The kvindemandoj de vendredo....
Aug. 8th, 2003 03:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrakoThe Friday Five:
1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
In February I went to Glen Ellyn, Illinois, to visit a friend, and meet up with a bunch of "Lord of the Rings" and Dorothy Dunnett fan friends. (Hi,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dargie.) A good time was had by all... or at least, by me.
2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?
Um. Every trip has been exciting and eventful in its way. Including:
(a) There was a time I found myself climbing the outer ramparts of the castle walls of the castle as Assisi, Italy, at midnight with two bisexual Italian men who were teaching me and my friend more interesting Italian than we were getting in class, and my friend was so drunk she could hardly stand, let alone climb walls.... And me trying to explain to the Italians (politely, in Italian) that no, we couldn't go back to their place for sex because (1) my friend was too drunk and (2) we were staying at a convent where the doors closed at eleven and we didn't want to be kicked out of ur residence there. Despite my worries, I was enjoying what the Italians were telling us about their own sexual activities, though, and part of me wishes I hadn't been such a shy virgin at the time. Ah. Only young once and all that.
(b) There was the time, walking along the coastal road coast near Genoa, I heard my name called: it was one of my classmates from journalism school in Ottawa.
(c) Does 'transcendentally beautiful' count as strange? I have stunning memories of watching a sunset from a high hill in Northumberland, and a beauty to it I will never forget.
(d) At the age of seventeen, suddenly coming up against a certain effigy on a certain tomb in Westminster Abbey, and screaming in delight: "It's Margaret Lennox!" Dunnett readers will appreciate this moment.
3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?
Plane. To get to all the interesting places, I need a plane. Or best of all, a boat - ship.
5. What's the next place on your list to visit?
It depends. I want to go to ZCon, near Chicago, in October; and the Dunnett gathering in New Orleans in November; and the Tolkien Gatherining in Toronto in December - and I can't be really sure even yet if I can afford any of these. Well, Toronto in December is paid for already, and a sure thing. I all these cases I want to go because of the event and because of the people who will be there, not because of the places themselves: I've been to all of those cities before, liked them all, and wouldn't be returning now for the place alone. Same with going to Escapade in California February. Much as I love places in North America, I would almost always rather be travelling in Europe.
My next trip that's to somewhere I just want to visit? Well.... I'm fantasizing about Greece, which I was discussing with some friends the other day - one of them a Greek speaker, so we'd have the next best thing to a local guide. Her family is from Zakynthos. Zakynthos! My ears pricked up with visions of Evangelista Donati and cutie-pie Mikal the Geomaler. I suspect I could presuade my friends to visit Crete, too, which is the place I most want to see in that area.
And though I blush to say it, I'm fantasizing about the Caribbean for the first time in my life. A cruise, that's the ticket. On a pirate ship. Under Captain Jack Sparrow. Yeah. Welcome to the Caribbean.
1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
In February I went to Glen Ellyn, Illinois, to visit a friend, and meet up with a bunch of "Lord of the Rings" and Dorothy Dunnett fan friends. (Hi,
dargie.) A good time was had by all... or at least, by me.2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?
Um. Every trip has been exciting and eventful in its way. Including:
(a) There was a time I found myself climbing the outer ramparts of the castle walls of the castle as Assisi, Italy, at midnight with two bisexual Italian men who were teaching me and my friend more interesting Italian than we were getting in class, and my friend was so drunk she could hardly stand, let alone climb walls.... And me trying to explain to the Italians (politely, in Italian) that no, we couldn't go back to their place for sex because (1) my friend was too drunk and (2) we were staying at a convent where the doors closed at eleven and we didn't want to be kicked out of ur residence there. Despite my worries, I was enjoying what the Italians were telling us about their own sexual activities, though, and part of me wishes I hadn't been such a shy virgin at the time. Ah. Only young once and all that.
(b) There was the time, walking along the coastal road coast near Genoa, I heard my name called: it was one of my classmates from journalism school in Ottawa.
(c) Does 'transcendentally beautiful' count as strange? I have stunning memories of watching a sunset from a high hill in Northumberland, and a beauty to it I will never forget.
(d) At the age of seventeen, suddenly coming up against a certain effigy on a certain tomb in Westminster Abbey, and screaming in delight: "It's Margaret Lennox!" Dunnett readers will appreciate this moment.
3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
- Palermo.
- Heraklion.
- Mohenjo-Daro. (Are wars a factor here, or do we ignore them, along with time and money?)
- Bayeux.
- Cyprus, to see the castle at Nicosia built by my guys, Geoffrey de Lusignan and his brother Aimery.
- The Shetland Isles.
- Ballymacheramerie, County Down. (One of the places my ancestors came from.)
- Macchu Picchu.
- Any place with standing stone circles or alignments.
- Certain castles: Chateaubriant, Ambroise, Chenonceau, Alcazar, Fontevraut.
- Avignon.
- The Maldive Islands. (Ever since reading Heyerdahl's The Maldive Mystery, but this is related to my love of the culture of Mohenjo-Daro.)
- Jerusalem.
- The Channel Islands, especially Jersey.
- Sweden.
- An ashram in Poona, India.
- Iceland.
- Kerak, in Jordan. Nothing there but the ruins of a castle that fascinates me. Someday I'll tell you the story of why.
- The Valley of Kings, Gaza, Luxor, Karnak (I mean Egypt here, not France, but I'd love to return to the French Karnak too.)
4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?
Plane. To get to all the interesting places, I need a plane. Or best of all, a boat - ship.
5. What's the next place on your list to visit?
It depends. I want to go to ZCon, near Chicago, in October; and the Dunnett gathering in New Orleans in November; and the Tolkien Gatherining in Toronto in December - and I can't be really sure even yet if I can afford any of these. Well, Toronto in December is paid for already, and a sure thing. I all these cases I want to go because of the event and because of the people who will be there, not because of the places themselves: I've been to all of those cities before, liked them all, and wouldn't be returning now for the place alone. Same with going to Escapade in California February. Much as I love places in North America, I would almost always rather be travelling in Europe.
My next trip that's to somewhere I just want to visit? Well.... I'm fantasizing about Greece, which I was discussing with some friends the other day - one of them a Greek speaker, so we'd have the next best thing to a local guide. Her family is from Zakynthos. Zakynthos! My ears pricked up with visions of Evangelista Donati and cutie-pie Mikal the Geomaler. I suspect I could presuade my friends to visit Crete, too, which is the place I most want to see in that area.
And though I blush to say it, I'm fantasizing about the Caribbean for the first time in my life. A cruise, that's the ticket. On a pirate ship. Under Captain Jack Sparrow. Yeah. Welcome to the Caribbean.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-08 07:33 pm (UTC)