nytraveler

Yes, but many of us who lost family, friends or neighbors on 911 do consider it hateful and disrespectful. And since we are the ones most closely concerned we outvote everyone else.

If you choose to use hurtful language no one can stop you - but it does say a lot about who you are and your lack of respect for others.

cfc

nytraveler - with respect: Not everyone knows or understands that calling it "Ground Zero" is in any way hurtful or disrespectful, particularly those not from the northeast. To them, perhaps the term might conjure up associations something like the devastation of Hiroshima, with sympathy. They are not thinking like those who targeted it, they are still thinking about those who suffered so profoundly and were lost right there. It is good to be enlighted about terminology, but unnecessary to be chastised for [un]intentionally offending survivors.

Gardyloo

The children's memorial at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

Aramis

"And since we are the ones most closely concerned we outvote everyone else."

How utterly self-absorbed.

nytraveler

You're saying that the families of the deceased are "utterly self-absorbed". This is something that belongs to us - not to random people who even when reminded that something is hurtful say they have the right to go on being hurtful.

Certainly no one can stop you.

But I certainly wouldn't presume to say anything about any of your family members who had died - since it is not my business I don't want to cause hurt to other people.

Florida1

DH was working with a client in lower Manhattan in NYC in 2014. After he left work on 9/11, we went down to the 9/11 memorial. Very moving. I kept thinking what the site was like exactly 13 years before. On the way home, we happened on the firefighters' memorial parade and service. I didn't cry, but was pretty overwhelmed.

Sunshinepal

The Sorrento and the Amalfi coast. So stunningly beautiful. Took the bus tour down the Amalfi drive through Positano to Ravello. Never seen such stunning natural beauty. It is so beautiful it keeps calling you back long after you have left.
Pompeii also took me by surprise. I was expecting a graveyard but the site of the excavation is so beautiful. It's been a year and I can't get over it so headed back this summer.

IMDonehere

The words hater and hateful are quite juvenile. It is part of the infantilization of America.

As someone who saw the second plane hit and whose building was engulfed by debris and human remains twice, I too do not like Ground Zero. I think the respectful term is the Trade Center. Ground Zero has become generic and meaningless like adding 'gate" to the smallest of scandals.

I do not expect visitors to know that NY'ers do not like the term, but once they do, like any respectful person, I think it should be honored.

Most consider it is a national tragedy or even an international tragedy, but simply remember the customs and practices of the people who live there. The same way you would people to be respectful in your home town.

FACS

Visiting St Petersburg and seeing the graves of the Romanov family after first being introduced to this historical family by a beloved History teacher decades ago. Her stories kept us riveted. I wish I could share this with her.

cfc

Watching Son et Lumiere for the first time at Versailles just before sunset -- not because it was so affecting (though it was), but because my mother would have absolutely loved it, and I was realizing for the first time that she was too old ever to travel again and would never see it, with me or anyone else. She died several years later, and there've been a number of similar moments wishing she could have been seen what I was seeing. But Versailles was the first time I really understood sharing new wonders with her wasn't ever going to happen again.

Whathello

good to know ground zero is considered disrespecfuk.
That is something nobody knows here.

I cried when I saw the drawings made by children who were waiting to be taken to death camps, in Prague.

duketennisgal

It has definitely happened to me a few times, each of which was totally unexpected.

Magic Kingdom. Wishes fireworks, I have no clue why but I cry every single time!

Holocaust museum in DC. After I was done I felt emotionally drained and didn't want to speak to anybody for hours. I cannot understand how those horrors were tolerated by any human being. I cannot and will not ever understand how a very large group of people thought that what was happening was ok. I also will NEVER understand how some people to this day do not believe the holocaust ever happened.

Notre Dame in Paris. This one caught me completely by surprise. We visited Notre Dame, walked through the beautiful interior and then as we were walking around the cathedral outside I broke down. My grandmother passed about 10 years ago and she was a strict Catholic. I just started thinking about how much she would have loved to visit Notre Dame and I broke down.

Rathaus in Munich. Last year was my first every European trip and to come up from the underground train station and have the Rathaus staring at me as my first real site in Europe made me teary eyed. It was truly amazing!

MarthaT

The Peace museum in Hiroshima brought me to tears. The odds and ends that survived the bombing and the stairs someone was sitting on at the time and their shadow is still there. All of it was a little too much.

rtwin80days

Wow this thread is great. People's honest confessions give strength to me to be open and vulnerable as well, so thanks to all posters.

There are quite a few moments in travels where I get misty eyed and overwhelmed. Although I haven't had a hard sobbing session in public yet.

