Old things...

This will be a strange entry. I'm going to try describing how I felt when I visited some of the world's wonders. Because of all the emotions I'm capable of having, that particular emotion was overwhelming and memorable.

I'll start with the Colosseum in Rome.
I have done a lot of things in my life, and one of those things was singing in a choir. This is initially no strange thing,  however, this choir was of a high standard, because of my brilliant singing abilities among other things... (Not conveying humble feelings here, by the way, we were all very good singers). Anyway...this was the summer of -04 and we were attending a competition in Arezzo, Italy.
My (now ex) husband and I flew to Rome and jumped on the train to Arezzo.
The competition didn't go all that well, but we had a lot of fun. I was actually pregnant at the time. Not being able to enjoy Italian wine was a bit annoying, but luckily Italy has many non-alcohol alternatives to the good life... gelato, for instance... I ate a lot of ice cream that week.
Ok, competition is done, and my husband and I had planned to spend a couple of days in Rome before returning home.
I remember probably annoying the living daylights out of my husband, and probably all of the other people on that train from Arezzo to Rome, as I was singing arias from Othello (not very loud though...Desdemona's prayer can't be bellowed)... Don't worry, I have a great voice, but I bet it would be considered noise to a person trying to sleep. But what's a romantic, pregnant, sort of crazy girl going to do? I was in Italy...looking at pine trees, the endless fields, and feeling in touch with Verdi
(among others) (this was probably one of the things with me that my husband never understood...). Having sung my way from Arezzo to Rome we found our hotel and then a pizza.
The next day we went to check out the Colosseum.
We had to fight off every "guide" in Italy, and according to these guides we would not be able to enjoy the inside as much without their aid... We took our chances.

Entering the Colosseum was like entering a dream world.
Those of you who have been reading my blog for some time know that Russell Crowe is my favorite actor and The Gladiator one of my favorite movies.
And now I was actually there.
Now something very strange happened. I felt the whole place became silent even though there were thousands of visitors. And I'm not talking about that sort of "silent like the grave"-silence, no, far from it. I'm talking about the sort of silence I enter when I manage to enter my creative world. When I close out the world around me, being in the moment, being in the past, the present and the future at once. It was a rather incredible experience I must admit. So big, and yet so small. So contemporary (as it is there and we have the year 2012 (2004 at the time)), and yet so ancient, and futuristic even. The sun was shining, the temperature was pleasant, a slight breeze, and I needed nothing else at the time than just be. Be there, be silent, be present, simply BE.

Colosseum, and gelato (and being too pregnant to fit in my Bunad (a traditional outfit we were wearing for the competition), which was annoying) are the only things I remember from this trip.
And the Colosseum will stick with me forever.

A few years later my mother and I went to Cairo.
The trip had its ups and downs, but the ultimate high of that trip was The Pyramids. It sounds like a cliché, I know, but I experienced that same serene feeling from the Colosseum. It was like the buildings themselves were telling me about their incredible age and the incredible stories and history lived in their vicinity. It was like all the voices of Cairo (and believe me, Cairo is a noisy city), were silenced for me to hear the Pyramids whisper.

I know this is far fetched new-age crap, but I swear I felt history when I visited the Colosseum. I swear I felt history when I visited the Pyramids of Giza. And for that reason alone I hope I get a chance to return, both to Rome and to Cairo...