Somehow they all seem appropriate.
I am nearing the end of this lifetime: That is how these travels feel, like lifetimes. I was reflecting on this while sleeping on the floor in Madrid’s Barajas airport next to my new British friend Oli while waiting for my flight to Frankfurt to come home. I feel as if I have lived a lifetime and am now returning to my body and former life back in the states. I guess it’s only appropriate that I fly back on my birthday.
Am I new though?
Have I changed?
Will there be changes?
I guess only time will tell. Just as with the old me, I have lots of desire and good intention…
I am writing you from Washington DC. This city seems to be a popular overnight stopover for me. I boarded my plane in Frankfurt only to wait with the rest of the passengers for at least an hour as 60 orphans from Latvia, Poland, and Russia were rounded up and shuffled to their seats. Apparently the herd was hard to manage and they didn’t get to the gate at the proper time. Instead of putting them up for the night in Germany, United and Lufthansa decided to hold the plane and…well…put them up in America…along with the rest of the passengers with missed connecting flights (people going to Atlanta, Georgia excluded) .
So here I am a the Lansdowne Resort in Dulles. It’s much nicer than the Holiday Inn they put me up in when I came this way going to Europe a month ago. I’m waiting for my shuttle at 10:00 am which gives me ample time to write you all!
My last blog from Italy indicated I was going to a food festival and then going north into Austria. We can start there.
Bui Grasso (fat Ox) festival. I never at so much in my life. We started at 8 and didnt’ stop eating and drinking till midnight. Let me tell you: Italians can eat. OR, they really know how to make it look like they aren’t about to explode. Me on the other hand…I was about to explode. The hard part was that I wasn’t just eating all the fun good parts of an Ox (that’s probably relative). I was eating new things as well such as:
tongue (wasn’t that bad)
cheek (was it the fatty whiteness of it or the gummy sticky texture that didn’t settle?)
maybe it was that grizzly part that I dont’ think I got a propper translated name or location of the Ox for….
So on top on filling myself with wine, bread, cheese, dessert, anchovies with parsley, gnochi, chicken, ox tail (i’ve eaten that before thanks to some mexicans I know <wink> ) I was eating things I didn’t think were cooked anywhere in the world.
tell you the truth: I would rather eat brains again than put another ounce of ox cheek in my mouth.
after this wonderul culinary event I retired for the night in a nice mountain chalet of sorts in northern Italy (where the festival was).
When we returned to Genova I booked a train north to Austria and made my way to Innsbruck.
Innsbruck:
-Gluhwein (mulled wine)
-beer
-snowboarding on Glaciers in the Alps (have video of me faceplanting on the side of the mountain)
-daytrip and bubble picture mission to Neuschuanstein in Germany (the castle that Disney used as inspiration for Fantasy Castle in Disney World)
Innsbruck.
After Innsbruck I moved onto a tiny country called Liechtenstein. All of 150 sq/km. now that’s tiny. you could easily tour the whole country in a day if you wanted. I visited the capitol Vaduz, took a picture of the prince’s castle, got a patch for my bag, and then made my way to Interlaken, Sweden.
By this time in my journey the weather was really crap for sightseeing. The ceiling was very low so all the mountains (if you could see them) were simply these enormous walls that ended in clouds. It was hard to get a sense of how nestled the country is among these giants. I stayed two days in Interlaken. The town is famous for all the crazy adrenaline-pumping action activities and sports you can come up with. I just walked around and hiked a bit on a rise just outside of town. This hamlet deserved more than the time I had left in my trip. I ended up taking a night train to Barcelona the day after I arrived.
The Nighttrain.
Uncomfortable.
But on the nighttrain I met Isis. Isis lives in Spain and within…ohh…10 minutes of our conversation, she offered for me to come and stay with her and her family just below Barcelona.
Now I didn’t really have a plan at that point. Aside from getting to Madrid for my flight by monday (this was friday) I didn’t NEED to be anywhere in particular. She seemed friendly enough so I ended up skipping Barcelona and taking a train 2 hours south to Sant Jaume D’Enveja. This is a tiny town on the delta. A place surrounded by rice paddies and protected wildlife refuges. What a great place. Every road was boarded by flooded rice fields and if you walked far enough in any direction you hit rivers or seas. I will have pictures to show once I get organzied back at home.
Her family was very welcoming and kind. I at local foods and her brother Eros taxi’ed me around the area in their Mitsubisi Pajero (like a land cruiser). He drove like speedy Gonzalas (pun intended) and more than once saw my whole short life before my eyes.
I am not sure what it is with my luck and accomodations, or perhaps it is the balance because some nights I sleep in bushes, but Isis’s parents house looked to be the nicest house on the delta. Marble, huge bathrooms, and every other amenity you could imagine. It was a mini mansion and very nice to stay in.
I spent the weekend in the delta. A place I didnt’ even know existed until that time. On monday I boarded a train to Tarrogona and then to Madrid. The train to Madrid was one of thems bullet trains. 265 km/hr. it was fast! I watched out the window as the countryside moved quickly past me until it was too dark to see.
Madrid
I arrived in madrid with the mission to get to the airport, realizing my flight was leaving the following day around 12, I had all night to roam around and see the city. I found a suggestion for good tapas in my lonely planet guide and walked to “El Tigre”.
I can’t say I walked into “El Tigre”. I squeezed into “El Tigre”. The place was packed. I soon found myself wedged between the wall, and a throng of people. The bar was 5 feet out of reach. Imagine if you will. I had a bookbag at my feel like an emperor penguin, my pack on my back, and my camera bag hanging on my chest. I couldnt’ move. couldnt’ speak the language well enough, and couldnt’ figure out my next move.
I just stood there taking in the energy and trying to figure out how I was going to get me some tapas.
about an eternity into my analyzation of situation I heard english comming from some people in front of me.
“you speak engish!” I said
“where are you from?” I asked
“pennsylvania?” I repeated
this was sweet. here I was in a strange tapas bar, not able to order (or move for that matter) and I found 4 fellow pennsylvanians right in front of me. They ordered for me and we chatted a good bit before heading out. They asked if I would like to join them and I ended up touring and bar hopping around Madrid till about 11 at night. We had Titos (like a wine spritzer) and a local smooth vermouth, churros and hot chocolate (so thick you had to hold the mug above your head for it to finally pour into your mouth). It was soo good.
so good.
I eventually parted ways with Kat, Kat, Kaitlen, and Luke and made my way to the airport.
Slept on the floor there next to a guy named Oli. He is from Britain and was on his way home for the holidays. We chatted it up and then hit the hay.
plane to frankfurt
delay
plane to washington
delay
I pray there is no delay for vermont. (please please please)
this trip is certainly not over. not until I step foot back in 70 broadway. who knows can happen between now and then? I know the possibilities, the endless possibilities of a life of travel and transit.
I ask myself. Why? The most persistent and simple of questions. Why do I do this.
because I need to breath.
I need to inhale and find the walls, feel for the doors, and investigate the windows. because we end up putting ourselves in a self made, self decorated room, and never go to the kitchen.
The world is a mansion. Yet how many times do we as people, as creatures of comfort and habit, confine ourselves and stop moving, stop breathing?
push, explore, discover, and challenge.
get out there and breath.
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