so i sent various e-mails off and got a pretty good response (thanks people) about where i should go.
the em led
100% iceland
the em led felt that i should go to iceland. her reasons?
1. she wants to go on this trip, and she really wants to go to iceland (very selfish, and presumptive as ive not said she can come yet).
2. she also wants to stay in the ice hotel (very selfish, and presump...)
3. she felt that my fair skin and freckles (english rose complexion i believe its called) would suffer in nicaragua
4. slovakia was where the film 'hostel' was set
5. we might see bjork (notice the use of the word 'we' already at this stage)
6. they have "geezers" and northern lights
my friends
50% iceland, 42% nicaragua, 8% slovakia
iceland gets the votes from my mates. comments included:
for iceland...
"I watched a documentary recently on icelandic music and its beautiful. imagine a xylophone made out of rocks"
"you might meet bjork"
"i think id have to vote iceland, simply because out of the three id imagine it would be the coolest (i don't mean literally, though actually, it probably would...)"
"i think it would be a brilliant place to visit, just pack your thermals"
"it costs £5 for a coffee. Anywhere that charges that must be worth going to"
for nicaragua...
"i certainly think you should be visiting nicaragua!! iceland is too cold and slovakia is well......full of slovaks!!" (please note that before thirty loves slovaks, this is simply a view of one of its voters)
"it looks wicked. its a poor country, so your english mega bucks will be well needed"
"its got a volcano and the eastern part was once a british protectorate and as such english is the predominant language, but overall spanish...how handy is that for such a far away place? And did you know nicaragua offered assistance during world war two, and was the first country in the world to ratify the UN charter? wow! and amazingly nicaragua contains 7% of the worlds biodiversity and the second largest rainforest in the americas! its also where the "mosquito coast" is and that sounds pretty bad ass! well it's amazing what five minutes on wikipedia can tell you..."
"culturally and politically it will be fascinating, your money may make a difference if spent well and it reminds me of a silly rowan atkinson song"
for slovakia...
"i just think it would be interesting to go to an eastern european country, although probably not that exotic!"
thanks very much to inggy, sam, bailey, nick h, laura, nick d, dawn, emma, hayley, steph, helen and erth.
the nice people at virgin mobile
43% iceland, 43% nicaragua, 14% slovakia
the em led sent my email on to her work friends at virgin mobile and they kindly sent their votes in!
reasons for iceland included:
"its the only country out of the three i can spell"
"i choose iceland because mums are heroes"
err... maybe branson needs to review his recruitment and selection procedure... and one of the employees sent to following very comprehensive list as to why i should go to iceland:
"mountains, views, beautiful girls, good coffee, no bugs, friendly people, english speaking, beautiful landscape, blue lagoon, outdoor natural hot spas, whale spotting, black sand, active volcanoes, trolls, geysers that spout boiling water into the air, museums, galleries, massive scary cemetery (in sigor ros music video!), northern lights, donuts (klenir) national food!, late nights lava flows so all the water is thermally piped so tap water is mineral water and no frost as the ground is kept frost free by piped hot water."
for nicaragua...
"what other excuse would you have for needing to go to nicaragua? cocaine running, tourist kidnapping..."
"its a beautiful country but very poverty stricken"
for slovakia...
apparently i should got to slovakia as this nice lady is from there:
thanks virgin mobile people!
people i dont know
54.5% nicaragua, 36.5% iceland, 9% slovakia
lots of lovely people who i dont really know got my email and kindly sent in a vote...
shaun, luke and jake e-mailed me through their mums account to let me know that all three were in favour of iceland. no real reason was provided, but they did inform me that they were racing nitro cars that morning. which sounds a lot of fun.
the nice team at dudley county council were split in their views, with a different person voting for each of the three. reasons included:
"iceland because it will keep your beer cold"
"slovakia because i have relatives near there"
"nicaragua as you can fight fascists and they have nice fruit"
karen thought i should go to nicaragua as she paid one hundred quid for a bottle of wine in iceland and slovakia is a bit close.
a couple of lauras friends, alex and johnny, both stumped for iceland. johnny was also kind enough to invite me to a game of poker in order to help me with another task on my list! how nice is that?! ill gratefully take him up on his offer (although he probably sees easy money from me).
thanks very much to shaun, luke, jake, johnny, alex, karen, chris and dudley county council people.
the travel forum
100% iceland
i had an idea to ask a travel forum which country i should go to. if anyone had a valid opinion of where i should go it would be a bunch of seasoned travellers. they actually all picked iceland! they did have positives for the others, but iceland came out tops. thanks to everyone at the 'travellers to go' forum for your input (they wanted me to point out that their 'travellers' is spelt with one 'l'. but im english, we made up the language, and its two 'l's).
the celebrities
50% iceland, 25% slovakia, 25% abstained
oh yes, the celebrity world got involved with the vote!! well, four of them anyway. and maybe its only me thats heard of two or three of them. but one was a real celeb!
i sent out the question to my friends through myspace, which includes gene hoglan (strapping young lad man and human drum machine) and ginger (songwriting genius from the wildhearts) both of whom took the time to get back to me.
gene hoglan
"Hey John,
Go ICELAND!! It has been my dream of the last ten years or so to visit Reykjavik (although now that I no longer drink, it might have lost a tiny bit of appeal, but not much), and at least if you return without your liver, at least it will not be forcibly removed, as could be the case if you were to choose Nicaragua. And since Slovakia is where all the supermodels come from, the possibility of you returning without your head is great, either from it swivelling itself off, or (as I see your lovely girlie will be travelling with you) quite possibly the em led just might knock your block off. So, be safe, Go ICELAND!
Hope this helps!
Take care, Genewhat a top fella, thanks gene!
ginger
"I've never been to any of those Countries, but the girls are supposed to be spectacular in Slovakia. I'd go there meself. Ginger."
cheers ginge!
moros
moros is the big, scary, drummer from black metal band worms of sabnock. he voted for iceland:
"to help you in your quest, i suggest you visit Iceland since they have no defence budget (as far as I'm aware) and that should be rewarded!"
ive met this man, and hes honestly not as scary as he looks. how pleased are you that youre in the celebrity section mr s? :)
natasha kaplinsky
now, after getting votes from three celebrities i thought to myself that maybe i could email load of celebs to get their vote. as i was thinking this natasha kaplinsky came on the TV and i thought she could be my first. so i penned a nice email and sent it of to her. she came back with the following:
"Not having visited any of the counties you mention I'm afraid I wouldn't want to sway your decision. Nevertheless - I'm sure you will have a fantastic time where ever you go and I wish you the best of luck on your travels. Natasha Kaplinsky"
i hope natasha has taken all the splinters out of her arse from sitting on the fence. she probably thinks that if she votes i might contact the daily star saying that she hates the other countries and there might be a "kaplinsky in icelandic hatred shocker" or something. however, the most fascinating aspect of this email was that she replied to me in twelve minutes. twelve minutes! have they nothing better to do at the bbc?
the above photo shows that she was at the mobo awards, so its good to see shes spending her time supporting the black music scene and rubbish hobby websites - im sure both communities appreciate her support.
however after that, i couldn't really be arsed asking any more celebs. once gene hoglan has replied, you dont really need many more do you?
the result!
the final result is:
60.46% = iceland
30.23% = nicaragua
6.97% = slovakia
2.34 = abstained (thanks kaplinsky)
so its iceland, and by quite a large margin. better start saving...
