Travel Bucket List: North America

Hello!

I was thinking about what to blog about, and I started to think about the things that interest me, and one of those things is travelling. I wish and I hope I'll be able to travel a lót in my life. I love going to places I've never been before, and meeting new people.

I've been studying Tourism since 2009 and it helped me develop people skills and how to speak several languages fluently. In the future I hope I'll find a job that takes me to all kinds of places :)

I thought about making some sort of 'bucket list' with places that right now I really want to visit 'before I die'.

Starting off with North-America! (Initially I thought I'd write about all the places I'd want to go, until I realized that was pretty impossible..  I could just write an entire blog about places I want to go to in the US/Canada, but I'll minimalize..)

The United States

- California 

                          Can't help but think about this song when I think about California:

Some of the places I'd LOVE to visit:

San Francisco! :D

Obviously Hollywood/the rest of LA :)

Lake Tahoe

                               Yosemite National Park

- Florida

Aaand when I think about Florida, or well, Miami, this song pops up in my head pretty much instantly ^^

Places:

Miami

                                                         Orlando

- Texas

Austin

Dallas

San Antonio

Canada

                                            

-Ontario 

Places:

Niagara Falls! (Border of Ontario, Canada and New York, U.S.A.)

Toronto!

Ottawa

                                                              

Hamilton

                                                      If I had a kid, I'd take 'em here.. ^^

- British Columbia


Vancouver!

Victoria

Whistler

Kelowna

- Quebec

Quebec!

Montréal

And many, many more!

American Classics

Hi,

Yep, here I go again.. Cars!
Getting tired of it yet? No?! Good!

I wanted to post about the American classics. I found some really cool ones in these magazines I had laying around from november '10.

Starting off with the 1971 Plymouth Cuda



             Some more info about this muscle car, and see 'em have some fun with it :)

1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28

Now this is a '73 Camaro Z28, but that sound in the end, wow..

1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1

The sound this thing produces.. is just unreal.. Check out this clip: 

1987 Chevrolet Corvette




1965 Ford Shelby Cobra 




1965 Factory Five Type 65 Coupe

Music: Reggaeton/Latin

Hi,

Here's a blog about the genres Reggaeton/Latin.

I love these genres because they light up your spirits, make you want to bust a move and dance, and it's just really rhythmical music that takes you to warm and exotic places :)
I've been learning some Spanish in school, and it's really cool to be able to sing along with the songs and actually know what they mean. Although most of the time they talk way too fast for me to even try to comprehend what they are saying.. But you get the idea..

On the 21st of June I'm going to the Daddy Yankee concert in Amsterdam with a good friend of mine. I'm so excited!!! 

So obviously, I will start with Daddy Yankee!:

Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríquez (born February 3, 1977), known by his stage name Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican reggaeton/hiphop songwriter and recording artist. 

While still dabbling in music, he aspired to be a professional baseball player and tried out for the Seattle Mariners Major League baseball team. Before he could be officially signed, he was hit by a stray round from an AK-47 rifle while taking a break from a studio recording session with reggaeton mixtape icon DJ Playero. Ayala spent roughly a year and a half recovering from the wound. The bullet was never removed from his hip, and he credits the shooting incident with allowing him to focus entirely on a music career. Since then, he has sold over 10 million albums!

Here are some of his songs that I really love:
His -in my opinion- most popular song, that a lot of you will definitely know: 
Gasolina, still a major hit in all clubs!

Get up and dance, on Limbo!

Que tengo que hacer

El Amante

And many more.. :)

Don Omar


Don Omar (born William Omar Landrón Rivera, February 110, 1978) is a Puerto Rican reggaeton singer and actor. He is sometimes referred to by his nickname El Rey (The King).

Songs:
                                                         El cantante

Salvaje (:

Canción de Amor

The American Dream

Hi there,

Ever since I can remember I've been obsessed with the United States..
Whether it's for its nature, the people, cities, movies, culture or the amazing cars, boy do I love that country..

From a very young age I dreamt of visiting the 'Home of the Brave' or 'Land of the Free' as some call it.

