Broomsticks And Owls

Hi

I can't believe there is no topic on travelling the world so thought I'd set one up.

So if you're thinking about travelling:

Where are you thinking about going?
What sort of things do you want to do?
How are you getting there?

If you want some advice on any of these things or indeed can give advice to someone needing it, why not post here.

Ooooh! Me loves this new posty!

Some of you may have already seen my interest in traveling by my post in "Interests and Hobbies." If not . . .

I hate anywhere tropical, like the Bahamas or whatever - how boring, sitting on a beach doing nothing all day.

I'd rather go back to the "motherland," and find out all its history and quirks. Really I'd love to do a full tour of Europe, but I'll have to break it up throughout my lifetime.

I've never left the province of Ontario, but when I do I'd like to travel to:

Northern and Southern Ireland
See my mom's birthplace in Belfast, tour the castles and ruins, find a few pubs and share a Guinness with the locals, etc.

England and Scotland
See my aunt in Kirkoddy, see all the lochs and beautiful landscapes in Scotland (hmmmm . . . maybe bring my paints), London = shopping!, again, all the historical buildings and ruins and gravesites and churches and whathaveyou, including the tower of london and the Wax Museum in london, plus any old libraries of old english texts I can find

Netherlands
Mostly Joure and Amsterdam, the former my dad's birthplace. Gotta pick up some clogs as souveniers! See the tulips and historical places (must find tour guide who speaky ze Eenglish)

Germany
BEER! Well, besides that, the castles of Germany. Plus there's this area there where these villagers carved things in the shape of bears, like hat stands, etc. I have to research it a bit more . . . Maybe experience Oktoberfest, and anything else that interests me.

France
Ahhh . . . Paris! The Louvre and shopping and just the whole atmosphere of France that I've heard so much about. Have a coffee at a little cafe and chatter with the locals in broken Frenglish.

Italy
Super duper historical - the Colosseum and the Parthenon and Venice with it's gondolas and pretty masks for the festivals (again, another souvenir I must obtain). All those ruins and history and the CHURCHES! The vatican , and Tuscany and . . . and . . . there's just too much!

Greece
Pompeii (hope this is in greece, I haven't researched it in it's entirety), and more historical ruins and such, and the cheese and the wine and more interesting tours

Hong Kong
Shopping - entirely. I won't eat their food, I don't care how much it would add to the experience. Raw fish and live mini octopus are not in my food vocabulary (although I will try rice - white rice, that is) Probably just a day or two here.

Australia
G'day mate! I'd love to see all the wildlife and go scubadiving in the reef - once I learn how to scubadive. See the nightlife and visit the Sydney Opera house.

New Zealand
How could I not visit the beautiful country of New Zealand? Since I've watched the LOTR, I MUST see this ethereal landscape that they filmed it in. I'd love to take a horse ride through the fresh open country air! Mmmm . . . country air.

Belgium
Just for the hell of it- find some chocolate and other historical - based stuff.

Egypt
Purely for the pyramids, then I'm outta that war-torn area of the world

Prague
There's this little shop near prague (and all its churches, historical buildings . . . .you get the picture) that sells these hot apple turnovers for cheap. Must find hot apple turnovers . . .

United States
Everything . . . I don't care how long it takes me. New York, San Fran, Hershey Pennsylvania, California - you name it. Not only for the night life but to meet other people and find cute little antique stores where I can spend money on quality antiques (I swear, the Americans stole all the good antiques - no offense to Yanks out there, its true. No nice antiques up here in Canada, I tell you) See all the castles of America - Vanderbilt mansion for one. I know it's unrealistic but I'd love to have a house like that!

Well, that's all I can think of. Phew! What a long post - sorry guys. Congrats to those who actually read it . . . I hope I don't have any typos. This journey will probably take the rest of my life to fulfil. . . but who cares? That's why we travel . . to experience new and old things and to learn from the past and present.

Thanks Snow for making this thread - I'm sure it's gonna be popular, and it'll be interesting to see where people want to go.

Just so you know- Pompeii is in Italy, at the base of Vesuvius...the volcano.

Anyway, when I finish uni I've decided to travel the world by plane and coach.

Scotland- the land of my forebares. My ancestors on my mother's side are all scottish, and I feel that I should do a tour of their homeland. A kind of honouring thing.

Ireland- I have some distant family there.

Italy- Pompeii, Rome- for their immense history. Vatican City from a distance- I couldn't enter it without being burned, either by the Roman Catholics or by their blessed holy land.

Poland- I have a best friend who is half polish, and their culture is supposed to be really interesting.

USA- not for the Californian sun, but for their history after they settled there from Britain.

New Zealand- beautiful, have always wanted to go there, like Australia but cooler and without all the dangerous venomous animals.

South Africa- our school works with one down there, would love to see how they're doing and listen to the Children's Choir.

Egypt- visit the pyramids, research their history more.

Amsterdam- my aunt Kirsten lives there.

Greece- ancient Greek history.

France- return to Paris and go back up the Eiffel Tower, back to Montmatre/ Sacre Coeur, and visit Notre Dame.

Germany- supposed to be a really nice and friendly place.

Brazil- sample the samba lifestyle since I'm in a Samba band and have played Brazilian football, Futebol de salao.

London- Broadway! I love to act and dance, Broadway is the pinacle of that profession.

Cool thread!

WOW!!! You guys are gunna be busy...and yes I read everyones posts lol...

I really want to go to Italy especially the Vatican and all the history stuff there... for all the reasons both people wanted to go lol,
Spain- just always wanted to go there,
Scotland (again to see family),
Ireland (again, to see family),
Egypt- Pyramids ect,
USA- just everywhere, like my friend is doing, she leaves on Saturday, and she ditched me for a whole month!!!
ummm...Australia for like the 5th time just for the shopping and theme parks,
London- BROADWAY!!! (yeah go broadway QA),
Greece...
France..

