Travel Challenge: Day 2-- Where You'd Like to Travel Next

photo via travellounge.com

There are so many beautiful places in the world that I want to see! It doesn't help that I've discovered that I have 21,981 frequent flyer miles What does that mean?

Well according to American Airlines website, with the amount of miles I've accumulated so far (and it doesn't expire until December of next year) I can either go to the Caribbean, Canada, Europe, Central America or South America.

Just knowing, that I have the option to fly to any country I want to, FOR FREE, makes it incredibly hard for me to just pick one place. However, I have narrowed it down.

Greece

I have been dying to travel to Greece ever since I was 15. The actual desire to go to Greece stemmed from Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! Seeing Lena in gorgeous Santorini only fed my hunger to travel there someday.

photo via wallpaperbase.com

 One of my friends invited me to go for Spring Break but I couldn't because I was already traveling to London and Mexico that summer and we were in a bit of a financial bind. Maybe I should use my frequent flyer miles on Greece....

Egypt

photo via egypttalks.com

My father was in the Army and had to travel to Egypt for four months on business. When he returned, he brought ALL of Egypt back. Seriously. We had silverware (it was gold though) with King Tut on it, we had a disgusting amount of keychains, necklaces with our names in hieroglyphics, pottery, and my favorite: an Alabaster Bust of Nefertiti Lamp.

I'm a history buff and Egypt is my weakness! I vowed at the ripe age of nine that I'd go to Egypt just like my Dad did. All this talk of Egypt makes me want to watch The Mummy....


Buenos Aires

One word: El Ateneo Grand Splendid.


Georgia

I had the opportunity to travel to Georgia to teach English, but turned it down because I wanted to get established in my career before I went to another country for a year. So many of my advisers and peers told me (and still tell me) NOT to go to Georgia but I am longing to travel there. I don't know why, but Georgia has a hold on me and I want to see what it has to offer!

Those are the places that I want to go to next, but as Terri said when she wrote about where she'd like to travel next, sometimes imagining about the places you want to go is more fun.

"Who knows? I may not ever go to any of these places, but I admit that half of the fun is just dreaming about them."

Lights, Camera, Bookstore!

It's no secret that I love books.

I'm obsessed with books. I could easily spend an entire day in a bookstore. They don't have to be fancy chain bookstores like Borders (slowly R.I.P.) or Barnes and Nobles. They can be a little "Mom and Pop" bookstore. As long as I'm in a place that sells books I'm absolutely content.

So imagine my surprise as I was walking home I came across Libreria Beta, a bookstore, on Calle Sierpes. I casually asked Ashley if we could stop in and then it happened.

I entered book heaven.

Sevilla has numerous locations of Libreria Beta. There's even a Libreria Beta located five minutes from my apartment, but this one was different.

This one was a former movie theater!

Libreria Beta on Calle Sierpes

Bird's eye view from the top floor

Books of every language surrounded me and I could hardly keep it together! I'm sure Ashley thought I was going a little bit overboard but I couldn't help it!


I rushed home still in a daze and immediately looked up the store and some background information on it. Unfortunately, there was no other information about it, but I did find other movie theaters (and other interesting places) turned bookstores.

image courtesy of Buenos Aires for 91 Days

Then I came across something worth putting on my bucket list.

El Ateneo Grand Splendid.

Located in Buenos Aires, Argentina it holds over 100,000 authors  in all languages.

The theatre was built in May1919 by Peró and Torres Armengol under the name Teatro Gran Splendid in May 1919. It entertained Buenos Aires for about a decade with top-tier tango concerts.

In the late 1920's it was converted into a popular cinema  and in 2000, the building was leased by a publishing house and became this wonderful monstrosity of a bookstore.

image courtesy of Buenos Aires for 91 Days

In 2008, The Guardian, named El Ateneo second in its list of the World's Ten Best Bookshops.

I personally would like to give adulation to the person who thought that leasing out a theatre would be a good idea.


Alas, until I can get  to Buenos Aires, I shall give Libreria Beta too much of my money and spend an unnecessary amount of my time sating myself in the confined comfort of their books.

P.S. Here's a video of me having a "bookgasm" after my discovery of Libreria Beta. Book nerd? Sure. Do I care? No.