World's Greatest Parties

Okay folks, yet another list.  You just can’t talk about travel without a top ten list of this or that.

So today’s list comes from the Times (UK) and should be a real pleaser for some of you out there: The Greatest Parties on the Planet. 

Frankly, some of these took me by surprise.  I mean, Carnival I was expecting but nearly everything else on the list I simply hadn’t heard of.  Take for example, the Verslunarmannahelgi festival in Iceland.  Merely trying to pronounce that big Viking word already makes you sound intoxicated.  Go ahead, give it a try… Verslaunumphaina… verslan-umoh-ohaania…. vo-laun-ish-man-e-ang-hali-gia…..verslun, oh crap, just give me a drink. 

Cunning linguists who manage to overcome this obstacle will find themselves in Iceland’s Westman Islands (August 5-7) boiling puffin meat, dancing around bonfires, and perhaps even partaking in those nefarious activities which spread the Scandinavian seed so far and wide during the days of Erik the Viking. 

On the other side of the world, in Queensland, Australia, another strangely named party also makes the list: the Goondiwindi Plucked Duck Bachelor and Spinster Ball.  This black tie affair, which takes place in a cattle yard, is the biggest night of the year (September 9) for Aussie singles itching to escape from the outback for a couple of days.

So check out the list.  Oktoberfest, Mardi Gras, and all the other “party” staples are refreshingly missing.  See if you can find something near you that’s reasonably pronounceable.