I reckon the list could go on for ages...so I'm stopping there...

I'm glad both of you want to come to NZ!!! It's a good country, a shock when you're used to completly crowded places, only about 4million people in the whole country, thats the population of Sydney, and NZ is approximately the same size as Romania, theres allllooooottt of people in Romania...my friend knows coz that's where shes from originally...

ok...lol I like this thread, good thinking Snow...

rory pridinham
you skipped belgium
the beer is better than in germany, the cheese is most definatly better the netherlands ... the chocolate is suppose to be the best on earth
the food is really good

what more do you want

Sorry selene:

I just want to go to so many places it's hard to keep track of the attractions

Hope I didn't hurt anyone's feelings!

no, it's just ... most people skip belgium
cos they think it's got nothing to offer
but that not true
history, food and stuff, you find it all in belgium ... and its much cheaper than england, holland and france together

Yay! Wow - what a response. Ah I'm dead chuffed everyone thought this was a good idea. It was actually Scarlet Lioness and Phoenix that gave me the idea because they really helped me out in planning my holiday to NZ a couple of months ago. And again thanks for that guys - it really made all the difference!!!

I think the next places I'd like to go to now are

Australia
Thailand
Singapore

Then in Europe I still feel I need to do:

Madrid and Valencia in Spain (my friend has recently moved out to Valencia and so I need to get out and see her)
Belgium - I've never been and must admit I don't know much about it
Prague
Berlin
Venice - Italy it's the only major city in Italy that I haven't been to but I'm saving going for something special
I'd also like to do Rekyavik (sorry about spelling, that doesn't look right somewhere!)

I have never been to Canada or the States (well unless you count an airport stopover in LA which I don't) but I would love to go Christmas shopping in New York and Boston as I just think it would be a really lovely atmosphere.

So anyway, it looks like there are so many places that people want to talk about, what say we pick a place and then hammer that to death and then move onto the next place?

Let's talk about London...

It was no trouble honestly Snow...hahah...

London...well, I know it has like 3-4 times as many people as NZ, and is a much smaller area lol...and ummit has good shopping and Broadway...

London has about 6 million inhabitants and is a real multicultural city. From Thai to Indian to Turkish to Greek you can eat foods at a fantastic variety of restaurants.

Fantastic for shopping, sightseeing, museums and culture and heritage. one of my favourite things to do in London is to go ice-skating the week before Christmas at Somerset House. It's only set up at Christmas time and is a ticket only thing but it's just great for a bit of fun. I also like the London Eye to get a great view of the city it's best to go at Sunset on a clear day as you can see for absolutely miles. At sunset it's also pretty special seeing all the lights of London - Christmas is a fantastic time for this too as you can imagine!

Where would you like to go in London?

I would love to go to the London Eye, and Ice-skating (not that i'm any good, good meaning not falling on your bum lol) but definately for the Broadway shows!!!! I'd love to just go and see the ones which are out at the moment...

Yeah the shows are fab and if you don't want to book way ahead, sometimes you can just turn up on the day and get cheaper tickets for that night.

The London Aquarium is meant to be a nice day out. I've seen the Aquarium building which is right opposite the Houses of Parliament and it's so bizarre as you would not expect it to be an aquarium. It's such an old building and is beautifully preserved. One other good thing is that the London Eye is right next door.

I'd love to go on one of the sightseeing tours - on an open top red bus. You can pick them up at Hyde Park or Trafalgar and various other places and it takes you all round the major highlights. Really should get that in this summer!

ok first of all i must defend "that war-torn area of the world"
as i said in another thread there isnt really a war going on here, certainly not in egypt, jordan, lebanon, syria....
also in israel - just a few suicide bombers here and there nothing sirious -
no im kidding (israeli humor hopefuly not to cinical for you guys) there are sometimes teror attacks here and its terrible but it doesnt make it unsafe to travel - the driving here is much more dangerous for example
but of course what everyone knows and talks about are the terorists...

ok anyways london you said - not one from the top of my list, however:
hydepark - i love the idea, just really really love it, would like to go and preach there for people and argue and all that, besides i read in the hitchiker guide to the galaxi (my most favorit book so far) that you have to visit there in the sunset and see the ducks in the lake
the london eye, shows museums, definitely not shopping - i wont waste vacation time on shopping, i'd really like to see the versatility of the city but to really feel that you probably have to live there for a while...
oh and of course if im there already i cant not go to a soccer game - too many great teams there to not go see one of them

You're absolutely right. I think TV broadcasters have a lot to answer for. I've never been to Israel but I've always had the impression it's a dangerous place. But it's nice to know you are safe there sorcerer and that actually some of it's just hype.

To be honest I think you pick up the versatility of London pretty soon. Even if you sat outside a cafe and watched the world go by you would get an idea of the people who go there. There are so many different cultures in London it's brilliant for diversity. Personally for me, london is a good day/night out but the hustle and bustle gets to you after a while. I personally couldn't live there as I like a mix of country and city.

So anyway...Paris... I love Paris! A romantic walk along the Seine from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, having an evening meal on a dinner cruise along the Seine at night with all the beautiful buildings all lit up. They are some of my fondest memories - that latter one not least because that's where my now husband proposed to me!

Snow_Fight - awww, thats really romantic!!! How long have you been married?

Where are you thinking about going? - Take a Cruise to the islands....any islands XD
What sort of things do you want to do? Relax, do all the activities that are offered on the ship and then stroll through different beautiful islands!
How are you getting there? on a huge cruise ship!!

I don't know what this is gonna happen XD not this year and not the next one, but someday it will! ^-^