Welcome to the Listening Time podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 209 of the Listening Time podcast.
I hope you're doing excellent.
I hope that your English learning is going great and that you're ready to practice your listening with another episode.
And this will be a fun episode because I
I'm going to talk about some of the most incredible sights I've ever seen.
Some of the most incredible places or landscapes or just things that I've seen in different places.
And this will be a two-part series.
This is part one.
And then part two will be the next advanced podcast episode for you listening time family members and VIPs.
So in that part, two episode, I think I'm also going to include the number one, the best site.
But in this part one episode today I'm also going to talk about some of the best sites I've seen, but I'll save the best one for that.
Part two episode.
But this will be fun, I think.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time!
Okay, let me talk about some of the most incredible sights I've ever seen.
These are very personal choices, so these are things that I consider incredible, but other people might not have the same opinion as me, but I think they're pretty cool.
So the first one I wanted to talk about is is the desert of Northern Arizona and the part of land that we might refer to as Navajo Nation.
A lot of land in this region is part of navajo nation.
You can look that up later if you want but i'm referring to places close to page, that city and monument valley, for example, and other parts of northern arizona.
Why is this on my list?
Because the desert is not everyone's cup of tea, meaning not everyone personally prefers this landscape or likes the desert or finds it that beautiful.
But I have always loved the desert, especially in the US.
I love the desert landscape and desert colors.
And so the best of the best in terms of desert for me is Northern Arizona.
There are plenty of interesting formations and attractions and natural places that make for great pictures.
By the way, for example, around Monument Valley, You can be driving through this flat desert and then all of a sudden you see these huge sandstone buttes I think they're called.
I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.
These huge sandstone rock structures that look very strikingly amid the flat desert it's very interesting it's striking like i said it really uh sticks with you this image of these big sandstone structures I don't remember how many there are there, but I remember seeing multiple sandstone buttes and thinking, wow, this is really cool.
These are amazing formations.
You should look this up when you're done listening to this episode.
Look up Monument Valley and you'll see what I'm talking about.
This landscape is what we might consider haunting, but beautiful.
There's something a little intimidating about it.
You feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, but you see this incredible beauty.
This type of landscape is really cool when you're on a road trip in the US and you're, You're looking out the window and admiring all of the natural beauty that the US has to offer.
And this desert in particular is very unique in my opinion.
There aren't deserts like this in other parts of the world.
I think that if you've never been here before, you might not be able to imagine the beauty of that the Northern Arizona desert has.
You should look that up after this episode.
I really like it.
I remember those images from the road trip I took through there.
It was a really cool experience and that's why it's on my list.
So that's the first one I wanted to talk about.
Another incredible sight I've seen is the crystal clear underwater environment in Hawaii.
So when I was a kid, my family went to Hawaii several times.
I've also been as an adult, but I went more as a kid, and my family would always go snorkeling, something that I was never a fan of, to be honest.
However, in Hawaii, even I enjoyed snorkeling.
Why?
Well, the crystal clear water and the marine life, meaning the animals underwater.
This is incredible.
Absolutely phenomenal in Hawaii, especially if you go to a very renowned snorkeling spot, meaning a very famous and highly praised snorkeling spot.
If you go to one of these places in Hawaii and you snorkel, you'll see what I'm talking about.
It's overwhelming really, because You go underwater and you're met with this insane, incredible sight of fish of every shape and size and every color of the rainbow.
Fish you've never seen before.
It's really, really cool.
I have some vivid images in my head of snorkeling even when I was really young.
When I was a little kid, I can remember these images in my head.
That's how striking this image was.
And that's why I had to include this on my list.
There aren't that many sites that really have stuck with me for many years, but this is one of those sites.
And like I said, I'm not a huge snorkeling fan.
I was never that interested in this.
I didn't like wearing the little flippers or whatever you call them on your feet.
My parents forced me to do this.
They knew it would be good for me.
But when I actually did it, I was in awe. meaning I was speechless, I was amazed.
