The Places I've Been...

This post was originally me talking about my favourite places and me saying why, and then the ones that I didn't like, in some kind of odd ranking thing. That was the plan, of course, but then I started writing about New York and realised that, oh God, I have far too much to say on here and I'm going to need to do something different. To which, this is the something different.

There are three places I love more so than anywhere else in the world. New York City, Paris, and Cala En Porter. You'll have heard of the other two, but chances are that you'll never have heard of the latter, so I guess that's where I should start. Cala En Porter is a town on the island of Menorca, which for those of you still not in the know, is part of Spain (it's a Balearic, along with Majorca, Ibiza, and...the fourth one). It's also where my family part-own a villa, so I've spent quite a few holidays there. Oddly, (Manchester and Leeds withstanding, of course) it's the one place I've ever felt like I was comfortably "at home". Whenever I go there, it doesn't seem like anything's changed and you can just slot right back in to normal life. I know people there - I know where everything is, I can walk around to the Spar just like I can to Sainsbury's. I don't know whether it's because we actually own the villa or not, but that place just seems like it's part of me.

It's also memorable for me because of the events of my summer holiday in 2008. For those of you who don't already know this, that was the point I finally decided to come out (well, make if official at least) to everyone who was on the trip, i.e.: all the Worsley people. While I could go in to length about the hi-hi-hilarious event that was my coming out, everyone's probably heard it by now and we don't need to talk about it anymore. If you wanna know about it, ask me, I've managed to make it slightly more concise than it used to be. But it's really because of that holiday that I feel so much whenever I go back to Menorca. It meant a lot to me to finally do that and I'd planned to do it in on that holiday for about 6 months, mainly because I felt it was a safe enough environment to be able to do it. I also think it was that holiday that made me grow up quite a bit too because I sort of felt like I was "in charge" since it was my villa and all, so it all kind of meant a lot to me. Even if I did undergo something of a nervous breakdown for 72 hours or so.

My real "happy place", though, is Paris. I'm like a kid in a toy store whenever I'm in Paris. The place is literally the most stunning, inspirational and frankly joyous place I know (well, Disney's probably happier, but you're not going to get that much inspiration from squealing like a 3 year old and running to hug Tigger...). This, of course, is slightly annoying in that I'd wish my happy place was somewhere in the UK. My plan at one point a couple of months ago had been that I'd be in Paris right about now, since the Eurostar was dirt cheap and I could technically get fairly cheap deals on some nice enough hostels. Finding people to go with wasn't as easy and thanks to a variety of complications it never materialised, but I still want to go at some point during this year. Paris is kind of wonderful in the sense that it's home to the only art gallery I've never been completely bored by, even if the Mona Lisa isn't all it's cracked up to be in person. That's how good a mood the city puts me in: I can stand an art gallery. Seriously, that takes a lot. I'm forever annoyed though when I go to Paris, mainly because I inevitably end up travelling with my parents and my brother, who demand we go on an open top bus and never get off it, so we're stuck just seeing places from afar.

I just have this burning desire to really explore Paris, which is something I don't really have any desire to do anywhere else. It's also why I have a desire to go there by myself at some point, since I highly doubt anyone else will want to go see all the things I do. I want to go to the 5th arrondissement and to the Roman parts of Paris to see the history. I want to go to the Moulin Rouge, if only to say I've been there. I want to go to the Lost and Found Museum because it sounds like a wonderfully crazy thing to have a museum of. I want to go to the Panthéon to get a picture and to prove to my parents that yes, it does exist and I'm not thinking of a place in Rome. The drawback to all this is that while it's all good and well me saying this, I don't know whether I'd feel comfortable going away on my own, as it were. While I went wandering around New York on my own a fair bit in January, I always sort of knew that Jonny was there too, which felt like a good security blanket. I'd also never be able to tell my parents I did this, because they would either A: lynch me, or B: lock me up so I couldn't get to Paris. Maybe when I'm a little older and a little more confident I'll do it. I'm fully aware it's something I need to do though, it's just a case of doing it. Ironically, being in Paris right now would probably help clear my head and this mood, but...eh. Que sera sera.

Finally, New York City. NYC is a glorious place. That's pretty much the only thing I can say about it, since everything else about New York is something that someone else has already said. As much as I loved going to Iceland, and while I still think that it's my favourite country as a whole, my trip to New York earlier this year is without a doubt my favourite holiday ever. Walking around Manhattan at night was one of the best experiences in my life, even if it was ridiculously cold and I felt like my face was going to fall off. It wasn't just going to Times Square or to the Empire State, it was discovering all the awesome other places that I'd never heard of. Going to the Time Warner Centre and finding the Glee Shirt. Heading to the Village and buying my Marc Jacobs shoes/belt. Going to the top of Rockefeller Plaza and just seeing this fabulous city from above. Of course, doing all this with my best friend only added to that - hell, I wouldn't have even been able to get to New York were it not for Jonny. Two of my long lasting memories from that trip are the two of us walking down 5th Avenue and going in to every designer shop along the way, as well as realising we were in front of the Condé Nast building and wondering if we went early in the morning, we'd get the chance to see Anna Wintour. Yeah, New York really did bring out the flaming gay side of me, but, meh. I think the city would expect nothing less.

If I were to wake up one morning in any of those three places, I think it would be a very good morning. There's other places I really want to go visit - I want to go to Rhode Island for some inexplicable reason, other than "I want to go". I want to go to California and San Francisco at some point. I want to go to Tokyo or Sapporo. I want to go to Botswana. I want to go to Pyongyang, for crying out loud. Those last two are probably much less likely to ever happen, but a boy can have them on his list. But if I got given the option of going anywhere right there and then, it would be one of the three I've talked about. Happy times. :D