Liftoff

This is the first of several travel updates for my 65-day round-the-world trip (context in this post). Although this trip is expected to be less stuffed with activities, I’m going to try to keep these posts short for my own sake.

First up, we have a weekend stop in Luxembourg city, followed by 4 days in Granada, Spain. I had no concrete plans for either, but both locales offered plenty to keep me and my friends busy.

Luxembourg City (May 17-19)

Patrick, a friend and colleague from OSU, was taking his own study abroad trip in Germany this summer, so we made plans to meet up in Luxembourg, a city/country with a fascinating history and culture, neither of us had ever been. This was a short trip, but we managed to see most of the city, which is one of the prettiest I’ve ever visited.

We had a fun but short time, then I took an extra night in the city after sending off Patrick at the train station. It was my first time using a Couchsurf, which is an interesting community/resource introduced to me by my landlady Jenee in Columbus, a world-traveler herself. I had wonderfully pleasant dinner and conversation with my hosts Davide and Marc, then headed off to my next stop early the next morning. I intend to use couchsurfing in the future, as it’s a great way to learn from locals and stay in unique places.

Granada, Spain (May 19-23)

After a layover in Amsterdam (lol) and a bus ride from Málaga, I arrived in Granada, a dry and mountainous city in southern Spain, where I met up with my friend Sahar from Amsterdam. As usual, I brought my “vacation energy” and we took the town by storm, taking in the sights and delicious food, while trying our best to avoid the heat.

My friend is a community-minded person like myself, and they had done the hard work ahead of time of finding queer and activist opportunities in the city. Although the one-and-only “queer bar” in the city was a laughable dud, we eventually found our way to cool people and fun times.

Also, I have added to my ‘karaoke count’ in convincing others to give it a try for the first time. After hilariously failing to keep up with reading the lyrics to a Spanish ska song, ABBA and Avril Levine came through for me, and we ended the night on a high note.

At the time of my visit, there was a squat in a former municipal government building in Granada that hosted regular events, including weekly (free!) flamenco lessons. We showed up not knowing what to expect, and ended the night sweaty and satisfied with our new skills.

I’m not a very musical-oriented person, and aside from some mild choreography for my drag performance, I haven’t done formal dance lessons since a few ballroom dance club meetings in college. But I tried my best, and am really happy with my ability to keep up (doubly so because most of the instructions were given in Spanish!)

Sadly this squat was raided by police without an eviction notice, just a few days after our visit.

Our last night in the city, we attended a Dyke Bingo night at a community collective space in the city, which broke the record for most lesbians I’ve seen in the same room. It was a really fun time, and I got confirmation from the locals that it wasn’t just us who thought that queer bar was a bust.

Consequences of Cheap Travel

I planned most of my itinerary around the cheapest flights between my destinations, which means ending up with less than ideal journeys. In this case, it meant a 28-hour transit time, starting at 1AM after the Dyke Bingo with a walk to the Málaga bus station.

• 2 hr bus (Málaga -> Granada Airport)
• 3 hr wait through check-in & security
• 1.5 hr flight to Lisbon, Portugal
• 2.5 hr layover
• 13 hr flight to LAX
• 1 hr shuttle to Union Station
• 1.5 hr train to Riverside
  • 3 hr delay (I dipped out at 1.5 hours)
• 1.5 hr Uber to Riverside

I was only able to get a couple hour-bouts of sleep on the plane to LAX, so when I finally arrived at my family’s home in Riverside, I took a much-needed shower, scarfed down dinner, and crashed into bed for what my watch tells me is one of my most restorative sleep sessions ever.

I’ll be staying here for the next week, until my mom and I head to Hawaii on June 3. It’ll be a nice time to recharge, do some work, and get my visa for China before continuing on the next nearly 2 months of travel. Until the next post!

California

I decided not to make plans for this section of my trip, and stayed with my family in Riverside for 1.5 weeks. My main report is: driving sucks, the new Elden Ring game is cool, and family is complicated.

I did get to drive a boat though!…The morning after my 28-hour travel day 😅

Apparently my aunt has a retired friend with a yacht who’ll take any excuse to use it, and is happy to teach new folks how it works. Sadly it was too windy to go out into the ocean so we just stayed in the Newport Harbor, but it was a relaxing time nonetheless. Plus, I get to add “Yacht” to the list of vehicles I can drive 😉

Otherwise, I didn’t get up to much besides two drives out to LA to get my visa at the Chinese Consulate, helping out with some house projects, and having many delicious home-cooked meals.

I’m grateful for the downtime, but really looking forward to the rest of my trip, and new unfamiliar places. I’m posting this from the airplane on my way to Maui (Hawaiian does free wifi??), where I’ll be for the next 10 days.

It’s my first (and almost certainly last) time on the islands, so I want to both see as much as I can, while trying to mitigate my participation in a tourism industry that’s destroying the environment, culture, and wellbeing of actual Hawaiian people.

Like I said, complicated feelings about visiting 😅 But I plan to make the most of it!

Until next time!
💜Ada