I am going to creatively recreate a medieval pilgrimage from Germany to Jerusalem in the summer of 2012. I have a lot of research to do and a lot of money to raise--clothes to sew, menus to plan, hostels to book, cathedrals to identify, boats to charter. I first got the idea during one of my undergraduate Art History courses called "The History of the Illustrated Book". We went through a slew of map illustrations, several of them placing Jerusalem at the center of the known world. I suddenly got the idea in my head that it would be cool to walk from London to Jerusalem. Maybe rent a donkey for a stretch of it. After a few weeks of daydreaming and secretly plotting, the idea got filed away for an unidentified "later", between the idea to hike the Great Wall of China and the dream to take a camel along the ancient and fabled Silk Route.
I didn't really think about it again until... well, I don't remember what triggered it, but it was sometime in the past two months. And I realized that if there was ever a time to do something crazy and untethered, it was now. Once I finish my Masters, I'm a free woman. I have no husband, no kids, no job; why not live out a dream?
There are naysayers. Some ask where I will get the money. (dunno) Others think I'll get mugged. (maybe) Crazy is a modifier that often comes up. But that's me! Its a label I willingly and gleefully accept. It just means that I can do anything.
So, if you have any ideas, thoughts, criticisms, please post them. I tend to get carried away by my excitement, and I need good down-to-earth people to point out the missing pieces. Because I do need a way to raise money, and I don't really want to get mugged. Not really. And hey, if you love this idea and you want to come, I will be putting together a fellowship to travel with. Pilgrims rarely traveled alone, you know.
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