far afield

Tomorrow I am leaving on a trip that I have spent a great deal of my time, my energy, my money and my life investing in. I'm off to Europe for the next two months. In conversation with one individual I was asked if it was a missions trip, or a leadership training program of some sort. I had to respond no, although I'm sure he would have given me some form of sponsorship on the spot if I had said it was. Although I am not classifying it as a missions trip, seeing new parts of the world always draw out the missionary spirit in me. Not to mention the fact that I’ll be in some of the same places that great missionaries of the Christian faith have walked. I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s a leadership trip either, although I have no doubt that the things I see and experiences will better equip me as leader.
What exactly is this trip then, you may ask? Well, it’s one of those things I have to do. Ever since tenth grade art history class Florence, Italy has been dangling before my nose, full of her renaissance beauty and art. In many ways I anticipate it will be a time of re-birth for me as well. In a sense it’s a pilgrimage, but I hesitate to label it as such due to the connotations that accompany such a title. Recently I came across a description of a pilgrim as being one who travels far afield. And so this was the birth the working title for my new journal and the name I will use for my trip. .
What will I do while I’m afield you may ask? Well here’s a rough itinerary with details penciled in and subject to sudden change.
April 26 Toronto - Glasgow
April 27 Glasgow, Scotland
April 28 Oban, Scotland
April 29-May 5 Iona, Scotland (Iona is a community that I will become a part of for a week, focusing on worship and social justice, while I live in an Abbey with people from all over the world, check it out www.iona.org.uk)
May 5 – Haddinton, Scotland (where I will meet up with my sister!!! She’s been working there for 6 months, and we will travel together)
May 6-9 Scotland/England Road Trip (my sister’s Scottish boyfriend, Collin, is letting us borrow his car, which is both terrifying and exhilarating)
May 10 – 11 Jersey Island (A small Island in the English Channel, home of the Jersey Cow (the brown ones) of which my family has a rich heritage)
May 12- 15 London, England
May 15 London -Where another friend, Steph, will join the fun and travel to Paris via the chunnel train
May 16-17 Rural France (Near the Swiss border, Wine Country where we’ll visit a woman and her family who lived with my family for a year twenty years ago!)
May 18-20 Paris!!! (Which is also the weekend the DaVinci Code opens worldwide, which takes place in Paris oh yeah… and that tower…)
May 21-24 Spain (Vamos a la Playa!) (We’re going to the Beach)
May 24 - My sister will return to Scotland
May 25-30 – Italy (Venice and Rome)
May 31 -? Switzerland (train trip through the alps, visit a long lost cousin in Geneva)
June 4 – Steph Heads home, so Dana will be traveling with her husband. Who for the record is a 6’4”, 240 lb basketball player, who has just finished up with the marines, and whose father words for the CIA in Washington DC. “Oh and by the way, I’m running late, I am to meet him for dinner soon”. (This is my speech I will give to any Italian men eager to meet/marry me, or any men for that matter. I have the “wedding band” to prove it, and we are quite happily married, thank you very much, Ha, take that!)
June 4- 17ish Italy. This will be my time to take my time and not feel bad for dragging people to yet another art museum, and I can sit and draw and write coffee while eating Gelatto by myself.
June 17-18 – Austria (maybe, maybe not, we’ll see)
June 19-24 Germany… two words WORLD CUP (and my friend Meghan will meet up with me for this leg of the treck, and my husband will return home to train for the upcoming basketball season, hectic NCAA schedules!)
June 25-26 The Netherlands (where Meghan is a Nanny)
June 27 – Belgum – Paris
June 28 – One last look at Paris… and then fly home to Toronto…

If you feel tired, keep in mind you likely just spent five minutes reading what I’ll do over the course of two months. I’m planning on taking it slow, and missing out on lots so that I can savor the things I do decide to explore. It’s not a fast food consumption trip, but a multi-course meal that I will enjoy thoroughly. I have planned a good mix of urban and rural settings, lots of art, lots of culture and if my months of research and planning have paid off, I should be able to travel as less of a tourist and more of a transient local.
I’ll keep my blog updated as best as possible, and look forward to sharing my stories with you.
Happy Trails to all.