One of the Most Annoying things about Washington, D.C. - Tourists!!!

This may not be the tourist capital of the world, but when you work or live in Washington during prime tourist season it sure as heck feels like it. I never had a thing against tourist, and, yes, I know I am one as well when I go other places, but the more and more I work in DC and have to try and get places and do things around tourists it has made me tourist intolerant. Though, at the same time, it has also made me more conscious of what I do when I go places. This benefits other people, sure, but how does it really help me. I'm thinking there needs to be guidelines put out with simple rules which tourists should follow.

I swear the other day I felt like taking a trip, I don't know where exactly, maybe deciding after stopping a particularly annoying tourist, finding out where they were from and what their name was and heading to their town. Once there, I would start walking around gaping at everything, not paying attention to where I was walking, even weaving while I walk so that I'm walking on the right, now, wait, I'm going to walk on the left and then the right and then the left, stopping whenever I felt like it, not caring if I was then blocking anyone else's walking path. I would make sure that I bring about 20 of my friends with me so that we could spread out all over the sidewalk and stroll actually not walk side-by-side taking up all of the sidewalk, so that nobody could get around us to walk faster or just get by us. I would walk around completely lost almost just walking around in circles in the middle of the sidewalk instead of simply asking someone if they even possible knew which way I should be going. I would definitely stand on the left of the escalator so that no one could walk up it if they wanted to. I'm sorry, I would thing that at least that would be a universal rule by now - STAND ON THE RIGHT - WALK ON THE LEFT. At the end of my little trip or even during the trip, I would make sure I made little comments, especially if I could tell I was annoying someone and say - see, how do you like it - this is exactly what blankity, blank did when visiting my town and I thought I should return the favor.

Probably, some of my being annoyed so much is because of the part of town in which I work is located very close to the National Mall, White House, the Hard Rock Cafe and the ESPN zones which are all major tourist spots. It takes forever to get lunch during the Spring, Summer and early fall when the majority of the tourism is due. The majority of the tourists are also children and teens, so they have absolutely no concept of what is going on around them and generally don't care since it is all about them in their minds anyway. I've actually gotten a little reputation from work friends that I should be the one in front when trying to walk through one of the food courts which is filled with tourists cause I have no problem going through the middle of them as the hang about and gawk and debate for 30 minutes - cause they have the time - about what they want to eat. I will use my hands and arms to gently touch, push, prod them out of my way while pushing forward and saying excuse us and it usually works and gets us through a lot faster than trying to wait for the to part for you or move out of the way.

I also commute via the MARC train and Metro to and from Union Station to get the train. There I deal with tourists and business travelers who have tons of luggage or massive backpacks. They stand all over the escalators, the get on the Metro and just stop near the doorway and put their luggage next to them or, even in the doorway so that only one person at a time can then get on the train. I truly love the ones who refuse to take off their backpacks. The backpacks which are sticking out and taking up the whole complete aisle space so no one can get around them or takes up space which if it were off of their back and on the floor at their feet, perhaps another person could make it onto the train and stand in the space now being taken over by their packs. The hordes of them that take the MARC train in to do their sight seeing who take up the available seats so that people who pay a monthly ticket price have to stand all the way to their stop or can't even board the trains because they can't get on are another favorite.

I know, I know this sounds very much like a tit-for-tat situation and that I should be more forgiving and turn the other cheek, etc. and seriously, I do. There have been plenty of times, I have kindly helped someone with the metro ticket machine or helping them put their fare cards in the machines - use the ones with the green light not the red stop sign - see the picture that shows you how to insert ticket and in which direction - do it that way. I've seen people with completely lost looks on their face and make a point to stop and say - what are you looking for? or where are you trying to head to? And, offer them directions if I know and if I don't apologize and mention that they should look for the "Sam" people with their little red hats.

All and all, it sure feels good to rant and rave about them cause they sure do get under one's skin. I know, I've spoken to many a work colleague about them and there is a general consensus that they are very aggravating :-)