A video

 

Missy - Home

 

We are home.

Relief 

Exhaustion 

Pride

Pleasure

I managed another flight with the Ativan and good weather. 

It was a bit bumpy but nothing too dramatic.

Everything went smoothly at both airports. I got a random COVID test at Dulles. 

Some woman wanted to know if I would help the CDC and I said sure. Now my nostrils are very clear. 

The airport shuttle in Madrid was a little weird and we wound up having to take another shuttle to another terminal. 

We had lots of time. All was well

Now we are home and I will unpack and hug my husband and daughter. 

I will probably do one more of these to wrap up my feelings. 

So far so good

Missy - Barcelona to Madrid

 

Today we had only a few things on the agenda. First eat another big buffet breakfast.

We did that with fair alacrity.

Next go swim in the Mediterranean again. 

The water was colder but he morning was hotter so it all evened out. 

I saw two small fish this time. They were sand colored but had black Vs on their tails.

I planned on this trip to meet a tattoo artist I admire on Instagram.

When you get a tattoo you can’t go into the pool or beach water for quite a while (4 - 6 weeks).

It was my tattoo day so I was particularly happy to be getting in the water just prior. 

After we went swimming we went back to the hotel and checked out, grabbed a cab and headed over to Folk Art Tattoo . It is at this point that we realized we had forgotten our hats. 

We decided that if the tattoo was under 4 hours we would head back for them. 

 Once at the studio I found a place to stash Kiernan, filled out the usual safety forms and started talking to Paula about what to do. 

I’d sent her some Pinterest ideas from Camino tattoos that I liked and some of her tattoos that I liked. 

She said she had an idea and we left it at that. 

So on the day of she showed me her idea and the only change I had was flipping it upside down so it had a cross

Instead of a sword. 

She printed about various sizes and we talked about placement. 

I knew I wanted it on my right leg and she said she likes best the look of round things on the calf muscle. So we chose the 2nd largest option. 

We went back and she cleaned my leg and got out the sterilized needle and wrapped it to a cleaned deer antler with a ton of medical tape. She asked me if I was ready. I’m never really sure if I’m ready. On the other hand it’s what I’m there for. So I said yes. 

It hurt. It felt like when you snag your leg on a thorn. 

She asked if it hurt and I said yes. She said if it hurts now in 20 minutes you will be kicking your leg around. 

I was very much hoping not to kick my leg around spasmodically so I opened up my TempleRun and asked her if she wanted silence or if she liked to talk. 

She said she loves to talk. So I started asking her about the Viking re-enactment she does and about bands we like in common and about rescue dog and she asked me about the Camino and guns in America and cooking. 

Between the game and the talk I managed to distract myself sufficiently to do no kicks. 

I was told that hand poke heals more quickly. My instructions were to unwrap it in a few hours to let it breathe. I am to wash it 3 times a day and use aftercare cream on it. 

We finished in about 2.5 hours so Kiernan and I had time to grab the best pizza I had in Spain and go get our hats. 

It was a very successful time. 

I need to mention here how easy and weirdly aggressive the taxis are in Barcelona. They are all in a hurry and they will pull over anywhere. 

We had one yelling at an ambulance for getting in his way. So many red lights were run, so many speed limits ignored. 

After we got our hats we took a cab to the train station and stood in the line of doom where I was mistaken for a Spaniard but held my own with yes this was the 5:35 to Madrid. No I didn’t know when the line would move and then we gave one another the universal shrug and sigh of stuck travelers. 

We took a high speed train to Madrid and found ourselves in the quiet car. I am a big fan of the quiet car. 

In Madrid we took a much less kamikaze cab ride to the airport hotel. 

It was a long day. I was wiped out from the tattoo. 

Kiernan was tired and hungry and we set our alarm for 6:45 in the morning to meet the airport shuttle. 

Missy - Barcelona

 

I had two strange tactile sort of goals for this trip One was to touch the Roman aqueduct in Segovia and the other was to put my foot in the Mediterranean. 

I put my foot in the Mediterranean!

Actually by the end of the day I even went swimming in it but my goals are small and specific so it was the foot that counted most of all. 

One of the ways I deal with my anxiety is by making lists. I have task lists for almost everything. It helps me not forget when I’m feeling scattered and helps me stay on track when I’m feeling unmotivated or too anxious to move forward. 

This was something I loved about the Camino. Every day the list was walk to the next rest area. 

For today in Barcelona I had three goals. One for me and from my readings was to be in the Mediterranean. The next was a very touristy goal and one that my aunt Laura asked about when she heard we were going to Barcelona.

I went to see the Sagrada Familia. This is Gaudis unfinished bacillica. Please follow that link and read about it if you don’t know the story. It’s fascinating.

I had personal and more mom oriented goals as well. Kiernan did not enjoy our massive train ride of yesterday so I wanted to make sure he had a much better day today. I therefore got us the all you can eat breakfast buffet. What a change that was for us both!

They had a warm thick chocolate fountain with tea cups next to it for filling dipping chocolate. Next to that a giant basket of churros!

They had healthy and unhealthy pastry, all sorts of juices and hot beverages (we’d both gotten a bit dehydrated over the last few days), they had yogurts and various breakfast meats. It was a feast. We feasted therefore. 

After breakfast I was ready to see the sights and he was ready to nap and play on his phone in the air conditioning.

We split up after a quick trip to the beach. He to quiet introvert recovery land an I to explorer the city. 

It’s funny, in a city full of easily accessible and relatively cheap taxis I wound up walking nearly everywhere. I wound up with 28,637 steps for the day and my feet felt great. 

After the Gaudi I walked over to the big built shaped building and to some parks. 

