January Journal: Day 8 - Top 5 travel destinations

[unikorento]

I told myself "you can mess about with DW for exactly half an hour, and then it's off to bed", so this entry may not be entirely thought out. Please forgive typos and other nonsense. Here goes!

Top 5 travel destinations - falena

But, wait. Does this mean the top 5 I've been to, or top 5 I want to visit?



These are five places I've been to that I've absolutely loved and would re-visit at the drop of a hat.

1. Colorado and New Mexico. There are mountains and horses, and bilingualism as a part of people's everyday life. Visiting the States is always a little bit like going to a different planet (in a good way, mind you), but I felt oddly at home in Colorado. Maybe it's all the coniferous trees? Maybe it's the bears? But then there's also the desert, and that really is like walking on the surface of a different planet, and just... I am at a loss for words to describe it all. It's amazing. I think about the mountains in Durango about once a week.

2. Northern Italy, especially the areas of Emilia-Romagna & Liguria. Specifically, the Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna are yell-incoherently-awesome, and the paths and villages of Cinque Terre are mind-blowing. (Though as I understand it, the serious influx of tourists has damaged the area in Cinque Terre, so access to the villages and hiking paths is limited these days. It would make sense if it is. The place was getting very, very crowded, and the hiking trails were getting dangerous from all the traffic. I'd say "damned tourists" if I wasn't one myself.) Anyway. Italy. I love visiting Italy. (And I really love eating in Italy.)

3. Lapland. This is pretty broad since Lapland* isn't in any particular country as much as it is an area that encompasses the northern parts of Finland, Sweden, Russia and Norway. I've only seen it in the spring and winter, and only the Finnish and Russian parts. The change of seasons up there is drastic, so the season you choose for your visit has a big impact on what you experience. There are reindeer and the wilderness feels endless (no mountains though), and... well, that's it really. It's just beautiful.

4. Edinburgh/ Scotland. Edinburgh is a Unesco City of Literature. I mean, do I need to say more? Sure, downtown is touristy, but what major city doesn't suffer from that? It's beautiful, there are bookshops, and people speak Scots. There's also castles, and gorgeous scenery when you start driving north.

5. Switzerland. There are mountains. (You may be noticing a theme here?) Cows move around fairly freely. There's cheese. There's a variety of French that I find comprehensible. It's an expensive place to visit, but the view more than makes up for it. Shit, Switzerland has so many mountains. So. Many. Mountains.


Here are 5 destinations that I plan on seeing in the coming years:

1. Southern Italy. Sicily especially, and Naples. It's a funny thing, Naples. In broad terms, folks in Europe mostly agree that Italy is an amazing place to visit. Everyone also kind of agrees that one should stay well away from Naples because it's sketchy as heck. I recently read a travel magazine that devoted an entire article to trying to convince Finnish readers that Naples is totally safe.

2. New Orleans/ Louisiana. There are people there who speak a variety of French. I must hear it. Oh, and the English as well. And music.

3. Bath. York. The Lake District. Are these one destination or several? I don't know. I suppose it's a little stereotypical of me, but what can I do. I'm an Anglophile. I really enjoy travelling in the UK and I want to do more of it.

4. Vancouver/Seattle. Again, not exactly the same place, but they're within reasonable roadtrip distance from each other. In Vancouver I might see orcas. In Seattle I... I'm not sure what I'd find there. I want to go find out.

5. South Korea? This is a lot less likely to happen than the others, but I'm holding out hope. I've never been to Asia, and I don't really know where to start to be honest.


*some prefer the English translation Sápmi since Lapland technically only refers to parts of Sweden & Finland.

Comments

[imarcy]

Oh my gosh, I am so green with envy right now... Every single place on these lists sounds amazing and I wanna go! I love nature, so I am with you on the love for mountains, trees, rivers, gullies, forests, deserts ... oh my. So lovely! Sounds like great times!

[unikorento]

I love nature

Yup. I vastly prefer hiking or road tripping over vacations in a city. Granted, there's always more to do in cities, but somehow the environment is so draining. After a few days, I'm usually pretty eager to get to see more scenery and fewer people.

[corvidology]

I went to New Mexico for the first time a couple of years ago, for a conference. I fell head over heels for the place and the people... and the food! I'll take the Christmas chilies, thanks!

Bath, York and the Lake District would take some traveling but would be doable. I'm from very near Bath, love York and the wildness of the Lake District although the Scottish highlands has that beat.

Also, Edinburgh is glorious but my heart belongs to Glasgow due to having friends from there at uni.

[unikorento]

Oh, the food! I'm stereotypically Nordic in the sense that I don't deal well with spicy food, but it's a pain I'm happy to take because so much of the food was just so good.

the Scottish highlands has that beat.

Well, to be fair, the Scottish highlands beat most things in terms of awesome scenery! I drove around Loch Lomond and up to Ben Nevis a few years back, but I've seen none of the east coast yet. I'm doing to get there.

my heart belongs to Glasgow due to having friends from there at uni.

Same! But for Edinburgh. I took some summer course at Uni of Edinburgh, and it was just a great time. I always meant to get to Glasgow, but there's never been a good opportunity so far.

