Trails, Rails and More

I haven’t been able to create this post, because my mind can’t quite grasp that all these moments are reality, let alone turn these thoughts into words. In fact, I have felt dissociated from the stories that I tell and the experiences I am fortunate enough to have had. I have noticed myself living in a movie like life, where I alternate between being the main character, fully conscious of every detail and thought, and other times observing life and letting the world pass in front, as if I were a spectator.  My last post included a request to go slower and sit in the present, which I thought was a choice until the train strikes in France forced me to stay in one place for a lot longer than I had originally planned. For context, I had stayed at a hostel in Barcelona for one night as a layover before continuing to travel. Even that short stay felt unreal, due to a series of unexpected scenarios… When I arrived in Barcelona I had underestimated the 40 minute walk to the hostel from the...

I  cannot comprehend that it has been over a month. Time begins to merge together when you move around to so many destinations in such a short period.   A fellow traveller told me that after a while of travelling, you become desensitised to the environments you were once amazed by, but I believe that is a choice and not a certainty. I am in awe of everything. Only God could create such beauty that I have seen and I haven’t even covered a small fraction of what is still out there.  Everything is so much more intense when you are taken away from a comfortable environment. Senses are heightened and I want to remember every feeling - even the not so great ones. It’s almost as if I am not living in the real world. And then I realise that this is the real world that has been hiding from us. We feel like we know what’s out there because now we can see it from behind a screen in a matter of seconds. Nothing can compare to the 10 minute sunset that you spent hours on trains, buses...