Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

May 25, 2011

Seba wanted me to title this post “The Biggest Disappointments of my Life,” but I think that’s being a little melodramatic. Pretty sure I was far more disappointed when my high school cheerleading team came in Runner Up instead of winning the title of State Champions. Buffalo Bill cannot compare to the tears that were shed at that moment.

But yeah, this is the list of things we were excited to see while on the road, that left us wanting. Most of them have to do with size and false promises.

1. The Mona Lisa. It’s TINY. And it’s behind glass, roped off so the closest you can get to it is about 25 feet away (ish. I’m really bad at estimating distances). There are so many tourists that even to get to the rope, you have to fight your way through. Small or large in size, it would’ve been cool to look at it up closer.

2. Buffalo Bill’s Grave. To be honest with you, I have no clue why we went. Wait, yes, I do. There were so many signs leading up to the turn off, giving directions, that we were convinced it must be cool. Neither of us even knew who Buffalo Bill was — well, I did have some vague idea that he was some kind of rebel without a cause cowboy. But for whatever reason, we decided to follow said signage like a half hour out of our way when we were in Colorado to go check it out. Boooooring. Talk about anti-climatic! You drive all the way up to the top of a mountain and it’s just a regular grave.

3. The Liberty Bell. Also miniature in real life! In my head it was huge and majestic and out in the middle of the square where people gathered to talk about how we are FREE. In real life it’s small. And enclosed in a museum type thing — which yes, is at a park, but the park was not the same as the Freedom Square in my head.

A lot of the disappointments are our own fault. Ok, all of the disappointments are our fault. We do zero research on the places we are going so when we decide to go see these touristy things it’s usually based on things I’ve seen in pop culture — “The Mona Lisa! That was in that Dan Somebody book everyone was reading a few years ago. It’s in the Louvre! There’s a Holy Grail or something there! We should totally go!” Art is part of a long list of Things I Don’t Really Care About (But Am Glad Somebody Else Does!).

Have you ever built some travel attraction up in your head so much and then felt disappointed when it didn’t live up to your expectations?

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16 Comments

Good old Mona Lisa…I always wondered if it was always that crowded and that inaccesible for everyone else as it was for us..even when we’d gone during relatively low season…NOT…the picture looks just like the one I took over 6 years ago, my first time and only time there.

Comment by Vivian — May 25, 2011 @ 11:57 pm

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+1 on the Mona Lisa. What an anti-climax.

Comment by Nick Coyne — May 26, 2011 @ 12:07 am

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That first paragraph is absolute perfection. I still can’t talk about that moment without feeling either a)frustration b)rage c)the urge to tp all of Rochie high school.

Comment by Lindsey — May 26, 2011 @ 12:12 am

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I saw the Liberty Bell as a kid and remember being pretty disappointed/distressed. I feel like I remember it being enclosed in some sort of glass monstrosity.

Someday you will have to tour the Southwest, where you can likely double or even triple your list of disappointments! So much stuff that’s incredibly kitschy and seems like it was almost made to be disappointing, but then it’s bad enough that it becomes kind of awesome. The Space Murals Museum, The Thing, the Billy the Kid fortune teller! Erm. I guess none of that is in the same class as the Mona Lisa, but, still. Come visit me.

Comment by Carrie — May 26, 2011 @ 7:29 am

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Stonehenge. Booooring. Pretty much everyone who’s been seems to say that, so I’m not sure why people keep going. It’s in the middle of nowhere, and unless you are a druid or particularly interested in druids, it’s just not that cool.

I liked the Liberty Bell though and didn’t feel like it was mini, although I’m not sure if that’s because I knew nothing about it and had no idea of size or because I had at some point learned the size. It is a shame that it’s behind glass, but sadly with all the idiots out there I’m sure that’s necessary.

Comment by Emily — May 26, 2011 @ 9:29 am

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please do not miss all the good things in barcelona!!!! do not miss Park guell- be ready for an uphill walk, barrio gotico, la pedrera-go inside-, casa batlo (i only saw it outside), sagrada familia – not my favorite but it is a must see, palacio de la musica -shakira’s video “loca” was filmed here.

Comment by Catalina — May 26, 2011 @ 10:19 am

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I had the opposite reaction with the Mona Lisa. Everyone kept telling me it was tiny so I was expecting, like, postage-stamp awesome mini painting. To see it being a fairly normal if unimposing side was disappointing, though.

Comment by Robin — May 26, 2011 @ 10:32 am

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My biggest disappointment was New York. When I went as a child I remembered this very exciting city… I went back a couple of years ago and everythin looked like a big theme park where everything is a facade of plastic and plaster, designed for tourists.

Comment by Andrés — May 26, 2011 @ 10:41 am

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Kyle I did this too! My most recent big travel disappointments were the big ginger beer (taken down) and the big pineapple (closed). To be fair, I am not sure that the big pineapple would’ve lived up to my expectations anyway.

