On Travel

[evilhippo]

So, now that I've gone and trapped myself again, I think for the sake of my sanity I need to take a real vacation. I haven't ever had one of those. I think things will have settled down by the end of August, so my plan is to pick a city, spend a week there, do the tourist thing for a few days, and then just wander and see what I can find. Also, I aim to get some use out of my passport, since I've already called off my Canada plans (no music festivals this summer! Agh!).

I just can't decide where, exactly, I want to go. London is easy, and probably a good place to start, but I think if I spend some time reviewing my French I could survive almost as well in Paris. Those are my top two choices. But I'm also coming off of a very unhappy and unstable couple of months (and all I have between me and more of them is hope), so I'm not against throwing myself into a city I could be completely, hopelessly lost in, like Tokyo (though most tickets to Tokyo are almost double those to London and Paris, so I think Tokyo is a For Later plan. And probably For More Than a Week).

My goal, someday, is to be able to do this every year, though I know that's a long way off. This plan is already going to dent my savings, but dear goodness it is necessary right now, because I have to shake off this feeling of being trapped.

So, what do you guys think? Where should I go? I know there are a lot of places that haven't even crossed my mind yet, but should've. Barcelona? Moscow? Amsterdam? Hong Kong? Sydney? I'm leaving out lush, foresty real vacation-y places for now, because I want to explore, not... catch malaria and break both of my ankles. (I know myself. That would happen. I'll stick to probably getting hit by a double-decker bus or getting clobbered with baguettes or accidentally becoming a pop idol or something other or refrigerator.)

[Poll #1577942]

Comments

[sketchyheart.livejournal.com]

I would also recommend FLORENCE because I am very biased, but it is a very good "get lost exploring and find the most random things" kind of city, considering it is a giant maze of buildings and cobblestone. You could take a BIKE TOUR of TUSCANY and be less likely to die on it than me.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Ah! I knew I was forgetting something important. Florence! Another of my friends has a cousin there who does tours and things, and could probably put me up for cheap, too (though probably not for an entire week). Mmmm, giant maze of city.

[sketchyheart.livejournal.com]

Ooooh that would be handy. Even just part of the week makes the other part cheaper *O*

[lisiche.livejournal.com]

I vote London just so I can pimp to you a very nice fish and chips place. >.> And well... I'm working on dual citizenship. It's very bad to suggest not visiting the place of your future second citizenship.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Sweet! There's no way I could go to London and not try to find a good fish and chips place, so... yes. ^_^ Excellent.

[rainbowgirl28.livejournal.com]

Seattle! I think you would like it there :) Or Vancouver BC if you want to use your passport.

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes! I reeeeeally need to get out to the west coast. (This whole thing is making me wish I had more than a week of vacation to play with.) I also occasionally pretend like I'm just going to get up and move to Vancouver so I can work on one of the terrible sci-fi shows that get filmed up there. (-; I've heard mixed things about it as a city, though. I have one friend (who I trust on these things) who adores it and wants to move there, but another of my friends (who I trust almost equally) really doesn't like it.

[zolac-no-miko.livejournal.com]

I checked other because PORTLAND. *coughcough* ...But seriously, if you wanted to go foreign, I can vouch for both London and Paris as being awesome. I hear Tokyo is excellent as well (also accidentally becoming a pop idol lolololol omg Roy), and if you go to Tokyo you can stop by PORTLAND on your way out/in. *coughcoughcough* (Coughing is not to indicate that PORTLAND is hosting a plague and should therefore be avoided. Unless you are thinking it is a plague of AWESOME, in which case, damn, we are totally overridden over here.) On the other hand, if you go to Tokyo I will have to add you to the long list of people I know who have been to Japan and I therefore have to hate until I can go myself.

I once did a trip to London, Paris, and Rome, and these are my impressions. I had an extremely tough time determining which of those cities was my favorite. London felt the cleanest and the safest and the friendliest, and I absolutely adore the English (I have a photograph of a car with a troll on the grill that I think just about sums up why). And it would definitely be easiest as far as navigating and speaking the language, so a good place to start your career as a vacation traveler. And of course there are many other wonderful places in Britain that would be easily accessible, as it is a very tiny island, and Ireland is a very tiny island just next door. (And maybe you can get Top Gear tickets. :D ) Of London, Paris, and Tokyo, London is my knee-jerk reactionary choice. On the other hand, I think Paris actually is my favorite of the three cities (London, Paris, and Rome). It is by far the most beautiful. I adore the French language and French people and French architecture and French food. Omg the French food. The French do drive like maniacs (although the Romans are worse), and there is dog poo on the sidewalks (they love their dogs). It could be argued that you should go to France before your French becomes any rustier. There are many nice places to go to in France as well; Versailles is right nearby and quite lovely.

The good thing about both London and Paris is the rest of Europe is quite accessible and close-by, so that is something to consider as far as wandering further afield outside of your city of choice.

...I don't know that I've been any help at all, as I believe I have voted for all of your cities. Oops. And PORTLAND. *cough*

[evilhippo.livejournal.com]

PORTLAND DOESN'T REQUIRE A PASSPORT. That's the only reason it's not on the list. That, and if I was including US cities I needed to get to and visit people in the list would be infinitely long (well... at least four or five cities longer).

I worry that if I expand my vacation to places outside of a specific city I will get distracted and never come back again. Like, if I went out to see castles and history and vineyards and TV show sets I'd just kind of forget about my return flight and next thing I'd know it'd be about three months later, I'd be hitchhiking around Holland or something, and I'd also have accidentally become a citizen of Luxembourg after a brief Las Vegas-style fling during the fifth week of my vacation. Whereas if I limit myself to the city limits I can do a lot of walking around and seeing things people don't ever remember to tell you to see.

I think I've ruled Tokyo out at this point, because it'd be too expensive, I'd be really overwhelmed, and you'd hate me. I'm not sure if I'll ever not be torn between London and Paris, though. I know I'd probably have an easy time in London, I'd enjoy the accents, and it'd be a good place to start since I'm an inexperienced tourist and I'll (most likely) be traveling alone. But there's no way I could be in England and not go to Stratford-upon-Avon, and that throws me into the whole infinite distraction problem, especially since Oxford is along the way. And Paris... the food would be better, I could help young hooligans throw Smart cars into the Seine, and I did manage to remember on my own that "Help!" is "Au secours!" so I'd probably be okay there, too (though the morning conversations I keep imagining with café owners are frustratingly brief and entirely about how "Il fait chaud" or "Je suis americaine, mais ici je pretends que je suis canadienne. Puis-je avoir un croissant?" or my old standby "J'ai un couteau, j'ai un couteau, regardez mon bon manteau!" (the latter being particularly unsuited to airports). I should've known better than to devote my French skills to nonsense all through high school and college).

And here I've just realized how stupid-close London and Paris are, because Marseilles is actually farther from Paris than London. It's a shame three days in each wouldn't be nearly enough.

I think it's Trip to the Library for Tour Guides time!