Lots of great ideas floating about. Italy is one of the places in Europe I still need to visit, and whilst I have been to Spain a couple of times it was mostly work related and so it'd be nice to see Spain properly too.

Term: when you say 'acting like a normal person' are you referring to "I'd see tourist spots and appreciate local beauty"? The latter part, sure, but there's a reason tourist spots are called tourist spots. :p

On the Japan theme, Angel of Light I find your "Anywhere in Japan except Tokyo" odd as an option. I can understand wanting to see other parts of Japan besides Tokyo as there's a lot of beautiful places to see (and that's just saying from the small handful of them I got to see), but to avoid Tokyo seems a little churlish. You don't have to spend a whole holiday in Tokyo but I'd heartily recommend spending some time there as it's a huge, diverse, fantastic, chaotic and beautiful place, certainly in various parts. Certainly if you want to see elements of the country's history, there's a lot to be seen in Tokyo itself.

Unless, of course, like Shorty you've been to Tokyo already and that's why.

I really would love to go back to Japan sometime in the next couple of years, try and see stuff north of Tokyo (since we mostly went west and south last time).

Didn't you just say in your welcome thread that you have a girlfriend? Is this just some schnitzel on the side?

I don't think that a girl like that exists here - At least I haven't met her yet!

A couple of people have said Russia, and I'd like to go there too. I'm going to become a follower of the Siberian Jesus. Have you guys heard of the Siberian Jesus? Jesus is back, and he lives in Siberia.

He started a commune there and lives up a mountain. This is all real.

Anyone can join, all you have to do is sell your house and all your belongings and then give the money and the rest of your life savings to the commune. In return they'll build you some sort of house. You can live out the rest of your days there, doing manual labour for 14 hours a day, safe in the knowledge you are closer to Jesus.

If you're still not convinced: the worlds going to end soon, and only the people who live in the commune are going to be saved.

So okay, it's not so much 'travelling somewhere for 2 weeks' as 'uprooting and changing your entire life', but I'm just trying to save some souls here.

I would love to go to Ireland. It always seems like an incredibly beautiful place to me.

If you go to Italy, you cannot miss:

Cinque Terre National Park: 5 villages along the Italian Riviera.

Florence: Renaissance....

Amalfi Coast: Beautiful white building along the Tyrrenian Sea.

Venice and Rome.

Milan kinda sucks. I didn't much like it.


If you are interested in pictures, I've spent the last 2.5 months backpacking through Europe, and logged my photos on flickr.

http://flickr.com/photos/bmwesting/c...7606453518414/