We’ve all been there: you plan a trip and read up on the fantastic must-do sights. You locate the best trails, the most beautiful scenery, and the famous historical landmarks that you studied in history books.
But what happens when you arrive and realize the crème de la crème is a disappointment?!
Iceland is still one of my all-time favorite pleasant surprises!
A Facebook friend shared this link this morning and it made me laugh. Apparently there are some people out there who are seriously disappointed with our country’s national parks! My favorite was the person who referred to the Grand Canyon as a boring hole in the ground. I mean, really?!
It got me thinking about my major disappointments while adventure traveling. Fortunately, the list is very small. In fact, I could only think of one anticlimactic site in all of my travels: The Mona Lisa.
Look, I get it: her cryptic smile has perplexed us for ages and I realize there is an entire line of study behind her mystical face. But you know what? The painting was not that cool! I remember finally locating the Mona Lisa’s room in The Louvre and eagerly searching the walls for the notorious painting. In the end, I didn’t have to look very hard considering there were at least 100 people crammed around the iconic image.
And did I mention that it is super small?! For some reason, I imagined that the painting’s size matched its reputation. Instead, the frame is roughly 30”x20” – definitely not as grand as I built it up to be in my mind!
The kiddos in Haiti exceeded my expectations too. So adorable!
Looking back on this years later, it makes me laugh. I made grand assumptions about the Mona Lisa simply because I believed everything I read and heard. How often does that happen to you?
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What is the most anticlimactic experience you’ve ever had while traveling?