Wanderlust: Dream Destinations

I was raised by world travelers. My parents lived for travel, and they spent many of their younger years on the road and seeing all the world has to offer. In fact, they met while traveling in Tokyo, Japan. We traveled a lot when I was young, back and forth from Thailand and throughout Southeast Asia, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and many places throughout my dearest USA. The world is my fascination, and even inspired me to study International Relations in college. Now that I'm on my own, I realize that it's my turn to go on my own adventures and see what the world has to offer. I've started off by studying abroad (and I've got another trip planned for the summer: see you soon, Ecuador!), but I know that there are so many more journeys in store.

As of now, here are five destinations that I'm dying to see!

Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
When I studied abroad in Chile, we went to the top of Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago, where there is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary. Being on top of that hill and seeing all of Santiago, standing next to a massive white statue was one of the coolest moments of my life. It's really hard to explain, but it was amazing. Can you imagine how that might feel while standing next to Christ the Redeemer? I want to do that.


Istanbul, Turkey
A mix of East and West, in Istanbul, you can actually take a ferry across a sea and pass from Europe to Asia. Come on, now.


Spain
A country rich with history, culture, and geography, Spain is definitely a dream destination. I'd like to practice speaking Spanish in the motherland of the language, even though a lot of parts of the country have their own languages! Also, there seems to be a lot of castles, and why would I not want to visit castles?



Montreal, Canada
Montreal isn't that far from where I live compared to the other destinations, and it's like a mini Europe in my backyard. I've studied the Quebecois movement in some of my IR classes and it's fascinating that there are nationalist movements within a stable, non-threatening democratic government. Plus, I love Tim Horton's.


Santorini, Greece
I like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as much as the next girl (probably more; I read the follow up book about when they were all 30-years old). As we know from those books and their movies, Santorini is a dream.