Unfinished Business in France

Here I am contemplanting my 2012 trip.  Yes I know it's early but in order to get the best prices for plane tickets you have to plan ahead.  My options are narrowed down to 3: Australia and New Zealand as one; South America as two or back to Europe as the third.

After this year in China I will have officially touched down in 4 continents (North America of course, Europe, Africa and Asia).  I say officially because technically I already hit Asia when I went to Istanbul in 2009.  Istanbul if you don't already know (*history lesson about to start*) is the only city in the world that is split by two continents.  Europe and Asia.  But I don't like to count it because it was only for a few hours.  It's like crossing the border of Utah and stepping on the ground just to say you've been there.

Anyhow, this leaves me with only 3 continents left (if you include Antarctica which hopefully I can visit sometime as well).  Intially I am drawn to South America for several reasons.  It's completely different than any other place I've been, the nice beach weather of Rio de Janeiro and the mystical features of the Mayan temple of Machu Picchu in Cuzco Peru.  There is just something about visiting Machu Picchu in the same year that possibly the Mayans thought the world was going to end.  I also want to see Buenos Aires and learn how to tango from the source.

Australia and New Zealand seems like a fun trip but it's missing the history for me.  I think it may be better suited for when I am older and can appreciate the scenery better.

And Europe would consist of Lisbon Portugal, Barcelona Spain, Nice France (and the French Riviera), Prague Czech Republic, and possible Berlin Germany.  Even though I have been to Europe 5 times already I have some unfinished business there.

Two years ago I took a trip.  My plan was to spend 2 1/2 weeks traveling around Spain (Madrid, Seville, Toledo, Grenada, Barcelona) and finishing up in Southern France (Nice, Eze, Monte Carlo).  The first few days were great.  I got to see Madrid for the 2nd time and visit Toledo.  But the day I was supposed to leave for Seville I had my camera stolen (my main and my backup).  As a photographer you can understand that this was devastating to me.  Without going into too much detail it was taken while I was eating at a restaurant.  Funny thing is nobody claims they saw anyone around me who may have taken my bag.

I looked around for another camera but not only were they expensive as hell but the exchange rate from USD to Euros was pathetic.  I decided just to cut my loses and shorten my trip.  I contacted the airline (which took all day at the airport) and was able to reschedule my flight leaving back to home a week earlier.  Only problem was it still left out of Nice France so I had to make my way there, otherwise I would have had to pay $1000 for another one way ticket.  BS on that.

After another day in Madrid (due to missing my train) I decided to take a bus to Grenada.  There I already had a flight set up to go to Barcelona so I skipped Seville completely and went that route.  A few days there was beautiful and tortorous because I did not have a camera to capture it all, but I managed.  After that I caught my original flight to Barcelona and had only a few hours to walk around before my evening flight to Nice France.  I got a decent look at it and tried to soak in as much as I could.  In Nice I was able to spend a whole day there in the city but didn't have enough time to check all the surrounding areas before my flight home.

So here I am roughly 16 months later and I really want to go back to Barcelona and Nice to complete that trip with pictures.  So I am torn between going to Europe for the 6th time in 5 years or hitting another continent like South America.  I think I am partial to Europe but I guess we'll have to wait and see.