The Adventures of Julie

Friday, July 11, 2008

Looking at life from a different perspective...

One thing that traveling does is expand my world view. The world is such an amazing and diverse place. I am constantly in awe as I travel and it frustrates me to know I can never properly communicate my experience to others. There is no was to capture in a picture, or words, the ghostly feel of Auschwitz, the splendor of a small medieval town in Czech Republic, the soaring wonder of the cathedrals in Poland, the character of the people I meet, or the feel of travel and living out of a backpack. I want everyone to travel. I think it is the most life changing and enriching experience, and I want to share my experiences with others.

Traveling through the different countries I have learned much about war. War seems to be what defines a country, how they view themselves others, and their values. WWII being the most recent war is everywhere. From Thailand and the Bridge Over River Kwai, to the war museum in Kiev, Ukraine where every newly married couple comes for pictures as a symbol that they remember the past and the sacrifices made so they could have a future, to the well known history of Auschwitz, every country has monuments, traditions, memorials, and memories that define them from war.

Take Russia, for example, we have always judged them for their standoffishness, their military build ups, their self containment, but in WWII they lost more people then any other country, 30 million, to be exact. The US only lost 500,000. And 60,000 million died in the entire war. If so much of your population was devastated in war, what would you do And yet, in Krakow I learned of Russias part in invading Poland and of the Polish people they killed in a place called Karyn.

I always learned one version of history, as I travel I learn many new versions and each adds to my knowledge amd my world view my perspective. Each helps me grow and see who I am and what the world is. Every country changes me and shapes me And so I continue to travel.

Places visited since my last post Yalta, Ukraine, or the Black Sea, Kiev, Ukraine, Krakow, Poland, Warsaw, Poland, Prague Czech Republic, Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic, Brno, Czech Republic, Olomouc, Czech Republic. And now to Budapest, Hungary.

Pictures Dan and I with our backpacks on and ready for another adventure, Auschwitz, the sign over the entry "work will make you free", A view of one of the little towns we visited in Czech Republic, a picture of a Russian women from the War Museum in Ukraine, those are pictures of her 9 sons, all of whom died in the war, and showing that we still have fun in all this seriousness, Dan and I canoeing down the river in Cesky Krumlov.

by jewel30 at 8:39 AM |