#i'd feel a bit uncomfortable going to a graveyard with the singular purpose of visiting a famous person's resting place

[pikkelyke]

i need opinions be honest please

[feralkwe]

Top 5 places you'd like to visit

ooh! a good one because i am truly not a travel-for-whimsy person. i largely find travel awful unless there is a specific reason for said travel, i.e., someone specific on the other end i want to see. that said, there are places i would willingly go if i had the opportunity (money and politics included) and could do so without being "part of the problem" while doing so. having lived in a major tourist destination for almost two decades has made me very aware of the ways tourism is a scourge, and i have a lot of complicated feelings on travel for travel's sake as a marker of success and education or wev the common belief of it is as a result.

that said:

5. scotland. while i do have one singular friend there whom i would enjoy seeing, this is a place to which i would travel without that being the main purpose. i don't have any deep reason for it. i think it's extremely lovely, would love to see some of the castles, and some of the really old graveyards. i also have this weird idyllic notion that i would enjoy hiking and staying in bothies in the process. i have a really distant relative who was forced out by the clearances but has never actually been part of the draw.

4. tibet. this is definitely a "if i could not be part of the problem" thing. because i don't mean like, chinese controlled tibet. like, tibet as it belongs to the indigenous people of the region. i just want to learn as much as i can about it from the people who love it, who can tell me about it without the oppressive government twisting, and it may be the one place on my list i want to see purely for this purpose. it's also, for many reasons, the one place on this list i am least likely to ever have the opportunity to visit, second only to one place i will mention shortly.

3. australia. while i pretty famously have a dear friend here, my desire to have my ass kicked by nature extends far before that friendship was even in its infancy. seeing @icescrabblerjerky would obviously be the main goal now, but i really need to have a kangaroo stare me down from his native land or something. there is also a "don't be part of the problem" element here, as respecting, supporting, and understanding indigenous culture is always a goal of mine wherever i might be.

2. far northern america. like, canada, alaska, and even the northwest stretches of the upper peninsula. like i grew up there and have never been to copper harbor. i've been to alaska once on a layover with enough time to go to the best state fair i have ever experienced, but i'd appreciate the opportunity to see more. the northwest territories. the yukon. nunavut. i don't have a goal or actual destination in mind, but the far reaches of turtle island/mishiike minisi hold a lot of (probably obvious) appeal to me.

1. your house again. obvs. you have cool dogs and take me for walks. i know i am cheating a bit, but really. you're the main attraction of the midwest, baybee.

there needs to be an honorable mention here that has too many caveats to list, but north korea. having lived in seoul, i think it's natural that i would be curious about it. there is so much about life in seoul that was in relation to the north in an odd and casual way that i only sort of grasp, even after 20 years of it being a factor in my life. we did visit the dmz and incursion tunnels on a guided historical tour, and there is a "city" (kijong-dong) you can ostensibly visit (we were forbidden by our specific circumstances from doing so), but that tour experience has a very bizarre atmosphere i have a hard time putting into words, and as i was much younger and not a korean speaker like my spouse, i am sure a lot was lost on me. like, our guide made a joke about there being a body in the han river as we drove by on our tour bus and so many people (mostly korean people, as we were surprisingly the only americans on that tour???) found this hilarious, but i found it extremely uncomfortable. like i said, a lot was lost on younger me. so, a complicated mention here.

so, there you go! thanks for the ask! i am feeling needy for them today lmao.