Travel Bucketlist: Omicron Edition

“Or, in other words, Omicron: The Nomad Soul”

All this COVID stuff has been piling up for weeks now, and the US keeps passing new milestones for how many new cases a day and how many hospitals are overfilled and and there aren’t enough COVID tests to go around, and it keeps getting worse and worse, but at the same time, life seems to be nearly back to normal.  Maybe that’s because it seems like Omicron, while very transmissible, isn’t as fatal?  Or maybe it’s because people keep saying it’ll pass in six-to-eight weeks?  Or because people are just tired of following the health guidelines and don’t care anymore?  Probably some combination of all of the above.  But with everything trying to go back to normal, and most hospitals still seeming to be in panic mode, how do we rectify that difference?  Why are we pretending that this isn’t still happening?

I’m not gonna try and answer those questions.  I’m just gonna point out the situation and kind of shrug.  Lots of other people have tried to find some meaning behind it all, or a solution to people wanting to get back to life before and the grim reality that we will likely never be able to get back to life before, but I’m not going to try to do that. I’ve cancelled a handful of plans recently because of the mounting number of cases. And even though I’m fully vaccinated and boosted (which, if you’re reading this, please also get vaccinated and boosted), it just doesn’t seem super safe for me to be going out and about. Although at this point, that’s not hard-and-fast and also less out of my own self-interest and more that I don’t want to overload any more hospitals. If I had, say, already made plans to travel and booked plane tickets months ago, this isn’t going to stop me from getting on that plane.  But it does mean I’m not planning anything new. And that’s tough.

This rather bleak opening is all just a roundabout way of saying something along the lines of “allow me, instead, to dream.” Let’s pretend for a minute that hospitals aren’t overflowing, and that COVID has settled down. Let’s pretend that everyone gets vaccinated (please do), and new variants aren’t able to be transmitted as easily and are less likely to form in the first place. And let’s pretend the whole world is suddenly, magically, like this. With this sudden peace of mind to go anywhere, and the only thing you have to worry about are the usual rare airplane accidents, occasional muggings, lost luggage, and so forth that are par for the course of national/international travel, where would you go first? Where would I go first?

Let’s pretend in this situation that money is also not an object I need to worry about, and can realistically go anywhere I choose. This all comes about because of a conversation with a friend of mine, where we both discussed being what I call “travel hungry.” I traveled a lot this summer, yes, and she just got back from a trip abroad, so neither of us have much room to talk. And I, realistically, don’t have much of a budget for it right now, either. Or time. But maybe it’s because of the feeling that, even if I had the money and time, I still shouldn’t be traveling that’s bothering me. I want to go, I want to see the world, and I want to spend time abroad. Even after all I did this summer, I want more travel. Does that make me greedy? Probably. Privileged? Yes. But let’s indulge for a second. No holds barred, where would I go if I could travel anywhere right now?

The best, most concise answer is “everywhere.” If I had infinite money, infinite time, and no worries about global pandemics or social unrest, I’d go to every single country. Every single major city, if could manage it. Hell, I’d go to North Korea if they’d let me. Supposedly there is, like, zero crime there, because a totalitarian regime doesn’t run on fines and slaps on the wrist. So maybe not that one. But the point still stands that I would like to go see as many different places as I can before I die.

Anyway, here’s a condensed list of places that I really want to go to, in no particular order. Because right now, all I’m planning travel-wise is a trip to a bog a few hours north of Minneapolis because you’re supposed to be able to see snowy owls there. And as excited as I am to see snowy owls in the wild, if I can swing the trip timing-wise, the owls and the bog are about the only attraction in that area. Plus, it’s January in Minnesota. I like the cold, but going even farther north isn’t exactly ideal.

India

Alright this one is a bit of wishful thinking, or maybe projection of desires or whatever, because as I may or may not have talked about previously (maybe here?), I have applied to the Fulbright program with an application to study climate change perceptions and adaptations in Kolkata, India. Will I get that? I have no idea, I made it to the semi-final round last time, but my application is stronger now than it was before, so it’s just a matter of time before I eventually find out. But either way, India is way at the top of my list of places to travel, too. Because the country is so damn big, for one; Kolkata is in the West Bengal region, whereas places like Delhi and Hyderabad are each around 1,000 to 1,500 kilometers away (about 600 to 900 miles, respectively). That’s around the distance from New York to Chicago. And that’s not even the farthest cities from Kolkata! But I want to see it all, like the Taj Mahal or Holi festival, and there is a lot to see.

