I just have to say I am super-pumped about my trip to Europe in 35 days. HOLY COW...in 35 days I will be flying to Paris and Rome with my two girlfriends, and I will get to see some of the most historically significant architecture/monuments on the planet! Up to this point, I haven't really considered myself as having been out of the country. Yes, I've been to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Mexico, and some of the Virgin Islands, but I haven't really been out of the country. This is because I haven't slept in another country, ate several meals in another country, or experienced the culture in another country. I have only taken cruises out of the United States, and been on foreign land for eight hours at a time only to return to the safe haven of the boat. So, this trip to Europe is technically my first real experience traveling out of the country. Anything can happen. I could get mugged. I could get food poisoning. I could be sleeping in a dangerously-located hotel where they don't change the sheets. Sure, all of these things might possibly happen. Even Rob says, "You know the movie, Taken? If you get abducted and sold into the slave trade, I don't have the skills to get you back like Liam Neeson." I'm pretty sure my girlfriends and I are alittle old for anyone to want to put us in the slave trade, but we'll be smart and safe all the same. I like to think of all the lifelong memories I'm going to create just by taking a single eight day trip. In Paris, I'll sip a real cappuccino at a corner café. I'll see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Château of Versailles where Marie Antoinette resided, the Arc du Triomphe, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Le Moulin Rouge, and I'll cruise on the Seine River. I'll try new things, like escargot and real champagne from France. In Rome, I'll see the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, the Piazza de Spagna and Trevi Fountain, the Vatican, St. Peters Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel where Michelangelo famously painted the ceiling. I'll have real, genuine, authentic pizza, gelato, spaghetti, and so many more things I can't pronounce. I'll probably gain a ton of weight from all the food I'll be eating, but I'm excited about it all the same.
In the United States, the oldest man-made architectural monuments you can visit are around four hundred years old when explorers first arrived. In Paris and Rome, monuments and historic places have been around for centuries, and many places pre-date the time of Jesus. When put into perspective, it just makes me realize how much of the Old World I haven't seen. Matter of fact, I haven’t seen anything! As an anthropology major, there is nothing more exciting than studying the archaeological remnants of mans past. It's mind-blowing to think that the Colosseum was built in 79 A.D. and it's still around for my viewing pleasure. I'll see where gladiators once fought to the death just to entertain the Roman citizens! I’ve been researching each city, and the more I read the more excited I get. I might seriously stroke out. I recently learned if you dig three feet under the surface at any place in Rome, you will find ruins. Well, I say to my fellow travel buddies, be sure to pack a shovel!
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