Vamos!

"They say Spain is pretty, though I've never been..."

Well, that's going to change come early November, when I'm off to Cadiz for a week. I managed to visit Europe only once while living in New York, something I wish I'd done again before I moved 3,000 miles farther away, making my combined travel time from San Francisco to Malaga (with stops in New York and Madrid) anywhere from 7-12 hours longer than it would have been were I still an east-coaster. Sigh.

I suppose I'll appreciate my west-coast status more when I take my world travels westward rather than eastward. Australia, anyone?

Fortunately, I'm extremely adaptable when it comes to travel and I don't loathe flying as much as the average tourist, probably because I've done so much of it throughout my life. Give me my MP3 player, crossword puzzles, journal and a good book and I am entertained for hours. Add good company to the mix (a rare treat) and I'm happy as a clam, despite the inevitability of being crammed into a tiny airline seat designed to be comfortable only to those adults lucky enough to possess posteriors the size of cantaloupes.

Having explored London, southern England, Paris and Versailles, I had moved Spain/Portugal to the top of my "Desired Destinations" list soon after returning from my first European jaunt in 1999. I also long to visit countries with some familial or ancestral significance to me, fantasizing about joining my grandmother for a tour of Hungary or visiting Chile with my mother. Of course, Israel remains a coveted destination, with so many relatives and friends still living there after my father's family emigrated to New York. How I'd love to one day tour Tel Aviv with Dad as a guide.

On a completely different topic, I have to rave for a minute about KEXP in Seattle, whom I listen to very frequently online and whose DJ has provided my delighted ears a particularly fantastic playlist this morning. Thank you, KEXP DJ, for the Built to Spill currently playing, as well as the Sebadoh, Belle & Sebastian, Shins, Wire ("Kidney Bingos"... great 80s flashback!), Iron & Wine, De La Soul, Jayhawks and Pavement before it. Who needs commercial radio, anyway?

Posted by ayelet at September 17, 2004 10:55 AM