Travel

I don't consider myself a great world traveler. I have been to and loved a few places around the world, but there are still hundreds of cities on every continent that I have yet to explore. I have been to enough places to realize that I prefer country over city, and mountains over fields.

However, one of my absolute favorite places in the world is the isle of Capri, off the coast of Italy. I went there with a group from my high school when I was only seventeen. We'd traveled from London to Paris to several cities in Italy before we arrived in Capri. There, I found the wonderment from my childhood again. I saw the world through fresh eyes and drank in its cool, clear, blue water. I wandered the streets and giggled with my friends.

On this day, I went to the Blue Grotto. To get there, we took a rowboat operated by a local. When we approached the opening of this cave, we were told that the entrance was so small that we had to lie down in the boat in order to squeeze through. Once inside, our guide told us to close our eyes until he said to open them. When we did, we were surrounded by the bluest blue shining light. We were bathing in blue. It was absolutely magical.



On a similarly magical experience, I experienced the Swiss Alps with a group from my university. We really were just driving through Switzerland, on our way to Germany... but as soon as I saw those mountains, I loudly declared that when I grew up, I wanted to be Swiss. I couldn't stop staring at these beautiful, peaceful, towering rocks. I remeI had a similarly magical experience when I first saw the Swiss Alps. This time, I was travellingmber the snow-covered peaks contrasting with the green of the country and the blue of the lakes.

Then the group stopped at McDonald's for lunch and the experience will forever be tainted with that nonsense.

Recently, my husband and I drove around the mountains of West Virginia. We made it to the top of the mountain (with my nails digging into the upholstery of the car's interior), and it was well worth the trip. The air was fresh and clean and we saw countless eagles and hawks. As we looked over the Shenandoah Valley, the clouds were low and misty, the sounds natural and quiet.

On my list of places to visit: the mountains of New Zealand, the Congo, the Amazon, and Indonesia.