two months from today....

Photo found at the Library of Congress' Flickr Page.

Two months from today, I will be returning from a trip to Ireland and Scotland. Two years ago I went to Paris, and this is the follow-up trip.

Last time I had three friends who went with me. This time I will be "alone", meaning I don't know any of the other people going WELL, but I traveled with them last time in Paris; or most of them.

I recently saw, and am now reading "Eat, Pray, Love", by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's like yoga for your soul. She went on her own spiritual pilgrimage, and I am enjoying her story; it's vastly entertaining.

A current favorite quote is her telling the reader about how the Italian language came to be. In explaining how some folks got together and decided to use the most beautiful dialect, they selected Dante's, "He felt Latin was corruppted, elitist language, and that the use of it in serious prose had 'turned literature into a harlot' by making universal narrative into something that could be bought with money, through the privilege of an aristocratic education." This solidifies my belief in the right of people in general to universal education. I do feel this is a right. Go, Liz! =)

I am not exactly sure what reading this book now, or being in this place has to do with my upcoming trip, except that I am ready to embark on another adventure. I've made plans by myself, to ensure I encounter interesting and varied people, and I can't wait.

"Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice". OMG, she gets it. I feel this way! My route is more circuitous, I think I love traveling so much because I wasn't able to do a lot of it in my early life. We went on small trips, and I adore my mom, that she did what she could with what she had, but until I was over 40, I'd never left the North American continent. I've still never been to Mexico and have been to British Columbia. If you would ever have asked me if I thought I'd make it to Canada first, I would have laughed at you.

I was supposed to be an exchange student when I was 16. I was supposed to go to Germany for a month of the Summer. The partners were picked out, but I was not a traditional high schooler. I worked, to have money for the things I wanted. This German girl came and stayed with us. She stayed for three weeks and decided that she hated me and hated our family and wanted to live somewhere else. That girl, who our German student stayed with for about ten days, got to go to Germany. All my friends went. I was devastated. I stayed home and I worked.

Now here I am. My kids are raised, my care-taking responsibilities are largely gone, and it's my turn to see everything!

Peace!

There are also amazing things in this country I have yet to see. I decided, before I was 40, to start there, to learn how to travel in stages, and now that my kids are grown, my pursuit will be relentless until I have seen all I want to see, which I think is a list that will never, ever end. At least I hope it never ends =)