Your Favorite Place......

I loved Egypt when I visited some years ago. all the dust and comotion, the call to prayer going out over loud speakers across the desert sky. I have never felt so acutely alien to a culture, or as far from home, but it was one of those experiences that even during it, I was well aware that I would never ever forget.

My old friend Simon's flat. Long since lost contact, and he moved, but in late teens to mid 20's, it was the scene of some great and crazy times. I remember every poster on every wall, how it smelt, how comfy his couch was. That rented home embodied all that was good in the world.

Whitby on the Yorkshire coast. Beautiful place, seafood fresh off the trawlers, unbelievably friendly people.

Prague- specificaly the King Charles Bridge in the winter. Walking through Prague is like being dropped into every spy movie you could imagine. The architecture is amazing- beauty intertwined with daily life in the most all pervading way.

Disneyworld florida- The magic kingdom. I am a 3 time veteran- 9 years old, 14 years old and 18 years old. Familiarity and teenage attitude could not diminish the fun I had every single visit. I love it.

My home. Its rented, its not grand, but it contains all I have worked for and achieved, and most importantly contains my Wife and dog, without the existence of whom I would not find any joy or beauty anywhere.

I have three favorite places.

The first is the pond and summer camp where I've spent every summer, especially on a windy day. The smell of the water with the feel of the wind on a warm day is just invigorating.

My second favorite place is anywhere I can get to on horseback that isn't on pavement, either field or trail through the woods. Last weekend, before the snow melted, it was a warm and windless day and we went riding through the field where there was about 6 inches of light powdery snow and all you could hear was was the swish swish of her feet in the snow.

My third favorite place is definitely the dojang. Heck I spend the majority of my free time there, so I should like it.

Laura

Wow! That was like reading poetry.

I don't think I have a favorite place. I can make myself feel comfortable and find enjoyment almost anywhere. However, one of the most beautiful places I have been is North West Colorado. Mountains and desert, wonderfull.

Thanks. I wanted to say so much more but wanted to keep the post pretty short so people wouldn't get bored. If I ever figure out how to post pictures I'll post some of my favorites.

Casey

Great thread Thanks Casey,

Your description was very emotive.

Lol, Cord Whitby, spent a great lads holiday in Whitby, very nice place, Robins hoods bay as well……

My fav place is Malta, Especially Golden Bay. Snorkelling in the Med…sigh..!!
Last time I went, I had a burnt back and a pickled front as I had spent so much time in the water, got the P*ss taken out of me for weeks, but it was worth it.

Mark

I love the outer banks of North Carolina. Beautiful, peaceful area. Only place I ever been that I could actually relax. I love the beach!

I love the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada. A long stretch of highway with trees, vinards, orchards, mountains, rivers and lakes. I like the drives through the Banff National Park and Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. Mountains, trees, lakes and wildlife that can't be beat. The speed limits are very limited as wildlife comes right out on the road and you will see many tourists out taking pictures right up close, except when it is bears or aggressive animals.

I loved when I used to hunt we would go between Whitecourt and Fox Creek, Alberta and stay a week in the bushes. We cut a path into the trees to a secluded spot and set up camp and just enjoy the surroundings especially the night sky with all of the stars and the quiteness.

I loved my drive through the Cascade Loop through the heart of Washington. There we found a town at the base of the mountains called Leavenworth; a Bavarian-style village that you swear you drove back in time to a German village. You could smell chocolate in the air as the make it right there and as we were there in October it was Oktoberfest. Also along this route used to be an old western town though I heard many years ago a fire destroyed it.

I haven't really been anywhere so I'm sure there are some beautiful places out there.

My first favorite place is a forest located in the center of Stockholm, known as Alsjo Skog. There's this hilltop that I spend at least 12 hours meditating on. I feel connected with the place due to my swedish bloodline. It's like the only place I can actually spiritually tap into the wild. I feel like a part of that hilltop surrounded by these great oak trees.

Second place would be driving by the coast of France at dusk. France has some really wonderful cities. The faint shade of red, the coast, my dad's bmw and the great Chateu Bordeaux makes France awesome as long as I stay away from mainland.

