My top 5 next international holiday locations

1. Spain

I wanted to go to Spain the last time I was in Europe. In fact, it was in my holiday plan version 1 to be there for the Easter celebrations. Unfortunately, I did not make it; I went to the Baltics instead and it was amazing, I’m so glad I went. But it means that I am many years behind in my intended trip to Spain.

I’ve been to Spain twice before; once to the northern coast around Bilbao, San Sebastian and Burgos, and then once to Madrid, then south around Granada and Cordoba. This time I want to head to the north-east and see Zaragossa, Barcelona and the south of the Pyrenees. It’s a part of Spain I’ve never been to, I hear it’s magnificent and my parents have just returned from then and won’t stop showing my photos of the glorious tapas they ate the whole time. I’m going!

2. Japan

I’ve been thinking of going to Japan for a few years now. I have many many friends who have gone there and loved it. In fact last year when I was putting in motion my plans for a holiday in 2011, the options were Japan or Vietnam. Vietnam was cheaper, so it won that time but Japan is still on my must-see list. And not just Tokyo or Osaka. If I’m going I’d like to get a bit further afield and see more of the country.

3. New York

I want to spend a month in New York. Stay in an apartment, not a hotel and see the city properly. I might need to save a bit more money for this one.

4. Belarus and Ukraine

So it’s two countries, whatever. Travelling through the Baltics in 2008 was my first experience of Eastern Europe and it was a wonderful time to go there. Money was starting to come in from the EU and there was a lot of building and restoration work going on in the old towns of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. But then you went out of the old towns, saw the countryside and the small villages and it was like leaping back a century. I want to go and see more of this part of the world before it becomes like the rest of Western Europe. I want to see the contrast between the way it has been and the way it will be.

5. Germany

Germany is always on my list of places to go because it is my favourite place in the world that isn’t Australia. I love everything about Germany and I want to live there for at least 1 year of my life before I die. That’s on my bucket list.

Some of my favourite German things.