After well-deserved vacation (during which I decidedly avoided any kind of physical activity and refused to even convince myself into anything that I 'have to do" - this is my time to relax, sleep and fill my batteries) the time has come to move on. My next stop is Barcelona from where I will sail into some of the most exciting and prettiest places around The Mediterranean Sea. At this point, dear reader, yours truly has been travelling so much that there is hardly a spot left untouched & unvisited, luckily Europe is such magnificent place that there are always other different things to explore - no matter how many times I had visited these cities, there is always something I forgot to see. In fact, it just makes me more aware of other possibilities. For example, I had visited Barcelona a hundred times but never managed to check out The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (well, I did climbed the darn stairs at least, to find the museum closed on Mondays) and so far never took The Montjuïc Cable Car so there is always something else to enjoy. Sometimes its not about famous tourist attractions but about simply having a coffee in a quiet corner and soaking the atmosphere in. Often I have enough of living & working in the same confined space so escape into anonymity of some labyrinth is just wonderful way of relaxing and forgetting about constant work. And this time I seriously hope that I will have opportunity to see that strange, ancient figurine in Malta (so called "Sleeping lady" that nobody knows anything about since her identity has been long forgotten).
As usual, had to pack some books for just in case although my e-reader is packed with thousand titles and after I piled up potential books into several mountains around me (unfortunately I have to select them not only by preferences, readability and interests but also had to remember such mundane facts as editions - nothing too heavy, clumsy or hardback) eventually decided that unread pile was unread because it didn't appeal to me and these four will do just nicely. It is symbolical anyway + we always have libraries on the ships, I just need something from my own collection but not another heavy piece of tractor in my luggage that I always suffer around with. Not to mention that I know every bookshop around the world already and regularly checking them out. (I am incapable of passing by the bookshop without poking my head in it, even if its all in foreign language, I still enjoy and understand the titles.)
Contrary to what I expected, I am not depressed about going back to the ship but actually very excited to travel again. My Croatian friends here tease me that I will never stop travelling and that even though I am constantly talking about new start on land, I would probably die of boredom if I am seriously settled in daily routine somewhere. Of course I love travelling and waking up in different place every morning, its the 16-hours daily grind that I dislike. Than again, I am forced to walk, explore the real life and stay away from Internet (I use it only occasionally in a port, once a week) so maybe that's not a bad thing. Often I see our Asian crew googling and obsessively hanging above their gadgets in every single port outside, completely unaware of where they are, not even noticing the blue sky above them or stunning historical architecture around them, really it makes you wonder what is the point of travelling the world but not seeing any of it because of the Internet. I am sure family & friends back home could live quite nicely without a chat about food and the weather - most of this connections, emotionally satisfying as they might be, are just superficial anyway. My friends accepted long time ago that once I am away, I am far away and besides occasional letter and contact, there is no point of reciting the daily menu just for the sake of it.
I was little sad to leave my animal friends behind and naturally wonder will they survive all the dangerous cars driving so recklessly around the countryside but of course they will be in good hands, I can only hope they will survive and remember me next time around when I'm back sometime in February.
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