Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Travels

Quick post-studying, pre-bed fantasy break.

I really want to travel. This is nothing new, but certain places attract me more at certain times that others. So anyway here is a list:

1. Antwerp - I really like Belgium. Amazing chocolate beer, chocolate, mussels (yes I know have gone off about this before). I also really want to work on my French and learn Dutch/Flemish. I have been to Brussels and a few other beautiful places in Belgium, but never to Antwerp and that is the allure. Could visit for a weekend sometime could apply for a scholarship to study there through the embassy.

2. Willemstad, Dutch Antilles - I am a city person. I travel places for the cities. I like the concentration of people, history, and culture. Anyway, rare for North America and the Caribbean in particular, Willemstad has a UNESCO recognized colonial center, which is beatiful. Amazing sounding city, potpourris of languages, amazing weather, and beautiful water. What is not to love?

3. Morocco - Almost all of it. Fes, Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, they all excite me and have amazing and different architecture. Beautiful mosques.

4. Mariupol - Historic Greek cityin Ukraine that still has a fairly large Greek-speaking minority, just sounds cool.

5. Genoa - Part of my family is from there. Ideally I'd like to do some sort of greater Genoa tour: Genoa-Monaco-Nice-St. Tropez.

6. Algiers - Sounds pretty amazing and I am fascinated by the hisotry of the city.

7. Tiblissi - Post-Soviet and the potential to live up to my orientalist expectations, what's not to love?

3 comments:

Alexia said...

Genoa is one of the most beautiful ghettos in Italy! I love Liguria (the region Genoa is in). Its utterly breathtaking. Mountains dotted with flowers that fall off into a crystal blue sea and the brighly colored houses that hover on the hills just above the sea. Trees lined with giant lemon and orange trees...Liguria is one of the few places in Italy that I would live forever.

All the fat tourist go here, but there is more to see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre

This is my favorite town (Its on the border between Tuscany & Liguria):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontremoli

Its a shitty write-up and bad photos, but I hope they keep it that way so I can afford a house there 10 yrs from now!

And Nice is amazing too! Enough with the Dutch teasing , Squirrely! Can't I get an offensive nick-name of my own merrit? I think Jambon is downright cute for your brother! Its like calling a giant 'tiny'.

Barbarossa said...

Wow, it looks beautiful. Now I really want to go.

I have heard Genoa is ghetto (or the industrial parts around the city until you get to the center, but Nice is supposably the same way).

We should try and travel together at some point. Come on, you like Islamic architecture!

I will try an lay off the teasing, though I haven't been meaning too. I really want to go to that city.

Alexia said...

The industrial parts of Nice are nicer (haha) becuse they are cleaner, more structured, have interesting achitecture (french & their achitecture lust!), and people are actually doing stuff there.

In Genoa its pretty delapadate no matter where you go. But, its still one of the top three industrial centers in Northern Italy (Milan, Torino, Genoa).

The center is questionable. Its croweded, dirty, but has great buildings & sculptures..that are falling apart half of the time! So much stuff is just rotting in the street! It makes me sad b/c it has so much potential as a city. But not many tourist go there, its dirt cheap and I'm sure there is tons of stuff to discover! I've only spent a day there while passing from Nice.

Genoa also has one of the lowest birthrates in Italy..so selling babies would be very profitalbe :D


Yes! Let's travel together! I miss Italy sooo much! I have a free ticket that i have to use by June..so if you are in Europe this spring or summer, I can drop by. Jambon should come too! Hopefully he won't have the yucky Milanese accent!

Madonna che schifezza!