Imagine my surprise when I was greeted by my host Blanca and her diving instructor David with a very hearty..."Selamat Datang!" Haha. Both of them are avid travelers too who've had their fair share of adventure in Asia, including a months-long biking trail across China! Definitely want to try that someday too, wow.
We drove around for a bit, to return their diving equipment. Blanca has been taking diving lessons, to prep for her trip to Madagascar perhaps - she's going with some frens to volunteer and teach there for a year or so!! Along the way we even had a little accident with the local traffic police...but i can't really remember the details now haha.
Last stop for the night: home sweet home in Reus! Out of all the hosts I've had, Blanca had one of the most memorable homes. It was a small, cozy one-room place, intricately decorated with books, drawings, a plethora of stuff with a very personal feeling coming through - i could really begin to see what kind of person she was in the home she's built!
I remember the little kitchen where there was barely room for two, and the fridge choke-full of home-grown vegetables, from green pepper, chilli, onions and potatoes to carrots, long beans, tomatoes. Blanca actually tends to a small garden patch together with her other friends, and they just love harvesting them fresh for their meals. If you've never seen home-grown veggies btw, they look nothing like in the supermarkets! In fact i had a hard time identifying some of the veggies as they were in the oddest shapes and sizes.
Anyway I made dinner for us both, braised pork belly with green pepper, and vermicelli with carrots :-)
Yummy~ i hope!The next morning saw us taking a ride to nearby Tarragona, the capital of Catalonia with some very Romanesque ruins, from Cyclopean walls to an astounding amphitheatre!
Managed to catch the weekly flea market by the Cathedral- an awesome experience!
An amphitheatre by the sea - what an entertaining spectacle it must have been ~
We had a light breakfast, then snuck off for a long ride across the hilly roads of Tarragona, the scenery marred by industrial structures like power stations, processing plants. But the deeper we went into the mountains and valleys, the further we abandoned modern civilization ... until we reached the castled town of Montblanc, nestled away among the rocky Prades Mountains.
Our destination: to have a nice picnic at Blanca's frens Guillem and Cristina's house, which was still further hidden away in a nearby barren village! We first met up with her other frens Edgar and Eliz, and then shopped for groceries and lunch. Sadly Sunday is truly not a day for shopping, and only one muslim mom-and-pop store was open for us to grab some drinks and snacks.
Upon reaching Guillem's house, my eyes completely widened. Here we had a concrete blockish house that looked exactly like a hermit's adobe! Imagine it surrounded by spiny bushes, a reserve water pool, and no grid electricity or water supply - i can't imagine a closer reference to the olden times of Spain!
Reminded me of Heroes I's ogre adobe!!
If i were to choose one coolest place out of all my travels, this is it.
Guillem, a DJ schooled in old-school traditions, housed hundreds of vinyl records and an inhouse music system in about one-third of the adobe. The other two-thirds comprised of a counter bar where flies buzzed about in the hot, dry air and cushy sofas to lounge in. We had live DJ music on his scratch pad (which Guillem taught me to experiment on - really really fun stuff to try!), and later more of their frens came to join in the picnic. Absolutely memorable sights, sounds and smells that are still coming back to me now!
Guillem, a DJ schooled in old-school traditions, housed hundreds of vinyl records and an inhouse music system in about one-third of the adobe. The other two-thirds comprised of a counter bar where flies buzzed about in the hot, dry air and cushy sofas to lounge in. We had live DJ music on his scratch pad (which Guillem taught me to experiment on - really really fun stuff to try!), and later more of their frens came to join in the picnic. Absolutely memorable sights, sounds and smells that are still coming back to me now!
Oh, something i forgot to add: besides Blanca and Edgar, none of their frens spoke english. Everyone was speaking Catalonian most of the time :) Talk about non-verbal communication! Haha. I'm amazed i still managed to fit in somehow, as we lazed and chilled in the fun picnic atmosphere.
As evening approached, we took a quick tour around Montblanc, climbing up the old Roman fort walls. There, the setting sun cast our shadows across the town beneath, and the breeze and the bronze light cast a warm feeling in our hearts...
I guess this was the time when it struck me... that Life is long, and meant to be enjoyed, every single moment of it. To me Blanca embodied this life philosophy perfectly, in living life to the fullest yet with the deepest sense of hope, faith and love that it does not end tomorrow, but will go on forever. How vast, varied and interesting life can be! You can be anyone you want, do anything you love, and not feel the least bit of regret about it.
Yes, it was then that I felt my perspective on life has truly opened up for me, telling me that I can live life the way I want, not the way society dictates. I can lead different lifestyles and assimilate different cultures, i can explore many options on the places i'll go, the things i can do. I can slack like a bum or overwork for a cause. I can fail, cry, laugh, hug, inspire, pause, learn, read, play, go broke, seek help, volunteer ... and find fulfillment and happiness in my own life anyway.
Because Life is long, and meant to be good.
She has never voiced this out, and in fact we have never communicated that well in the sense of words and sentences due to her still learning english. But i could intimately feel her way of thinking, her way of life. It felt so deeply touching, and yet so comforting, to listen to her share her thoughts and experiences as though they were the most common thing in the world, when in fact it is so, so rare especially in this modern age of material greed and egotistic self-pursuit, a global village of disconnected individuals, a world where, so they say, Life is short.
Blanca, means white in Spanish.
To me, she had truly brought the colour into my life perspective, like the brightness among darkness; an undying hope for a better life, a better world.
As I snuggled into the mat on the last night of my brief, yet life-changing trip in Reus, i was probably thinking...
Me siento agradecido por el regalo, Blanca.
