minimalizing

if ive managed to live three months without all these things that were left in my rooms...why do i need them now.

bills

im going through my bills for the past three months

i have a sick feeling now.

time to start walking the streets. not really.

The time has come

alright folks. the day has come. i am coming home.

i leave madrid tomorrow at noon. should be in LA by 7pm.

im coming home with an empty wallet, three full suitcases and the experiences and adventures of a lifetime.

the past year ive thought of nothing but this trip. i havent thought at all about my life after i come home.

im nervous. i dont know what to do with myself when i get home.
i think the things i want out of life have changed a bit. i think ive changed.

but before all that i look forward to seeing all my friends and family, whom i have greatly missed.

but be warned, i am without a car so youll likely be picking me up at your nearest metro stop!

i say ciao to europa
as i say ciao to los angeles!

pisa

my flight out of italy left from pisa. i took a quick look at the duomo and the tower. then headed to spend the night at the airport as my flight left at 6 am the next morning.

not knowing that the airport closes and kicks everyone out at midnight i was forced to sleep on the sidewalk outside the airport with about 50 other travelers until 4 am when they re-open the airport.

it was an experience.

the cinque terre

The cinque terre region in italy was the crown jewel of my three months in europe.
5 towns connected by 8 miles of hiking trails. fresh seafood.local wine. great foccacia and pesto.
its absolutely mindblowingly amazingly breathtaking.
i loved every minute i was there.
i was already feeling tired and anxious to return home. but my time here rejuvenated me. made me feel ready to take on another 3 months. i somehow felt i wasnt ready to leave anymore. that there was still so much more i wanted to see.

firenze

i spent about a day and a half in florence.
didnt see a whole lot in terms of sightseeing but i hiked a hill to catch some cool city scape shots.
the ponte vechio was the only bridge sparred by bombs in WW2.

Roma- El Vaticano

im no religious person, far from it. but i felt i had to see the vatican city for myself.
i did not see the pope.
quite honestly . i left the basilica agrravated. so much richness, luxury, wealth.

i dont know . its beautiful. but i felt it was unneccessary.
the vatican museum was really cool. its more a historical art museum. the highlite being the sistine chapel.

there are really no words for the sistine chapel.
a 26 yr old michaelangelo did that.26. i cant draw trees that dont look like a first grader drew them.

no pictures allowed but i spent an hour just staring at the ceiling.

Roma-Pantheon e Foro Romano

I found it hard not to feel a bit eery in the Roma forum. Our civilization sprung from the remnants of these fallen stones.

Pura Piedras! as my aunt says. Roma es pura piedras.

The spot where julius cesar was burned after he was betrayed and stabbed by the roman senate.
i mean Julius Cesar was real. It wasnt a play i read in highschool. Shit really happened. I knew it did. Im not saying i just found out. But to actually lay eyes on things youve only read about, i dont know how to describe the feeling.

Id made me feel like i have so much more to learn in this life.

Roma-El coloseo

El Alhambra, Granada Andalucia

The Alhambra in Granada, andalucia is the last remaining Moorish Palace in Spain.
You are transported to another place and time. i could invision the call to prayer taking place. Ive started to feel that my pictures can not capture the beauty of many of the things ive seen. Only my eyes can appreciate.

Seville, Andalucia España

Sevilla was ridiculously hot...about 106 the two days i was there. horrible really.
the city is gorgeous. Sevilla is in souther spain, in the andalucia region.
A city once ruled by the moors you can definitely see a moorish influence on the city.
in the old jewish neighborhood,barrio santa cruz, streets can get so narrow that neighbors can literally reach over and kiss each other from their balconies. hence they are called kissing lanes.

sevilla has the largest gothic church in the word, ( woohoo another church)
i went to see the tomb of christopher columbus.

sevilla looks like old mexico city...or really its vice versa as i read that much of the spanish conquistadores that arrived in mexico departed from sevilla.

its not like i didnt know that our roots as latin american go back to spain, but i really see what the books talk about. ive read alot lately. a lot about spanish history.

the inquisitions, the conquests, the civil war. its all really fascinating. sad and disturbing. one can say that much of the atrocities of WWII (and recent wars) stemmed from tactics tested on spanish cities. most importantly Guernica. Ive been fascinated with the attack by the germans on the basque region city of guernica.

spain is so incredibly complex. nothing is as it seems.
but i feel im deviating into a " what i learned this summer" essay.

barcelona-antoni gaudi

-i went back to barcelona
spent two days going from gaudi project to project.

as much as im tired of seeing churches, i went to the sagrada familia which is still a work in progress. its another realm. that church is on a whole other level. amazing to think that the idea originated in the early 1900s. what a mond like that could do now?