May of 2024 will go down as a remarkable month for me.
The people and events that filled this time filled my heart and soul and I will cherish every moment.
There is no "but" after this thought, however, on this journey through Spain, Germany and Portugal I was fortunate to have with me two great, comforting companions. Mariela my wife, and a little book I discovered in a local Little Free Library entitled "Alone Time - Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude" by New York Times Travel Columnist Stephanie Rosenbloom.
Why would I carry such a book with me to read on such an involved trip to see family, friends, places and events? Simply put, Alone Time equipped me - a self-avowed introvert - the tools and even the licence to take time for myself on such an epic trip.
How epic a trip you ask?
Outside of a couple of week-long trips in December 2022 to Portugal and December 2023 to Bonaire, it was our first real trip since the Pandemic began. It was time for us to meet up with friends in the process of extricating themselves from Toronto. It was time to see my family in Hamburg, to whom I am so close. It was time to experience first-hand the promotion of "my" football club FC St. Pauli to the Bundesliga after over a decade in the 2. Bundesliga. It was time to see Mariela's family and friends in Galicia, Spain, a place with people beyond description, such is the beauty.
It was easy to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of emotion that followed me on the trip. And it was during this trip, and with the aid of Alone Time and the support of my family, I discovered the virtues of bathing in solitude when things become too intense for my introverted self.
You can read my Good Reads review of Alone Time here, but as I touched on earlier, the book gave me licence to take alone time on a few occasions during the trip, including an early departure from the trip to be alone in Porto and then Toronto.
Another occasion was at that momentus occasion with close to 30,000 other FC St. Pauli supporters as our team won on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, springboarding into the Bundesliga for next season. But the event was too much for me, so I forgave myself and hovered around the stand exits, putting up stickers for our Toronto supporters group with a herring sandwich and beer in my hands. Later I joined my family and friends in the stands after most in the stadium had rushed the pitch. There was a beauty and peace to watching from the stands the throngs of supporters celebrate while anthems like Queen's "We are the Champions" filled the stadium. Peace.
Alone Time, through all its references to literary, academic, and the author's own experiences alone in Paris, Istanbul, Florence and New York, is a formidable tool box to help rationalize your decision to bide for some alone time, where ever you may be and with whom ever you are.
I'm fortunate to have had this book with me, and more importantly the people around me to support my alone time.
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