People Watching

People Watching

With my work, I get to travel to different places. Not all the time. But every now and then.
Sometimes I get to travel to a town somewhere not so far away. If that is the case, I go by car. But when I travel somewhere further, I take the train.
Yet, as long as I travel in Germany, it´s somehow different. Not as interesting.

But whenever I get to travel to different place, something changes.

Every time I get a chance to travel by myself, I prefer to take public transportation. So there I sit in the bus, the tube, the train and enjoy the ride.

I remember when I was little, I’d prefer a seat near the window. That way I could look outside. But now I find myself sitting at different seats. And I don’t watch the outside, but the inside. I watch the people, who are travelling with me.

And I wonder where they are going to, what they think during the ride, if they might be watching other’s as well.

I love it. Through watching them during an everyday time span, I somehow become part of their say and they become part of mine.

What I find particularly exciting is when our eyes meet, because they also were observing others.

In the past I would always look away fast, pretending that I wasn’t observing, but by chance looked tlat them at the same time as they looked at me.

But now I find myself keeping up the eye contact, smiling, maybe even nodding my head. And I get the same back.

And on rare occasions (really depending which country I’m at) even a conversation starts. The observing becomes an interaction.

I think I will do more observing in my daily life as well.

See, who else is observing or being observed:

6 Comments

  1. Posy Churchgate

    Interesting … I love your perspective. I’m a people watcher too (I think many writers are) but admit I look away in case they are ‘creeped out’ by being observed

  2. I like watching people as I travel as well, and I often overhear stary comments that leave me wondering. My all time favorite is „Your love is so dirty“. I often wonder what secrets the ordinary people that are traveling have. Often I make up stories for my own amusement about what those secrets are.

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