Metatalktail Hour: I Want To Go To There!

June 22, 2019 5:20 PM

Good Saturday evening, MetaFilter! This week, I'd like to know, if you could go anywhere in the world that you haven't been yet, where would you like to go?

As always, this is a conversation starter, not limiter, so tell us everything that's up with you!

posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 5:20 PM (105 comments total)

There are so many places! I could never name just one. I'd love to go to Patagonia, but I know tourism there is terrible for the Patagonian environment, so it's probably the place I'd most like to visit, but likely won't.

In garden news, I put up my second batch of half-sour pickles today. I also made a marinara for dinner with some of the tomato bounty and I made a fresh cherry cobbler. It's been a kitchen-centric day.

I have to pull one tomato plant. It was an experiment. Somehow, it survived the "winter" and I wanted to see if it would still fruit. It did, but the fruit isn't great and it's been super susceptible to pests. I'm going to plant a late season seedling and hope for the best.

In bee news, I lost a really thriving hive when a fucking eucalyptus tree fell on it. It's at the nonprofit apiary I manage, so by the time I got there, every bee in a 3 mile radius had come to rob all the honey out. I'll do an autopsy tomorrow morning during my class and everyone can learn from it, but goddammit, this year has been fucked.
posted by Sophie1 at 5:52 PM on June 22, 2019 [5 favorites]

My current "if I get laid off in the latest round of work crap" plan is to walk the Via Francigena from Switzerland. I'm almost starting to hope the axe falls!

Otherwise, I'd really like to get to Ethiopia to hike and see the stone churches.
posted by frumiousb at 6:04 PM on June 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

"I could never name just one."

Name as many as you want! (And for the purposes of these imaginary trips you can pretend there's no environmental impact to your travel.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 6:13 PM on June 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'd love people's suggestions for where to go on bike tours! Anywhere in the world ambitious or very modest welcome.
posted by latkes at 6:16 PM on June 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'd like to go to sleep.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 6:33 PM on June 22, 2019 [21 favorites]

In realistic trips, lately I'm obsessed with going to the Faroe Islands. I'm just fascinated by them! I also think a lot about visiting South Korea (which when my kids are a bit older I can probably actually do).

In trips in my mind, there's a lot of delicate environments and sensitive archaeological marvels I'd love to see but I'll just watch documentaries and then imagine visiting them. :)

OH! And believe it or not, I have never been to Prince Edward Island to do the Anne of Green Gables tourism and I DESPERATELY WANT TO. One day! I also want to see L'anse aux Meadows and St. Pierre et Miquelon and if I'm ever super-rich I'm going to hire a private yacht and have it cruise me around all the stuff I want to see in the Canadian Maritimes (/French Overseas Collectivities) -- there's a bunch, I have an ideal itinerary.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 6:36 PM on June 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

If I really could go anywhere, probably Australia and New Zealand. Or maybe Siberia. Or the Amazon rainforest. I actually don't think there's any place on earth I wouldn't want to visit if I could somehow get there for free.

Maybe my top choice among places it would actually be reasonable to visit would be the Blue Mountains in Oregon. When I lived in the PNW, every time I drove on 84 through the Baker City area I would think it looked beautiful and I'd like to get up into those mountains. I never did and now I live all the way across the country but I still think about visiting there someday.
posted by Redstart at 6:39 PM on June 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'd love people's suggestions for where to go on bike tours! Anywhere in the world ambitious or very modest welcome.

Ireland looked like a lovely place for bike tours, at least when I was there a decade ago or so. I wasn't on a bike, but there were plenty of cyclists tootling about, with bikes loaded with long-distance gear.

Realistic: near-term trips will likely be road-trips, and unless I get a bunch of time off, we'll only do one big trip per summer for the next few years, generally with family as the destination. So next summer is likely back to southern/ central California, though we'd like to head mid-west to visit other family who have young'ns.

Idealistic: anywhere our family wanted to go. Our kiddos are inquisitive, and often ask "can we go there?" when seeing a new animal habitat (we watch a lot of animal-focused shows), and I usually say "yes, when you're older." My family followed a similar pattern -- road trips when we were young, then taking flights as we got older, first in the US, then to other countries. But I was always a happy traveler, generally going where my dad had planned for us to go. I'm excited about the opportunities to plan trips with my family, but also daunted by the idea of trying to navigate foreign places as an uninformed tourist. But that's not happening soon, so I'll shelve that worry for later.

Dreamer: go to a different music and arts festival somewhere in the world each year. Nyege Nyege would be my first one.
posted by filthy light thief at 6:48 PM on June 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I want to go to Barcelona to see the work of Gaudi, notably the Sagrada Familia. I want to go to Bugaria, Romania, Croatia for music and dancing. India is too big to call it a destination; I'd have to learn more, but would love to visit.

I would like very much to go back to Scotland and hike, drink beer and Scottish whisky, and listen to people talk.

I finally got a used Prius, will be outfitting it for camping. Every US National Park I've visited has been an excellent choice. They have National Parks in Canada, too. This is travel that will definitely happen.
posted by theora55 at 6:52 PM on June 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

So many places. So many.

We're going to Iceland in December for my husband's 50th birthday, hoping to see the Northern Lights to make his lifelong dream come true.

Then next year we're going to Scotland and Ireland for my birthday, crossing off countries I've always wanted to visit.

Other than that, in no particular order: Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Japan, Belgium, Norway...let's just say I pretty much want to go everywhere.
posted by cooker girl at 7:07 PM on June 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

I want to go to Lake Louise in Canada, and Lake Como in Italy, and Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, and basically I'm just a sucker for lakes surrounded by mountains (I grew up in New Hampshire so I already have Newfound and Sunapee and Winnepesaukee and Squam covered.) I live within easy reach of ocean views, and they are nice, but I like lake views better because you can see land on the other side. There is just something about a dawn with crisp air, and the sound of water lapping gently against a rocky shore, and maybe some early morning birdsong from the woods.
posted by Daily Alice at 7:17 PM on June 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Grand Canyon. I gotta drive there someday.
posted by sockermom at 7:22 PM on June 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

Because of everything I read (and then heard) in my favorite Barbara Kingsolver book -- The Lacuna -- I'd love to visit the places she wrote about, especially with a knowledgeable guide to show me and explain to me. There is so much history, so much tragedy, there is so much life in Mexico. To learn more of the cultures in Mexico, past and present, that would just be great.

Side note A: The fact that our government and much of our citizenry hold our kindly neighbors to the south in such contempt and with such hatred is astounding. US drug policy created all of their murderous cartels, changing US drug policy would wipe them out. Most of the people who want to come to our country want to do so to have a life such as we enjoy. They want to work. They have forgotten more about Family Values^TM than we have ever known. They are Solid Citizens.

Side note B: Having The Lacuna read to me by the author as I relaxed in my home, read to me on my telephone, that was and is just amazing. Luxury at a price I can afford. We live in a time of marvel.
posted by dancestoblue at 7:29 PM on June 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Jerusalem
Giza
Lascaux
posted by sallybrown at 7:37 PM on June 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I've had a hankering for a while to visit the village the German side of my family came from: Oberriexingen, near Stuttgart in Baden-Württemburg. There are also ancestral places in England I'd still like to see, but at least I've been to that country.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:38 PM on June 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

I want to go to Europe, Italy or France or Greece. Perhaps Catalonia, thanks to the Aubrey-Maturin novels, or England, just for some history. In short, I want to go somewhere different from Thailand/Southeast Asia, where I've spent most of my vacations :)
posted by Alensin at 7:57 PM on June 22, 2019

I would like to go to every continent! I've already been to North America, Europe and Asia. I'm sort of middling about Antarctica but I feel like if go through the effort and expense of the other three I ought to cross that off my list too.