Thailand

Ok, so maybe there is a slight order to this list, because Thailand has been at the top of my list for ages. It was one of my top choices for my study abroad (that never happened), and I’ve just been fascinated with this country for ages. I think the appeal has been just the incredible combination of jungles rich in biodiversity, sprawling modern cityscapes, ruins of ancient cities under the vines, enormous active temple complexes, spicy peanut sauce, and stunning architecture that’s spread throughout the country. Oh, it’s also supposed to have amazing scuba diving spots. This, I suppose, is a list of characteristics that could apply to tons of different countries in many different, more specific ways, so you might end up seeing a theme in this list. But I want to go to Thailand. Really, really bad.

Ireland

Cheyenne has recently been watching a whole bunch of Outlander, and sometimes I’ll sit down and watch it with her, sporadically. I don’t know what’s going on half the time, and when I do, it’s because Cheyenne has explained it to me in great depth. Did you know Outlander is based on a book series, though? And that the author, Diana Gabaldon, has been publishing them for thirty friggin’ years? And there’s like, fifteen of them if you count the spin-off novels? And the newest one just came out last year? There are more Outlander novels than there Game of Thrones novels, and they’re way more consistently timed. This has nothing to do with my desire to travel to Ireland, though, I just thought it was interesting. This is something I’ve wanted to do since high school. Mainly I want to see all the literary spots, like where James Joyce was writing and all that, but I also want to see the cliffs and the ruins and the Giant’s Causeway stuff like that. It just seems like such a romantic spot, and as an author, I’m legally obligated to be a romantic at heart.

Edit: This is especially less applicable to Ireland considering the fact that Outlander is about Scotland. I literally did not remember that the entire time I was reading about the series. Shows how much I watched the series, I guess. I do realize that not only are Ireland and Scotland two separate countries and two separate cultures, they are also two separate islands. Whoops.

Tanzania

I have now had three (three!) friends tell me how great Tanzania is. And one of them is a friend who has been to several other African countries in the same region. So, needless to say, Tanzania is also one of my bucketlist places if only by recommendation alone. But Tanzania has a few major things that I really, really want to see, and elevate it on my list above other countries. Those things being Mt. Kilimanjaro, Lake Victoria, the Serengeti, part of the Great Rift Valley (otherwise known as the possible birthplace of humanity), and Zanzibar, which I have been told is a total party island. One of the things I’ve always wanted to do was dive in Lake Victoria and see the cichlids, these species of fish that have evolved to fill almost every possible niche, from eating plants to scraping food off of rocks. And I can do that in Tanzania. So what more reason do I need, really?

Japan

Come on, you knew this one was coming. I haven’t written about Nintendo games and FromSoftware for three years to not want to go to Japan. Of course I want to see the Nintendo headquarters, and the Nintendo store, and the Nintendo World, but I also want to see Mt. Fuji, and the imperial palace, and Tokyo (the world’s most populated city), and the hot springs with those monkeys, and all the amazing architecture there. It’s a place that I’ve thought about for a long time, and every time I watch something like History of Japan, I want to go there even more.

Peru

The main things I want to see in Peru are, perhaps unsurprisingly, the ruins. Macchu Picchu, the Nazca lines, the Peruvian mummy sites, it’s stuff like that I find super interesting. That being said, it’s a little weird to make the ruins of a dead city a major tourist destination, considering that it was white people that made the city dead in the first place, but I try not to think about the implications of that too much when traveling (or, at least, I try to be mindful of my impact while still traveling. Does that make me an imperialist?). Either way I want to see all those things, and the mountains the deserts on the pacific coast of the country. And I hear that Lima is a beautiful city, too. Which, yeah, I could say that about pretty much every city. Except for Dusseldorf, Germany. Fuck Dusseldorf.

Greece

I mentioned how Thailand was my second choice for study abroad earlier, and it was second mainly because of the cost of getting there, and the fact that, originally, Nick and I were going to study abroad together, and his school didn’t have an option for Thailand. So we chose Greece instead, and we would have stayed in Thessaloniki. Of course, that never happened. So I’ll have to go to Greece another time, whenever travel is safe again, and then I can finally see the Parthenon and the Acropolis and all the ruins and stuff like that. And try greek food for real. Mediterranean, in general, is maybe my favorite genre of food, and greek food is way up there for me. So that’s a big plus. Also, I’ve been into greek mythology forever, just like every other person my age who read Percy Jackson in middle school. Hades has also helped renew my interest in greek culture and writing, so that’s another reason. I just want some real street gyros, is that too much to ask?