One of the recent most experiences is from couple of years ago when I was on a last minute 5-week solo trip in Europe. Important to keep in context is that I'm not a Christian, nor am I very ritualistic, or religious in the eyes of people from the religion I'm born in. I have a deep sense of connect with God and it does drive my personal value system and I'm utterly thankful to God for every small thing. This pretty much gives the background. Now, I was in Rome for a week, everything was last minute. I thought I should 'cover' Vatican City. I managed to get last minute tickets and went there expecting a quick dash into the St. Peter's Basilica and then spending hours at the Vatican museum. I finally reached the basilica and my first thought upon entering it was how too much of 'grandeur' can sometimes make it difficult for people to connect to a place. I was marvelling at the architecture, especially the dome by Michelangelo and as I started to think about the story of St. Peter, I mulled over what faith can propel human beings to set out to do. Anyway nothing emotional. And slowly as I started to make my way towards the altar of the basilica, the noise and presence of the crowds (in mid-Aug) faded and something overtook me as I walked slowly but possessed, as if. I came to the left transept where there was an actual worship area cordoned off with a staff member standing guard. I saw him refusing many people to enter that area and saw myself walking towards those benches with a weird mix of calm and overwhelmed emotions. He looked at me and got out of the way and looked at the empty benches as if asking me to make my way. I certainly did. I sat down for a while and tears filled my eyes as I joined hands and thanked God for everything and I said to Him that I'm His child and He knows me and He is omniscient, so I don't need to ask for anything. I am safe in His hands. I thought of the past, the present and the future with a choked throat, teary eyes and knots in my gut. I recovered later as I made my way through the Vatican museum.

I again had a teary eyed moment in the Sistine Chapel when I finally entered the hall so overpacked, I thought I'd suffocate. The guards constantly were shouting and asking everybody to keep moving. I was constantly pushed over. My eyesight is not very good. I wasn't getting to see anything at all. But I wasn't going to give up after a long time of reading up on Michelangelo and seeing detailed photos of the chapel work over the internet. I ducked in a corner, told myself I won't take a photo because it's not allowed but switched my camera on and zoomed it to be able to see the ceiling in great detail. I didn't have telescope with me so this was a great idea. As I saw all the details of the ceiling and my neck started to crane and hurt in couple of minutes, I thought of how Michelangelo and other artists would have done it and how passion overcame all odds to create masterpieces. I became teary eyed again and the ceiling became a blur again, this time despite the zoomed camera lenses.

Many people have wrote about David moment and I too wasn't untouched. I spent couple of hours there. That moment, where David is mulling over what next, just before it all begins, is what got me, as against Donatello's version. There is so much emotion in that moment that is captured by the statue. It also made me understand to some degree what Renaissance must have been, after centuries of dark ages, and how the coveted group of artists in Florence led the way. What a talented and inspired group of people they must have been! I must say, despite many people on this forum looking down upon Rick Steves, that I did listen to his podcast about David and I found it really outstanding. It helped me appreciate it more.

For years, I used to daydream of taking a sabbatical and traveling solo in Europe, specifically Italy. And for some reason, I'd always visualise myself sitting perched up a hill overlooking a valley and finally bursting into a good cry. When I was finally in Italy though, no such moment occurred. But I constantly felt at home and walked around as if I have walked on those paths earlier. I must have the worst direction sense, so much so that even I know that when my mind is confident I must turn to the right, to reach a particular place I'm headed towards, I should turn left and I'd reach the place accurately. It's 180 degree wrong atleast. But in Italy, even in Venice, which is supposed to be so confusing with all the back alleys and similar looking small canals all over, I was walking over like a champ and I couldn't get over it.

My post has become too long so I'd end with one more. Place: Rome. Occasion: 30th birthday. Situation: solo dinner celebrating my birthday and feeling happy that I took the plunge to manage time off my work and took the trip of a lifetime. I ordered a lovely pistachio tiramisu to end the meal and I was beaming while eating my meal, with plans to walk around Piazza Navona for passagiata and catching the music performances and people watching, which had become my daily routine in Rome. "Here I am, sitting in Rome on my birthday". I thought. And it suddenly dawned upon me. Rome is called the eternal city. And the birthday hit me with the mortality of human life. It reminded me the concept of "Shashwat" (constant and eternal) and "Nashwar" (temporary and destructible) in Hindu philosophy and I became teary eyed.

HappyTrvlr

Ann Frank a House, terribly sad.

Saraho

At the oldest house in Washington, one of the oldest cities in Louisiana. It was built over an Indian grave mound and was used as a hospital during the Civil War. The whole house, from top to bottom seemed to be full of spirits, of people who had died there.

At the village of Much Hadham where my mother's ancestors were from. It seemed unbelievable that I was in the beautiful church where my ggg- grandparents had been Christened, married and buried.

At the Lake of Menreith, Scotland where my father's ancestors were from. There is the ruin of an old Abbey where Mary Queen of Scots was hidden as a child on the island in the middle of the lake. It feels like a very spiritual place.

So many places made me tear up on my trip to Italy this May. It was my first trip there by myself since DH died in September. I lit candles for him in many of the churches we had visited together so many times. I had a wonderful time, but it was so different from the many times we had been to Italy together.

Margaretlb

In Venice at Scuola Grande San Rocco, in front of the huge painting of Golgotha by Tintoretto. I've read that Lord Byron remarked "there is everything of life in it"...and there is.

Saraho

Lake of Menteith, near Stirling, Scotland