Third would be the hills of Mae Hong Sorn, Thailand. The cold weather, thin air, fog and Chateu Siam makes those mountain range breath-taking. The sea of fog looks as if you could dive right into it.

Fourth would be the islands of coast of Stockholm. I love sailing. .

And lastly, any dojo with cute girls. I'm being honest here.

It seems I'm very in-touched with nature and water. I love hilltops and I love rivers. I also like cold climates. Damn, I sound more viking as I get older. Daddy would be proud.

-Taison out

Nice Taison, you've seen a lot and I'm envious. After reading this I am reminded of driving from Grande Prairie, Alberta to Fairview, Alberta. In the Dunvegan area you go down into a valley, cross over a bridge and then come back up out of the valley. In the mornings it can be exceptionally foggy and you can see nothing but the top of the bridge and is an incredible site as it seems to just float on top of the fog and you would not even guess there is a valley at all and that you could drive across the fog. I have seen it myself and my father-in-law took a picture of it that is incredible that he has hanging at home on the wall. Though I don't have a picture of the bridge in the fog, here is a picture of the actual bridge in the valley.

http://wcs.ne.jp/alberta/guide/images/dunvegan.jpg

I love the high desert of central and east Oregon in spring and summer. Open prairies, rolling hills and cliffs, peacefullness and calm, few people. Clear skies most of the time except for a few thunder and lightning storms (love those), it's just all wonderful. And I get a calm, meditative state of mind out there in the desert when I'm alone or just with my best friend Joe.
Now I also like the vast pine forests in central Oregon nearby, especially in the 3 sisters wilderness area. The 3 sisters mountains (white capped peaks this time of year) not far in the distance to the west, jsut a few miles away, numerous buttes and hills, deer and elk and cyotes and wild cats around, it's just amazing. There's nothingm ore peaceful and happy for me than those 2 environments and then the dense fir forests just west fo this area (It's great having so many different biomes so close together).
Now I like being in Salem as well as thats where I grew up and I have a lot of memories so these are basically my favorite 4 areas to be however city life can be a bit stressfull for me but I still am at home there. I like plenty of places around the coutnry and in canada but Oregon is and always will be where I'm most at home especially alone out in the wilderness. The coast is great. Nothing makes me feel better than being out there.

Storm, many moons ago my mate and me did an epic road trip from San Francisco well to San Francisco. One leg of the journey was from Boise Idaho to Medford Oregon stopping off here and there (highway 20 I think), you will be familier with the pix. Incredible how green things become crossing the cascades. The pics are of my mate, I recently scanned these from print and sent him by email. I'm preparing my liver for his annual visit to Cambridge on the 20th





taison, I agree Mai Hon Son is beautiful, my 1st trip was solo to Thailand and I took the sleeper train from Bangkok to Chaing Mai then made it to that area and did and 5 day trek in the hilltribes area, woke up farking freezing cold thinking I was still in England, got hot as hell during the day mind you. Got down to Patong beach ASAP for a few nights there then to the exquisite beauty of Krabi province, heaven!

Shall I bore you all about my Peru, South Africa, Austria, Lao, Cambodia, Canada, 5 more USA, 10+ more Thailand and Malaysia adventures.....I'm a bloody travel bore geek I know

I'm hoping the Thai Boxing Club will be a favorite place come monday evening!

And for relaxation the Old West River opposite the Haddenham Pumping Engine is high up on my fav spots (fishing)

Crater Lake!!! Went there last year! and my desert homeland!!! thanks Grumble!

Crater Lake is a jewel and the dry side of Oregon is beautiful, the coast too is stunning, in fact when my numbers come up I could well buy myself a little part of Oregon, wonderful state. Seems to have it all, natural beauty, limited population, nice climate, hey and nice people

Now when my little girl perhaps one day gets the wonderlust like I did I will be forced to trust her judgement on her travels as my folks did. I dont look forward to it one bit

ok, ultimatly this is my favourite place, just up from the Haddenham Engine near the Aldreth Bridge on The Old West River between Ely and Cambridge. Spent many days/nights fishing here. I remember seeing a bunch of geeks rummaging around in trenches with trowels years ago, I later discovered Hereward the Wake had a few battles with William the Conqueror right here hundreds of years ago so I suspect they were archaeologists back then I saw. Even now night fishing there I get the creeps thinking of the ghosts of fallen warriors.

