Takeaway from My First Blogging Conference

This past weekend, I went to my first-ever blogging conference, TBEX Europe 2015. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect before I went, and I felt increasingly nervous about it in the weeks leading up, as I thought more and more about what it might be like. 

Would I be the only non-pro blogger there?

Would the others laugh at my silly little "hobby" blog?

Would I find the information useful when I have no real intention of monetizing my blog?

Would I actually be brave enough to try to talk to a large crowd of 400 strangers?

Something you have to understand about me is that I'm enormously introverted as well as shy to boot. Large crowds of strangers make me extremely nervous, especially when I perceive them to be "better" than me somehow. So this conference had the potential to be a perfect storm of awkwardness for me. But I'm determined to overcome my social anxiety and become better at making new friends, so the weekend was also a perfect opportunity to practice that! 

The first day was extremely overwhelming. We arrived later than other people on the day after the official welcoming party due to work schedules, so things were in full swing as we walked in. Lots of others seemed to know each other, and while I was introduced to some people right away, I felt so self-conscious about making a bad first impression that I probably didn't make one at all. 

After a couple of sessions on improving the writing style of our blogs and a big lunch, I felt slightly more at ease, so during the afternoon when other people were networking with airlines and tourism boards, I was trying to build up the courage to talk to some strangers and make new friends. I kept circulating throughout the room, ostensibly checking out the pastry selections on the various tables scattered throughout the hotel lobby and continuously downing and refilling my glass of water. In reality, I was scoping out whether there seemed to be any friendly-looking people whose conversation I could easily join. A couple of times, I awkwardly stood next to groups of people, waiting for a good moment to jump into what they were saying, but finding none, eventually slunk away. After awhile, I found myself sitting at a table in the corner by myself, furiously scribbling away in my journal, disappointed in my lack of social skills. 

The more I wrote, though, the clearer my thoughts became, and I eventually came to the conclusion that although I need to work on starting conversations with strangers, I haven't given up yet, and that is admirable. Despite my clear lack of ease in this area, I keep putting myself in situations that will require me to practice conversing with new people, and for that I was proud of myself. I realized that although I had been a bit of a failure so far in the conference, the remainder did not have to be predicated on what had already happened. There was still opportunity for improvement. 

Just realizing this felt like a huge weight being lifted from my shoulders. My anxiety didn't dissipate entirely, but I felt more courageous about spending the rest of the weekend chatting with strangers. 

That night and the whole next day, I made a great effort to jump into people's conversations, even when it felt awkward or strange. And I began to find that people didn't really seem to mind. Bloggers are a pretty friendly bunch, after all. 

Of course, I would be greatly amiss if I didn't mention that I was greatly aided by the fact that I happened to have come to the conference with two of the biggest names in the travel blogging world, my friends Linda and Craig from Indie Travel Podcast. Just mentioning their names with new people gained me instant recognition, and they spent the whole conference introducing me to all the most important people in travel blogging, who also just happen to be some of their best friends. I have to say, it was kind of weird to be chatting with new people one night and then realizing the next day that they were giving some of the most important talks in the whole conference (including the closing night session)! 

Still, in general, I think I learned a thing or two about small talk with strangers, and I'll be interested to try to put that into practice in the future (with or without a buddy there to hook people with "Have you met Alisa?")!

I also learned that I'm just a wee bit different from a lot of other bloggers. I've never felt so out-of-step with the times as being asked hundreds of times in one weekend for my Twitter handle, when I still don't really "get" why I should be on Twitter in the first place, and therefore don't have one! I also don't have business cards about my blog, the other big currency at a travel blogging conference. Oops. 

It seemed like the majority of other people at TBEX were trying to make contacts to be able to sell things from their blog, or use their blog as a means of advertisement so they could go on comped trips. Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with that--there's obviously a need for companies to promote their product (vacations), and many bloggers have become unwilling to provide for that need using money out of their own pocket. I get that. It makes a lot of sense, and I found the weekend immersed in this whole new world of advertising through blogging and of people who travel for a living absolutely fascinating. 

That said, I have no real desire to make money from Alisabroad. I don't really care if I make a name for myself, I don't give a damn about SEO, and I don't intend to make this blog my full-time job. I'll never say never, because no one can ever know what the future will bring, but for now I'm really, genuinely only writing for myself. That's not to say that I don't appreciate that people want to read what I write, but I'm here for the community, I want to share my experiences because I think it brings me closer with people, and I have no desire to try to convince people to do anything, except maybe learn English as a second language. Seriously. 

