I’m Coming Home

After seven months of living abroad, it’s time for me to go home. So cheers. Cheers to walking 250 miles across the north of Spain. To sleeping under the stars in the Sahara desert. To watching Les Miserables live in London. To hugging my best friend under the Eiffel Tower. To wandering the Grand Bazaar…

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Onward

After a week long trip with my brother and his girlfriend to Sevilla, Córdoba and Granada, I’m finally back in Barcelona.  Today is my last day in this vibrant city I call home, and it feels rather strange to be leaving. However, life only moves in one direction, and that’s forward. It’s certainly time to…

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Sevilla and Bull

Here I am in Seville, marveling at the Moor influenced architecture, hopping from one tapas bar to the next and touring the city by horse drawn carriage, with a glass of white wine in my hand. My adventure seems to be never ending, which is a good thing, of course, because the idea of leaving…

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Day 1: Blisters, Beer and Yoga

I wasn’t planning to write every day during the Camino, but it’s what I love to do, so I really can’t help it.  My first day was exhilarating and exhausting. I walked 30 kilometers (about 18 miles), downed five beers and then did yoga in Portuguese.  I started out at 6:40 am and met Nadja,…

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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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Fútbol, Confetti and Tears- Visca el Barça!

Kristi, or KrIstanbul, whom I visited in Istanbul in March, came to visit this weekend and accompanied me to my first FC Barcelona game this past Saturday. I had waited all semester to go to a game, and with only two weeks left in my stay, it was now or never. FC Barcelona was playing Deportivo de La…

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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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