i heart ... my aunt carol

riyadh, saudi arabia

i have the coolest aunt in the world.
you thought yours was?
you are sadly mistaken.

carol is the queen of all travel.

she has been to 89 countries.
you read that right.
89 countries!
and she lives in riyadh, saudi arabia.

carol very sweetly let me interview her for i heart...
she is the most interesting person i know.

unfortunately, the cool pictures i have of carol

(in front of the taj mahal, in front of the great wall of china, in front of the pyramids...)
are having "technical difficulties" uploading to blogger.
so you'll have to be satisfied with these
pictures i poached from the internet.

here goes:

q: what is your favorite place you've traveled to?

a: i think that would have to be paris.

q: if you could trade lives with any one person for a day, who would it be and why?
a: queen elizabeth, just to see all the rooms in buckingham palace.





q: if you could speak another language which would it by and why?
a: arabic, because I am ashamed to have not learned it better after all this time, or russian, just because it sounds cool and is spoken in so many places.



q: if you could go back in time, which time period would you most like to visit?
a: the time of Christ, or egypt during ramses II time.



q: favorite books?
a: arabian sands by wilfred thesinger
mary queen of scots by antonia fraser
witness by whitaker chambers
ana karenina by leo tolstoy
anything by thomas hardy (have read most of his books)
washington square by henry james



q: favorite movies?
a: doctor zhivago
apocalypse now
slumdog millionaire



q: favorite cities you've traveled to?
a: paris
brugges, belgium
prague, czech republic
hong kong
cape town, south africa
cairo, egypt
hanoi, vietnam
sydney, australia
varanasi, india
kathmandu, nepal

varanasi, india



q: where do you most want to travel to next?
a: the baltic sea region



q: if you could do something dangerous just once, with no risk, what would you do?
a: sky dive



q: what makes you laugh the hardest?
a: gossiping with my best friends brad and lesley.



q: if you hadn't been born in America, which other culture would you most like to be born into?
a: none! America rules!!!!
(if i have to answer, then maybe canada or england)



q: what's the most beautiful place you've ever been to?
a: the seychelle islands.



q: if you didn't have to worry about money, what would you do with your life?
a: give money to charity, give money to family, quit my job, live simply, continue traveling.



q: what would be the perfect day for you?
a: sleeping in, playing with my cats and parrot, shopping, dinner with friends, watching a movie.



q: if you could have any view from your back porch what would it be?
a: the ocean.



q: favorite countries you've traveled to?
a: most exotic are probably ethiopia, yemen, nepal, tibet, india.
best animal viewing (safaris) were to kenya and tanzania.
best historical places are egypt, turkey, jordan, israel, greece.
nepal

p.s.

here's the list of countries carol has been to:

india, pakistan, burma, sri lanka, thailand, vietnam, cambodia, loas, singapore, malaysia, indonesia, hong kong, macau, australia, china, tibet, mongolia, lebanon, syria, jordan, israel, palestine, yemen, oman, qatar, kuwait, bahrain, united arab emirates, iran, morocco, tunisia, egypt, ethiopia, eretrea, kenya, tanzania, zimbabwe, zambia, botswana, south africa, mozambique, lesotho, swaziland, the seychelles, mauritius, madagascar, turkey, russia, georgia, armenia, azerbaijan, kazakhstan, uzbekistan, kyrgyzstan, cyprus, hungary, belarus, poland, slovakia, czech republic, greece, belgium, luxembourg, holland, portugal, spain, france, switzerland, germany austria, italy, england, ireland, scotland, vatican city, haiti, dominican republic, belize, colombia, ecuador, el salvador, nicaragua, costa rica, honduras, guatamala, mexico, and last but not least, canada!

.