Day Thirteen: Somewhere I'd Like to Move or Visit

Day 13 of the 30 Day Writing Challenge

Day Thirteen: Somewhere I'd Like to Move or Visit

When I was younger, I wanted to visit England very badly. The history of England entertained me. I loved the castles, the royalty and oh, the accents! My husband made me a beautiful wedding present to me and planned our honeymoon to England. He looked after every detail: first finding the travel agent, scheduling the flight, find a decent hotel near London's underground (the tube), public transportation passes, exchanging our Canadian money for British pounds, everything. It was literally a dream come true. It was so generous of him because I know that a honeymoon for him would have been on a beach somewhere down south. Instead I had him up and out of the hotel by 8am every morning and back to the room no earlier than 5pm. I structured our days the first night we arrived, armed with a map of the city and a travel book about England a friend had given me for my birthday. I still have the paper I wrote it all down on. I meant business! It was awesome. I had such a great time.
Once I visited England, I thought I would be satisfied if I never went on another trip again. Ha! That's like thinking once you get that one little tattoo, you won't want another one! Or having a baby! You think, Nope! I'm done. But lo and behold, a couple of years later, you wonder, Am I really done?? Likewise with trips.
My thesis for my Masters degree is about the persecution of the early Christians, which lasted from about the time of Christ to the year 313 CE when the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire. (This was like abolishing slavery in the US. Just because someone wrote it on a piece of paper didn't necessarily make it so right away.) Anyhow, I focused on two aspects: the relationship between Christians and Jews and the relationship between Christians and pagans. Inevitably, this had me studying people and places in the Roman Empire, but particularly in Jerusalem and Rome. It's said that the apostles James was thrown off the pinnacle of the Jewish Temple by the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. It's also written that apostle Peter was crucified upside down in Rome and that the great letter writer Paul was beheaded just outside of Rome. Whether these things actually happened is hard to say but we do know for certain that many Christians were martyred in Rome's Coliseum. And ironically enough, the obelisk in front of the Vatican is where the mad Emperor Nero scapegoated the Christians for setting fire to Rome (dousing them with oil and hanging them up in the night as "lanterns" and other lovely things like that).
So it stands to reason that I would love to visit these places. I want to see what I've been reading about. I want to follow the path that Paul took, traveling all over to visit his new-found churches. I want to walk through the Vatican and see the amazing art to which Christianity has contributed. I'd like to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site said to be where Christ was crucified. Again, it's doubtful that this is actually the location of Jesus' death but the church in itself has much history connected to it.
I love history and I would love to see history come alive.
My hubby has said that he'll take me to one of those locations for our 10 year anniversary. I would love that. But if I never go, that's okay too. I'm blessed to live where I live, to have the family I have. If I never know anywhere else but here I should be so lucky.