It kind of ruined all other swimming and snorkeling for me because nothing could come close to that experience, that underwater snorkeling experience in the crystal clear water of Hawaii.
Now, if I go snorkeling somewhere else, it's not nearly as impressive as that.
I don't see nearly the amount, the variety in the marine life, all the different fish of different colors and shapes and sizes.
It's just not the same anywhere else.
So that kind of ruined snorkeling in other places for me.
But I'm glad I have that experience and that memory.
So that's another incredible sight.
The third one I wanted to mention is the Pena Palace of Sintra.
I'm pronouncing all of this with an English accent, sorry.
This is in Portugal, very close to Lisbon.
So this palace is like a fairy tale castle.
It looks like something from Disney, like something you would see at Disneyland or whatever.
But this is a real place.
It's not something that was constructed for kids to go and play in.
This is a really cool palace at the top of this huge hill, I guess I'll call it.
And I think that this is the place where my wife and I probably took the most photos ever, out of any other place we've been to.
So that should tell you how interesting, picturesque and beautiful and incredible this place is.
You should look this up after you listen to this episode.
Of course, I took many photos and I'm not someone that likes taking photos, so this was a really cool experience.
It was a little bit hard to walk up there not exactly hard, but it took a while to walk up and you kind of have to earn it, as we say, because you got to go up the hill and we didn't go by car.
I forget what we did.
We must have taken the train to Sintra and then walked up the hill.
I think that's what we did.
And so we had to earn it.
We had to walk up this big hill, but it was worth it.
When we got to the top, And we saw this fairy tale palace.
It was really cool.
The colors are really vivid.
Meaning they're bright and alive.
It's something that I had seen in photos before.
And that's why I wanted to go.
But the photos didn't compare to how it looks in real life.
So...
Even if you look up photos after this, it'll be even better if you go there in person.
It really is worth it.
And we took a little tour through the inside.
Or maybe it wasn't a guided tour.
I don't really remember.
I just remember...
Looking at this palace from the outside, going to the different parts outside it and taking pictures of it from different angles, you can tell that I really liked this place.
And we loved Portugal overall.
We had a great time there, a great experience there.
And I'll actually include one more site from Portugal in the part two to this episode, in the advanced episode in which I'll talk about some other sites.
So you won't want to miss that.
Make sure you listen to that as well.
All right.
The next one I want to talk about is Teotihuacan.
I've mentioned this before.
I think I talked about this in a couple episodes, probably.
This is the ancient city of ruins right outside Mexico City.
And this is different from other ruins in Mexico that I've been to.
I haven't been to tons of different archaeological sites and ruins in mexico, but i've probably been to three or four other places like this at least, and none of them are like teotihuacan.
It's different from these other sites, so Because of the size, it's very big actually.
There are a lot of different structures, and it takes a little while to walk around the whole area.
It's like a whole city.
Not a huge city, but it's like a little city of ruins.
And when I went there back in 2018... we were actually able to walk up the pyramids.
We were actually able to go to the top of one of them, I think, or maybe two, but I remember going to the top of one of them, which is something that I don't think is permitted anymore.
So that's another thing that made this a really incredible experience for us.
We got to go up back when you still could go up one of these pyramids or both of the big ones.
I can't remember if you were able to go to the very top of the other big one, but I remember going halfway up at least.
But it was cool to see the rest of the site from the top of one of these pyramids.
That was a really cool sight to see it from above.
And just imagine that.
The life that used to be there.
These ruins are also really interesting too, because there's a lot of mystery surrounding the disappearance of the people who used to live there, if I'm not mistaken.
Sorry, I'm not an expert on this, but I think that's the case.
And just imagining the people that used to live there, the life there.
It's really cool.
It really adds to the awe factor, as we might say, the amazing quality of this site.
And ruins are always interesting, at least to me, but super intact ruins, meaning they're not all broken down and damaged.
They're still fully built and you can climb up them.
Intact ruins like these big pyramids, they're even more interesting.
They're even more incredible because you can clearly imagine what...
Life used to look like here.
