Travel

I downloaded Google Earth today.


Google Earth is the kind of toy that you could play with for hours and hours without getting bored. It is such a simple idea with such amazing features to keep any curious mind busy. You can search for towns, look at your house (from an aerial or street view perspective), or find cool locations near you that you never knew about before. Pretty much any landmark, building, field, and road is there for you to look at whenever you want. Google Earth is powerful, man.


I messed around with it for a while today. I was looking at all of my friend's houses, my college campus, and special places from my childhood. It tells you the altitude of the land that you have your mouse on, so I was trying to find the deepest part of the Marinas Trench (the deepest part of the ocean anywhere). It tells you the coordinates of the location you are looking at, which helped me locate areas where different geocaches are hidden (see my Adventure post for more on those).


And I got to look at other countries.


I live in New Jersey. I grew up in New Jersey. I leave the state quite often to visit the city and attend school, but I pretty much have only existed on this planet on the east coast of the United States. I've only ever been out of the country once, which was to visit Niagra Falls. It was cool, but the trip with my dad to San Diego felt like more of an international trip than that. My point is that I am not much of a world traveler.


But being able to look at all of these other countries on Google Earth is downright amazing. Never before have I wanted to travel more than I do after looking at all of these different places. The Earth has more places than any one person can ever visit and experience, but everyone should try to see as much as they can. Oceans, landmarks, tourist attractions, famous event locations, different cultures, different foods, and different experiences are out there in infinite supply. You will leave this life with places unvisited, even if you traveled every day. There is so much to see.


There is nothing quite like traveling - and this is coming from someone who doesn't partake in it. Just the idea of seeing new places and finding new stuff is exciting to me. Traveling should be on people's minds and in their dreams. If you are ever looking for an adventure, look no further than a new country. It can't disappoint.


I am looking at the Eiffel Tower on Google Earth street view right now. But that doesn't come close to actually standing in front of it. Trip to France, anyone?