Still, despite occasionally feeling like a fish out of water, I had some lovely moments at the conference. It was nice to be surrounded by people who really "get" my lifestyle, who are also constantly on the move, who haven't settled down yet in a permanent home. When we met, it wasn't "Where are you from?" but rather "Where are you currently based?" and "Where have you been recently?" 

One of my favorite moments from the whole conference was on the last night, standing with a group of women, discussing the nitty-gritty practicalities of traveling long-term. "What do you do about shampoo?" one of them asked. Suddenly we were trading secrets about refilling travel-size shampoo bottles with luxury shampoo, debating the practicalities of checking a bag occasionally, and lamenting those times when we'd had to throw away a half-full shampoo bottle before getting on a plane. I felt like they truly got what my life is like in a way I haven't in a long while, and that was good. 

So even if I may never use some of the marketing tools I learned at the conference, it was definitely worth it for me socially, if nothing else. And besides that, it was lovely to have an excuse to get away to a beachside town like Lloret de Mar for the weekend. Have I mentioned yet that I really miss the ocean?

I was also incredibly impressed by the welcome we received from the Costa Brava tourist board, who gave us adorable gift bags with the best present inside--a free portable phone charger! 

And then there was the food. Oh my god, the food. I was blown away by the amount of food put in front of my face, free for the taking, in one short weekend. I spent the lunch buffets stuffing my face with seafood, and then got to the dessert table and went only slightly overboard with a desire to try absolutely everything. Buffets are dangerous for the adventurous eater, oh yes they are! 

I was honestly shocked by not only the quantity of food given to us, but the incredibly elaborate way in which it was presented. Behold the butter dolphins on the seafood table, which seemed so elaborate and extravagant that I felt like I was at a fancy wedding. 

I was also impressed with the hotel I stayed at (chosen by me and not affiliated with the conference at all). Slightly out of the way at the other end of the beach from the conference's hotel complex, it was a rundown mom-and-pop place where the receptionist seemed incredibly relieved that I spoke Spanish, because he clearly couldn't communicate in anything besides that and Catalan. I'm fond of authentically Spanish places like this, especially after the slightly jarring feeling of being surrounded by other English speakers at a conference in Spain, leaving me unsure what language to speak in to the conference's hotel staff. But my shabby little 25€-a-night hotel had one major perk--free continental breakfast served on their garden terrace. Toootally worth it. 

Another great thing about the weekend that had nothing at all to do with the conference itself was the discovery of a bunch of food trucks on the town's main square. I had both authentic Mexican food as well as my first galette bretonne avec du cidre in nearly a year. So ridiculously good. 

And getting back to the conference itself, I was also amazed at the effort put into the official parties. Free sangría on the hotel rooftop? A party overlooking the beach at night, complete with Galician queimada? Wow. That even gave me a chance to impress people with my stories of exactly how this firey drink is prepared, and all the times I had it while living in my beloved Galicia. 

So, overall, was TBEX worth it? Although I was somewhat at counter-purposes with the actual raison d'être of the event, I still had a really good time. I thought the information sessions were mostly of high quality and very interesting, regardless of whether I ever put that information to good use or not. The food was excellent and abundant, the parties were tasteful and culturally appropriate, and the other bloggers were not as scary or snobby as I had initially feared. So, was it worth my $129? I'd have to say without hesitation, a huge resounding YES. 

Will I go again to a future TBEX? I don't know yet, but I would absolutely consider it, for the food and friends alone, if nothing else!

My First Impressions of France

I know you've all been dying to know exactly how things have been going here in my new life in France, and I haven't exactly been delivering the goods. But I'm sure many of you also know just how hard moving and getting settled in can be, especially when it's cut in half by two weeks of vacation (such a difficult life, I know).

Intra-Muros, the old town of St. Malo

So to make this easy on all of us, here's a list of some of the things that have really caught my eye or surprised or impressed me about France so far.

The timetable

 I only "worked" (I say that lightly because really I was mostly waiting around for the administration to decide on my schedule) for 3 weeks at school before I had a two week vacation. In fact, French high schools have a two week vacation for every seven weeks they're in school. They say it's because of the long hours that they're there (8-5, most days), but it still seems like a pretty lush system to me!

