103 Things

June 2007 marked the start of an idea in my head:  the idea that I should move to Australia in 2009.  Now, just in case you haven’t noticed, that idea has materialized (hence the blog).  Despite missing my target year by a mere 22 days, I must brag for a moment and share with you that this whole Australia thing has been a damn good success so far.

Now, a lot of other ideas float around in my head.  Most of them are just filler, and many of them are just plain ridiculous - like when I considered trying out for Survivor - because of all people on Earth… well, no explanation needed other than I am the world’s least likely person to succeed on Survivor, unless of course it’s Survivor: Hyatt.  But one idea has stuck in my head:  making a list of 100 things I want to do around the world.  Now, many people are making bucket lists these days – mainly thanks to that movie – but this is not a bucket list.  This is a mid-life crisis list.  Why a mid-life crisis list?  Because I’d like to get to all of this stuff before I’m too old to enjoy it.  By 40 maybe?

I started my list of 100 things in March of 2009 – and it took me well over a year to finish it.  I researched online and talked to friends and slowly compiled activities to do and places to see, all the while making sure that I had a wide variety of items and an even wider array of geographic locales.  From drinking a beer at the world’s northernmost brewery in Norway to seeing a particularly interesting dinosaur exhibit at a natural history museum in Mongolia, from climbing up Table Mountain in South Africa to a big fucking shopping mall in Alberta – this list is, well… maybe a bit unrealistic.  But that’s ok.  Picking up and moving my entire life halfway around the world was pretty unrealistic, but hell, I’ve got a 4 year visa now so I guess I can do anything.

Anything except Survivor.  Or anything that involves falling from heights.  Or mushrooms.  Or avocado.  I hate mushrooms and avocado.

I finished compiling my list of 100 things in June of this year, but seeing as I had already completed 3 of the items on the list, I decided to add 3 more – just to start from an even 100 things undone.  Keep in mind that I want to do a bunch of other things too, but this is a good start.  So, without further ado, I present to you my “mid-life crisis list” of 103 things:

AFRICA:

1. BOTSWANA – Chobe National Park

2. EGYPT – Pyramids at Giza

3. GABON – Loango National Park

4. MALI – Great Mosque of Djenne

5. MAURITIUS – Dodo Bird Exhibit at the National History Museum

6. NAMIBIA – Quivertree Forest

7. SENEGAL – House of Slaves Museum (Dakar)

8. SOUTH AFRICA – Table Mountain (Cape Town)

9. TANZANIA – Stone Town (Zanzibar)

10. TUNISIA – Ruins of Carthage

11. ZAMBIA – Victoria Falls

ANTARCTICA:

12. ANTARCTICA – The Antarctic Peninsula

ASIA:

13. ARMENIA – Tsitsernakaberd Memorial (Yerevan)

14. CAMBODIA – Angkor Wat

15. CHINA – Great Wall of China

16. HONG KONG – Star Ferry to Kowloon

17. INDIA – Taj Mahal (Agra)

18. INDONESIA – Uluwatu Temple (Bali)

19. ISRAEL – Yad Vashem (Jerusalem)

20. JAPAN – Todai-Ji Buddhist Temple Complex (Nara)

21. KAZAKHSTAN – Bayterek (Astana)

22. LAOS – Nam Song River Tubing (Vang Vieng)

23. MACAU – Casino Lisboa

24. MONGOLIA – Museum of Natural History (Ulaanbaatar)

25. PHILIPPINES – White Beach (Boracay)

26. QATAR – Al-Corniche Promenade (Doha)

27. RUSSIA – Trans-Siberian Railway

28. SINGAPORE – Singapore Zoo Night Safari

29. SOUTH KOREA – Demilitarized Zone

30. TAIWAN – National Palace Museum (Taipei)

31. THAILAND – Full Moon Party (Ko Pha-Ngan)

32. UAE – Burj Khalifa (Dubai)

33. VIETNAM – Halong Bay

EUROPE:

