I just read my friend Meera’s Live Journal. Check it out www.livejournal.com/users/MeeraRocks.
She was in my dream country, Spain! She’s on a building where they filmed some of L’auberge Espagnole in Barcelona. L’auberge Espagnole or The Spanish Apartment is a great movie about a French student studying in Spain and living with a house with students from about 6 other countries -- check it out for a nice evening.
I always see places on TV or in books and I think about how they may as well not exist if I don’t get to see and experience them with my own eyes (I know, very “If a tree falls in a forest…”). I’ve never been to the east coast or the Grand Canyon or Mount Rushmore… I haven’t even been up close to the Golden Gate Bridge! For shame! I watched the new Harry Potter the day it came out and some of the locations are so amazingly beautiful; I think it was filmed in Scotland. It reminds me of the scene in Trainspotting when Tommy’s upset about Lizzie and makes the guys go walking with him. There are some amazing things in the US…just this morning as I waited for the bus, it was clear enough for me to see down to the bay. There’s on spot on campus at the base of Sather Tower where you look down the hill and no buildings obstruct the view of the bay and Golden Gate and when they day is clear it’s one of the nicest views I’ve ever seen. I found book about someone’s first trip into Europe and it describes how to get to some of the most amazing sights the author has ever seen. It’s very Mission Impossible: “Get off the train, take the north exit, go up the stairs. To the left is a street and to the right is a building, walk 50m and turn around.” It’s weird, but I’m sure it’s worth it. I can get to 3 of the four listed (two in England and one in Paris, the fourth is in Italy). I’ll get to see Stonehenge and the Eiffel Tower. I’m actually starting to get excited.