The spire of the old town's cathedral with the sunset

 Related to the whole "working so hard while they're in school" thing, French schools have Wednesday afternoons off. I repeat, on Wednesdays they're done with school at noon. Wow!

And one more thing on the theme of strange timetables...in France, everything is closed on Mondays. Banks, shops, the works. It's therefore slightly inconvenient that Monday is my day off--it's like Sunday, take two! They say that this is because shopkeepers feel they deserve a full two days to rest just like everyone else in the world. I agree, in theory, but I'm starting to notice a pattern here with the whole "we deserve lots of time off because..." thing! It's rather confusing, because I keep trying to go out and get things accomplished at the bank or the store at a time that I think they should be open...only to be foiled by weird opening hours. C'est la vie, I guess.

The Food

French food has the fame of being among the best in the world, right? So far, that's mostly been my observation. Unsurprisingly, I've been regularly eating my weight in brie and Orangina, but what has surprised me is the fact that I've actually gotten sick of eating bread and carbs. I never in my life thought I would say that, to be honest. But here I eat nothing but baguette sandwiches, crêpes, kouign aman (a Breton cake with a name in Breton, pronounced queen ahmahn), pain au chocolat, etc. etc. And I'm...weirdly tired of it. Woe is me, I know.

Mini kouign amans

The Language

I expected to have problems with the French language after having lived in Spain for 3 years, to be constantly mixing it with Spanish. And so far, my fears have absolutely come true. I keep saying things like "Oui, c'est limpe," which means...absolutely nothing in French, and then people stare at me like I'm insane. I'm trying to say "Yes, it's clean," except the word for clean in French is propre, which has nothing to do with the word in Spanish (limpio). Oops.

But I have absolutely noticed and been surprised about a few things about the way that real French people talk, which I never knew or studied about in my classes in the US. For example, they use the word quoi (what) as a placefiller, so many of their sentences sound something like "Blahblahblah quoi, blahblah quoi, blahblahblahblahblah quoi!"

I knew about them calling McDonalds McDo and university la fac (sounds like the f-word), but I now also know that they call Coca-Cola simply coca, which makes me think they're talking about cocaine...every single time.

And I do remember learning in high school that French people sometimes use on (one, the pronoun) instead of nous (we), in order to avoid having to remember more complicated verb conjugations. But I had no idea it was so widespread! I've barely heard the word nous since I've been here.

Low tide in a neighboring town (Dinard)

I've also been surprised by the amount of people I'm apparently allowed to use the informal "you" (tu) with. I'd always been taught that as a sign of respect in France, you used the formal "you" (vous) with most people, except your friends (and especially with your elders). So I expected to be vous-ing it up at work, particularly, where I'm by far the youngest teacher. But no, so far I guess we're playing by what I think of as "Spain rules," where everyone is tu except the elderly and people in restaurants and stores. I remain confused.

The People

The French have the fame of being arrogant, but so far I haven't noticed that at all. Everyone here has been nothing but friendly to me. But what has surprised me is how funny I find them and their little habits.

Galette, or a salty crêpe, is a typically Breton food

For example, people (women especially) sometimes make this weird noise when talking. It's a quick inhalation, almost like a gasp, sometimes accompanied by the word "oui," which I guess (like quoi) is some kind of placefiller, but to my foreign ears it sounds like a gasp of surprise or fear. So whenever they do it, I in turn am surprised and look around, expecting to see something weird or scary in our vicinity, only to realize that it's just the French being French!

Another little quirk here is that people appear to be obsessed with license plate numbers. The last two numbers of license plates in France identify which "department," or area (of the 96 in mainland France) the car is from, and so when people see bad drivers here, they immediately fixate on the number of their license plate, and thus where they come from. You hear a lot of "Putain! That guy's cutting me off! Oh, of course, he's a 22!" (22s are our neighbors here, in Côtes d'Armor). You also hear a lot of "My god there are a lot of out-of-towners here today! Look, a 94, a 75! So many Parisians!" Ille-et-Vilaine, the department where St. Malo is located, is #35...so of course no one ever has anything bad to say about that number!

A local license plate designation

I'm sure I'll continue to discover more strange quirks about life in France the longer I keep living here! Stay tuned...

The Sands of Change

From the top of the St. Malo city walls, #nofilter

The above picture was taken from the same spot as the sunset in my "Coucou" post, a little park on the top of the wall that surrounds the old town of St. Malo (called Intra-Muros, or 'between walls'). If you were wondering, yes, I am obsessed with that particular spot because of the views it affords of the ocean and the sunset. 