34. ANDORRA – Caldea Spa

35. BELARUS – Town of Pruzhany

36. BOSNIA – Mostar Bridge

37. CROATIA – Diocletian’s Palace (Split)

38. CROATIA – Dubrovnik City Walls

39. DENMARK – Carlsberg Brewery (Copenhagen)

40. ENGLAND – Harrod’s Food Hall (London)

41. ENGLAND – Lloyd’s of London Building

42. ESTONIA – Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (Tallinn)

43. FAROE ISLANDS – Vestmanna Bird Cliffs

44. FINLAND – Temppeliaukio Rock Church (Helsinki)

45. FRANCE – Palace of Versailles

46. GERMANY – Neuschwanstein Castle

47. ICELAND – Blue Lagoon

48. IRELAND – Blarney Stone

49. ITALY – Grand Canal (Venice)

50. NORWAY – Mack Brewery (Tromso)

51. NORWAY – Viking Museum (Oslo)

52. POLAND – Auschwitz

53. ROMANIA – Bran Castle

54. SCOTLAND – Loch Ness

55. SLOVENIA – Lake Bled

56. SPAIN – Guggenheim (Bilbao)

57. SWEDEN – Volvo Museum (Goteborg)

58. SWITZERLAND – Matterhorn

59. TURKEY – Hagia Sophia (Istanbul)

NORTH AMERICA:

60. BAHAMAS – Atlantis Paradise Island Resort

61. BARBADOS – Andromeda Botanical Gardens

62. CANADA – Beaudry Street Metro Station (Montreal, QC)

63. CANADA – CN Tower (Toronto, ON)

64. CANADA – West Edmonton Wall (Edmonton, AB)

65. COSTA RICA – Monteverde Cloud Forest Zip Line

66. CURACAO – Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue

67. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – Catedral Primada de America

68. GREENLAND – Air Greenland Helicopter Ride

69. MEXICO – Teotihuacan

70. NICARAGUA – Isla de Ometepe

71. PANAMA – Panama Canal Locks

73. ST LUCIA – Castries Public Market

72. ST MAARTEN – Princess Juliana International Airport

74. USA – Ancona Pizzeria (Valley Stream, NY)

75. USA – Biltmore Estate (Asheville, NC)

76. USA – Carlsbad Caverns (NM)

77. USA – Gateway Arch (St Louis, MO)

78. USA – Grand Canyon (AZ)

79. USA – Grand Ole Opry House (Nashville, TN)

80. USA – Hot Air Balloon Ride (Albuquerque, NM)

81. USA – Paula Deen’s Restaurant (Savannah, GA)

82. USA – Wall Drug (SD)

OCEANIA:

83. AUSTRALIA – Barossa Valley Wineries (SA)

84. AUSTRALIA – Great Barrier Reef (QLD)

85. AUSTRALIA – Parliament House (Canberra, ACT)

86. AUSTRALIA – Penguin Parade (Phillip Island, VIC)

87. AUSTRALIA – Port Arthur Historic Site (TAS)

88. AUSTRALIA – Sydney Opera House (NSW)

89. AUSTRALIA – Tree Top Walk (Walpole, WA)

90. AUSTRALIA – Uluru (NT)

91. NEW ZEALAND – Rotorua

92. USA – Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

93. VANUATU – Mt Yasur Volcano

SOUTH AMERICA:

94. ARGENTINA – Cementerio de la Recoleta (Buenos Aires)

95. ARGENTINA – Perito Moreno Glacier

96. BOLIVIA – Salar de Uyuni

97. BRAZIL – Avenida Paulista (Sao Paulo)

98. BRAZIL – Christ the Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro)

99. CHILE – La Piojera (Santigo)

100. COLOMBIA – Museo de Oro (Bogota)

101. FALKLAND ISLANDS – Falkland Islands Museum (Stanley)

102. PERU – Machu Picchu

103. URUGUAY – Plaza Independencia (Montevideo)

I’ve completed #’s 78, 81, and 88.  That means 100 to go.  Who wants to tag along?