I met my friend in Denmark on her 26th birthday, marking the sixth country we've been to together in less than six years. I spent ten days with her and her family and friends, and celebrated Christmas there. I can't say Danish food was particularly to my taste- it's a lot of herring prepared every way imaginable, other combinations of things piled on rye bread, and lots of licorice candies- but their traditional rice pudding with cherry sauce is the stuff of dreams. It was a great trip, albeit not anything very blog-worthy. I finally got to see one of my closest friends in her home country and meet the people I've been hearing about for years.
I saw three other friends in Berlin, two of whom are a couple I haven't seen since their wedding in Ghana almost four years ago. I met their adorable year-and-a-half-old daughter, and spent a quiet New Year's Eve eating fondu and watching fireworks out the kitchen window for the first half hour of 2016.
I did a little more tourism in Berlin than in Denmark. The sites ranged from the hotel where Michael Jackson infamously dangled his kid off the balcony, to the former site of the bunker where Hitler committed suicide - now merely a patch of grass by an apartment parking lot without a single marker. I thought it was a beautiful city and would've been well worth dedicating more time to if I could have. I did, however, absolutely freeze my butt off. You'd think 4 years in the U.P. would've prepared me for anything, but I've been living the soft life here in northern Spain where it has barely ever dipped below 50 and lost any yooper grit I ever had.
I came home to Oviedo in time for Reyes Magos, the feast of the three Wisemen on January 6th. It's a big deal here, like Christmas, and I had at least as much fun as my girls. We went to the city parade the night before, which was way more interesting than American ones in my opinion. My favorite part was the flock of geese that marched in the parade. On one hand I felt bad because I think that must be really stressful for them, but it was still a great sight. I was woken up on the 6th by my girls yelling at me to come open presents, and we spent the afternoon at their grandmother's house.
I've written a lot lately about the experience of doing things alone and dealing with being lonely as a result of my decision to travel so much. Well, the last three weeks opened my eyes to the amazing network of people I have exactly because I've traveled so much. In the last four months I've been able to visit people in London, Denmark and Germany - all of whom I met during my year in Ghana. Even an ocean away from my family and the majority of my friends, I had wonderful people to be with during the holidays. Coming back to Spain likewise opened my eyes to how much I've bonded with my little community in Oviedo already. I hadn't fully realized how much I missed my girls until I saw them again. And even outside my host family, there was a handful of people I was excited to come back to, and who were excited to see me.
In getting caught up over the fact that I often explore alone, I'd ignored all the other explorers I've met along the way.
Tomorrow my girls go back to school, and I'm happily digging in to the second half of my time in Spain. 75 days to go and I don't plan to waste them!
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