My Favourite Places I've Ever Been
I went out for the most lovely dinner, and was asked,
“what are your top 3 places you’ve ever been?”
and I said, “Impossible!”
to which the response was, “cop out! You have to answer!”
But I feel like the question is too ambiguous. My favourite places are entirely related to who I was when I went there, and my life has moved in seasons. I’ve had highs and lows and periods of lots of intense growth, and lots of lounging. I like who I was at these different points, and I love my memories of those times, but I never want to go back. I don’t want to have a vacation where I stay in a village for $1.25/night split between 3 people sleeping on the floor, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
But you know what. I like this impossible challenge of ranking the places I’ve been. Although I maintain, this is impossible!
I have been so lucky to travel so much, with so many wonderful people, and eat so many wonderful foods foods. I’ve been able to dream of going somewhere, and then I go there. this is not a luxury many people get in their lives.
My life has been full of once-in-a-lifetime trips.
So just because a trip ranks lower than the other places I’ve been, doesn’t mean it’s not full of feeling that’s practically overwhelming of knowing I’m so fucking lucky to have been there.
I have been to 30 countries and I’ve decided to rank them based on my personal experience of being there
well… (30 - 1) so 29, because that’s Canada, where I’m from.
well.. (29 - 4) because I was there for less than 24 hours (Sweden, China, Vatican City, Zimbabwe) (also technically I stepped foot in North Korea)
25 countries
in order
25. Singapore - clean af and i ate duck for the first time
I was 12 when I went for a few days, and I just remember watching a motorcyclist pull over to put his cigarette out and dispose of it properly, not like any place I’d ever been. Also introduced me to Asian food markets, and for that intro - not shying away from the foreign foods, the duck and the sugar cane - exploded my world and allowed me my first time experiencing my favourite part of any place - the food - I am forever grateful.
24. Costa Rica - ocean waves, high fevers, & food poisoning
Nothing quite says a fun getaway on your way back from Africa, like a job interview in a hostel without AC, followed by a huge fever during a storm. There was a brief interlude where we stayed in the ocean all day and only got out to eat tacos, but in the next town I got food poisoning for the next week. I think we were there for 3 weeks and I was in bed, sick for 2 of them.
23. South Korea - Noribang with a bang
Marie Sister was teaching in South Korea and had us stay with her and her new partner (now wife) in a small town. Kyle and I ate a lot of frozen dumplings and watched Buffy waiting for her to come home from work. But, my first ever private room Karaoke will change me forever, it was perfection.
22. Uganda - home to the highest quality crafts & some nice outdoors
I spent 6 months in Zambia and bought all my African souvenirs in Uganda. I have the dopest beaded earrings still! I stayed with some intern pals, slaughtered and ate a chicken and spent some time exploring The Source of the Nile.
21. Malawi - music festival & weird glowing orbs on the beach
Had a pretty great time up at the music festival wearing glow sticks and then heading to a beautiful beach and got to be in a boat. The trip back was one of the more dodgy ones - turns out no busses went back to Zambia on the night we needed to return, so we charted a private mini bus which apparently is not allowed to cross borders. On the trip, there was some rain, a fairly tragic car accident (that we weren’t directly part of) but we all got home safe and sound.
There was also suddenly a bright glowing orb across the water that we saw and couldn’t figure out what it was. Felt very alien. Afterward, we concluded it was a rocket launch. Does this sound plausible? It was very wild at the time.
20. Germany - restored photo booths & christmas markets
Just so you know, everything in Germany closes on December 24th. But there’s excellent beers, brats, (interesting & complicated) history and art.
19. England - spring break mother fuckers!
Went all the way up to Nottingham to visit a pal and get into all sorts of trouble that undergrads think is a really good idea at the time. NO REGRETS! Would never do it again!
18. Vietnam - Sat on a Smuggled Snake.
Ok, this is the country that is responsible for me often being afraid I will literally die on a trip. I learned to sleep on public transit with my glasses on because I was thrown off the bus at 4am and stuck on a snake. That’s a whole other story. It’s not the worst time I’ve ever had, there were some good moments, and as I’m a sucker for a good tale, so this one ranks decently.
17. Colombia - better than toronto!
I invited myself to go salsa dancing in Colombia rather than visit my pal in Toronto. I really love me a warm ocean. There was a flash flood and so much salsa dancing. It really puts into perspective how bad the classes at the YMCA are when you see the people of Colombia dancing at a night club.
16. Italy - Spring Break Mother Fuckers!
My sister forgot to get her passport in time for our trip to Paris, so I got on the plane in Montreal hoping I’d see her in Toronto if she got her ticket. One tearful reunion in the airport of Toronto - she got the passport!, a rave in the Tower of London, and then a snap decision to go to Rome instead of Paris later, we spent 5 days taking tours offered by our hostel and eating .99 euro pizza.
15. South Africa - wine & safari
The travel I do tends to be a little magic, a little horrible. Spent the most wonderful time on this well researched, stunning, a little challenging to get to place and it was pure magic. Getting out of there however, included getting shoved into the back of a truck in pouring rain with a bunch of angry tourists with sharp elbows. Baby elephants, wine by the pool and floats down the river. Some challenging perspectives on race relations, wealth & poverty to top it off.
