I Have a Thing for Bookstores

Everywhere I go I find myself being drawn to bookshops. I can't help myself - if I see a cute shop or I hear of a unique bookstore I have to find it and go in. Here are some of my favorites:

This picture I am literally planning on putting on a canvas to hang in my house. I just absolutely love it. It's rustic and authentic and represents an amazing memory.

This first three pictures in this post are from Aqua Alta Book Store in Venice. It's off the beaten path but someone I met at the hostel  tipped me off about it. It was so totally worth the venture out past the tourist stops in Venice near St. Mark's Basilica.

This is from a library museum in Venice!

I stumbled on this beautiful little shop in the middle of a walking lane. I love little gems like this. 

That tiny bookshop had books that were hundreds of years old. 

There's beauty everywhere you look, you just need to keep your eyes open.

Malena

A Wonderful Life - How to Not Feel Homesick on Prolonged Travel

I love to travel, but even so I still appreciate home. I was feeling just a little homesick tonight (Skyping with your puppy will do that to you) but here are a few tips for prolonged travelers missing home, but loving life:

1) Skype home. Skype is a beautiful thing. You can have real conversations with the ones that mean the most. I try to make a point to talk with people back home as often as I can. The App WhatsApp is a great way for quick messages to keep in touch too!

2) Do something you would do at home. Something bordering mundane. For me I took a walk to the mall next door and ate some pizza and gelato (okay gelato is still quite travel-y but I mean... gelato. I have a strict "Eat Gelato At Every Opportunity" policy, so let's move along) and just walked around the mall. Sure the language will be different, but the people are the same. Teenagers trying to fit in and twenty somethings desperate for the next Lush product. Although please note trying to read Lush labels in another language is quite challenging... especially when you aren't sure if its in Spanish or Catalan haha!

3) Make the hotel like home. For me that means sweats, country music and a bubble bath! Traveling and exploring go hand in hand but every now and then you need to take a day or an evening off and just be a human. Put your feet up and read a book, ya dig?

4) Watch your favorite TV shows that you've missed while traveling - there are tons of apps that help with this! As for me, I use Xfinity. It gives you a sense of normalcy.

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change a thing about what I've been doing and where I've been going. I'm just lucky enough to have a wonderful home to miss.

Here's to a quiet evening and much more adventure to come! I'm off to Madrid in the morning.

Malena

Laundromat Adventure - Making New Friends

I had to do laundry in a Spanish laundromat, and boy was it an adventure. There isn't one close to our hotel so I had to take the metro and explore a bit. Then when I found the laundromat they were out of detergent and so was the market next door. I then had to go around the corner and get more but I got horribly confused about what was detergent and what was softener. After a lot of confusion I bought the world's biggest bottle of what I thought was detergent and headed back to the laundromat where I met the friendliest woman on the planet. She helped me get my clothes going but asked where my soap was... oh no. Yup. Sure enough it was in fact softener I had bought. ACK. Luckily they had loaded detergent into the softener dispenser and my new friend knew that so she helped me out and we got my clothes going.

I then had my very first prolonged actual spanish conversation!!! We talked about the weather, how we missed summer and the beach. We talked about food (I pretended to like seafood because I know a lot of sea vocabulary, haha) and it went pretty darn well! There were times I was just nodding along, but for the most part I knew what she was saying and could respond when she asked me a question! I'm pretty darn excited about this and I think my Spanish is really improving. Who knows - in three weeks when I head home maybe I'll be super awesome at Spanish! We shall see.

Sometimes it's the little experiences that stick out and for me this was one of those. It was so cool to just interact and get to know a stranger in a strange place in another language. I hope this is the first of many such experience