Sarah´s ramblings...

I love traveling. (full stop, end story) I love the cultures, the people, the food (at least trying it, not always good but at least worth trying), and the experience as a whole. I am not sure why I am so addicted to traveling but if it is possible I definitely am. We have seen so many things that I think of in the National Geographic magazine and such that it is crazy to be standing before such landmarks, places, and experiencing the world in ways beyond what I can read about and look at pictures about. The smells, one thing that magazines and the internet never quite informs us of. My nose has been going at about ten thousand miles an hour trying to decipher what it is exactly we are smelling (sometimes I think it is better not to know). It is glorious. We have had adventures to say the least. Last night´s bullfight was outstandingly strange. I enjoyed being there in the midst of 22 thousand people.

I think that every time we finally get somewhere and get the transportation system figured out we move onto another place. Although that is great it is also fun when we can finally hold our heads up high and know where we are going, I use the word ´know´loosely but I would say it with some confidence. Madrid is crazy and the streets run all over, and our map is less than labeled fully. But we have achieved a great victory in finding everywhere we want to be, with some humility and asking people where to go. We have also found that our spanish skills though small have been amazing, now if only we knew languages for the rest of the places we are going.

It is crazy to be living out of a backpack and packing it up everynight and taking it somewhere else. Tonight we are going to do laundry which is welcomed that our hostel has machines so we don´t have to do it all in the sink, as fun as that is, a machine is a glorious thought. Today is a bit of a lazy day and allowing our muscles to relax a bit after all the walking-hiking-stair climbing has been crazy. Glorious as it is, our legs are more than happy to take a bit of a break, but with this I would still be after walking around gardens this morning and traveling around the city we still manage to walk a few miles.

Hostels are quirky places to say the least, i thought seminaries are special places with all sorts of people but hostels are even more so and make all of us seminarians look completely normal, despite the psych eval to make sure we are crazy enough for seminary, hostels are great. we have met people from all over the world doing all sorts of things and have agendas of a variety of things. it is fun to meet people and to hear their stories and exchange a little of ours. Ode to learning from others.

I must admit that i miss being able to call people and catch up. I feel a little disconnected having to rely upon internet (good at times, craptastic at others) in order to communicate, but it is only for a month so it is do able. I look forward to catching up with everyone when we get back.

Chocolate and wine have been standards of most of the places we have been. The chocolate and wine is OUTSTANDING and actually fairly cheap for the local and good stuff. We appreciate it for sure. On the strange food list: last night we ate a bread roll that was hallowed out a bit and filled with eggs cooked with potato chips and cheese, not sure what it was, but it was pretty good, strange, but good.

Alright I am rambling. I will go. So many stories we could share.