Tuesday Tea: What's the destination at the top of your travel bucket list?
Unpack it, friends.
Monday mornings here at Strong Sense of Place HQ start with a check-in meeting to talk about stuff on our schedules, what we need to accomplish for work, and other adulting that needs to happen. Real talk: It can be a drag.
But the last item on our agenda is ‘Places we want to visit someday’ — and the list grows as we find things like ‘the best butter in France,’ this hotel in Turkey, and Gladstone’s Library.
Spill the tea: What's the destination at the top of your travel bucket list and why?
Dave says…
Since we did our podcast episode on New Zealand, I've had a bag sitting by the door. The country looks beautiful, but I'm also very curious (and a bit envious) about a culture that would grant personhood and representation to a river so that it could have rights. (That story is in the episode if you want to take a listen.)
Mel says…
I’m Slovak-Italian on my mom’s side of the family and half-Lebanese on my dad’s side. I’ve got a daydreamy plan to visit all of the little towns that sent my ancestors out into the world. That means making our way to Petralia Sottana in Sicily to see where my grandfather lived before emigrating to Pennsylvania. Taking a long train ride to Prešov, Slovakia, the birthplace of my maternal great-grandmother (makes me feel a little bit like being in The Historian). And a trek to Toula, Lebanon, to see where my Sitti (great-grandmother) started her life of adventures. (You can hear me talk about Sitti in our Lebanon episode.) Toula seems the most unlikely, but who knows — life is long and surprising.
Your turn!
There are SO many places I want to see, BUT I’m old and falling apart, and my traveling days are mostly behind me. Which is one of the many reasons I adore Strong Sense of Place! I can travel vicariously to so many fascinating places with Mel and Dave and the selected authors. I love it! That said, if I had to pick ONE destination to visit it would definitely be ICELAND. Preferably an extended stay, so I could see ALL of it.
I retired in August 2023, and now that I'm learning what retirement is like, I'm looking forward to traveling. I'm taking my first cruise to Alaska in July and I can't wait. I've got a few more road trips across the US on my schedule for this year--I'm combining traveling with book festivals. Retirement is everything I thought it would be and more!