If I'm fantasizing, for Africa I want to do a pitstop tour of as much beautiful architecture as I could jam in across the continent, ancient and modern. For South America I'm really interested in Brazilian cuisine, which I understand is as diverse as it gets. For Australia I'd mostly want to hug a friendly wombat, to be honest, and then go over to NZ to beg the Weta Workshop for a job - even in my fantasy it's just me making tea for a decade until someone lets me crochet a beard, but at least I'd be in the door, right?
posted by Mizu at 8:05 PM on June 22, 2019

Big week. Third week of the new job, now. The bone-numbing fatigue is sliding away and now it's "getting real" - which in some ways is even more scary!

Winter has, finally arrived here in Sydney, which is nice although our house is super cold. We're in the midst of planning to knock it down and build a new one, good lord there is so much stuff they ask you to decide! I keep wanting to say, "can't you pick? Just don't make it weird."

Where would I go? I would love to go to Botswana, I did Nambia pre-kids and it was the best trip of my life. I love safari, it looks like a fabulous countr.

Mongolia, with a sidetrip to the Altai mountains - that sense of being in the truly great outdoors sounds incredible. I'm not sure how my colitis would go with the food in Mongolia which is notoriously terrible.

I'd love to do part of the Shikoku pilgrimage in Japan. There are so many great places in Japan, and I would really enjoy exploring some of the smaller places.

Raja Ampat - one of the few reefs in the world where biodiversity is increasing. I really want to see as many reefs as I can, because I know they'll be gone in my lifetime.
posted by smoke at 8:06 PM on June 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Beijing, Xi'an, and Hong Kong.

When I was a kid, it seemed obvious that there would be tourism on the Moon by this date. I don't mind not having a jetpack, but I resent the moon thing.
posted by zompist at 8:13 PM on June 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Fair warning for grandparents and grief ahead.

Skipping the fine subject, my Gran who effectively co-parented me should have been 100 years old today and it's only four hours into "today" [BST] yet I've written then deleted multiple blogpost-sized writing prompts for Real- and Semi-Friends on WhatsApp, because maybe we aren't as close as I thought because I suddenly realise that don't know how all of their grandparents are and don't want to stir up upsetting stuff I shouldn't.

I still miss and love my Gran who meant everything to me.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 8:25 PM on June 22, 2019 [12 favorites]

That would definitely be Japan so I could try and put those years of rusty Japanese to the test. Wouldn't mind working somewhere in the southern parts where it doesn't get horribly cold. Want to try the Shikoku pilgrimage so I can get away with being a proper homeless bum again but get a bit of a pass because pilgrim.

Earlier this week the power glitched and my server zim didn't come back up. I panicked for a minute while I found a place to plug the monitor back in. Zim is an Ship of Theseus. He's been around since Debian 7 unstable and has gone through 4 hard drives and 3 machines, been converted to UEFI, full of cruft and starting to get weird like an Emergency Medical Hologram that's been left running too long. I figured it was just the boot loader not finding the right LVM but didn't want to futz with GRUB. So I did what any good engineer would do and replaced his primary matrix to Debian 9 stable and proceeded to restore the necessary memories from backup. Took a couple of hours to install and get him out of the coma and serving NFS again. I've slowly been adding back some fun stuff like proxy cache and backup master and music server. He's almost back to his good old self minus some cruft that's accumulated over many years. Now he's on the same basic matrix as his partner the laptop gaz and should be much less of a pain to deal with and a bit less crazy. He seems pretty happy at least. And he's back to singing.
posted by zengargoyle at 9:38 PM on June 22, 2019 [3 favorites]

Goa, like everybody.

Great Barrier Reef, like everybody.

Obviously the moon and/or Mars -- again, like everybody.

I'd love to do something outdoorsy. Like go camping or something. But it's thousands of dollars to do one of those camping tours in Wyoming or Alaska or wherever. WTF man, you're walking around for days carrying all your stuff in your backpack! I'm not saying it should be free, obviously not, but $3K or $5K or more? On the other hand, nobody wants to do the sleazy fly-by-night wilderness tour! Hahahaha So in other words, I'm still looking into it.
posted by rue72 at 9:47 PM on June 22, 2019

I would love to visit Siberia, and specifically the NE corner of it - the Kamchatka Peninsula and Yakutsk. No reason, really - only because it feels remote, and I want to know how people live there.
posted by seawallrunner at 9:53 PM on June 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Socotra, but I will never see the place. My joy is in knowing it exists.
posted by msali at 10:00 PM on June 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Japan. Getting less interested in doing the long flight as I get older though so looking less likely. Would be quite interested in seeing more of South America, maybe Argentina or Peru. Was looking at a meringue last night and reminded that they come from Meiringen in Switzerland, so looked up where it is, as we will be there next week, we will only be 45 minutes drive away. More importantly, it's only a mile from the Reichenbach Falls! So that's my latest want to visit and should be able to scratch that itch pretty quickly. Quite excited about that.

I'm in the back of my MiL's car on the way to the Eurostar as we travel today. Watching England in the WWC tonight and USA tomorrow, in France obvs, then a few days in southern Germany before Switzerland. Hurray for time off, knackered.
posted by biffa at 10:19 PM on June 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’d love to do Australia and New Zealand, particularly next week when a heatwave hits continental Europe and I will be taking public transport to work when it’s 39c/102f in Paris!

Eyebrows, the Faroe Islands are beautiful, there are also voluntoursim trips where you can help repair pathways and gates.
posted by ellieBOA at 11:04 PM on June 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

I want to go to space and see the earth from far away and feel zero G
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 11:10 PM on June 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I wouldn't exactly say I want to do this, but I just recently learned that the US government put out a call last year seeking volunteers to go work on Palmyra Atoll, which pretty much amounts to being dropped in the middle of nowhere with a handful of people for 3-4 months: "Volunteers will be expected to work 8 hours a day 6/days per week for the entire ~3-4 months on Palmyra, without any chance of leaving the atoll." Antarctic researchers have more company and resources than these folks will.

If those plans went forward as expected, the volunteers should be starting their training right about now, and I'm vaguely curious who they are, why they signed up to do this, and how it's going to go.
posted by zachlipton at 11:31 PM on June 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Mongolia, with a sidetrip to the Altai mountains - that sense of being in the truly great outdoors sounds incredible. I'm not sure how my colitis would go with the food in Mongolia which is notoriously terrible.

smoke- -camp food is camp food by and large. I did pretty much this trip-- nearly two weeks hiking up near the glacier. It was amazing-- at night we could hear the wolves howling around our tents. I wouldn't say the food was really different than in other countries, though mongolia is heavier on the meat. I have UC/Crohn's and I was fine. memail me if you ever want the name of a good local tour agency. I'm still friends with the guy who ran our trip.
posted by frumiousb at 2:32 AM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

latkes Try Alaska for ambitious! It's probably very different that when I went but still an amazing place and amazing people. I went alone which is the best way to ride, and soak in the experience.

Back in '90 I cycled Alaska and one (of the many) 'side' roads I never managed to take was the road to Tuktoyaktuk. I'd still like to do it but it's a tall order fitness-wise alone. I've ridden a number of cold, hard places but that'd be amazing - that said I can remember the freezing muddy back roads of AK reducing me (literally) to tears.

More time needs to be spent wandering the commercial\industrial areas of LA - no really! there's some amazing spots in Culver City and Elysian Park and lot of other spots.

And Venice (Italy) again, for a month. So many ideas in design, planning, spying, diplomacy emerged in Venice and now I have an inkling of those I could surface whole new levels of the city.

