As I kick this blog off, I am not sitting on a white sugar-sand beach with a fruity frozen drink (complete with a mini umbrella) melting in my hand... or just getting in from an eye-opening stroll through a 3,000-year-old city (doesn't that always make you feel so small?)... or soaking in a hot tub high in the Alps after an exhausting (in a good way!) day of hitting the slopes. Nope, I'm in my freshly painted gray home office in Greensboro, North Carolina, with a Monet copy to my left and a wannabe Tiffany lamp to my right. I try to have culture in my life even when I can't leave home, but it's so much more fun to get out there and see it firsthand.
I remember the first time I saw the Coliseum in Rome. After walking through this huge, modern city for several blocks, we turned a corner and there it was... it took my breath away. This amazing structure that I'd seen in books, pictures, and movies for years was now right in front of me. I could touch it, walk through its labyrinthine grayish corridors (chips of once-vibrant paint still cling to the walls), stand in the middle of the sandy arena where men and animals once fought to the death, and later at night, see the glowing yellow eyes of hundreds of squatting stray cats peering out from the Coliseum's walls at me. It was a magical, mesmerizing place, as was all of Italy, and as is every new city and country I have the opportunity to visit.
I am most intrigued by foreign cultures, that is, any culture that is very different from my own and teaches me new things. But this blog won't only be dedicated to my travels to foreign countries. Like I said before, I am in no position financially to spend consecutive weeks globe-trotting without a job to sustain my travels. There are plenty of fantastic places to visit very close to my own home and I like to be attuned to all sorts of travel news (thanks Frommers.com, Fodors.com and Lonelyplanet.com!) so I think I'll always have plenty to post.
That being said, I want to list all of the countries I have been fortunate enough to travel to, and I will probably incorporate my experiences there into future posts:
Canada (Many, many visits! Can't count them all... beautiful country!)
Mexico (3/2001)
Italy (8/2001 and 6/2004)
Greece (8/2001)
Brazil (3/2002)
England (6/2004)
Spain (6/2004)
Portugal (6/2004)
France (6/2004)
Dominican Republic (4/2007)
Costa Rica (5/2008)
El Salvador (11/2008)
...And hopefully many more to come. There is a great big world out there and I want to see as much of it as possible.
I remember the first time I saw the Coliseum in Rome. After walking through this huge, modern city for several blocks, we turned a corner and there it was... it took my breath away. This amazing structure that I'd seen in books, pictures, and movies for years was now right in front of me. I could touch it, walk through its labyrinthine grayish corridors (chips of once-vibrant paint still cling to the walls), stand in the middle of the sandy arena where men and animals once fought to the death, and later at night, see the glowing yellow eyes of hundreds of squatting stray cats peering out from the Coliseum's walls at me. It was a magical, mesmerizing place, as was all of Italy, and as is every new city and country I have the opportunity to visit.
I am most intrigued by foreign cultures, that is, any culture that is very different from my own and teaches me new things. But this blog won't only be dedicated to my travels to foreign countries. Like I said before, I am in no position financially to spend consecutive weeks globe-trotting without a job to sustain my travels. There are plenty of fantastic places to visit very close to my own home and I like to be attuned to all sorts of travel news (thanks Frommers.com, Fodors.com and Lonelyplanet.com!) so I think I'll always have plenty to post.
That being said, I want to list all of the countries I have been fortunate enough to travel to, and I will probably incorporate my experiences there into future posts:
Canada (Many, many visits! Can't count them all... beautiful country!)
Mexico (3/2001)
Italy (8/2001 and 6/2004)
Greece (8/2001)
Brazil (3/2002)
England (6/2004)
Spain (6/2004)
Portugal (6/2004)
France (6/2004)
Dominican Republic (4/2007)
Costa Rica (5/2008)
El Salvador (11/2008)
...And hopefully many more to come. There is a great big world out there and I want to see as much of it as possible.
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