Expat Adventure: Playing Tourist in Your Home Town

by Miss Footloose

When you live abroad, visiting home as an expat can be fun (or difficult or stressful, but I’m going with fun here.) How do you see your home town? Do you have a camera? One of these fancy digital numbers? You most likely take photos of the foreign places where you live or visit. It’s all so foreign, beautiful, weird, exotic.

Street in Sneek

Just a street in my home town

Then you go on home leave to your own country and you visit with family and friends and you go shopping for underwear and you watch dumb local stuff on TV and you never take a single picture. Because, well, it’s the place you are familiar with, the place you visit often. There’s nothing particularly exciting about it except it is home and it feels good to be there.

But then one day . . .

I was visiting my family in the Netherlands, in the small northern town of Sneek (creepily pronounced snake), the town where I was born. I don’t know where the idea came from, but I had the sudden urge to take my camera and wander around and see what there was to see. Here’s what happened:

Seeing things

It’s early Monday morning and my man and I are taking a walk around town. It’s quiet because most of the shops don’t open until 1:00 in the afternoon. This is to make up for being open part of Saturday. How else are you going to have two days off in the week? Sundays many commercial establishments are closed as well. It’s all about work-life balance, so they say, but the balance is a-changing.

I see a lovely old building and snap a picture. I’ve walked by here countless times, but never actually noticed it. As I am taking various shots from different angles, a woman walks by. Stops. Points at the building.

“I work here,” she says. “On the second floor. See the stained glass at the top of the windows? When the sun comes shining through the colors slide across my desk. It’s so beautiful!”

“Oh, how nice!” I say, pleased to have her tell me this. She smiles and walks on, away from the building. Maybe she’s out running an errand.

And there’s a jail!

We stroll around a corner and come upon the old jail, anno 1841. It’s not a stunning building architecturally speaking. I’m focusing my camera but I’m not bowled over by its charm. An old man on his bike comes pedaling along. Stops, get off his bike, watches me. He points behind me.

“Over there in that house,” he says, “the biggest communist in the country lived there.”

I’m not sure what to do with this information. “Really?” I say brightly.

He nods. “And then they came to arrest him.” He grins, allowing a pregnant pause. A story teller, he is. Then he points at the jail. “But his son was the jail warden!”

I laugh. “Good story,” I say. Grandpa nods with satisfaction, gets back on the saddle and pedals away. He has enlightened the tourist.

No problem spending time here

So I take a picture of the jail anyway, to honor him and his story. It’s a café these days, aptly called Alcatraz, decorated, I read later, like a jail. Really now, that shouldn’t have been a major renovation.

Teaching the tourist

On we go, with me snapping pictures. And would you believe, another man, also on a bike, quite an old man, stops and starts telling me a story too. Something about the Second World War and the Germans. But I don’t quite get the point of it. What I do get the point of is the fact that in all the years I’ve come here, no one just stops and talks to me out of the blue. My camera is what makes them think I must be a tourist and need edification. What did I tell you? Visiting home as an expat can be fun.

A few days later I’m sorting through a rack of T-shirts on the sidewalk outside a clothing store. They’re dirt cheap and they clearly want them gone. Grandpa number three is leaning back against the shop window and watches me, probably notices my camera hanging around my neck. I’ve been snapping pictures of the street.

“Those are for poor people,” he tells me, indicating the clothes.

He must be joking. I smile at him. “But I can look, right?”

“They’re for poor people,” he says again, and I realize he’s not joking. He’s a bit . . . confused. Or, as my mother would say in Dutch, hij heeft een steekje los, he’s got a little stitch loose.

How blind I was

For two weeks I take my camera along every time I go into town. Somehow I see now what I never saw before: beautiful buildings, canals, streets, bridges, bicycles, people.

 

The photo above was taken at sunset. The bridge is from 1887. The buildings in the background are babies. Notice the sunlight reflected in the windows. I must confess it was my man who pointed this scene out to me. I clicked the camera.

 

Dutch terrace

Above: The Dutch love to linger on terraces with a beer, a coffee or a glass of wine. It’s one of my favorite things to do where ever I go.

Bicycles. Are you kidding me?

Do you think that as a Dutch person it would have ever occurred to me to take a picture of bicycles?

Is there art in a bunch of bikes?

It took me years of being an expat and living abroad to learn to see the fun in a bunch of bikes. Yes, they’re useful, convenient and cheap transportation — I did know that.

After bikes come boats

Sneek water sport town

Sneek is a well known water sports center, especially famous for its sailing events. Lakes galore, boats galore. I’m lucky to be here during Sneekweek (gruesomely pronounced Snake wake), a week of big sailing races and partying. The town is throbbing with people who have come here for the festivities. The young ones live on their boats and party half the night.

Bad boys

One day I’m shopping with my mother and near the supermarket I see two hunky guys with bare chests pushing a shopping cart along the street away from the store. It’s loaded with nothing but cases of soft drinks and beer, a tower of cases they have to steady with their hands to prevent the lot from crashing to the ground.

My mother is not amused. “They won’t bring that cart back, you know. They’ll just leave it sitting there along the canal somewhere.”

What’s wrong with being nuts?

Another day I’m at the open street market and watch two tall guys strolling along in identical ankle-length blue bathrobes, looking real casual. Bathrobes in the street in the middle of the morning. People are watching, laughing. “Sailors, just off the boat,” somebody says, rolling his eyes. I’m dying to take their picture but my courage fails me. I’m gutless when it comes to photographing people I don’t know. It seems sort of rude to stick a camera in someone’s face, don’t you think? Even if they’re nut cases like these two. I’ll never make it as a papparazza.

“Hey!” the flower vendor calls out to them. “Going to have a shower, are you?”

