Desperate Serbwife

Stories from the road (part III): I am a Roman ruins snob

It's true. I'm not proud of it. I know I should be grateful to see any Roman ruins because it means I am lucky enough to travel - and don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful for the ability to travel all over the world - but I can't help it, I just can not be bothered to spend time looking at a few bricks that used to be the corner of some small building in every far off outpost of the Roman empire.

The first stop we made on our road trip was in a little town called Sremska Mitrovica which, according to our guidebook, had some ruins from a Roman city. We found the ruins in town and parked the car to go take a closer look. The town had done an excellent job at preserving their ruins and providing sign-posts in both Serbian and English to exlpain the significance of the buildings and I certainly mean no disrespect to the town who had clearly worked hard to make their ruins accessible to tourists. But as I looked at the ruins, my only thought was, "Yep, yep, a few bricks standing about 1-2 feet tall. So, lets get this show on the road." I was done looking in about 2 seconds and I turned and headed back to the car. This is when I earned the despicable label of "Roman ruins snob" from my family.

I really mean no offense to Sremska Mitrovica. I think I would be proud to grow up in a town that has been inhabited for at least the last 2000 years - and judging by the on-going excavations, a town actually built right on top of the ruins. But after seeing the Roman forum and Colosseum in Rome and the amazing Roman temples that are still standing in Baalbek (in eastern Lebanon - definitely something worth braving the trip through Hamas terroritory to see), it's hard to be all that impressed with a few bricks.

I hope I don't sound like a bad person for telling you all this, but c'mon, a few bricks? Gosh, I really am a snob.

posted by Brooke @ 1:42 PM