Traveling With Judi . . . .

Well, settling into Tarragona did not exactly go as planned, so I am now settling into Salou!! I thought I had everything planned out to the detail, but as always travel loves to throw things my way and see how I deal with them! 🚌 🚕 Part of the reason I had chosen Tarragona is because the train was supposed to go directly there from Barcelona so I figured it would be a nice place to land between cruises!  I was up at 6 AM on the last day of the cruise because they started making announcements that people could depart from the ship and I wanted to get some breakfast (aka coffee!!! ☕️☕️) before they closed at 8:00! I had picked the latest departure time of 9:30 because I figured I didn’t need to rush to get to Tarragona but with multiple delays getting people off the ship, I finally got off around 10:30 (waiting in multiple lines until I finally got to the train station at noon)!!  It was supposed to be a quick and easy hour long train ride to Tarragona, but apparently they ar...

I finally had my “Aha Moment“ today and hope it’s not too stream of consciousness to share!! 🤪😂  On the one hand, I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the days at sea and feel like there is such a magical and peaceful quality of being on the water for uninterrupted days! On the other hand, I’ve been feeling a little out of sorts since we arrived in Tenerife (feeling like the magical spell was broken by land)!! So most of my cruise has felt as magical as I expected, but going into port has felt like work!! 🥵🥴  Yesterday I did a bus tour to the surrounding areas of Cadiz and it was lovely, but I mostly just felt hot and tired by the time I got back to the ship.  Our tour guide on the bus was very interesting and filled us in on the history of this area - colonized by many cultures for the last 3000 years since it was a crucial port into the Mediterranean!! First it was the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, then the Romans, then the Visigoths(I think? 🤔),the Moors, and then th...

Well, it’s been exactly 10 years to the day since I did my first international trip/housesits (first in the UK for a couple weeks, then France for three months, then the dreaded non-entry into the UK on my return for France!!!), and now I am finally fulfilling a dream that started percolating on that trip!  I remember thinking about how miserable I was from jet lag and not long after, I came across these amazing transatlantic cruises! I thought to myself “wouldn’t that be wonderful to just adjust to the time change one hour per day instead of all at once?!“ And now, after 10 years of imagining myself with a balcony cabin, sipping coffee and eating croissants, I am finally here! ☕️🥐☕️ I think I filled all of you in on the cruise that I booked coming back from Spain at the end of October, but I also decided to book a cruise heading TO Barcelona that left yesterday! I had originally looked for something in October and didn’t find anything because usually transatlantic cruises come fr...

So a little over a year ago, I booked the Transatlantic Cruise that was the beginning step in planning my “Big Adventure” starting in Italy then exploring South America! It ended up being a different kind of adventure than I expected with a challenging time of recovery and learning opportunities, but it has been enlightening for sure!! 🥴🙄 After lots of pondering this year about how my “I’m always safe when I travel”perspective has been challenged due to the accident last year (and lots of nervous thoughts of “hmmm… should I try this again” trauma thoughts), I decided I’m just going to jump in and give it another try (and trust that all will be well on this trip)!!  Even with all that’s happened in my travels (detained/denied entry into the UK, etc.), I’ve never had a fear of traveling! Even traveling alone has never bothered me so this hesitancy I’ve felt to jump on board (so to speak) has surprised me!!  I seriously considered 3 months in Ecuador, but I just couldn’t get it...