30 Before 30…and After: the Travel Edition

…in which I try to assemble 30 travel accomplishments that I have achieved (or will, by my 30th birthday close to end of the year), as well as 30 that I hope to realize in the future. To what end I’m not sure, other than I think it’s good to have goals and also everyone else is doing a list like this, so why not me? Ambition is healthy. So here we go.

30 Before 30 – Things I have done

gondola-ing in Venice, 2006

visited 4 continents. I’m 60% there! *fistpump*
lunched at Tavern on the Green in New York City (now closed…I’d be more upset but when you charge $4 for a hot chocolate way back in 1990 you’re maybe asking for it eventually, except I did feel pretty swanky being there so there’s that)
been to a non-western country
snorkeled in the Keys
threw a coin in Trevi Fountain (twice)
climbed all 414 stairs to the top of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence
flew in a helicopter over Miami with the doors off
roped a goat in a Wyoming rodeo (I’m still waiting for my ribbon…)
had a proper English tea at Kensington Palace
ate Guinness stew by a fire in a rural Irish cottage
saw the Mona Lisa (unimpressed)
stayed in not one but TWO of Conde Nast Traveller’s best hotels in the world (well, they were on the list the year I stayed in them, anyway)
got lost in Venice
flew business class to Europe
saw the world’s largest chocolate bar in Perugia at the annual Eurochocolate Festival
sang The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” while actually in a real kasbah
listened to a piano player play “As Time Goes By” in the bar at Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca
visited the top of the Space Needle in Seattle
cheered on the Ireland team in the World Cup semifinals from a rowdy bar in Galway
went to the opera – in Vienna
bought my first designer item at the Christian Dior flagship store in Paris
shopped (and ice skated, and swam, and saw a giant pirate ship and stayed at the hotel) at the world’s largest mall in Edmonton, Canada
saw Mozart’s childhood violin at his birthplace in Salzburg, Austria
stood in the snow, in June, atop Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” at Obersalzberg in Berchtesgaden, Germany (from which, coincidentally, you can see the exact hill the Von Trapp family climbs over at the end of “Sound of Music,” which technically leads BACK into Germany, not so good)
seen Leonardo da Vinci’s indescribably wonderful “Last Supper” fresco in Milan
driven through the middle of the night to spend a weekend in Las Vegas
tried to make a guard laugh at Buckingham Palace (fail)
ate tacos with homemade tortillas at a roadside cafe in Mexico
sipped countless mint teas in the medina at Fes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site
taken an overnight Pacific Northwest train trip