I ran
across this cartoon a few days ago. I sent it to my brother with the comment
“Totally me.” That’s not entirely true, since I have had a successful career
and I have traveled extensively. But since I’ve been dealing with the aftermath
of a total knee replacement, I couldn’t help but giggle over the last panel.
But I got
to thinking about the traveling part. I have traveled extensively, thanks in
part to the Navy, and I got to wondering how many continents I’ve actually
visited. There are seven, as we all learned in grade school: Asia, Africa,
North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Were I the
Ruler of the Universe, I think I would reduce Australia to a really big island;
but I haven’t got that title yet, so seven it is.
Obviously,
I’ve been to North America. And I’ve been all over Europe, visiting quite a few
countries there. I’ve been to Asia: China (both Hong Kong and the mainland).
And I’ve been to Japan and the
Philippines. Depending on the source, these two island nations are Asian, or sometimes
South-east Asian. But definitely China. I stood on a high ridge looking into
Red China, which in the 1960s was as close as we could get.
I’ve never
been to Africa, although it’s possible I saw Africa from the ship as we sailed
into the Mediterranean; I know we didn’t see it as my ship left the Med as the
captain sailed as close as possible to Gibraltar so we could see that.
South
America is a bit trickier. I have been to Panama, and to Panama City. Most
people consider it to be Central America and not South America. But I did find
this entry on the ever-trusty Wikipedia: “Geographically,
South America is generally considered a continent forming the southern portion
of the American landmass, south and east of the Panama-Colombia border by most
authorities, or south and east of the
Panama Canal by some." I’ll take that view since it meets…well, the criteria
I want it to meet, and since I spent a pleasant day in Panama City, I’ll say I
was in South America.
So, that’s four out of seven.
Not bad. I have no desire to see Australia nor Antarctica. I would love to go
to some spots in Africa, but I don’t see that on the horizon, as any more
traveling off this continent will probably involve some places I’ve missed in
Europe—or return visits to some very special places: Venice, Rome, London,
Amsterdam, and my dream retirement place: Korčula, Croatia. Ah, to fantasize…
I read that comic as well. Not that my knee hurts, but I'm sure I've done something as mundane so it counts! You are well-traveled. I'm interested in your thumbs down for Australia. While New Zealand isn't a continent I've heard nothing but great things about its flora and fauna. Barb & Peg lived there for three months, or something like that, when Barb taught a semester of law down there. Nice job benefit! They lived on Malta for the same reason. Tell me about Korcula, Croatia. (I don't know how to make that small "v" when typing a comment on someone's blog.) I'm assuming you've been there since it's your dream retirement place.
ReplyDeleteI would go to Australia if I had all the money in the world, but since I have to make choices, it's just low on my list: too many snakes and spiders and other things that want to hurt you. Too much desert, also. But New Zealand! I would love to go there. My young friend Art spent almost a year there recently and she loved it. As for Korčula, yes, Roger and I were there on our Adriatic cruise. It's such a charming place, with lovely views of the water and very nice people. I even checked for apartments on airbnb.com. Found several at reasonable prices. But, like everything else these days, it has to wait for other things, medical things. I have apparently downloaded my photos from there onto a disk, and my new MacBook Pro doesn't have a disk drive, but I'll find some good representative photos on line and email them to you. [For special characters on this Mac, I just hold down, for example, "c" and the special characters pop up; then I just select the one I want. But maybe that's only a Mac thing.]
ReplyDelete