Canada

Yeah, I know the country is enormous. I know that it has as much natural variety and as much to see as the United States. I know that just lumping the whole damn place into one category is impossible. But I just wanted to throw it on this list for fun, because I want to see as much of it as I can, from Toronto and Montreal and Prince Edward Island to the coast of British Columbia and the Great Slave Lake (terrible name, by the way). As an unfortunate side note, I also want to see the Athabascan Tar Sands, which is one of the most destructive oil extraction processes on Earth. It’s also where Line 3’s oil comes from. Hm. Wonder if Canada could Stop Line 3, too?

United Kingdom

Yeah, of course this is on here. Just like Ireland (except not like Ireland because, as anyone there will tell you, Ireland and the UK are not the same), I want to go to the UK for all the literary spots, like the Globe Theather, or the Charles Dickens museum, or Sherlock’s house, and all that stuff. But I also want to see Loch Ness, and ride a sea monster, and go to the Hebridean islands and write a letter to someone name Esther. And I want to try and find a blue police call box, of course. And maybe get arrested as an extra for a Monty Python sketch, or catch up at a pub with Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect. You know, the usual British activities. I will be avoiding the other usual British activities, like pillaging Africa or obliterating indigenous cultures or importing opium into China, and we all would do well to avoid to avoid those.

Mariana Trench

I know it’s unrealistic because I think only like fifteen people have been to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and one of them is James Cameron, but let me dream. I’ve always been fascinated with the deep ocean, and if you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a bit of diving kick in this post. I really want to learn to scuba dive, and see the coral reefs before they’re all dead. Oh, yeah, another thing putting pressure on my travel plants besides COVID and money is the fact that, hey, what do you know, there’s a solid chance some of these natural wonders I want to see will no longer exist in twenty or thirty years. Jungles, corals, savannahs, even major coastal cities may or may not exist in the not-too-distant future, thanks to climate change. So better get that travel in while it lasts. Thankfully, the trench will always be there, and one day, I hope to be buried in it. Probably.

Jordan

I’ll be honest, I know very little about Jordan, except for Petra. Petra is what I really want to see. But if I’m gonna go all the way to Jordan just for this one place, might as well see more of the country, right? Besides, it’s pretty centrally-located, I could do a sort of nearby tour of other countries that may or may not be safe to travel to. Damascus? The holy lands? Cairo? The pyramids? Tehran? Makkah? Cyprus? Some are farther than others, sure, but they’re all places I want to go to, and that’s really just a hop, skip, and a jump from Petra. No way of knowing what the social stability of those countries will be in ten years or so, but then again, the US doesn’t seem to be any more stable at this point, so why worry? The world is collapsing in on itself, anyway, so might as well see what you can.

Finland

From what I understand, Finland is just northern Minnesota but in Europe, so considering the fact that I like northern Minnesota so much, it should follow that I would like Finland, too. I don’t really actually know what’s there, but from all the pictures I’ve seen of it, I’d love to spend some time there. And Norway and Sweden aren’t far from it, either, so I could do the whole Scandinavian area on a trip if I wanted to! See vikings and saunas, one right after the other. Now that would be something.

Belize

Kind of like Petra and Jordan, this is really just one place I want to see that I could then extend into a trip to the wider area. The Blue Hole of Belize is supposed to be one of the best diving spots on the planet, and I would imagine that, if it’s so good right there, there’s got to be other stuff nearby that’s worth diving to see, too. Plus, it’s on the Yucatan peninsula, so I could probably sneak away for a day or two to try and see the crater from the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, or something like that. And there’s plenty of jungle to explore on land, too, not to mention all the cities and people there, too. Sometimes I get too distracted by the nature places I want to see and have to remind myself that cities have things that can be just as incredible.

