II woke up at 5 a.m., packed away my sleeping bag, took one last look at my room and picked up my bags. I was hesitant to leave the house having left the key on my desk upstairs, and I was worried I had forgotten something. Even though I had meticulously packed my bags the day before, for the second time, I suppose I knew once I had shut the door that was the end of my fifth Brockley life.
Mountains in Spain whilst landing in Madrid.
Today I am flying to Salta, Argentina, via Madrid and Buenos Aires. Back in October I decided to quit my job at BAFTA and travel to South America, with Patagonia being the main draw. Here I am three months later sitting at Madrid airport, having resisted Burger King and opted for a salad—small wins—still wondering what I’m really doing. As with everything in life, it feels so normal. On the train to the airport my biggest fear was that the fonts don’t match on this blog when I publish from the app—it’s quite hard to sort out the HTML from an iPhone—and this really bothered me until I realised it doesn’t matter.
Check-in went smoothly along with the security check, before I was walking through duty-free and realised I no longer had my passport. After a massive panic and help from the amazing staff at the security checking area, I had it back in about five minutes. This made me realise two things: if you are going to lose key documents, do it in a highly secure area, and that I really did want to board the plane.
Meeting Sharon at Gatwick Airport after my passport scare.
Then something really wonderful happened. I was able to meet up with my cousin Sharon, who has been really supportive since I told her I was going. One of my goals in life is to have someone meet me at the airport when I land, but this was actually better and we had a really nice chat.
Other than having a small child kick my seat the entire flight there, it’s been uneventful. You might be surprised to hear that I made friends with the parents, who were really sweet. And yeah, I suppose that’s what this trip is about: doing things differently and looking at life from new perspectives.
Adiós
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