Geography: a crash course

[morsla]

Drop me into a new environment and I'll make a pretty good guess at how it formed, millions of years ago... but ask me about political boundaries like states and countries, and I probably won't have a clue. Humans cause so much fuss about the things, too. Can't understand why. In a few tens of millions of years, no-one's really going to know any different...

The best way to learn a language seems to be immersion. I hope it holds true for geography, as this year will involve more travel than I had originally thought. Over the last couple of days I've spoke to my super-well-travelled sister, and a couple of travel agents. They've all concluded that my plan of taking two short trips to the northern hemisphere makes very little sense, and that I should combine the two with a round the world ticket... :)

The money saved by getting a single airfare goes a fair way towards filling the four weeks between the trips. It also guarantees that I'll get to see a bit more while I'm away. I'm still trying to take that mental step back to consider this new and shiny plan, but right at the moment it looks like I'll be wandering off for about two months come August.

Here's the basic skeleton of the plan (most dates still yet to be decided on, depending on airlines and what everyone else is up to!):

Aug 10-13: Fly to Hong Kong with bishi_wannabe and Alex. Eat lots. Sightsee. Trainspot locations from a million Kung Fu films.
Aug 13-14: Fly to the US, probably stopping over in Chicago. Internal flight to Indianapolis, meet mousebane and Lon.
Aug 16-19: Gencon Indy. Catch up with other Privateer people, probably over a great deal of beer. Play lots of games. Tackle the Warmachine National Open tournament. Probably miss a lot of sleep.
Aug 20-25: Fly to New York. Do all the things a bunch of tourists do in a city that size. Probably get lost at least twice. Head off solo after the others return to Melbourne.
(Aug 26 - Sep 7): Find places to go, people to meet and things to do in the eastern* US.
Sep 8-15: Head up to Canada, catch up with friends in Toronto. Find a random group of strangers to help me celebrate turning 28! Treat any age-induced angst with an extra dose of jetlag, by flying further east... across the Atlantic.
Sep 16-21: Exploring Scotland. Head for the hills. Look for castles. Take lots of photos.
Sep 22-25: Meet aeliel in London. Wonder how I've survived this long without her. Mount an expedition to track down all the wonderful people we know in London and Oxford. Celebrate aeliel's birthday!
Sep 25-29: Head down to Torquay to meet up with aeliel's parents.
Sep 30 - Oct 5: TGV to France, stay in Carnet en Rousillon, near Perpignon. Rent a car, explore, eat lots.
Oct 6: Fly back to Melbourne, so aeliel can get back to work for the start of Term 4.

The first and last fortnight aren't very flexible, but the month in the middle is. Bearing in mind the limitations of my ticket (can't backtrack through regions I've been to, maximum 3 stops per continent, maximum 10 total stops), I have three possible stops remaining.

Here's where I need help from the many people out there who've done far more travelling than I have. Suggestions from those of you living over there (deathbyshinies? peacockangel? I'm looking at you...) are also most welcome. Where should I go? What should I do?


* At the moment I'm sticking to the eastern states, as I'd like to leave the west for a more thorough exploration later... plus, the early dates are restricted by Gencon. By the 15th we'll be in Indy, so heading off to the west would involve back-tracking and probable ticket-wrangling headaches.

Comments

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

Ooh, your trip sounds amazing. I'm going to be home from school over the summer (the northern hemisphere's summer, that is,) so, if you end up in stopping in Chicago, I'll be there at the same time as you, which is awesome. I can give you lots of Chicago suggestions, but I don't know if/how long you will be there. I go to school near-ish New York City, but I'm not there very often, so my suggestions for that are much more limited. I've been to GenCon and it is a con, and thus somthing you probably don't need any help with at all. So, ask anything you like and I will maybe have a coherent response.

[morsla.livejournal.com]

At the moment I have a super-short stopover (about 8 hours...) in Chicago on August 13th, and then I have about two weeks of unplanned time after August 25.

I'd like to head back over to Chicago after that. When does the summer break finish? I'll try to make sure I'm over there at the same time you are.

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

My school starts up again in early September, so we won't overlap by that much. Sad. Well, we will have some time to hang out.

[morsla.livejournal.com]

Some time is better than none at all :)

I'll make sure Chicago is first on the list after the others head home from NY. That way I should be in town during the last week of the break, at least.

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[deathbyshinies.livejournal.com]

Oooh - if you're going to be in London on a Saturday night, fancy sliming it up? I haven't been yet, but am told it's quite the place to be. I can understand not wanting to fly 24 hours just to go to a Goth club, though...!

On the other hand, if we did meet up there, I could bring you a host of beautiful Oxford Goths and then we could kidnap you and aeliel back to the 'ford by the morning bus... Does dinner in the Harry Potter hall work as a bribe offering?

[morsla.livejournal.com]

I find your ideas intriguing, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I'll probably be in London by Sat 21/9, but I think aeliel's flight doesn't get in until some time on the Sunday. Depending on when that is, I might catch a bus back with you and collapse for a few hours until aeliel arrives, or I might try staying awake until she gets in to London...

Somewhere in these plans I will conjure up a portable black hole in which to store our bags.

Your company is a fine bribe offering. Anything else is a bonus :)

[rendragon.livejournal.com]

If you can wrangle it, Scandinavia (in particular Finland) is beautiful. It will still be reasonably warm (15 deg) the dates you have available and not too dark yet (this is the land of the midnight sun, remember?). Lots of places to explore and heaps of places to walk/hike. The locals are all very friendly too!

[bishi-wannabe.livejournal.com]

That's a hell of a trip. I envy you now, but I don't think I will after my first night's sleep back in Melbourne ^_^

[bishi-wannabe.livejournal.com]

It's probably worth spending one to two days in DC, depending on your level of museum tolerance. The Smithsonian is pretty serious - Scott and I saw far less than half of it in a full day of tromping the National Mall.

I wouldn't go back to DC for any reason other than finishing the Smithsonian, but it was absolutely worth the time we did spend there. You will, of course, grow to despise faux-Roman architecture through sheer oversaturation :)

[morsla.livejournal.com]

Good point.

I have an unnaturally high level of museum tolerance, for certain types of museums... Between museums in Chicago and DC, I'll have plenty of chances to be a natural history geek :) I need an itinerary where I can write "dinosaurs!" on at least a couple of days.

Things like this may also be handy for NY.

[peacockangel.livejournal.com]

Chicago does have some pretty awesome museums.