First blog post of 2008

After a very long absence, by my standards anyway, I have decided to resume blogging. This post is special for many reasons. First and foremost, it's the first post of 2008. This is going to be a special year, I have already decided. Why you may ask! One obvious reason is that I will be turning 30 later this year. While most people cry about turning 30, I am embracing it and loving it and looking forward to it. I sense great things happening in my life from this point on. I don't know, I just feel it. The second reason this post is special is because it is coming to you all the way from Barcelona, Spain. I have decided that my (two) readers are so special that they deserve to read a post I am writing while in a fabulous mood, something that everyone knows isn't frequent of me. If I were to put off writing this, I will be either on my way to or already back at home, which means the good mood will be certainly gone, because it will mean going back to work after a two week get away, starting before Christmas.

Some of you may wonder why would I be blogging while in Spain. Well, tonight (it's already night here) is my last night here, and while I would love to go out and spend more time wandering the streets of this beautiful city, I have to pack, which I am ignoring right now. I also need to stay up all night, because if the last ten days are indicative, waking up early isn't exactly something I have been able to do. Also, if I spend any more time wandering around, I will have to officially declare bankruptcy as I have spent way too much money in the last ten days while in Spain. Actually, I have spent most of the money in the past two days, while alone, since my travel mate had to leave two days before me. Somehow her presence made me shop less. Thanks to her departure, I am now the proud owner of way too many shoes that cost way too much. The shoes mostly came from two shops whose owners actually now recognize me. It didn't help that I also bought shoes for my parents and my brother. Hey, I can't help it, Spain is known for good leather. Of course, I am not sure how to justify the few funky pieces of clothes, and accessories that I bought in addition to the shoes. Whatever, I only live once, as far as I know, and I would like to go through this wonderful life wearing lovely shoes. I guess my mom now can rest assured that I have inherited at least one gene from her, and while my sense of fashion is nothing like my mother's, my love for shoes certainly came from her, and not from my father who owns three pairs.

Now, let's go back to the beginning of the trip. I was very good and finished all my work ahead of time, and my packing was done with just enough time to get a good night sleep before my morning flight. I was supposed to get up around 5:30 am and go pick up my travel mate, then drive to my parents' house to have my dad drive us to the airport so that my car would be car-sat at my parents'. Well, if that sounded too perfect, it's probably because it was. It is so unusual for everything to go smoothly, but what was lying ahead was completely not something I could have prepared for. Shortly after midnight, my phone rang, and I woke up confused and saw that it was my travel mate. She had bad news, her passport had expired, and she had not noticed until 9 hours before our flight. And if you have ever dealt with government agencies that renew passports, you would know exactly how bad that is. Needless to say, I was in shock, and I didn't know what to do, except change my mind set to the solo traveler persona. Not a problem, since I have traveled alone many times, the last of which was back in March for three weeks around Europe. But I was a little bummed that I would spend New Year's alone. Even worse, I felt bad for my friend who was very excited about the trip. But how extremely out of it does someone have to be to not check their passport's expiration date, especially when the tickets were purchased two months in advance. I don't get it, but that's because I travel internationally at least once a year, which is probably why the expiration date of my passport is engraved in my brain.

So off I went to the airport, fighting the urge to cancel my trip as well, and getting prepared for 10 days of solo traveling. However, during my layover in (disgusting) JFK, my friend called and informed me that due to some miraculous intervention she was able to renew her passport that day and she would be on her way a mere 24 hours later. My jaw literally dropped. A government agency getting their work done the same day? The same agency that insists that you need at least 6 weeks to renew your passport? I don't know if I loved them for renewing her passport in one day or hated them for not always getting the same thing done in such a short time.

Off to Barcelona I went, and as soon as I got there I had to make a decision. We had initially planned to take a train to a small town where one of our friends, the Spaniard, would be for two days before heading back to the US. So I had to decide whether to go as planned and let her get in a day later and spend a day alone in Barcelona before I get back, or stay in Barcelona for a day alone until she gets in and skip on the small town visit. Well, I went the selfish route and decided to take the train to Alicante a few hours south of Barcelona along the Mediterranean from where the Spaniard picked me up to go back to his town. As soon as I got there, any feelings of guilt about going alone went out the window with the wind and into the sea. What a beautiful town this was and even better than the town are the people I met while I was there. What a group of lovely wonderful friendly people they are. And I know the Spaniard will give me a hard time about this, but I have to say that of all the European people I have met so far, the Spanish are my favorite. While I love and have no complaints about any of the others, the Spanish resemble my family the most. They're loud, they love eating and drinking and talking and laughing, all at once. If you have been to my house for dinner, you'd know what I'm talking about. I felt very much at home, even though I understood very little of the language. But everything, down to the two kisses on the cheek, was almost exactly the same, which is why I was at ease from the beginning, something most of my US comrades would need time to adjust to. Trust me, I've seen people's reactions when they come to my parents' house and my parents do the cheek-kissing thing. Some have even told stories about it afterwards, and some froze in horror. But that's another story for another time.

The Spaniard, as I fondly call my friend for purposes of anonymity, was a wonderful host, and his family was very generous and even friendlier. He was even a better tour guide, and showed me around the town where he grew up and some of the people he grew up with. It is just amazing how meeting a few people can shed a new light on someone and can make you maybe understand them just a little bit more. Needless to say, I was very happy I decided to go and visit my friend in his home town.

After two days, both the Spaniard and I left his town and back to Alicante, he to fly back to the US and I to take the train back to Barcelona, where my friend, the expired-passport-owner was waiting for me. A whole different part of the trip was about to commence, and deserves its own post. So stay tuned for the memoirs of the second part of the three-part journey.

Until then, Happy New Year and may your 2008 be off to a wonderful start as mine has been so far!