The TravelBlog of Life

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I've decided to create a "travel"blog of life...something like a diary with commentary. So those of you who don't want to receive this, just opt out of receiving my blog. But read my prior write-ups on Sedona, Egypt and Jordan first!

March 5, 2008
Yesterday I received a call from Mr. Ed, the world traveler who'd visited 130 countries and talked about each one of them on our Egypt trip. He was in LA, and I know I told my other fellow travelers to Egypt that I wasn't going to answer the phone if he called, but I did, and then I offered to show him parts of LA he hadn't seen. I do love to show people my LA. So I picked him up, he was staying close to where I live, and took him to the Staples Center area in downtown, East LA's El Mercado, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Carroll Street, Griffith Park Observatory, all areas he'd never seen in multiple trips to LA when he usually just rode the buses, definitely not the way to see LA. What can I say? Mr. Ed is Mr. Ed. I think he enjoyed the ride. I wonder why I did it. I suppose I feel sorry for him. He's single, alone, old, and all he has are his travels. Do you think I identify a little bit?

I finally finished getting hotel arrangement for Sevilla and Barcelona for the Spain trip in the early fall. It wasn't easy. Everything is grotesquely expensive for an American. We had to just adjust our expectations and pay more than we're used to paying. I'm excited by this trip. Rama and I will spend about three days in Sevilla before a week long stay with a larger group in the center of Granada in some kind of villa? followed by four days in Barcelona.

I've been to all those places back in the Franco Spain in the 60s, when I hitchiked all over Spain with Eric who just liked to keep on traveling. I hardly got to see anything at all, and definitely didn't get a flavor for the culture of those particular cities, although I'd lived a year in Madrid. But back in those days I was a passive traveler wanting my friends to make all the decisions. If I didn't experience what I wanted to, it was my own fault. One of my favorite memories is staying at a "bar with beds". It was sparkling clean, comfortable, warm and only 50 cents a night. How many thousands of times more money am I paying now for these hotels in 2008? Of course, the places are a lot more elegant now and the bathroom is not down the hall. I used to hitchhike with one change of clothes in a tiny little bag, no makeup, a comb. I remember I had a cowgirl straight-lined skirt, blouse and vest I used to wear all the time. My outfit always got us a ride because people were curious. I haven't been back to Spain since that time. Then, you had to wear skirts. It was Franco's conservative, repressive, catholic Spain when no one would ever talk politics out of fear. The one time I wore pants, I received a lot of hostel attention, very hostel attention. From all the Spanish movies I've seen on Netflix since then, Spain is another world, and I'm eager to experience it.

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