Being a tourist

Say you're a tourist in a city. What makes your trip memorable? Is it the sight of the world-famous monuments, buildings and the tourist spots? They are certainly part of your plan. But I think it's the people that you meet along your way that makes it more interesting. Otherwise, you would find the whole experience of just visiting tourist attractions quite dry. I thought so, after my two days in Belgium. Recalling my experience in Belgium, there was the Nepali man in the town of Leuven who immediately started speaking in hindi after being asked about directions, people who translated the oral instructions being given in Dutch on the Leuven railway platform to English for me, people from various countries that I talked to at the workshop, an Indian guy who said "I can speak hindi", after two of us were talking in English for a while, the German girl at my dinner table at the workshop with whom I chatted, the taxi driver who warned me about pocket-picketers in Brussels and the lady in salwar-kameez selling samosas in a shop right in front of my hotel. If I think about what would I take back, memories of people come to my mind first. The churches, the buildings, the roads, the sights were all interesting to see, but those won't give me recurring happiness or memories. They will quickly fade away. What about the experience of talking to people? I don't think I am going to forget that.