When People Visit

Visitors are exhausting. You walk around all day, spend more money than you normally would on entrance fees and metro passes and you eat constantly, and I mean constantly, just so that they can have the best possible experience in Barcelona. Over the last few weeks, I have had three visitors. I have re-visited all of…

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Conversations with Strangers: Pabloski from Wrocław

About him:  Paul, who goes by Pabloski because he is half Mexican and half Polish (Pablo-ski get it?), manages Funky Cycle, a rickshaw business in Barcelona. He has been living in Spain for about 16 years now, and his hidden talent is guessing what country people are from. How we met: My friend, Kristi, is visiting…

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About that Wallet Again

About a month ago, almost to the day actually,  I wrote about how I had left my wallet in a taxi. Since then, all the credit cards had been canceled and replaced, the cute leather wallet completely forgotten and the incident forgiven. Today I got my wallet back. Out of the blue, I was informed…

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Lessons from Jellyfish and Deserts

Today I got stung by a jellyfish for the third time in my life. Once was in Belize, once in Honduras and now here on the beach near Barcelona. I didn’t even know they had jellyfish here this time of year. I limped out of the water, slightly annoyed thinking, “just my luck,” and also annoyed…

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On Children and Mothers

The other day, my father and I made our way into the Sahara desert to round out our Moroccan experience. On the way to our desert camp, our driver asked if we wanted to visit a nomadic Berber family that had set up camp nearby. Nomadic family? Berber locals?! Observing a rare gem of African life?…

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Jesus and Jolie

I spent my birthday weekend relaxing with Mama Kulka in the beautiful country of Malta. Don’t know where Malta is? That’s okay. I’m not completely sure either, and I just spent five days there. Malta is a little country below Italy, half way between Siciliy and North Africa, and it encompasses five islands. It is the world’s…

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About a Wallet

On Sunday, while heading to the beach for lunch to celebrate a gorgeous day and running a 10k, I left my wallet in a taxi. Yes. All of the nights that I have been out at clubs and bars, and of all the pickpockets on Las Ramblas in Barcelona, the metro in Paris and the trains in…

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When It’s Not All Fine and Dandy

I thought it would be dishonest to pretend like everything is sunshine and butterflies when you’re a woman traveling alone, so I decided that I had to share a moment that was unpleasant and in all honestly, a little scary. I believe that people are good, I genuinely do. But, I’m also not naive and I…

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The White Tiger

A white tiger: something extremely rare, but not altogether impossible to find. In a previous post, I mentioned that I was looking for an apartment in the city center, within walking distance to the University, with lots of natural sunlight and a balcony. And, I wanted it all for less than $500. Jesus must be reading my blog,…

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