The grotesque...any memories?
Jun 16th, 2000, 02:29 PM
#22
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The grossest thing had to be the chapel of bones (Los ossos, I believe) in Evora, Portugal. Made completely out of bones, with a body of a man and child hung on the wall for good measure. You can see a picture here: http://www.markandmonica.com/Travel/evora.htm
Jun 17th, 2000, 11:23 AM
#25
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This seems rather frivolous next to the other serious responses. But, here goes: <BR> <BR>I'd been skiing in Grindelwald for several days, taking a sauna in the hotel fitness center every afternoon. The sauna was usually empty though there were usually other guests using the whirlpool, sunlamp, etc. I usually wore my bathing suit, but others preferred their altogether; I kept my eyes averted and avoided too much embarrassment. One day, though, the sauna door was stuck, so I gave it a good yank, and revealed <BR> . . . Jabba the Hut . . . splayed au natural . . . about eye level on the sauna platform. After a few seconds, I recovered my manners and went in and enjoyed my sauna. He turned out to be a very nice German gentleman, as I realized at dinner -- his table was next to my own for the hotel's demi-pension dinner all that week! No more sauna; I was chicken!! <BR> <BR>s
Oct 16th, 2000, 08:04 PM
#29
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Two things: In Barcelona, on a very crowded street, everyone on a holiday mood, and looking down, I saw a creature, much like Quaisimodo, with stunted stumps for legs, walking on the back of it's hands (like an ape) with hair all over the face, and trying to make its piteous presence known to the passer by's in order to beg a few coins. My heart almost broke, and I am no stranger to the world. And to think I almost stepped on her/him before I noticed it's hand on the pavement, and I pressed there a few grateful coins. In my heart I whispered, "there for hte grace of God go I."
Dec 11th, 2000, 12:21 PM
#32
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The catacombs in Palermo wins hands down. The bodies all displayed in their Sunday bests. In a way I would have preferred them to be more skeletal - there was quite a bit of flesh on some, plus that little girl that is well preserved in a pram (died in about 1920 but looks like she's sleeping, so they say, but looked a bit waxy to me!). They are mainly lined up "standing" along the walls and I was a bit worried they might fall down onto passers by.
Dec 13th, 2000, 06:22 AM
#35
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A guy eating raw chicken on the vaporetto in Venice, 5 a.m. New Year's Eve last year. We could tell that what he was eating was...a little bit tough, maybe sinewy because he kept tugging at it, and we knew that it smelled HORRIBLE - but when we stood up to get off the boat, blatantly rubbernecked to see what he was eating...well, I almost lost it right there and then. <BR>And then 2 days later I got food poisoning from chicken, from the McDonald's in Venice. What was I thinking?
Dec 14th, 2000, 12:47 PM
#37
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Janice--not to defend McDonald's chicken, but I'm sure you're aware that the symptoms of food poisoning don't manifest themselves until about 24 hours after you eaten spoiled food. And for real food poisoning, you would end up in the hospital. <BR> <BR>Anyway, the most grotesque thing I've ever seen while traveling, on the appropriate subject of food, is deep-fried Mars bars (what we call Milky Ways in the US). Yes, I witnessed this horrific scene at more than one chip shop in Northern Ireland. They would take your average candy bar, dip it in batter and deep fry it. I never got drunk enough to try it. I don't think I could get that drunk.
Dec 14th, 2000, 06:14 PM
#38
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Although I have seen most of the grotesque sites mentioned above, I think the one that disturbed me the most was the Museum of Torture in Milan. This was a tower filled with various eloborate torture devices used during the Inquisition. <BR> <BR>I can't fathom the demented minds that created machines designed to pierce, impale, crush and mutilate the human body in literally hundreds of ways. I don't know what was worse: imagining the horror of being subjected to these terrible instruments, or the glee of the awful people who invented and used them in the name of God and religion.
