Like most things in life nowadays, Google is at the center of virtual travel. You can pinpoint a location down to the foot. In fact, you can even end up on the map itself if you happen to be lucky enough to have the street view cam car catch you. I'll get to that in a little bit. Google's map features are so incredible they make you forget that Mapquest even existed. I can vaguely remember the days when someone asked me where something was and I told them the address and said to mapquest it. Little did I know that google would swallow Mapquest, as they did Yahoo and everything else in their path. On top of being able to search for any address in the world, Google gives you the option to view the maps politically, via satellite, the terrain, in real traffic time, and maybe the most visually impressive, Google Earth. The Google Earth view allows you to view the landscape and terrain of any spot on Earth with buildings and other landmarks projected in 3D. However, I rank the Satellite view as the most appealing feature.
I consider myself to be a connoisseur of geography. Next to sports, I eat up all the information I can get on world geography. Maybe that's odd, but I just find it interesting to learn about the different countries and cultures there are out there. And to realize that life exists in many different ways outside of the US. Back to the satellite view. Have you ever wondered about those tiny dots on the globe that you need magnifying glasses to see in many cases? Well often times those dots are tiny countries, islands, and ultimately someones home land. I implore you to pull up Google maps and find one of those tiny dots, then hit Satellite view and zoom in. You may be interested to find houses and roads exist in the craziest of places. Yesterday, I took a jaunt through the Tanzania, I had heard of a spot where the highest density of elephants in the world was, the Tarangire National Park, I saw mainly desert for most of the virtual trip, but then all of a sudden I stumbled onto a huge pack of elephants.
The Street view option is amazing too. It's like someone has given you keys to a car that can drive anywhere in the world without the need of a passport. Almost every major city in the world has its city streets street viewed by Google. Just drag and hold the little yellow man on your left, if the street or road lights up blue, you're good to go. Plop the yellow man (or woman) down and begin sightseeing. A couple months ago I took a trip up the Highlands in Scotland, I've always wanted to go there, and still do, but for now I'll settle for the virtual trip. I've never been to Australia, but would love to go someday, in the meantime, I visited Ayers rock a couple days ago. I drove as far as I could, then used pictures to get to the large sediment rock in Western Australia.
I could go on and on about places I've been. I love to travel, but current economic times put discretionary spending on travel as a low priority. If you find yourself in this situation, don't fret, always keep your goals in front of you and if you really want to get there someday, determination will see that you do. But for now, take a virtual tour, its free and you just might find or stumble upon something you had no idea that existed. And maybe that makes you more worldly or you find it interesting like me. Or maybe you can take a virtual break from a stressful reality. Whatever your choice may be, I hope your travels bring you joy and a new sense of awareness of the world around you.
That's all for now. Happy traveling and don't forget to bring 2 forms of ID with you when you travel!
bsv
the courtesy wave
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