Robin McKinley

Where is your favourite place in the world? It could be a piece of countryside, a beach, a city, a street, a gallery - just a place that means a lot to you. Share the joy and tell us why.

To start the ball rolling, I'd like to share my love of the high country in Australia. I know our very old mountains are but molehills compared to those in other countries, but it's not height that matters. The Great Dividing Range sweeps down the eastern side of Australia, reaching its highest point at Mount Kosioscko. It's a cliche to say that going to the hills is like rising about the ordinary worries of the city, but I find that it's true. All my senses are appealed to - sight of carpets of wildflowers, scent of the euclyptus, taste of the crisp air all the way down to the bottom of the lungs, sound of birds and insects, feeling alive and free in so much space with so few people around. I love the hint of danger of changeable conditions - the mountains say, 'don't mess with us'.
Here's a photo of a walk I did on Mt Kosioscko a year ago:

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Very unfortunately I have not been anywhere outside of America but hay I will be after I graduate!!! Here's a cool picture anyway:



My goodness though, all you guys' pictures are BEUTIFUL

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[Updated on: Tue, 13 January 2009 13:52]

Hadrian's wall is lovely, but I'm afraid (let me show my cultural snobbism in a most un-Pollyanna like way) Roman soldiers are so latter-day for me! There is something about standing before the Parthenon that grabs my heart - its unsymmetrical symmetry its size yet its lightness and the overwhelming light of the sun beating down and imagining how it must have been arriving here from anywhere in the known world and seeing this in its glory two and a half millennia ago.

I get the same sort of "here I am, in the presence of history, the Atreides family marched where I stand now" in Mycenae, with its massive walls and its lion gate and its view of miles around and in Delphi where you feel that this is the navel of the earth (those ancients chose their sites with amazing feeling for place and view and energy).

There is also the wonder of standing in the midst of the stones of Avebury in the very early morning, with the mist still lingering in the air and touching the stones and feeling a deep mystical connection between you and the land, sending shivers down your spine.

There is the southern side of the White mountains of Crete, with its craggy ravines leading down to the sea, where all is wild and wind and nature is raw; or the entirely different wildness of the moors in northern England when the heather is turning that deep purple.

So many places that touch me, and move me, man-made or nature-wild: there is no way to choose. And yet, there is also the joy of stepping out of my balcony and looking at an amazing sunset and knowing I am home: this too has a great joy.


My other images, I fear, are not digital.

[Updated on: Tue, 13 January 2009 14:33]

My favorite place is on this little horse's back. Where I ride I have a great view of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the horse center. This picture isn't of me outdoors, but I'm taking my Dressage test, coming down the center line as the test is being called. I got first place.

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Well seeing as how I haven't been anywhere outside of America—Yet— I would have to say Chicago is definitely one of my favorite places in the world.

Here's a pic of a room from a HUGE doll house I saw in a museum in Chicago.

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[Updated on: Thu, 16 April 2009 17:24]

This has been a tough choice for me. Mostly I'm not attached to any particular place; I try to see the beauty of wherever I happen to find myself and mostly succeed fairly well, and form attachments with people and critters instead.

But I realized that there is one place that is particularly special to me. I don't make it there often but when I do, no matter what is going on in my life, I can breathe deeply and truly relax here.

There's a state park south of Wilmington, NC, called Fort Fisher State Recreation Area. Most people go there for the aquarium or the Civil War fort and museum, but there's a wonderful beach, too. Because it's a state park, there are no condos, just dunes and salt marsh behind the beach. The continental shelf at this point goes out for miles into the ocean, so the waves build up slow and don't generally get very big. You're far enough from "civilization" that on good days, there's no engine noise.

Just a cooling salt breeze and sea birds (gulls, pelicans, sandpipers), and the gentle, slow beat of the waves. Sometimes there are dolphins or pilot whales or sharks.

This picture is from nearby rather than Fort Fisher itself, but it will give you the idea.

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Leakey's Second-hand Bookstore in Inverness, Scotland (yes, that IS a woodstove!)

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The exterior of the bookshop--an old church! Such a wonderful, warm, and inviting place to spend a day or several.

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[Updated on: Mon, 27 April 2009 19:26]