Forbidden City: Overrated
The former exclusive grounds of the Emperors of many dynasties are huge and right in the center of Beijing, just up from Tiananmen Square. It's as if long ago, the rulers founded this city, laid out this big walled complex, and told everyone else to build around them. And the grounds are huge, over 175 acres, surrounded entirely by a 26 foot wall, although that didn't keep the Mongolians, the Manchurians or Mulan out. Maybe it was because our tour guide was underwhelming, but when I snuck into a trip here with the CIEE study abroad program, I was like yes, this place is big and the architecture's kinda cool, but there's really nothing special in here. There is no one building of note where everyone gets their picture taken. There's a bunch of statues and cauldrons but none are iconic. It's a large complex where a lot of people, including some important ones, used to live. I could go to Malibu or the Hamptons for that. Also, when we went there basically was no sky.
The Collosseum: Overrated
As kind of a foil to the Forbidden City, the Colosseum is very iconic and superbly picturesque from both the exterior as well as the interior. The size, the overabundance of arches and the age of the site all do inspire awe, but the history of the arena is lost. Once again, my tour guide for this left a lot to be desired, so maybe the real moral of the story is do your own research, or get a good tour guide. But I expected to walk on the blood of gladiators, sit on the seats in which Roman citizens sat on 2000 years ago and really picture what life was like in one of the earlier stadiums of the world. However, the Colosseum feels much more like an archaeological site. The place used to be decked out in marble, but apparently the Romans recycled their marble a lot, so much of it was taken to be used elsewhere in the city, and the majority of the rest was plundered by invaders. There are no seats anymore so it's difficult to imagine yourself there rooting for a man against a lion. Really, the true value of the Colosseum is as an architectural marvel, and it is a testament to Roman architects that it is still standing. So along with the nearby Forum, there are a lot of functional, large structures that are older than almost all other buildings in the world. That is indeed very cool and worth appreciating, but they aren't necessarily going to be that good looking, especially up close, and they've suffered so much damage that it's really not possible to picture what they looked like in all their glory.
St. Vitus' Cathedral: Underrated
I've said this before: I've now seen many of the world's greatest and most famous cathedrals, and St. Vitus' Cathedral in Prague is right up there with the best of them. I guess Notre Dame de Paris is objectively "better" but I think the reasons that St. Vitus' is not on par in terms of name recognition with Notre Dame, Westminster Abbey or St. Peter's Basilica is because a) it was only completed in 1929 and not as historically significant b) because it's surrounded by a castle and really not too impressive from a distance and c) it's in Prague, which was in the Soviet Bloc for many years and has only in the last 2 decades emerged as a major tourism destination. But it's beautifully made, designed by Peter Parler, a master builder who also created Prague's most famous structure, the Charles Bridge. The flying buttresses are superb and ornate and the front facade is stunning. The only problem with the outside is the green roofs, which I found downright fugly - they should have been black or red. The interior is even better though, with some of the world's greatest stain glass that my camera just does not do justice.
The Sistine Chapel: Overrated
The whole Vatican City, of which the Sistine Chapel is the most famous part, is a sovereign state, a UN world heritage site, the capital of Catholicism and a must-see all at once. However, I believe the Sistine Chapel, which more people have heard of than the Vatican, is just slightly overrated. It's the last stop of the Vatican City museum, the world's largest museum in terms of sheer gallery space I believe, and supposedly Michaelangelo's greatest feat. In a way, it might be the most unique and famous room in the world. The Chapel is gigantic, and that iconic ceiling is really high up and you wonder how anyone could have ever painted it. Art aficionados will appreciate the work and understand Biblical imagery and how each panel tells a different story, and "imaginers" like me will enjoy picturing Michaelangelo standing on scaffolding (that he built himself) with a giant paintbrush drawing this giant image, with paint dripping down his eyes and a Pope breathing down his neck. And little kids will appreciate how colorful the place is. It certainly is an awe-inspiring room. However, the experience of being there on a given tour inspires more frustration than awe. Everyone tries to take pictures, stealthily holding their face-up cameras low by their pockets, trying to seem inconspicuous, and the Italian guards know all these and exasperatedly scold, "No picture" every 10 seconds. The place is crowded, packed with people craning their necks up, and you want to sit down because you've had a long walk through the museum, but there aren't too many seats and when are you sitting down you don't have a good view of the ceiling. In addition, the art is just too far away to really appreciate it. But here's the biggest reason why the Sisten Chapel is overrated: the art isn't among Michaelangelo's best! He kinda rushed through it, the details and strokework isn't as nice as it would be on a smaller piece, and most importantly, while he was one of the best painters of all time, Michaelangelo considered himself a better sculptor. Which leads me to...
