RevGalBlogPal's Friday Five on Travel

I'm playing the Friday Five game with the RevGalBlogPals blog today.

The challenge is: Name five places that fall into the following categories:

1) Favorite Destination -- someplace you've visited once or often and would gladly go again: I've had the pleasure of going some amazing places- pyramids in Mexico, the Alps in France and Switzerland, the pizza in Italy! However, my favorite place, the one I go back to again and again is Longboat Key, Florida. I absolutely adore the beach- and some relatives of mine have a condo that they are extremely generous with- so its a doable vacation any time. As soon as I get there all the tension leaves my body and the sounds of the ocean soothe my soul. My husband and I went there on our honeymoon last August- so now its truly an all time favorite.

2) Unfavorite Destination -- someplace you wish you had never been (and why): I love travel and I love adventure so this one is a little difficult. Probably Portland- while its a really lovely city it seemed like it took forever to get there once I took two very LONG plane rides. I felt like I could have been in London by the time I got there!! It was for denominational meeting and I had to come late to the fun because I stayed to preach at my church. So I had to do the whole travel thing again two days after I got there! If I had had a direct flight and a chance to stay and explore- Portland might be back on top!

3) Fantasy Destination -- someplace to visit if cost and/or time did not matter: I have two answers to this one. I would love to go to Scotland and Ireland with my dad- I'd love to visit Buchanan Castle with him! I would also love to go to Germany with my friend Kara- we took a Holocaust class in Divinity School together and I would like to visit some of the places we studied.

4) Fictional Destination -- someplace from a book or movie or other art or media form you would love to visit, although it exists only in imagination- I'm a huge Harry Potter fan- so I would love to attend the Qudditch Cup- or visit Hogsmeade!

5) Funny Destination -- the funniest place name you've ever visited or want to visit (I couldn't think of any funny place names- so I went with a funny experience): I studied for three weeks in Mexico after my sophomore year in college. My friend Terry and I stayed with a family and one weekend when we didn't have class we went to Taxco to visit and shop for silver. The bus ride from Cuernavaca to Taxco was incredibly hilly, and my friend was easily motion sick. So the grandmother that we stayed with gave her a lime to squeeze in her left hand- sure that that would cure her motion sickness. Terry also took a Dramamine just to be on the safe side- but I will never forget her clutching that lime for dear life.

Once we got there- we shopped a bit on the crowded streets. After awhile we wanted to get away from all the people and the children peddling gum and begging for money- so we stepped inside a church. We planned to glance around and sit for just a minute- but as we stood there a Mexican man dressed in a leisure suit said, "Hello ladies, would you like me to 'splain you about the church?" How could we pass that up? So we looked around at the beautiful church and its amazing paintings. He should us one that depicted Mary and Elizabeth- both pregnant. Elizabeth is showing of course and the baby is leaping in her womb at the news that Mary is pregnant with God's child. It was an amazing painting- and one of the few in the world like he said.

So, the trip was funny and memorable. I will never forget Terry squeezing that lime. I will never forget that young man asking if we wanted him to 'splain us bout the church. And I will also never forget how paralyzed I felt when Terry gave me a Dramamine on the way back! I felt like I couldn't move my arms and legs! She had to put me in a taxi at the bus station to get us back to the home we were staying in- I couldn't walk!