Who knew that it's easier to read a map if you actually have one. At least I have water and I'm not in Death Valley! Still too soon for that joke...
Big big big city...where is my big big big dog? I will never find comfort in the city like I do at the ocean or mountains. Good thing Barcelona has both! I will be finding them immediately. Traveling alone is a constant fluctuation between feeling liberated and ecstatic and adventurous, and being overwhelmed and exhausted and wanting to snuggle up on a couch next to someone I know while watching Seinfeld and snacking on crystalized ginger. It is worth the exhaustion and the loneliness for those moments that I am so gloriously content that it hurts and I can't even express in words what it feels like. Bungee jumping...it feels like free fall. Sometimes it is coming upon a piece of architecture so profound that I can't believe a human designed it, let alone built it. Sometimes it's the landscape, the colors and the sounds. Sometimes it is nothing more than walking by street music, or warm bread, or a funny looking pigeon.
I don't ever have any idea where I am when I arrive in a new place. I wander around asking nice looking people for directions to my hostel. I hate public transportation. Everyone I ask always tells me I have to take metro line [insert strange name said too quickly to remember + color] ...and that it's wayyyyy too far to walk. VAS ANDANDO???? PERO PORQUE?? Accompanied by a very concerned expression. Okay...way too far to walk for a Spaniard is 20 minutes. Yes, I would much prefer it to paying 2 euros which is the equivalent of two empanadas, a beer that comes with tapas, or those weird, crunchy, salty corn kernels that I love...the list goes on. The metro makes me claustrophobic and nervous. Then I start to sweat in my unnecessary long sleeves that I put on this morning because the way everyone else is dressed you would think we were in the Arctic. We aren't...wait was that a polar bear? Nope just another woman wearing a fur coat in 65 degree weather! Did I mention the not-so-cute men who try to cop a feel of your tush "accidentally" when the train lurches around dark, underground corners!? All I can think of is how awful the whole thing is in contrast to a similarly small and dark closet.
So I walk. Everywhere. Which gives me an excuse to buy new shoes ;)
Off to explore Barcelona!
Oh...and happy birthday to my beautiful, talented, and wonderful Mother! :)
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