The guys laugh and disappear into a store. I decide I’ll wait for them to come out. A few moments later they do, turn back in the other direction and I follow them to their car parked nearby.

“Tell me,” I say brazenly, “are you walking around like that for a reason, a cause, a charity?”

They laugh. “No.”

“Then why?”

One of the guys shrugs as he opens the car door. “Why not?”

I have no good answer for that so I point my camera instead. “May I take your picture?”

“Sure. Do I have to smile?”

“Not if you don’t want to.” And I snap. And here’s the result.

Dutch boy

Looks like they were parking in a handicapped space, shame on them.

Smooching in the dark

On my last day in town I go out a little too late in the day to take a photo of the Waterpoort, which is a fancy old bridge that is the proud symbol of Sneek, built around 1492. Pictures and post cards with its image are everywhere. I should have gone earlier, so what you see here is a bit dark. (You can click here to see a daylight picture by a brighter photographer.)

The Waterpoort has special significance for me. My parents used to hide in the corners when they were young, after the curfew hour imposed by the Germans during the Second World War. Hide and smooch in the dark. It gave them a thrill, a dangerous one. You really didn’t want to get caught after curfew.

So I stand there in the failing light, snapping away at my parents’ old make-out place, and a couple comes strolling by, walking hand in hand. The man turns around and grins at me. “They’ve got postcards, you know,” he informs me.

“I know,” I say. “But I want my own pictures.”

And so, dear readers, here you have them. What do you think?

***
We are so used to seeing old, familiar surroundings, we often don’t appreciate them. Have you ever come back to your home town and seen it with new eyes? Or through the eyes of someone else — a friend, a child? What were your impressions? What had you been taken for granted?

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“The Dutch love to linger on terraces with a beer, a coffee or a glass of wine. It’s one of my favorite things to do where ever I go.”
I think all Europeans like to do just that! including me. Unfortunately, in the US we don’t really have time for it.
I enjoyed reading your story and reminded me to get out my camera more often.
-Ernie-

kobico

I have just returned home, and I must admit the thing I appreciate most is being able to sleep in the comfort of my own bed. I do try to carry a camera wherever I go, a habit I had in college and recently revived, even when I am at home. When my boyfriend and I first met, I tried to show him my home and the local area through photos (I am from California and he lives in southern Germany). You are right, things we see frequently can often seem too mundane. It was difficult to try to figure… Read more »

“Do you think that as a Dutch person it would have ever occurred to me to take a picture of bicycles? It took me years of being an expat to learn to see the fun in a bunch of bikes. Yes, they’re useful, convenient and cheap transportation, and I did know that.”

It did to me last summer, after so many years, and apparently it’s THE thing to publish about 😉

Nice post!

Marc, a Dutch native :-p

Lovely photos. And how hilarious that people kept coming up to you to talk!

That photo of the grumpy bathrobe-clad young man is hilarious!

Since I joined the meme Show your world, I take photos of my surroundings for these posts. It’s a wonderful way of recording all those details you might have missed otherwise.

I really enjoy playing the tourist at home now and am constantly finding amazing things…

You are so lucky: my hometown (Riverside, California) is nowhere near as beautiful as Sneek. I love the idea of being a tourist in your own town: the last time I went back to my hometown, my sister and I went to a Mexican restaurant my family patronized throughout my childhood; my father was friends with the owner and ate his last meal there. The waitress wanted to know what country I was from. She was flabbergasted when I told her we shared a hometown. And I’ll bet she was disappointed, too. When I lived in the Netherlands, I lived… Read more »

Just visiting Stil enjoy reading post and I can so relate to this one. I never made photos of my hometown/country but when in Holland I made lots also fotos form bikes and mills which I never would have done before.
I probably also wanted to take a piece with me. Loved yor stories and I still love the dutch sense of humor and of course sitting on a terras. I never was homesick but since my last visit I am a little
Sneek looks beautiful

What a fantastic idea! I’m going to do it also one of these days. I love you photo of the surly man.

This was such a lovely visit!!!
I am not sure I have a hometown. I am afraid I have moved so much, beginning in my early childhood, I often feel rootless. However, I have lived in many great places!

I don’t have to take many photos, my husband’s always taking them. How funny that everyone assumed that you were a tourist. I enjoyed your shots, you’re really good!

You always make me feel the place. It reminded me of when I visited Copenhagen, where I was born. I’m always with my best friend though and don’t look around as much as I should as we have so much to catch up on. What I like is the “hygge” cosy atmosphere at the outdoor coffee shops, and the pastries that people still eat with their coffee etc.

Interesting angle…I love taking photos of where I am and capturing the moment, wherever that is…

Nice to meet you Ms Expat 🙂

Those a beautiful photos and what a wonderful story about your home town. I think we all need to do that.

Linked here from BTOW. Great photos and comments of your travels through your home country. I visited there years ago and loved it!

Naw … the picture of Waterpoort is great! Nice and moody! I like it.

Louise-with-the-highly-creative-child: Glad you like my post! Go ahead, post about your hometown.

Warren Baldwin: If it weren’t for the wet and windy climate, the Netherlands would be a perfect country 😉

Louise-in-Italy: Thanks for the compliment! Moody, that’s it!

Thanks for commenting, everybody!

Great photos! Love the post. I can’t identify quite with your experience as I’ve never lived away but I have had the opportunity to show friends around who had never been here and I took them to places I had never been because they were touristy area. But they were historic and I enjoyed seeing them for the first time!

That was a fascinating tour! Thanks for taking us along! How fun that you changed the way you look at things. Maybe we all should!

The Dutch seems so friendly and I really miss the smiles and nods of strangers here.

wFancy living in such a fabulous spot and never realising how good it would look through a lens!

I guess I’d better take my camera uptown, but I won’t find anything as good as this!

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