Roam if you want to

Here’s last week’s Friday Five. Late a whole week, I know, but I couldn’t resist the travel theme.

1. What’s the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
Outside my home state (or the larger D.C. metropolitan area, if we’re quibbling): New York City, May 2003. Outside my home country: Amsterdam, Netherlands, Apr. 2001. Huh. Has it really been that long since I’ve traveled out of the country? Gotta dust off my passport and put it to use.

2. What’s the most bizarre/unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while traveling?
While in Budapest (Jan. 2001), one night Subarna and I were walking along somewhere near the river—the Buda side, if I remember correctly—and a man comes up to us, asking if we want to exchange our money or some such. He’s persistent despite our attempts to shrug him off, and a minute later out of nowhere two police officers appear. They ask for our passports, and tell us to look through our wallets to make sure we have all our money. Turns out they’ve been looking for this guy. The cops take him away in their car, and that was that. Okay, I suppose this wasn’t so bizarre or unusual, so much as kind of interesting (once the long arm of the law magically appeared). Very Cops-like.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
Ah, so many places. Maybe a few months in Europe. Then again, after having vacationed mostly in cities, I’ve been wanting to visit a really relaxing destination, where I can just while away the days on a beach. Maybe the South Pacific. Heck, why not a trip around the world?

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train, or car?
It’s really hard for me to pick among them, since each is well-suited in their own ways. I have a strong fascination with aviation, so I love to fly, and since I don’t travel by plane as much as I used to (these days, a handful of times a year), it’s more of an experience than other modes of transportation. The train gets good marks for convenience; most of my train traveling has been on Amtrak between D.C. and New York City, and with Penn Station right in the middle of Manhattan, getting around is really easy. I haven’t been on a road trip in a while—my friends and I took a memorable one from the Bay Area to L.A. a few years ago. Driving along the coast with the awesome views, while taking on some hairpin cliffside turns, was amazing.

5. What’s the next place on your list to visit?
Hold on, let me throw a dart at the map.