Viajar a España!

I’ll be in Barcelona in ten days. That feels so odd.

Internally, most things will remain. We’ll reunite with our Valencian friends. But externally? I don’t think like I’ve fully grasped just how different everything around us will appear.

By the time I fly out of Ha Noi, I will have been in Asia for eight months.

As an over-generalisation, I feel many Australians lump together most of these countries and cultures under one assumption of what life in Asia looks like. That notion of cross-border homogeneity quickly evaporates once you’ve actually spent time here; living here. Even the relatively small quadrant of largely East and South-East I’ve wandered through holds immense diversity.

Thematically, life takes on the same themes, of course. Below me right now, kids play in the street, motorbikes ride past. A shirtless man gazes over at me from his barred second-floor window. Local conversation echoes, spoken in a language I can’t understand.

Nevertheless, Asia is starkly different from Europe. The colour and texture of life at the poles of this giant Eurasian landmass are distinct. Am I ready for that? Maybe. If each of these Asian nations were one or two degrees removed from each other, perhaps Spain is ten degrees removed? Is that how the adage works?

Am I excited, though? Absolutely. It was heartbreaking to pay hundreds of dollars on a train ticket once again this afternoon. Alas, I’m headed to Spain! I’ve got very little to complain about. Just a nice reminder about how fortunate I’ve been.