In just over a month, my mother and I will be taking off for Spain again. Our first few days, we will be in Galicia, the northwest corner of the country. Intentionally set forest fires are burning the region up right now.

Isn’t it weird how, as a traveler, everything seems so much closer? We are going to be there, so we will see the devastation, instead of just hearing about it. Kind of like when we went in 2004 right after the Madrid bombings.

I have this feeling about Galicia – I don’t know how to explain it, except I feel like I am going to love it there in a very special way. I know I will love La Rioja and the Picos de Europas and the Sierra de Grazalemas too, but it is really and truly Galicia that seems to be calling me. Why is that? I even looked at property on-line when me and my mom first decided to go there.

It’s a troubled area. This is something that I have to always tell myself, after first-hand experience. I wanted to move to Italy SO BAD and I finally did and I can tell you, living the reality is not living the dream. So all these dreams about Galicia are, well, just dreams. Dreams coming out of some dark, yet instinctive, part of my brain. The romantic part, for sure. It’s weird how we latch onto places in our subconscious. At least us dreamers do.

So the fires burn, very close to where we will be, and I am very safe over here in Ocean Beach while all this craziness happens everywhere else.

I have been reading this blog to get ready for my adventures over there. And I am worried about a place I have never been and never even thought about until a year ago. Is that weird, or what?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 8th, 2006 at 6:35 pm and is filed under How do I get there, from here?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.