I neglect this blog horribly.

Keeping a travel blog is harder than it looks when you don't do a lot of actual travelling.  I know part of the reason I started this blog was so that I could also dream about places I want to go, but I had a thought - why can't it also be about places I have been to? 

My mum's recently got some travel brochures that I've been flicking through, and one of my best friends has gotten ALL her holiday photos when we went to Florida last year developed, so I plan to make use of some memories and daydreams to post here.

I hope you guys are ready for a lot of Disney talk :D

New book!

My new book came through the post this morning!  501 Must-Visit Destinations.  I've had a flick through and some of the pictures are amazing, and the articles are all nice and concise (though maybe a little lacking in some info - my Dad asked about the article on the Calgary Stampede and it didn't offer the month it's usually held in).  It's also divided up into the five continents, and within those, the individual countries.  Looks all nice and organised and easy to skim through.  But this does mean I have two travel books to read at the same time now.  Oh well!

Challenge Not Accepted!

So, Yahoo Travel has posted up a top ten list of places that are impossible to visit. Some of these actually sound somewhat interesting, some not so much.  For example, the first in that list, Poveglia.  I don't fancy visiting a mental asylum.  I've gotten over a lot of my "haunted houses" fear, but asylums and abandonned hospitals?  That's a whole different kettle of fish! 

On the other hand, the Jiangsu National Security Education museum sounds interesting - pity I don't qualify to go in.  And I don't fancy being shot to get in there either. Area 51 would also interest the geek in me, but what's the point if you don't get to see a space ship?  Still, nice to know there's places in the world I can't or won't be able to see - keeps life a little more mysterious I guess. 

Project: America

What better way to start my travel blog than to post about a trip I would like to make - one I call Project: America.  Inspired by Stephen Fry's trek across America, I want to traverse the continent in a car.  Not necessarily all 50 states in one trip; that would bankrupt me!  But I would like to make one trip across, from East Coast to West, going through the land with a suitcase in the boot and a well marked map on the passenger seat.  Will it be a single trip?  Probably, unless I could find someone interesting and mad enough to make the trip with me.

So far, I only have a handful of definite destinations in mind, inspired in part by Mr Fry himself.

• Maine - All his talk about the lobster and seafood is enough to make me decide this as my first port of call.
• Vermont - Home of the Ben and Jerry's factory?  Hell yes I'm going!
• Florida - I want to go to Disneyworld again!
• North Carolina/ South Carolina - My Dad lived here for a while, so I thought I should swing by and see what the fuss was about.

This is an ongoing project for me - it'll take a couple of years for me to save anywhere near enough money to afford such a trek.  I do hope to do it before I'm 30 though, so that gives me about 4 years.  Best get planning and saving!