A few things inspired this ET [and one of them was laziness, but this turned out to be a rather taxing thing to actually do] - one of them being fellow thing-a-dayer Colette's recent amazing safari adventure and another being my recent real-life staycation of taking time off work to spend time in my own city. I wasn't exactly inspired and I haven't really left the city since February 2007 [yes, the last time I cut my hair]...so I'm getting a bit antsy. So tonight I planned my dream holiday. I did a similar project back in seventh grade - we had to plan a trip around the world. We had to keep track of costs of everything and plan activities and such. Back in those olden times there was no internets so we had to go to travel agencies and get books and such. We also had to walk to school barefoot in the snow, 5 kilometres, uphill both ways.
This time obviously I took some shortcuts. I didn't track all of the prices since things vary so much with times of the year and stuff and it was mucking up my searches to type in exact dates. My dream holiday @ age 29 is quite different from my dream holiday @ age 12 [I don't remember all of the details, but I do remember a large portion of time spent in Paris, Austrailia and possibly China]. Here are the main places I would like to go and some activities I would like to do:
First Stop: Southern California. I would like to spend a few days in Southern California. I have never been to San Francisco and I would like to go. I would also like to go to the San Diego Comic Con [and the zoo]. Joseph and I would both like to go to Universal Studios and maybe some other amusement park [not Disney]. I would also like to go visit Marilyn's gravesite [I know - it's a hacky thing to do].
Second Stop: Tokyo. Joseph and I have been vaguely planning a holiday to Japan for a couple of years now [his brother lives there]. We would likely go to Tokyo as that's where Greg is and he could help show us around a little bit. I don't have a lot of specific plans for Japan aside from doing a lot of annoying touristy things [temples, sumo, tea ceremony, shopping, eating lots, nightlife, museums]. The culture seems so different from Toronto, so I would just kinda want to hang out a bit. I would also like to visit an onsen [hot spring] so I researched some hotels that have onsen. Sometimes macaques go into the hot springs, so...monkeys!
Third Stop: Africa. Yes, I realize that's a whole continent. I have been looking into different safari options. I found two that interest me most and would potentially allow me to see lots of cool animals. The first one is in Tanzania and Kenya and has lots of different game animals and some gorillas/primates. The second is in Rwanda that is just pure gorilla [and also Lake Victoria]. In addition to safaris I would like to visit Victoria Falls to swim in the Devil's Swimming Pool [please use your Google-fu]. Joseph would not like to do that.
Fourth Stop: Rome/Pompeii. Since reading an "around the world" Richard Scarry book back when I was three years old it was my dream to visit Italy. Well, I did that a few years ago and it was fantastic. Really exceeded my expectations. However, Rome was not on our itinerary. I have been obsessed with ancient Rome pretty much my entire life as well so I really must go there. Mostly to see the ancient stuff, although of course there is a lot of art and architecture there that should be pretty obvious. In addition, I would like to visit the ruins of Pompeii. We went to a touring exhibition of the ruins [casts of them] in Ottawa a few years ago and it was amazing. Seeing them in real life would be quite beautiful I imagine.
Fifth Stop: London/New York. Yes, I know I've been to these locations before. I couldn't choose just one, but I wanted to end @ five stops. So it would depend upon time of year I guess. For London, if there were really good exhibitions on @ any museum, I would go there [also for the UK Starbucks]. For New York - of course I would love to see the Yankees play @ their new stadium and go to a taping of the Late Show before Letterman retires [he's my TV dad].
This would obviously be one expensive holiday and I would need well over a month off. Good times. Anyone wish to sponsor me?
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3 comments:
Oh, what a great idea! I want to do this, too. And I'll then daydream about it at work all day...
Cool. :)
If you ever go to do a safari, I would recommend Botswana - I didn't make it to the northern part of the country, but it's supposed to be amazing and the animals just run wild. (The safari I did in north South Africa was in a game park, so although the animals are wild, they are ultimately fenced in.)
Northern Botswana borders Zimbabwe (which is where Victoria Falls is). The thing about Botswana is that it has a stable government that spends money on infrastructure. A lot of African countries can't claim that.
I've been to Rome & Pompeii. I was actually robbed in Pompeii, but before the robbery, I went to the ruins. They were amazing. I found it hard to believe how big they are. Rome is another one of those cities where you're constantly running into things you've heard of (like in London or New York).
San Francisco is also a good place to visit (although it's colder than you'd expect). There's a lot to do. While I was there, we went to Sequoia National Park (about 4 hours away) and saw some trees that are ridiculously large. There are no words to describe those trees.
Anyway, that's my travel essay for today. :) I've gone to far more places in the last 5 years than in all of my years before that. Got to get my money's worth on the passport fee.
Wow - great comment Colette!
That is one of my big concerns with travelling to some countries - that I don't really want to give money to countries with bad human rights/environmental records. It's something that has curbed my strong desire to go to Egypt, China and other countries. It's a big concern for Africa as well.
I've heard that San Francisco can be cool and also foggy. I would welcome that - I don't like heat all that much.
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