Travel Tales
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| Every trip has its ups and downs. Share yours! |
True grit from Rick's readers
As a new Travel News feature, every month we'll feature a few funny or inspiring anecdotes from travelers. This month's collection comes from online postings at our Graffiti Wall and interactive Travelers' Helpline.
If you have a true (short) travel tale to share, send it to stories@ricksteves.com. If you have a photo that illustrates it, please attach it. We'd love to hear from you!
Tate Mail
The Tate Modern in London is Europe's most disappointing museum. I watched as school kids almost ran through it, finding absolutely nothing to attract their gaze. A couple wandered through and paused at each piece, giving them that serious, meaningful look. I about burst out laughing when they did that to a light switch and then realized that it wasn't "art." I noticed an installation work being installed with yellow tape to guide the Great Unwashed around it lest we step on it. Just inside the tape was a pile of debris: pieces of broken gyprock (plasterboard), small pieces of what might have been lath, and dust. A few days later I read on the BBC website that cleaners at the museum were in big trouble because they swept up that bit of rubble and tossed it into the garbage bin. They had destroyed "art."
— Michael from Edmonton, Alberta
Pasta Defrosta
Last summer I was traveling with two guy friends across Europe for 31 days. Late in our trip, we were busy exploring Orvieto in Italy and decided to take a break for dinner. Bent on eating cheap, we wandered from menu to menu- checking each cafe and restaurant for the cheapest price. The winner was a small cafe with 4 euro meals to everyone else's 8 and up. The guys were sold but I was a little dubious at the price difference. I couldn't help but make some references to the movie "National Lampoon's European Vacation" (there's a French cafe scene where the family gets frozen meals) as we sat down to order. We waited for our food and I persisted in making jokes like, "I think I heard the microwave ding — our food must be ready." Pretty soon our waitress brought our pasta — in disposable white trays. We stared at each other flabbergasted. Lifting the trays, we could see the microwave directions written in Italian on the bottom. We choked down our frozen meals (one of them was still frozen in the center!) and a good deal of laughter. We weren't exactly travel savvy Americans. If something sounds too good to be true...it probably is!
— Jennifer from San Gabriel, CA
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