However, I wonder if you notice that the view has changed in the month-and-a-half that I've been here? Perhaps not. But fall has come, and the sun's weak rays no longer warm the skin as they once did. The sky is more often cloudy than not, and most days there is a constant drizzle. 

I'm told it will probably be like this until around May, in other words when I leave. I can't say I'm surprised, since I'd heard nothing but stories of Brittany's famous rainy days before coming. I also can't say I'm not used to it. The sirimiri (drizzle) in both Galicia and the Basque Country were not unlike what I'm experiencing now. What perhaps is surprising is how in some ways it doesn't bother me that much. Yes, like everyone I grimace when I know I'm going to have to walk to work in the rain, but there's something about curling up with a cup of hot tea or coffee and a blanket and a book that really tugs on my heartstrings. 

Happy rainy Tuesday, everyone. 

Soy Vaga, Spanish for Hello My Name is Lazybones

So you all should know by now that I'm extremely lazy about posting in this blog sometimes. It's not that I don't want to, it's that it's not the highest priority in my life. I prefer to live life most of the time rather than writing about it. When I'm really busy, blogging falls onto the back burner, until I see someone else posting really great pictures about their travels and I feel the little green monster and want to write about my voyages as well.

And man oh man have I been busy lately. Since I last posted, I've been on 3 separate vacations to 3 separate countries (France, Poland, Morocco), with a fourth one (Germany) coming up in less than two weeks, plus I need to plan a 3-week trip with my parents during the summer. I guess I never really thought about just how much I travel until the other day when a fellow auxiliar (hi S!) came right out and said it--"Wow, you travel a LOT."

I guess I do...although I enjoy it so much that it never seems like enough! "There is more to be seen than can ever be seen, more to do than can ever be done."Wise words from The Lion King.

Anyway, more interesting content (and updates on what will be happening to me in a few months when my teaching contract here is up) soon...ahem...probably. Just wanted to say hi and remind the internet that I'm here.

For your trouble, here's a nice Galician rainbow. I'm a fan of these rainbows, except for the fact that they mean that beach weather is not here yet. Please please please get here before June, Mr. Sun...please?

A Few Summery Observations

This is the second summer I've spent in Spain, and I keep noticing things that are particular to the season that are very different from the way we do things in the US.

One example I noticed at the pool in the apartment complex where I'm living for the summer. One girl was trying to learn how to dive in, headfirst, and a whole bunch of people were showing her how. I realized that I have absolutely no idea how to dive headfirst into a swimming pool, and thought about why that might be. I realized that almost every single swimming pool I've ever been to in the US has tons of those signs embedded in the floor with a picture of a person diving and their head hitting the bottom of the pool and lightning bolts coming out of it.

[image from traderdaily.com ...don't ask me what it was doing there!]

But here, nothing of the sort. I've continued my observations, and have seen people continuously diving into the shallow end of the pool (3ft deep or so) and not coming out without any lightning bolts around their heads, or other cartoonish signs of pain. What gives, America? Why are we so cautious about this?

Another thing is sunscreen. I've spent a fair amount of time researching European sunscreen lately, after an incident where I went outside for too long with Spaniards (who burn less easily than a pale thing like me) and returned looking like a lobster. 

I was determined after that to get myself some sunscreen, so I went to the chino (it being right around the corner and usually cheaper than any other store) and picked up the only sunscreen they had, which was SPF 4. I thought to myself that this seemed ridiculously low, but figured maybe they measured SPF differently in Europe...after all, they measure everything else differently, why not that? I used it and mostly didn't get burnt, but then asked a work colleague about it and she was shocked and immediately went into overprotective Spanish mother mode, saying "You can't just go around only using SPF 4! People only use that at the end of summer, when they're already very brown! You'll get completely burnt! Go to the pharmacy, that's where the good sunscreen is."

So then I dutifully went to the pharmacy to pick up some real sunscreen. Since in the US, we usually use sunscreens with SPFs of very high numbers, like 70 or 80, I was looking for something like that. But the highest they go here is 50. I was also shocked at the price on the bottles. I ended up getting a small bottle (50 ml, or 1.5 oz) of SPF 40, because it was all I could afford at the time. And that cost me €10. 

