Friday, April 23, 2010

They're like assholes.

I have a pet peeve. Many of them actually. In fact, Reece and I are learning a lot about one another's pet peeves, and we plan to compile a master list for your enjoyment. But that's for another time. Now, I would like to vent about one pet peeve: Opinions.

Everybody's got em. Alot of them.

One of the biggest things we looked forward to on this trip was the ability to fly by the seat of our pants. The opportunity to learn about a fantastic place from a fellow traveler, and actually go there instead of saying, "Oh that'd be nice but we have a flight to catch." What I didn't realize, is that opens us up to ALOT of opinions, differing and contradicting opinions, about the must-see and must avoid-destinations.

It's actually more stressful than you'd think not knowing where we are going. Granted, this is a fantastic problem to have and I am certainly not complaining. But waking up every day to a thousand decisions - what should we eat, where should we go, what do we do, where to next - get's a little overwhelming. Creatures of habit, it's still pretty mind-blowing not having a routine. And deciding between that "awesome little beachside town" and the "incredible rural forest retreat", between taking the Baz Bus or renting a car, between Mozambique or Malawi or both or neither, is enough to drive us mad. Throw in a few, "Malawi is AMAZING, it is NOT be missed" and "Malawi was a HUGE disappointment, SO not worth the trip", and we're lucky if we ever make it out of South Africa in the first place.

My favorite type of opinion, the one that really strikes my pet peeve chord, is the one from the resident know-it-all. You know him. Fairly well traveled. Fancies himself an expert on all things. And his advice, more often than not, is merely an opportunity to tell you about all of the things he has done. I appreciate the thought, sir, but I probably won't make it to that diamond mine at the end of the rainbow in Unicorn Town (where you volunteered teaching albino midgets to ride unicycles). And he REALLY wins the Peeve Award when he is forceful and authoritative in his opinions. "Skip such-and-such, it's much too touristy. Instead you need to go here and there and make sure you do this and call that person and stay here. Any straying from the itinerary I have layed out for you is a complete waste of time and your trip will never recover." Thanks dude, I'll make a note of it.

Wow, I've managed to work a unicyle into two blog entries.

2 comments:

  1. This post made me smile, Sabrina. I love reading all the updates and about all of your adventures, but this one in particular reminded me of why I like reading your take on this experience so much.

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  2. you crack me up Sabs! xo

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