Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

Through travel, being in a different context, I discover more about who I am. Surrounded by a language, a climate, a history, by customs and culture foreign to me, who am I? I'd climbed the wide staircase, walked through the Gate of All Nations, the Hall of 100 Columns, a look at life and luxury and power 2500 years past. Persepolis a few miles and minutes behind me, I look up from this sign in Farsi to see a fire temple, Sassanid rock reliefs of horsemen, the tombs of Darius and Xerxes, evidence that my history lessons were based on something tangible, the remains here, carved in stone. Who am I in the midst of this great world history? Who am I in a black chador?