Traveller's Wishlist Blues

Boy. It's been a while. But two recent things happened to show me someone still reads this thing. A good friend from high school wrote to say he missed my posts. And I've made another friend of someone who read my chimney sweep article. Great things are coming from that thing, so I shall endeavor to soldier on.

So. Talking about traveling today. I've got a serious case of itchy feet and a longing to take my backpack out and brush off the dust.

I enjoy getting on that airplane and shooting off into the wide blue yonder. I love seeing all the land spread below me like a giant quilt with the batting coming out--flying through castles and mountains of cloud. I love meeting new people and the anticipation of being in a fresh place for a while--getting away from the dusty, staid hole of a life I've shoved myself into, where all my expectations are regularly met in a way they've always arrived. I enjoy the idea of waking up in one place and going to bed in another, having successfully navigated around airports and security conga lines.

I love getting in our van and setting off into the sunset for parts unknown, listening to the engine whine as we negotiate mountains and avoid deer. I used to love camping and still kind of do except that my trick knee makes it rough. And it makes hiking a chore, though I still do it. I enjoy learning the history of a place and wondering about the people who live(d) there. The light is different in different places. Here it bludgeons a person with an oppressive heat until they can barely walk or breathe. In Oregon it's a watery quality that tastes of moss and ferns. In Switzerland it's a clear blue sharpness that allows you to see the mastiffs marching away into the purpling haze of distance. In Ireland it was a peat-y damp that filled me with yearning for stories and great music.

I itch for the possibility of going sailing again, the wind bellying out the sails and raising spin-drift, the water slipping past the boat, all deep blue-green and mysterious. I'm dying to sail on a tall ship and climb the rat lines and stand in the crow's nest. It would be so interesting to crew for a ship like that for a while.

Mostly I really LOVE the idea of owning the experience and making it part of me. Owning the sight of new people, wondrous new places, the taste of the air on my tongue, the feel of a cool wind ruffling my hair. Of the food and the people offering wares. Owning it all in my head.

I recently talked to a young Navy sailor. I begged him for stories of his travels. He had so little to say about the wonderful places he'd been. He said he would be just as happy to have never gone most of those places and simply plopped on his couch with the remote. To me, that's a crying shame. Why close yourself off to the richness of a new tapestry? Why insist on eating macaroni and cheese when you have the opportunity to taste Bangers and Mash? Or Lutefisk?

This is why when I was heading off to Ireland with my mom and sisters, I made a list of all the things I could think of that I wanted to do in that country. I made it as varied and wacky as possible. I didn't even do half of the things I wanted to do (no time to since we had Murt the drill sergeant for a bus driver) but it made the experiences I did have so much richer.

So do I have a bucket list a mile long? YES. I want to go everywhere and see everything.

*I want to go back to Ireland and go in that huge cave under Pol na Broine dolmen. It's all karst there and the ranger assured me I'm right. There IS a big cave you can even go in under there.
*I want to do research at Carrigafoyle Castle for a book I'm writing.
*I want to see Northern Ireland.
*I want to swim in the sea though it's freezing.
*I want to find the drunk guy I pretty much swiped my favorite shirt from and give him a better shirt than I gave him.
*I want to play bodhran and tin whistle in pubs (must practice much more, first).
*I want to do research in Trinity college, not just tour it. Go back in the stacks and look at those ancient books.
 And that's just in Ireland.
*I really really want to go to England and look up where my Welsh forebears lived.
*I want to see Grayfriars bridge and the Thames.
*I want to see the Crown Jewels and the Tower and Shakespeare's home and the Globe Theater.
*I want to take a bazillion pictures and eat fish and chips. 
*I want to see Jane Austen's house and a hundred other wonderful sights.
I want to go to Scotland and see if I can hunt down my McKusick line.
*Must eat haggis at least once.
*Must see the places Robert the Bruce went to ground. (Last time I checked I'm related to him.)
*I want to swim in Loch Ness.
*I want to go back to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland especially.
*I want to order lunch in Ge
rman.
*I want to sleep in dozens of castles (or at least crawl around in them).
*I want to go back to the massively cool museum in Munich and spend two days in there.
*I want to go back to the Pergamon museum in East Berlin that I didn't enjoy the first time because I was so barfing sick. I'm NOT going to eat their ice cream beforehand since that's what made me so sick in the first place.
*I want to go back to the tower in Goslar (sp?) and put my husband in thumbscrews so he can know how it feels...rofl
*I want to stroll the streets of a thousand little towns and eat in their open air restaurants and sing in their cathedrals.
*So much more.

There are a thousand thousand other places and things I want to breathe in and make a part of me.
Too bad I'm not independently wealthy or have a gig to report on those places like on WorldTrekker or something. My lucky sister is making this dream come true for herself and her kids. I'm so jealous. I guess I just need to sell books. Anyone want to buy a few million dollars worth of books? I could make it worth your while...;o)