Our last trip was spent between Carlisle and Bamburgh and with the time we'd go there again at the drop of a hat. Food, pubs, footpaths, deep, deep history and truly weird Harry-Potter-like experiences. Oh and Shrewsbury* again too

* On our second most recent UK trip we were staying near Eden and using the train to get aboutr, so one day my wife said "erm, I think if we get the 6am train to Reading, we just might be able to have a couple of hours in Shrewsbury - it'll take a few changes of train", so we did - everyone should go to Shrewsbury once - we did get our two hours, and went again the next year for two days - some highlights

Get thee to The Golden Cross, then go and gaze in wonder at cathedral details and whatever you think of Victorian bedding plants check out the Dingle
posted by unearthed at 2:37 AM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Anywhere I can get on my bicycle from here. Zero noise (other than grunting and groaning) and zero* emissions.

* Depends on what was for lunch.
posted by pracowity at 2:51 AM on June 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights (or the Southern Lights, to be honest, which is embarrassing given I have lived for years in places where you can supposedly sometimes see them. But I didn't know that for most of that time, and also tend to be asleep at the times of day when they are mostly visible.)

I'd like to go to the Arctic. I had a friend years ago who was from a Saami reindeer-herding family (I met her when we were both on student exchanges in Germany and we stayed as penpals for nearly a decade). I should have taken up her invitation to go visit.

Japan in winter for skiing and hot pools. (I've been in summer for the sweating and heat exhaustion. It was still amazing, but not my favourite climate).

One of my favourite things about my job these last few years is how much travel I get to do. Even though there's rarely more than a day or two for touristing. And it is kind of exhausting. But I love it anyway. I'm about to leave on a trip to the Netherlands, Germany and France. And later this year I get a month in India, as well as a short trip to either England or the Netherlands, depending on Stuff, and a trip to Canada in early 2020.

I love pretty much everything about travelling. Even the long flights (at least for the first six or seven hours, anyway. At 30+ hours in, I'm not such a huge fan). I love being in a hotel room in a strange city, all by myself. I love exploring new cities, trying new food and drink. Learning a little bit of a new language, or practising one I haven't spoken in a while.

One of the many horrible things about the earlier stages of an academic career, for me, has been that as soon as you make friends with people at work, their contracts end, or your contract ends, and someone moves off to a different country. So all your social networks end up at the far ends of the earth.

The flip-side of that, though, is that after a couple of decades of this, academic conferences are like giant reunions where you get to catch up with all your long-lost BFFs, AND you often get to do it in a fun travel location.
posted by lollusc at 3:51 AM on June 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

I'd like to go to the future, when my ovaries are a normal size again. I had an ultrasound earlier in the week that showed a 5cm cyst on both of them. They're the size of lemons at the moment when they're meant to be the size of large grapes, which explains a lot of weird sensations I've had over the past few months, not to mention why I need to pee all the time. And they're kissing in my pouch of douglas, which might mean endo. Life has given me lemons, and yet I'm disinclined to make lemonade out of them.

I have the bonus complication of being non-binary rather than identifying as female, which I'm sure is going to be fun over the course of getting this sorted out. Nearly all the literature assumes anyone with ovaries is inherently a woman, which I guess used to be a convenient shorthand before some of us started getting ideas about this gender business. Lots of flowers and pink and purple splashed all over everything so that I can't forget that my own offal is supposed to be binary gendered.

I have a consult booked with a very reputable gynaecologist (even the Greek won't let me forget that I'm supposed to be a woman) a week on Monday, so I'll hopefully have some more news about options at that point. My friend whose hysterectomy he did a while back calls him "vagina Gandalf", which bodes well.

In terms of travel, I'd like to go to Japan at some point, but I'm also put off by the long flight - I tend to stiffen up after about 90 minutes of sitting in an aeroplane seat.

I went to Scotland for the first time earlier in the month, and the idea of seeing more of the UK also appeals - I grew up in the far south, where it was faster to get a ferry to France or Spain than drive to the north or to Scotland for a holiday, so I haven't done as much domestic travel as I'd like (and I've never been to Northern Ireland either, and I badly want to now, entirely because of Derry Girls).

I also recently became a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, and I'd like to do more travel over there too - I think my family are looking into going over on the ferry next year and taking the dog, which would be grand as I am sure there are many things he'd like to sniff in Ireland.
posted by terretu at 5:18 AM on June 23, 2019 [5 favorites]

"Vagina Gandalf," hehe. I think Ian McKellan would get a good giggle out of that. So sorry to hear about your woe-varies. I know it's a convenient reference, but it always strikes my funny bone when doctors compare tumors or swellings to the sizes of various fruits.

I thought of another one: I'd love to be able to visit the four non-U.S. Disney parks (esp. Tokyo). It's one of life's little annoyances that having the time to travel often means not having the money for same.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:43 AM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just based on various phototographs and videos I've seen, I really want to spend some time traveling around in the 'stans, especially in the mountain valleys.

That's a long way away and there are big language barriers, though, so I don't know if it will ever happen. More practically, if I can figure out either a "sabbatical" or other extended time off thing, or just take the plunge to quit my job and count on finding something new after, I'd really like to take a driving trip from here down to and around South America. There are so many places I would like to visit and explore.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:57 AM on June 23, 2019

One of the less pleasant realizations of this past year for me was that, at this point in my life, at this age (which yeah, I get it, isn’t all that old yet), but these finances (which are crap), there are a lot of places that were in my “someday” list that I need to realize are going into the “oh well, it would’ve been nice” file. One of those is Tierra Del Fuego, which I’d always wanted to see because there’s something about the end of land that’s always meant something to me, that little point where there is no further you can walk, and ahead, it is all the ocean. I managed a smaller version of that here in Chiba, on a trip down to Tateyama a couple years ago, and it was as wonderful as I had imagined.

But, we’ll, South America is far. Really far. And expensive to get to. And just unlikely.

There’s still some hope for Spain. And England. And Kauai. Hokkaido is much more doable. As is Shikoku, which I should get off my ass and go see.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:10 AM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Grand Canyon
Best Friends Animal Sanctuary
New Zealand (because of this)

And inspired by dancestoblue's comment, I'd love to visit all the national parks that Nevada Barr has written about.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 7:18 AM on June 23, 2019

I’d like to see some of the classic pits of the TAG (Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia) region before I’m too old to climb them, & would at least time to go one a Huautla or Cheve expedition in Mexico though I have no illusions about my ability to bottom earthier cave system. I’d like to see some of the mature cone karst in China, & visit the actual Karst region in Slovenia, and some of the partially-submerged cone karst in Thailand.

Apart from caving, cities I’d dearly love to visit would include Barcelona, Istanbul, Glasgow, Edinburgh & Budapest. My one trip to Europe was a 4 day jaunt to play 2 gigs in Liverpool, which was amazing, but I saw next to nothing other than downtown & the train ride from Manchester.

More generally, if I could make it back to the Huasteca on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre Oriental, I’d be a happy camper just about anywhere.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:20 AM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've always wanted to wander around the UK and just look at things I've seen in pictures. I almost made it there a couple years ago before the trip fell apart. Maybe one day. My sister went to Ireland with friends and she said it was the most beautiful and green place she'd been. I'd like to walk a bit there.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 7:25 AM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

I love to travel but as I've gotten older the mental energy I feel able to devote to places where travel isn't easy has decreased. I feel like I got my lifetime quota of "difficult travel" being in China in the mid-nineties.

My list of desired travel these days is Iceland, Switzerland, Japan, any random Nordic nation... I'm a fan of mountains and dramatic landscapes.

