kk

Last night I went off to England, courtesy of a magazine that arrived from the National Trust. I read through it lovlingly and pretended I was living in one of the grand country houses profiled in that magazine. <BR> <BR>One of my Fodor friends last night was touring Tuscany in her fantasies, while yet another was off in Italy, where he's been once (maybe twice) and is going back next fall. <BR> <BR>Where have you gone lately in your travel fantasies? Where do you usually go? Different places, do you repeat? <BR> <BR>Also, and this is a bit depressing perhaps, are we traveling in our fantasies more because we are so in love with Europe and can't get over there often enough...OR...is it more a function of how bored we are in our daily lives....OR a combination of both? Just wondering!

Inky

kk - can't get over there enough? Europe's inhabited by millions of people, some of whom use this forum. We're not all Americans, you know. <BR> <BR>If you apologise we'll say no more about it, ok?

kk

Inky, I am writing from my admittedly American point of view. As I typed that phrase to which you object, I wondered how to phrase it in a way to include those who are already there and wish to go elsewhere within Europe. However, I am posting from work and my time is rushed, so I just rushed on. So, please excuse my oh-so-insensitive Amero-centric writings. <BR>I would think that you would be pleased that so many Fodorites think so highly of *your* continent. <BR>So, Inky, if you ever fantasize about travel, where do you go in your dreams? <BR>(I hope I don't come to regret asking that!)

Inky

Stinson Beach 1983 <BR>Cape Town Present Day <BR>East London (Oos Londen not the east part of england's london) in the late 1930's <BR>Florida in the 1960's <BR>Pickton, New Zealand, anytime from 1990-present <BR>1st Bull Run (or Manassas to you), 1860's <BR>Egypt in the 1790's <BR>Present day Norway, preferably Hammerfest and surrounding area <BR>Dutch Antilles nowadays <BR>Easter Island anytime before it sinks <BR>ditto christmas island. <BR>

kk

Thanks, Inky. That was interesting, IMHO best thing I ever read from you. <BR>Where is Oos Londen? <BR>Do you go to those places mentally when you are bored, or what? <BR>Also, I like how you added the timeframes. Whenever I do my mental countryhouse in England visitations, I usually make the scene about 1820 or 1780...Note how I avoid the Napoleonic period if I am going to England!

Judy

Someplace lovely and uncrowded( the, moon maybe?). I actually can see myself in a lovely Irish cottage with my horses, dogs and cats....Of course I want to be e-wired(so I can communicate with other Fodorites)...OR, a warm island -good scuba diving(preferably Mediterranean, but I would take Red sea(closer to Europe)....dream on,Judy,,,I keep on repeating....and repeating.... <BR>Judy

Inky

Oos Londen/East London is a beautiful town in South Africa, more like England than Africa in fact. See also Port Elizabeth (PE to the locals) on the famous 'garden route'. <BR> <BR>Places change - New York's nothing like it used to be for example so to say you like a certain place means little unless you put in in context with the year (most people talk of a place in the present or at most when they visited it). <BR> <BR>I'm misunderstood, kk. Dont really mean to be mean (har-de-har) but some things are plain silly and you can tell i have a sizeable bee in my bonnet about this site being the sole domain of americans. Inky obviously isn't my real name and it's a spurious email addy too to keep the nutters away but thanks for being civil, kk.

kk

You are most welcome, Inky. Now, I wonder if anyone else is ever going to chime in on this nifty little thread we have going? I'd like to see some others' answers to my questions. I tried to be thought provoking, but maybe everyone else is just worried about the best hotel to pick in...Italy, Prague, Germany, wherever. (sniff)

kk

Ooops, sorry, Judy. Our postings crossed. A warm Mediterranean island sounds good to me, too.

