Stanford's

Today we went for a walk down to Covent Garden. We do a lot of walks because they're incredibly free - you don't even have to pay for transportation! Anyway, I mainly wanted to go to Covent Garden because there is this store there called Stanford's. It's the most amazing travel book store you've ever seen. It's three stories of travel books, travel maps, travel writing, travel photo books, travel travel, blah blah blah travel. And the idea of travel continues to be really really appealing to me.

Every year I tend to get fascinated by some place or travel idea. Usually I don't end up making the trip because I lack the money and time. But still, it's something I think a lot about. I like to look through travel books, especially ones with big photos of the places I want to visit.

So, trips I have planned out in my head?

1) Ever since last fall I've wanted to go to Iceland really badly. I'm fascinated by this volcanic island popping up in the arctic seas. It has geothermal vents and geysers and massive ice sheets. And the terrain is like nothing else in Europe, since it's all volcanic uplift. Apparently when Nasa wanted to find a place to train the astronauts for life on the moon, they chose Iceland. Plus it only has a population of 300,000 - that's crazy! Anyway, my plan to visit this place is to buy tickets on IcelandAir on my way to America. On the way back, I'll have a massive, one week layover.

2) My brother is coming to visit this year (fingers crossed) and I've been thinking a lot about what kind of trip I want to take with him. I'm sick of cities! So, I think we should take a train up to Edinburgh and then rent a car and drive around Scotland for a week. I'm not even sure what we would do... visit castles, hike the highlands, go to pubs. The driving sounds like the best part to me. Maybe we could go up north and take a ferry to on of the northern islands.

3) This year I've started to become more and more fascinated by these Northern European Countries that are cold and extremely well run. I would like to see one of these places that has a 50% tax bracket, but where everyone is nonetheless really happy because they invest in all sorts of great stuff. Like bikes for all. What's that like? What is society like when it's so well run?

Those are the main trips I've planned out in my head. I think there's an excellent chance #2 will happen this year, a long shot that #1 will happen and a very long shot that #3 will happen. There's some other trips I've also thought about, but not as much. They're just ideas...

1) Japan - but I would want to go to visit someone I knew there
2) Africa - but where? I feel like I really need to visit the place I write about within a year or I will be a ... well, a jerk.
3) Georgia - I've heard good things about the central Asian nation (I'm not talking about the state. It's nice too.). They have a booming wine industry, a booming tea industry, mountains for hiking and skiing and beautiful country. I glanced through a book on Georgia at Stanford's and they made it sound like pretty advanced travel. So, Iceland first I figure.

Anyway, I could spend hours in that store. And I probably will, once I'm done with applications for Economics Grad school.

One more note - people always ask if I would rather live in Europe or the US. I definitely think of myself as American and the idea of never living in my home is not something I would take seriously. But I find I could spend a long time over here. My job has 5 weeks paid vacation per year! And that's entry level! Apparently 6 weeks is the average for the country. Plus, for someone who loves to think about traveling, I'm not as far from the places I would love to see. Most distances get 7 hours chopped off of them. And that means the cost of airfare is much cheaper too...