My City June 2022

MYTRAVELS

T he rst time I visited Spain, I went with my mother. She had been before, one stop among many on a European cruise. She had only gotten a glimpse of Barcelona, though, just the slightest taste of what the city had to oer, so when she mentioned the idea of ventur ing back, this time with me accompany ing her I of course, accepted immediate ly – especially as it was on her dime. e trip began dierently than any other I’d taken. She had scheduled it all through a tour company, so it was a lot of name tags and weird small talk as we met our guide and a few other group members at the airport. For me, a self-described “seasoned traveler,” it all felt a bit kindergarten. We arrived at our hotel and I was ready to rest, long ‹ight and all, but I was soon to discover that we were on a schedule. Before resting was allowed, there was a meet-and-greet with fellow tour group members, and then careful directions about how and where we would all reconnect for dinner. Now, the retirees and older couples seemed genuinely excited about this group dynamic. My own mother, curmudgeon though she is, was enthusiastically interact ing with the other group members. I, how ever, was tired and young and felt fenced in by this situation. I was accustomed to leisurely exploring, setting my own agenda, making my own plans. Lunch and dinner A True Holiday BY ALEXANDRIA NOLAN

were at whatever restaurant I happened to mosey by at the moment. My tours were self-guided and mostly uninformed and my sense of direction was slapdash and mostly determined by what streets looked interesting rather than a speci c route to get from point A to B. ese forced and awkward interactions with other Ameri cans felt ... weird – like we were part of a club which I didn’t want membership in but was forced to pay dues for, anyway. By the third day of stuy bus tours to visit the old Olympic Village and the Gaudì house of the day, I’d had enough and told my mother so. I had other plans. at evening, we met up with a girlfriend I’d met on Instagram who lived in Barcelona. She and one of her friends took us down alleyways to tapas bars we’d never seen. ey took us to cafes serving pintxos and vermouth, house wine and cava.We tried dishes that had never been mentioned by our tour guide or showed up on our pre-approved restaurant menus. We ate and ate, and drank and drank some more.We talked and went from one tapas bar to the next, a drink here, a snack there, a tipple here, a bottle to share across the street. Places where the only voices we heard spoke Catalan and we needed no reminder that we were in the heart of Catalunya, thousands of miles away from our normal lives. e sharpest and best reminder of traveling is feeling like everything around is completely foreign, and yet utterly natural. e rhythm of the conversations, the music, the shared small bites and bright peals of laughter. e feeling of community, real community created by good conversation and getting outside of normal – that’s traveling. So, as much of a gift my mother had given me in the trip itself – the hotel and

the bus rides and the idea of adventure – I felt like I, too, had given her something. An experience, new friendships, women across the ocean with whom we shared an evening of complaining about men and laughing about fashion, discussing our favor ite places and commenting on how delicious this shrimp was or how tasty that croqueta. It was a true holiday away from the world and yet, we felt more at home than ever. My mother took me to Spain for the rst time, and this summer I will take my young son there for his rst visit. I hope I am able to capture even half of the excitement and adventure she gave to me …minus the other obnoxious American tourists. ®

Anna Sokol / stock.adobe.com

Alexandria Nolan is a misplaced Michigander living in Houston, TX with her husband, three pets and toddler son. She is a published

author and contributor to various online and print publications, including a lifestyle blog, AlexandriaNolan.com. When not writing, she is reading, traveling, or reading about traveling.

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