Flying Buttresses

So, here I am, in gorgeous upstate New York. This is the first time I've ever really been to New England and I am enamored. The scenery is just beautiful, with huge farms and scenic lakes and cute colonial towns.

One of these towns, Auburn, NY, is where I stayed last night. This morning I felt the urge to go for a run and explore the town. As I ran along the sidewalk, I felt like I was having a mini-architecture lesson. Scattered all over the place, were different examples of architecture styles from 1800 up until the present. I felt like someone had taken an architecture textbook, cut out all the pictures of different stereotypical styles from certain eras, and then scattered those pictures haphazardly around the town.

On one side of me was the Auburn house, a home built in the early 1800s, now on the historic register, and was inhabited by President Lincoln's Secretary of State. In front of me was a huge art-deco poster with a two-story neon "Genesee Beer" sign erected on top of the building right behind it. It was cool to see all these styles nonchalantly placed adjacent to one another.

My favorite types of architecture have always been churches and cathedrals. Every time I go to Europe, I feel the urge to explore their houses of worship and marvel at their architectural genius. My favorite to this day is the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool... just spectacular.



Today, like any other, I was curious about the cathedral in Auburn. So I snuck right in. Holy Family church it was called, and it was vividly ornate. Everything was splashed with gold. The columns were made of peach marble and the ceiling was high and vaulted.

I enjoyed my little expedition so much that I visited the next three churches I came across, each incredibly different but equally as interesting.


Shayna and I discussed how awesome it would be to go on a trip and discover cathedrals all across Europe. I thought about it so much that I decided to make a bucket list of churches (all over the world) I needed to see before I die.... DRUMROLL PLEASE:



1) St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, New York (Check!)



2) Notre Dame de Paris, Paris, France



3) La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain



4) Las Lajas Catedrale, Andean, Colombia




5) St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England (check!)





I better get to traveling soon.... :)