Monday 16 April 2012

The great "TO VISIT" list

I feel like everyone must have one of these somewhere in their heads. And somewhere along the way I decided it was time to scribble my own one down on (virtual) paper. 

This is my own personal list of all the places I want to go visit. Some of these might be later, rather than sooner but nevertheless, they're all, mostly certainly, places that I want to get to and explore be they near or far from where I end up for the foreseeable. 

Let's start close to home:
The Hebrides and the Shetland Islands
I have long, long wanted to visit these islands, some of the remotest parts of the British isles and  see the unbelievable scenery and landscapes which can be found there. 

The as-yet-unvisited European cities of my imagination: Florence, Budapest, Prague, Amsterdam, Berlin....I don't even want to go into how embarrassing it is that I haven't been to any of these places yet.

Moscow, preferably in the wintertime but I'll take it any way I can get it! Not only to see the architecture there, although that is very much one of the draws for me, but also to visit some of the historic sites I remember from so much fascinating Russian history in high school.

I would love to take a trip (although not exactly right now) to Istanbul and on through to Damascus. These are two places which have fascinated me for a very long time and I especially love the idea of Istanbul as this romantic city situated right between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

The Philippines, thanks to one of the most inspiring, intelligent professors I ever had in university who made me fall in love with this country during only 3 weeks of lectures in an introductory "South East Asia" overview course. 

Shikoku in Japan: the only one of the country's four major islands which I have yet to visit. And the site of the famous "88 temple pilgrimage." Please see this link for the wikipedia brush up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikoku_Pilgrimage
Um, yeh. I actually want to do that. ON FOOT.

Central Asia. Yeh, ALL of it. 

Iceland.....to see the northern lights and also, hopefully, to experience for the first time either crazily long nights or crazily long days. 

Having never visited Africa, my top choices there are definitely Morocco and Botswana.

St Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. I actually used to want to live there, mainly because, as a kid, I saw a TV show about a fisherman there who just caught all of the fish he sold at market by wading into the shallow waters of the beach and using his hands. WIN.

Nepal and trekking Everest Base Camp aka fulfilling a 10-year-long ambition. 

Palestine:

New England, in the fall.

A road trip through the desert-ier parts of the States.

Svalbard, because it looks like this -

And, at some point, when the boy and I are based in Canada - the Rockies, visiting Yukon, Haida Gwaii, making it to Nunavut, and seeing Vancouver island are all on the cards.


And this is kind of a blog post I hope people might read and respond to in kind:
Where do you most want to visit (you are most certainly allowed as many entries on your own list as on mine, or a top five, a top ten, or just one must-see) and why??

1 comment:

  1. My top 10 are as follows in no particular order:
    South Korea (K-Pop cds haha!)
    South Africa (For the lions, elephants, rhinos and some good friends!)
    Iceland (I want to see glaciers, hot springs, wild horses, aurora borealis)
    U.K. :-) (So many places....probably too little time)
    Germany (Romantic Road, Berlin, etc etc etc)
    Italy (There are so many places in this country I want to see!)
    Rome (Who wouldn't?)
    Greece (when their economic situation gets a bit better)
    Thailand (Chiang Mai because I have a friend from there, but also somewhere along a beach side)
    Canada (Especially Banff and Montreal, but also Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto)

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