Skip to main content

Finding Joy




The inside of the Sagrada Familia, reminiscent of a forest with sunlight peeking through


Part of the Sagrada Familia
I went to Barcelona this week on a holiday from what has already felt like a holiday ever since I finished my thesis. Since I had two months in Finland before I go back to the US, I thought that some traveling was in order to take advantage of being in Europe where you can hop from country to country without (sometimes) even having to show any form of identification. And so I decided to finally go to a place in Europe that I have wanted to visit for years: Barcelona. The week leading to the trip was a flurry of activity. I was looking up transportation, walking tours, the many sights in the city, possible day trips to take. At one point I had at least seven tabs open to pages related to Barcelona. All of the research made me excited for my three days to explore a little bit of Spain.

The first day was a flurry of activity. Having arrived late the previous night, I wanted to devote this day to getting a feel for the city in the day light. I ate an early breakfast at one of the cafes that were on virtually every street corner. By the time my scheduled visit to the Sagrada Familia had come about at 9 in the morning, I had already walked over 5000 steps as I wandered around the area close to it. Throughout the day, I wandered farther and farther from where I was staying to the other side of the city and then walked all the way back. I came to my temporary home feeling exhilarated by everything I had seen and managed to do on my own (I am not a fan of traveling alone and get nervous every time I go to a new place).

Streets in the historical part of Tarragona
The second day was my day trip. Trying to figure out how to find my train when I didn’t know Spanish (and continuously said yes and no in Finnish, much to my boyfriend’s amusement), and when the monitors telling where each incoming train was going weren’t working was a challenge that I fortunately got through without too much anxiety. Tarragona was a small and very European. There was a distinct old part of the town and new, with the old having narrow streets that led into small plazas filled with bars and restaurants meant for people more than cars, and the newer part with wide streets and plenty of car and pedestrian traffic alike. The draw of Tarragona was the Roman ruins scattered throughout the city dating from the 2nd century BC.
The Amfiteatre ruins from when Tarragona was a Roman city

But at the end of my day in Tarragona while I waited for my train, I realized that what I really wanted was to go back to Finland. I missed the forests everywhere and the quietness of the people and landscape. I missed the security of being with my boyfriend. It was at home where I felt peace within myself. While I could find happiness in Spain, I needed to return to Finland to find joy.

View of the water from Tarragona
Many of us travel to chase after happiness and adventure. It moves us out of the comfort zone of the familiarity of home and teaches us humility when we are put in positions where we are no longer the ones in control. I certainly felt both of these in Spain not knowing how to even order a coffee and in trying to figure out the metro to and from the airport. But in Spain I also realized that the excitement traveling provided did bring me contentment and joy. Those were to be found at home where there was perhaps less novelty but greater calm.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Finnish Differences

Time is a funny thing. It seems to move in leaps and bounds at times and at times it moves slower than molasses. Right now it's doing both. I can't believe it's only been a week and yet I can't believe it's already been a week. Sunset in Helsinki This week I've been in Helsinki for our Fulbright orientation. We learned a lot of information and it would be impossible for me to fit all of it into a reasonable amount of space so I will leave that summary for another day. But a week has given me some time to notice some differences in how things work in Finland and how they work in the US. I thought I would highlight five here that encompass a fair variety of my experiences so far. I have to give credit to my friend Marie who helped me with this list. Many of these are her ideas. 1. Nature is Everywhere This one is first because I think it is the most important one for Finns. Finnish people love nature and it shows in the way cities are built (at least th...
5 comments
Read more

Small Acts of Love

A game of hockey going on on the river My boyfriend plays on a hockey team from September to May. It isn’t an official team—they don’t play games throughout the season and aren’t in any leagues—but they meet diligently every week for practice (he actually plays with two teams but it still isn’t clear to me what the difference is between them except that one team is better than the other). This requires some dedication because practices for both teams are either very late in the evening or very early in the morning. At the end of their season, before they take a break for the summer, the players come together and have a full-length game. I wanted to go last year and this year but wasn’t able to make it either time. Instead I asked him to send me a picture of himself in all of his gear. Last year he sent me a selfie of himself before the game, but without his gear on so I hoped this year he would manage to get a picture with both. He did not. I was willing to drop it, figur...
4 comments
Read more

The Mahabharata

Picture announcing the revival of the Ramyana and Mahabharata (bottom) When India suddenly announced a lock down for three weeks in March, it was a big deal. The entire country was now stuck inside with limited means of entertaining themselves. The TV networks took this as an opportunity to revive some favorites, specifically, two Indian serials from the 1980s that had held the nation enthralled while they were running. Both of these were based on Hindu epics, The Ramayana and The Mahabharata.  My family has also been watching the Mahabharata as a nightly ritual. This is quite a commitment since the serial has over 90 episodes that are each 45 minutes. Arjun listens to Lord Krishna tell the Bhagwad Gita But this is a commitment that I think we all hold onto eagerly (though my father admitted one evening that he as other shows that he wants to watch and so would be happy to take a break from it for an evening. He was overruled). This is because the Mahabharata, speci...
Post a Comment
Read more