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Traveling has a way of making us curious. We wander through unknown streets, we strike up conversations with strangers, we sit in museums and we see details that we would have quickly passed over. But that attitude doesn’t need to be reserved for the holidays. below, Atlantic writers and editors share their advice on how to rediscover the areas they know best.
Stop at your nearest ethnic restaurant. This is on my mind because the World Cup just ended, and for each day of the tournament, I tried a dish from one of the countries playing that day. Over the course of 32 days, I ate food from 32 different places (the last one was the first time I had to repeat, eat Argentinian food again), mostly without leaving the Washington, DC area.
Every day, I felt like I was taking a new journey. Two blocks from where my kids go to school, I found an Uzbek restaurant that I never knew existed. I entered the Egyptian compound down the street from my house which I had previously ignored. When I went to a Haitian restaurant one evening, I felt like I had been transported to Port-au-Prince. I had Senegalese food for the first time. I gave a sample kebabs in a Bosnian restaurant and spring spring soup in Paraguay.
In doing so, I saw my neighborhood in a whole new light and discovered what surprises are around the corner even in the most familiar places.
– Matt Viser, staff writer
***
One way to see where you live through new eyes is to borrow someone else’s. When a friend visits me from out of town, I will give them a little time, according to custom, to stretch their legs and get their bearings. Then they’d better score, because I’m going to go into tour guide mode. Did my college friend who drove from Baltimore trade for the whirlwind circuit of my not-so-interesting hometown in Delaware? It doesn’t matter. The trivia and insider stories I’ve collected over the years will spread with quick enthusiasm and questionable accuracy. (“You see that hill over there? General Washington once climbed it looking for the British, saw nothing, and went back down.”)
Landmarks that I haven’t visited in years will be rediscovered. Drinks and subpar nachos will be shared under the shelves of the tavern where surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon once dined. Of course, my friend will ask questions about my hometown that I never thought to ask. We will go find the answers. And new local knowledge will be collected, which future visitors will one day take back.
– Will Oremus, staff writer
***
I live in Chicago—which means there’s no shortage of places to try and things to see. However, getting stuck in the routine of going to the same neighborhood can be easy. One way I’ve found to break out of that pattern is to start using new experiences for something I already have to do: I’ll visit the nearest coffee shop after getting my driver’s license renewed downtown, I’ll take the L train to get dinner early enough to walk in an unfamiliar area, I’ll pop into a new grocery store after working out to go to a local class, or a trail out to the lake. It’s a hassle-free way to discover new parts of the city without the pressure of planning an entire trip—and it makes even the most mundane activities more exciting.
– Katie Anthony, assistant editor
***
I have always found it easier to meet strangers while traveling than at home. Airplanes are like dive bars, in that inside these dimly lit, dimly lit spaces where drinks are regularly served, you might find yourself making friends with someone sitting at 32C. My brother once asked to borrow a laptop charger from a stranger at the airport, and somehow, that stranger ended up at my next birthday party. In new cities, taxi drivers and tour guides become temporary friends.
So why not recreate that transparency at home? Throw a party and tell people to bring more. Use the peeled bananas to make bread for the neighbor you haven’t met yet. Buy a coffee from the person standing in front of you in line at the cafe. Or here’s a silly idea: Ask a stranger for directions—even if you already know where you’re going. Perhaps they will send you a new path that you would not have chosen yourself.
– Lila Shroff, staff writer
***
This week, I’m visiting my hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for my grandfather’s 90th birthday. I come here at least three times a year, so I’m used to the same routine: my daily one o’clock walk around the neighborhood, pickleball with my very competitive and knowledgeable dad, a trip to Franklin Street to reminisce about my college days, and so on.
The new thing in this trip is the addition of my six-month-old son. He’s at a fun age where, with Carolina’s bright, blue eyes, he sees his surroundings and knows he’s somewhere. unknown but comfortable. Bringing her along for all of my Chapel Hill activities has given me a new perspective on coming home. By going with him to the indoor pool, put him in a new one He is not here Oneshie of the Blue Cup, and seeing as many families with him as possible, I relive my hometown through his eyes. As my son listens and hears about North Carolina, I gain a deeper appreciation for my upbringing and for my own parents, who created those traditions for me.
– Michael Leibel, editor-in-chief
***
Visit the city. A long time ago, I spent several summers working as a tour guide and bus driver in Alaska, where I would lead tours of Anchorage and Valdez. Whenever a local would come in (usually with family from out of town), I would be nervous, afraid they would be bored or that I might find some truth. Instead, I almost always heard that they had left with a new perspective on a place they passed every day or had always intended to visit.
You don’t even need out-of-towners as an excuse—just hop on a bus or tour boat for the day, and you’re sure to see something you’d have overlooked before.
– Alan Taylor, editor-in-chief
Here are three Sunday lessons from Atlantic:
Week Ahead
- Spider-Man: A Brand New Dayabout what happens to Peter Parker after the world forgets he exists (in theaters Friday)
- An angry personcrime thriller series inspired by the 1987 film Black Widow about an FBI agent hunting a serial killer (Monday on Hulu and Disney+)
- Biological Warfarebook by Annie Jacobsen, best-selling author of Nuclear Waron how a laboratory accident or biological attack can spread into a global pandemic and the collapse of society (Tuesday)
Essay
A New Music Star Is Here—And He Better Be Calm
By Spencer Kornhaber
Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey are two of music’s most emotionally charged artists, and it has long seemed fitting that they have shared one of Notice boardhighest achievement: Hot 100 No. 1 longest single by a woman. That record was held for more than 14 weeks by Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” in 1992 and 1993, then matched by Carey’s “We Belong Together” in 2005. (We’re talking about non-holiday songs; Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”‘s 22-week reign of Christmas songs in its own class of Christmas Is You. Vulnerable volcanoes seemed to prove the rule of pop metal: Greatness comes from self-sacrifice.
Their record is now equaled by 27-year-old country singer Ella Langley, a completely different artist.
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