Annette

My Spain tourist board package came yesterday. Surely the stuff of dreams. Also last night looked through an Avanti tour brochure of Latin America. <BR> <BR>I remember several years ago I was on a kick reading and armchair traveling over Africa. I used to do this on my breaks at work (rather longer than they should have been). One of my well-traveled co-workers, a chaplain, finally gave me a pitiful look and said, "Annette, have you ever been to a third world country?" I don't remember what I replied, just remember inwardly seething: not only was he was ruining my fantasy but I didn't have the time or money to go to a third world country and I knew he did! I saw his point, though, condensending bast... <BR> <BR>Anyway, the fantasy and the reality never really have meshed together for me when I travel, not that I want them to anyway. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. The concept of now it is vacation - happy, happy, joy, joy - that is more the pre-vacation fantasy. Once you get to the poster perfect land you realize it is a real place where some people are struggling, laughing, wasting their time, doing good things or bad and you're just another tourist hanging around to "admire" , eat a sausage and have a drink. (God, I'm getting crabby not getting on an airplane!) <BR> <BR>Yes, kk, I have a hardback National Trust book I picked up years ago and I too am so glad it is on the shelf so I can gaze at all those huge piles set amongst the daffodils and swan ponds. Now somebody else lighten this thread up! <BR> <BR>

howard

My travel fantasies are a daily part of my life, as the walls of my office are filled with photographs of our trips over the past few years. It is very easy for me to just look up from my computer, see a picture of the garden in the Villa Monasterio in Verenna or a nattily dressed gentleman with a handebar mustache walking down a street in Bellagio or a group of photos of eight of the many little canals with the wash hanging from clotheslines attached to second-floor windows in Venice or four nuns eating pizza in St. Peter's Square and be swept away to Italy. <BR>Am I bored with my daily life? Never! I'm just recalling the great joys and wonderful memories of that wonderful country, its people and its sites.

will

In my dreams... I'm an American correspondent in Roman searching for my own modern-day Audrey Hepburn type "princess" to make my own Roman Holiday!

pam

I digress: Inky, it's very interesting to me that you wrote "1st Bull Run (Manassas to you)." Southerners (former Confederate States of America) used to say Manassas; Bull Run was more common in the north. Now I think the history books here in the US all refer to the location of those two battles as Bull Run.

s.fowler

My fantasy? Anything un_Chicago at the moment. [It's cold and raining] Okay. I'll play <BR> <BR>Walking with my husband inside the walls of Siena at night after a delicious, but not sleep-inducing meal enjoying the beauty and the quiet. <BR> <BR>Sitting in a Parisian cafe with a good book watching Paris go about its business... particularly the fine art of vehicular traffic and parking. <BR> <BR>Having the contents of a great museum to myself for 2 hours: could be in Vienna, London, Paris -- doesn't matter -- but the time and peace to really connect with the paintings.

Boris

<BR>Is this board becoming a (ugh) chat room or what? <BR> <BR>Just look at most of the above posts. <BR> <BR>I am even beginning to miss the posters who are still looking for the cheapest hotels in the 5th or 6th.

Annette

There is plenty of room on this forum for both specific "nuts-and-bolts" informational exchanges concerning European travel along with exchanges about the nature of travel in general. For that matter, there's plenty of room for you to respond with "uggh" too, Boris, and leave your travel dreams to yourself.

Inky

Pam <BR> <BR>In that case I mean Manassas. I'm a southerner at heart although collard greens, grits and chitterlings are maybe not my cup of tea.

just me

Right now I am dreaming of Prague and Budapest. <BR> <BR>I go there everyday, whenever I need to remind myself of the reason I am working (beyond my responsibilites). <BR> <BR>I go there when it is so miserably cold outside that I can't stand the thought of it. <BR> <BR>I go there when I think of how little time my husband and I have together and soon we'll enjoy 2 weeks of just us. <BR> <BR>I go there when my very soul needs the nourishment that only a good art museum offers. <BR> <BR>I go there when I hear my opera playing and I am transported to one of their beautiful opera houses. <BR> <BR>I go there to see and feel and immerse myself in everything I possibly can. <BR> <BR>Yes, I go there...

Danna

Real: Walking again through a field of flowers on Bornholm Island of Denmark, headed to a beach to swim with a young man I adored. <BR>Fantasy: In an Italian Cooking School going through a market picking up fresh produce with my husban, whom I love. <BR>Amazing what 27 years will do!

Pierrette

Sometimes when I long for Europe I go to one of the home exchange sites and travel. One day I live in a fabulous appartment in Paris and the next I am in a cottage in the Cotwolds or in a white villa in Ninja. Tonight I think I will spend a little time in a renovated convent in Florence.