Emerson

"Though we travel the world to find the beautiful, we must carry it within us or we will find it not."                 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I found this quote on StumbleUpon tonight, and I really like it. If there's been one great thing that I've learned thus far in  my 2 and a half months abroad, it's that going to Paris isn't really about seeing the Eiffel Tower, just like going to Rome isn't really about seeing the Colosseum and going to Barcelona isn't about finally visiting the Sagrada Familia.

Rather, traveling is about the new people you meet, the new relationships you form, the experiences you encounter that prove to yourself that you are stronger, braver, and smarter than you had previously thought, and the new cultural understanding and appreciation you develop after getting to know people who have led a completely different life than you.

People have these checklists of things that have been dubbed important by other people or some travel expert somewhere sitting behind his Lonely Planet desk. They have to see the cathedrals, the museums, and every important piece of art since 500 B.C. I'm guilty of it, myself, as it had previously been one of my greatest life goals to "check off" all 1000 places in the "1,000 Places to See Before You Die" book.

But things are just that, things. And buildings are buildings. And the UNESCO World Heritage sites from the year 200 B.C...I'm going to go ahead and make the wild assumption that if they've made it this long, they aren't going anywhere within my lifetime.

So at the risk of sounding what some may consider childish and uncultural (actually I'd argue it's the exact opposite), I'm over the museums and the cathedrals. I want experiences. I want to meet people and learn from them and maybe even have some kind of small impact back on them.

Don't get me wrong, when I go to London this weekend, I'll probably get my picture in front of Big Ben just once. But all I'm saying is that if I don't, it won't be the end of the world. And you definitely won't find me waiting in line for a museum or cathedral or checking anything off the checklist in a guidebook any time soon.

Barcelona picture of the week:

HOW FREAKING CUTE IS THAT