Saturday, August 14, 2010

Top 10- Best Countries I've Been To (Besides Turkey and the USA)




We are dedicating today's entry to students at Berlin Senior High School in Berlin, NH, where the principal is Gary Brisson, the school nickname is The Mountaineers and the school newspaper is "Mountaineer Today."

While school at UNC starts on Monday and at my alma mater Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke, Va., begins on Aug. 23, students at BSHS have summer vacation until Sept. 1 when school starts (must be nice!).

Berlin, NH, is incidentally where John Irving's famed novel "The Hotel New Hampshire" takes place. It was made into a film with Rob Lowe and Jodie Foster in 1984. I found a copy at an antique store in Fairfield, Va. (between Lexington and Staunton) which I read during a trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. It was actually better than the movie (and I'm not someone who always says that!).

I thought it would be quite subjective to put the USA, the country of my birth and residency, and Turkey, where my late my father was from and a place I have been to many times on the list since that would be blatantly subjective and we are not working for Fox News!

So, here is the list:

1. Holland
2.Canada
3. France
4. Guatemala
5. Greece (I know this will not go well with my friends in Ankara!)
6. Italy
7. Hungary
8. Germany
9. Belgium
10. England/UK

It should be pointed out that while I have been to both Germany and New Hampshire, I haven't been to either Berlin!

And, there are many countries on this list, including England, Hungary and Italy that I have not been to in a very, very long time (since I was a child in the '70s).

Cyprus and Luxembourg both just missed the cut.

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