Emily and Russell's Travel Blog

This is Russell writing. The words in this rant do not reflect the views or commitments of Emily.

Before we left for Europe, someone wished us a good vacation. I appreciated the sentiment, but we’re not on vacation. I’m working during this trip, and so far I’m really enjoying the writing and being sufficiently productive, despite my health challenges (which, by the way, are still frustratingly present – my right ear still feels fully clogged and I’m consequently a little out of it, but maybe it’s getting a little better now. We’re trying to be patient. Emily is 95% better from her cold, the one I gave her.)

Anyway, back to the rant. In Paris and Barcelona, the sights were packed with tourists and their cell phones, crowding forward to grab pictures. There are beautiful images of all of the subjects of all of those photos on line, better than the ones that they are taking. But they seem to be on a quest to collect the images, to gather them, to own them. I’m not the kind of guy who rants about neoliberalism or late stage capitalism, but it does look to me as if there is a clamor to acquire among all of these tourists, to check a box on their lists of life’s goals, at the cost of experience. They don’t seem particularly reflective or appreciative of the places they are. They want to acquire some patina of the famous objects and take cute selfies to post on TikTok or whatever. And they’re all in my way!

Emily and I are not on vacation, and we’re not (usually) tourists. We’re traveling. I’m writing. We’re exploring the areas we’re in. We’re shopping in markets and cooking meals. We’re looking for one fun thing to do each day. We’re not checking boxes or trying to see everything. We’re trying to get a feel for the places we visit, not acquire them for ourselves.

Got it?

So, after we left Barcelona, we drove hours out of our way just so we could visit Andorra for lunch and add it to our list of countries visited.

Russell’s hypocrisy aside, Andorra is gorgeous, nestled into a notch in the Pyrennes, with steep beautiful mountain faces all around. We had a breezy lunch at a restaurant on a plaza, walked around for maybe 45 minutes, and then got into our car and went back to Spain.

On the drive back to Spain, we spoke with Marina who was settling into her apartment after a busy orientation in Bucharest. We were happy to hear that she had good vibes about the city of Craiova where she will be until next summer. Izzy has been enjoying a weekend in Berlin with friends.

By the time we arrived at our new residence in Huesca, we were exhausted. The city did not appear inviting to us at first, as we fumbled our way around, trying to find the apartment and then trying to find a place for our car, driving in circles on tiny alleys, frustrated and tired. And then we got settled, and got some food, and suddenly the place looks beautiful. We were in desperate need of some rest, and so took most of Sunday easy, though we were able to take a couple of lovely walks around this beautiful medieval town. We’re staying right next to the cathedral with a private roof-top patio looking straight at it. We’ll be here for a week, at a slower pace than the past couple. We’ll have pictures and another update in a day or two.