Are you tired of the boring day to day aspects of life? Do you want something new and exciting? Then these are the ten places you want to live. They are all places that have come from fiction and each one has a special something to make life interesting and enjoyable. This list is in no particular order.
Reason for living here: King Arthur lives here and you can joust all day long!
Camelot comes from legendary British tales of King Arthur – who may, or may not, have been real. In Camelot we find Arthur’s famous round table where his knights get to sit around like equals and have a few beers while they discuss their latest knightly conquests. Camelot is surrounded by forests and rivers, so you can get in a spot of fishing and hunting if it floats your boat. Justice and peace reign in Camelot. Oh – and the ultra-hot (in a medieval way) Guinevere lives there too!
Reason for living here: No need to work, food a plenty, and everyone is naked!
Many believe Eden was a real place, and just as many don’t. But the fact is, if it were real, this would be the spot to settle down! The Garden of Eden is full of trees bent over with fruit and all the animals are friendly. Not only do you get to eat until you can eat no more, but you can ride lions and tigers all afternoon! Seriously – it doesn’t get more awesome than that. Just watch out for the snake!
Reason for living here: It is a City of Gold!
El Dorado is a legendary city of gold. It is seen as a type of “Holy Grail” for each man – the thing you most seek in life is found here. Basically, whatever your fetish, you will not leave unsatisfied from this place. Better yet, it is somewhere in South America, so it shouldn’t cost you much to get there!
Reason for living here: It rains cheese!
Cockaigne is a land of contraries, where all the restrictions of society are defied (abbots beaten by their monks), sexual liberty is open (nuns flipped over to show their bottoms), and food is plentiful (skies that rain cheeses). This is a place where idleness and gluttony are the principal occupations – who doesn’t want that?
Reason for living here: You never grow old
Beimeni is a legendary city – said to be home to the fountain of youth! It is also a land of great wealth – an earthly paradise. Legend has it that Juan Ponce de León discovered Florida while he was looking for Beimeni and the fountain of youth. Kind of ironic I guess.
Reason for living here: Battle and feast daily
Valhalla, the “afterworld” of the Vikings is a place where all the dead warriors and gods live. Now – you have to be dead to go there, but it is worth it! Every day you get to fight against giants! But wait – it gets better. At the end of every battle you get to feast on the cosmic boar and drink beer all night long! When you finish eating the boar (Sæhrímnir) he is brought back to life so you can start eating him all over again! Oh – and the Valkyries (hot goddesses) live here too – so you are not likely to get bored.
Reason for living here: If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for us!
Avalon is the place that King Arthur ended up before he died. It is also the place where King Arthur’s sword (Excalibur) was made. In Avalon you can get the best apples in the world – and presumably pretty damned good cider too. When Jesus came back to life, he is said to have visited Avalon with Joseph of Arimathea (the guy who gave Jesus his tomb). I told you the apples were good.
Reason for living here: It’s a utopia
Shangri-La is a mystical valley in the Himalayas. It is a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. The people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan. The place is so popular that the Nazis sent an expedition out to find it in 1938. Fortunately they didn’t find it!
Reason for living here: Lots of gold and diamonds – and it’s magic!
Most of the descriptions of the City of the Caesars talks about the city as a prosperous and rich city full of gold, silver and diamonds. It is described as an enchanted city that appears in certain moments. At least one description says it located in between two mountains one of gold and another of diamonds.
Reason for living here: Orgies
Ys is a mythical city that was built on the coast of Brittany and later swallowed by the ocean. Ys was built below sea level by Gradlon, King of Cornouaille, upon the request of his daughter Dahut, who loved the sea. It was the most beautiful and impressive city in the world. Unfortunately for the King (but fortunately for those who live there), Dahut was a bad girl and she started throwing wild parties and orgies.
Contributor: Xanthius
WHOT no Heaven?? Not even the muslim kind with all the virgins and stuff?
Why would you want virgins? I would want experienced women, like hookers or something(without STD’s of course)!
markus @ 14: this is a list of "mythical" places, so of course heaven wouldn't be here because it actually exists.
Let the debate/war begin…
F*ck you.
Ys Indeed!
it is my dream to live in some kind of eden!
‘El Dorado’is the place to go…fantastic list
Mine too! Fortunately I am living in something CLOSE to an eden right now – I look out over a beautiful waterfall and rabbits playing in the garden. pics here
wonderful list!!!!!
the pics too……..which place is tat???
Cool list, surprising how many fantasy worlds I’ve never heard of (I just invent my own mostly haha).
Great list! Sign me up. And JFra, I’m jealous.
It would have been good if the list included where (the book or legend or whatever) these fantastical places originated.
jfrater: Shouldn’t you be shooting (and eating haha) those rabbits? Unless they’re pets of course
Gee, I need a new travel agent. He has never told me of these places!
Shangri-La sounds good…
btw, Shangri-La is actually a luxury hotel over here…XD
Great list. I can’t pick where I would want to live. It’s a tough choice between orgies and raining cheese…
Also, I am really jealous Jamie, that looks like a gorgeous place to live.
wonderful places all !
except Cockaigne:
1) who wants to get bonked on the head with a cheese?
2) i do not want to see the bottoms of most nuns
(i will refrain from commenting on monks beating on abbots or abbots spanking little boys
)
thanks for a great list, Xanthius!
I’m actually rather shocked that Atlantis didn’t make the list. Burgeoning technology, streets lined with copper and gold, wealth, prosperity, harmony.. I know I wouldn’t mind having a summer home there
jfrater:
My god Jamie… that place is striking.
See, now if we ALL just lived in someplace like that, we’d ALL be happy. That is, if we also didn’t have to work and had all our needs tended to… They do that in New Zealand, don’t they?
