Britain
It's no secret that I want to go back to England, and especially to check out Cornwall, which I raved on and on about doing when I finished my contract at the Crown Prosecution Service, which then subsequently didn't finish until it was too cold at the end of November 2010. Since then of course I have looked into my family history, and have discovered some of my ancestors came from Cornwall, as well as Dorset, and namely Cerne Abbas - which I would have travelled to in transit there as I knew of the Cerne Abbas Giant, a giant sketch of well, a giant on the side of a hill, (the chalk underneath the soil providing the white outline.
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| The Cerne Abbas Giant, Cerne Abbas, Dorset Courtesy of http://www.dorset.net/ |
When I manage to find the map of South West England that I longingly looked at, I shall scan it and put it up here, and you'll see why I was so eager, and why I thought it was so possible.
Of course all the other places my ancestors came from, such as Yorkshire, Ayrshire, Dumfries, Lincolnshire, North Wales, and Norfolk.
Kayak the canals
After watching one of the many documentaries on Sky, I am even more keen to explore the canals of Britain, especially when you see things like this - that is an aqueduct people - that isn't a train, that is a canal boat!
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| Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Llangollen Canal Photo Courtesy of http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/ |
(Definitely too much watching Coast on TV) Maybe I would limit it to walking from Kings Lynn around to Rhyll perhaps (look on a map, and you will see how far that would still be). However I could kill several birds with the one stone, I'd be checking out Norfolk, Dorset, Cornwall, and Wales. I'd also get to check out the Dover castle, Essex (I had a semi-plan to visit Essex one night as it has a bit of a reputation, and then I also fell in love with The Only Way is Essex. On the aside, for some reason Made in Chelsea doesn't have the same appeal to me, I think it is the class divide thing, MIC appears to be about a bunch of Upper Class wankers who wouldn't give me the time of day, whereas TOWIE is about slightly trashy, yet successful people, much like my ancestors (I had ancestors that lived in either place, and in the case of my Irish ancestors, both places, but none of them got life on a plate, albeit maybe a sponsored ticket to New Zealand).
Europe
- Poland - Egiertowo (formerly known as Eggershutte) where my German ancestors came from. And as mentioned in another post, Malbork castle, which doesn't look that far away from it.
- Italy
- mainly because I watched James and Thom's Pizza Pilgrimage and want to try all the food, but also I like the sound of the Cinque Terre and all the other places Suzanne and Bevan visited on their tour with Top Deck in 2010. On that note, the other week I watched another Italian food programme on Choice or Sky, and they had a pasta machine. Later that week I had gone to Stevens to buy a mortar and pestle (as I want to make my own pesto, I already have the basil from an earlier purchase) and hello, pasta machines are on special...
-Prague
Namely because it is one of those cities that the TNT continually reviewed, as it was a decent city break from London
-Budapest
Same reason, and also because I remember it from playing Where in The World is Carmen Santiago? on the Commodore 64.
El Camino de Santiago - walk across Spain.
Our vicar has done this, and from what I remember of Spain it is reasonably flat, and beautiful. Adding to this is the fact last year I was in Don Quixote of La Mancha, and I believe this walk would probably take you past some of the towns mentioned in the play/book (and so what if it doesn't?)
Walking across Europe
Looks easy enough. Somewhere I have a pamphlet by Calder and Lawson Tours which outlines a walk around part of Central Eastern Europe, i.e. Prague and Budapest etc.
Kayaking from the Netherlands to Eastern Europe.
As you can see from the below two maps, you can get from the North Sea starting at Amsterdam right across Europe all the way to the Black Sea, via the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers. Buy a kayak, sweet as.
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| Check out http://www.communitywalk.com/map/12225 for the full size map of this, which includes all the cities you would pass along the way, and labels which river you would be on at that stage. |
Fiji
I want to do the snorkeling tour I investigated last year. Basically a boat takes you up the Yasawa islands from Nadi, and apparently it is pretty awesome snorkeling.
Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos
- then I have effectively ticked off Asia, and it looks like you could do the three in one hit.
Japan
- although the pangs aren't as strong as they were pre-London, I would like to go back and check out some of the stuff I missed out, which to be fair wasn't a whole heap - mainly just Nara and Ise. I still crave Coco Ichiban from time to time (Japanese curry), and would love to catch up with Eita and Noriyoshi and some of my other students. What is scary is thinking than Ichitomi the three year old at the time is now ten, and the "Angels" who were about 12, are probably at university now.
Brazil/Argentina/Peru/Bolivia
Since I was about 10, when I first read something about Rio de Janeiro and the statue of Christ the Redeemer, I've been keen to check it out. Similarly I wouldn't mind checking out the hot ladies on Copacabana beach.
In more recent years I have heard about Machu Picchu in Peru.
Last but not least I would like to go to San Jose Banda, in Argentina, where my ancestor Donald McDonald was supposedly born.
Antarctica
Mainly then I can say I have been to every Continent in the World (loosely defined - as I have been to "The Americas" i.e. North America, as far down as Mexico, Asia, Europe, Oceania (obviously) and Africa (Egypt))
Keep an eye on this page, as the list will probably keep growing.
