Today, the trip continued to Lorca, Murcia. The only reason we stopped here is because we are trying not to drive a lot, and while our destination for tomorrow is Granada, we didn’t want to get there on a Sunday. Lorca however, had a lovely surprise hidden for us: the whole town is dedicated to Santiago: the Camino (“Camino de Levante”) passes by this town, and there is a whole church dedicated to Santiago, there are associations of pilgrims, homages to different pilgrims and others who have supported the Camino, spread all around the town. Pretty cool. And such a feeling of nostalgia… the place indeed seems like one of those towns we walked by when walking the Camino… (nevertheless, we have not yet seen any pilgrim).
Like almost any town in Spain it has its old center, but sadly lots has been destroyed in an earthquake that happened in 2011. Today there was a procession and the streets where crowded (not crowded really, but crowded in a “post pandemic” use of the word), there was a band playing music all around following the procession, people all dressed up with typical band suits, and there was a cheerful spirits in the people in the streets.
Today we are in a fancy hotel outside the city, a last minute booking that ended in this place way too much out of the standards for pilgrims, but let me tell you: I will enjoy a wonderful hot shower and a lovely bed.
Thank you all for staying around, commenting and sending such generous thoughts and good wishes to me, it means a lot when my mind goes into the mood: “This is crazy!” In any case, as of yet, I am still on “vacation mode” and the idea that I am not going back to Argentina “once my vacation ends” has not kicked in… I will see what happens once I am back to Valencia, settle in the apartment and start working… but for that, I still have a number of days.
These past two days we drove by Alicante and decided to be away of the big city and went on to Torrevieja. Torrevieja seems like a coastal summer location from the 60/70ies in Argentina, the housing mainly is big apartment buildings inside a gated small community, all painted in between a yellowish and a tan color, lots of ceramics in different shades of blue, lots of lemons and oranges in the trees, and lots and lots and lots of palm trees. These palms trees are called “Palmeras Levantinas”, because this area is called “Levante” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levante,_Spain … should we weren’t in Spain, I would say you could be in an all inclusive hotel in Cuba (and interestingly enough, the main street of Torrevieja is called “Las Habaneras”…)
This location though, has nothing to do with Cuba, in fact, you could say it has nothing to do with Spain as most of the people are British, German, Danish or from any other of those countries. I think the only Spanish speaker was me!!!
We had a great lunch, and we also had a great sleep… so I will consider another day of vacation accomplished!!!
Thank you for all the messages and the confirmation that you are still around the neighborhood!
I need to tell you about yesterday, but today let me share that I am in a place called Xativa, 45 mins south from Valencia. I could say that it is one small city but at the same time that it is one of those tiny towns that we walked through when walking the Camino… lovely people, everyone in the streets having coffee, or beers, or just reading the newspapers, greeting each other and talking loud from table to table, I saw lots of smiling faces… and you surely can picture the location: small houses painted with different vibrant colors and balconies with flowers, super narrow streets, kind of hilly, the best “cafe con leche”, and as you can imagine… CAMINO SHELLS!!!!!!
I hope everyone is doing well, I know it has been quite a while since I last posted but I trust that some of you are still around.
I feel I consistently apologize for being too busy, but I do not know how else to describe what life has been like lately, and “lately” means “for years”. “Being too busy” has been a reason often used as explanation and justification, but not so much explored on its “why” but a pretty obvious one is that I am “the only man here”(actually, in this case, “the only woman”!!!)
I mean to say with this that I am the only one working an extra full-time job, doing the groceries and cooking, cleaning and doing the laundry (ironing included), and since August 2021, doing all the paperwork needed for a working visa and organizing a permanent move to Spain.
Right now, I am writing this post in an Iberia plane to Madrid -stop on the way to my new destination: Valencia, that I boarded this Tuesday 08March at 1:55 PM with my life until now packed in 2 large bags, 1 medium bag and 1 carry-on. I left 5 filing boxes -with books,pictures, small pieces of decoration, 6 pairs of shoes and 2 coats at my friends’s house. And all else is gone to a new life elsewhere, somehow, like I am doing: my furniture and appliances have gone to the houses of two of my friends, I sold my car yesterday, and my apartment is on its way to becoming a dermatology practice.
And most of this happened in the last 3 days. I moved the cloths and other bags on Saturday, moved the apartment on Sunday, sold the car on Monday and boarded this flight on Tuesday.
I wasn’t really expecting all of this to be so last minute, but “timing” is definitely not a gift my life has been blessed with. I had planned to do most of this along 3 or 4 weeks, but my brother was here and had to aligned to his schedule as he needed my car, work has been… -you know, there is always a lot going on- but since last Sunday we added the management of clinical trials in the context of a war, and the extreme desolation of having work colleagues, people with whom we talk daily and exchange mails daily, experiencing what we watch in the news. I had planned to be out of work last week, but it ended being “one of the busiest” weeks at work,
And it is also said that moving is one of the most stressful situations in life, and I am doing it on my own, to another country, in a continent with a war just started next door.
(Timing will be another topic of discussion here soon).
I will be on vacation -although “on call”- until the 28th of March. My Camino friend Pat will be landing some hours after I arrive and we will head south, to spend some days away from Valencia before settling… a first step towards a less busy life… I have always said that the Camino taught me to recognize myself as a walker on the side paths, and acknowledge that the highways aren’t my thing, and this is why I am moving…
