Dream Vacations

When I was a teenager, I heard the song "Breakfast at Tiffany's," which led me to watch the movie that was referenced in the song, and thus began my deep appreciation for Audrey Hepburn. As I began to watch her other films, I saw Roman Holiday. That movie brought about two dreams in my young little heart: to live in a cute little European town in an apartment with a balcony, where I could learn a language and buy flowers at a market and to travel to Rome some day and put my hand in the Mouth of Truth.

When I was 25, I was nearing the end of my two years in Portugal, and I took a vacation to Italy. While there, the #1 thing on my wish list to do in Rome was go to the Mouth of Truth and put my hand in it. When I did, I became so overcome with emotion that I sat down on the ground right in front of it and began to cry. My friends asked me what was wrong, and I whimpered, "I'm 25 and all my dreams have come true!"

My friends responded, "Then it's time for you dream some more dreams!" Looking back, I would add to that--and some bigger ones!

Ride a camel and an elephant. Done.

Spend a summer traveling around India. Done.

See the pyramids. Done.

Go to Africa. Done, done, and done.

Learn arabic. Don...well, working on it.

See a ballet. Done.

Travel around the Alps. Done.

Learn to quilt. Done.

Take a cruise. Done. Afterwards, upgraded to: Take a transatlantic cruise.

This past weekend, the camelridingcowgirl and I booked tickets for a transatlantic cruise. 14 nights on a Royal Caribbean cruiseship sailing from Barcelona and landing in New Orleans. I was so excited I could barely even get out my normal excitement squeal. Even the happy dance couldn't burst forth, I was so shocked that we actually are going to do this thing! I kept quivering, I was so thrilled.

Later, she and I began to discuss dream vacations. Here are my current ones:

1. To go to Jordan and see Petra.

2. To go on an easternjourney and visit friends there and maybe walk along a big wall.

3. To go to Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia.

4. To go on a Northern European cruise to see Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark.

5. To spend several weeks lazying my way around Ireland. I would like to do this with notpoems, and several really good books.

6. To spend several weeks doing absolutely nothing in one of those grass-roof bungalows built over the water in a place like Tahiti or the Seychelles, again, with several really good books.

Those are the current ones. Maybe 10 years from now, I'll have to make a new list, like I had to do 10 years ago. Maybe it won't even take 10 years...since I already have tickets booked for two of the dreams!

And don't worry, the camelridingcowgirl and I won't pull too many Lorelei and Dorothy antics on our transatlantic cruise...