Anyway, absolutely beautiful.
And Xanthius—nice list, good job.
Pretty good list, but some more detailed explanations would have been appreciated. For example, from which stories/myths do Cockaigne and the City of the Caesars come from? I’ve never heard of them.
One of the best lists ever! My personal choice? Cockaigne! Must be the best place for the best snort! Plus you get to beat church people and make love to promiscuous nuns!
Randall / JFrater: Here’s a few pics of where I grew up in NZ (not my photos)
http://flickr.com/photos/maevans/2126806475/
http://flickr.com/photos/palmersintokyo/452091812/
They’re two different beaches but part of the same family farm. Pretty huh?
what about atlantis?
Tempyra:
Beautiful. Amazingly beautiful. To me there’s nothing better than a seascape. Beaches are the greatest inventions of creation.
All I have is my lake… nice, and I love it… but not the same.
But I do get to Maine every year. Not as nice as semi-tropical New Zealand, but at least it’s the ocean.
jamie @4: Are you naked? (Ok, forget I asked that!)
nick @21: Bring your own scuba diving equipment.
Apropos of which, presumably the orgies in Ys took place before it was swallowed by the ocean.
Randall: I’d settle for a lake right now (there is one up the road but it’s a silly little suburban one), Australia is a bit bare and dry for me (sorry Astraya
). Not to mention, it takes hours to get to a decent beach.
The description of Valhalla makes me laugh – a never-ending boar
Nick: Yeah really, you’d think it would be there. The fact that it was destroyed by a giant wave though would make one think it was more like Japan than Utopia the size of Australia; imagine then all the earthquakes and tsunamis. No thank you, Atlantis, no thank you. I’ll stick to my falling cheese.
Actually, I would want to live in Tir Na Nog so I could become a mystic knight
I love your pics, Jamie. Can I come live with you?? I could be your maid!! Oh, great list, by the way.
Egg: I kinda like the idea of the cheese place too as long as there was plenty of different types. I could get a bit bored eating cheddar everyday. Or brie. Or Camembert… I could go on
My personal choice would be Homer Simpson’s Land of Chocolate
Wdwn, Valhala, and Shangri-La for sure. Not so sure about no.1
Tenebrae & nick: I was thinking Atlantis, too.
How about Chewandswallow from the book “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”? Everyday food rained from heaven – no need for shopping or any some such… Only problem, the food eventually got too big and the town was ruined. But it would’ve been beautiful before then.
hrmm…I bet the cheesy place doesn’t smell very good. I’ll pick Camelot and choose when to eat cheese. Also, there’s knights there and they know how to treat a lady. Sign me up for Lancelot over smelly fat cheese men any day.
Great idea for a list. I really enjoyed it!
Excellent and very entertaining list! I pick Beimeni!
What about Grand Theft Auto’s Liberty City….drinking, hookers, steal any car you want, of course, there is the whole murder thing….gotta take the negatives with the positives…
Randy @ 26: Well Valhalla is the Vikings’ heaven.
Randall-
Don’t you live in NY? I’d be at the Hamptons allllll time time. Maine is pretty too, though. Unfortunately I only have Ocean City- Maryland, not New Jersey- (thank god) but it’s definitely not the same. Makes the 5 hour trip to the Outer Banks waaaaaaaaaay more worth it every year.
Callie:
At present I live in *upstate* NY, though… though of course I agree about the Hamptons… only trouble is, it’s so *gentrified.* I prefer Maine. We went there every summer when I was a kid. We had a place on the coast.
But my present location isn’t bad. I live on a very nice, large lake, with a beach and my sailboat and a big backyard and nice neighbors who ply me with gin. Can’t beat that easily.
Funny, when I think of Camelot, I can only think of this…
OR…
I would be pretty contented with King Solomon’s mines.
What about Big Rock Candy Mountain?
Similar, I know, to Cockaigne, but it has it’s own anthem already
What, no heaven?
How about Rivendell?
Screw all that, I want to be inside Willy Wonka’s factory where the SNOZZBERRIES TASTE LIKE SNOZZBERRIES!!
Course, I’d probably end up like that fat kid and get stuck in the chocolate tube.
I guess you gotta die of something but what a great way to go.
haha i enjoy number one and how it just said orgies.
the end. haha
I would go for the garden of eden, but then again I am not a strict fruit and veggie person.
I enjoy my braai now and again – but I suppose waking up in the morning and having friendly buck and animals around you, staring at you with droopy moist eyes – I would delete that idea from my mind.
Fantastic site
Im changing my pseodonym to Dahut!
“pseudonym”
jfrater #4: I am suprised that you have time to maintain this website whilst living in such a beautiful place. I would be spending most of my time outside with nature.
nice new list
a list like that is really exiting to read
i don’t know if i would want to live in Ys because in the wikipedia article, it says that after the orgies Dahut killed the boys
Is this the same Ys that I played on my Turbo Grafx16 way back in the day?!
Brigadoon would be cool, every day passing is 100 years in the real world.
The first place I thought of was Utopia, and it doesn’t even make an appearance?
What about Atlantis?
B!
I was wondering where you went
Did you miss me?!
Of ALL these spots, the coolest really, to me, seems to be Shangri-La. In the original film of “Lost Horizon” (it’s better than the book, I think, but then most films with Ronald Coleman are a delight… I’d advise everyone to check it out… it’s a true classic) the nobility of the place comes across so well that it makes you feel warm just to watch it. Of course, I’m not so sure I agreed with the philosophy behind it, but then that tug of war between resigning from the world and participating in it was always touchy.
But of course. Or forum has run dry. Also, I want to know if you like cheese world or one of the cooler ones. Don’t pick the orgy one just for the orgy.