European Travel

What is it about travelling to Europe that inspires creativity?

I just got back from a trip to Greece: one week on Santorini and two days in Athens.  I also did some reading during the trip (Neil Gaiman's American Gods; I'm halfway through) and I'm sure that had some influence on me.  But I had an overwhelming feeling that I needed to get back to work on my novel.  Is it the ancient architecture? Is it not Europe, but travelling in general?  Is it just getting away from the mundane and seeing other people doing things that seem so exotic to us, but are actually mundane for them?

Maybe it's this: whenever I hear people speaking in a language I don't understand, I assume they're having some profound conversation that I wouldn't be able to keep up with even if it were in English.  Since I speak a total of five words in Greek, this happened a lot.  And when everyone around you is having important conversations, it makes you (or at least this is true for me) want to do something more.

Whenever I think of this, I think of Hemingway.  When I lived in Spain, I could walk out on my balcony and look at Hemingway's favorite restaurant, also touted as the world's oldest restaurant: El Botin.  That kind of thing makes you want to sip some absinthe and do some writing.

Well, now I'm back home, so it's time to take some of that inspiration and put it to work.  I have my pictures to keep me inspired.