The Statue of David: Underrated
...his best sculpture. This statue is very famous and I've seen pictures like this many times, including in my 9th grade Western Civ class. Despite its fame, most people probably don't know a lot of basic facts about it. I for one did not know that the statue is in Florence, that it was not originally started by Michaelangelo (it had been abandoned by two previous artists and left to the elements outside), that the pose is likely of a serene David preparing for battle or just after his victory, or that this statue is actually 17 feet tall. Almost all the photos you see do not show the true scale of the statue, and if you were expecting a lifesize sculpture like I was, the real result is overwhelming. More educated art scholars than I have said that once you see the David, you need not see any more sculptures. It is the ultimate piece, the perfection that art strives for. Now I don't know a lot about art, but I can appreciate a masterpiece when I see one. When I go to a museum, I know to examine a painting pretty thoroughly before moving on, because the artist put so much into it, you just can't take a glance and get anything out of it. And I go on like this for a few rooms, before I realize I've been there for a half hour, my legs are getting tired, the pictures are all great and unique but starting to seem the same and I just breeze through the rest of the rooms. This was how I started out in the Accademia Gallery, which is really quite a small museum in an unobtrusive corner of Florence. There really is nothing special about this building, in a city of special buildings, that would tell you the great sculpture in the world is inside it. So I stroll along through the museum, wondering when I'll get to the David, until I entered its room and bam, there's 17 feet of flawless marble humanity. Every single part of his body seems real, and unlike most sculptures, it's in the middle of the room and not up against the wall, allowing for a full 360 degree examination of it and seeing how Michaelangelo really didn't leave any spot unpolished. This is something you don't get with his Pieta in the Vatican, which is on the side of a church, a good deal smaller, and surrounded by a thick pane of glass.
The Berlin Wall: Overrated
I think the existence of the Berlin Wall is fascinating. Such a base concept of separating free people from themselves was firmly institutionalized as of 30 years ago, and the Berlin Wall is the greatest symbol of that. Much of the wall was put together overnight and suddenly divided friends and family, and stayed there for 18 years. Still though, it really is just cheap concrete that's less interesting than the graffiti that's been painted on it. So much of the wall has been torn down that once again, it's really impossible to see from the remains what a divided Berlin looked like. The Wall actually was two walls that created a corridor of no man's land, and this fact is not apparent at all unless you have a tour guide or know your history. In addition, it seems everyone has a piece of the wall on sale - I have a piece about the size of a thumbprint. It's kinda cool, but really it's just an ugly piece of broken stone that could be anything. So the historical concept of the Berlin Wall is great, but the existing displays are pretty insignificant.
The Great Wall of China: Underrated
It's difficult for me to call the Great Wall underrated because it's rated so highly. But when I went there for a second time this summer, I was wowed again. Even though all of the parts that you can walk on have been reconstructed, everything does seem authentic and old, which is kinda the theme with China. But even if you accept that you're standing on 20th century stonework, the unending view of Wall snaking over mountain ridges is pretty spectacular and unreplicable. It's a fairly arduous climb just getting to the Great Wall, unless you wuss out and take a tram, and an even more difficult climb once you get there. Some parts of the wall are so steep you wonder how anyone could have ever walked there, especially an armored soldier. While the Wall extends to the ocean, it is not a continuous stretch, but rather containing several disparate pieces and many more in ruins. Regardless, along with the surrounding green mountains, the Great Wall is gorgeous and one of the most picturesque places I've ever been.
Giant's Causeway: Underrated
I've talked about the only UN World Heritage site in Ireland (technically in Northern Ireland) in a previous post, so I'll only do a quick gloss through here. The Causeway is this geological perplexity formed by the cooling of magma from a volcanic eruption. For some reason, this magma broke off into flat hexagons of differing heights, and 50 million years later, we have this rather bizarre formation extending from the beautiful Irish coast.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa: Underrated
Pisa was not a destination I had planned on my 4 day jaunt through Italy. The only reason I stopped there was because the nearest airport to Florence was in Pisa, so I got off the train one stop early and walked across town until I saw a big tower. I FULLY expected it to be overrated, to just be an insignificant structure in an insignificant town that gets swamped with visitors just because the architect of this tower screwed it up. And then I got up close to it and I realized, wow, this thing leans a lot. I'm not going to put it into numbers how lopsided it is, but just believe me, when you're right up against it, you really do wonder how the tower remains standing. It's actually an architectural achievement for the thing to remain upright and support visitors, despite sliding that much in mud. In addition, while the town isn't going to blow you away, it is a very nice, pleasant Italian city, and the piazza around the Leaning Tower is really cool. I had never heard that there was a great church and this cool dome right next to the tower. So yes, maybe you don't want to book a week in Pisa Also, I got a great crepe with nutella in Pisa.
