The other day I logged into my email account and found that the courses for International Studies had gone up. As I looked through the different courses being offered, I felt that little pull in the back of my brain. My wanderlust was flaring up again.
No, wanderlust is not an STD. It’s just a new word to add to your vocabulary if you don’t know it already.
Wanderlust: a very strong and irresistible impulse or desire to travel the world.
I have been feeling the pull of wanderlust for quite some time now, and have begun to put together my traveling bucket list of sorts, but for now I’m only going to tell you about a handful of them.
The first place I want to go is London, England. I want to eat fish and chips while watching boats on the Thames, ride the London Eye at night, visit Abbey Road and geek out at platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station. I want to ride a double-decker bus, go to Buckingham Palace and try to make the Queen’s Guard laugh – honestly though, that has to be a hard job, I laugh way too easily to even attempt that position. I want to attend a service at Westminster Abbey, catch a football match and do everything in my power to find Doctor Who and make him take me away to another galaxy. I feel like London taunts me constantly, but I know that I’ll get there someday.
While I’m ‘across the pond,’ I’ll fly up to Edinburgh, Scotland. I want to visit the castles and find my ancestors names written down in the books because they were killed during war. I want to travel out on Loch Ness and find dear old Nessie, shop along the Royal Mile and try traditional Scottish haggis for the first time – it sounds awful and looks awful, but it has to be done. Speaking of something awful that has to be done – I must find out what is really under a kilt, but we’ll save that for later. I’ve heard so much about Scotland since my mother went, and I’m dying to visit.
Seeing as how I’ll already be in the United Kingdom, I might as well ferry over to Dublin, Ireland while I’m there. I want to have a pint in an Irish pub and perhaps even sing a few Irish drinking songs while I’m at it. I want to visit St. Patrick’s cathedral – but perhaps not right after visiting the pub – and take a stroll down O’Connell Street. I’ll make my way to Dun Laoghaire and softly cry to myself about the death of Gerard Butler’s character Gerry Kennedy in P.S. I Love You. Ever since that movie I’ve been dying to make my way to Ireland.
Now that I’ve wrapped up my U.K. leg of the trip, I’ll travel down under to the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia. I want to see the Opera House, swim in the Tasman Sea, walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge at night and go to Luna Park. I want to go to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, see the Sydney Observatory and go to Darling Harbour so I can go to Sega World, where I will relive my childhood again and again. And, before I leave Australia, I want to go up to Queensland and see the Great Barrier Reef. I’ve always loved Australia and have wanted to go for such a long time.
There are so many different places that I want to visit in my lifetime, but if I could only choose a handful, these are the places I would go. I hope that I’m able to go to all of these places and more someday, but until then, I will continue to lust after my ambition to wander. I certainly know that opening my email to find an International Studies flyer waving courses about the London Eye and Jack the Ripper in my face didn’t help those ambitions. But, if you get the chance, study abroad. I’ve never done it, but if I had the chance I would grab on with both hands and never let go.