city by the sea

What a place this city is. Where the couples all walk hand in hand and nobody wears long sleeves because it´s too warm outside. Odessa departed back to the states a few days ago and it was sad to see her go, but she is going to have a wonderful summer driving across the states to play bluegrass. Having her here was so wonderful, and now starts this new chapter of Ben and I traveling together. After having not seen one another for over four months and now traveling together for a couple months straight we´ve taken the time to adjust, but Im just happy to be around this familiar face again.

We are currently staying in Las Ramblas, at Pension Dali. Ben has a history of a couple Spanish high school classes and I have a history of traveling through Central America with my sister as my translator but somehow we still get by. We´ve only been here for a couple of days. We missed our flight from London to here because I got us on the wrong train and then realized it, but by the time we were set in the right direction 45 minuted had gone by and we missed our plane and had to spend the night in a hotel by the airport in London Luton. So two days ago when we flew in, we found ourselves with two alaskan born siblings who were going to same direction as us. A women helped us at the train station, she used to live in London and was a good spirit who saw our need for some direction. We then got to Las Ramblas and trecked through the crowds with our big backpacks in search of a hostel. I took in all that we passed trying to get a feel for this city by the sea. It was hot out and everyone was minimally dressed. There were lots of outside restaurants, beautiful spanish women and lots of couples holding hands. A stage was set up with an American rapper (who knows who) was rambling to the audience and trying to learn spanish words to include in his songs. I just laughed at the surrelaism of this event. Really, there are tourists everywhere! But I can understand why, having never been here before, it´s so beautiful and the winding streets and alleys take you for a spin. But all they eat here is meat. We found a good market where we can get some fresh fruit and a falafel place which is very cheap and filling. We might also get set up at an apartment in a couple of days which would be a lot cheaper, one of the people at the hostel ¨knows someone¨ so we will just have to see.

But for now we are just rambling through this city, I think I´ve made up for all of the lack of sleep I´ve had in the past two months. Having no schedule or a clock helps. No alarms to go by except the church bells that go off every hour to remind you that time is passing by.

Dublin love.

A reunion it has been. Ben arrived yesterday and we spent the evening at Sararose's flat, she was my first babysitter back in San Anselmo,Calfornia and now she is the nanny for Gweneth Paltrow's children and they live next door to her. It seems like a very surreal reality to wake up and have little Apple walk in talking about the rain and showing me her Winnie the Poo Umbrella. We had breakfast with them and then Ben and I came back to Nathalie and Ben's where ben was surprised by Odessa sleeping on the couch. I captured it all on video and it has been a nice day of rambling around and sharing stories with one another. They also have been playing music together, and i recorded a bit and will send it out soon enough.

On another note I wanted to share with you Odessa and my excursion to Dublin. We were only there for three days and were both ready to move in. Dublin was so welcoming and fun. Talk about a tiny city, it only takes 15 minutes to walk from one end to another. But the Irish are very welcoming and there are Pub's that stay awake until 4am. Normally this isn't what i would find welcoming but when you are traveling with a fiddle player and want to dance and get free drinks dublins the place. Odessa would woo everyone with her looks and her musical talent and I would tag along as we were welcomed into the community of late nights. Our hostel was under construction therefor it was really cheap and during the days we would wander around taking polaroids of castles and cathedrals then in the evenings drank guinness
and danced.

We met lots of people and Odessa busked in the streets to make some change for our meals. The tourists would take pictures of her playing and I found it funny because we were tourists as well. But i like it that wherever we would go people assumed we were a french and a swede, until we spoke with our northern californian accents. That always dissappointed the american boys. They came all this way to find two american girls from a state they had been to or even grown up in.

But Odessa and I made a pact to return to Ireland and travel around the countryside and possibly live in Dublin for a little bit...we will have to see.