I later did some research on the different labeling rules because I was wondering why sunscreen here only goes up to SPF 50, and I learned that the EU has stricter laws in order to limit false claims, which the US doesn't have. So that US sunscreen that says SPF 80 might not actually protect your skin better than one that says SPF 50. I also learned that the EU requires sunscreen here to protect against both UVA and UVB rays, whereas US sunscreen only legally has to protect against UVB rays (UVB rays are the ones that burn you, but UVA rays can give you cancer). Thus why European sunscreen is so much more expensive--it protects you better, and it's actually labeled correctly!

In the future, despite the expense, I'm only going to buy European sunscreen, if I can help it. Once again I have to ask, what gives, America? Get your act together, sunscreen-wise!

Now I know why all these people aren't worried about being exposed to the sun: their secret weapon, superior sunscreen!

The final observation I have (for now) on summer in Spain is something that I'll probably never get over, no matter how long I try to get US cultural norms out of my head. Why do Spanish kids wear either no swimsuit at all or only half of one?? I understand that we're puritanical in the US and that little girls don't really need a tiny bikini top when their chest looks no different from a little boy's chest...and that even a grown woman or man doesn't need to be ashamed of their body, that anyone can go swimming nude if they want to. But the little naked or half-clothed swimmers will never stop looking weird to me. And I will never be entirely comfortable on a nude beach, despite trying to seem "cool" with it. Some aspects of your native culture never leave you, and for me, this is one of them. I will probably always be slightly more ashamed of and awkward around the naked human body in public than Europeans are. Thanks for that one too, America. 

What other summertime things does Spain do differently? Are you as awkward on a nude beach as I am? Have you, too, been foiled by confusing sunscreen labels? Tell me about it!

Everybody's Doing It...

So now that I've waited a full two weeks after my Spring Break was over, do you want me to tell you about it?

...You're ambivalent? Eh, me too. I've read a lot of other auxiliares' posts about spring break, and I realized that it's maybe a little boring for readers to see millions of photos and hear minute descriptions of a vacation. (Sorry, fellow auxiliares, not trying to hate on you or anything!) But I also don't want to forget someday what I did. So here's what's going to go down: I'm going to post one photo for each day I was gone, and leave a one-sentence description of the photo/the day. Got it? That should be 7 photos, 7 sentences. Hopefully not too boring for anyone. Oh, and before I start--I went to Wales and England, so no one gets confused.

This is a very cute indoor shopping center in Cardiff, Wales that had cool vintage shops and the like.

This is the Millennium Centre near the port in Cardiff, Wales, which I sadly only knew about before this because of a show called Doctor Who.

This is Christ Church College, one of the colleges in a little university that maybe you've heard of called Oxford.

This is the dining hall of Christ Church college, which is what the Great Hall in the Harry Potter books was modeled on.

This is a very pebbly beach in Brighton, where it was far too cold to go swimming anyway.

This is the spot from which all time is measured, the prime meridian, in Greenwich.

This is the grave of Jane Austen, my favorite author, in Winchester, England. 

And that's all for now, folks! Hope those of you who had one enjoyed your spring breaks, I know I did!

A Love Letter to the City of Bilbao

Dear Bilbao,

I know we had our ups and downs in the past. I may have even professed to hate living there during a time when I was very homesick. But that's all it was--homesickness, I swear! I didn't mean it!

I had the chance to visit you this past weekend for the first time since I left you in 2009, and I realized that I had forgotten how beautiful and dynamic a city you really are. I hadn't thought about how much I missed you until I returned, but I now think that I was far too harsh on you the first time around. You really are a great city. A bit expensive, maybe, and perhaps you like rain a little more than you should, but everyone has their faults. It's OK. I love you anyway.

 I just thought you should know how I felt, in order to clear the air so that the next time I visit, you might feel compelled to have a little better weather.

...maybe that's too much to ask.

Regardless, I hope to be back soon.

XOXO
Love,
Alisa

p.s. Here are some pictures that you look really great in, in case you were having doubts about putting me back in your good graces.

Athletic Bilbao and Euskal Herria flags hanging from so many balconies

The Guggenheim, looking cool as always

Beach at Sopelana (not technically Bilbao, but nearby so I figure it counts)

Overhead view of the city

Plaza Moyua all lit up at night (aka my favorite place in Bilbao)

A Few Busy Weeks

I've only been back in Vigo two weeks, but I've done so many things already! I'm pretty proud of myself for kicking homesickness in the kiester. Who says you can't go home for Christmas and come back and get rejuvenated to see more things? I've been having such a good time that I'm considering reapplying for next year, something I originally wasn't going to do. We'll see how that goes. Anyway, here's what I've been up to.

