Ok, so last week I was bitten by the travel bug (no, I promise it wasn’t a bedbug; although, I do worry about that as I contemplate international travel).   My husband and I were watching Current TV’s documentary with Ewan McGregor called Long Way Around.  He and his buddy travel on motorbikes through eastern Europe into Asia on their roundabout  journey from England to New York. 

After riding through Ukraine and spending the night with a very funny and drunk electric appliance store owner who liked to carry a machine gun, Ewan and his friend enter Russia and head to the city of Volgograd.  As they are making their way on a ferry down (or was it up?) the Volga River, in the background I see this enormous, colossal statue of a woman holding a sword. I am beyond intrigued and at the same time, scared.  I turn to my sexy Bulgarian husband, because like every American, I assume that because he grew up under communist rule he knows everything about Russia.

I ask him “WHAT is that THING???”  And since he was such a good little communist soldier as a child, he knows his Russian history (oh, how the fearless leader would be proud of him!).  He turns to me and explains, “The Motherland Calls.  It commemorates the Russian troops defeating Germany during WWII and thus, turning the whole course of the war.”   “WOW!  We are going there,” I state with conviction, “with all three kids.  I don’t care, we (more like, ‘I’) need to get there.  We need to start traveling again.”  

So here it is folks, my Top 10 Travel Destinations according to this thirty-something mom of three who has absolutely no extra spending money, but only grandiose dreams of exotic travel… like times before children.   Can you say Mega-Structures?  I am craving experiences of the mega-kind so I can be reminded that there is something greater than my somewhat predictable life.  And I want my children to experience the grandeur and awesomeness of our world.  And away we go… [Read more...]