I Hate Sightseeing
I recently heard that 20% of people have a wanderlust gene that makes them want to travel and see the world. Not only do I not have that gene, I think I have the stayput gene. While I love each of my homes in Utah, New York and France, once I'm there I don't want to go anywhere. I really don't like seeing places just for the sake of seeing them. I can do that from the comfort of my home using Google Maps street view.
But tomorrow two of my kids are flying in and of course they will want to see Paris. So I spent the day buying train tickets, tour tickets, and hotel room reservations so that we can spend a couple of days in Paris this weekend and again next week on Wednesday. I'm guessing for most people that would be really fun and exciting to do, but it literally brought me to tears.
I'm really bad at details, like really bad. So making sure everything works together is very hard for me. I've already lost hundreds of dollars booking train tickets to Germany for the wrong day, so I don't want to mess up again.
European train travel sort of feels like gambling. If you get your tickets way in advance, they are cheaper, if you get them the day of, they're way expensive. But how do I know what I want to be doing 90 days in advance? What will the weather be like? Will I be sick? Will it be too scary to go there? Too many unknowns, but the low ticket price is so appealing.
So I decided to eat the high cost and just get the tickets closer to the date. But stupidly I decided to do that with the tours too. I had no idea Fat Tire Tours were so popular. Ugh! No Eiffel Tower this weekend. Fortunately I found another company that can fit us in next Wednesday at noon and includes a cruise along the Seine.
This is the kind of traveling that seems sort of pointless to me. Let's go see the Eiffel Tower that we've seen other people take pictures of. Let's get a picture of us in front of the Eiffel Tower to show other people. That way they'll see it and think, "I want to go to the Eiffel Tower someday and take a picture to show it to other people."
I'm more of the type of person who likes to travel and discover hidden gems, do what others have never done, and see the world through the locals' eyes. I love going to grocery stores, malls, churches, and other places that people go to on a regular basis. I think it's because I like people way more than buildings. I could ride the subway all day watching people getting off and on. To me, everyone has a fascinating story and I like trying to figure what people's stories are. That's way more interesting to me than some tall building to look down from.
But tomorrow two of my kids are flying in and of course they will want to see Paris. So I spent the day buying train tickets, tour tickets, and hotel room reservations so that we can spend a couple of days in Paris this weekend and again next week on Wednesday. I'm guessing for most people that would be really fun and exciting to do, but it literally brought me to tears.
I'm really bad at details, like really bad. So making sure everything works together is very hard for me. I've already lost hundreds of dollars booking train tickets to Germany for the wrong day, so I don't want to mess up again.
European train travel sort of feels like gambling. If you get your tickets way in advance, they are cheaper, if you get them the day of, they're way expensive. But how do I know what I want to be doing 90 days in advance? What will the weather be like? Will I be sick? Will it be too scary to go there? Too many unknowns, but the low ticket price is so appealing.
So I decided to eat the high cost and just get the tickets closer to the date. But stupidly I decided to do that with the tours too. I had no idea Fat Tire Tours were so popular. Ugh! No Eiffel Tower this weekend. Fortunately I found another company that can fit us in next Wednesday at noon and includes a cruise along the Seine.
This is the kind of traveling that seems sort of pointless to me. Let's go see the Eiffel Tower that we've seen other people take pictures of. Let's get a picture of us in front of the Eiffel Tower to show other people. That way they'll see it and think, "I want to go to the Eiffel Tower someday and take a picture to show it to other people."
I'm more of the type of person who likes to travel and discover hidden gems, do what others have never done, and see the world through the locals' eyes. I love going to grocery stores, malls, churches, and other places that people go to on a regular basis. I think it's because I like people way more than buildings. I could ride the subway all day watching people getting off and on. To me, everyone has a fascinating story and I like trying to figure what people's stories are. That's way more interesting to me than some tall building to look down from.
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