Spending a Month in Spain & Badalona
Hola
I’m writing this from Badalona, Spain which isn’t to be confused with Barcelona, Spain. You see, I found a cheap(ish) flight from Belgrade and decided to fly to Barcelona. I had no idea where I was going to go when a friend from Buenos Aires, Argentina sent me a message with a detailed map of where to go and crash when I arrived at 4am; sounded legit so I followed. His advice was a solid start for my plan to spend a month in Spain but Badalona beach is pretty “bad” in my opinion. I say that as I had to cut my swim short when I realized the water was literally filled with floating garbage…. gag…
I’m in Spain because the longer I get into this travel game the more I realize my goal isn’t simply to travel the world. My goal is to build a place for myself in the world and that involves many outposts which are sympathetic to the SHABL lifestyle. Spain seems to be a logical choice because it has a (I think) beautiful coast line, great weather, it’s in Europe and above all else, they speak Spanish. Considering my first outpost of sorts is in Nicaragua, I figure the better I get at Spanish the more my life will improve. I still have lots of countries I wish to see but I becoming fluent in Spanish trumps more stamps in a passport.
In an hour I’m transferring to a private room I rented near Sagrada Familia for two nights. I’m also linking up with a bright mind who calls Barcelona home which may or may not lead to me renting a room in the area for another week or so. You see, I have no plan all I know is that I want to spend time in Spain. Just yesterday as I enjoyed that sensation of strolling strange streets I could feel my grasp of the Spanish language swelling. Where is the X? Hello, good sir, how do you do? All these were flowing from my mouth with ease and it felt great. Exploring the world is a fine feeling but so is being fluent in a foreign language; I assure you.
I’ve got a flight to Rome on the second of September from Valencia but other than that, plans are basically up in the air. I’d like to visit the Costa del Sol as it’s also known as the Costa del Golf with something like 90 courses in the region, 90 courses? I’d love to live on a golf course but said golf course has to also be very close to a town with a pulse and the sea. The fantasy of simply being on a golf course gets old fast when you feel trapped there and have no social scene. If I do that, I might as well just call it a day and become some weird eccentric loner with a low handicap; no thank you.
I’d continue but it’s time to move and see what Spain has in store for me. I’m happy I made this move because I have no plan on stopping my travels but I want to make them a little more efficient and step-up my game a bit by having bases in great locations. Summers spent staring at the sky from a villa in Spain, entertaining guests and taking the odd 3 day -> 3 week jaunts to other parts of the continent sounds better than switching rooms every few days in a blur of buses and brake lights.
Oh yeah, not sure if this is a one off occurrence but I did run into some serious macho mentality; more so than anywhere in South / Central America. I’m getting out of the garbage water and walking towards my shirt and shoes when this guy standing next to his girlfriend is just staring me down. His stare was so strong I could feel it trying to intimidate my soul so I looked at him and said “hello?!” as in “how may I help you?” to which he just looked at the sand then away; strange.
Tips hat,
