Holidays

I am a jealous person, I see all these tales of people going off on these awesome holidays. I always say, one day that will be me. Sadly, it never has been. I have been on 3 plane based self funded holidays. All to the same place. Melbourne. Don't get me wrong, I love Melbourne (hence the reason I keep going back!) so it was no hardship. However, I have NEVER left the country. For people who live in Europe or even America, this is hard to believe, but I can't just get in a car & drive to another country from here, hell getting to another state takes a good 2 days (of non-stop driving).
  So, I have started planning.. because obviously with a mortgage, 2 kids in a private school & not earning bucket loads of money,  it takes some planning & saving. But where to go?

I have it narrowed down to 3 options:
1) 3 weeks in Melbourne (the other halfs bro lives there) & on the Gold Coast (theme parks!)
2) 3 weeks driving around New Zealand.
3) 6 weeks in Holland/Lithuania/UK.. yes, I said Lithuania!

Why Lithuania I hear you asking? Well, I just read this book called "From Russia with Lunch" by David Smeidt. he decides to go on this pilgrimage to Lithuania to find out more about his Lithuanian grandparents. To cut a long story short, it has inspired me to want to visit the country. I would prefer to go to more off the beaten path places, because I think sometimes, you get a better sense of a country & its history if it hasn't been beaten half to death by a billion tourists. And there are defintely some stories which inspired me, like the Japanese diplomat, based in Vilnius, who probably saved more Jews then Oskar Schindler in WW2, yet is totally unrecognised, except by the people he saved. As well, to visit somewhere like the Hill of Crosses, which sprang up from so few, I think will be something that I will regret not experiencing. So it is off the beaten path we go.. in about 5 - 7 years :)

Oh & for those who may be wondering, the UK & dutch parts of the trip are my own pilgrimages to see where my family has come from.