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The Art of Dallying
Dally (verb): To do something slowly, to take excessive time over an activity.
To linger, dawdle, dilly-dally, shilly-shally, or aimlessly waste time.
To hang out, mooch, chill, lay like broccoli , to be purposefully idle.
To toy, trifle, act playfully, or deal with a serious matter lightly.
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For all its casual, carefree connotations, the fine art of dallying involves five strict criteria.
1. Somewhere else
Only certain places in the world warrant a full-on dally. To make the grade, a destination must offer a combination of visual appeal, atmosphere, history, climate, unusualness, creature comforts and off-the-beaten-track-ness.
That elusive recipe excludes certain A-list locations I love, but are just too obvious. Apologies Seville, Florence, Bangkok, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Lisbon and the like.
As justification for journeying to warmer climes, I often quote needing my watercolours to dry quickly. In truth, it’s just a sublime pleasure to escape Britain’s interminable winter or cheat its dreary shoulder season.
Funnily enough, the words 'cheat' and 'dally' both share the same delicious, yet disreputable connotations.
2. Stay central. Stay put
Having journeyed somewhere, it’s essential you stop, stay put and soak it up. So, it pays to stay right in the thick of it.
Nothing kills the dallying spirit more than a manic round of ‘what to see?’. You must conquer the niggle that there's somewhere else better than where you are.
It almost goes without saying that day tripping is anathema to the dedicated dallier. Experiencing a place decompress after sunset and slowly revive in the morning is a vital part of the dallying process.
It’s also essential to experience how a place tastes, not just how it looks. And that endeavour often requires several days serious research!
3. A good viewpoint
An interesting point of view needs a good viewpoint to originate from.
So a good room is essential. Something spoily, ideally with a terrace, and an epic vista. And a pool, preferably one you can plop straight into from said terrace. A great breakfast helps too. Most importantly where you stay must have character. No standard boxy rooms and definitely no trouser press.
Other than those paltry demands, I’m not fussy!
There’s no shortage of resources on the world-wide-interweb. So, rather than give an exhaustive listing here, I simply pass on wherever I feel I’ve struck gold.
Spoiler alert, I sometimes get really specific.
4. Learn to look
Most of us see, but don’t look. An distinction that’s critical in travel.
Seeing happens anyway. It’s unthinking, instinctive, innate. Something we rely on to release brain space for higher priority things, like whatever vitally important trivia our phone’s urgently updating us on.
But, by allowing our brain to take short-cuts, we miss stuff. We only register what things are, not what they're like.
Looking, on the other hand, is deliberate, judicious and interrogative. It’s about correlating and processing, actively posing questions and relating yourself to your surroundings. Not literally, via a selfie, but figuratively via your opinions, predilections, interpretations and filters.
A favourite question I ask myself, when encountering any great view or a scene that speaks to me, is 'what makes this so appealing?'. Deceptively simple, but harder to answer than you'd imagine.
Mobile phones, of course, exacerbate ‘See-but-don’t-look Syndrome’. I watch so many people experiencing places via their screen. They arrive, snap and go. Those snaps have a brief shelf life and serve the sole purpose of proving you were there.
Alongside my sketchbook and my trusty stool, I use my camera as a tool to help me look. Aided by a large dollop of curiosity, my three trusty props slow me down, force me off-piste and help me compose my thoughts.
5. Purposefully aimless wandering
In ‘normal life’, we’re always going somewhere, doing something, achieving some end and being someone. Leaving all that back home gives licence to meander and latitude for serendipity.
However, utter aimlessness rarely satisfies for long. So, you need to be purposefully aimless. Maybe that’s why my rant on actively looking is pertinent. It’s certainly a key motivation behind this blog.
Wherever I go, my foolproof ‘formula’ is to set off with some destination in mind; a sight, gallery, area of town or whatever. Success for me would be making it there by mid-afternoon. What I uncover on the way, by way of random turns, unscheduled stops, dead ends and following my nose, is all part of the plan.
Without question, wandering is a top three travel pleasure.
In modern parlance it's called being 'agenda fluid'.
So, here are two dozen places to dally. A selection of destinations that reward dawdling, shilly-shallying and mooching. That show how time is the most delicious of things. And how travelling in haste is a monumental waste.
Whether or not you’re lucky enough to spend any time in any of these places, I hope my 'views' help you feel their spirit.
Enjoy!
* The first recorded use of 'veg out' was by Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman:
"Be still like vegetables. Lay like broccoli".
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