We don't have much money for travel though, so when I do get the ability the choice is some place I've never been vs. the place that I already know I love dearly and will never tire of visiting (Great Britain, because I'm super basic, but also that I lived there with my dad when I was 12 and imprinted like a baby duckling).
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:31 AM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Spice Islands! ; but I'm not sure I'd leave, so it wouldn't really be visiting...
posted by mightshould at 8:10 AM on June 23, 2019

I would like to visit Hawaii. Never been. I don't really want to do tourist things, I just want to eat good food and look at interesting plants. And maybe entertain myself by getting on a surfboard and failing at it spectacularly.

The giant sale at work is almost over, but it looks like today will be as crazy as the last two. My herbs are looking mighty fine- the borage I put in is the clear queen of the garden. I put in some Greek basil as a small push towards something a tad more pesto-y then my African blue bush basil. And then, in a fit of madness, I put in 4 more tomato plants. Bringing my total to 11. I'll be a mad hominid snacking on 'maters though. So I think I win in the end. I also had an un-expected potato harvest, which was nice. Oh man home grown new potatoes are just the tastiest thing ever. I am a full convert to the temple of fresh potatoes.

So I'm still growing things from cuttings and seeds in an attempt to have things to give away at the upcoming meet-up which is tentatively scheduled for July 10th. So if you're in the area, come down for a chill hang, local brews and some plants. I've also started growing some dwarf sunflowers to give away, so If you want a pot-sized sunflower for a balcony I got you. I'm also prob going to have one or two squash plants that I no longer have room for due to my tomato madness so if you have the room...

I'm a plant pusher I'm sorry. not sorry
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:27 AM on June 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

I majored in archaeology; I intended to be an Egyptologist; have I, in fact, ever been to Egypt? I have not. It was never a good time, but then, it is never going to be a good time, I think, especially for a woman traveler who will probably have to go solo if at all.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:30 AM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

The Maritimes, Canada. Quebec City, Scotland, Wales, Alexandria, Istanbul, Marrakech, Carcassonne, Lyons, Paris, Porto, Naples, Sicily, Berlin, and all the US National Parks, with some National Monuments thrown in for good measure.
I’m in my late sixties now, and don’t have unlimited funds, so many of these are places I’ll simply read about, but one can dream, no?
posted by dbmcd at 8:35 AM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

My urge to travel has never really been high, but for the last few years i've been obsessed with the idea of the great american road trip(s). Everything from Alaska to Florida and everything east and west of that route, plus Canada. I'm Canadian and have seen a fair amount of my country so far, and the US west coast, but not to the point where I really... i dunno, appreciated it? I want to see all the various amazing views and sunsets and mountains, lakes and rivers and of course oceans. I want to see all the National Parks (and monuments/seashores/etc). I also want to see and experience the small towns and bigger cities and maybe get an understanding of how life differs there from my own experiences, and get a feel for the regional differences across this great continent.
posted by cgg at 9:19 AM on June 23, 2019

Skiing on Mont Blanc in Chamonix and guess what? After announcing that’s what I wanted for my 50th birthday a couple years ago, we’re going next year with a group of friends when I turn 50!

I’d go back to Iceland in a second. I’d live there if I could convince my spouse.

The only place I haven’t visited that’s on my list is Japan, but we’ll get there. A couple weeks in Tokyo, a week in Kyoto, and a week skiing on Hokkaido.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:24 AM on June 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

I want to spend 3 months eating my way through Italy. That's it, that's the last travel dream I have.

I'd love to do another hiking/scotch trip in Scotland, possibly not in November )it was cheap! but there was so. Little. Daylight.

I'm lucky enough to have visited most of the places I wanted to go on my 20's when I was young and invincible and could sleep on busses and in shady hostels.
posted by larthegreat at 10:10 AM on June 23, 2019

If there were no ecological impact to ANY of my travels, not just the flight? I would go to the Galapagos because birds / sea creatures are amusing, and that would be a high-impact trip.

But that's just me being over-calculating, literal, and transactional -- travel stresses me out because I feel like my itinerary is never good enough for my partner, and there's less excuse for solo travel (except singing! that's what singing is for). Like, when traveling, I want the option of staying in and taking it easy if I get a cold (and often I do), and that's not possible if you're doing a night per city with scheduled attractions the whole day.

Otherwise, there are lots of places I'd like to go. Berlin, Bremen, Budapest, Istanbul, Melbourne, Lisbon, "Spain", "Japan", Buenos Aires, Mexico City.
posted by batter_my_heart at 11:08 AM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Countess Elena, there is an Egyptian trip run by Wild Women Expeditions that i’ve got my eye on. I’ve travelled with them before and would trust their risk assessment if you wanted to go, local guides and women-only groups.
posted by five_cents at 11:54 AM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would like not to travel.
posted by Smearcase at 11:58 AM on June 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

I’d really like to retrace the epic and miserable road trip I took to get from California to Maryland earlier this year. It was the worst week of my life even before I caught pneumonia. I was driving at a grueling pace, with everything I owned, in the wake of a devastating breakup. I’ve never felt worse.

I like the idea of doing the trip in reverse at a slower pace, giving myself time to actually visit all the places I passed through: I’d love to visit friends in Chattanooga, hear live music in Little Rock, get halal food in Dallas, look at the Milky Way in deep West Texas. I’d love to branch out a little and visit friends in Albuquerque, spend more time in the Sonoran desert, maybe visit the Grand Canyon, have a night or two in Las Vegas. Along the way, I could stop in little towns without worrying about what to do with all my stuff, without worrying about how long the trip was taking.

I don’t need to go all the way back to Oakland, and I don’t need to stay in California for good when I’m done (although that would be nice). But one of the hardest things about the trip here was feeling like I was being robbed of all potential for adventure by miserable circumstances, and I’d like to give that back to myself. There’s a part of me that feels like I’d just be contributing to climate change and air pollution, but I don’t know. Maybe I could bike the whole way. This is all contingent on money I don’t have anyway, so I might as well imagine going all out.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:14 PM on June 23, 2019 [7 favorites]

The Alhambra
posted by scruss at 12:36 PM on June 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

Thanks for the good word, five_cents! I had never heard of them. I had vaguely looked into Nile river cruises, but as with cruises in general, I didn't want to be trapped with a bunch of people who might be entitled and treat locals poorly.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:51 PM on June 23, 2019

The Sarasota Jungle Gardens. Lots of exotic birds to interact with. You can feed flamingos. Very soon.
posted by Splunge at 1:13 PM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've never been to Northern Ireland either, and I badly want to now, entirely because of Derry Girls

Come anytime and we’ll do a teeny NI meet-up!

I’d love to see the Northern Lights, and also we really want to go to Japan in the spring. It’s too expensive but it’s a definite “when we win the lottery” list entry. There are lots of beautiful places in the South of Ireland that I’ve never been to though, so that’s more achievable first. The plan is to rent a wee camper van some fortnight when the weather doesn’t look Godawful and head down the Ring of Kerry direction, stopping en route for walks and pints of cider. I love a beach and I love the sun, but the scenery all over this country makes my heart ache with how beautiful it is, and I really need to go look at it more.
posted by billiebee at 1:36 PM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me.

I hear it's nice this time of year.
posted by betweenthebars at 2:12 PM on June 23, 2019 [3 favorites]

The "places" I most want to visit tend to be geographical areas rather than human cities. Walking in the countrysides of Ireland and Scotland has always been a bucket-list wish of mine. And while I was in the relative area I'd be silly to miss a chance to tour Slartibartfast's handiwork.

