How rain change the way we experience a city

A city can look completely different when we see it through a rainy window. The buildings, roads, vehicles and people are still there but the rain change the way everything appears. What normally looks busy and ordinary can suddenly feel quite softer and almost unfamiliar.

I noticed this most when I am travelling through the city during rain. Sitting inside a Metro, bus or car gives you a different view of what is happening outside. You are moving through the city while watching people deal with the weather. Roads become shiny, lightsreflect in the water and everything outside the window looks slightly blurred.

The glass itself become interesting. Raindrops slowly move down the window, sometimes joining together before disappearing. When the vehicle moves fast, the drops seems to race in different direction. Sometime I find myself watching them without even realising how much time has passed.

Outside, people look different too.
Someone who was walking normally a few minutes earlier may now be running with a bag over their head. People stand under shop roof, wait at a bus stop, squeeze under umbrellas. Some people simply continue walking because they have somewhere important to go.

The city also becomes more colourful during rain, even though the sky may be grey.
Traffic lights, car, headlines, and street lights reflect on wet roads. Puddles reflect buildings and passing vehicles for a few seconds before the water is disturbed again.

There is also something interesting about watching rain from inside public transport. You are surrounded by other people, but everyone seems to be in their own little world. Some are looking at their phones, some talking and other are watching the rain through the window. Nobody really knows what the people are thinking, but for a few moments, everyone is simply part of the same rainy scene.

Rain can also make familiar places feel unfamiliar. A road that I have travelled many times can look completely different when it covered with water. Trees look darker, walls become wet and the usual dust on the street seems to disappear for a while. Even familiar buildings can look different when sea throw a curtain of rain.

Sometimes the rain makes the city look peaceful, but it can also show how difficult city life can become. Waterlogging, traffic, crowded shelters, and people trying to protect themselves from getting wet are all part of the same picture. There is beauty in the rain, but there is also inconvenience.

I think this is what makes city scene interesting. They are not perfect or completely peaceful. They show everybody life as it really is. People still have places to go, responsibilities to manage and problem to deal with. The rain simply change the background.

Maybe we do not always notice how much our surrounding affect what we see. The same city can feel busy in the morning, exhausting in the afternoon, beautiful in the evening and completely different during the rain.

All we have to do is look at it from another window.