But now begins the next part of this jounrey, Ben and I are to leave for Barcelona, we will be there for who knows how long and then off to Germany and the Czech Republic. The list of places to go is just growing by the day but I have no expectations for this adventure. It already has taken me down some winding roads of sincrinicity and testing my patience. But I will try to write soon when we get into Barcelona. Odessa should be arriving tomorrow in California, I miss her already.

London welcomes us.

A few days ago Odessa and I flew from San Francisco over to a city called London, we both had never been on the continent and were very excited about the possible adventures ahead....but we couldn't have guessed what the possibilities for that day were.

After the ten and a half hour flight we gathered our things and waited in the long lines of other foreigners.When we went up to the woman she asked us what our plans were and for our itineraries. Being the free flowing spirits we were, Odessa didn't have her information for her trip home and I didn't even have a ticket. The woman got really upset and questioned us as if we were planning on living here in her beautiful safe country...well we assured her that we would do whatever possible to get back home. We also told her how london was only our first stop, from here there would be dublin, barcelona, istanbul...

But then she filled out a white piece of paper and gave it to me. It said that I was being detained for further questioning. That they would either decide to send us on the next plane home or allow us into the country. Odessa was included because she was traveling with me. I will let you know that Odessa originally wouldn't have been on this trip, as of one week ago she decided to get a plain ticket to london for only 9 days because she had also never been to europe. So back to the heathrow airport, we waited as they offered us tea every half an hour. Then came along a nice older man, the english grandfather. He was to be our case manager. He told us why we were sitting there and how we would have to be questioned (interrogated) and have our bags searched. After we spoke with him we waited another hour until a man and woman walked up to us, both looking young and they took us to our luggage where we opened our bags for them and the rummages through asking questions and collecting evidence for our case.

The evidence they collected from me was the following:
washington state license
visa card
cornish student id
brand new moleskin journal with two entries, one from waiting
modeling portfolio
laptop

Then they gave us back our bags and walked us back to our seats where we waited another half and hour for them to return and take our mugshots. I looked cross-eyed and odessa looked stoned. Very good pictures for two "models." Afterwords we waited another 30 minutes before we were taken into the detainee room. Oh a wonderful room with a TV in the corner and other foreigners. They consisted of a sleeping Indian woman who was pregnant and had a little baby with her, a young guy from pakistan who kept hitting on odessa, an older man from jordan who liked to talk, another indian woman with a young son, a crying girl our age from japan and us; the two american girls who didn't know better then to get a one way ticket. For two hours we waited, did yoga, read, drank tea and watched over the indian baby who was so quiet and happy. He would gaze into our eyes and laugh when we lifted him into the air. We were about ready to adopt him. Then along walked in our english grandfather, he asked for me to come with him and in the other room i was interrogated, he asked many questions and i tried to clarify as much as i could about my open ended trip for the summer and possibly the year. Then at the end he asked me. "sierra, are you a buddhist?" I replied that I believed in a lot of buddhist beliefs but wasn't practising. He then responded by explaining that in my moleskin, it sounded like I was through my writing, he mentioned that he was a practicing buddhist for nine years now. Afterwords I went back into the detainee room with a smile on my ace and odessa was then questioned. After she was done, we waited for another hour until our English Grandfather came back and asked us to step out. In the security room he said "london welcomes you" grins spread wide across all of our faces, including the security and our case managers face. I told him how happy we were to have met him and off we were to London! So we trecked out, took the tube and the train to Queens Road Peckham where we met Nathalie and Ben who offered their couch to us through couchsurfer.com. They were so welcoming and we shared our stories and ate a large homemade feast with them and their friends. Nathalie used to teach art and Ben goes to the university and studies painting among other mediums. Instantly we felt at
home and have been staying here since.

But now Im done with this long ramble. We are going to Brighton today because Odessa has this fascination with the place ever since she first read Pride and Prejudice. Tomorrow we are off to Dublin and then we will return here in a few days.

The Beginning...

Tomorrow is the departure date for this big adventure that lies ahead.

my current state: tired, anxious, excited


i also have decided that i hate fleas. they seem to jump off of every animal onto me and bite my legs. it itches.