Just wanna live

I almost missed one of the most important events in my life as I skimmed through my years in graduate school.

My trip to Europe

I went to Europe in the late winter of 2007. February into March.

I went on an 12 day tour of like 9 countries. It was an incredible deal. Somewhere around 2 thousand for EVERYTHING- airfare, hotels, breakfast, everything except dinner and some lunches. It was kind of a wild tour bus-(it's called Contiki)- but it was such a great deal, I would recommend it to anyone. 

ANYWAY

As I recall it went something like this...

England to the Netherlands to Austria to Switzerland to Germany to Italy (Rome, Florence, and Venice) and finally to France. 

I know there were other countries. I just can't remember. 

I saw Paris and Rome and Amsterdam and London and Munich and a million other amazing places.

Me at the top of the Eiffel Tower at night!

I could regale you with story after story about how amazing it was and how much it changed my life. Because it WAS amazing and it DID change my life.

But rather than make this an insanely long post, I want to just share the most defining moments and what I took away from my European tour as a whole.

Moment 1

 Seeing the Anne Frank attic. It was breathtaking and sad. It was also a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I saw her actual diary and the pictures she put on the wall. I think it hit me hard because I had just had a niece born the year before (the lovely Elly Mae) and it made me sad to think of her, locked up in an attic and eventually dying young. All of that beauty and potential lost.

Moment 2 

Dachau- it's a lesser known concentration camp just outside of Munich. You can see WW 2 all over Germany. (the way you can still see the Civil War in the South). I thought being in  concentration camp would have an overwhelming feeling of sadness or evil. It just felt so empty. I'll never forget that feeling.

It says "work shall make you free". They wanted the prisoners to think it was a work camp.

Moment 3

 Seeing Belgium (we drove through it) and parts of France and Germany that reminded me of PA. It made me realize how hard it must have been for my ancestors to leave. They tried to bring a sense of their home with them and you can see it echoed all over where I'm from in PA. I can't imagine ever having had the strength to leave such beautiful places, much less my family.

Moment 4

Staring up at the Sistine Chapel. It's the only place on Earth (in my experience) that has the same feeling as a Temple. I thought it would be a grandiose cathedral (like much of the Vatican is) but it was a simple, wooden church- with this stunning, breathtaking ceiling. I could feel God in that tiny, crowded Chapel.

Moment 5

  Florence. It wasn't a city I knew much about and it was just kind of a 'eh' sort of stop. Until we got there. You could feel the history. I felt like I'd taken a step back into the Renaissance and I wish I could have stayed for months and months.

A piazza overlooking all of Florence. Me looking like the worst sort of tourist

There are so many more little moments- Gondola rides, running through the streets of Amsterdam, the AMAZING spaghetti in Italy, one really cool Australian girl:),  etc, etc, etc.... but my overall take away was this (after the pictures)...

The Pantheon!

Me and the aforementioned really cool Australian girl :) 

What I took away from this life changing trip is that I love visiting other places but am deeply attached to where I come from. I felt a little lost every moment I was gone from America. I got delayed a day in returning (and got to stay at the Heathrow Hilton, no less) and I just started crying. I wanted to go home.

Seeing where my family came from was incredibly powerful and there was a part of me that felt like France, England, and the coast of Ireland (which I could see from the plane) were places I had always known, and had just forgotten for a while. 

I loved Europe and I hope to go back someday. It reminded me that I come from a line of incredibly strong people. People who left these beautiful places to start over somewhere new. People whose convictions were stronger than any nationality, history or family even. Hinsdale's left France for religious freedom in the year 1632.

 That makes me a 13th generation American.

It's in my blood. I only feel completely safe and at peace here. I could never live anywhere else. So, in that respect, I am not as strong as my ancestors were.

Lori Ann