Day 78: Countries I’d like to visit but (probably) won’t

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 78: Countries I’d like to visit but (probably) won’t

In my post of yesterday, I mentioned that there are countries that I would like to visit, but for one reason or another, won’t. I traveled quite a bit already. Being from Belgium it’s not difficult. Belgium is bordered by the Netherlands, France, Germany and Luxemburg, all within driving distance, as are Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. The latter five take a little longer to reach but it's doable.

Countries I would like to visit but (probably) won’t are:

Australia

I would dearly love to go down under to see the kangaroos, wallabies, koala bears, and the colorful parrots, but two things are stopping me. One is the flight time. I’ve read online that visiting Australia can take between 22 and 36 hours, depending on the airline. 22 hours in an airplane … no, I can’t imagine doing that. When I fly to Belgium it takes about 7 hours and that’s about as much as I can take. Another detail that stops me are the spiders. I’ve read that Australia has some huge beasts and is actually home to the largest spider on earth.

India

Ever since I saw the movies ‘The Best Marigold Hotel’, ‘The Second Best Marigold Hotel’, ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, and ‘Million Dollar Arm’, I’ve developed a fascination with India. While it doesn’t take as long to get there as Australia, with a 14 to 18 hour flight time it’s still a horrendously long trip. Another thing that stops me is the food. From what I understand India likes spicy foods. My neighbor from Sri Lanka recently presented me with a few samosas. “Are they spicy?” I asked her. “No,” she said, “they are very mild.” So I took a bite. OMG my throat nearly caught fire. If this is what she considered very mild, I wonder what really spicy tastes like.

Russia

I would love to see the Red Square in Moscow, Victory Square in Leningrad, the Catherine Palace in Pushkin and see the Bolshoi Ballet in performance. I worked with a Russian girl once and when I asked her if she’d ever seen the Red Square, she shrugged and said she saw it every day on her way to work. I guess it was as ordinary to her as the CN Tower is to Torontonians.

America

It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to visit America, more specifically, New York. I want to see the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, the various bridges, Central Park, and all other tourist attractions.

These are just the top four but there are other countries I would like to visit. I’ll probably never get the chance, but that okay, with the Internet I can go anywhere I want without having to endure the heat, the cold, or crowds of people.

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Visiting Australia

One of the perks of having friends all over the world is, should I ever decide to travel, I won’t need hotel accommodation.

Just the other day, I received a message from a friend in Melbourne, Australia. She told me that, should I ever want to come for a visit, she has a spare bedroom in her house.

The first thing I did was Google Melbourne. I admit, I don’t know much about Australia. I know the Opera House in Sidney and the outback where one can go for a walkabout, but other than that, the land down under is pretty much a mystery to me.

The second thing I did was look up flights from Toronto to Melbourne and, well, the chances of me going to Australia are slim to none. Toronto to Los Angeles – 5 hours, Los Angeles to Melbourne – 15 hours … can you imagine, being cooped up in a plane for 20 hours!

And then there’s another little problem with Australia … apparently it is home to some of the biggest spiders.

Some of you may know that I spent fifteen years in Africa, which also houses some large spiders, but in all my time there I never saw one. Correction, I did see some large spiders, but they were dead ones, framed behind glass.

According to my friend, in Australia they are very much alive. In fact, she keeps a can of fast kill insect spray (also lethal for spiders) in every room of her house.

That’s all I needed to hear. The chance of encountering a spider in any room at any given time; the chance of such a creep walking over my bed at night; or worse, a spider taking a stroll along the ceiling and losing its footing … no, thank you.

It’s a shame really because I wouldn’t mind seeing Australia. In particular the many kangaroos, wallabies, koala bears, parrots and all the places I read about in books.

Speaking of which … in the latest book I read, it took the main character three months to get from England to New Zealand. Compared to that, what I am moaning about having to fly 20 hours from Toronto to Australia.

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