The Difference Between Tourists and Travellers

I once found myself cycling the many hundreds of kilometres separating Split from Zagreb. Along the way I saw many road signs informing me of the distance until a certain national park called “Plitvička Jezera”. I became curious as to why this place was so famous. When I arrived I noticed the parking lot was filled with busses and private vehicles with license plates from countries across Europe. Tourists were ambling back and forth with their day packs filled and cameras hanging around their necks. When I got to the gate I was informed that I needed a ticket to enter. At that moment I realized I was longer interested in seeing this park. I did not even need to know the price of admission. I had already seen so many beautiful places on my journey for free that I found it absurd that these people would flock to the one place that had a price. Just because they were told that this is THE beautiful place and it has to be good if it costs something right?

Every city is littered with these so-called attractions that offer an instagramable activity in exchange for a superficially inflated amount of money. This morning during breakfast I was asked: “So what is there to do here?” I realized that I never ask myself this question. I find the sights, sounds, smells and energies of the various places I visit to be more satisfactory than any paid attraction. I suppose this and the length of time spent on the road defines the difference between tourists and travellers.