Glacier National Park, Montana

Like I said, I’ve been lucky/privileged enough to have already seen most of the major places in the United States. I’ve been to most of the states, most major cities, and a majority of the most popular national parks. I’ve been to Seattle, Las Vegas, the Smoky Mountains, New England, and more, and that’s just the last couple of years. I’ve also been to Switzerland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, all in a ten-day whirlwind tour, which is why none of those countries are on this list. Man, this is really turning into a travel blog at times, isn’t it? Maybe I ought to just lean into that, huh? But anyway, The only places I haven’t really been to that are on the top of my list are Texas and Glacier National Park. And since I don’t really want to make this list about places in the US, I’ll only include Glacier here as a representative from the US (though I’m gonna come to Texas one of these days, don’t you worry, Ralph and Laura). Since, like some of these other places, the namesake of the park will very likely be gone. Soon. Like, 2030 soon. So, yeah, better get to Glacier soon, because sooner or later it won’t be Glacier National Park, it’ll just be National Park.

Damn, that has got to be one of the worst jokes I’ve told on here.

Democratic Republic of The Congo

So, once again, this kind of a one-stop-shop sort of deal, but I really want to see the Congolese rainforest. Like the Amazon rainforest, it’s one of the largest stretches of forested land on the planet, and it’s one of the most biodiverse habitats in the world. It is a crucial ecosystem, not just for sub-Saharan Africa but also for the planet. And it is also disappearing, though thankfully at a lesser rate than the Amazon rainforest. It’s also massive, though, so while the Congo rainforest might be the thing I want to see most in the DRC, it is enormous, so I won’t be pressed for other things to visit. I have a friend who spent a summer in the DRC doing mission work, and he said it was pretty safe overall, as long as you avoid certain parts of the country. So I may be going there sooner or later, too.

Indonesia

My freshman year of college, I took a class about the archeology of death, and other funeral practices from around the world. At one point, we learned about the Tana Toraja and their funeral practices. I don’t remember what it was, but I do remember the houses. And wow, do I love these houses. I want to see these Tana Toraja houses one day, and if I do, I will go to Indonesia to do it. But there’s lots more I can see in Indonesia besides these houses; there’s probably more scuba diving spots, there’s Jakarta, and there’s orangutans, one of my favorite apes. Though Malaysia might be better for Orangutans, because Indonesia is, surprise surprise, deforesting their jungles and killing the orangutans. But either way, Indonesia makes this list.

Antarctica

Now, Antarctica is a bit more realistic than the Mariana Trench, since there are actual tourist trips you can take to the southernmost continent. It just seems like such a crazy place to visit, with the wild ice formations and penguins and Vostok station and the setting for my favorite movie, John Carpenter’s The Thing. Even though the 1982 movie was filmed in Canada, I still want to go to Antarctica and find some aliens. Also, there’s great cold-water diving in Antarctica, too; below the ice has tons of cool stuff to sea. It’s cooler than being cool. It’s ice cold.

Somewhere, Andre 3000 is shivering.

Blanchard, North Dakota

Alright, hear me out. I know I said no more places in the US, but besides the Minnesota state parks or if I want to go way north to Lake Superior, there isn’t a ton around me to see (that’s a lie, there’s plenty to do, but you know what I mean). And I’ve already seen the Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota, so that’s out. What’s the next coolest thing nearby? Hm, Fargo’s ok, but how about the tallest manmade structure in the United States? Yeah, believe it or not, the single tallest human-made thing in the United States is actually the KVLY-TV television transmission tower, just outside of Fargo. It’s around 2,000 feet tall. 2,000 feet! That’s almost half a mile! It’s the fourth-tallest building in the world! The next tallest things in the US are oil platforms and television towers, which is a little disappointing. Leave it to industry to do something boring with all that airspace. But I want to see this damn thing someday, just to get a sheer idea of the scale of it. And it’s not far from where I live! What a deal!

New Zealand

I have a confession to make; I still haven’t watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy. I’ve only seen the first two, which are arguably the weaker films in the series (not counting The Hobbit, of course), and I have yet to see Return of the King. But those two are enough to send myself to New Zealand in a box. It’s just such a neat-looking place, there’s so much to see and do. I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of looking at mountains.

A Van by the River

Van life, or the idea of being a nomadic American living out of a mobile home/van/camper/etc. has always been something that has interested me. The freedom of going where I want, when I want, though, is probably something that would appeal to anyone. The biggest reason I haven’t done it yet has been college, and the second biggest reason is that, in an ironic twist of fate, it’s usually pretty fucking expensive. Turns out that saving somewhere between $10,000 and $150,000 to purchase/renovate a van and then live on little-to-no-income for an indeterminate length of time is not a cheap endeavor. Unless you’re a social media influencer, in which case it seems to be quite easy for anyone to leave your life behind and get on the road. My jealousy knows no bounds.

