March 25th, 2020
00:28
Hi folks, I’m Attila alias Jakob LED and I am writing to you from the transit zone of Bucharest International Airport/Romania, not allowed to leave to a hotel overnight, regarding the current events due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
I had to take a detour from Athens/Greece to Istanbul/Turkey. Flights are suddenly canceled and merged so that you cannot plan 24 hours in advance. I was lucky I caught this time the right flight, because two other flights have already been canceled.
I must confess that this is the most unique thing that happened to me as a Google Guide and at the same time this is the story of the beginning of my participation and what the program means to me as a whole.
I remember my first review, it was nothing spectacular. I recommended an edit for a non-existing place.
We all know the feeling, while traveling in a foreign city, in the best case with a heavy backpack and after a long walk you are at the spot and realize that the shop you should be at does not exist anymore.
That was one of the moments for me when I knew how important it is to keep Google Maps up to date.
It was not clear to me in the beginning to be a part of maybe the biggest community on the planet. Moving out of a little humanitarian mission it became more and more inviting to me to contribute to the Local Guides program and once realized that there is a pointing system it even became more fun and interesting to me and I asked myself for what this pointing system is for.
Sharing my knowledge and experience of new locations, the street view of the cafe I’m sitting at and what small local businesses nobody in the wide world knew about before can offer you, became more meaningful.
I enjoyed it very much to add especially in not that developed countries such as Kosovo, Albania or countries as Montenegro and North Macedonia where tourism is reduced on local knowledge and for most of us even in an indecipherable alphabet.
I know that I’ll never reach a million views with that tasty pastry bakery in Korçë/Albania, but I’ll help the locals to be known globally, and this feels very satisfying for me and will hopefully be very helpful for the next low budget travelers finding a nice cheap place to eat.
I like to search for places where you can find authentic delicious food, a small business out of the shot.
It is of course a great motivation to know from month to month how many people I was reaching out to and how many times my pictures have been viewed, but it is even more motivating if I get a like for my review. That comes suddenly and live. Which makes it feel you like, wow someone is or was just there and is reading your review, right now.
Correcting opening times, phone numbers of shops and restaurants was becoming a mission for me to help people searching for these places after me.
I feel during my trips like a mix of Indiana Jones and Robert Langdon, the protagonist of Dan Brown’s Illuminati. Always searching for the hidden gems and investigating. ?️
The whole program caught my interest very much more as a helping and completing mission then to reach publicity with my postings.
My love, respect and thanks are going to all local guides who are away from home and maybe under quarantine in a foreign country during these hard days of crisis.
Best regards.