Closer to home (and therefore a somewhat more realistic goal), there's much of the US west I haven't yet seen - the mountains and valleys of Yosemite National Park that Ansel Adams introduced to me, as well as the giant sequoias a little further south; the incredible cragginess of the Grand Tetons; the Canadian Rockies; Bryce, Zion, and Arches National Parks in Utah as well as Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Further east I'd love to do a fall leaf-peeping trip through upstate NY/NH/VT/ME, ending up at Acadia NP.

Then there's my notion, that I have not yet quite given up on ever doing, of a leisurely 2- or 3-week meandering Interstate-free cross country car trip with my son, stopping to see all the different sights....
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:34 PM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

Grand Canyon too. And Yosemite. Also a trans-US train trip of one kind or another.
posted by Namlit at 2:46 PM on June 23, 2019

I’d love to see Raja Ampat, like smoke up there. Same for Cairns/the GBR; everyone I know who’s gone to Australia absolutely loved it. Alas, they’re both pretty pricey, so not really on the radar for now. On the more cultural side, I am hoping to see Kyoto in the next few years; I have vague plans for a combined Philippines/Japan trip in the autumn sometime, since it’s been probably a decade since I’ve seen fall leaves, and the combination of the leaves and the shrines sounds truly picturesque to me. I’d also love to see Luxor and Petra, but it seems like it’s hard to see Egypt or Jordan without a tour group arranging things and then trying to sell you carpets and whatnot.

I’m slowly learning Indonesian to prep for visiting Bali/Komodo this fall; I try to at least be able to do polite toddler-level conversation in the native language where I’m visiting, and thankfully it’s a lot more approachable than Thai. Heck, I think everything I’ve attempted to learn was easier than Thai.
posted by tautological at 3:20 PM on June 23, 2019

I want to go to a lesbian bar in Berlin in the late 1920s.
posted by bile and syntax at 3:27 PM on June 23, 2019 [10 favorites]

I'm taking a road trip with my girlfriend to South Dakota the beginning of July. Checking out the Badlands and surrounding area. Not sure why I'm compelled to go West, but looking forward to the trip.

Australia/New Zealand is on my bucket list but I think the flight would be really tough on 6'6" me. So if this could include teleportation I'm all in.

For my job, I'm fortunate enough to visit Hawaii once a year and highly recommend it. Kauai is a magical place.
posted by Twicketface at 3:58 PM on June 23, 2019

I’d love to see Raja Ampat, like smoke up there.

I thought you meant, "I'd love to go to Raja Ampat and, like, smoke a bowl or two." Then I remembered smoke is someone's user name.
posted by Redstart at 4:31 PM on June 23, 2019 [7 favorites]

I want to go to the moon--not the way it is now, the one in John M. Ford's Growing Up Weightless. Sure I'd be an annoying Terran tourist, but I would still like to go, experience lunar gravity and the Moon creole they speak and ride the train.
In realer terms, I want to go back to places I've been, maybe to live. Berlin. Chicago. Also Hiroshima, which is, like, an hour and a half away and shouldn't be such a big deal to organize...
posted by huimangm at 4:42 PM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I want to visit Europe, France and Italy to be exact. I want to experience it all. I have friends who just did the tour, and I am hella jellie!

I also want to visit Ireland, as there is a family reunion in Cork County for my family name, at their Castle, every other year. I've never been able to afford it, and I was dismayed to see that 2 of my cousins went on a trip there last year, the off year for our reunion, and also jealous at the same time.

I've been to the UK 3 times, got married in Scotland once. Saw Kiefer Sutherland at the Kilt Store in Edinburgh, was too tongue tied to speak to him, although he did say, "excuse me" as he stepped past me :::swoon:::

I'd pretty much go anywhere, given the opportunity. Even LA.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 6:32 PM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I really hate leaving my house, as I get older I seem to be more hermit-like.

But I'd love to have gone to a few places, just implant the memories of a perfect visit a la "Total Recall."
posted by Marky at 6:38 PM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Presuming that I could find a way to leave, I would like to see the worst places where people are forced to survive, to calibrate my own idea of what human existence can be.
posted by jjray at 7:29 PM on June 23, 2019

Every time I go to New York, I mean to see the earth room. And, every time, I fail. Someday, though, I am going to gaze at a room full of dirt.

Similarly, I’d like to go see Michael Heiser’s City at some point.

But there are lots of places! It’s just whenever I’m asked I can’t think of any of them.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:26 PM on June 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I also want to visit Ireland, as there is a family reunion in Cork County for my family name
posted by Marie Mon Dieu

🤔
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:00 PM on June 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

I've explored my corner of the world to a certain degree. I've wintered in the Arctic (mandatory national service) and seen auroras that totally fill the sky. I've visited Iceland (weeks of camping) and even Jan Mayen (day trip on a resupply flight). The Faroes I've only seen from the deck of a ship, though, but it looked lovely. I've roadtripped through large parts of Europe, and am going back to the Pyrenees with the family in a couple of weeks.

What I would like to do is going to Turkey or North Africa. Iran is also high on the list, before someone bombs it. :( I know several people who've been, and they all say it's lovely.

I would also really like to go on a long hike on the Appalachian Trail. But it's very difficult logistically with a job and kids and all that.
posted by Harald74 at 3:51 AM on June 24, 2019

I'd like to go back to 1977, Montreal, Quebec. Give myself a heads up and a stern talking-to.

Alternatively, I'd like to sail around the world. Or, more specifically, I'd like the means to be able to sail around the world. From the water the world is an entirely different place.
posted by From Bklyn at 4:13 AM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have a friend who's in Iran at the moment, and I'm sure I'd be very welcome to visit, but of course I'm British (the friend is Irish), so it's not possible at all.

That said, cycling the length of Chile is a big bucket list trip, as is a (mainly) rail (mostly) circumnavigation of the globe (home - London - Paris - Moscow - Vladivostok 🛫 Kamchatka 🛫 Anchorage 🚢 Prince Rupert BC - Halifax 🛫 Dublin - home)
posted by ambrosen at 5:36 AM on June 24, 2019

Japan - the Hakone Open-Air Museum.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:39 AM on June 24, 2019

The cool thing is that I now live where I always want to be, the Pacific Northwest.
posted by nikaspark at 6:42 AM on June 24, 2019 [8 favorites]

I would like to go to the Western US and see how expansive it is, somewhere in Europe outside of airports (maybe Amsterdam? Brussels? Zurich? Paris?), and the Congo Basin to find Allen's Swamp Monkeys.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:43 AM on June 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

India.

And saying so out loud has so far resulted in people worriedly suggesting other destinations.

It's a huge country. There are hotels, restaurants and trains. I like trains. Hopefully some of the signage is in English.
posted by jointhedance at 6:50 AM on June 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

First stop on the time machine itinerary is the 1964 NY World's Fair.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:35 AM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Saigon maybe? I've been re-watching the Bourdain shows they keep playing in honor of his yahrzeit and birthday tomorrow. In the frame of mind this creates, I would pick one of his favorites. I would prefer it to be urban and I would like to stay in a place that would feel like a neighborhood, and stay there for a while. I've only ever done this outside the US in grad school in Rome, and it was so wonderful. But I could converse in Italian in those days. So maybe someplace where I can get along in the language, or book the trip a year out and study.
posted by BibiRose at 7:38 AM on June 24, 2019

I'd love people's suggestions for where to go on bike tours! Anywhere in the world ambitious or very modest welcome.

