Guest Post - Van-City Femme

Hello Everyone!

The lovely Annelise has asked me to do a guest post for her blog while she's away in Vietnam. 

Which I think is awesome. I'm also kind of jealous. Vietnam! I bet it's gorgeous there this time of year. In fact, I'm sure of it. I googled it. It's summer time there, while it's winter here in Vancouver and I'm imagining the sun right now.

She's given me the topic of travel for two reasons. Because she's traveling (hurr hurr) and because I have the attention span of a gnat without a topic. So there's that. 

There are two, maybe three notable places I've been to in total. I haven't had the luxury of travel just yet and my passport does not have badges and visa stamps galore just yet. Soon. Soon my precious. 

So aside from driving for days on end across the country in the deathly boring prairies (if you're thinking about going through Alberta, Sask, and Manitoba... just fly... Seriously. I'm sorry if this offends any flat-landers out there, but I'm so used to the mountains and... well proper landscape.) my travels have been limited thus far to San Fran '05, Tofino '08, and Playa del Carmen '10. 

San Francisco. I adore San Fran. I went for 3 weeks the summer I turned 16 to work as a part time nanny for my mom's friend. In my off time I was able to do a TON of touristy things. I didn't get to do everything on my list, but that's for trip number two. The best thing was Alcatraz. I was in Harry Potter phase (that will never end) so I kept accidentally calling it Azkaban. Hey, they're both on an island, they're both prisons, they both sound ominous and start with an "A", so there! Good for history buffs. Incredibly interesting even if you're not a history buff. They give you a head set and that takes you on a full walk through of the prison and points out significant places (who was in which cell, what solitary confinement was like), even replays sounds recorded of the prison at its peak. There's also the Golden Gate Bridge. Monteray Bay Aquarium. Santa Cruz! I learned to surf at Capitola Beach. Ate amazing seafood at Fisherman's Warf. Drove up and then down Lombard Street (the super zig-zaggy one). San Fran has a beautiful skyline at night too. Definitely one of my favorite cities.

Tofino. This was a 3 day trip. It's a 5 hour drive from Vancouver, two of those hours spent on a ferry. The last hour to Tofino though, was like driving on a really twisty, windy road through an enchanted forest. My boyfriend and I went in Feb '08 as a "last trip before 12 months of solid school" trip. And because it was storm season, it was cheaper and there were less people. It may have been a bit colder than normal, but seriously, it was worth it. Tofino is beautiful. And we got a place that didn't have radio, tv, a phone or wifi, so we were completely unplugged for 3 days straight. Initially it was to save money but it ended up being just amazing to be able to walk up and down the beach, taking photos and breathing in the salty air and just BE. A must-go if you ever find yourself on the west coast of Canada. 

I took this photo. I was standing on the beach with my back to the ocean at low tide. So the sand was still wet and reflecting the cabins we were staying in/

Playa del Carmen. This is the furthest I've been from home. We spent a week in Mexico and to be honest, I don't know if I could do it again. I looooove sun and heat. But guys, I make gingers look tan. 70 spf was no match for the California sun, I came back looking like a lobster. So in Mexico, all I could do really, was go out for 20 mins and then hide in the shade and reapply greasy sun screen. I did burn, mildly on my back, nothing awful. Lucky for me (lucky?) it was thunder and lightning for 4 of the 7 days we were there. I really wanted to go to Chichen Itza (the pyramid) but it was too far away. So we went to another one instead called Coba and this was great because we got to climb it and part of the trip was a visit to a Mayan village and swim in a cenote, which is like swimming in a fish bowl. The other trip we did while there was Xel-ha. Very touristy, but quite fun. We snorkeled down the river, which was neat because it was salt water on the bottom of the river, and fresh water on top, so it looked almost oily. I ended up following around a sting ray for about an hour. When we got out of the water, we walked around the area, saw a dolphin show, a ton of tropical birds, fed some fish and ate ice cream.

A scuba diver in a cenote.

And for good measure, places I want to go. 

Maui, I'm going there in April for 10 days, very excited. I can't wait to slather on the sun screen and go snorkeling.  I'm seriously considering buying a burka style swim suit though. Or renting a wet suit for 10 days. I want to spend a lot of time in the water, and I don't want to burn.

The Great Barrier Reef. I have a friend from Darwin, Aus and she's pretty much convinced me that the water around Aus. is a scary place (though, honestly, all of Darwin sounds like a terrifying death trap made of spiders, snakes and crocs). Maybe, I'll just put on a water hazmat suit made of chain-mail with some sort of jellyfish repellant.
EVERYWHERE IN EUROPE OMFG. My list of places I want to go in Europe exceeds the rest of the world combined. There are so many land marks, museums, places, buildings, sights I want to see. From the Catacombes of Paris to Venice, London, Prague, I even want to go to Pripyat (Chernobyl) and take photos. I just wanna take photos of all of Europe. 

And so that is my list of places I've been, and places I want to go. I won't end on a negative note of places I would never set foot in *coughafricamiddleeastchinacough*, but all this talk about travel is making me restless. And I cannot express how jealous I am of the Vietnam trip!  

What does your travel list look like?