I scanned this old picture I took today. Looks like a painting to me.

I'm saving your bandwidhth Matt by putting link to pic this time!

Grumble, I agree with everything you said except the people. The people are nice but more often than not they beat around the bush, are fake and shallow. Well, in my part anyway. That's one hting about the east coast I miss, is most people there were honest with how they thought of people, and were blunt. But I guess you take the good with the bad.

I have a picture on my computer desktop of a double rainbow taken from on oceanfront heiau on the east shore of Kauai. The old Coconut Plantation Hotel would be in the background at the head of the bay except for the shoreline palms.

Sorry. I haven't a clue how to share it.

My favourite place? BED .

My favorite place would definitely be the dojo- and I'm not just being cheesy or whatever- Everyone there is family to me, and I love them.

But no, if it were another place it would either be Japan or Shaolin, China (Iv'e been to China, and I'm hoping to go to Japan soon)

It's secret...I'm not telling.

But I'll give you a clue: it's where my favorite people are...and that is always changing.

Port Campbell, no question.

What? You don't know where Port Campbell is? How could this be?

Its a small beach town in south west Victoria, Australia, near the Great Ocean Road (surely you've heard of that? The 12 Apostles doesn't ring any bells? Bah). I go there on summer holiday, and have been doing that since I was a baby.

If heaven exists, it must look like Port Campbell. As a younger child, I must have spent countless summer days there. Here is what a typical summer day would consist of:

7.00-8.00am: Wake up, get dressed and heave breakfast, leave the house and walk across the road to check the waves. Yes - the beach house we stay at is across the road from the towns main beach. If the waves are good, precede to go boogy-boarding (aussie for body boarding) until midday, catching sick waves and generally getting stoked all round (stoked: surfing slang. Roughly means translates to 'I'm feeling good' or 'I'm excited!' or 'Wicked dude!' in the english language).
11.00am-1.00pm: Getting sick of being barreled, my brother and I would return to the house for lunch. On summer days, lunch was often fish 'n' chips from the local shop, the best chips and fish I've ever had. We would also be grumpy at this time, as a tourist bus full of chinese people would always park in front of our house, blocking the ocean view.
2.00pm-4.00pm: Walk a few blocks to visit our favorite cousins, who also stay in Port during the summer. It was always fun hanging with them. We would either walk around town checking the shops out, or, more commonly, go for another body boarding session, trying to see who would get the biggest wipeout. Sick.
4.00pm-whenever: Hang out at 'The Pier'. 'The Pier' is a Pier that sticks out from the cliff, with a road access for boats. Good spot for fishing. For us kids, it was a cool place to hang out. Mainly because we would jump off the pier into the water, god that was fun. Just so you know, The Pier was about as tall as two small houses. The bigger kids would not jump of the pier itself - instead they would jump off a fairly tall crane that was attached to the pier. We thought they were nuts. We also snorkeled near the pier, where there is quite a nice reef. Sometimes we got to see the native stingrays swimming under the pier.
Night: Have dinner (which was usually barbecued meat with chips from the same shop as a side dish), then proceed to hang out with cousins on the streets, walking around and talking to other kids. Occasionally getting up to mischief .
11.00-1.00am: Return to beach house at ungodly hour, and fall asleep as soon as our heads touched the pillow.

Then we would rinse and repeat that timetable the next day, and the next, and the next...

Hanging out with mates, catching waves, enjoying the sun, getting up to no good, being shy around the chickoritas (girls)...ah, that is the life. When I'm an old man, I'll look back on those days as the best of my life (thinks of the 'Summer of 69 song' and tries not to get teary...)

Port Campbell forever. I just hope it doesn't get turned into a nasty little tourist beach town.

