Augenblicke - The Twilight Twenty-Five - Round 8

Thetwilight25 dot com

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Prompt: #16

Pen name: TiramiSue84

Pairing/Character(s): Bella

Rating: T

Word count: 485

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Photo prompts can be found here

Thetwilight25 dot com/round-eight/prompts

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My eyes follow my pointer finger as it traces along pale-colored lines and contours, some straight, some curved, zig-zagged or dotted. I can't help but envy the ease with which they travel across foreign lands and seas. If only it were as easy for me as well, to be able to pack a bag and just up and leave.

Ever since I was a little girl, I admired the oversized world map that was hung in my grandparents living room, and my love for it only intensified when they gave it to me on my sixteenth birthday three years ago. Only, more so than having helped me along with my studies, it made me daydream about all the places I could go.

Really, the possibilities are endless; given the chance, I wouldn't know where to travel first! Villages, towns, cities, states, countries, continents… I want to see them all.

I could visit La Segrada Familia and the Casa Milà in Barcelona, or roam along the Champs-Élysées in Paris before visiting the Eiffel Tower and Louvre. I want to brush my fingertips over the ancient stone of the Colosseum in Athens and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.

To take a picture of the sun setting behind the Blue Mosque in Istanbul and the Taj Mahal in Agra are top ten items on my bucket list of things I want to achieve in my life. I want to let the giant trees in the rainforests of South America intimidate me and be put to awe by the sight of the Victoria Waterfalls in Zambia before lounging in Devil's Pool. I want to go whale watching on Vancouver Island, and dig my toes into the pure, white sand at Whitehaven Beach. To take in the lush greens of Ireland and the hills of Scotland, to wander along the century old castles and manors in the South of England would be a dream come true. Or maybe visit ancient temples in Asia, or go backpacking through New Zealand.

I want to meet people and learn about their cultures. And the food, I want to try it all—even fried bugs in Thailand!

Maybe, I'll just start by road-tripping all through the US; coast to coast, South to North. Just me, my faithful car, Betty, and the freedom of traveling the roads—the land, by my own pace, and my own rules.

Turning away from the wall I had pinned the map to I walk over to my bed, drop down on my knees and retrieve my tip jar from beneath it.

My dreams fade one after the other as I count the contents.

One hundred thirty-two dollars and eighty-seven cents.

Not enough to quench my wanderlust.

Not enough to leave this fucking podunk town and its aimless, narrow-minded people behind for good.

Not even enough money to revisit the beauty that is the public library in good old Seattle.

Once again, thanks go out to Bigblueboat for looking this over for me, on top of being awesome in general! :)

Thanks so much for reading!