Naoshima Island? Yes.
Alaska has had to remove the bus from into the wild due the influx of irresponsible tourists , reopening the eternal debate on why destinations go viral (which we harm and disappoint) while other fascinating paths are traveled only by educated travelers.
"I love to travel" isn't just the catchphrase that replaces "friend of my friends" on Tinder, It is also the excuse that many use to torment their poor Instagram followers with photos of airplane wings and feet in the sand.
The 142 bus where Chris McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, was killed has just been removed from its location in the remote interior of Alaska.
So far everything is correct (trite, but correct), the problem comes when "I love to travel" is the pretext to undertake adventures that, in the best of cases, are massive and, at worst, tremendously irresponsible.
The decision of Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to remove the bus arrives after years of disastrous expeditions of amateur explorers looking for the exact spot where he spent his last days and died Christopher McCandless, but they ended up having to be rescued and two of them drowned.
The influx of adventurers without the necessary preparation (a list in which many residents of the area include McCandless himself) has led the authorities to place the worn out vehicle in a safer setting and has revived the eternal debate on how it is possible to travel without having a negative impact on the destination.
In the post-coronavirus era, even the most viral destinations, which used to ask for a break from tourism, now need travelers, but only responsible travelers.
FOR GEEKS
Destinations that do not: Chernobyl
Although some families are allowed to reside in the Exclusion Zone , the reason why it still exists is simple: radioactive contamination is still active, especially in forests (trees, land, and animals), impossible to decontaminate.
If even so, the toxic charm is irresistible, it is essential to follow all the indications: do not touch anything, cover your skin as much as possible and, as far as possible, have some sensitivity with a tragedy that cost the lives of 4,000 people and directly affected the health of another 600,000.
Destinations that do: Nikola Tesla Museum
Between Belgrade and Chernobyl, there are several reasons why a wise traveler geek he would always choose the former (for example, the natural desire to stay alive). Half the Internet knows that, after the death of Nikola Tesla (the pagan God of millennials)** in 1943, in the middle of World War II, the US authorities commissioned an MIT engineer to collect all the genius's files to prevent them from falling in the hands of an enemy.
About what happened to them have developed thousands of conspiracy theories , but the only thing certain is that, after a long legal battle, in 1952 the nephew of Tesla managed to acquire the legacy of the genius and everything (notes, artifacts, photographs) is guarded in this building in Belgrade, aka the new Berlin.
FOR MOVIES
Destinations not: Notting Hill
As it happened to the cremieux street in paris , the bohemian London neighborhood has been punished with the bitter gift of beauty , more bitter than ever in the age of Instagram, and Neighbors beg influencers and 'wannabes' to stop sneaking into their yards and portals just for taking selfies. It is not about not visiting the neighborhood, but about being respectful of exclusively residential areas.
Destinations that do: Madrid
It is true that it is a very wide destination, but so are the ambitions of the Geocine project developed by the departments of audiovisual communication and geography of the University Carlos III of Madrid: map the region through more than 2,000 scenes from more than 300 films, from Aranjuez (which appears in Almodóvar's Julieta) to Somosaguas (in Airbag de Bajo Ulloa) with many stops in the capital (especially in Malasaña).
Notting Hill
But there are many more Spanish sets apart from Madrid: film tourism is so powerful in our country that a squirrel could traveling from location to location without stepping on the ground, from Asturias to Almeria.
FOR MACABRE MYTOMANS
Destinations that don't: the Dakota Building in New York
They can say that what attracts them is their unique architecture (more influenced by what was done in France, Germany and the northern states of the United States than by other New York constructions from the end of the 19th century), but the tourists who crowd around this New York icon on a daily basis do so because John Lennon was assassinated at its gates , because inside Polański shot The Devil's Baby and/or why here lived the father of modern witchcraft Gerald Brosseau Gardner , which makes the Dakota a kind of portal to the supernatural 34 meters high.
In any case, its current celebrity residents are fed up of that uncomfortable presence (not the spectral one, the tourist one) and it is not worth camping for hours in a city so full of more earthly stimuli.
