The legend of The Tower of The Infantas

Once upon a time, when the Reign of Granada was governed from The Alhambra by the Arabs, there was a Sultan called Mohamed The Lefty who married a Christian captive with whom he had three beautiful daughters: Zaida, Zoraida and Zorahaida.

As time went by the Sultan grew worried about his daughters and sought advice from an astrologer so as to know what would become of the three charming princesses in the future. And this counsel he got: "watch your daughters closely when they reach marriageable age and don't trust anyone."

The Sultan, extremely suspicious, locked his daughters in a golden cage, a tower in the palace of The Alhambra with any imaginable comfort.

And there they grew up and from there they saw them -when they had reached marriageable age-, three handsome Christian prisoners. Despite the Sultan's precautions, they couldn't help falling in love at first sight.

The nursemaid who looked after the princesses managed to arrange keeping the prisoners close enough to the tower so that the princesses could get to know them. 

Soon, they all planned to escape together and get married. And so they did, at least two of them, as eventually Zorahaida didn't have the guts to run away from his father, whom, on the other hand, she respected very deeply.

Legend has it that she always regretted not escaping with her sisters, and that she finally died in the tower, where her spirit will forever remain unless a Christian bachelor breaks the spell. 

Traveller vs tourist

There are some defining features regarding each of them but there are also some similarities. These similarities are mentioned here and there among the bloggers: first there is the common love for discovery, and the second is the growth one undergoes through travelling, learning about oneself and the world.

Concerning the difference between them, some bloggers argue that this difference is so subtle that is hardly noticeable, while others maintain that the difference lies in how we perceive each other: locals tend to see people who travel as tourists, and people who travel tend to see themselves as travellers and others as tourists.

Leaving subtleties apart, most of the bloggers specify quite concretely the particular characteristics of a traveller and a tourist:

Beginning with the negative aspect, it is said that the traveller naturally dislikes tourists, or what is more, he snubs his nose at them; he maintains a quite snob and pretentious attitude for trying to distinguish himself from the tourist. But let's think that this is not so on a regular basis. 

On the other hand, some romantic features are mentioned here and there such as adventurous, gritty, improviser, discoverer and pioneer. Besides there are also mentioned some superficial features refering to the kind of travel they make such as long-term and multi-regional. 

But the more repeated and accurate features (in my opinion) are: the deeper experience and better understanding of the place he gets out of his travels, which is done through previous research and preparation, getting to know the locals, sharing their customs, and taking advantage of every moment of the journey.

As for the tourist he travels in big tour groups (as lambs), with arranged packages, swallowing what guides have prepared for them (or should I say companies?). His main aim is to escape from work and day-to-day stress, he looks for an intermission from everyday life. He tends to do short and luxurious trips, moving quickly from one place to another. He is looking forward to seeing what the new place has to offer from a visual point of view. On the whole he expects to get a superficial experience with little understanding of the culture, the history, the people and the geography of the place.