July 31, 2006
Worst Travel Souvenir Ever?
There are souvenirs, and there are souvenirs. Some people want an ancient tribal mask from an obscure area in Ghana, others want a commemorative plate depicting all the local tourist attractions of, say, Philadelphia. But almost no one wants this. (Do they? Please tell me they don’t.)
In the Eiffel Tower gift shop I saw this lovely, er, candle, I guess it was. It was a miniature Eiffel Tower trinket, sunk into what looked like some sort of gelatinous goo with a “Vive La France” kind of red, white and blue fade. It also had a wick on top, and the whole thing was housed in a … souvenir glass? It was really just kind of confusing.
Jack Handey once wrote:
“Is there anything more beautiful than a beautiful, beautiful flamingo, flying across in front of a beautiful sunset? And he’s carrying a beautiful rose in his beak, and also he’s carrying a very beautiful painting with his feet. And also, you’re drunk.”
That’s kind of how I feel about this candle/figurine/flag/goo/commemorative shot glass. Another feeling it brings up is one of relief — relief that Americans aren’t the only ones who make tacky crap.
And to think, they were only charging 13 euros…
Trevor said,
August 10, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Ha! This is hilarious. At first I was thinking you should have bought it just for the memories, but the story and description is priceless, whereas the souvenir was 13 euros.
Jeremy said,
August 14, 2006 at 6:05 pm
damn funny! almost as bad as snow globes from hawaii…yes, I saw some.