Stray January 04, 2003

So.

There and back.

A full circle in Michael Palin terms, but it'd be more like scribbling on a globe with a crayon if you stopped to map out where I actually went. Far but not wide.

I think the biggest mistake was the occasional footnote to these mails mentioning off hand plans for the next leg, and telling those of geographical convenience that yeah sure I'll drop by when I get there. And for the next step after the email that was fine, I usually kept to that part of the plan, but after that things would invariably change. Some better option would always come along. I like making plans much more than sticking to them. Why stick? Why plan? You think you know what's going to happen tomorrow? I met a lot of people who suffered for booking ahead, staying longer than they wanted because they had already payed, leaving sooner since they _had_ to be somewhere sometime.

Though I have to say, it happened so often that I'd arrive in a city and be told there was one bed left in one hostel that I just assumed it was a sales tactic to make me take it. But no one else seems to be told that. And I did have to walk around Barcelona for three hours trying to find a bed because I had assumed I'd just wander into something. Which I did, but it took long enough.