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On Sunday I took a little bike trip down to Deltebre, which is the region where the river Ebro meets the Mediterranean. I'm pretty sure these are the most fertile lands in all of Spain, and it's where my grandmother was born and raised, and still has a small place. I spent a large part of my very young childhood living with her there, and remember it very dearly. My mom and Grandma had gone down Monday or Tuesday, and I just went down for lunch. As usual I got lost and went through a few towns instead of taking the straight way there. I went through a town called "L'aldea" which literally means "the town", and had a serious flashback:
Many many years ago I was supposed to take a bus down to see my grandmother who was living there alone at the time, and apparently I had to change buses in L’Aldea (approx. 10 km away from my destination) cause the town I was going to was so small no buses went straight there from Barcelona. My dad even told me the other day it’s not even legally recognized as a town any more... Anyway, I got off the bus and asked how long till the connecting bus to my town. Over an hour. I said “screw it” and started walking... in the general direction. Singing and jogging at times, I made it to my granny’s place many many hours later, having been passed by the bus when I was only a fraction of the way there, and lunch was on the table, hot. I don’t remember well, but when she tells the story, I went straight to bed from sleep deprivation and tired of being under the scorching sun for that long. I could have sworn I ate first, either way, I was extremely happy to see granny after the long voyage :D
I had not been back there for many years, and realized how many things have changed in both myself and the town
Sunday’s trip also put so many things in perspective. I was so young and had NO idea that 20 years later I’d come back on a motorbike from having lived in the States for 5 years and ponder about being small. That town definitely gives me a LOT to remember and ponder about. Definitely a feeling of “home”, which having been moved around so much as a kid is very hard to achieve, at least for me.
I guess it’s true that history repeats itself... Despite having lived in very large cities almost all my life (Barcelona & London), I love small towns and even chose one to go to college in. Well... I didn’t really chose that one but I loved that aspect of it when it was shown to me. It was the only one of the two that I applied to that accepted me :)
Phrase of the day: Women always have the last word in a discussion. Anything the guy says after that is the beginning of a new discussion. |