Top 5 Places From Around the World

I wanted to give this post a philosophical spin but it kind of sucked, so Ctrl  + A + Del and back again. No philosophical  bull crap. One mention, though. You will see that all top five places are more or less related to nature. Although I’ve seen beautiful cities, about some I talk here, churches, buildings, these rarely impress me as much as a beautiful view. I like two things about traveling – the places and the people, with their habits (which includes food, mmmmm). Churches and other piles of brick, mortar and concrete – second best.

So, without farther ado, I give you my top five, as these are today, the 14th of Aril 2009

5) Istria, Croatia

There is something different about Istria, it’s different from the south of Croatia, Dalmatia (see nr 3), it just feels less wild. There are some beautiful places there, but more populated. I’ve see some of the most incredible cities, the likes of Rovinj. However, the one that really impressed me was a small city/village that looked like something from Dungeons & Dragons.  All stone houses, off the bitten track and at 11 in the morning, on a weekday the most important thing one of the inhabitants had to do is wash the two stone steps in front of his house with a toothbrush, while a few of the other inhabitants were chilling at a nearby cafe. And of course, everybody was staring at you wondering what the hell you were looking for. When you see this, you know you’ve hit the jackpot. Unfortunately neither me nor Adrian can remember the name of the place. But anyway, beautiful seaside and with cities that look like Rovinj and with names like Pula, you can be sure it’s a good place to be. I surely enjoyed it.

4) Patscherkofel, Austria

The Alps are fantastic. If you live in Europe, you have no excuse not to go at least once and see them. In the winter they turn into this giant playground, where you can ski, snowboard, whatever, all day long. Patscherkofel is very close to Inssbruck. The winter Olympics of 1964 and 1976 were held here. You can take a damn bus from the center of the city and be and the ski lift in 20 minutes. Beat that Bucharest! Besides the incredible scenery and perfect slopes and great service and the fact that you can take the bus from the city and the great landlords we had and the good food and the great weather and so on, Patscherkofel gets a top 5 because it was my first contact with skiing outside Romania. For Miha and Gabi it was the first contact with ski. So top 5, definitively, top 1, not yet, read on.

3) Zadar and the Island of Pag, Croatia

Istria is one thing, Dalmatia is another. I don’t know what’s with the rednecks and the south but it seems wherever you go, when you go south you find more of them and Croatia is not an exception. It seems to me that people here are a tiny bit less friendly then in the north, but who gives a damn? This Croatian dudes say that the sunset over the Adriatic is the most beautiful in the world and they are ready to produce scientific facts proving that the atmospheric conditions are unique and bla bla bla… I don’t give a damn about their charts, but the sunset is beautiful, it’s more than that, it’s spectacular. The see is incredible too. It’s like a big, beautiful, clear, salty, warm, fish inhabited, calm lake. And the sun… the sun just burns everything and makes everything white, even the rocks. There are more rocks than plants there, but if you like it, it’s spectacular too. And Pag, a big island, is also spectacular. I thing that’s you can best describe it with these words: hot, rocky, windy, spectacular. 

2) Omu – Bucegi, Romania

This picture was taken very early in the morning, don’t even know the year, very close to Omu. On the previous day Adrian and me climbed for the best part of the day to get there. It gets second best for the sheer feeling of a job well done I had then, for the beauty of the mountains and for all the beautiful things I saw while getting there. Adrian gets the credit for dragging my ass all the way to the top. I get bonus points for being stubborn. It gets second place because in my mind Omu’ symbolizes Bucegi, and these are the mountains I see most often and love. 

1) Algonquin, Canada

Can I say spectacular? Yes I can and yes I have to! It has to be one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen so far. Me and the usual suspect, Adrian went for a short 3 day canoeing trip to Algonquin while we were visiting Frank and Denis in Canada, Toronto. This was last year, august 2008. The whole canoeing thing came to us, and especially to Adrian after we saw one of Ray Mears episodes, when he was building his own canoe and talking about the voyageur. And it was all happening, yes, you guest it, in Canada. After some Googling Adrian found these guys, Voyageur Quest and we booked a canoe trip with them. Must say, Adrian, being the hard core, lone wolf, experienced mountaineer her is and me being the usual cynical asshole we were a little skeptical about this whole organised trip. But was it worth! Oh boy! Never mind the organisation of things, which was very good, but the view…. Those who have never been in a canoe, do it! Right now! It’s not a boat, it doesn’t squeak, it just slides through the water, silently. It’s just something different from anything else. It’s not waking, it’s not riding a bike, it just is nice. And Algonquin is spectacular. You should see the sky at night. The nature  is also different from what I’ve seen back home and in Europe so far, it has a different feel which I can’t really explain. Because of the whole canoeing experience, combined with the astonishing scenery and the sheer joy of the trip beating our most optimistic expectations, Algonquin gets the top spot, for now ;).

It was hard to sort through the places I’ve been and I must say, I cheated a little bit. Austria is very fresh in my memory as only recently I’ve been there. And when I had to choose between two places I chose the one for which I had pictures. There are places that I’ve seen before the miracle of digital photography hit the world. Up there, in the top 10 there are many places from my beloved country, like Sibiu, Sighisoara, many mountain picks. A big role in choosing the top 5 played the emotions associated with it. Maybe one of my recent ski trips to Sinaia was spectacular, but it was just a weekend getaway.

Hope you enjoyed this and let me know what are your favorite places and why. Don’t be shy!