Day fourteen Going Home

I just met some nice people today including a guy from the States and a girl from France. It has been a day of talking in the kitchen and in cafes as well as a brief visit to the museum del Trios in the rain. Benji talked some real sense about the madness of the Enron fiasco in the states but tempered his views with a statement of hope about the innovation and zeal to move ahead out of this economic crisis there is in the States.

It is sort of a feeling of being in limbo here at present. Just about to fly but certainly feel richer for having done the trip. Although I am an absolute travel novice compared to many of the pros here, I have seen and done a lot in two weeks. I feel mentally tired and ready to go home. I have some memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life and have experienced hospitality and goodwill from almost everyone. I have not seen the news or read a newspaper for two weeks and do not know anything about what´s going in the world. This seems to be an advantage to an extent in terms of not worrying unnecessarily about stuff. I have let go of some cold fear that built up in me over the winter and feel good about the spring and summer in the UK.

If I have learned anything it is that sometimes some of the winter creases only come out by a prolonged airing in some hospitable foreign place, or in Cornwall or Scotland.

Here are some other points... that stress is a reality. No one seemed to have much of good word to say about London. There are plenty of very positive well adjusted, slightly younger than me, young people in the world. Americans are travelling again, especially Californians. People are visiting the Balkans inclusing Kosovo and getting well treated. Spanish people have a lot of foreigners living in their country. The Med is a kind of cultural eco system all by itself. Many English people live happy lives here. It is possible to travel with a limited diet. The run up to going away is more stressful than going away.

The natural world is beautiful. Kites make people happy. Many Spanish people drink sensibly. Tapas is free in Granada. The most beautiful places in the world are the most sought after places in the world. The pound has lost a lot of value and it mainly affected us, not the rest of Europe. We live very privilidged lives compared to Morrocans. Some people have a lot of money. Many Spanish Catholics appear to relate to statues as spiritual dieites in and of themselves. There are a great deal of people travelling who speak good Spanish as a second or third language. There are layers of history here that can present you with a flavour of the past. Spain is much bigger than the UK. Evolutionary biology would reduce all this to something meaningless. God is bigger than we think he is.