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Travel ideas
Jan. 3rd, 2009 05:08 pmI've been inspired by some of your new year's travels to start planning some trips, regardless of how realistic doing them will be. Gives my brain something to do, and makes me realise I'm not as depressed as I thought.
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zoo_music_girl went to Alnwick. So far, Northumberland has been a drive-thru for me, and I've wanted to visit the castle there for years. In the same trip I could probably take in Lindisfarne and Jarrow Abbies (yes, I know - bad Anglo-Saxonist for never having visited either!), Durham Cathedral and whatever other oddities the area has to offer. Plus side - I can do while currency- and passport-challenged, down side, it's England and thus everything will be ridiculously expensive & the weather will probably suck.
naturalbornkaos went to Vienna, and I'm totally sold for going there next New Year. Even if the Euro is still pummeling the pound into submission, that gives me time to save. I do have some ethical problems with going to Austria[1], though - it's still very racist and anti-Semitic. (As is most of Eastern Europe, I know).
I think how much German I understand has to do with accent and dialect - I caught <1% of both Goodbye Lenin and Downfall, and just accepted that I've forgotten what little German I ever knew, but a few weeks ago I saw The Lives of Others, and understood an astonishing amount of it, to the point where I was getting things before the subtitles came up and some of what the subtitles missed - I didn't think I ever knew that much German! So I could hope that the Viennese dialect is one I can't understand and can go about going "la la la look at all the pretty buildings".
At least it'll be a proper dry cold.
Additionally, I've been watching Andrew Graham-Dixon's Travels With Vasari, which has led to a desire to spend a couple months driving around Italy looking at art and architecture. Which is much less realistic than the former two, but something to keep in mind anyway.
[1] Yes I've been before, but I didn't know that then.
zoo_music_girl went to Alnwick. So far, Northumberland has been a drive-thru for me, and I've wanted to visit the castle there for years. In the same trip I could probably take in Lindisfarne and Jarrow Abbies (yes, I know - bad Anglo-Saxonist for never having visited either!), Durham Cathedral and whatever other oddities the area has to offer. Plus side - I can do while currency- and passport-challenged, down side, it's England and thus everything will be ridiculously expensive & the weather will probably suck.naturalbornkaos went to Vienna, and I'm totally sold for going there next New Year. Even if the Euro is still pummeling the pound into submission, that gives me time to save. I do have some ethical problems with going to Austria[1], though - it's still very racist and anti-Semitic. (As is most of Eastern Europe, I know).I think how much German I understand has to do with accent and dialect - I caught <1% of both Goodbye Lenin and Downfall, and just accepted that I've forgotten what little German I ever knew, but a few weeks ago I saw The Lives of Others, and understood an astonishing amount of it, to the point where I was getting things before the subtitles came up and some of what the subtitles missed - I didn't think I ever knew that much German! So I could hope that the Viennese dialect is one I can't understand and can go about going "la la la look at all the pretty buildings".
At least it'll be a proper dry cold.
Additionally, I've been watching Andrew Graham-Dixon's Travels With Vasari, which has led to a desire to spend a couple months driving around Italy looking at art and architecture. Which is much less realistic than the former two, but something to keep in mind anyway.
[1] Yes I've been before, but I didn't know that then.
