My Future 'Eat, Pray, Love' Fail

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I've not read the book and probably would not have watched the movie had I not been stuck on a plane for 5 hours at Heathrow prior to actually departing on our 8 hour flight to BWI. But since I have been forced to re-evaluate my spring break plans now that things in the Middle East are shaky, I have been considering going on an 'Eat, Pray, Love' trip of my own, albeit with different destinations.

EAT

In the movie, Julia Roberts ends up going to Italy and essentially having a love affair with pasta. Indeed, I spent the majority of this section of the movie marveling at the enormous quantities of food consumed. Now, I am a fan of pasta...but my waistline is not. And with the added threats of gelato and pizza, a trip to Italy would see all of my marathon preparations disappear in a haze of carbohydrates. (But hey! At least I would die happy!)

Possible alternatives to fulfill the 'eat' section:

Norway (except maybe not since a Google search for 'Norwegian food' revealed this: I may not know much about vegetarianism since I am still relatively new to it...but am pretty certain that the dish below is not kosher with the veggies)

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Spain: Has paella (which can easily be vegetarian) and sangria need I say more?

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 Pray

Julia Roberts/the real author of 'Eat, Pray, Love' went to India to find her spirituality.

Italy (because of the whole 'Catholic' thing). Sadly, I won't have Elysa, Brad, and Tony to run around Rome with. Which means no 'God Save the Queen' BBC news casts in the Vatican. Maybe I will go back to Venice? Or to Naples again to see Pompeii again.

Alternatively, I could go to Greece, where the orthodox tradition is still going strong. (And by Greece, I really mean the Greek Islands. I want sun!)

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Love

The final third of the movie dealt with 'love'. Julia Roberts/the author heads to Bali, Indonesia to practice her newfound spirituality...but finds love on the way.

I guess this third one is out since I am not looking for love and, indeed, probably would not welcome it at this point. I can't even manage to successfully be broken up (as in no contact, no feelings, etc.) with my ex-boyfriend, so there is no 'moving on to the next one' until that situation is resolved.

But if I were going to look for love, I would probably head to:
Malta: 

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Ireland (specifically in the Wicklow mountain. If love can't be found here, then it isn't anywhere)

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Denmark: They know how to color coordinate.

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Slovenia : Just because it tends to be ignored. (And look at those mountains)

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In reality, however, this would fail as an 'eat, pray, love' trip. Why? Because I really have no intention of doing 2 of the 3. I will eat, of course, but not to the excess one would expect in devoting an entire trip to eating. This is even more true since the vast majority of this trip would occur before my marathon and I need to be very careful about what I eat. (Also because my digestive system has zero tolerance for unexpected foods (heck, it has zero tolerance for foods I eat on a daily basis) and would go into active rebellion, thus making me miserable). I also have no intention of falling in 'love' on this trip. Indeed, it would be an unwelcome occurrence since a) it would mean that I've lost my damn mind, and b) could only bring heartache as I will be heading back to the US in June. This just leaves 'praying' and even though the G-man and I are on better terms as of late...I still don't know if I'm comfortable going on a trip for an extended pilgrimage.

So there goes the 'eat, pray, love' theme. Guess I will just have to travel for the sake of traveling. And once that starts, who knows where I will end up? 


Note: I would like to point out to certain readers (you know who you are) that all of these countries are in Europe and none are in active conflict/rebellion. Aforementioned readers should also note that their cautions were heeded and should be happy with the tentative choices I have made.