**Destinations that do: Scott Institute for Polar Research Museum **
It would be better to calm down our macabre thirst in Cambridge (less than two hours from London), where there is a relatively unknown temple that will also thrill the sinister lovers of pop culture. Do you remember the song 'Heroes de la Antártida' by Mecano? Do you remember that "Oates can not take it anymore" and that "while they sleep he goes out to walk on eternity"?
All that is preserved Captain Scott's Expedition , whose five participants died, is here: including the sleeping bag that Oates ripped open to get out of the tent to die in the frozen South Pole or cards and Scott's diary about his impending death . Everything related to those icy stories of resilience from a time when there were still unexplored territories in the world are in this museum, including the relics of Shackleton's expeditions , which ended better.
FOR LOVERS OF MYTHOLOGY
Not Dragons: Game of Thrones
Of course it has been and is positive for the economy and tourism that destinations such as Dubrovnik and Essaouira or our Zafra Castle and San Juan de Gaztelugatxe , but the inhabitants of the cities surpassed for having been the scene of the struggles of Westeros always agree in asking for the same thing: respect for the environment and some interest beyond the Cersei selfie.
Dragons that do: Lucky GeorgeLucky George
Less known than the children of Daenerys of the Storm is this lucky bronze creature that has been well guarded in London for more than a hundred years . his twin brother I was traveling on the Titanic and with it sank in 1912.
Both went created by Charles Fitzroy Doll , one of London's most sought-after Edwardian architects, who was asked by the British Royal Mail to replicate on the ship the **lavish workmanship he had designed for the Russell Hotel in 1898.**
After a comprehensive refurbishment, the hotel reopened in 2018, today baptized as the Kimpton Fitzroy London Hotel, and preserves, although you have to look for them, several relics of Doll, such as the dragon or the capitals of the columns in the ballroom (today a restaurant). It's the perfect excuse to go to most literary neighborhood in London: Bloomsbury.
Dragons that do: Lucky George
FOR ROMANTICS
Destinations not: Santorini
No one can deny the beauty of the volcanic island that has practically made us discover the color white , but its locals are exhausted from the overcrowding that occurs **especially in the summer months. **
Don't be fooled by Instagram: the photo of those blue domes is impossible in summer unless you queue , queuing that you will also do in restaurants, beaches, boats... Here are some keys to not get caught up in the crowd.
San Marino
Destinations that do: San Marino
Compared to 6 million Instagram mentions which has the hashtag Santorini, San Marino only has 850,000 , somewhat difficult to understand since the least visited country in Europe has several merits to be also the most photogenic thanks to its medieval fortresses, its little plot of Apennines or its oenological routes . Besides, it is surrounded only by Italian territory, and Italy is always good.
FOR #ARCHILOVERS
Destinations that are not: The Red Wall of Calpe
Between a kasbah, a labyrinth and an adobe tower (all typical elements of North Africa), Ricardo Bofill created La Muralla Roja in Calpe in 1973 (in the La Manzanera urbanization, also designed by him in 1964), a reasonable and aesthetic alternative to the urban voracity that already threatened our coastline.
In 2020, speculation continues to be insatiable, but another threat is added: the instagramers eager for a selfie with the pink of their walls in the background.
The Red Wall of Calpe
Destinations that do: Naoshima Island
If you love architecture and want to spice up your Instagram, the inland sea of japan is your theme park. There are four islands that the firm Benesse Holdings has turned into open-air museums: Naoshima, Teshima, Inujima and Megijima.
And although you have to see them all, it is Naoshima who will poison your dreams with icons like the yellow pumpkin Yayoi Kusama to the works of Turrel, Hockney or Basquiat passing through several Monet's Water Lilies like you've never seen them.
You will come for the art, but you will stay for the architecture: the whole island is intervened by Tadao Ando and its unique architectural code of concrete, tradition and, if the oxymoron may be allowed, grandiose minimalism.
Sculptures and art forms cover the island of Naoshima