You should come to the New York City Century this September! It's the only all-urban century in the country and this is the last year it's happening.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:06 AM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Once I flew to South Africa for work, and my seatmate and I got to talking. He told me he was an astronomer on his way to Namibia, because at night it was one of the darkest places on Earth (not counting the oceans - can't really set up a high-powered telescope on a rocking boat). Ever since, I've wanted to visit Namibia and go stargazing. I've spent pretty much my entire life on the East Coast of America, and I've never seen the sky without major light pollution.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:12 AM on June 24, 2019

We were thinking about going to Italy next year, but my wife scored some stupid cheap airfare to Barcelona, so Barcelona it is. But Italy is definitely next. I also want to go back to Paris in 2023 for our 60th birthdays; we went in 2003 to celebrate 40. Of the places I am unlikely to ever get to but would want to see, China tops the list, along with Japan and Australia.
posted by briank at 9:45 AM on June 24, 2019

Dr Bored for Science and I would love to go to Japan. My brother's been four times in two years, and it would just be utterly different and a lot of fun, by the looks of things. The crowds don't seem fun, but I'd cope.

I'd love to go to New Zealand and Australia at some point, but Japan is on the list for "we really want to do this."

We'd also love to go back to the UK, having spent a totally gorgeous week in Kendal and the Lakes a couple summers ago.
posted by Making You Bored For Science at 10:10 AM on June 24, 2019

this is the last year it's happening.

Why?
posted by pracowity at 10:23 AM on June 24, 2019

The one really big touristy thing I still want to do is just ride around on the train on one of Amtrak's month-long passes, especially if I could afford a sleeper cabin every few days or so.

Or if I ever had a small pile of fuck-off grade money, maybe even charter my own private car.

I could actually see myself living on a train for more than a month. Maybe a whole year.

I really like the idea of traveling slowly, without having to drive, and without having to pack/unpack at every stop or leg of the journey. I'd just stay on the train and watch the world roll by for weeks on end and just ride as many different routes and segments of track as I could.

Ideally I'd like to ride all of the remaining Amtrak routes and maybe even most of the Via routes in Canada. So, not just cross-country and back, but up and down and side to side and back again.


Anywhere I can get on my bicycle from here. Zero noise (other than grunting and groaning) and zero* emissions.

Same.

The cool thing is that I now live where I always want to be, the Pacific Northwest.

Also same. I still have some wanderlust but at this point I get homesick just visiting Seattle and last time it only took, oh, two days.

I grew up a city mouse. A really rather tough, angsty and gritty city mouse.

But now? Now if you teleported me into the heart of downtown LA or even SF I'd probably immediately burst into tears just from the stress of that much concrete, noise, traffic and utter (relative) lack of trees.

And there are places that look attractive to me just for the terrain, climate and landscapes like New Zealand, Scotland and Iceland - but I pretty much have all the things I would be seeking there, here.


Regarding bike/camping tours:

If anyone is planning on hitting up Olympic Discovery Trail on a bike (or hike!) tour let me know. Not only do I have local knowledge but I can offer to let you camp on some really nice private land with lots of trees.

Seriously, it's better than any of the local state parks right here in my yard, and we have some REALLY NICE state parks right around here. You could have a whole acre of trees to yourself without the noise of camping in a crowded parking lot full of RVs and noisy people right next to you, and, you know, be somewhere in actually surrounded by nature.

Plus we don't care if you stay up late drinking whiskey right out of the jug and want to make some noise howling at the moon, but being quiet is also just fine, too. Hell, run around naked if you want or get really weird. You're still not going to be the weirdest thing in the forest, because that's me!

I can't promise the birds will ever shut up, though, nor do I wish that they would. They are quite loud right now, and they regularly wake me up at dawn!

Chances are really good I might even be into hitting the road with you for part of it. I already live like I'm camping a lot out here in the country, and it'd take me maybe an hour to put together a quick touring rig.

I had grand plans to do more riding and camping this year but now I'm just like "why?" and if I want to go camping outside I can just go do that right here and it's been glorious. When it's really nice out I'll just drag my ground tarp, sleeping bags and camping pads right out my door and just plop down wherever I like and sleep under the stars. Heck, sometimes my little camps even have a power cord, which is just fine for watching something on the laptop.


Let's see, in other homefront news:

My last DJ showcase thingy went well enough, but once again I was so deep in production and making everything happen it's like I wasn't even there. People seemed to have a really good time though, and I have had a lot of people thank me for the work I've been doing trying to bring a lot more modern dance music to our small musical town. Biggest, longest dancefloor yet, too.

My somewhat secret mission of training and skill-sharing DJ skills with women is already paying off. There's too many straight dudebros in town hogging the stage so I'm going to fix that. My first trainee played this last show and killed it and is already getting booked on her own. I'm also super excited about her because she's intensely smart, motivated and she's going to take these skills and train other people, which is exactly the kind of add-on snowballing I was hoping for.

And for the record? Teaching women is SO MUCH EASIER than trying to teach men. There's so much less of the adversarial sort of "Yeah I already know this!" crap to overcome and since I'm also basically on a femme-brained wavelength this has been much less work or stress than the training and skillsharing I've done with some of my guy friends. The information just flows and it's good and easy.

I'm not just being nice, I've never seen anyone pick up the concept of beatmatching so fast. As soon as I showed her my workflow on how to control tempo and mixing she was just like "Oh, that's it? That's fun!" and was off and running with it and asking tons of more advanced questions.

All of this makes my heart feel full and shiny.

In volunteering news just this week alone I had three different people recognize me and go out of their way to say thanks for helping them at the food bank. Stuff like "Hey, you're that guy from the food bank that hooked me up with these boots!" and even "I'm sorry I was so grumpy at the food bank!" with my response being "Err, thanks? I honestly didn't notice. People are usually hungry or stressed so it's just part of the job." and reassuring them they're actually allowed to be in a good mood there if they want to be, and that if you look at it the right way the food bank is like a town hall meeting of the towns friends, weirdos, musicians and artists, and that it doesn't have to be so stressful.


Berry report:

I'm officially sick of salmonberries, and have moved on to the wild strawberries. I should start picking and freezing salmonberries and may start that today.

The wild strawberries are something else, though. I've never lived somewhere where I got to eat more than just a couple of them at a time, if ever, and right now I might be able to (lazily!) collect a pint every day or so just from the small patches we have popping up everywhere.

I'm really glad I noticed what they were long before they flowered so I could avoid chewing them up with the weedwhacker, and in some spots I was able to just give the area a haircut so the strawberries had a better chance at the sun and not being choked out by grasses berry brambles and horsetails.

A pint a day isn't much, not really enough to freeze or make preserves, but keep in mind each one of these little bean-sized berries packs about the same amount of intense strawberry flavor as a whole basket of pulpy, oversized domestically farmed berries. They have a tooth like a soft, sugary candy almost like a caramel with so little fiber they just melt in your mouth, if not right on your fingertips. I don't seem to have any competition for them from the birds, perhaps because they're so difficult to see and you have to really get under the leaves of the strawberry patch to find the big ones.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time basically just walking the property with a machete, stem-cutters and even scissors trying to keep the trails and the road free of berry bramble canes, and it's an endless daily battle. All told I must have cut (and re-cut, and re-cut) 3-4 acres of grass with nothing more than a little weedwhacker, and, oh, thousands of linear feet of bramble. I've cut so much bramble I have piles of canes all over the place and I need to dry them out and maybe just burn them before fire season comes.

But when I'm doing this I'll usually take my berry basket, so I take breaks between work to pick and snack on berries. By the time I'm done cutting stuff I'll have a basket full of berries and the mixed tasks of cutting and picking keep a nice balance to the work and make it much more pleasant and less like real work.

This week I'm hoping to get the rototiller running and dig up some garden beds. I now have some compost from my own hand-built compost bin, and I have found some wood that should make for some fine raised garden beds. Right now in containers I have some tomatoes and fancy kale that are really starting to get going, and I have even found some tomato cages to recycle once I get those in the ground. I have three tomatoes growing already on those plants and I swear they're nearly doubling in size every day.