Comment by Deidre — May 26, 2011 @ 1:52 pm

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Yep, Vivian and Nick, seems like quite a feel people feel that way about Mona Lisa and her smile

Robin, everybody except you! Haha, I think we’ve learned a lesson — the key here is to have very very low expectations so you can never be disappointed.

Deidre, I read that post of yours, and I have to admit that I was pretty sad you didn’t get to go to the big pineapple. Next time?

Andres, NYC is so huge, did you feel like all of it was like that? I did think certain parts are definitely like that, but I also found a lot of little corners in the city that I felt like still retained their authentic charm.

Cata, there is so much we want to see in Barce, I have no idea how we’re ever going to fit it all in!!!

Emily, yeah, I think Seba still really wants to go to Stonehenge. I personally don’t have any kind of burning desire. If we are going to go check out mystery rocks, I’d rather do it on Isla de Pascua, where at least they’re mystery rocks in the shape of giant faces.

Carrie, funnily enough that actually sounds like a great job…I think I’d enjoy doubling or tripling my disappointment in that neck of the woods

Nashy, AAAARGH I KNOOOOOOOW!!!!!! I always thought that by the time I was older, I really wouldn’t care anymore. But when I was writing this blog post and Seba said “Biggest disappointment of my life,” of course my mind immediately jumped to that day!

Comment by kyle — May 26, 2011 @ 3:53 pm

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you can do it… we did it in 2 days and we didn’t have a lot of energy at this point at least do park gruell and la pedrera! i took great pictures there so you would take AMAZING pictures of those 2 places and i want to see them

Comment by Catalina — May 26, 2011 @ 6:36 pm

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hahaha, great post! I can’t think of a time when that has happened to me, but it must have at some point!!! More often the opposite happens to me. In my teens I didn’t want to go to Europe at all because it was the only continent people ever talked about and I found that annoying and was so bored of hearing about it that I definitely wasn’t going to waste my time and money there. Not to mention the notoriety the French have of being total asses! So I was quite pleasantly surprised when I did finally get my butt to Europe. I felt quite identified with the French actually, hahaha, and the Europeans in general. heehee. And I very much enjoyed Castle Neuschwannstein in Germany, but didn’t have plans to go there til the day before. The alternative plan was hanging out with a burnt-out, ex-New York lawyer, now-ESL-teacher for another day at a hostel in Prague. haha. So we chose to visit the castle. It was January so as you might imagine there were no lines or wait to get in.

Oh, I did remember a travel disappointment!!! We took the amtrak train from Grand Forks, Minnesota to Whitehorse, Montana, in December. We were seated in coach. My lord! Horrible! Costwise it was comparable to flying, but instead of being in an airplane for 3 hours, we decided to sit on an ugly, stinky, crowded train for 2 days!!! And then of course the trip back was two more days. Ugh. I think trains in the U.S. kind of suck. I’ve heard that the ride is only worth it if you get a private cabin, which is much pricier. On the good side, the skiing and snowboarding at Big Mountain, Montana were the best I have ever had in my LIFE! There was new powder every morning. It was to-die-for

Comment by Heather — May 26, 2011 @ 11:20 pm

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+1,000,000 on the Liberty Bell. When my wife and I saw it we were so bummed. It’s supposed to be this big symbolof our country and it’s the most unimpressive thing I’ve ever seen. If any of you reading this ever go to Philadelphia, skip the Liberty Bell, and get a cheese steak instead.

Comment by Dennis Pike — May 27, 2011 @ 4:35 am

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I love this post because of the way it’s written. I mean it is the way you write all of your posts but it just really stood out in this one. This is why I know we’d get along great because I’m also known to make distance judgments following with (I’m really bad at judging distance) and say things like art is not something I care about but I appreciate that others do!

Haha, love it! I hope your travels to these places were good anyway!

Comment by Annie — May 28, 2011 @ 3:56 am

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My disappointment with the Liberty Bell has less to do with size than presentation. If it was able to hang from the tower of Independence Hall I’d be happy to see it. Having it locked away in some concrete bunker ringed with security and surrounded by bored school children makes the experience depressing.

And Mary Carroll-Mason is dead on with Plymouth Rock. I was looking for geology and I got some contrived tourist marker.

Incidentally, family legend has a distant relation running wild with Buffalo Bill until he settled down and married. I can’t decide if this is disappointing to me or not.

Comment by Brendan — May 28, 2011 @ 12:17 pm

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I’ve been to Paris a bunch of times but still have yet to visit the Louvre. And, to tell you the truth, that’s *exactly* what I always hear about the Mona Lisa! Everyone I know who’s visited it has said, “It’s really small. And you can’t get close because there are about a hundred thousand people standing in front of you.” :S What a shame.

I do find that the less something is built up, the more ‘wow factor’ it has. When I went to visit the Loch Ness, I knew it was a lake but didn’t really know much else about it. What I wasn’t prepared for was how HUGE it was. As a result, I absolutely adored it there and loved waking up every morning and see it outside my window.

Comment by Ceri — May 29, 2011 @ 9:16 am

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