A small почивка (Pochivka – rest) Pt.1…Espana

Since I left Australia the first time in 1998, I’ve been to many European countries, but one I never got to was France. There was a time, around about then, when many Australians didn’t go to France as a protest because they were doing nuclear testing on some islands, just a little below the south of Western Australia.  I was one such person, as was my good friend Deb.

Times have changed, the French stopped their testing and Deb now finds herself living there. I have been promising to get over and  experience her little neck of the woods, just as she came here and experienced mine, but circumstances just always got in the way. Not this time…I found a very cheap flight and got myself booked to go as soon as my guests had left.  As Deb lives closer to Barcelona than she does to Paris, and as I have a nephew, Kari, who lives in Barcelona, I made the decision to go via Spain and on the way back spend some time with him. Deb was going to pick me up in Barcelona and whisk me off to France.

Ah, the best laid plans…

My big adventure got off to a bit of a shaky start when Deb rang me as I sat in the Sofia airport waiting to board my flight.  There had been torrential rains and the roads were not passable, even the motorway, so she would not be there to meet me.  ‘No problem’ said I…I’ll stop with Kari on the way through instead of on the way back.  I rang him and sure enough, no problem, so I flew off to Spain and met up with him in the city centre.  Deb would get to me when she could,  but meantime, I was perfectly happy to wait for her Kari’s lovely village, Allella, just a stones throw from Barcelona centre.

I had a terrific evening in Spain with Kari.  He’s my middles sister’s son and his father, Ari, is Icelandic. I saw Kari before I left  Australia in 1998 when he was just 18.  I moved overseas, he moved the the other side of Australia to continue his education.  On the occasions I returned to Australia for holidays, Kari was still in Melbourne, and when I went back this last time, he was already living in Barcelona, so I really missed him growing up.

It was a boy I said goodbye to in 1998 and a full grown, extraordinary young man who met me in the centre of Barcelona…12 years later.

I was lucky enough to have this small window presented to me to spend a little time with him and it was fantastic.  He’s grown into a very tall, slender man with more than a touch of the Icelandics about him and  he’s certainly his father’s son. He’s intelligent, funny and adventurous and that makes him really interesting and great company..  He has amazing  creative talents and makes furniture and builds bars in Barcelona. We were sitting at a fantastic table in his house and I asked where it had come from.  His housemates volunteered the information that he had made it, so he’s not only talented but modest as well….and he has a fantastic dog to boot  🙂

Say hello to Nina, the rescue dog, who won me over very quickly indeed.  She definitely has a touch of the naughties in her and isn’t adverse to assisting tit bits off Kari’s amazing table

or sneaking in and making herself comfy on your bed when you’re not looking

The next day Deb made it down to whisk me off to France and it was with a tinge of sadness that I said my goodbyes, not really sure when I’d see Kari again….but also, a degree of excitement as I headed of on the next stage of my adventure in the company of probably the greatest friend I’ve made in my life.