[corvidology]

I'm English and a lot of people think our food is really bland but due to national love of curry we really like spicy food. :D

[unikorento]

What's that joke again... "The national dish of England is chicken tikka masala". :D

[corvidology]

Well, that particular dish was invented in England so yes! :D

[motodraconis]

That's no joke! Tis deadly serious. :D

[tcpip]

Nice list. I'm off to Switzerland later this year... and given that you like mountains, the South Island of New Zealand next month.

[unikorento]

Oh man. Switzerland is really pretty. If you go to Gruyère, there's a small H.R Geiger museum which is 100% worth checking out.

I forgot New Zealand off of my "places I want to visit" list. It's actually really near the top. Partially because I want to do a LotR pilgrimage, and partially because I love roadtrips and I feel New Zealand would be perfect for that.

[tcpip]

I must remember that. Last time I went to Switzerland I ended up in Genève, and spent most of my time at CERN. They were kind enough to make it an official event.

New Zealand is an excellent place for a road trip. I try to go every six months (and completely failed to do so last year). Although I am rather biased towards the place - I was born in Invercargill and own the former Freemason's Lodge in Dunedin.

[tcpip]

Oh, and very quickly... Hobbiton is in the North Island, and is well worth the visit!

[machinistm]

You HAVE to go to Naples! Naples is awesome! It's awesome because it's dodgy, heh. I still dream of the Margherita pizzas I had there.

Asia is huge and all the countries are really unique. I would always recommend Japan, because the place, the food, the culture, and the people are all amazing and amazingly different. And then a meandering trip down Southeast Asia through Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia. There's still India and China but that's just *a lot* :)

[unikorento]

I don't know why, but there seems to be a universal correlation between "kind of a dodgy place" and "serves awesome food". :D

I feel overwhelmed by the whole thought of Asia. But I've got some friends in Korea, so it feels like a soft place to start.

[rainy182]

I'm planning on going to New Orleans this spring and Seattle this summer (if everything works out)! I've been to Baton Rouge, LA and it was pretty nice so it'll be cool to see more of the state!

[unikorento]

I hear Baton Rouge is really nice! I don't know, since the closes I ever got to Louisiana was, uhm... Florida. :D So, I've got some travelling to do still.

[motodraconis]

If you're interested in the bookish side of things, you should visit Hay-on-Wye, the town of books. It's on the Welsh side (just) of the Wales-England border and is very cute. (It's also on the border of the Brecon Beacons National Park if you want to hike out on hills and mountains.)

[unikorento]

A TOWN OF BOOKS and hiking? Sign me the hell up! I forgot to put Wales on the list, but it's obviously one of the places I'd love to see. I've never even been in the vicinity, which is a fact I really ought to rectify.

[motodraconis]

Well for me the main draw of Wales is the many spectacular castles. Lovely beaches, but the castles dammit! :D

[unikorento]

You know, I never thought of Wales as a place to go for seeing castles. Now I want to go even more! Castles, beaches, welsh, cute towns... Yup.

[bruttimabuoni]

Well, some of this is very familiar and some of it is enviable. I was in Ravenna last September (also Bologna and Ferrara), and it was stunning. But I also got eaten alive by Ravenna mosquitoes despite all my precautions so I have bittersweet feelings about it. Loved Bologna, though, so much. When I go to Italy I mostly come home by train, via Switzerland. It was Basel this time - not so many mountains, but a beautiful place to spend a couple of days.

Bath, York and Edinburgh otoh are very much my working life. And very lovely in spite of that. Every meeting I have in Edinburgh seems to be in another amazing and unexpected place, down another fascinatingly weird street. I don't have the next one scheduled yet, but it'll be fun.

[unikorento]

When I was living in Edinburgh for a few months (many, many years ago), I had this theory of it being like Hogwarts due to all the little alleys and ghost stories that the locals kept telling us exchange students. :D I was fairly convinced the layout of the city kept changing just to mess with me. I got lost a lot.

[falena]

I want to go to all the places you mentioned here, including those I've already been to. :D

[unikorento]

I love how similar our travelling tastes are. <3

[thewayne]

We used to visit Colorado regularly, had friends and wife's brother & family N of Denver. But friend's wife died of cancer, he's now in England teaching maths. We were up there for a Catholic/Sikh wedding last May, totally Awesome! Lots of snow!

Speaking of which, we live in New Mexico! Place called Cloudcroft, 9,000' on top of a mountain next to White Sands! If you ever come back here, maybe we can show you some sites, like my wife's 3.5 meter telescope if you're interested in astronomy.

[unikorento]

I'll definitely go back at some point. I try to get in a roadtrip in the States every few years. :)

[thewayne]

We did a cruise from Prague to Berlin a few years back and met a very nice older couple from the south of England whom we keep in loose contact with.  Turns out they also sometimes vacationed in the Santa Fe region.  Unfortunately the altitude and their age was making the area difficult for them, then our current President was elected and they've elected to not vacation here for a while. We're considering a canal boat rental vacation in northern England/Scotland at some point, the cost isn't that prohibitive.  But we'll wait until we see how Brexit shakes out!

[indefinable]

Hello! I subscribed to you from the "yes" friending meme because you seem awesome, hope you don't mind. :D

I'm from Asia and would love to visit the western part of the world but have no idea where to begin, hahaha.

[unikorento]

I don't mind at all! Happy to meet you :)

I'm from Asia and would love to visit the western part of the world but have no idea where to begin, hahaha.


Hah! Well, I'm glad at least that I'm not the only one! :D