In honor of these upcoming trips, herewith your Grand Tour Friday Five.
Name five places that fall into the following categories:
1) Favorite Destination -- someplace you've visited once or often and would gladly go again
I have been really digging NYC recently. I think because my sister has lived there for such a long time, I always felt intimidated by the City. There was just no way I could ever get around like she does. Lately, though, I've been much more comfortable with my own unknowing, a point of view I've always held while in other places. Aside from the cost of just BEING in NYC, there is so much to do - and in the warmer months, there is so much to do just outside.
2) Unfavorite Destination -- someplace you wish you had never been (and why)
Truly, there is not one place that I have visited that I would refuse to go to again. That said, why go back? There is SO MUCH OUT THERE!
3) Fantasy Destination -- someplace to visit if cost and/or time did not matter
In high school I thought the ideal trip would be Istanbul, Ravenna and Rome. I still think that's a fairly fabulous trip. And if that falls through, North Africa: Tunisia, Morocco...
4) Fictional Destination -- someplace from a book or movie or other art or media form you would love to visit, although it exists only in imagination
Tolkein's Middle Earth. I am sure there are other places...to be amended!
5) Funny Destination -- the funniest place name you've ever visited or want to visit
I can't believe I never made it to Hot Coffee, Mississippi. It's a little town just off the main route North from the Coast - too far, apparently, as I was always in a hurry. It started out as a farm with a sign nailed to a tree at the crossroads.
I've sort of made it a mission to visit as many underground places as I possibly can. So, they're not really funny, but high on my list of places are the Roman catacombs, the catacombs beneath San Giovanni in Siracusa and the Etruscan tombs in Tuscany.
Phew!
