Share your defining travel moment with us!

[chicchantal]

The moment that still makes you draw breath when you remember it? Where were you and what happened?

I was 21 and standing on the platform of Cologne station, waiting for a train to Paris, where I'd never been at that point. It was about 8am and cold and damp and a sleeper train from Warsaw pulled in on the platform opposite. This was 25 years ago when the iron curtain was still in place. I realised at the point that for me, nothing in the world could compare with being in a foreign country, on the way to another foreign country, with anything possible. I actually got goosepimples.

[Jody]

Mine was not a Paris moment, but a Venetian one. I'd read extensively about Venice but coming out of the railway station and seeing the canals and boats before me took my breath away. My breath was taken away every single day we were there. The light, the quiet, even with crowds, the little secret places, just cannot be described they have to be lived.

[Becky (Berkeleytravelers)]

Mine was on my first trip to England. Walking through Westminster Abbey and seeing the effigies of kings and queens going back hundreds of years was truly amazing. It ranks right up there with visiting the Tower, for pretty much the same reasons - but in the case of the Tower, what got me was particularly the fact that the ceremony of the keys has been held daily for about 1,000 years regardless of what was happening anywhere in England much less in the rest of the world - wow!

[sandy]

For me, like Demarais, arriving in Venice was one of those moments that are hard to describe, and seeing the Piazza San Marco light up at sunset from the Giudeca was also a breathtaking moment.

But my defining travel moment was in Florence. I remember going up the stairs of L´Accademia, and when I turned left the figure of David before my eyes was like a revelation... I never thought I would feel something like that before a statue, and I don´t know if it was the setting or the unexpected sight of that imposing figure, but it´s one of my everlasting memories.

[Shoesy]

The strange thing is that I can think of a number of sights in Italy which WOWed me to pieces, probably more than any attraction in Paris, yet Paris is the only city that I truly long to return to.

[Happygoin]

Mine was in Florence. The statues and beautiful art pieces out in the open, as well as in the museums, along with realizing how OLD these buildings and gardens and art are, overwhelmed me emotionally. I just stood in the street with tears running down my face. They were tears of joy, but I probably got some curious glances.

[sandy]

Happy, I´ve heard there is name for a syndrome that people experience when contemplating beautiful works of art, that feeling of overwhelming and crying, some poeple even faint. This happens mostly in Florence.

[Jody]

It's Stendahl Syndrome. I sometimes get the overload symptoms in museums!

Stendhal syndrome, Stendhal's syndrome or Florence syndrome, is a psychosomatic illness that causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art, usually when the art is particularly 'beautiful' or a large amount of art is in a single place. The term can also be used to describe a similar reaction to a surfeit of choice in other circumstances, e.g. when confronted with immense beauty in the natural world.

[sandy]

Thanks Demarais!

[chicchantal]

I saw a TV programme a year or two ago and they said that Americans get Stendhal syndrome most of all, the English get it a bit (we grow up with a fair few old buildings so it's not such a shock to us) and the Japanese are immune to it.

I had a neighbour a few years ago, very nice but quite ordinary, she went to Italy and got out of the bus in Florence and took one look at the buildings and started crying cos they were so beautiful. Her tour guide thought she was weird!

In St Remy on the first night of my holiday this year I had to stop and collect myself but it may have been partly the result of half a litre of red wine as well.

[Happygoin]

Oh my goodness! I just caught up with this thread. I HAD STENDAHL'S SYNDROME!! And I didn't even know it! Cool!!

(thanks, Sandy, I learned something today...who knew!!??)

[sistereurope]

happy, how cool is that?
Hey! Maybe that's what happened to me when I first saw Notre Dame?! I cried tears of joy, and felt almost faint!

[sunshine817]

One was on my very first trip to Europe, on a business trip to Bonn with my parents for our family business (at the tender age of 27!).

It was the shock of realizing that I didn't feel like a stranger in a strange land -- Germany did (and still does) feel comfortable and warm to me, even though I didn't speak the language or understand the customs (after many visits, I can slaughter the language with impunity, and can adapt the manners well enough to at least not make an idiot of myself). Walking past the doorstep that Beethoven played on as a child..walking on the Roman road in Cologne -- suddenly tied me to the world and to history, and alternately makes me feel richly tied to the past and the present.

