los camiones y dormemos in la calle

emilie and i slept on the street in barcelona. walking around a seedy equivalent to the 11th avenue loading docks in manhattan´s midtown, we sought a place to plant ourselves for nine hours before heading back to the truck that took us from perpignon france to barcelona, so that we could go to andalusia with him in the morning.

we laughed and laughed and told interactive stories one word each at a time. the alliteration game. the story of our trip. the sleeping bags came out and we snuggled into them wondering if it was safe to sleep on the street. there is no way to describe what it looked like, other than kind of blair witch project-esque. laughed at being homeless. woke up at 330 to a cold emilie snuggling close. moral is to bring a sleeping bag pad. 430 alarm clock, walked over to the truck, waited for him to open his shades and invite us in. the sun didnt come up for a few hours and i started thinking it would never. it would be dark forever. we stopped at a rest stop and the sun started peaking out. we picked out food and then pedro, our truck driver friend told us to get orange juice as well, and paid for our breakfast. we fell asleep in the truck for awhile to valencia oranges and olives on the landscape. beautiful. semi arrid climate with beautiful sandy rocky mountains.

woke up slept woke up

made friends with pedro. santa clause is fat and has a big nose in spain as well. discovered that i can speak spanish better than i realized, and is logical for my education. esta bien. esta verdad.

we entered andalusia, so beautiful and old and far removed from anything. all the way in the south. i suddenly felt so isolated with how remote we were. the only country near us is portugal. we are almost as far south in western europe as you can go. the furthest south, tarifa, is tomorrow.

the towns are stereotypical spanish cowboy movie towns. houses built into the earth, the mountains. little windows in caves. CAVES. CAVES. i love seeing places this way, from the windows of trucks and cars. speaking only a little bit of the language, not completely understanding what people are saying. but im getting a hang of it.

we were dropped off by pedro at a rest stop in the middle of andalusia, and he gave us his map and 20 euros to go buy food and his email. we got another truck ride immediately. we were going to sleep in granada last night, but went slightly too far and got a ride to malaga after eating a large dinner. the guy who drove us was the greatest, nicest, most genuine car salesmen i have ever met and drove us right into the center of malaga to look for a hostel. he wasnt even going to malaga. but he drove us there when he heard that we didnt know where we were going.

the ride from granada to malaga was probably the most beautiful drive i have ever done. hands down. beautiful arrid mountains turning into lush forested mountains, with beautiful white houses right on the hillsides. the sunset pink and the sky blue and angelic gold. soft angelic gold. and then the view of malaga and her sea. i feel so far from anything now. picasso lived here.

emilie and i are sleeping one more night here in a hostel that is beautiful. we get a big bed for the two of us in our own room. there are so many couches for us to sit in before we leave. in our room alone.

i dont ever want to leave and i want to go home all at once.

i feel like i could just evaporate into the road and sea and never return.

there has been so much excitement this week. nervous breakdowns, beautiful montpellier folks, beautiful parisian folks, strange clermont ferrand folks.

we are at the point in the journey where we both understand that we will find exactly what we need when we need it...a ride, a place to stay. it all comes. information too. and i feel like when we set our intentions, we get exactly what we need.

i am back in the state of feeling homeless, lonely, but i am in southern spain and i have plenty of time to be lonely when i am somewhere else so i will enjoy the beauty of this country and region, and i will catch up with that later if i have to.

traveling is the most fun and happiness i have had in a long time. little gypsy thing