OoOoOoOoOoOohhh. No, not that kind of curse. A much milder one, but still incredibly annoying. My family’s curse only applies to tourist attractions.
For years now, it has been a frequent theme on my family’s travels to go to see some site, and to arrive there, only to find it is closed, or under renovation, or some other reason why we can’t see this place.
The earliest memory I have of this was in Holland. We were in Holland during the foot and mouth epidemic in the UK. As such, after travelling to a park, we were refused entry, in case we brought foot and mouth with us.
My parents have spoken many other times about going somewhere and it being closed or being rebuilt. I personally have a few on my travels as well:
- A temple in Ueno Park in Tokyo. It looked great, brightly coloured. I was taking photos of course. As I got closer, I realised it was covered in a giant tent, painted to look like the temple, as it was being restored.
- Several of the halls at Kiyomizudera were covered in huge tents and scaffolds, every time I have been there.
- In Kobe, I wanted to visit the earthquake museum. I walked miles on a rainy Thursday, only to find out that it is closed on Thursdays.
- One of the large temple halls in Nara, is tented and under reconstruction from 2010 until 2018!
I hope, somehow, this curse will be broken, and we can actually see the things that we travel and hope to see.
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