Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't written in a long time. My life in France has been going through some rough up & down periods, as to be expected I suppose. Honestly, I was quite depressed for a while. I felt like I found myself in some sort of hole that I couldn't dig myself out of. I made a mess of my life and I wanted to change that. So what did I do? I decided to embark on a voyage all by my lonesome, something I wanted to call my "adventures in solitude". Two weeks before our winter break I bought my tickets out of Aix with my destinations being Madrid, Spain, Porto, Portugal, and then finally ending up in Barcelona, Spain before taking the train back to Aix. Some people told me I was crazy, others told me it would be good for me. I honestly didn't know what to think of the whole thing and after I bought my tickets all I could think was "what the hell am I doing??". But I had no choice, the tickets were bought so I left Wednesday the 23rd on a 16 hour long bus ride from Aix to Madrid with just my backpack, "Let's Go: Europe" student travel book, and a personal journal that Ashley told me to buy and write in during my trip.
I won't talk much about the bus ride other than the fact that it was the longest and WORST bus ride Ive ever taken, between the crying baby in front of me and the snoring/smelly man behind me. But whatever, I arrived in Madrid on Thursday early afternoon completely in tact (except for my tremendous back pain) and ready to explore! It's quite exciting to arrive in a foreign country where you scarcely speak the language with an address to get your hostel and armed with only your mind and some sort of self-reliance that you are counting on to get you where you're going.
Needless to say, I made it just fine to my hostel and Madrid was AMAZING. There is so much to say about it, I wouldn't even know where to start! First of all, I have never seen so many gays in my LIFE! I found Spain to be quite open with gay people. I saw many gay couples walking around holding hands, kissing, and it was honestly no big deal to anyone. In fact, Im sure I was more shocked by it than they were! I loved it!
Madrid was definitely one of the better cities Ive been too though. Amazing food, drinks, things to see, the night life... I definitely want to go back! I always would like to put a little thanks to my friend Tess who I hadn't seen in two years (friends from Tulane) but yet she still hung out with me and showed me around! I had so much fun! I would love to explain more of the stories but I feel like nothing can describe it as well as pictures can.
 |
I did some exploring on my own for the first two days. This is me in front of El Palacio Real (The Royal Palace) in Madrid
|
 |
| 3€ for a jar of sangria and a plate of tapas. I love Spain! |
 |
| Tess & I took a day trip to Segovia, a small town about an hour from Madrid famous for its roman acueduct, cathedral, and CASTLE! Check out this beautiful view though! |
After spending a wonderful 4 days with Tess & her friends in Madrid, I headed to Porto, Portugal, where I was very nervous to go by myself. Part of me was of afraid of being alone with myself because that meant dealing with all of my issues, but instead of crying about it, I journaled throughout my entire trip, which I must say is a wonderful form of self-therapy. As soon as I arrived (and ended up at the BEST HOSTEL EVER) I went down to the river and watched the sunset.
 |
| Sunset on the Douro River |
As soon as I headed back to my hostel, uncertain about what to do for the night, I immediately made friends with the other people in my room, one Australian guy and two German girls. After chatting for a while we all ended up getting invited to go upstairs to the lounge and drink wine with the rest of the guests, as well as the people who owned the hostel. I ended up meeting tons of other awesome people from all over and by the end of the night, I ended up at a Brazilian birthday party. I live for random moments like these. So much fun! The next day my new friends from my room and I decided to go out on a river boat tour and then spent the afternoon doing wine cellar tours and tasting delicious port wine (which I must say, I am now an expert at, especially after 4 tastings/tours in one day!) :o
 |
| Daniel, Miriam, Estrella, and me on the river boat tour. |
 |
| On one of our wine tasting tours we met Michelle (to my left) another American who is living in France. |
 |
| The Dom Luìs Bridge at night. |
Later that evening, a bunch of us from the hostel ended up at a little jazz bar in Porto and I found myself sad because I had to take a flight at 6am to head to Barcelona, but I didn't want to leave Portugal. This was where the spontaneous turning point of my trip happened. While expressing my reluctance to leave (and leave for the airport in the next two hours) my friend Daniel, THE Australian, told me "then don't go, go to Lisbon with everyone else". I was like, whaat, I can't do that! But why not? Then Giorgia, my new English friend, flipped a coin and told me that "the world is your oyster". Ok, maybe it's a cheesy expression, but definitely true! So in the end, spontaneity won and I skipped my 6€ Ryanair flight to Barcelona and hopped on a train with my new Canadian friend Miro and headed to Lisboa! There we met up with several of the other people from our hostel in Porto and had lots of fun!
 |
| Me & my Brazilian friend Stéfano enjoying some of his "family's" wine. :) |
 |
| We took a day trip to Belém, a little area outside of Lisbon. My friends William (from Colombia), Stéfano (the Brazilian), and Miro (the Canadian). |
 |
| After exploring we went on a bar crawl with our hostel. This is me & Val, another Brazilian that I met! (the Brazilians are everywhere!!) :-) |
 |
| Maggie, William, and me hanging out at our hostel tapas night. |
 |
| Sunset over Lisbon. |
Overall my trip was a huge success and I accomplished what Id been looking to do. I learned a lot about self-reliance, going places on my own, and learning how to meet people. Most importantly though, I finally pulled myself out of this funk Id been in for the last few weeks. Even missing my bus to go back to France and having to find a last minute flight at the airport didn't phase me. It was quite the adventure. This trip put some life back into me and I am learning to appreciate things again. Like the fact that Im sitting at my kitchen table here in Aix and looking out at the city with the mountain in the background. It's just gorgeous. Life is good.
Sorry for the long blog!
peace,
