Beyond the Destination: Discovery and Connection | Day 312 (again) of my 2023 Journal

Yet another long walk for nothing and everything.

I have said it before:

Going for a walk most often only happens if there is some sort of aim, a goal, something we are out to see, to buy, someone to meet. It can be whatever. This time, it was a board game cafe I had found on the internet with good reviews and all. But when we arrived, it was closed, the sign on the door said it was open just one month a year, and our legs were very tired (especially mine because I had done my find balance walk all morning), and it was NOT this month.

At this point in our travels, we all know the walks are not about the destination. Of course, it is not. It is about all the little things we experience together when we move around the world as a group. I would not want to do all the walks without my family; our love for each other enriches the experience, and the different personalities spot different segments of the world we move around.

I like to look at birds because my father taught me to. I don’t always look them up; my dad is an overachiever, always knowing everything. But I do enjoy watching birds.

Jesper likes random metalwork, and even though you might not see it in the not-very-good photo, it was a fun gate to that garden made of metal.

Silke sees all the dogs and can handle them all, where I get scared; she is just enjoying them all: On the rooftops, in the streets, behind the fences, and peaking out when they can. S

torm spots the little things, beetles, and details, none of them I took pictures of on this day. I look for structures in how people live, and this walk puts us in many different areas of Playa.

I noticed the hand-painted Coca-Cola signs on many a wall, thinking about my soul-mate-friend Tamiko, who had a Coca-Cola dress when we were teenagers. I saw how everything is being used and repaired in a way the overconsuming rich part of the world should learn from, and pondered on the duality between consumerism and poverty, how the dark sides of both would be nice to get rid of.

Walking back, we stopped to buy water and banana chips and have a break on a bench. Looking at people and processes, we were breathing in our luxury life: We had the privilege to go for a long walk exploring the world with 3 of our four wonderful children on an ordinary Wednesday and even sit for a while just re-hydrating.

We were all baffled when we started to notice the scooters, fixed up with the front end of the cargo bikes to make little street food stalls easier to move around. This would never be legal where we come from - but who cares? It works, and everyone is happy(er).

I don’t have to mention the murals again, do I?

With love

Cecilie Conrad

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