Travel.
If you could wander anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?
If you haven't figured it out from this blog, I love to travel and fall in love so easily with places and people and food (oh, the foods!) My dad is still a little bit disappointed that I never tried to break into travel writing beyond my trip blog. But the fact is... traveling inspires me. Travel writing doesn't.
For this RTW, I ran over to my planner and pulled out two post-it notes that I keep stuck to my front cover. On those post-its are lists that are constantly evolving:
The Top Ten Places that I want to visit*-- in no particular order:
*That I haven't already visited
- Greece
- Egypt
- Morocco
- China (during dumpling season... I just want to wander in the cold from dumpling house to dumpling house until they have to roll me back onto a plane)
- Japan
- Toronto, Canada (specific, eh? But TO and I have a long history of things happening-- like SARS-- that kept me from visiting. I WILL visit the CN tower one of these days!)
- The Catskills or Adirondack mountains in the fall/winter (visit meaning: stay at least overnight, since I've been to both on day trips.)
- Luxembourg
- Austria. I blame "The Sound of Music" for this choice.
- Chile
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| At the Karla caves in Maharashtra State, India |
The Top Ten Places I've been to and want to revisit (again, in no particular order):
1. Portugal (of course): Evora, Sortelha... it's a little country, but I love every bit of it.
2. Seville, Spain. Oh, Seville... I love, love, love wandering this city at night.
3. New Orleans, LA: I don't drink and adore wandering this city early in the morning as it wakes up, so I'm probably an oddity when it comes to tourists in NOLA. But, it truly is beautiful, filled with the greatest music and food and atmosphere on the planet.
4. Quebec, Canada. Duh. QC is awesome. Even if I don't really like poutine.
5. India. Two weeks was just enough to make me dream of more, more, more.
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| Sunset over Marine Drive in Mumbai, India (yes, that's a wrist brace. I traveled with a sprained wrist and sinus infection. Because I'm tough!) |
7. Ottawa, ON, Canada: I want to skate the Rideau Canal again and then I want to go there during the tulip festival. Oh, and if I do go back? I'm SO staying in the same hotel as I did during my last visit.
8. Nova Scotia... aw, hell, I should just have written Canada, shouldn't I? That would have covered all 4 mentions on this list. Uhm, I just really, really like it up there and I have the stamps on my passport to prove it.
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| Maybe I should put this on blog entries that need a CanCon warning? |
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| The rocks at Peggy's Cove, NS. Don't climb on these. |
9. Nashville, TN. I went there for work and got to see so little of the city, but I'm curious to see more.
10. France. I really miss Bordeaux and CDG airport (for a while there, I had the terminal layout during construction memorized. And the skating schedule at the ice rink in Bordeaux centre memorized, too.)
Now that you've seen my explosion of wanderlust, tell me about yours! Where do you dream of wandering?
(ETA 16-March: If anyone wants advice on travelling, travel safety, travelling alone, even finding ways to fund travel, I TOTALLY recommend Wanderlust and Lipstick. Beth's advice is great and I've completely worn out my copies of "Wanderlust and Lipstick for Women Travelling Solo" and "...For Women Travelling to India." A lot of her advice is common travel sense, but we don't always think of everything! The blogs on her site are also a GREAT way to fuel your wanderlust.
Also, my favorite travel guidebooks come from Lonely Planet. I've found their descriptions and recommendations to be the best and love reading their guidebooks as if they were novels.)
I love that you love Canada so much! :D
ReplyDeleteHow can I NOT love Canada? You have Aero bars and red mittens and a very awesome charter of rights and freedoms. :)
DeleteRussia, Iceland, Amsterdam, and Morocco are the top of my list. I planned an awesome trip to the first three (among a few other destinations) for this past summer and then discovered I would in no way be able to afford it. Went to Hawaii instead and definitely am not complaining about that trip, but I still hope to make it to the others one day...
ReplyDeleteI forgot Russia and Iceland! St. Petersburg is supposed to be beautiful (though the visa to visit is supposed to be a pain to get?)... and Iceland just looks GORGEOUS! I'm sorry to hear about your trip (though not sorry to hear about Hawaii. Iealous, instead!) I do hope you get to knock those off of your list soon.
DeleteO - M - G! I so want to travel. In my minds eye I often wander, though I have technically never wandered far. Mazatlan, Mexico (for a honeymoon) and the West Virgin Islands (courtesy of Carnival Cruises) is the extent of it. I would love, love, love (did I mention love?) to get some stamps in my passport. These would include London, Wales, Ireland, Spain (anywhere really), Italy (everywhere! Dying for a real Chianti, and the Italian architecture....sigh), Morocco, India, Japan, Indonesia....well I won't keep you. You can see where this is going. LOL And sister, oh sister... If you want to hit Nashvegas, you just let me know!!!! I even have a room for ya. *wink* Talk about experiencing food...I could introduce you to the fine art or Southern cooking. Oh good lord! HA!
ReplyDeleteOooh, Mazatlan and West Virgin Islands... those sound wonderful.
DeleteGrab your carry on-- ;) we've got a lot of mutual top places to visit. And a few on your list mean that you'll get some pretty awesome visas pasted in your passport, too!
I forgot that you were in Nashville! I may have to take you up on your offer one day! *HUGS* When I was down there, I was tempted to skip out on my work dinner (at a chain steakhouse), go to the Predators/Flyers game, and go to anywhere that was playing good music. But, work got in the way. Everyone else not in business suits looked like they were having a lot of fun!