The most overwhelming, though, was last summer in Pisa. All my life I had read about Italy and seen pictures of the leaning tower, and read about Galileo and his experiments, and about the structure of the tower itself. All of a sudden here I was...really...standing RIGHT THERE. The realization of a dream I'd had all my life, and it did make me well up.

I feel at home in Paris, too (good thing!)
-- my first visit with my now-husband, I swear I sprained my neck swiveling my head fast enough to drink it all in. And I still get breathless when I see the buildings I read about as a girl in a small farm town in the Midwest...I've come a long way!

[luvparee]

The first time I stood before the Eiffel Tower back in 1979 was my defining moment in Paris. I had read and dreamed about Paris for so many years and when my eyes finally fell on "her," I felt like she was wrapping her arms around me. I still get that same feeling each subsequent trip.

However, my most defining spiritual moment in Paris was in 2002. I had lost my 26 year old daughter and my dear brother in 1993 and then my ex-husband died 2 weeks before my 2002 trip. I was with my sister and BIL and one of our first big sights was Notre Dame. Both my sister and I lit candles for our dear loved ones, shed some tears, listened to some music, and just as we exited the huge doors, the huge bells started ringing! And they didn't stop for what seemed like a very long time! We certainly did not believe that was a coincidence~! That was just a gift from God to us!

[Shoesy]

Luvparee - I can't think of a more beautiful gift, especially since it will always have a special significance to you.

[Happygoin]

Wow, luvparee. What an amazing story. I certainly believe those bells were no coincidence as well.

[ray]

luvparee, I sent some karma your way, for sharing your touching memory.
My Paris moment came when I stepped off the Roissy Bus. People, noise, and traffic swirling: My wife shouting we will never find our apartment; as I stood transfixed by the sight of the Opera Garnier. Oh, and it took less than 10 minutes to walk straight to the apartment.

[joan1]

My defining moment actually occurred in Amsterdam,, but was not particularily about Amsterdam.
I was 13 and had just met u p with my grandmother from my flight from Canada with whom I was going to spend the next three months. We were at the main train station , and my grandmother was at the kiosk purchasing our tickets for Paris.
As I stood waiting a group of what I assumed to be American teens, college aged to me it seems, plopped down near me, with their backpacks. There was about 4 or 5 of them, and the started talking about " welll, where should be go next". They then were debating amongst themselves, one wanted Germany, another France,, and they were laughing and chatting, and were completely FREE..

I will never forget what I thought as I sat there easvedropping,,I thought" wow, I can do that, I can travel around Europe on my own, and be free, I can go where ever I want,, there is so much to see'' but I also knew it would be "later , when I am older and not stuck with my own granny,, LOL "

It took time, but 10 yrs later, my friend and I took that trip,, three months, 10 countries, including 2 weeks on the Greek islands,, and it was FUN FUN FUN!

It started a love affair with travel,, untill I was 13 I thought travel was just going to see a bunch of old folks in France , who spoke no english, and would make me eat weird things like horse and brains,, LOL,,, I hadn't yet seen the possibilities.

On that trip my grandmother hired me a private all day tour guide at the Lourve,, that was also a defining moment," art is interesting after all " moment.


Every time I arrive and ND across the Seine, that is a defining moment, the " I 'm back moment" .

[sunshine817]

It wasn't a defining moment, but that reminds me of a young girl I stood next to at a baggage claim a few years ago -- she wore her long red hair in cornrow braids, and the elbows on her fleece were worn threadbare.

She had her ticket home, all crisp and new in her hand, a sharp contrast next to the passport that was faded to a dusty blue, and so wrinkled and worn it looked like cloth, and a much-worn rucksack at her feet.

I was returning from a business trip from somewhere in Europe, so I stood there in my tailored trousers and smart heels, computer case and matching suitcase at my feet.

We caught each other's eye -- she made a comment about envying me for traveling so comfortably -- and I laughed out loud -- commenting that I was just thinking about how much more fun she's had, wearing out that passport like that.

How green the grass is, there on the other side of that fence!

[joan1]

luvparee,, that was touching, it was a gift for sure. There are often gifts left for those who stay behind, comfort and promises .