(Writes a little theme song which sounds a lot like 'Blue Heaven' with Port Campbell replacing the 'Blue Heaven' parts.)

My favourite place is easy, it's where ever I am with my friends, be it in a bar, training on the floor(most of my friends are from MA) or just playin the fool somewhere.
BTW I recently quit my dojo, this may sound horrible but my GM is an ass, and i just "Ass" to make it sound more polite, but he's great at what he does, you'll be hearing about him maybe him in the future "soke francis"

"Feeling the strength of mother nature."
Butterfly, thats very similar ot how I feel when I'm alone out in our high desert or high up in the mountains deep in the pine forests of my area. There is nothing more free, serene, and pure as nature. No fear if you have experience and knowledge of the land and you are at peace. It's very meditative. And fishing is great of course, I grew up fishing, since I was about 3.
Perfection, that's what it is.

The only high desert I've ever seen is Las Vegas

Strangely, I came across last years holiday photos a couple days ago, and then I came across this thread. My favorite place has got to be Italy, more specifically Sicily. I've been the same place 2 times. A small town near Palermo, right at the coast.

I like it because it's just so different from Denmark. Most Scandinavians are fairly reserved and rule abiding. Whereas in southern Italy, everything is very emotional and chaotic. When you're not used to that type of thing, it's pretty interesting. Oh, and I also like it because of this:

The view from just outside our room at the hostel we stayed in, first thing you saw when you got out of bed:


Driving across Sicily to go see Mt. Etna (big volcano):



Mt. Etna, felt more like the moon though:

The high desert near Vegas is nothing compared to central Orego nas central Oreogn has way more variety in the terrain for example the hill formations are incredible and really unusual, then there's valleys and sage brush, and scrub brush and it's jsut unbelievable. The Vegas desert is a little boring imo but I'm biased of of course.
Still though the view of central Oreogn are spectacular as in most of it you can see the snow capped mountain peaks all around (like 8 or 9 different mountains) and then the pine forests in the distance to and then lot's of desert. It's really great.
Sicily looks amazing!

If hell is like it is on the movie Little Nicky, then Hell would be my fav. place. Other than tha, it would probly be... I don't know really.

Meh, that's a long time ago, pretty sure the EU had nothing to do with that . Modern day Scandinavia can best be described as pretty safe and boring . Might be that the grass is just greener on the other side though.

my favorite places?

My own kitchen, with a bunch of hungry people to cook for.

Yosemite National Park. I went there a few years ago with a friend and we watched the shadows creeping up Half-Dome at sunset. I still have a photo on my fridge. Someday I'd like to climb it, and see the view from there.

My dojo on tournament day. It's like a big family reunion with friends and competitors, seeing how much I have learn, and how much I HAVE learned since last time. Cheering for my Kenpo family. It's the best...

Ah the kitchen... Should be every woman's favorite place...Speaking of the kitchen why aren't all you ladies in there?
KIDDING KIDDING!

In top 5, Mexican Hat by the San Juan River, Utah, just north of the Arizona border a stones throw from Monument Valley. What an awesome two days that was, horse riding through the canyon to the chuck wagon where we ate, shat and slept under the stars, the weathered old cowboy, Rusty and his wife cooked a huge pot of chilli beans/beef and myself and two of my best mates downed a large quantity of Tequila we bought a week before in Tijuana
My title....'needs to get out more', man, there was a time I was never in!

Now thats the way to live! Always roughin it and getting 'out there"!

I've been single so long becuase girls cant take a joke.

My husband tried to tease me about being barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen (BAD idea) I know he was teasing but being in the last trimester of my pregnancy was the wrong time. He didn't get any lovin' for a while for that. The next pregnancy I was a little more light hearted about it. He didn't start the joke but would follow suite once I made the first joke.

Casey

Sorry, didn't mean to start something!

I love to cook, so a kitchen and a bunch of hungry people is good times for me!

No don't worry about it sunspots. I know Storm is kidding and he means no harm.

Casey

Of ocuse I dont you know I love y'all!