December Daily: places in the present, places in the past

[resonant]

james - Top 5 places in the past you would like to visit. Top 5 places in the present you would like to visit.

I love this prompt!

In the present:

5. I'd like to see Italy. Not so much big cities, but -- like, my brother and his ex honeymooned in a little house in the middle of a field of lavender, and that sounds lovely.

4. I've been to Point Reyes National Seashore in northern California, but I'd like to go again. It was winter when we went, and it was cold and the daylight was short; I'd like to have more time. I'd like to pick one tidepool and sit and look at it for an hour, just to see what came in and out of it.

3. I don't know if St. Vith, Belgium, is otherwise a pleasant place to visit, but there's a sourdough library there. I read an article on it once, and unaccountably it told me everything except what it smelled like.

2. What is it with me and Belgium? I have no general interest in Belgium, though I'm sure it's a very nice country. But I'd like to go to Brussels with enough time to make multiple visits to the Magritte Museum.

1. I'd really like to see Skara Brae. It's a place on the Orkney Islands in Scotland where an entire stone age village was preserved, buried by a storm, and then another storm uncovered it. You can look down into actual dwellings -- the hearths, the stone boxes and dressers and frames that supposedly held bedding. Where they laid their hands. Where they put their pretty things.

In the past:

5. Skara Brae when it was inhabited!

4. I don't have the delusion that I'd find Dickens' London very pleasant, but I'd like to see it just the same and see what it smelled like and what the food tasted like, what that noxious fog looked like. Go into a shop and closely examine how the clothes were made.

3. A North American tallgrass prairie.

2. I'd like to see the Milky Way the way my ancestors saw it before artificial light.

1. I'd like to go back and go to one of the family reunions that happened when my brother and I were babies. Meet my parents when they were young, and all my wild and crazy aunts and uncles. I've seen pictures. It looks like a good time.





Upcoming prompts below the cut.





29 laurenthemself - Top five snack foods (sorry, the requested date got taken between the time you posted and the time I edited)
30
31 mergatrude - what five complements/encouragements would you give your young self.

Comments

[james]

When I was a kid we lived in the country and for a few years there were no street lights. I could see the Milky Way at night and it was astounding. I was surprised to discover that many people have never seen the Milky Way as I grew up with it.

[killabeez]

This is a great question, and I love your answers!

[sara]

I went to Skara Brae many years ago, it was really cool.

[naraht]

This is a great prompt! I hope it's OK if I borrow it for my journal.

And having just got back from Belgium (for the second time) I can say that it makes a great trip. Bruges and Ghent are beautiful and I really enjoyed KMSKA in Antwerp. But I didn't know there was a Magritte museum! Maybe next time.

[lunabee34]

I would love to be a visitor to Victorian England, secure in the knowledge that I could leave. I'd also like to have a little bag of modern sundries like toothpaste and advil with me. LOL

[lemonsharks]

Top 5 questions you wish someone had asked for dec 30?

[resonant]

OK, I laughed a *lot* at this. And I'm looking forward to answering it.

[lemonsharks]

There was only one day left! I had to! :D

[castiron]

Belgium is absolutely worth visiting. Brussels has a ton of museums; Leuven has all the amenities of a university town and a bizarre sculpture in front of the university library; Antwerp has the iconic railway station with the zoo right next door; Bruges is simply lovely and has cool lace stuff; Tongeren has a nifty museum about the local Roman ruin. I haven't seen as much of the Wallonian region, but I'm told the landscapes there are lovely.

[destina]

Skara Brae was amazing. I was overcome by awe more than once while I was there. It's been on my bucket list for years, and when I was there, and there was no one else there but barkley and the guide we were with, I just stood there beside structures of the past, with the wind whipping my hair, and stared out at the ocean, and I went back in time. I hope you have a chance to go someday. (I also was awed by the Ring of Brodgar; tears instantly sprang to my eyes when I saw it.)