Kiss me, I'm Filthy ( World's Germ-iest Vacation Spots)

[SoCalDem]

http://www.ioltravel.co.za/article/view/5048615

World's top 5 germiest attractions
June 23 2009


The world's most popular and largest online travel community, TripAdvisor, has announced the top five germiest world attractions.

According to a recent poll on the tripadvisor.com site of more than 4 600 travellers, 34 percent of holidaymakers reported being more "germaphobic" by washing and disinfecting their hands more frequently when travelling since the swine-flu outbreak.

Additionally, its forums indicate travellers have germs on the brain, with use of the words "germs", "sanitiser" and "disease" up 97 percent, 182 percent, and 112 percent, respectively, between March and May of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008. - PRNewswire

1. Kiss Me, I'm Filthy

Blarney Stone, Blarney, Ireland

Legend says those who kiss the Blarney Stone - a block of stone built into Ireland's Blarney Castle - are rewarded with eloquent speech. But given that up to 400 000 mouths from all over the world touch the stone each year, putting your own to the grimy attraction (no easy task in itself) may be too high a price for the promised "gift of the gab"

2. Sticky Situation

Wall of Gum, Seattle, Washington

A bizarre tradition at Seattle's Market Theatre in Post Alley has turned into a fascinating yet very germy attraction - a giant wall of gum. In the 1990s, visitors began sticking their gum to the wall while waiting in line, resulting in a colourful and somewhat stomach-turning sight after more than a decade of gum gathering. Some intrepid visitors have even moulded shapes and faces out of their masticated gum.

3. Lip Reading

Oscar Wilde's Tomb, Paris, France

It is a testament to the love and respect felt by book-lovers and admirers the world over - Oscar Wilde's tomb in Paris's Père-Lachaise cemetery is famously covered in lipstick prints. But with a rainbow of hundreds of visible kiss marks adorning the grave, and countless more planted every year, one can't help but wonder... isn't there a cleaner way to show your literary appreciation? One holidaymaker said: "The tombstone of Oscar Wilde is... well, wild - excuse the pun."


snip

[Hannah Bell]

1. rocks exposed to the elements don't havemuch of anything to support the multiplication of germs.

nor does modern gum once the sugar's chewed out.

none of these sound esp. germy unless you're licking them right after another person.

[Suich]

2. LOL!

I didn't even know that Wall of Gum was still there! Last time I saw it was back in the '80s and I thought it was pretty gross then!



:P

[elocs]

4. The Seattle "Wall of Gum":

[CoffeeCat]

3. Where's Disneyworld/Disneyland?

Those places have to be petri dishes of every germ imaginable!

Young kids don't wipe their noses, and when they do it's with their hand. They sneeze on people.
A young child with a cold is like a living sprinkler system, spewing germs everywhere.

Gotta love em though, right?

Still, you know that teacup ride is an undulating incubator of disease! :)