14. Portugal - Marie’s lisbion adventure!
She pretends the super amazing hashtag I came up with #MariesLisbionAdventure isn’t funny, but she loves it. Marie had her stagette before her same-sex marriage in Portugual. So, like, that hashtag is pure gold. (even though we went to Porto, not to Lisbon) Kyle was the Bridesman and I was the Matron of Honour so we planned a Polaroid scavenger hunt to be complete with hot ticket items like photobombing a tourist and shotgunning beer.
13. Mexico - fish for breakfast, lunch & dinner
My family camped on the beach, and my dad & I went fishing a lot in our kayaks and ate everything we caught. For every meal. Heaven.
12. Thailand - beaches & hikes & villages
The last country on our three month trip through Southeast Aisa (Vietnam to Laos to Cambodia to Thailand)- in Thailand, we travelled far north and had a cool couple chances to get off the beaten path. On said path, had a run in with a scorpion, but survived. On the first day of trip in Vietnam there was a cockroach and it was terrifying. On the last leg of our trip in Bangkok, Marie and I sat in our undies in front of the fan watching the cockroach that had been there for 4 days thinking, huh, that doesn’t scare us anymore. We also took a cooking class and met a bunch of other tourists who complained about how cold the hotels in Thailand are. Marie and I literally had forgotten about Air Conditioning at that point.
11. Nicragua - mangroves & volcanoes, rum & yoga
Specifically there was a lot of chances to have rum in the square watching the Giganta - a giant white lady made of paper machier, that I can find no record of on the internet and think I may be losing my mind. Beautiful and chill and lovely.
10. Australia - nothing says new high school like being the foreign kid
Spent grade 8 in Australia. It was pretty rad. I did a lot of snorkeling. I was, however, in grade 8, so it also fully fucking sucked. Again, though, it was grade 8 so it also fully fucking rocked.
9. Botswana - safari magic & my first solo trip
This was the first time (last time?) I’ve ever been anywhere by myself! I was terrified. How do you entertain yourself? Who do you talk to when you hate talking to new people? But, I stayed at a luxury safari tent I couldn’t really afford - introduced myself to the hosts - was generally pretty lovely as a human being I think, and they offered me an extra night and safari just out of being nice. It was even more magical than the safari itself (which was pretty fucking magic.)
8. Zambia - 6 months & a lot of lessons
I worked for a gender rights organization in Lusaka, but travelled to all 4 corners of the country. It had some exceptionally high-highs: the field and the lessons learned, the lifelong friends (my Zamsisters) and some exceptionally low-lows: the challenges of nonprofit work, especially in the context of foreign aid policy. Challenges with roommates, but also wild parties, and trying things, and trips to the top of waterfalls and watching in terror as a Zamsister throws herself off a bridge, because she was tied by a bungee cord & had purchased the adventure insurance. A lot of missing Kyle. A lot of being grateful for the opportunity.
7. Iceland - Our Legalopment
Got legally married to Kyle. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
6. Cambodia - survived a forgotten credit card
Up to Angkor Watt & Marie and I realized we’d forgotten our credit card (yes, one credit card between the two of us for 3 months) and so we carefully budgeted our funds, splitting noodles and walking whenever possible so we could make it to dinner on the last night. We wanted to watch traditional dancing and the only place was at a fancy hotel so we showered, got dressed up, and ate the best duck, two starving broke travellers ever tasted.
5. India - dream destination
Travelling in India isn’t easy but it’s worth it. The spices and smells and colours and history and all the things I ever wanted.
4. USA - All the way!
We packed every. single. thing. we. owned. into our Honda Civic and spent a month travelling across the USA, down to Florida, across Texas… camping the whole way. We mainly subsisted off bagels and peanut butter from Walmart. We stopped at Disney World because we got free tickets. We were super broke and having so much fun.
3. Denmark - design, culinary, christmassy love fest & concept word runner up.
At Christmas time, with just my sweetheart, a passion for design and Christmas spirit and the lights. And a hilarious night where we stayed out late, ate 7-eleven taquitos, and then accidentally slept until 2pm when and awoke to find the sun had already set for the day.
Concept word: hygge.
2. Japan - hello kitty & clean streets & all my favourite concept words
I just felt that this was where I was meant to be. All the fashions - yas! The ease of travel - yas! The food - fuck, who cares that I’ll never fit my jeans ever again?
concept words: WABI-SABI, ICHI-GO ICHI, OMOTENASHI
1. Laos - when I think of why people travel my mind just arrives in Laos
I have this memory of being in a boat, watching the ancient worn down mountains listening to “Come with me, Go Places” by the New Pornographers.
Just. So. Lucky.
Ranking the countries I’ve visited is impossible. Each one makes me feel impossibly lucky and overwhelmed with gratitude just for the chance to have been there at all. I’m the luckiest.
That being said, why not try?
25 countries in order of experience.