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My “Aha Moment” On This Journey!!

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 the Catholics! She talked for over an hour and a half on various things that I found fascinating, but I can’t remember all of them! Needless to say, it is an historically interesting area!

I was quite tired after yesterday‘s bus tour, so today I decided I was going to do the HoHo bus (hop-on-hop-off) in Malaga and just take my time meandering! Unfortunately, I found out it wasn’t starting until 2 PM (not sure why?) and that was a bit late since I have to be back on the ship by 5:30 and didn’t want to take any chances!! 🤪🚢

So I had to change my plans, but it was totally fine because my Aha Moment came when I got in a taxi to go to old town Malaga!! I had a lovely conversation in “Spanglish“ with the nice taxi driver and what I realized is that I’ve been missing interaction with the locals! Maybe the process of speaking Spanish makes my brain turn on in a different way or something? Whatever it is, I finally figured out what I had been missing on this cruise!!

I have ADORED being on the cruise ship on the sea days, but my heart and soul have been feeling a bit lifeless. So this is my new awareness for today… I feel more alive when I am interacting with the people who live in the places I’m visiting to spark my interest and help me feel more vibrant!! Obviously, this is not a new awareness for me, it’s just a reminder of why I travel the world (and what venue of travel is important to me - a venue where I can interact with the locals who brighten my spirit through interactions with them)!!

With that on my mind, I’m also feeling sad that I only have two more days after today and my cruise will be complete!! 😢🚢🌎 It will be interesting to see how I feel for the next month in Tarragona (about an hour south of Barcelona where we dock on Saturday) with daily opportunities to connect with locals! I am also curious about how I will feel on the next cruise (which is with MSC and tends to have a lot more international passengers). So those are my random thoughts for the day!! As you can see, time alone on the sea only intensified my stream of consciousness thoughts!  😂🤷‍♀️

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