed. However, the comfort of traveling, sightseeing, and simply spending time in one or another city while on the road allowed me not only to have time to look around, see things that I wouldn’t see when sightseeing in a hurry, but also to relax. It wasn’t about traveling with chronic lack of sleep and on adrenaline. It’s simply impossible to see everything and be everywhere. I think you realize this with time and experience. Then you learn patience and to let go. Quickly posting photos on social media has passed me by a long time ago as well. Besides, I haven’t used them for years. But to travel so, probably for the first time in my life, I needed to combine many means of transport, from aircraft, through trains, a ferry, a coach, busess to the own and rented car.
One of those places off mainstream travel routes in Europe I visited this year is Tallinn. Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia, a small Baltic country in Northern Europe. I spent altogether four nights there, including a one day citybreak by ferry to Helsinki (Finland). The historic city of Tallinn is situated on a hill, only four kilometers from the local airport reachable in about twenty to twenty-five minutes by bus. The city is far from the splendid European cities, even like the neighboring capital Riga (Latvia), but being there you really are in the originally medieval town, with very high and well preserved defense walls. The city was first mentioned in 1154 and has been influenced by various cultures, including Danish, German, and Russian.
The Tallinn historical town is divided into two parts: Toompea, the upper town, and All-linn, the lower town. Toompea is home to the Estonian Parliament and several historic landmarks, including Toompea Castle and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. All-linn features medieval buildings, squares, and landmarks such as Town Hall Square, St. Olaf’s Church, and the medieval city walls. You can walk there the narrow streets up and down the hill, that are full with people but by far not overcrowded, and enjoy your time. You can see that the architectural protection measures are taken in this city, but it is not brought to the extremes as you can sometimes see in Europe. Most of the buildings are covered by plaster, but sometimes small fractions of their walls are uncovered to show the medieval stone structure. I was of the impression that despite many tourists the place is fully livable. Besides, the city is very safe. Even the doors to the office of the prime minister are open, and no guards are stationed in front of it.
I will probabely write more posts on Tallinn as up to recently besides only a few political facts about Estonia I had no idea of it, and I would like simply learn more. Still now just a glympse of Tallins’s historical city in a small gallery of photos.
Just a few shots taken in Tallinn. Although they were taken in the middle of summer, it was not a problem to capture photos where you barely see people. It does not mean that there are no tourists there, but this historic city still maintains a balance between overcrowding and livability.
