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 |   ON THE WRITE PATH: travel journal for Around-the-World in 2015, 16, 18. |
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“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein That was last month's prompt, but too appropo to pass up. I was looking forward to visiting Spain in March of 2020. In hindsight it's just as well I didn't go. It's June ... and I might still be stranded there. I thought I could survive Madrid even though it has never been on my bucket list. But then other great cities like Vienna and Paris weren't either and I've been to both. London? Maybe never. But there were great tickets! About $700!! Cheap and good flights. To Madrid on March 3rd and back from Bilbao in May. 9 weeks seemed a tad long but I was willing if not thrilled. I figured I could go south to Malaga and maybe some other places that off-season might not be overrun with tourists. I'm not a good tourist. Frankly? Prefer travelers and locals to tourists. But one shouldn't complain. Spain ... is close to Morocco ... and I've never been. Checked flights to Casablanca ... doable. A place to stay in Rabat ... very doable. Fes, Chefchouen, Tangiers? All good. Then back to Spain and on to Portugal. But ... which side of the border would I have been on when Morocco suddenly closed on March 16th. The US offered to rescue Americans ... for $2,500. I'd still be there or somewhere rambling around Europe. Of course ... I didn't find out. On March 1st I canceled when I couldn't add travel insurance. My tickets were non-refundable. I lost $700. And that's where Shelley's quote becomes pertinent. The anguish of not only having to cancel a trip but to lose my money ... and then to know that no one cared. A 'it sucks to be me moment' par excellence. I was upset for days. I wasn't safe at home in a building with shared facilities any more than I would've been in Europe in a hostel. And I was further pissed off at ignorant Americans who thought that their American superiority complex mattered to a virus and then ... the me-me-me's of 'freedom now' because wearing a mask was crushing their rights ... I was hurting, upset, LIVID. Still am. But I've blogged about that elsewhere. I will get to Morocco some day. I will revisit my favorite places in Portugal. Madrid? Who knows. 2,529 |
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