That's from the English description of Itinerary #4 in the booklet, "Six Itineraries on Montserrat." I would like to note that the brochure only describes 5 routes. Conspiracy theorists: where does the missing trail go? What do those Spanish monks have to hide?
I had a fun last few days in and around Barcelona (Dali Museum! Oh my) and then a lovely visit with Belgian friends Karine and Stefaan, who live with small and charming person Aster and extremely small person Robin who doesn't have too much to say for himself right now but probably will soon enough. Aster taught me some Flemish - she doesn't mind repeating herself. Very considerate. Then it was back to Boston just in time to get a whole bunch of snow dumped on my head. For some reason this really amused me.
I'm not doing too badly for culture shock. The time in Europe helped re-acclimate me to the West. I do still occasionally stall out when presented with too many product choices in the store - it's easier when there's only one kind of shampoo! And I have noticed I don't get a lot of pop culture references. Sometimes I have trouble in dense crowds but I can't blame that on Antarctica, it's just gotten a bit more so than it was before. I've even been doing ok driving in Boston traffic! First real driving in, um.... a year and a half, about. Welcome home, I suppose. Actually I am pretty happy to be back. After travelling mostly solo for 6 months it's great to be back in home culture, seeing family and friends.
I'm heading back to the Northwest, intending to have a summer there. What do you suppose are the odds? I'll quit with the mass email for a while, will write again when I'm more interesting. Old stuff is at www.murkworks.net/~sarah, not up to date at the moment but will be soon. I may even scan some of the best photos.
What are you all up to?
Best,
-Sarah