Remote Tourism, Then and Now

Back when I first put The Turkish Lieutenant online, I'd get the occasional question like, "how long were you in Turkey?" which I—admittedly with a little shame—took to be a compliment. Any feeling of Turkish authenticity was the product of a half-decent research discipline and some careful observation of visual reference.

I still hoover up old drawings like below: a drawing of the same town as in the video above, but two hundred years earlier, in Edward Dodwell's Views in Greece. 

I have, however, only just discovered YouTube Walking Videos.

You want to go somewhere? You want to take a leisurely stroll around? Good news, there's probably a YouTube video for that, just the same way there's a YouTube video for every single home repair you could ever want to complete (except for instructions on how to replace your exact, specific faucet-supply connector).

The videos are simultaneously spectacular and mundane: the image quality uploaded by xXCamStan420Xx can be better than high-end professional video photography from only a few years ago, but it's used to document a walk across a pedestrian overpass while traffic trundles by below.

I recommend going to YouTube and putting "4k 60fps [anywhere you want to go]" into the search box. You'll get drone footage, you'll get videos of guys with GoPros strapped to their chest, walking through farmer's markets. Watch the videos full screen on a big screen, but don't start too close—at 60fps, with all the weird methods they use to smooth out the camera motion, it can induce motion sickness. The tradeoff, though, is at 60fps, you get a really astonishing sense of presence.

If nothing else, these videos can be great Unicorn Chasers—a relaxing antidote to challenging days. I'll be using them to get a better sense of how to interpret old drawings, but I might also use them to supplement my regular diet of AppleTV screensavers.

(EDIT: if you would like to read a really beautiful account of Actually Being There, instead of simply reading about or watching videos of a place, I heartily recommend this, by Sarah Airriess.)