Happily, I don’t have any major regrets. But when I do think back, these are the little things that niggle!
1. I wish we’d had more time in NYC. We’ll have to go back and explore north of Central Park, for starters – we only got to see small parts of Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.
Technically, I guess we could have ventured up there on the Sunday – our last full day there – but we were zonked after Saturday night out (karaoke and drinks for T’s birthday with our New York friends whom we met in Halong Bay). That was followed by a long walk home when we realised our train wasn’t running and had to catch a different one. We got back to our apartment about 2 or 3am and spent most of Sunday recovering (you’d honestly think we were middle aged or something).
I wouldn’t have minded longer on the East Coast overall, or in SF, but in order to meet some people in particular cities (of COURSE they would be planning to leave town round about when we were coming!)Â we had to move through some areas a little faster than I’d hoped.
2. I wish I’d tried to talk to the man at that restaurant in Naples, the restaurant that might or might not have been the one we’d been looking for, but I chickened out. He was yammering away at me in Italian, and instead of using my very limited Italian to explain I didn’t understand and did he speak English? I just froze. Then I walked away. I have a feeling that restaurant had been just about to open up for dinner, though not quite yet at that moment, but now I’ll never know – and I bet it would’ve been amazing, because it was tiny and totally untouristy.
3. I wish I’d been quicker off the mark with that word puzzle. On the train from Rome to Salerno, we were seated in a cabin in the middle of a raucous Italian family. Only one of them spoke English with any fluency at all. She and one of the other passengers were playing Guess the City on their iPads – a word scramble with a travel theme. Whenever they had trouble, they would ask me and T if we knew the answer. We were all stuck on one question in particular for the longest time, and we got off before it was solved. I was close – I could see that ‘Iguazu’ was one of the words – but just couldn’t decipher the rest of the letters. Not till about an hour or two later did it strike me – Puerto Iguazu. I wonder if they ever did figure it out.
Life is too short for regrets. Think of all the things you don’t regret 🙂
Before my client is a real estate agent in Manhattan, New York. And one of my tasks is finding commercial buildings like hotels, office buildings, co-op and condo apartments. New York is a very beautiful and colorful city that’s why it is well known called on the city that never sleeps.
I love love love NYC! I have been there three times this past year and there is always something I want to do/ see/ eat/ breathe in. I could honestly move there for years and probably never see everything I would want to.
Your second point reminds me of my recent trip abroad. While I practiced the language, I crumbled under the pressure (self imposed/imagined) every time when trying to respond to a question. FAIL! Fortunately, everyone was very gracious about it and just switched to English. I’m thinking about finding a language partner before my next trip back. 🙂
I guess everyone has some regrets when travelling. I’ve never made it to the States, but NYC is on my bucket list. I would also regret if I didn’t stay there long enough.
🙂
NYC is a lot of fun but gets overwhelming after a few days. For me its a place best experienced in short frequent visits.
I think I could spend forever in NYC, and it still wouldn’t be enough time. As for the other 2, if those are your travel regrets, I think you are doing a great job of finding satisfaction through travel.
This is a great idea! There’s often moments that I look back on from traveling where I think I missed out (WHY didn’t a jump off that rock with the others into the ocean in Portugal? They all had so much fun while I sat on shore!)
I think NYC is one of those places you could visit 10 times and do something different each time. I’ve been there 3 times myself and I still want to go back! You’ll get back there someday!
You can always go back to NYC, but you’ll probably never get to talk to that man again. I like #3 best, that sort of thing happens to me all th etime. The answer always comes far too late! #SundayTraveler
I try not to think too much about travel regrets, but there are definitely lots of things I wish I had done better, done instead or just plain done differently. That is the beauty of travel though. You never really know until you’re there, or until it has already happened and you look back. You learn and you grow and you hope that next time you’re in a similar situation you’re able to handle it differently. Thanks for linking up to the #SundayTraveler! See you next week 🙂
NYC is one of my favorite places ever! I try not to have regrets in anything but we can still wish we had done things differently. Live and learn 🙂 Thanks for linking up to the #SundayTraveler!
OHH MAN, NYC – you can never have enough time there. I’ve spent 4 weeks there – and still have not seen it all. Thanks for joining us for #SundayTraveler again – hope to see you again this Sunday.