
Have you ever had one place that you absolutely have to make it to? I don’t mean a normal bucket list, appears on every travel wish list on the internet, kind of location, but a place that for a single, deeply personal (or maybe even a little crazy) reason you are almost embarrassed to tell the average person about because it feels a little silly – maybe even intimate?
While I have done this for random locals on bigger trips – we went to the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris on one of my last trips specifically because the outside was featured in my favorite Audrey Hepburn movie – I have to confess a place that I would be willing to make a trip completely about, but not because I’ve heard about how amazing it is; instead for an intimately personal reason:
Dresden, Germany.
Never heard of it? Well, it isn’t one of the biggest stops when thinking about a European or even just a German vacation, however, this city has a very special place in my heart and I have never even visited it – YET!
While I have read through the Rick Steves’ version of this town and all it’s amazing history and art scene (another two big ‘yea, I can make that work’ marks in my book), these aren’t part of my reasoning. Instead, it all goes back to my senior year of high school, a marriage project, and having to name our fake baby: Dresdyn Pheonix.
Now, all these years later, I am marrying my old project partner who I fought with for hours over a silly made-up baby name and who is going to be living in Germany for the next three years – with all of these events lining up how am I supposed to miss out on Dresden, Germany?
While everything about the city calls for me to visit, it’s not about the place any more, it’s about what that place means to me in context with all the things and choices that led here. And that’s what I love about travel: inspiration can come to you from anywhere and everywhere as long as you choose to embrace the craziness of this messy life.
I don’t know when we will go to this city, but for my own silly, embarrassing, sweet, sentimental reasons, I will make it to Dresden and I will have a partner by my side who is going to make the trip worth it – a person who knows exactly what that town means and can be just as sentimental and in love with it as I am.
And isn’t that what traveling is all about?
This is Leave on the Wind, helping you soar.