You don't have to use too much imagination to reconstruct the ruins in your mind.
So this is a really interesting place to go to and I had to include it on this list.
Another incredible sight that I've seen is the New York City skyline at night, seen from Hoboken, New Jersey, which is right across the river.
We went to New York and spent just a couple nights there in 2017 on our way to Europe.
And it was just a little stopover in New York City.
So we only spent two days there.
And in all honesty, I didn't have a great experience in New York City.
I was kind of glad to leave and go to Paris afterwards.
But I think that was just my experience.
I would like to go back and try it again and see if if I have a better experience the second time.
But one thing that really stuck with me was when we saw the skyline, meaning you see the city, the outline of the buildings, you see the skyscrapers.
So when we saw the skyline of New York City At night when we were in Hoboken, New Jersey, you can see the whole panorama of New York City from that location.
And it was really special for me.
I'd never seen a city like that before.
This was the first time that I had ever seen such a massive city of skyscrapers and buildings, buildings of all kinds, and you just feel the energy.
You feel like there are important things going on there, important business and productivity.
This is kind of the feeling you get when you see this type of city.
And I doubt that there are many cities like this in the world, with this type of energy and this type of skyline.
I am not a huge city person.
I like traveling and exploring cities.
Yes, but in terms of just concrete buildings or I'm not the biggest fan.
I like exploring older, more historical cities, so the more modern cities of the US aren't that interesting for me, but this New York City skyline at night was incredible, so that should tell you something.
Meaning that fact that I don't really like are modern type city architecture, but I was still really impressed by that skyline.
That shows you how impressive it is.
So I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about and have already seen it before, and maybe some of you will have the chance to see it one day.
All right, one other incredible site that I wanted to include on this list, this part one list, is the Tuscan countryside Tuscany, Italy.
We went to Italy in 2019 and for me, if I just consider the whole country, I would probably say that Italy was one of, if not the most beautiful country that I've seen.
And one of the reasons for this is the Tuscan countryside.
We rented a car and drove through this region of Italy and it was really, really awesome.
I had heard about Tuscany as a kid.
I remember seeing pictures of it as a kid.
I think I remember hearing a little bit about it at certain Italian restaurants, like maybe they would have certain things related to Tuscany.
I don't really remember.
But I just remember hearing about this region, seeing it and wanting to go there as a kid.
And it was cool to be able to realize this dream, achieve this goal.
I don't think I ever thought that I would really go there, but I did.
So that was awesome.
I designed this whole road trip through Tuscany.
I remember doing research and finding the best ways to drive through it to get the best views, the best experience. to go on some really cool roads that are winding meaning they go back and forth left and right like a snake almost so we went up some winding roads up the hills and I'm sure a lot of you already know what I'm talking about, but if you don't, look up Tuscany when you're done with this episode and you'll see pictures of the rolling hills and these trees and these iconic little houses on the top of the hills.
Just amazing.
Everything looks like a painting.
It looks like you're in a painting.
It's a really special place, in my opinion.
I remember needing to park the car.
Couldn't resist getting out and taking pictures of what we were seeing.
It was Really really beautiful.
I had never seen something similar.
There's nothing I can really compare it to, and it was just an overall unforgettable experience.
Italy itself was just unforgettable overall, but specifically that road trip that we took through Tuscany and stopping and just taking pictures and looking and admiring this like painting, almost that we were seeing, that will always stay in my memory, I think.
So I had to include that on this list as well.
All right.
If you want to hear the other incredible sites that I've seen, make sure to listen to the next advanced podcast episode.
And so if you haven't done so already, make sure to become a listening time family member.
Remember, like I said, if you sign up, you get all of my old content as well.
All of the dozens and dozens of advanced episodes that I've already posted and all the other content that is for listening time family members.
So it's a great deal.
Make sure to check that out.
The link is down below and check out my U.S.
Conversations podcast at You'll really like it.
It's a lot of fun.
That link is down below as well.
And as always, please give this podcast a five-star rating and write a review.
I really appreciate that.
All right.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
