Time for Travel

I was hanging out with a friend discussing things that we would love to do if we had unlimited funds and time. What we ended up deciding was that we would probably take a world cruise. We are not talking about just going for a week... we are talking about the cruises that are three to four months long.

I want to overwhelm my senses with how other people live. I want to see things that were built more than two thousand years ago. I want to take pictures of churches, pyramids, markets, waterways, everything! I want to saturate myself in things that I don't see every day.

I would want to buy wacky, one of a kind jewelry in every city. When I was in Australia, my friend Emilee was asked where she purchased her earrings. She, the world traveller, had to tell them, oops... sorry, I got them in Belgium. In Belgium! How random is that?

Not that I'd want to brag about it if I got to go. No, I noticed after I got home from Australia that I felt calmer in general; that I knew that not all places were like home. I was actually reassured by this. I just wanted to watch people and soak up what makes a country the way it is.

I think that is truly the heart of travel. Okay, I love architecture and I really think that it is art, but that doesn't necessarily dictate how the people are. I love seeing the weird idiosyncratic things that make up a people. I love the differences.. they are so interesting. I don't want to hang out with people that are just like me, I want to get to know people that are different.

I found so many things in other cultures interesting. My sister-in-law is from Japan and she explained that when someone dies, they are only cremated to the point that the bones are still there. Then a family keeps the bones in their home. Wild! A) I didn't even know that a procedure like that was possible... what lengths did they go to to discover that? and B) other cultures' burial practices say many things about that culture. This practice shows that they revere their family, venerate them. I thought that it might not be my cup of tea, but I am glad for them.

See, that is what I want to learn. I want to get to know an area. Okay, maybe a whirlwind, around the world cruise won't be enough. Maybe I'm going to have to consider starting to travel for weeks at a time to one individual place. I just know that I want to travel more. I don't ever want to stop learning... ever.

Love to you all out there, Muffinhound