List #8: Places from fiction I wish I could visit

My travelling post made me think of....travelling. Shocking. But beyond that, I want to be an English nerd and work literature into the post as well, so here're places from fiction I wish I could visit.

1. Tolkein's Middle Earth. Duh. I guess I could try going here.

2. Alice's Wonderland. Since V's Alice obsession, it's hard not to find the place compelling. For grown up trivia, this site is entertaining. When V first saw the well-known Disney version of Alice, we had to have a long talk about Baby Jessica and how rabbit holes and wells and other dark places were not really meant for little girls to go falling into. Not surprisingly, V was terribly disappointed.

3. The Fabulon Midway in Geek Love. I love me a good circus sideshow, and the Binewskis did it up right. In a horrific, godforsaken sort of way.

4. Yoknapatawpha County. William Faulkner created not just an imaginary home, or neighborhood, or city. He made up a whole damn county. And it's a spooky, creepy, southern mess of a county. And I love that it's a whole mini-universe (ps: I hate Wikipedia. But it's the best link I could find today).

5. Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory: another nod to one of V's obsessions, I have long loved the idea of the factory from the original film. The chocolate river (Augustus!!), the golden geese eggs, the fizzy lifting drinks...Gene Wilder....Awesome.

6. Oz. What child doesn't dream of waking up in a magical land full of witches and munchkins and flying monkeys and talking tinmen and scarecrows? It's certainly why I so love the book Wicked, and Son of a Witch, and the one about the lion that's been on my nightstand for months because I don't have time to read anything but papers.  Of course, I believed for YEARS that the Wicked Witch of the West lived under my bed. (And she was married to the Incredible Hulk). But I still would love to go over the rainbow.

7. The cave from the Goonies. Even if Sean Astin isn't there to kiss me, it would be an awesome place to play. Remind me to bring along someone with lots of life-saving inventions strapped to themselves, though.

8. The island where the Swiss Family Robinson lived. Alternately, if that's not available, I'll take the island in The Blue Lagoon. For both, I would like to get to the island after the characters have all left, because otherwise I'm just a tourist, and not experiencing the island like I want to (plus, Christopher Atkins creeps me out). At the same time, I hope they leave behind their lovely buildings and machetes and coconut and banana trees. Yum.

9. The Addam's Family house, from the TV show. I love the greenhouse thing, and the nooses, and the gables, and the decor, and....well, all of it. The one(s?) in the movies are quite lovely, too, but the original one makes me giggle.

Howsabout you? Just like on my movie list, I'm sure you, gentle readers, will come up with 15 places that make me hit myself and say "How could I forget THAT?". Bring it on. Let the headsmacking begin.