Dreaming Of Travel

It's probably the impending surgery and lord knows what else that comes after that, but I'm having this insane urge to run away to some exotic locale.  Funny how that tends to be my stress response:   

"Crappy health news?  Maybe I can travel to Paris..."

Escapism, thy name is travel. Or, in my case anyway, reading about it.

There is a bucket list of sorts in my head that has been percolating there for years, mostly fed through reading novels and travel articles and books from my childhood all the way through to the present day.   Through the years I have devoured books by Colin Thubron, his beautiful prose filled with nuggets of history blended with human failings and challenges and hope. His book, Shadow of the Silk Road is absolute travel reading perfection. Despite his earlier streak of orneriness, Paul Theroux is a favorite, too -- his Riding the Iron Rooster still sends me into fits of giggles.

There are too many others to name all at once (although for a more thorough listing, try this post's attempt), but my search for another great travel read continues, because my yearning to travel in times of stress is my coping mechanism.  And there have been far too many times like that the last few years.

But getting to some of those places that I have only read about?  That is a worthy goal once we get past this latest round of storms.  I mean to make it happen.

Some, like the Minaret of Djam, I am confident that I will not likely ever see, despite Freya Stark's wonderful prose on the subject that still speaks poetically out of the past and calls to my love of all things Silk Road.  But others?  That's where the fun begins.

Paris is still at the top of my list, although Yellowstone National Park is right up there as well.  We have made it to New Orleans several times, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't go again in a heartbeat.  How can you not love a town that pulses with jazz and wonderful food and a culture that reveres all things relaxation and the good life?


The Three Gorges in China would still be there, had they not been utterly decimated by flood waters, and it still saddens me that I didn't get there before the deluge.

There are too many more to count.  Truly.

But that got me thinking that, perhaps, others have a travel destination on their bucket list that is worth thinking about as well.  So do share yours in the comments, I'd love a new wondrous spot to ponder, and I could use it at the moment.

Better yet, have you discovered a travel writer that you absolutely adore?  If so, please share a recommend in the comments as well.  

(Photo via Stuck in Customs.  Love this sky!)