The Main Square of Krakow: Underrated
This isn't as well known as the other sites on my list, but it's another UN World Heritage site and one of the main reasons for visiting Krakow. The oldest medieval town square in Europe, the size would be more impressive if the cloth hall in this picture wasn't in the middle of it. Nonetheless, the cloth hall is actually a really cool and pretty structure, and there's plenty of space around it. Almost all of these European cities I visited had old town squares because that's how marketplaces setup and led to these places becoming major cities. I like them a lot because they're always a fun public place, with lots of tents and stands set up selling cheap goods or making nice food. These would be setup on street corners in the US and often just get in the way. A square is definitely the better home for street vendors. Oh also, this square has nice cathedrals and towers on the side, including the trumpeter's tower, whose hourly broken-off melody I've already talked about.
Guinness Factory: Overrated
This is perhaps the place in Dublin that most people think when they think traveling to Dublin - I always got asked, "Have you been to the Guinness Factory?" And for most of the time, I hadn't, and they were some really good times. I finally went the day before my last exam and while I enjoyed it, it really is an overrated experience. And this is coming from one of the biggest fans of Guinness. I love dark beer and I've never had any dark beer better than the Guinness I got from the pubs in Dublin. So it was kind of cool to visit the factory, get my picture taken in front of St. Jame's Gate, but ever since they stopped actually brewing Guinness beer there, the place has become nothing more than a museum, and not one filled with great art. The inside, which you can see in this picture, is shaped like a beer mug and there's this nice Gravity Bar at the top with a 360 panoramic view of the city, quite possibly the best view of Dublin around. Your ticket gives you a free beer at this bar, but that's it, you can't buy a pint there, so it doesn't really fulfill my definition of a bar (a place where one can pay money to get drunk). The Guinness Factory might be one of the most touristy places I went to this entire year.
There are some less famous sites that I think are very underrated and definitely worth a visit. Tops on this list would be the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, the town of Oxford and its famous colleges, and the old town in Stockholm. There are also some concepts and things that are overrated or underrated.
Central European Cooking: Underrated.
One of the best meals I had was in a traditional homestyle Polish restaurant, and the street food we got in Berlin and Prague, mostly variations of sausages, were all extremely satisfactory. However, if you're worried about cholesterol or don't like oil, they are not for you.
Underrated Traveling Skills: (in no particular order)
1) Holding it in. When you're out and about in places where you don't know, and potentially drinking beers, it really sucks if you're always frantically on the prowl for a bathroom, walking around the street like a penguin. My friend Greg Speidel can attest to the problems caused by a small bladder. This can be potentially inflate to a serious problem if you're so desperate you pee in public and get arrested. Just something to be aware of.
2) Balancing on a bus. Or a subway car. Using public transportation is generally a part of the life of anyone who ever grew up around a city. Still, so many people cannot balance well on a moving bus or train and it can be really embarrassing when you roll 10 feet while the people sitting down look on with amused sympathy.
3) Taking good photos. There's a lot that goes behind a picture, and you'll thank yourself months later for taking the time to setup a good frame of that last shot of the Eiffel Tower while everyone was screaming at you to go. But don't be like my dad, who's probably spent about a quarter of his life taking pictures. Actually, this skill isn't underrated at all, everyone knows to take pictures.
4) Sense of direction. It can be a little overwhelming to wake up from a long train or bus ride, roll your eyes open, and then look into a vast and unfamiliar city. Then when you're walking from place to place through these European streets that rarely make any sense, it's very good to be able to keep landmarks and a mental compass in mind and to internalize maps. I had a friend with a notoriously poor sense of direction, and she was afraid to travel alone because of it.
5) Sense of adventure. I really believe you can't live life well if you don't take risks, and this is especially apparent in traveling. I can't stand people that aren't willing to go off the beaten path, habitually eat at McDonald's and generally keep a xenophobic demeanor even within a foreign country. Don't travel to just observe a country, travel to experience it.
