World Enough and Time

I haven't done a Friday Five in a long time, so here you are:

Theme: International Travel

1. You have the summer and plenty of money to travel abroad. Where would you go?

1. The Channel Islands, or the Sheltands, or the Isle of Man
   
2. Bayeux
   
3. Nepal
   
4. Cardiff (guess why?)
   
5. Yorkshire, Durham, the Lake District, and, of course, Hadrian's Wall
   
6. Sicily, or other choice parts of Italy: Pompeii, Tuscany, Venice and Torcello, maybe throwing in Verona and Lucca
   
7. Malta
   
8. Greece, especially Crete
   
9. Jerusalem and the Crusader sites in Israel and Jordan
   
10. Egypt, especially the Cairo Museum and Luxor
    
    Should I stop now? I could go on like this for a long time. Throw in all the Dunnett sites I've never seen, especially Rum and Trebizond. Add Macchu Piccu and the Carribean.

2. What foods would you be sure you got to eat?

Plenty of local delicacies. Carefully avoiding, in those English places, pork pies and marmite.

3. What landmarks would you be sure you got to see?

I'm not big on landmarks, though I'd want to see the pyramids and the Sphinx in Egypt. I like historical sites and oceans. I suspect there are many landmarks I'd love to see that I don't even know about. The Old Man of Hoy, for example. I'd never heard of it before I went to Orkney. It was amazing.

4. What airline would you use?

The TARDIS.

Okay, okay, that's fantasizing a little too much.

If we are really saying money and time are irrelevant, I'd go by ship. Or maybe my own private yacht, with a captain to pilot it. Failing that, I'd choose an airline recommended by friends who travel more than I do. In the past, I was impressed by Lufthansa.

5. Would your knowledge of other languages influence where you went? (i.e. would you be more likely to go to France if you spoke French)

I do speak French. Well, sort of. I choose places by their history, not their language, though the chance to practise French and Italian make France and Italy all the more attractive. I would want to get in touch with Esperantists, and practise my Esperanto.

I'll skip the second set of questions, because unless I'm going to a convention or visiting friends, I really don't want to go on a road trip to the US, for numerous reasons.

It would be fun to go on a road trip to Nova Scotia (which is my favourite province) or through Europe.

Got this from dargie and namastenancy:

1. If you could suddenly speak one language fluently (that you don't currently speak) what would it be? That caveat "that you don't currently speak" makes it difficult. I was just saying the other day how I'd like to be vocally fluent in Latin, which few people are. But technically I "speak" it in that I can read passages and understand them, especially if you let me use a dictionary.

There are so many languages I would love to be able to speak. Assyrian? Ancient Greek? Sanskrit? Tocharian? Anglo-Saxon? (I love dead languages!) If I could say "Etruscan" or "Mohenjo-Daran" and then reveal their secrets to the universe, I'd be the 21st century's Champollion or Michael Ventris - !

Okay, okay, putting my love of dead languages aside.... I think I'll say Chinese. It's a toss-up with Japanese, but I think Chinese has the edge as being more different (at least in sound), and having a more diverse culture and history.

2. If you were to suggest a foreign film, that you really enjoyed, what one would you suggest? What does "foreign" mean? "Filmed in a language neither English nor French"? I'll say The Wedding Banquet even though it didn't strike me as foreign, but the people who give out Academy Awards seemed to think so. Gerard Depardieu's The Count of Monte Cristo also came to mind (if I can call it foreign because it's from France) and ditto "Asterix". I've loved some Bollywood movies too, but can't think of the titles now, since they tend to be in Hindi and I have trouble remembering them. (Add that to the list of languages I'd like to learn.)

3. If you had to call another country home (other than the one you currently live in) what one would you choose? -- Italy. Second choice: the UK.

4. If you went out to buy an import music CD, what one would you buy? Opera.

5. If you were to chose an ethnic dinner, what would it be? Japanese.