Tuesday - ohmygoodness, did I really not write at all during my adventure day in Barcelona??
We can just say it was because I was so busy off exploring, which is kinda true but we could also more accurately blame the delicious $4 bottle of wine I purchased my first night there and the fact that I starting binge watching Modern Family.. So my "home time" was a bit preoccupied.
making friends and fun shapes in new places and getting soaked in the rain at the "Arc De Triomf"
And of course there was in fact a truly overwhelming amount of adventure around the beautiful Gothic Area of Barcelona as well. I wouldn't go all the way to Spain just to stay in my room! (As tempting as that always is...)
It's currently 8am and I've been up for three hours already.
Yesterday was the first and only day of the last 12 days of adventure that I wasn't up before the sun. You'd think it would have been magical, but I actually still woke up at 4, 5, 6, and finally 10.30am, each time quite stressed and confused and worried about being late to yoga.
Oh brain, you are so good to me.
I'm typing this out from my window seat aboard my short, tiny flight to Florence, Italy where I'll be meeting up with my dear friend and world-traveling, world-famous bodypainter, Trina Merry, and I'll let you take a guess as to what we'll be doing when I arrive . . . (The whole point of this trip is to spread my #WhiteGurlBootay around the world, remember?).
I've currently got my scarf wrapped around my face as this plane reeks of cigarettes and perfume (Travel tip from Jin, always wear a scarf). And by "the plane reeks", I mean the plane, and the people on it. Even the loud, loud, loud children smell like cigarettes and perfume. Especially the children. I feel like I should probably just accept that this smell will define my next 24 hours - haha! Oh Italians.
Just to continue bitching because I'm so good at it, and then I promise I'll tell you all about how wonderful (and wonderfully expensive) Barcelona was, there's some things I really miss about home. . .
Like my cat and my husband and the Hollywood sign and having the option of driving somewhere and some goddamn DECENT wifi.. But I also am really, really starting to miss not being run into by other people. Like, all the fucking time.
I know I'm pretty travel sized, and my presence can be quite timid at times, but I've gotten pretty good at projecting the fact that, Hey, this is the time and space that Jin is currently occupying and no you may not occupy it with me. The Spanish though? No fucks given. None. Even when I have my full backpack and huge suitcase and it's impossible to misconstrue my particular space as empty, every where I go and from all directions people are running into me.
A woman in the park yesterday, as I'm standing there, just *standing there!* not even like a moving object you have to calculate how to miss beforehand based on trajectory and size and wind and etc. I was just fucking standing there; and a woman ran into me as she walked by. I looked behind me, as I was not facing that way anyway, and there was a full 8 feet of cobblestone path behind me that was available to her. .... Why is this OK?? It's not even like a matter of personal space, it's just rude and affecting us both! We're BOTH being bumped. Why do you want this????
So there's that. I'm sure the Italians will be much more considerate when it comes to personal space.... (Hahaha!! I make myself laugh! I'm also tolerating a fair amount of contact between my forearm and that of the woman next to me who, unlike any American I have ever met, thinks an armrest is totally shareable with a stranger.)
Please know that I'm not at all bitter, it's just early and my twelve minute taxi to the airport cost me $40+ fucking dollars and one of the babies on the plane is literally crying like this :
"EUuuugggnnbhhhBlaaAAaahhhBlaaaAAAaahhhBlaaAAAaaahhh!!"
Maybe she's just commenting on my writing.
Enough blah blah, bitch (the baby says) and get on with the magic that is Europe and your life, you lucky asshole!
She/He/It's right.
Barcelona was in fact amazing. My Airbnb was right next to Las Ramblas which everyone warned me about which is dumb. It was like a long outdoor area of tourists and souvenir shops and lots and lots of places to eat and drink and laaaaauuuugh and of course lots of pick pockets I'm sure. That was the main warning, but I'm not an idiot and I keep everything important in my bra anyway (there's your second JNT approved travel tip for this blog post - both free of charge!).
I was also warned not to go there at night, or to really go out at all at night, which is also dumb, as there's literally more people out at night than during the day. Locals and families even. And soooooo many children. Jesus Christ with the children.
The Gothic Area where I was staying is nothing but incredible architecture, history, art, and people from literally all over the world, and it's right on the water which I could see from my third floor balcony (4th floor balcony actually, as the buildings here start at zero - this is important to note because most places don't have elevators and have I mentioned just how weak and small and Amuuurican I am and just how HUGE and heeaeaaaavvvvvyyyy *whiney* my backpack and suitcase is??).
Everything in that area is old as fuck, and even the post office looked like royalty used to live there. And just down the street from me, like seriously two blocks maybe, was a gorgeous, massive basilica (a giant ass Catholic Church) that made me cry the moment I walked in. I spent five minutes just touching a massive stone wall, wondering at the story of the unearthing, shaping, and transport of just ONE such massive piece of stone, and despite never having done so before, had someone been available I would have stepped into a both to confess my sins.
This is the second time in my life that I have found myself, moved to tears, and just a wee bit hungover, inside a basilica in a Spanish speaking country (the first time was in Costa Rica in 2009, pre-model life).
During my Barcelona wanderings I took lotsa photos and video, to come, and I left my cellphone service off and successfully found my way around by Feelings and landmarks. None of it led me astray, and I saw so much without even really trying. That's the way I love to travel. I meandered though a giant park, a couple museums and photo galleries, LOTS of narrow, cobblestone streets full of endless shops, and ate at a vegan burger and beer place called CatBar (but no cats! Sad!). It was all incredible.
Especially the burger.
vegan burger, taters, and cider .. i could eat this every day of my life.
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