I Remember Now

I got into the travel industry so that I could travel the world, meet new people, and experience things I hadn't experienced before.  And I certainly have done all that and more.  But most of the time it was while doing business, and so while I traveled on the back of a camel near midnight to go see the Great Pyramids of Egypt, I wasn't all the focused on the experience since I had spent the entire day in a smoke-filled room trying to convince about 50 people that they needed to buy our product, and another 2 hours in a cramped car fighting Cairo traffic to get to the edge of the desert where the camels were.

This trip is different - it's vacation, and all I have to do is be fully present and realize how incredibly lucky and blessed I am.  We arrived in Barcelona Friday afternoon, and spent all day Saturday being tourists on a double-decker bus.  We experienced the salty tang in the air from the sea, the sound of many different languages, and the sight of great (although really, really, weird) architecture.  I had the best cup of chocolate in my life at Escriba on La Rambla, a wide pedestrian walkway.  Walking, we heard the screech of the parrots flying over our heads, the cooing of the pigeons around our feet, and the noise of the little mouth harps the street vendors were trying to sell.  In La Boqueria, the biggest fresh food marketplace in Spain, we wondered at the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Rabbits, both skinned and un-skinned were for sale, along with chickens still with the heads on, lamb, and many types of ham.  Fresh fish cleaned, gutted, and fileted while you waited, along with octopus, squid, lobster, crab, and thousands of anchovies.  I bought a little container of fresh fruit so that I could eat a fresh fig, which I've never had before.

I felt like crying with joy several times during the day.

Today we board a cruise ship and will cross the Mediterranean to visit Florence, Rome, Naples, and Palma.  I now remember what it was like to experience travel for the first time and I feel the wonder of it all.  I will never take travel for granted again.