Back from Europe

I recently returned from an unforgettable month-long journey through Europe.  This “adventure” was originally planned for last year, but superfluous work assignments combined with a torn hamstring prevented it.  For once, however, I am grateful and thankful that work impeded such a sojourn from happening—though I’m certainly not grateful or thankful about having my hamstring torn from the bone!

Traveling through Europe during the summer of 2016 was far more enjoyable for me mostly because of one reason:  my undying obsession with the summer of 1816, or “the year without a summer.”  I have had an intense fascination with the haunting events that took place at the Villa Diodati during that dark and stormy summer ever since I first read about it as a teenager.  Late-night readings of ghost stories and dark poetry in the midst of violent storms, discussions of vampires and other preternatural creatures from midnight till morning, and supposed laudanum-induced madness and debauchery—seriously, what’s not to love?

Whatever happened there almost exactly two hundred years ago, it certainly stirred the imagination and conjured up truly dark thoughts for the result of those events led to the creation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, John Polidori’s The Vampyre, and dark poetry from Lord Byron such as Darkness and A Fragment.  And because these stories were written/inspired almost exactly two hundred years ago, there were two absolutely incredible exhibits that I would have otherwise missed if work and an injury did not prevent me from going last year—fate, perhaps?

I will certainly write more about my experience at the Villa Diodati and the other 1816-related exhibits, but for now here are a few pictures from the first leg of my journey in Paris.  Another fascination of mine is Gothic architecture and to see the Notre Dame with my own eyes was an unforgettable experience and inspired many interesting thoughts.