Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Oh, the Places I’ll Go!

One of my lifelong dreams has been to travel. All my life, I’ve been reading books and hearing stories of exotic locales and longing to see them for myself. I’ve been making a list. It’s quite a long list, and so far I’ve only been able to cross off two places. It's sad that “so much of what I see reminds me of what I’ve read; shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

I know that I probably won’t make it to all the spots, but I’d love to try. My plan is to marry a very wealthy, older gentleman who will have nothing better to do than to sail around the world on his yacht with me. At the very least, I intend to take myself to London—hopefully next year!

There are so many places I’d love to go and things I’d love to see. They call to me, whispering tales of adventure, romance, and danger. They have stories to tell me about the people who have left their signature there, some for thousands of years. The monuments and marks left by humanity tell our story: through the care and creativity of their original construction, as well as by their modern preservation and endurance.

So far, most of the world has been experienced through others’ eyes for me. I want to go and see for myself. Life has always been the same struggle for survival and meaning. People haven’t changed since they designed and built the pyramids somehow. Someday, I will get out there and live the world for myself.



Places to Go, Things to See

Sydney Opera House—Sydney, Australia
Christ the Redeemer Statue—Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Angkor Wat—Cambodia
Niagara Falls—Ontario, Canada
The Great Wall of China—Badaling, China
The Forbidden City—Beijing, China
The Moai—Easter Island
The Great Pyramid and Sphinx—Giza, Egypt
Valley of the Kings—Luxor, Egypt
The Tower of London—London, England
Stonehenge—Salisbury, England
Lascaux Caves—Montignac, France
Palace of Versailles—Versailles, France
Neuschwanstein Castle—Bavaria, Germany
The Acropolis—Athens, Greece
The Taj Mahal—Agra, India
Babylon—Iraq
The Wailing Wall—Jerusalem, Israel
The Colosseum—Rome, Italy
The Sistine Chapel—Vatican City, Italy
Kiyomizu Temple—Kyoto, Japan
Grand Torii Gate—Miyajima, Japan
Petra—Jordan
Timbuktu—Mali
Chichén Itzá—Yucatan, Mexico
Monte Carlo—Monaco
Wellington—New Zealand
Machu Picchu—Peru
Red Square and the Kremlin—Moscow, Russia
The Potala Palace—Himalayas, Tibet
The Hagia Sophia—Istanbul, Turkey
The Grand Canyon—Arizona, USA
Pearl Harbor, O'ahu—Hawai’i, USA
The Statue of Liberty—New York, USA
Mount Rushmore—South Dakota, USA
Samarkand—Uzbekistan
Victoria Falls—Livingstone, Zambia

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