My first weekend back, some friends and I went down to Braga, Portugal, because this year it is the European Youth Capital of Culture (or something similar to that), and so they were having a celebration. We went exploring around the town before the celebrations started, and ate a bit and that sort of thing. Then we went down to listen to this concert, which was the main reason we were there, but it was raining and the music was frankly pretty weird. And we couldn't see the light show that went with it because it was so crowded! So we pretty quickly abandoned the idea of watching and went to eat dinner with a large group of Couchsurfers.

Couchsurfing, in case you didn't know, is a website where people can request to sleep on other people's couches in cities that they are visiting. And because I know that the idea of me doing that will scare my parents to death, I will inform you that I haven't actually surfed anywhere (yet); I've just been meeting new people at Couchsurfing meetings and stuff.

Anyway. That was pretty fun, and we had a meal for really cheap (yay cheap food in Portugal!), but I got really sleepy towards the end of the several-hour dinner, and so most of my group who came in the same car together decided to head home after that. Here are some pictures of our day in Braga:

Here is a picture of a beautiful square in Braga.

These weird things were part of the celebration, and they would come up behind unsuspecting people and peck them. Very strange.

Then this past weekend, we went on a little trip to Guimarães, Portugal, which is one of this year's European Capitals of Culture. The first thing we did there was to check out this cool old castle, which apparently is where the Portuguese won their independence, so they say that Guimarães is "where Portugal was born."  

A picture of the castle

Another picture of the castle--can you tell that visiting an old castle was extremely satisfying to my inner history nerd?

View from the ramparts

Me at said castle

This is one of many gigantic rocks I saw that day, which I found extremely impressive.

Later, after a small picnic on the castle lawn, we took a funicular up this hill to see a church. We didn't get to go inside, but the views were impressive (but they look less so on my camera, so no pictures). 

Then we met more Couchsurfers for dinner and then went to the show. The show was...strange. They had this robot marionette horse, and then robot marionette man, which took up most of the show just standing up and walking around. Kind of cool, but not worth the amount of time it took. Then the other part of the show was on this wall of balconies, which they had made a 3D image of and then they played around with the 3D image, making it look like the wall was shattering and stretching and stuff. Kind of cool! Then there were some small fireworks, which I always enjoy, although I wish there had been more and that they had been bigger. The real problem with the show, though, was that there were thousands of us squashed into this medium-sized square, and so you couldn't move at all, and it took probably 45 minutes to get out of there, all the time feeling like part of a herd of cattle. 

Then, the worst part, as soon as we got out of the crowd and into a bar, my friend realized that her wallet had been stolen! So terrible. So then we hightailed it to the police to report it, and that put a bit of a damper on the rest of the evening. Despite the bad ending though, it was a nice day. 

Then the next day, back in Vigo, we made some plans to meet up with a girl we had met the night before, who was on her way back to Asturias. We went down to the beach and walked around for a while in the beautiful 20-degree (Celsius, 70-ish Fahrenheit) weather. It was so warm that I was out in a t-shirt for a while! I amused myself for awhile imagining everyone I know back home in the snow and me in Spain in my t-shirt in the sun at the beach. Ahhhh, what a life. 

Then later, after the girl from Asturias left, we went over to a nearby town called Baiona, which is very pretty. It's also, I learned, the place where the first of Christopher Columbus's boats returned to, making it the first place in Europe to hear about the discovery of the New World! Pretty cool, I thought. I guess they do a reenactment of this in March, and I can't wait to go see it.

Another castle, this time in Baiona (I will never stop loving how many castles there are in Europe!)

A model of the Pinta, the first of Columbus's ships to come back from the New World

The ocean, being beautiful as usual

A sign that says the stuff about the Pinta coming back from America

So that was the past two weekends. Perhaps you're now saying to yourself, wait a minute, you give us 3 pictures of London and Amsterdam and a million of these tiny places near where you live that we've never heard of. What gives? Well, sometimes I like discovering tiny towns better than seeing big famous ones. It feels more intimate, like you get a real feel for the place. And you also feel a little bit like an explorer, because you're seeing places that haven't been seen by a million people before you.

So that's that. Until next time, make the most out of the little things in life.