Three Countries

I have to admit that the Daily Post project looks a little like every other topic prompter so far.  No hard-hitting questions.  Luckily, I’ve let a couple of days’ worth of topics stockpile while I’ve been doing things like my own yearly recap and podcast.  I’m thinking I may continue to allow the stockpile to go on & if I wind up with more than one post in a day, so be it.  Hopefully the quality of the posts will improve as the quantity improves.

Challenge #1 is: List three countries and why you want to go.

Three?  Only three?  And here I never thought that restriction might be a bad thing.  When I was a kid, I wanted to visit the UK: Scotland, Ireland and England, pretty much in that order.  Sorry, Wales, but you just didn’t hit my radar, and I blame that on a poor PR machine.  My family pretty much comes from the genetic stew that is the UK.  We figured that it was mainly Scots-Irish, but as I delve into the genealogy information that my Mum has sent me, it looks as though there’s more Irish than any of us thought.  They just seemed to disguise themselves as Scots, I guess.   Of course, the whole family has been taught to cringe at the mention of the English, so I suspect that whether we’re Scots or Irish, we have the sunny disposition to match!

As I grew older, I started taking French and Spanish lessons.  Pray do not make me use these atrophied skills, as I’m sure my accent is atrocious and my verbs such that one would laugh at my bumbling attempts.  What stuck with me, though, was a wish to visit France and Spain.  Particularly the museums and architecture.  Trip to Versailles?  Sure thing!  A tour of Moorish Spain?  Why not!

In these later years, I’ve also discovered a yen to want to wander to all the fibre-filled places that would net me more wool.  The Americas (other than Canada).  Australia & New Zealand.  Northern Europe.  Robin’s influence is to urge me to wanting to visit places like Copenhagen, where bicycle culture rules the road, or at least that’s the kind of press the place gets.  I love Google Street View for the pleasure of visiting these far-flung places without the benefit of a Passport.

You see, I’ve never really been outside Canada, at least, not within memorable time.  There hasn’t been a need.  The one attempt to go to South America with my Grade 11 Spanish class ended in dismal failure when the drug wars escalated.  There hasn’t really been any money to travel abroad.  However…I’ve been all over Canada.  I’ve lived in Alberta, The Northwest Territories, British Columbia, and  various places in Ontario.  I’ve been to Old Quebec City and Montreal.  I think, all things considered, I’ve done pretty well.

Still, someday I would love to either hop a plane, or take a cruise, and just head out.  Maybe to the family homelands, maybe on adventures elsewhere.  As long as it doesn’t bankrupt us, and there’s someone to take care of the cat, I think (when the time comes) we’ll have a blast!