Czech Republic

As an American of mixed European descent whose family has lived in this country for several generations and has had any sense of ethnic heritage sucked into the melting pot, I, like many people, don’t have close connections to my ancestry. My mom’s side has strong German leanings, but this usually comes about in the kinds of foods we eat and way we celebrate holidays, and she has a pretty good understanding of her side of my lineage. But my dad’s side, which is somehow almost entirely Bohemian, is a mystery to us. We have an old family tree, written in Czech, but we can’t decipher it. It’s too old, for one, and none of us speak Czech anymore. So, between whatever other European I’ve got in me, I feel closest to my German and Czech roots. And, therefore, it’s always been a dream of mine to visit Prague. I want to go to Germany too, and see where my family is from, but I’ve already been to other parts of the country, so it isn’t on this list. Instead, we have Prague, the Old Jewish Cemetery (no relation, I just think it looks cool), and the mystery of how and why my family came to America in the first place. And I think that’s pretty intriguing.

Cimarron, New Mexico

I WANNA GO BACK TO PHILMONT

That’s it. That’s the joke.

Brazil

Yeah, I’ve written about so many rainforests and jungles at this point, Brazil had to make the list somewhere. I mean, it’s got the majority of the Amazon rainforest, so that’s a pretty big draw. But it also has Rio de Janeiro, and Big Jesus, and the Amazon river (where I could also go scuba diving, theoretically), and tons of other stuff I don’t really know about because I pretty much just focused on the Amazon when doing my research on Brazil when I briefly considered going there. And yes, I do know that Rio is nowhere near the Amazon. It’ll be an extended trip.

Morocco

My grandfather and his partner Jane went to Morocco at some point during my childhood, and brought us back fossils from the deserts of the country. I don’t know why, but something about that has stuck with me since then, and Morocco is also a place I’ve always wanted to travel to. I want to see these fossil fields, these places where it seems like bones are just sticking out of the ground. But I’m also a huge fan of Islamic architecture (another reason why Jordan is on this list), and Morocco is supposed to have some pretty incredible buildings. Plus, it isn’t far from southern Spain, where they also have Islamic architecture. So that’s a bonus! And, as always, it has Casablanca, so I can finally live out my mother’s dream of being Humphrey Bogart, or something like that. So that’s pretty neat!

Turkey

In my freshman year of college (weird, second section to start with that), I went to Rome for a week with a class about food and culture. I made vlogs, that still exist. We did a pretty thorough tour of Rome, which is why Italy isn’t on this list. But for whatever reason, we flew Turkish Airlines, and had to land in Istanbul before getting to Rome. During that layover, I think I ate fifty dollars worth of Turkish delights because they had a big bowl that said “free samples” and no one was watching. So, uh, that was a thing. But flying into the city was absolutely stunning, even just seeing it from the air. And like I said about Islamic architecture, there’s all sorts of that and other kinds of buildings to see in both Istanbul and the rest of the country. I know Turkey isn’t particularly friendly with the US right now, but that’s big political stuff. The country’s perfectly safe, from what I understand. And I want to go there. Plus, for my money, I’ll take this song over the They Might be Giants song any day (though I like that one, too).

Well, that’s the end. This list has already gotten pretty unwieldy, but it’s barely scratching the surface.  Because of course, there are lots of countries I didn’t list there that I’d love to get to still.  Like Spain, with it’s incredible buildings and architecture, or Colombia (thanks, Encanto), or Mexico and the Baja desert, or the United Arab Emirates and the world’s tallest building, or South Korea, or Tibet, or Hong Kong, or China (don’t tell China I said that, they won’t let me in), or Australia, or Bolivia, or Monaco, or Cuba, or Poland, or yadda yadda yadda the list goes on and on and you get the idea.  I want to go everywhere, and hopefully now, you understand a bit more of why I want to go everywhere and why not being able to travel for the foreseeable future is a tough feeling.  Why it has been a tough feeling. 

Oh, well, at least I can learn to scuba dive in Minnesota in the mean time, so I can skip right to the good stuff when I finally get to a new place.