But my nerves are scattered across the sky in a fruitless fever.
// Virginia Woolf
explore
MIND: Placement
You belong everywhere you go. That’s just how you are.
// Benjamin Alire Sáenz
MIND: Burdens
I have to be woman and endure this!
Bride Of Ice // Marina Tsvetaeva
MIND: Needs
The more I know of the world,
the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man
whom I can really love.
I require so much!
Sense and Sensibility // Jane Austen
SOL: Day Trippin’
If there is one traveler’s sin I’ve committed while being in Spain (though in reality there have been many) it is the foolish mistake of becoming too rooted in one place. While residing in Sant Pol I have barely ventured north up the coast of Spain even though the train system makes it easy and painless. Thankfully one of my friends is going as stir-crazy as I am, so yesterday we went to a nearby village to rent a moped for a jet up towards Costa Brava.
After taking the train from Sant Pol to Pineda, we paid a 30E deposit and another 45E for nine hours of moped freedom. While our front signal light was held together by tape and the back tire was of questionable quality, this 125CC bike may as well have been a white chariot to freedom.
We left Pineda and immediately went north through the other coastal tourist towns until stopping in Lloret de Mar for a walk along the beach. The further north we went up the coast the more coves we passed and the beaches became more secluded and beautiful. After a half hour trip on the moped (with me hanging on for dear life) we reached Tossa del Mar, situated evenly on the coast about 100KM from both Barcelona and the French border. We wandered through the quaint cobblestone streets and up through the old castle where we were able to take in amazing views of the city.
After stopping for a late lunch near the beach, we left Tossa and continued north and went up into the mountains before heading back to our stomping grounds. Getting away from Sant Pol for the day and seeing new sights was exactly what we needed; it’s too easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day drivel and let it stress you out. I was happy for the excursion, but equally happy to arrive to my house without being maimed on the back of the bike. I have a little more than two months left in this beautiful country and I am determined to make it count.
Safe travels,
AS
MIND: Shedding
Shedding one’s skin:
The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die.
As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions;
they cease to be mind.
// Friedrich Nietzsche
MIND: Notorious
Forget safety.
Live where you fear to live.
Destroy your reputation.
Be notorious.
// Rumi
MIND: Perspective
Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.
// Gustave Flaubert
MIND: Beggin’
I beg young people to travel. If you don’t have a passport, get one. Take a summer, get a backpack and go to Delhi, go to Saigon, go to Bangkok, go to Kenya. Have your mind blown, eat interesting food, dig some interesting people, have an adventure, be careful. Come back and you’re going to see your country differently, you’re going to see your president differently, no matter who it is. Music, culture, food, water. Your showers will become shorter. You’re going to get a sense of what globalization looks like. It’s not what Tom Friedman writes about, I’m sorry. You’re going to see that global climate change is very real. And that for some people, their day consists of walking twelve miles for four buckets of water. And so there are lessons that you can’t get out of a book that are waiting for you at the other end of that flight. A lot of people — Americans and Europeans — come back and go, ‘Ohhhh.’ And the light bulb goes on.
// Henry Rollins
MIND: Luggage
Don’t let your luggage define your travels, each life unravels differently.
// Shane Koyczan
