-Yann Martel
I came across this excerpt while rereading the novel Life of Pi (which I highly recommend). While Martel had his own answers to these questions, here are some I've discovered after these last eight weeks of travel (which while not the same as a long-term move can be no less life-changing): For the beauty of the fresh and never-before-experienced. For flavor. To test your mettle. To cut through your carefully developed and maintained ego, your fancy talk and strutting walk, and see what's left. To be awed once more by landscape and culture. To tingle the taste buds with foods not tried before. To be humbled by how little you know, how much you can learn, and how kind others can be. To discover what is truly essential for your happiness. To face the monster that is stress and time and time again stare it down till sanity is regained. To find out how strong your relationships truly are. To live focused on each task, each pleasure, each uncertainty that arises moment to moment, day to day.
When I last wrote, Brian a
nd I had just arrived in Ontinyent, Spain. This was the farthest south we ventured, and even there the summer was definitely giving in to the dominance of autumn. The days were still sunny and warm, but the sun's passage was noticeably lower in the sky, it's sharp summer rays now relaxing into a glancing fall gaze. I could almost feel the relief of the terribly dry earth as the promise of autumn and winter rains neared (apparently the rainfall normally started right around our arrival, so we lucked out again with unusually good weather). Our rental was next do
or to a very friendly English couple and the property boasted olive, orange, and pomegranate trees (which were so delicious!). We were only a five minutes drive from the center of Ontinyent, which we spent several afternoons walking through in the hopes of finding an open restaurant for lunch (places were open and closed so unpredictably we accepted that two weeks was insufficient to get a solid understanding of the Spanish relationship to time schedules). We took several day trips out from Ontinyent to explore the medieval city of Bocarient, the naturally-formed turquoise rock pools of a nearby river, and the long and sandy beaches of the Valencia coast.
On the 15th
we drove back up north to our next rental, a beautiful old stone house with a separate one bedroom apartment attached. The landscape had become greener as we drove back up towards France and the fallow field next to our rental was filled with flowers and butterflies, a lovely place to read and lunch. The house was an easy fifteen minutes drive from the city of Figueres, which we ended up having to travel to every few days when the internet at our rental proved to be inaccessible. Out of sheer laziness (and the foolish assumption that we would always have working internet in our wanderings) we had failed to book a place for the oncoming week. As the days of the week slipped away our panic grew, and I spent nearly all our time at the cafes researching, emailing, and finally 
hashing out an agreement for a rental in the region of Provence, France on Thursday... cutting it a little too close to sleeping in the car for our taste.
In between these internet quests we spent our time enjoying the sunshine, eating out at gastronomic bars (where they serve a surprising and delectable variety of tapas), watching downloaded podcasts (we highly recommend TEDtalks and the moth podcast), cooking meals in our large kitchen (it even had the luxury of a stove, which we'd had in only one other rental thus far), and exploring the coast. Our hosts recommended we drive out to the tiny coastal town of St Marti D'Empuries for a beautif
ul beach minus the shore hugging over-development of bigger towns. And beautiful it was. We bravely swam in the fairly chilly and amazingly clear sea water and ran about collecting shells like they were gold pieces. Another day, we drove up the coast to the touristy town of Roses and enjoyed some fantastic tapas with an ocean view. Since it was the off-season the town was half deserted, but we didn't mind because it makes for far less stress and you never have to fight for a table.
On Saturday we drove six hours along the French Mediterranean to the tiny coastal town of Cavalaire, ten minutes from a larger tourist destination, Le Lavandou. The weather has turned a bit chiller and though it was sunny on Sunday, today has been overcast an
d rainy, and tomorrow is expected to be the same. Still, it is lovely on the coast here (even with the sun hidden, the surrounding landscape is gorgeous) and the homes on the coastal hillsides are all the same warm tones of yellows and pinks, each with it's own meticulously maintained garden. And I'm going to enjoy the relative warmth of this coast for all it's worth this week, weather aside, because Brian has managed to talk me into heading north instead of into Italy as we had planned... and when I say "north", I mean farther north then I can almost stand the thought of. But hey, what's traveling for, if not to shred your precious sense of comfort and control?
When I last wrote, Brian a
nd I had just arrived in Ontinyent, Spain. This was the farthest south we ventured, and even there the summer was definitely giving in to the dominance of autumn. The days were still sunny and warm, but the sun's passage was noticeably lower in the sky, it's sharp summer rays now relaxing into a glancing fall gaze. I could almost feel the relief of the terribly dry earth as the promise of autumn and winter rains neared (apparently the rainfall normally started right around our arrival, so we lucked out again with unusually good weather). Our rental was next door to a very friendly English couple and the property boasted olive, orange, and pomegranate trees (which were so delicious!). We were only a five minutes drive from the center of Ontinyent, which we spent several afternoons walking through in the hopes of finding an open restaurant for lunch (places were open and closed so unpredictably we accepted that two weeks was insufficient to get a solid understanding of the Spanish relationship to time schedules). We took several day trips out from Ontinyent to explore the medieval city of Bocarient, the naturally-formed turquoise rock pools of a nearby river, and the long and sandy beaches of the Valencia coast.On the 15th
we drove back up north to our next rental, a beautiful old stone house with a separate one bedroom apartment attached. The landscape had become greener as we drove back up towards France and the fallow field next to our rental was filled with flowers and butterflies, a lovely place to read and lunch. The house was an easy fifteen minutes drive from the city of Figueres, which we ended up having to travel to every few days when the internet at our rental proved to be inaccessible. Out of sheer laziness (and the foolish assumption that we would always have working internet in our wanderings) we had failed to book a place for the oncoming week. As the days of the week slipped away our panic grew, and I spent nearly all our time at the cafes researching, emailing, and finally hashing out an agreement for a rental in the region of Provence, France on Thursday... cutting it a little too close to sleeping in the car for our taste.In between these internet quests we spent our time enjoying the sunshine, eating out at gastronomic bars (where they serve a surprising and delectable variety of tapas), watching downloaded podcasts (we highly recommend TEDtalks and the moth podcast), cooking meals in our large kitchen (it even had the luxury of a stove, which we'd had in only one other rental thus far), and exploring the coast. Our hosts recommended we drive out to the tiny coastal town of St Marti D'Empuries for a beautif
ul beach minus the shore hugging over-development of bigger towns. And beautiful it was. We bravely swam in the fairly chilly and amazingly clear sea water and ran about collecting shells like they were gold pieces. Another day, we drove up the coast to the touristy town of Roses and enjoyed some fantastic tapas with an ocean view. Since it was the off-season the town was half deserted, but we didn't mind because it makes for far less stress and you never have to fight for a table.On Saturday we drove six hours along the French Mediterranean to the tiny coastal town of Cavalaire, ten minutes from a larger tourist destination, Le Lavandou. The weather has turned a bit chiller and though it was sunny on Sunday, today has been overcast an
d rainy, and tomorrow is expected to be the same. Still, it is lovely on the coast here (even with the sun hidden, the surrounding landscape is gorgeous) and the homes on the coastal hillsides are all the same warm tones of yellows and pinks, each with it's own meticulously maintained garden. And I'm going to enjoy the relative warmth of this coast for all it's worth this week, weather aside, because Brian has managed to talk me into heading north instead of into Italy as we had planned... and when I say "north", I mean farther north then I can almost stand the thought of. But hey, what's traveling for, if not to shred your precious sense of comfort and control?
As usual such a delight to read about your travels. Hope you have brought warm clothes along if you are truly heading NORTH. But, given that Colorado has already had its first snow, I imagine it will bring back fond memories of home. Will you be there through true winter?
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