My dream job

If I was given the opportunity of a lifetime, it would have to be either A) Samantha Brown's job on The Travel Channel or B) an elite position as a travel journalist with Conde Nast Traveler or some other well read travel publication.
I think I would prefer B over A though. I enjoy letting the destination sink into my pores and writing about it more than I would standing in front of a camera and dealing with all the issues surrounding that.
I'm not a big fan of the typical workweek in a cubicle, 9-5 banker hours. Ho hum. The travel industry is tough and it's even tougher to make any money working in it. But boy, the rewards are awesome. I wasn't meant to sit in a gray cubicle all day but instead, to be out among others, getting to know a place and its culture, experimenting with its language, food, etc. I actually feel like I'm withering as a person when I haven't been somewhere in a while, and it's not just the "vacation blues" for me. It's much more intellectual than that. I draw my energy from stepping off a plane and being in another place aside from where I live for a time. Maybe in my former life I was an explorer. (I don't really believe in former lives I just say that lol) but I always think about what it must have been like for the 16th and 17th century explorers to cross the Atlantic and Pacific, into the scary unknown. Those guys had some serious balls. We have all the creature comforts now whenever we travel, but they sure didn't back in their day. We owe a lot to those guys.
Africa is a place I'm just dying to go to. Not some fancy crystal and white linen in the bush for 10 days blitz, although a day or two of that with a massage would be quite nice. But a real tented safari, where you can get up close and hear the sounds of the lions at night. Sure there are armed guards nearby, but wow, how cool would that be? Knowing at any moment, in theory, you could be dinner.
Or how about a cage dive with a great white? I dunno....jury's still out on that for me, but if I'm in the right mood, I might try it, if the shark has already eaten for the day :)
There's also Antarctica. Imagine being on an ice crushing old Russian cruiser just barreling through ice several feet thick. Wow. Penguins. Whales.
Of course, making a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands or Greece would leave me speechless.
Touring Celtic Haunted Castles, enjoying Europe's waterways by cruise, Tuscany's wine country....I want to do it all.

I've done a lot already, but it will never be enough. My bag is packed and ready.