Love this picture I found

I have family living in the U.S. (Pennsylvania) and in 2003 they came to visit us. I can still remember loving the fact that I could just talk English to someone who wouldn't find it strange that I wanted to talk English. (Because obviously otherwise they wouldn't understand what I was saying, but you know what I mean..) I've had friends that I would ask to speak in English with me, but they always found it strange.. Obviously it was, because hey, we're Dutch.. Why would we speak English to each other, right? Well.. I thought differently..

Anyhow, they visited, and we had a great time. In 2009 they visited us again, and in 2010 I finally got to visit them together with my sister. It was incredible, seeing these giant roads and pick-up trucks, I just couldn't believe my dream was finally being realized. 
It was so unreal being there. In the future I hope to travel more to this country, maybe even live there.. who knows? Just thought I'd share.. :)

World's Rarest Cars

The 1961 Ferrari 250GT Spyder sold in 2008 at an incredible $10.9 million, which makes it one of the most expensive cars ever. Only 36 units were built, so while it does not make the car very rare, its price does. The Spyder was considered to be one of the best-looking cars ever built, and looks similar to James Bond’s Jaguar.

American Muscle

Among the American cars that were considered ‘advanced’ in design in their time, two concept cars come to mind: the 1954 Oldsmobile F-88 and the 1938 Phantom Corsair.
The F-88 (picture below) was built by General Motor’s Oldsmobile Division and was a radical departure from the trend at the time.  It sat low, had pigskin upholstery, large front grill, the rear deck was unusual, and it has a 250-hp V8 ‘Rocket’ engine. Only one was built, although three other versions followed, but these were different from the original.

Meantime, the Corsair (picture below) was anti-trending in that it was a completely closed car; even the front wheels were covered. The nose was lowered, the headlights were small and its body was made of beaten aluminum. Entry was electrically controlled via panels above the windows. But it also boasted of features now standard in contemporary designs: a console to tell the driver a door is open, or the radio or lights were on, and an altimeter.  However, the design made  it look like a gigantic bug on casters.

Sadly, the creator Rust Heinz died in a car crash after the car made its promotional debut, so only one was ever built, but the concept was truly futuristic for the 1930s.

The 1931 Bugatti Royale Kellner Coupe, which sold at a whopping $9.7 million in 1987 in a Christie’s Albert Hall auction. (It may be worth double that today.) The car boasts of a 12.7-liter aircraft engine. Only six were built, which makes it truly rare.

The 1948 Tucker

Built by Preston Thomas Tucker, 51 examples were built, of which 47 survive now. The car is called the 'Tucker 48' (for its model year). It was called the 'Tucker Torpedo' as it was being designed and promoted.

Though only 51 examples were ever produced, the work of Preston Tucker has firmly cemented itsself in history and a legacy that resounds with automotive enthusiasts from all corners of the world. After the close of the Second World War, Tucker began working on a new breed of automobiles that would become an engineering marvel and a masterpiece of design.




Now, a very weird lookin' pal, but indeed very rare with only about 25 ever made. The 1979 Aston Martin Bulldog.

The first test drive of the Bulldog came in late 1979 and was a great success. The Bulldog achieved a verified top speed of 191 mph (307 km/h), but the theoretical top speed is estimated at 237 mph (381 km/h). The car was officially launched on 27 March 1980. After the development programme was over, Aston Martin sold the only Bulldog to the highest bidder for about £130.000.





The Mercedes CLK-GTR
This badass beast only had 24 other siblings.

The Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR is a sports car and race car that was built by Mercedes-AMG, performance and motorsports arm of Mercedes-Benz. Intended for racing in the new FIA GT Championship series in 1997, the CLK GTR was designed primarily as a race car, therefor there weren't many of these made.

Lamborghini Mercy!
The Lamborghini Miura
Only 764 were made. The engine and transmission were connected in a way that they shared the same fluid, and made for a costly repair due to the unreliable transmission. 

The Lamborghini Miura was a asports car produced by Italian automaker Lamborghini between 1966 and 1972. The car is widely considered to have begun the trend of high performance, two-seater, mid-engined sports cars. At launch, it was the fastest production road car available.




Lancia Stratos HF1
Around 490 of these were build. 

The Lancia Stratos HF, widely and more simply known as Lancia Stratos, is a car made by Italian car manufacturer Lancia. The HF stands for High Fidelity. It was a very successful rally car, winning the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975 and 1976.