Man, parts of this video look unreal. One day I hope to be able to photograph stars half so cool as this. Props to Shawn Reeder for capturing this amazing beauty.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
100 Places to Visit Before You Die?
If you're on the Facebook, you may have seen an app called "100 Places to Visit Before You Die" (there's also a "US Traveler Challenge" going around, too, but it doesn't have a non-Facebook site, and I refuse to add stupid apps on my Facebook). This morning, after seeing more of my friends' results, I decided to check out the list. Even if you're not on Facebook, you can find it here.
On the site, you can find both the list and the challenge, where you click boxes about whether or not you've been to the sites. The options are "I've been there," "I would like to visit," and "Not bothered" (which to me sounds better than "Don't care"). My breakdown is 17, 32, 51. The numbers seem to belie my experiences and my status as the owner of a travel blog.
Although the list says the sites are in no particular order, the first place is Los Angeles. Good people, here is my response to that. First, put them in some order, whether it be alphabetical or geographical or topical (the nature, world heritage, whatever). Second, I think this list in particular encourages indiscriminate travel. Clearly, I'm all about going out and seeing things. But you may have noticed that I almost always explain why I've gone somewhere. I don't think the point of traveling is to keep score; I'll admit that I talk about where I've been ALL THE TIME and it probably gets pretty annoying (they went to Dubrovnik in the April 5 episode of "Missing" and I couldn't stop saying "I've been there... and there... SO MANY CRUISE SHIPS... You can't just run in there, that's a museum..."), but I don't travel just so I can annoy people in the future. I want to see and do things for totally subjective reasons, and that's okay. I have comparatively little interest in most of Asia; so I don't see the point of going there, just to say I've been. Maybe sometime in the future I'll learn something about, say, Japan that really makes me want to visit, or maybe I'll win an all-expenses-paid trip to Tokyo. If the latter happened, I wouldn't turn it down, and I'm sure I'd find that there was plenty interesting about the place. But I'm not going to go to some place I'm not bothered about just to rack up stamps in my passport. Unless you're in "The Amazing Race" or Around the World in Eighty Days, travel isn't supposed to be a contest, and I should apologize if I've ever made it seem like it is. I consider it to be about learning and enjoying and bettering yourself and hopefully the world.
This has been my opinion, of course, what with this being my blog and all. If you have a different opinion, congratulations! It's still a free internet.
On a marginally related note: Don't know your travel style (or where you should go in the Great White North)? The Canadian Tourism Commission has a Traveler Type test where you rate statements to reveal your type. My favorite statement is "Wherever I go, I have to have the very best there is to offer: the best hotels, the best restaurants, the best shopping and the best service." If you replace those nouns with "ice cream," "cider," "chocolate," and "cheese," then yes. Otherwise, that's a Totally Disagree with a side of derisive laughter. The test calls me an Authentic Experiencer, and says that I can often be found at nature reserves, world heritage sites, hiking trails, and museums. Indeed. If you look for me in any of those places, I'll be the one eating cheese.
(This post was sponsored by parentheses and parenthetical statements that probably could've been rephrased.)
On the site, you can find both the list and the challenge, where you click boxes about whether or not you've been to the sites. The options are "I've been there," "I would like to visit," and "Not bothered" (which to me sounds better than "Don't care"). My breakdown is 17, 32, 51. The numbers seem to belie my experiences and my status as the owner of a travel blog.
Although the list says the sites are in no particular order, the first place is Los Angeles. Good people, here is my response to that. First, put them in some order, whether it be alphabetical or geographical or topical (the nature, world heritage, whatever). Second, I think this list in particular encourages indiscriminate travel. Clearly, I'm all about going out and seeing things. But you may have noticed that I almost always explain why I've gone somewhere. I don't think the point of traveling is to keep score; I'll admit that I talk about where I've been ALL THE TIME and it probably gets pretty annoying (they went to Dubrovnik in the April 5 episode of "Missing" and I couldn't stop saying "I've been there... and there... SO MANY CRUISE SHIPS... You can't just run in there, that's a museum..."), but I don't travel just so I can annoy people in the future. I want to see and do things for totally subjective reasons, and that's okay. I have comparatively little interest in most of Asia; so I don't see the point of going there, just to say I've been. Maybe sometime in the future I'll learn something about, say, Japan that really makes me want to visit, or maybe I'll win an all-expenses-paid trip to Tokyo. If the latter happened, I wouldn't turn it down, and I'm sure I'd find that there was plenty interesting about the place. But I'm not going to go to some place I'm not bothered about just to rack up stamps in my passport. Unless you're in "The Amazing Race" or Around the World in Eighty Days, travel isn't supposed to be a contest, and I should apologize if I've ever made it seem like it is. I consider it to be about learning and enjoying and bettering yourself and hopefully the world.
This has been my opinion, of course, what with this being my blog and all. If you have a different opinion, congratulations! It's still a free internet.
On a marginally related note: Don't know your travel style (or where you should go in the Great White North)? The Canadian Tourism Commission has a Traveler Type test where you rate statements to reveal your type. My favorite statement is "Wherever I go, I have to have the very best there is to offer: the best hotels, the best restaurants, the best shopping and the best service." If you replace those nouns with "ice cream," "cider," "chocolate," and "cheese," then yes. Otherwise, that's a Totally Disagree with a side of derisive laughter. The test calls me an Authentic Experiencer, and says that I can often be found at nature reserves, world heritage sites, hiking trails, and museums. Indeed. If you look for me in any of those places, I'll be the one eating cheese.
(This post was sponsored by parentheses and parenthetical statements that probably could've been rephrased.)
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