Friday, February 19, 2010

independent traveler

granted, walking around the streets of spain does not really make me an independent traveler, as I have no yet even begun to grasp the idea of going to some other city or country by myself, but...
today i decided to just go out by myself and see where the wind would take me. usually whenever we go out i go with the girls in my group and we make our way around the city as a clan. being really bad at directions and my geographical placement, i usually just do the lemming thing and follow them and we miraculously find our way to that awesome coffee shop we wanted to go to! or to the school! or home! or other important places that i should probably know how to get to in case i don't have the company of my comrades! soooo today i decided to take a separate path to school, which is about a 20 minute walk. i ended up getting there, but instead took a detour into this adorable little park called Jardines de something.. (gardens) which was full of making out couples, children, palm trees, path, tiled arches, benches, just awesomeness all around. as i was walking around here i noticed a gate which looked like the entrance to this little walled off village. there were these huge moss covered walls and you could see all these old white buildings on the other side...i thought it might be a private area but then i noticed a large group of old german tourists and decided to go in. this was the barrio de santa cruz..it turned out to be the perfect little spanish neighborhood (in my opinion) and an excellent challenge in terms of not getting helplessly lost. so many small curvy alley ways, gardens in front yards, amazing smells coming from little apartments, restaurants tucked away...it was amazing. perfect way to spend the only sunny day in weeks.
then i bought some veggies on the way home for dinner (living with vegetarians definitely proves good), told my doorman pepe how i went to the barrio, listened to him tell me not to go there alone at night, and he gave me a cookie. overall a good day!

1 comment:

  1. aw Tess! Greetings from Geneseo :)

    It sounds like you are really appreciating Spain. I love how the little things in life like sun,tiny shops, and a comfy feeling can just make you appreciate your stay. Be sure to take loads of pics! From your description it really sounds beautiful over there.

    much love <3

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