What cities do you want to visit?
I love to travel and when I was a kid I limited myself to the concept of cities. I wanted to be a fashion designer growing up so I wanted to go to London, Milan, Paris, and Madrid. You know, the fashion capitals of the world. I still want to go all of them because I haven’t yet. At the same time I’ve broaden my travel horizons. I don’t always think in terms of specific city destinations but I have I been to that country or that state yet? Have I experienced this culture yet. Things like that. I have learned, that for me, the joy of traveling isn’t necessarily the specific destination but the experiences I have there. I love small towns, quaint and charming. I love places with historic sites. I love being surrounded by nature, especially water and even more specifically the ocean.
One of my favorite trips in the past was to a small little town in North Carolina called Highlands. This is one of those theres only 2 ways in to the town type places and they are really the same road just the opposite ends of it so its more about which direction you are traveling from. We went there for my birthday vacation during the pandemic. I picked it for 2 reasons. One it was drivable because we weren’t flying anywhere during that time. The other, we had just adopted a dog and I wasn’t leaving him behind when he was still building his trust in us. So I found the most adorable dog friendly hotel. I don’t mean one of those hotels that says yes, we allow dogs, I mean truly dog friendly. Every room had food and water bowls and a bed for pups. They had free treats in the room and as part of the daily breakfast and snack options in the lobby. The decor was all about dogs! We had a great time in this tiny little town in the mountains. We went to waterfalls and great stores that let us bring our dog inside and loved on him and gave him treats. We ate delicious food. It was heavenly. Funny enough, I now have a partner from there that I met well after that trip in completely different place but our relationship affords me the opportunity to revisit this little town I fell in love with that is so far from a city you can’t even imagine.
As for future plans, my husband and I will get to Santorini one of these days. It’s been a dream for a while to find a little place to stay and enjoy the scenery and culture there. In 2027, my partner and I are going to Morocco and Spain as part of a cruise. I don’t remember the exact stops and frankly, I don’t care because I’ve never been to either. We will be in Barcelona, I know this much because the cruise ends there and will have to fly home. I will also get to go to Denver this year, I’ve “been” there before in that I had layovers there but I’ve never been to the city or really visited Colorado in general. I don’t know how much time we will have to explore as we are traveling on a tight timeline for a concert but we will see.
Beyond that, I want to take long train trips and explore the country that way. I want to visit random places the way I found Highlands. I think we get caught up in specific cities because of what we know they offer, we forget about the out of the way or smaller towns that make every place special.
Updating date to match actual prompt date.
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