Photo Story #4: The oceans and the Mediterranean
In my Photo Story series, I focus on a particular picture and tell you the story behind it rather than writing about a destination. It has been a hectic day until this point. I woke up early at my hostel in Girona, walked over to the bus station to catch a bus to Empuriabrava. Wondered around if I needed to buy a ticket somewhere since people seemed to be showing something to other bus drivers rather than giving them money - but I didn't see a ticket office anywhere. Then, a couple hours later, I got off the bus (I could pay the driver after all) on the side of a highway just north of Empuriabrava and decided to walk through town to the hotel that was letting me to stay there for free right by the beach (courtesy of attending my first travel blogger conference). Turned out that seemingly easy two mile stroll was a mistake with a heavy backpack weighing me down as flip flops were starting to kill my calves.
But I made it. Checked in. And promptly went across the road to take a dip in the Mediterranean.
As I swam floated there I couldn't help but to reflect on the past two weeks with a huge grin on my face - after swimming in the Atlantic, dipping in the Pacific, I was now in the Mediterranean waters. All in the span of just two weeks.
First, I flew out to DC and went to a beach in Delaware with a friend of mine to celebrate the one year anniversary of leaving for my round-the-world trip. We ended up running into Matt's friends at Rehoboth and enjoyed the warm Atlantic waters while celebrating my anniversary (as well as crossing the 43rd US state off my list). That was September 9, 2011.
As I returned home the next day, my sister was packing up her car to move to San Francisco. Being the great brother I am, I offered to help her drive out there. We hit up New Mexico on the way (my 44th state) and a couple days after I swam in the Atlantic, I found myself wading through Pacific waters in Santa Barbara (it was too cold for a swim thou). That was September 14th, less than a week later.
After returning from California, I flew out to Spain for the travel blogger conference in Girona and a few days later, here I was - in Empuriabrava, swimming in the Mediterranean - on September 24th.
Three most famous bodies of water in two weeks. Nothing that I planned, but thinking back to how it all just happened (and all the other awesome experiences in-between) made me feel just so much more grateful for embracing this traveling lifestyle.
As a side-note, while staying in Empuriabrava, one day I decided to go hiking around Cap de Creus, which turned into quite a dangerous adventure.