Comments on: World's worst tourist traps

By: Ambigulous

Ambigulous — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 10:42:19 +0000

j_p_z

is part of the pleaure that the weird “ob” reminds one of “knob”, that squat little lump of a word?

Maybe it’s time to nominate some (other) favourite words?

By: dk.au

dk.au — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:38:21 +0000

This seems to complement the post:
http://www.arionkudasz.com/tourist.html

By: dylwah

dylwah — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:16:28 +0000

one of the places that i don’t want to go to is Corfu. This is despite the richness that the place has in my imagination care of the books of Gerald Durrell, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Family_and_Other_Animals , and to a lesser extent his brother Larry. Of course it was GD’s books that helped turn it into such a destrctive tourist destination, the Wiki entry indicates that the D’s thought that and lamented it.

long after i read the Durrel Books i read Thucydides, it took several months before i made the connection between Corcyra and Corfu. so another reason to go, but not enough to add it to the itinery, unless i ever get around to the Mediterranian cycle circiut that i have oft pondered.

By: Paul Burns

Paul Burns — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:59:38 +0000

In the 1980s I went to the country music festival in Tamworth with some friends from UNE. One of the guys was a local so we stayed at his place on the outskirts of Tamworth. We never went into the festival on his advice. But we did watch heaps of videos, consumed about ten slabs, two bottles of whisky, two bottles of Southern Comfort,several bottles of vodka, and, OMG, far too much tequila. And lots of those Vermouth and gin cocktails.
So I guess I avoided the tourist trap.
Got very pissed, though.

By: David Rubie

David Rubie — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:22:25 +0000

Roadside America is a good place to look for really weird attractions. I bought a book ("Thew New Roadside America") on my first trip to the states many years ago and it provided hours of fun trying to find some of the more bizarre attractions around California/Nevada. Sadly, a lot of the really weird stuff has disappeared (houses built out of bottles, wacky concrete gardens etc) but just flicking through the book is fun. Then again, any book that features a section called "Catholocism Unleashed" is worth a look.

By: JM

JM — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:17:36 +0000

…. 2nd prize would have to go to the “Gnome Park” near Bristol in England.

These people distribute pamphlets all across southern England. In the pamphlet it sort of looks marginally on the sane side of bizzare, just enough to attract children who then insist on going.

In reality it is a garden of about an acre of a small farmhouse filled with garden gnomes. That’s it. There are some lame attempts to create some “dioramas” like gnomes placed round a small pond with improvised fishing poles and a sign saying the pond is a “wishing well” with an invitation to throw coins.

Bear in mind this place is about 2 hours drive from anywhere, and the kids are going to last about 5 minutes before they get bored. Truly horrific.

But first place goes to the model train ride (as in smallish ride-on model steam railway, guage about 10 inches) that runs through the grounds of a “stately home” in Dorset. The train ride is pretty good as far as things go, but the countryside is untended farmland and pretty uninteresting.

To spice it up you pass by a couple of copses of trees where old, wet moldy teddy bears have been nailed to tree branches. Yes you did read that right. It costs about 5 pounds, children are 2 and takes about 10 minutes.

By: j_p_z

j_p_z — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:05:12 +0000

By the way, don’t you think the word “obnoxious” is just fantastic? Look at the way it lays out on the page, it looks so weird. And forget the Latin roots for a moment (or, “your Latin ROOTS-ah!” as Fugazi would put it), the “noxious” part conveys all the strictly necessary meaning, but there’s this weird “ob” thing stuck on the front like a Halloween pumpkin. (Yes I know what it does but that’s not the point.)

Man, sometimes I just really adore the English language. Shaw, Wilde and Frank O’Hara would be no fun at all in Flemish. Hell, even Jacques Brel is funnier in translation, wai?

By: j_p_z

j_p_z — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:32:23 +0000

Mercurius — you’re quite right, the Art of Walking in American cities has declined horribly in recent years. In New York I blame it chiefly on the lack of actual New Yorkers.

btw, I must apologize for the comment which M. quoted above. It was meant as a sort of Unreliable Narrator joke, but when I see it in plain black and white, it’s easy to see how it could be read as simply obnoxious. Which was not the intention.

We apologize for any misunderstanding.

– the People of Noo Yawk, Hizzona M. Bloomberg presiding(at least I think; haven’t been reading the papers much).

By: Mercurius

Mercurius — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:31:38 +0000

The actual fact is of course that New Yorkers do everything TWENTY FUCKING TRILLION TIMES FASTER THAN THE REST OF YOU FUCKING MORONS

Except walking.

Sorry, I don’t know when Sydneysiders overtook New York for walking speed, but my wife and I keep running up the heels of the locals with monotonous regularity.

Get off the sidewalk already!

By: Fine

Fine — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:10:29 +0000

Chateau Rouge is good fun as is Belleville, especially the markets. I bought a pair of leather gloves for 8 euro there last winter. Belleville also has great bars.