PISA - Where It All Began #amore

 

I love to hate Facebook. HOWEVER, thank you Facebook Memories for the sweet reminder that August 2015 was when I opened my eyes to a whole new world (yes, just like Aladdin on a magic carpet).

What is so special about Pisa, you may ask... 

Take a picture pushing the Leaning Tower. Take a picture supporting the Leaning Tower. Prove to the world your super strength, and that is it. Bye. Well, that's what I did 2 years prior, in 2013.

HOWEVER, in 2015, Justine (my super hot friend... one of them, cause I have two 😁) was invited by a friend, to his friend's grandparent's place in the mountains, just an hour drive out of Pisa. Lucky me, they were super kind and offered Justine to bring a friend. SOOO, technically, I was the friend of a friend of a friend... enough of this, onto the good stuff!

At dawn, following our arrival in Pisa, we drove to the mountains and as we reached our destination all I can remember thinking was, WOW. I was in love! The place is called Parco dell'Orecchiella. 
I suck at remembering names of places (I did part of the Camino de Santiago and the only names of villages I can remember are the start point and end point!), however, this spot I will remember FOREVER. 

The grandparent's place was a 2 story, 3 bedroom wooden hut with a patio perched to one side. Oh! and no mobile connectivity whatsoever.

I cannot recall the exact amount of people, however, I'm comfortable saying there were about 16 of us. Different nationalities, super chill, super cool people. 

Looking back, I find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that we actually only spent 2 full days in the mountains. It most probably is the only occasion where time stood still while I was enjoying the moment.

The only shop around was a short walk away. A very quaint place full of pasta and home-baked pastries, and not much else. Therefore, we might have emptied the hut's pantry while cooking lunch! 

It was great though, everybody pitching in. And when we were too many hands in the kitchen, some retired to playing the guitar or making sure the fireplace was still burning.

On both days we hiked. I was surrounded by complete strangers, yet I surrendered myself to the group and trusted them blindly, truly believing they knew the way, so I happily tagged along.

At night, we were so high on the mountain top I swear we could almost touch the stars; they sparkled so bright. I also managed to see multiple shooting stars! 

Speaking of mountain elevations... during a hike, on our first afternoon, we actually walked through clouds! 

And the alcohol! The wine, the whiskeys, the Cointreau, the challenge we gave ourselves to ascend from one alcohol percentage to the next. We actually only had a sip each, considering the amount of people we were. I still feel a tad guilty that we probably left the drinks cabinet drier than the desert after our 'intervention'.

Thank you Justine, Thank you Pisa, Thank you Destiny, Thank you Opportunity. This experience truly ignited my fire for adventure.

With lots of love and happy memories,

Jess x

PS. The BN picture I use for the start of every post is taken at Parco dell'Orecchiella.

Let's Try Again #LTA

#LTA

This is me, running out of excuses. Fed up with myself for not fulfilling my silly, petty life goals.

I was blessed with craziness. 

The feeling of a fire burning within.

The feeling that pushed me to take the plunge countless times. 

I have let this blessing slip away.

2016 was the year I was ‘too busy’ enjoying myself to continue writing in my blog.

Then, in 2017 I was ‘too mentally exhausted' by first having my world turned upside down; yet managing to get the job I always wanted… No time for blogging there.

2018 : managed to travel some more (with the man I later promised to spend the rest of my life with) which rekindled my desire to put my traveling experiences into words....

...HOWEVER, I kept repeating the same excuse… I have to feel when the time is right, and I have to be kind to myself and give myself time. 

Since 2018 I have had my blog permanently open, as tab on my mobile internet app. At what point does being kind to yourself turn into laziness? Where do you draw a line between ‘self-care’, giving yourself the time you need and loosing your appetite for life?

Whenever I gave in to guilt and tried to write a post, I would have already forgotten the first sentence while think about the second. I think I was frustrated, yet the feeling was muffled. I just stopped feeling the fire burning.

EVEN NOW, re-reading what I wrote, ready to press Publish, I cannot stop thinking "but what's the point in this?" Thing is, I DO NOT KNOW. I should not think much of it either. Just do it DAMN IT!

2020, and here I am freshly, happily married, working my dream job with a place to call my own… which in essence threatens the actual existence of the name of this blog…. since now I do have a home :) 

YET, I am a nomad now more than ever, my thoughts are too scattered and sometimes lost. A mental-nomad, if that makes sense. I need to work hard and push myself (self-care my arse....just had to!). 

Cruel to be kind works fine for me.

Stopping, taking a moment and evaluating all achieved and experienced thus far makes me realise this is what I always aimed for. NONETHELESS, somewhere along the way, I left my fire behind, or simple forgot what fed it.

Now I can understand what some mean when life struggles are mentioned. It just happens. They are lucky enough to identify points in their life as such and work to improve on the dull phases. I feel like it took me months to finally realise.

This whole post is truly a word-vomit, or rather thought-vomit, with the hopes that it would lead me to finding my passion and helps me to once again, give meaning to the seemingly insignificant things.

I cannot bring myself to commit to writing a post every so often, yet. I will list it down as one of the petty goals though - To write about past travels, when I manage to force myself to gather my thoughts :)

PS. I love all the people in my life so much! This is all sounding so melodramatic (oh boohoo - you think you have problems girl... I have problems, mela int), yet I smile every day cause of them!

Jess x