I SpY a VaCaTioN

Last week I read a story on Reuters about a man and his soon to be ex-wife in Germany. While she was away at work, the husband, who just happens to be a mason, literally sawed their home in half and drove his portion off, where it now sits in his brother's yard... If you don't believe me, here is the photo of it being hauled away! Now that is what I call "creative problem solving." Needless to say, his wife was not happy about it! Right after that lovely story I read about another woman in Kansas who had her husband's ashes made into an egg timer when he died so he could still "help" in the kitchen. When I think of stories like these, I am reminded of something one of my favorite people, Harlan, once said to me. He said, "You know what Alexandra? I don't like most people but...I love certain people and so I just focus all my attention on them."

I'm headed up to Seattle this week as part of a certification program I am taking at The Gottman Institute at University of Washington. I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to learn and work closely with one of my favorite writers and clinicians in my field. I'm also going to see a dear friend I haven't seen in nine years! In the meantime, I never got to post my response to Sunday Scribbling's "Dream Journey" prompt last Sunday but all week long I have been inspired and dreaming about it and as I searched on the Net for photos, I found yet more places I yearn to go, some places I had never even heard of before, like Taprobane Island off the coast of Sri Lanka. Its just a few hundred yards into the Indian Ocean and you can wade your way there or arrive by elephantback. Founded by an eccentric count in the 1920s, it is very tiny and looks like an extremely cozy place to stay. There is also an annual festival every year in the U.K. where participants gallop at a crazed pace down a very steep hill in hot pursuit of a round block of runaway Double Gloucester cheese as it barrels down the hillside. This fantastic event takes place every "spring bank holiday" in May. I really want to see this!

I also want to spend a night at a lighthouse on the White Cliffs of Dover, dream under reindeer skins in a hotel made entirely of ice blocks in Sweden, and nap in a thatched treehouse in a guanacastle tree in Belize. In Provence, there are old Gypsy wagons which have been beautifully restored and which you can now rent, and right beside a river even. I could easily stay here for a good month! Of course there are plenty of other places I have already been and ache to return to- Bulgaria, Transylvania, Turkey, Greece, Israel, Italy, just to name a few.

I would almost sell off my left buttock if someone would let me trade it for a round the world ticket. I've never been to South and Central America, "Norwegia," India, Africa...looking at globes makes me want to leap right inside them like Mary Poppins and Bert did into the sidewalk chalk sketch. Remember how neat that was? High up on my list is to take The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, Austria, where you can see all the places the movie was filmed forty plus years ago and of course, NO trip would be complete without going to MoominWorld in Finland. I don't know why the Moomin books have never been popular in the States but they are my favorite children's books of all time. Moominworld is set up to be a recreation exactly as the author/illustrator, Tove Jansson, imagined them in her many books!

I want to go back to Luxembourg Gardens and have a twilight picnic, play UNO on the Orient Express (which used to pass right through my town in Bulgaria), and I'd love to do more trips that combine travel with volunteering. Maybe not another two year Peace Corps stint, at least not for awhile, but something that allowed me to discover a new part of the earth while also making a difference there, if even in some small way.