Decisions, decisions

With the entire world as a possible holiday destination how on earth do I narrow it down to just one place? Perhaps I need some selection criteria that will help me make the call. It will probably also tell me a lot about the kind of holiday that I am after.

1. Safety first! To ensure my mothers peace of mind I don't want to go anywhere that is an obvious danger to my health. First chunk gone. War zones are obvious places to avoid but so is anywhere without a stable government or is suffering some sort of health scare or famine. Smartraveller the Australian Government website for all things travel can help me here.

2. Praat u Engels?; Bitakalam ingliziz?; Nei sik msik gong ying man?; Mluvíte anglicky?; Taler du engelsk?; Parlez-vous anglais?; Sprichst du Englisch? – that’s right, I would like to go to a country known for speaking English. It doesn’t have to be the countries official first language English just needs to be spoken there. That rules out a huge chunk of the planet I know, but I don’t want to have to deal with not understanding what a customs person is saying to me as well as turn 30, one thing at a time people. (PS: there are some very cool way to say "do you speak English?")

3. “… and to your right you will see ”. Yes, I would like a country with history, really old history. For an Aussie girl to see things made 100’s of years before European’s even floated by in a ship is very, very cool! I love the idea that ordinary people were doing ordinary things 400 years ago and today I get to take a photo of it.

4. Being at the end of May my birthday is almost always cold. So I would like a country that has a greater chance of being a gorgeous, warm, sunny day. So that pretty much rules out the Southern Hemisphere – oh well

5. Need to be able to truly celebrate my birthday. This includes no cultural or religious reasons why I couldn’t drink and sing the karaoke classic “Livin’ on a Prayer”. It also includes physically being in a place with somewhere amazing to go (hmmm I think what constitutes somewhere amazing to go out is a whole other post)

To sum up, I would like a stress free holiday, with lots of history to immerse myself in, locals that I can converse with easily and the birthday celebration of a lifetime! So not much, hehehehe