It's not that I haven't had a lot of practice travelling; I probably travel more than most. I've commuted to work for the last 3 years or so, and as part of my job I have to travel a fair amount. I usually go abroad three or four times a year to present my work at international conferences, and I try to take the opportunity to tack on a few days either side of the conference to explore the country. This has been a great way to see some of the world, and if my memory doesn't fail me, I've been to 20 different countries now: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Chile, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, (Malta), Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Singapore, Taiwan, USA, Vatican City, Wales. That's 8% of the world, apparently:
I've also lived in countries other than the UK. I spent two years living in Chile, not knowing any Spanish whatsoever when I arrived. That was hard going for a while. Luckily my co-workers spoke English, and I found a group of ex-pats to hang around with while I was there. Chile is a beautiful country: its people are beautiful and its landscape is gorgeous. There's something for everyone... deserts and high mountains in the far north; the verdant pisco regions of what they call the "little north"; the central valley, famed for its wine, which hosts the capital city, Santiago. South of Santiago, there's a lush hilly region reminiscent of the English Lake District, and in the far south leading to Patagonia, there are mountains, glaciers and penguins. The west of the country is limited by the Pacific Ocean, and the east is bounded by the impressive Andes, which are snow-capped much of the year. I explored the country a fair bit, but didn't quite get to the far south or the far north. I need to go back!
I spent three years in the USA, in California. That was amazing... such a different way of life to what I was used to, even though many things were the same. The sun shines literally every day for 11 months of the year and that really buoyed my mood considerably. It surprises me how much weather can affect one's outlook on life. Most of the time I was in the city, in and around LA, but I did the beautiful trip on the I5 from LA to San Diego with regularity, and I managed to get up north twice, to see San Francisco, and to go to Monterey. The trip down the coast from Monterey to San Luis Obispo is amazing... the ocean is amazing, the beaches are amazing, the undulating cornfields and blue skies around SLO are fantastic. I went out east to the desert, to a wolf sanctuary near Joshua Tree National Park... the wolves were huge and mightily scary, but I got to go into their enclosure and spend a couple of hours with them, feeding them and watching them wrestle and swim. In the National Park itself, the joshua trees were otherworldy, and what looked like a stick in the road turned into a slithering, rattling snake! Some of my favourite places were the beaches... the pier at Santa Monica, the amazing views from the Getty Museum, the gorgeous golden sands at Santa Barbara, the crash of the waves in Big Sur, and the tranquility of the beach at Carmel. Again, I seemed to miss out on a lot of what California has to offer... the National Parks in the north, and its proximity to Oregon and to Mexico. All the more reason to go back!
Following a brainstorming session and with a little bit of help from Trip Advisor earlier, I reckon I've been to about 250 places in the world. Trip Advisor's "Cities I've Visited" map is a little odd since it classes London as one place, but all the little cities and towns around Los Angeles, for instance, as separate places. Thus I've been to 40 or 50 places in LA and southern California, but only one in London! Anyway, this is what my world map looks like:
Although heavily dominated by Europe, South America and the coasts of the US, I have managed to visit every continent apart from Africa, and I have been to Madeira, which is pretty damn close to Africa. I've also been to the Far East... 24 hours in Singapore on a stopover, a few hours hurriedly looking around Hong Kong (post-handover to China), and a week in Taiwan. I was also due to travel to Japan a few days after the massive earthquake this year, but was advised to cancel the trip due to safety reasons. It's a shame, since one of my favourite films is "Lost in Translation". Speaking of cancelled trips, I was due to fly to Washington DC the day that massive blizzards hit the north-east of England earlier this year. I got to Manchester airport about 5 minutes before they closed it down, meaning that I had to endure a hair-raising taxi ride home on slippery road... an exact repeat of the journey there. I also got stuck in Toulouse during a British Airways strike last year, and had a bit of hassle from that Icelandic volcano's explosion. Not to mention the delayed trains, the traffic jams and never-arriving buses. Travel isn't always fun, but it's definitely worth it. To finish off, a few pictures from some of my favourite places on the planet:
