Colorado, Denver and Fort Collins

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Since I was too lazy and also travelling in order to both study and visit friends I did not keep my travel diary as I usually do. Therefore this blog post will not be as useful as usually for other travellers as I have not stayed at hostels or travelled as I usually would. It will be a more reflective blog post for anyone interested in reading about my travel and reflections.

This whole travel got planned and re-planned a few times. It ended up with me spending the first weekend, Friday-Monday in Denver. I arrived Friday evening at the airport and took and Uber to my couchsurfing spot in Thornton. It is a bit outside the city, but it was so worth it to go out there! I got a hughe room with its own bathroom and big bathtub all to myself and I had the friendliest host. He took me out for dinner the first night to a Mexican place as it was getting quite late. After eating and having one drink I was exhausted and just wanted to crash. As soon as we came back I fell asleep.

The next day I woke up slowly and then went into Denver to go on the free walking tour. I used Lyft which is basically like Uber. Thornton is not too far outside Denver but as the public transportation system in the U.S. in general is not very well developed that is the way to go for now, lets hope this changes some day. I made it just in time for the tour. Our guide was super friendly and energetic. I was the only non U.S. citizen in the group, but I did also come at a bit of a weird time I suppose. She told us a lot of funny stories behind the historical buildings, for example she told us that the State Capitol building has access to a network of tunnels under the city, she knew that because a family member had worked there. She also told us that the County Court was built at a time where the economy was not very good and the architect disagreed with spending that amount of money on a building, so when asked to put a golden eagle on top of the clock tower, he made it in a position as if it was about to poop. She told us about the local mint production and how there had only been one attempt of theft, which was an employee smuggling out one gold bar each day.

The tour took us around to all the important places and after finishing off I had lunch with another girl from the tour. We found a nice place where you could get food from different stands and sit on a nice terrace and eat. Unfortunately I had not brought my passport, I never do that in fear of losing it, but in the U.S. they are so strict about checking I.D. that I could not have a single beer that day. After eating we walked around a bit, checked out a distillery where you can legally purchase marijuana and went up through the city where there was a zombie walk on. I also saw a group of vegan activists and really felt like joining them, their videos was the real horror story of the day.

After saying goodbye I went back to the park by the Capitol building and fed squirrels and enjoyed the sun. In the evening I went to City O City which is a vegan/vegetarian restaurant that was recommended to me, and for good reasons! Has one of my best ever vegan pizzas there and chilled around for a while. I went back as I had to get up early Sunday and go to the Rocky Mountains.

Sunday I got up early and got a Lyft rider to a parking station where I met a meet-up group, who had arranged a hike in the mountains. So I jumped in the car with them and we began our hike up to Bridal Veils Falls. Not having a car in the U.S. makes it hard to travel so I was lucky to find this group! It was a super beautiful hike. I was very impressed with what I assume was the oldest guy in the group, he ran of way in the front and I stayed in the middle, having a bit of trouble with jetlag and being out of breath because of the height. When we finally made it up there it was so beautiful. I can definitely recommend it to anyone in the area. On our way there we also saw both Elk, Deer and chipmunks.On the way back we stopped for lunch and then I went back to my nice couchsurfing spot and took advantage of the nice big tub. In the evening I was so exhausted, I just hung out with my host for a bit and then went to bed early.

Monday I was supposed to go to the Red Rocks Theater with my friend from Saturday, but she was not feeling well and in the end I decided to relax a bit as my night sleep had been ruined because of jetlag. In the late afternoon,after an extremely nice lunch at Watercress, I finally took the bus down to my friends place in Fort Collins where we went out for dinner at a small taco place, who had nice vegan options.

I then started my days of studying, where there is not that much to tell. I went for swims at the local pool, studied at parks and little nice cafes. On the weekend we went to a few halloween parties, but I was the only one not dressed up, luckily I could use the excuse that I am European. The days in Fort Collins went by very fast even though I was not doing too much. There is something very relaxing about the city and I came just at the right time when the autumn colours are everywhere and then sun was always out. Time flew away and I really enjoyed being away from my hectic life in Barcelona and having time to do the things I had left behind earlier. I guess this was the time where I got very reflective on my journey and though about what kind of life I want since I enjoyed the relaxed vibe so much and not having any obligations at all. My life in Barcelona is quite hectic, a job full of deadlines and a lot of pressure, volunteering at a cat shelter and fostering a diabetic cat with scheduled food and medicine and on the side trying to study plus fighting for animal rights. I realized that what I am truly passionate about is the animals and veganism and tried to think of ways of living of that but it is super difficult. My mind will have to keep working. My studies are carrying me in the right direction, they are just hard to get through, especially as a remote student and working a 40hrs job on the side. After swimming in the pool one day, I just floated around in the water and I realized that despite not knowing exactly where everything takes me, I am probably the happiest most real version of myself I have ever been and I finally learned self-love so that I can carelessly give love to others, everyone around me both humans and animals.

Sometimes being on vacation but not rushing around travelling like crazy is much more rewarding as it gives you time to reflect. Carry on to my next blog about Boston and New York for less reflective more travel relevant content :-)

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