Everyone has a passion. Something that makes a person’s eyes light up and sparkle. Something that breaks the barrier between rational conversation and word vomit that possibly is not understandable and most definitely not grammatically correct. Something that overwhelms someone to a degree that they are unable to express their emotions regarding the topic. Well, that description seems to be synonymous with museums in my dictionary. Everything about museums have enticed me and lured me in for as long as I can remember. I am incredibly lucky and incredibly grateful for the fact that I live a mere 45 minutes away from New York City, one of the biggest (and best) museum concentrated cities in the world. Thus, being the grade A nerd that I am, I spend most of my summer and many, many weekends during the year museum hopping. However, while I do venture into the city often, I like to stick to a routine. I spend most of my time adventuring and indulging in art and history at my favorite museum. This probably will not come as a major surprise to many people due to its distinguished reputation, but it is the one and only Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met offers its visitors everything, from classic renaissance art pieces to ancient Greek statues and funerary devices. This museum is a safe haven for me. It allows me to escape reality for a little while, and I am allowed to invest my time into learning about such a large amount of cultures and learning new history lessons based on artifacts and actual pieces and sculptures from the specific location and time period. Personally, my biggest fascination is Ancient Greek art and mythology. As atypical as that is, I cannot deny my love and desire to learn as much as I possibly can about that topic. The Met may happen to be my favorite museum, but with an open mind I say that there are so many museums in the world. So many that it would take more than one lifetime to explore them all. With that being said, I have composed a list of my top 10 international museums that I must visit (in no matter of order).

1. The Louvre, Paris
2. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Musee des Beaux-Arts), Montreal
3. National Archaeological Museum of Athens, Greece
4. Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Greece
5. Smithsonian Museum, Washington D.C.
6. State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
7. Galleria Borghese, Italy
8. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
9. National Gallery, London
10. The Prado, Madrid