We've also finally been having some company over to sit around the fire and apparently I've earned my self-appointed forest witch title. My friends in town probably thought I was joking but when they get out here and we go on walks and I point out all the cool plants and foraging opportunities and they see me being my witchy self, almost every time I get some kind of "Woah, cool, you're actually turning into a forest witch and it's amazing!"

The other day I was chopping wood and kindling for a fire hang out (in one of my long witchy dresses, mind) and I think it kind of broke two of my lady friend's brains because I looked up and they were both just staring at me and I was like "What?" and one friend just said "Uuuugh, so sexy! Don't stop!" and it was super validating. Hi, yes, I can be kind of pretty and badass at the same time. (It may also have helped that I'm also getting pretty good at splitting wood for kindling. It's really satisfying to watch the sticks fly after every whack and to not be awkward or clumsy about it. Confidence, yo.)

Actually, one thing I've learned recently is the fine art of getting shoulder deep in brambles while wearing a long skirt or dress and able to extract myself without getting all tangled up on the canes. The trick is to remember how you entered the tangle, which way your body moved to get there. To get out, you just reverse that and make the same body movements in reverse and everything just magically unhooks itself from your clothes. IE, if I step in, twist one way and raise my arm to reach for berries, the reverse is to lower my arm, twist back the opposite way and then step out. I can get like 8-16 feet into a tangle and back out again without getting all cut up or snagged.

Aaand I think that's about it. *hugs*
posted by loquacious at 10:47 AM on June 24, 2019 [14 favorites]

latkeys or other cyclists:

I'd love people's suggestions for where to go on bike tours! Anywhere in the world ambitious or very modest welcome.

CYCLE AROUND JAPAN - TV | NHK WORLD-JAPAN Live & Programs
CYCLE AROUND JAPAN | NHK WORLD-JAPAN On Demand

This program usually starts with somebody getting off a train with their bicycle in a bag and then riding for 3 days or so around some beautiful scenery and stopping at interesting places and seeing interesting things in all different parts of Japan.

It seems to me that cycling is one of the things that the tourism industry is interested in promoting.
posted by zengargoyle at 11:34 AM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would love to go to Antarctica. I can thank Werner Herzog for that, largely. I actually priced a trip there recently but it was waaaaaaay out of my price range, alas.

I also want to go to Tokyo someday. My husband wants to do some trip where you apparently spend a bunch of days walking around an island, and the plan would be for him to do that and meet me in Tokyo. No idea if it even makes sense, but that's our fantasy trip.
posted by holborne at 11:40 AM on June 24, 2019

Aaand I think that's about it. *hugs*

Loquacious, you are an absolute treasure.
posted by nikaspark at 11:57 AM on June 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

I would love to go to Ireland and see, not just the usual touristy places, but also some connected with family history. Supposedly we're descended from Irish pirate Granuaile, so in my fantasy dream world I'd go to Howth Castle and demand hospitality. I see this as a metaphor for disability access; look at those stairs! (Of course, that's not the original castle, but it would still be fun to show up at the doorstep.) Maybe I could get some somebody to brandish a sword or something. Kidnapping the heir just wouldn't fly today.

While I'm in my fantasy dream world, I would also go to China. My great-grandparents (and a very, very great-great-grandparent) were German Lutheran missionaries there, and though I know the role of the missionaries was extremely controversial and history hasn't judged them positively, there are still a few things I've always wondered about. For example, we have a picture from 1922 of the great-great-grandfather's grave in Qingdao, which looks like a circular mound. I don't imagine it still exists as pictured; probably it's been bulldozed to make room for new development. Still, it would be interesting to know what happened to it. Maybe show up on Tomb Sweeping Day.

Another was also briefly the superintendent for a school for blind girls (we still have some examples of the lace they made, which was considered a good source of employment for blind girls those days), and I've always wondered what happened to the school. Though such schools for the blind were considered revolutionary in their day, today many of them are still only preparing blind students for careers in traditional occupations, like acupuncture and massage, that are considered stereotypical and rather limiting in today's competitive career world. As a disabled person in the US, I realize I'm very fortunate to be able to get a fancy education, and hope the current crop of blind students also have such privileges.

And I still have to go back to England and visit Stonehenge and the Roman baths! I had changed my plans to visit Stonehenge last time in favor of going to Hampton Court Palace instead – not complaining, it was an incredible place to visit – but I still want to check out Stonehenge. I've never actually seen anything from the Neolithic era.
posted by Soliloquy at 12:01 PM on June 24, 2019

maybe road trip down to remote deserts in the Southwest US?

Yeah, the Big Bend area is supposed to be one of the best. UT Austin runs the McDonald Observatory in the mountains over Fort Davis, TX, which is maybe 100 miles north of Big Bend National Park. They have star parties and viewing nights sometimes. I know people who have been, and they said even just being outside at night was spectacular.

I drove through there in February, but the night I was there it happened to be mostly overcast, with a full moon. Dangit!
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 12:54 PM on June 24, 2019

The Adirondacks. The ADK. Mountains, lakes, hiking, fishing, camping canoeing, campfires, smores, boating, and just plain good old fun. It is where I go when I need to recharge or a break from living in the metro NY area.

Old Forge, Inlet, Raquette Lake, Blue Mountain Lake.
posted by AugustWest at 1:24 PM on June 24, 2019

I can't promise the birds will ever shut up, though, nor do I wish that they would. They are quite loud right now, and they regularly wake me up at dawn!

Oh, man, that's one thing I really miss from my days of living in the woods.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:46 PM on June 24, 2019

I am so glad that I'm not the only one with a fantasy to visit PEI (Anne fan forever!)
I also want to visit Guernsey (because of the book) and Jersey (the island, because of Gerald Durrell's books). And Ireland and Scotland because they sound so, so pretty. And of course, my own country (India) is like several very distinct countries squashed together, and it'll take a lifetime to see it all. I'm working on it!
A lot of my travel wishes center around the books I've grown up reading, basically.
posted by Nieshka at 10:05 PM on June 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

I've got a vague notion to ride a bicycle on every continent, as I've already managed Antarctica, so the rest should be easy in comparison. I'm going to Cambodia in October, and plan to cycle around Angkor Wat, so I've only got Africa and South America to work out. I'd welcome suggestions for either. I'm more an urban/transport/"look, pretty castles" cyclist, than a lycra/speed/hills cyclist.

A great "my first cycling holiday" destination is the Loire Valley, assuming you like castles. So many people do bicycle trips there, that it's logistically very easy. The food is excellent, and the scenery is flat. I'd love to do more long cycling trips again, but that requires fundage and fitness, neither of which are high at the moment. I do have four months of long service leave, that I should use for something epic though, instead of hoarding against potential redundancy.

I have a friend who just went to Japan, and that is now higher on my list than it used to be. The Trans-siberian is still calling my name, as are St Petersburg and Moscow. Morocco and southern Spain. Croatia. The Norway coast, the northern lights, there is a knitting cruise there that is the only cruise I've been even slightly tempted by, though I might save that for retirement. More train trips in India, more train trips in general actually. This Amtrac pass sounds quite tempting, I must say.
posted by kjs4 at 10:22 PM on June 24, 2019 [2 favorites]

I think I love you, loquacious.
posted by blurker at 10:59 AM on June 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

get in line and take a number, blurker.
posted by nikaspark at 1:47 PM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

Ok, since other people seem to be doing the time-machine thing: my whole life I've wanted to see the Upper West Side circa 1985.

