Over the past year or so in which I have traveled around bits of Europe, lived in London for awhile, and have settled for the time being in Edinburgh, I have become accustomed to walking down crowded streets. 'Become accustomed to' here having the meaning "become increasingly aware of how stressful it is".
Edinburgh at the moment is particularly bad for crowds as it is celebrating its annual festival and accompanying Fringe Festival. So the streets are packed with bumbling tourists, people persistently handing out flyers and giving a full preview 2 minute to their shows, people dressed in weird wacky costumes, and all sorts of street performers and musicians. Most of the time I find it all fascinating, and like a tourist I take tons of photos. When I am trying to get anywhere e.g. the library, grocery store, or to a specific show on time it is a pedestrian's nightmare.
At some point within the last month to counter my mounting sidewalk rage I made weaving through crowds into an art. It is an art of grace, awareness and predicting probabilities. One must maintain more than 180 degrees visibility while observing the body language of specific individuals who might prove an obstacle. As well there are infinite chain reaction occurring at any second. For instance, someone could stop to pick something up causing the person behind them to veer to the left, causing the person behind them to veer even further to the left, causing me who is walking towards this last veerer to have to veer right from the previously unoccupied space and possibly into someone who is walking perpendicular to all this.
One must be aware of all this while walking at top speed, keeping in mind the quickest routes to one's destination, and refraining from shouldering past people who are ambling about aimlessly.
Naturally this art form soon evolved into a video game. There are plus and minus points, pit stops, level ups for reaching different points, and just as there are koopa troopas, boos, bullets, and those weird creatures that mario stomps on, there are varying foes and obstacles in my game.
1. The Bumbling Tourist. Often uncertain of where they are, the biggest threats posed by the tourist are halting abruptly right in front of you in order to gawk at something or slowing their pace to a crawl in order to look in the window of a store without adjourning considerately to the side. They also like to take pictures, and you may lose up to 5 points for walking right in front of what would have been a good shot. But you may gain 5 points if they ask for directions or information that you are able to give.
2. The Indecisive Group. Obviously groups take up whole sidewalks and are only as fast as their slowest walker. They are usually talking and oblivious to your existence. Minus 10 points for prolonged entanglement in a group which has just exited a pub and is ambling in the most uncertain way cause they did not collectively decide where to go next before hand.
3. The Awkward Encounter. This is my least favorite and has likely happened to me 5 times in the past few days. You and another fellow pedestrian are walking toward each other. Simultaneously you both shift to the side so as to avoid a collision, but upon seeing that you've both shifted to the same direction, you both shift uncomfortably in the other direction. Now you're stuck and any good will either of you had is dissipated. You're now so near each other that you have to stop but you both continue shifting uncertain of which path the other is to take. Bumbling tourists gawk in amusement. This spasm contest, continues until one of you hits overload, goes haywire, and their robot head comes crashing to the ground. The victor may now take whichever path they choose but they cannot entirely shrug off the awkwardness. Minus 1000 points either way!
Yes, I have suffered as a pedestrian in recent times. So much so that I became cynical about the human race's ability to walk amidst each other in peace. The other day though something amazing happened right in the kitchen of the hostel where I am staying. On average, the kitchen is the most frustratingly crowded of rooms in which people are the least aware of each others' space. This could only be described though as poetry in motion.
I was intending to walk across the kitchen to get to the counter at a diagonal angle to the right. But spotting that there was a girl headed towards the sink right in front of me from across the room I decided without pausing to walk straight past the sink and then to the right. Once I got halfway across the sink though the door in front of me opened and i had to swerve suddenly to the right so that the guy entering could walk straight on. Meanwhile the girl, whose path i had just swerved through just as suddenly swerved to the left to avoid me and the guy swerved to the left so that the girl could reach the sink and he could carry on to the cupboards. All of this happening within two seconds while we all moved at top speed and with no hesitation. It was beautiful.
I initially had diagrams handcrafted on Paint to demonstrate this more clearly, however, I could not attach it to the blog. In any case a diagram could better describe the physical action of the event but only words can attempt to convey the connection that transpired when we all moved seemingly as one. It was as though in that moment our minds were together communicating our movements to each other with perfect clarity. There was no room for confusion, anger, or apologies. In that compact space there was only room for our bodies to move with confidence and grace. It restored my faith in human's ability to.......move.
Perhaps words cannot properly convey the magnificence of it all. Perhaps its something only the three of us may appreciate. I have not walked in the same room as these two people since, but I have no doubt that they look back on that time with the same fondness and satisfaction as I.
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