See that guy lurking in the corner? That’s my illness…following me to Sevilla.
I got sick Night 1 in Barcelona from sleeping with wet hair*, and then proceeded to beast my way through a freezing but unfortunately (or fortunately? can’t decide), not white, Christmas in Madrid**, then a 6am tour in Granada, a 9am reservation for Alhambra, and then a gorgeous nighttime (still the same day) tour of the Mezquita-Catedral in Cordoba.
My attention only goes so far, and between thinking about being sick and being awed by things I’ve only seen on Google images, the awesome won. But then I passed out in Sevilla and I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it (out of my bed). I considered staying behind and trusting everyone to bring back pictures, but then again…
I studied the Seville Cathedral in art history and there was no way I was missing the flying buttresses. So I went.
Someone once gave me a piece of their mind advice when I was in my younger, more…whiny days; “the way you do one thing in life is the way you do everything.”
I never want to set the tone for myself that skipping out is okay. Of course, you need to make judgement calls when it comes to your health, but in this case, I decided to man up and go, and it was worth it.
*Ladies. I know backpacking is all about bare bones packing, but what this really means is thinking about what is essential to you as a traveler, and being pragmatic about it. They are “your essentials,” and the “your” in that phrase is just as important as the “essentials” part.
So what’s important to Calvin (hair wax? important, towel? not important) is different than what is important to me (hair wax? not important, towel? IMPORTANT). But one thing that most backpackers might roll their eyes at that I must ask you to reconsider is a blow dryer. If you’re like me and it takes your hair longer than 2 hours to dry naturally, it will be unpleasant if your itinerary involves cold weather and moving fast. This is less of a vanity and more of a health thing for me, since having your hair freeze into icicles is…not healthy. They make plenty of teeny tiny hair dryers, which I will be picking up soon.
**It was more of a bluish, purple Christmas.
- At time of posting in Sevilla / San Pablo, it was 15 °C - Humidity: 54% | Wind Speed: 2km/hr | Cloud Cover: n/a