Reflections and considerations for future travel

 

I learned alot in Barcelona and finally got to sit down for a nice plate of paella and a LARGE glass of paella on my last night. A month is the right amount of time to be gone...longer is too long.  Shorter is ok, but not too short if the travel is long.  Travel is a good opportunity to enjoy, but also to learn and be exposed to new things.  Traveling with Saliou was an education.  Traveling alone and navigating on my own opened possibilities for me in life.  

I will definitely travel again, alone.  

I will definitely pack much lighter.  Do more homework ahead of time.  Do tours of monuments/etc alone, if possible.  Take the time to purchase the correct tickets.  The phone worked out really well, just buying data with Airalo.  Next time, be sure to purchase for all the countries at once if possible.  I did Spain and France separately, which was dumb.  Remember that train lines can cross each other more than once.  Riding bikes is a great way to go.  Cars move slowly in Paris so it's less dangerous there than here in Colorado.  

 

Go find dinner in the immigrant communities.  It's less expensive and more interesting.

 

Spend time on the Seine.

A few moments in Barcelona and Paris

 

How cool to stumble across a street parade on La Rambla.  

 

Sagrada Familia...go alone next time.  

 

Children  ; )  On the Seine. 

 

Always seek new friends.  Lilliane who I met at the baguette vending machine. We exchanged info and I rode a bike to her miniscule rental apartment on the other side of the Eiffel Tower.  She worked on it and we chatted.  I hope to see her again. 

Reflections on why I am not writing a travel log

It's an odd thing that 

I am not writing a daily blog, photos, thoughts, adventures, practicalities.

At MIT, we'd say the education was like drinking out of a fire hose, too much, too fast.

The pictures don't capture it,  they are sharp and yet, I am in a blur.

Dropped into this little hostel with the two twin beds, a balcony that looks out

over an urban canyon, the ratio of building height to street width unimaginable

in my country.

The blur of packs of tourists, English, French, Catalan, Spanish, Italian,

packs of gay men, naked breasts on the beach, young white men puking,

the waft of marijuana, African street vendors, the Arabs competing.

I don't read other people's travel blogs. I can't write my own anymore.

I can't even write my history, tangled as it is with Devaud sensibilities, 

the traumas, the lonliness, the determination, the mistakes, marriages, divorces,

poverty and success, my way of seeing the world, my generosity mixed with 

naivety, nearly 65, my whole life seems a blur, just as the street outside

is a blur which cannot be captured in any meaningful way by a series of 

photographs.

And so I spend this time with a Senegalese man who lives in his world,

of deprivation, family drama, poverty, endless obstacles, within his society of 

lying to stay alive.

What a disappointment on so many fronts.

How exhausting to be constantly impoverished, spending a day on the street

going hotel to hotel to see if you can get a better deal.

Maybe if you just speak louder in a foreign language, or say, "My friend"

with a too big smile, just to get by.

And so, all of a sudden, I knew that this post would be written without

a crisp photo.

Travel is not crisp.  

Terrified to enthralled in Barcelona, Spain

 I admit that I was WAY out of my comfort zone coming to Barcelona on my own.  I was also kind of embarrassed that I was afraid - aren't I an independent woman?  Saliou had suggested meeting in Barcelona when he was here on business. 

Biking to Chateau de Chenonceau to kayak!

We rented a couple of electric bikes to ride the hour or so to the Chateau and to finally kayak!  So much easier to navigate without heavy panniers!  Beautiful weather, a mix of clouds, sun, a little rain.  

A little headwind, some current, but we steadily approach the castle and pass underneath!

After passing underneath, we stop for lunch and a swim.  

and, of course, we had stopped to wait our turn at the patisserie to get pastries and eau gazeuse.  

Amboise: Leonardo da Vinci

We escaped the cave in the last town and are in Amboise, a more touristy town.  It's hot today...very hot after so much cool weather and I'm very tired.  We rested on the thigh of Leonardo da Vinci and looked across the river to the beautiful chateau on the other bank.  The room is nice and, even more lovely, is the beautiful garden in the back, where we had tapas for dinner.  

We missed our opportunity to rent a kayak - apparently no one answers the phone to take reservations and when you show up, their schedule is already full.  In an unusual feat of organization, we have rented bikes for tomorrow and also reserved a double kayak in a town about an hour ago.  

Ugh - no more sleeping in caves! Azay-le-Rideau

 I thought this would be cool, this hotel room/cave at Azay-le-Rideau but I really disliked it.  There is no getting away from the clammy feeling, and the toilet/shower/did not even have a doorway. The whole cave was basically one whole space.  We also could not have wi-fi (it's a cave, dummy...).  I was glad to leave. So, it was kind of cool, in a clammy, creepy way, but I'm glad I can say "been there, done that".