It was Sunday and the parks were full of families and strollers. They were also full of very fit people working out. I saw some fighters doing kicking drills and push ups. I saw people doing pull-ups and running and tons of volleyball and basketball playing. 

I rested in the shade and called David while looking at the architecture.

Then I took a cab to the National Museum of art of Catalunya.  

This one was recommended to me by an SCA friend who told be about how in the 1930s a lot of rural villages began selling off their ancient murals to get some infrastructure money. Collectors were buying them up for pretty cheap when the government stepped in to prevent the country from losing any more. 

They were great. I spent a few hours looking at beautiful art of the ancient and modern. 

I love the hounds at the feet of these. 

I love the infant Jesus holding a bird and wished Michelle were still with me to see it.

I saw a pilgrim and got all excited.

I loved the detail in his beard. 

I loved how personal and expressive their faces were. 

Then I loved how I chose to let myself eat sugar in Spain by having some excellent rich chocolate in a spectacular setting. 

I went next to the modern art and sculpture section. 

These last two are from the propaganda of the 1930s Spanish civil war section. The one below is my favorite   It was made to show the world the feeling of the people suffering under an illegitimate and violent government. 

I think the bullring is such a striking and deeply Spanish setting. 

I went out into the beautiful day and decided to call David again and to walk the hour plus back to the hotel. 

The sky was blue, the people were out, there were random orange trees over the side walk. 

I saw lots of cool street art and expensive yachts.

I went along the beaches until I got back to Kiernan.

We went for Donner kebab on my friend Martins recommendation. 

Kiernan loved it. 

We kept seeing these electric rental scooters. 

I want one. 

We went back to the beach and went swimming and found some cool shells and rocks. I went to the laundromat and washed lots of clothes then got some Uber eats Indian food for dinner. 

We were going to eat it on the rooftop of the hotel because the views are great but got chased off for bringing outside food. That freaked my rule following son out. 

We went back to our room, which was covered in drying clothes and ate ourselves into comas. 

I would not like to live in Barcelona. It is dirty and loud and busy. On the other hand it has the clearest water and the mountains come all the way down to the sea. It has the coolest architecture I’ve seen in any city and the museums are world class and cheap. 

It has a great diversity of people and lots of vegetarian foods and the cabs are easy. 

I’m glad to see it. 

Missy - Santiago to Barcelona

 

Today was an adventure.  

5 o’clock in the morning saw us in the street waiting shivering for our Taxi. No one was up and moving. Also no taxi appeared. I forced Kiernan into my rain jacket and decided that if it didn’t come by 5:30 I was going to try to call another cab. 

5:30 came and I started googling Santiago taxi companies. None of them were open. Our flight was at 6:45. 

One company asked for lots of details to be sent via WhatsApp. We had an alburge do things this way as well. I don’t have WhatsApp and could only understand about 3/4 of the things they were asking. I pulled out the big guns and called Mary my beloved and Spanish speaking and awake stepmom. Happily she has WhatsApp. 

We started walking to places we had seen cabs. It was 6 o’clock. 

I was feeling half desperate half hopeless. The airport was 9 k away. I paid for flex tickets but could only flex 2 hours from the flight. 

It was a 2 hour walk or a 13 min taxi ride. 

We started to see lots of taxis but you have to call to reserve in Santiago. 

We got about 25 min down the road when Mary called to say she had found someone and sent them to where we had been before we started walking. 

She called them back with our new location and at 6:30 the cab got us. 

We made it to the airport. 

We missed our flight. 

They don’t have a ticket counter there “please call this number”. The number informed us that they don’t open until 9. 

I looked online. No more direct flight s to Barcelona today on this airline. We could get an Irish flight for 1200 each or book again for the next morning at 6:45. 

I really wanted out of Santiago. I checked the train schedule. There were a few seats left from Santiago to Barcelona at 8:30. 

We ran to the taxi stand and got the only cab there. I bought the train tickets on my phone as we drove over. 

We got to the train station at 8 and we’re on our way ontime for our 13 hour cross country train ride. 

Neither of us had eaten or drunk yet so I grabbed some chocolate and chips and a Camino patch at the station. The ticket had one transfer, at an hour in. I slept the entire hour. 

We got off the train and we’re directed to a bus. 

This was the same station where we had the Mario Kart driver to Sarria. 

The bus drove off and crossed the bridge to Sarria. I felt like we were in groundhogs day. 

ride. 

We passed Sarria and went to another train station about 40 minutes away. We got on a big train and sat down across from a very cool Spanish guy with excellent English. 

We broke open the chocolate and settled in for a long old ride. 

Our great Spanish guy was named Sebastian. He’s part of a Camino organization and every new feature we rode by he had something interesting to tell us about it. 

He saw us on the Camino and remembered us as a group of 5 or 6. He said everywhere he looks this year he sees Americans and that they are all smiling. 

He had a bad fall in an Alburge only 2 days from the end. Something in his leg cracked (turned out to be a ligament not a bone) so he’s now unexpectedly off to home. 

We really lucked out having him as a seat mate. 

After 11 hours of complete tour of northern Spain we arrived in Barcelona.

It was 9 at night  Our first pay toilet was encountered  

We went to a very heavily attended taxi stand got a cab and drove to our hotel.

At the hotel I learned that my reservation was for tomorrow, because of course it was  

I added a day to my reservation and learns that the pool would be opened for another half hour and that breakfast service starts at 7:30.

Barcelona is a city city. We saw lots of traffic and lots of people and I felt very not Camino.

Kiernan still has an upset stomach but he really likes our hotel.

Tomorrow I will take him to the beach.