Filling in gaps

If you've ever wanted to see all the different places I've talked about on this blog, I've made a Google map. The link is here.

If you don't care enough about that, here's a screengrab from the map:

Map of blogged places

The nice thing about this is it shows that, yes, I've been outside the UK. You might not even remember me talking about the Egyptian pyramids or Ancient Thira; those posts have long been hidden in the archive. 

The reason I've been able to compile this map is because I haven't really been that out and about for my blog. Last time I wrote a post like this, I specifically distinguished between blogged and unblogged for that reason - I've visited so many places when I was a kid and didn't even know what a blog was, and I've since forgotten everything about the place. A place also feels far more significant to me when I blog about it, since I end up building a massive mental map of the world and the memories I've made. I feel like whenever someone randomly brings up, say, Chelmsford in the future, my mind will bring me right back to when I visited, and the post will follow not long after. 

Looking through the map, though, reveals several gaps that I'm desperate to fill in. At least to see more of the world, and especially the UK. I'm not that bothered I've never written about central Europe or the Middle East, really. 

• The south coast is virtually empty, aside from posts in Cornwall and Southampton. 
• This one's partly on me. I did actually go to the Seven Sisters and Eastbourne last year, hell I've got the photos to prove it. Yet the blog was basically dead at the time, so I never got round to writing it. 
• For that reason, Eastbourne is top of my list for places I'd likely blog about on the south coast. Brighton's not too far behind, and maybe Hastings for the 1066 flair. Oh, and maybe Exeter or Plymouth, where I've also been as a kid.
• There's a massive chunk west of London, until you get to Bristol.
• This one's not my fault. I've been to Bath and Salisbury, both wonderful cities, but I was a kid back then. Both are on my list of places to visit at some point.
• Oh, and Oxford. Now is the perfect time to go since all the students will have moved out, I imagine. 
• All of the Midlands. Except for Cambridge and Norwich, there's a massive gap from St Albans to Leeds.
• I don't really have a clue where I'd write about. Okay, there are like five of the biggest English cities in there, as well as the Peak District. But I also want to write about some more niche places, if there are any. Not just loads of Birmingham and Manchester writeups.
• Maybe you guys know some?
• All of Wales and Scotland...but that's less realistic right now. 
• I love my parents but I doubt they'd just let me go to Aberdeen for the weekend. Not that I would, of course. 

There's also the possible argument that I've visited enough places on this blog, and maybe I shouldn't be so fussed with tracking it like this. And that might be true. But part of me does have a desire to take this whole blogging thing more seriously than I do now, which would involve going out and not rehashing the same old posts. By which I mean I don't want every Distant Day Out post to be some suburb close to London, even if there are enough of them to keep me busy for a lifetime. 

But I also want to plan ahead for my holiday! I've got three months to do whatever I want, and maybe that includes exploring the UK. There are far worse things to do, after all.

If you have any British recommendations for where I could go, please leave a comment or email me. But I'm still intrigued if you love a place closer to home, maybe outside the UK, which you think I'd love. I want to leave my house!