Oh, and the Cyclades!
posted by peakes at 1:49 PM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

You can bike in Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya!
posted by ChuraChura at 2:56 PM on June 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

Last September, to celebrate my half century birthday, my gal pal and I flew from our home in Perth Western Australia, and landed in LA a million hours later. We then drove 3600 miles to Minneapolis via oh, fucking everywhere. Palm Springs, Joshua Tree, Yosemite, tiny mountain passes, remote California towns, Lake Tahoe, the loneliest highway, redwoods, bikie towns, Tetons, Yellowstone, dude ranches in Wyoming, Badlands, and a bunch more - it was all just so excellent. America is a really beautiful country to explore. People were friendly to us everywhere, which is nice considering, oh, *gestures at News* and what we get as a picture of the nutcasery political scene.

I had seeing the Custer Park muster of the 1350 bison off the range and into the corrals for counting and inoculations on my 50th birthday bucket list. Actually I dream of riding a horse with the cow gals n boys, but watching the beasts come over the South Dakota hills, with sprinkles of snow in the air, was MAGICAL. I just love bison and I would do all of that trip again.

In a few weeks, I am off to Toronto to catch Jeff Lynne/ELO, and going across the top of the lakes over to my favourite town in Minnesota, Duluth. [I could watch that bridge traffic all day, like a ship nerd. Wave at all the sailors and drink all the Minnesota craft beers.] And then up to Frazee to a wildlife area to stay in a treehouse so I can see all those critters.

I think my next dream is to do the North West Passage past Greenland. I dreamed of snow as a kid, and the power of being an adult is that I get to make snow, ice, wild mountains a reality. I mean, when I win Lotto obviously.

Happy dance!
posted by honey-barbara at 9:51 PM on June 25, 2019 [3 favorites]

Next Level Arcade in Brooklyn, NY.

The kaiseki restaurant that opened here a couple of years ago.
posted by koucha at 12:18 PM on June 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

I want to go stand on the dullest rock in a steep paddock in the back end of Ithaca Island. With a goat, for preference, and just have a think about home.

Since we have time machines, I'd also like to come right here to my little patch of Queensland, Australia, where I'm sitting now, in like, 1666, and just see what was here while my ancestors were still in Ireland stealing sheep from each other.
posted by Jilder at 5:38 PM on June 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

I would really like to see the ocean right now. I can't afford any other real trips this summer so maybe in July when I'm in Massachusetts for other purposes I can convince someone to drive me to the coast so I can just, like, smell it for a while.
posted by wellred at 4:59 AM on June 27, 2019

I would like to go to Wales. I used to have these really nonsensical recurring dreams about going there - good enough reason for me.
posted by destructive cactus at 11:28 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'd really like to work my way from the Australian North to Indonesia.
posted by aspersioncast at 4:47 PM on June 29, 2019

I went across Canada(Ontario-West and back) by train two years ago loquacious, train instantly became perhaps my favourite mode of travel - I was in the economy seating section, so just sleeping in my seat over a week of travel, but the viewing car that has a second level, with huge bubble windows is a spectacular way to watch sunrises and sunsets across the beautiful and diverse Canadian landscapes. And if you get up early enough (or stay up late enough) it seemed to always have seats available.

For all the bike journey curious folks (and those who don’t know they are, but seriously, we all are deep down), I rode the Route Verte, starting at Ottawa, across to Gatineau, and onwards across Quebec, I slept in a bivvy bag, sometimes at campsites, sometimes just in random spots (and a couple times I stayed in ridiculously fantastic and so soft and comforting tiny village motels). It’s an amazing route for anyone who doesn’t want to ever bike on a road with cars, it goes and goes and remains separate from the cars, it was maintained and had signage. It was something I did almost on the spur of the moment, but I recommend it to any and everyone with even a passing interest in amazing scenery, biking or the outdoors (or even just getting up close and into the unique village cultures of Qubec)

Right now, I would so love to get to Marsa Alam, Egypt. Swimming with Dugong, riding camels, desert hikes, diving the Red Sea, that’s one place I’d love to be. Having seen the one of a kind underwater vistas of the Red Sea and the gulf of Aqaba, The coral, the infinite life forms, microscopic to the macro, it makes me wish it were possible to halt the pollution and waste and warming enveloping the seas of the planet. Our impact is instantly intimately visible when beneath the ocean, unnaturally breathing bubbles from a tank. I also want to be back on Mount Sinai (Gebel Musa/Mount Moses as it’s known locally), scrambling across the craggy peaks, breathing history, having my breath stolen by vistas and consideration of the depth of time there, also in the Siwa Oasis (proximity to the instability of Libya makes this difficult), wandering the varied deserts of Fayoum, talking with the local potters and ceramic artisans. Watching people taking their cows to the Nile to drink and eat the grasses along the shores of the Southern Nile, from the time frozen and sun-worn decks of the small cruising vessels that only a decade ago filled the Nile, but today seem to be so intermittent. Stopping in places like Luxor, Aswan, Kom Ombo, Edfu, eating local food and hearing stories of how things have changed- seeing the sharp and misshapen rocks (some like elephants) of the Cataracts of the Nile below the High Dam from the top of a sail powered vessel of an ancient design. Watching the sun rise on the strips of green that streak away in narrow bands from the shores of the precious life giving river -perhaps barely a few kilometres is the full extent of the green, and even that only possible because of interconnected ditches and canals channeling the precarious Nile. Soaring the skies in hot air balloons as the incomparable temple of Queen Hatshepsut drives into visibility through the quickly burning off the morning fog. If it were possible, I could spend forever simply sailing up and down this river. Conflict over water could make this unavailable.

Ditching the crowds around the Giza Plateau Pyramids, hiking out to the surrounding desert and sitting to drink in the vast and almost unimaginable timespan and number of people who have walked across that space when you count all time while the 9 pyramids juxtapose themselves with the ever encroaching city of Cairo seems to sit silent and motionless (a lie of vision, and two descriptors that simply would not be used by anyone familiar with the city). I can’t recommend a place higher than the diverse types of purpose as Egypt. Ironic this topic, which as may be clearly obvious has made me nostalgic for so many of my favourite places, as I am going away, I’m temporarily heading out of Egypt and towards Canada this very evening. Maassalama, see y’all soon.

Somewhere I have wanted to go for a long time, but seems so long term unreachable that I don’t even dare list it as realistically possible, owing to Saudi/Iran proxy wars in Yemen is the one of a kind island of Socotra. Even in a fantasy question such as this one it seems unlikely to be possible. We seem to endlessly heap damage upon each other just as we heap damage on the multinumerous species of plant and animal.
What do we collectively care about? Is there anything/anyone we are not willing to bring death, destruction and devastation upon?
posted by infinite intimation at 3:49 AM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Ever since I was a little kid, I thought it would be great to visit all 50 states. I have no idea why or how I became fixated on this, but I have been for years. I love geography, I read travel articles for fun, visiting my own country seemed like a good idea? I don't know. I'm currently at 24, which is better and worse than I thought I'd be at this stage in my life (better than expected, but still so far to go)!

I'm currently dreaming of visiting New England. I've already planned it out -- take a week to ten days, and drive between states, no more than a 2-3 hour drive between destinations, and plenty of good food, drink, and quaint historical destinations. I've been wanting to do this since 2018, and right now it's looking like we might do it, maybe in 2021? 2022? I'm sad about that, because there are so many other trips I want to plan, and pushing this dream trip back delays those as well.
posted by PearlRose at 10:03 AM on July 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’d love to see PEI, both because of L. M. Montgomery’s books and because there’s a new Old Order Amish community there, and I’d love to meet those people and find out how it’s going.

I’ve also just discovered Survivor due to Hulu, and I’d love to go to Gabon. It truly looks like the most beautiful place in the world.
posted by epj at 6:02 PM on July 4, 2019