Had a call from Europe on this summer and from what I saw, several friends had also a call for visiting the old continent on the summer of 2022.
Europe announced the opening of its doors for everybody (vaxed and non vaxed) on March of this year and I guess that after a sort of rigid two years since their first lockdown, Europe needed a sunny summer loaded with a more than enough amount of tourism, to help reactivate the local inner commerce and vibes.
The objective of the mission was to travel a bit around and land in a beautiful coast town, which integrates a natural mix of attributes that makes it a the end a special place, so a kitesurf instructor like me could enjoy as much as possible the art and normally extensive physical work of teaching #kiteboarding.
Went to the net and searched for kitesurf instructor jobs around the world.
Then the researching and the filtering process started, until you come up with the options that made it to the semi finals of your research to then find the final options and take a decision. So the semi finalists where Croatia, Turkey, Italy and Ireland.
Summer was here and with the full open doors from Europe to tourism and therefore with much need of hand labor, I got replied from several kite schools in an urgent way.
After a sort of extensive research found a post of a school in Croatia's coast which when processing it inside, noticed that the exotic European country settled in the Adriatic sea, suddenly resonated a bit more intense than others.
Also another school from a small coast town in Ireland, named Duncannon, Wexford appeared in the list and in that moment my brain recalled the positive comments from a couple of friends that taught kiteboarding on a summer in Ireland and besides the recall, some visual projections happened in my forehead with beautiful green fields, cliffs, a roughed coast line and the specific cold water from the northern seas, a mix of elements that normally my body searches after finishing the windy season back home with the sun's radiation pounding down strongly.
Options in Italy appeared in a kite spot that seems as majestic as it can be, because of its natural beauty and a well conserved fancy town, Lake di Garda; but their labor journeys seem to be much more intense than the ones in Croatia and Ireland for instance, requiring to teach up to 8 hrs in a boat per day, normally 7 days a week, non stop for a couple of months. Journey that can be completely exhausting for the body and brain, but in contrast to the physical effort, well payed. Luckily for me, on this summer I didn't have to focus on the money side of business but more on the experience side. I was really looking for somewhere nice and relaxed.
Had a video call with both owners of the schools that made it to my finals, the one in Croatia and the one in Ireland. Both seemed nice and cool, but there was something about the smile and the funny-relaxed tone of speak that caught my attention from the Croatian one. Besides this virtual romantic colgate scene, they also offered campers located in a RV park and camp site in front of the kite spot, for lodging their instructors and staff and many windsurfer and kiter families. I had the luck of traveling on Ford Bronco towing a big Roda camper, since being a kid of course with my family; looking many times for remote little and beautiful coast towns and virgin beaches in the middle of nowhere and spending summer vacations most of the day in the sand, the sea, the sun, walking barefoot all day wearing just a swim suit for the daily clothing and I just remember that time of my life as a golden era. So the idea of living in a camper temporarily in a beautiful windy spot somewhere in the world, always sounds good. I guess the camper makes me feel more gipsy, nomadic, simple and free.
After few days of feeling and analyzing the offers from both schools, the offer from Croatia sounded stronger even though the money was less.
I called Mateo to tell him my decision of going with them, but unfortunately he had given the job to an instructor that has worked with them already and was in need of the job, so ended up lining up with with Ireland.
Took a direct flight from Cancun to Glasgow, Scotland the 22nd of June of 2022, since there weren't direct flights to Dublin's city.
Arrived at the airport and after refreshing my self a bit in the toilet, walked towards the migration filter, hoping they wouldn’t ask much questions in search of the under the water business side of my journey, rather than the pleasure side.
Arrived with the migration officer and the lady in around her 60's stays starring at me for few seconds and then whispers something to her uniformed partner, also a 60 something year old fella and in the snap of a thunder an electric thought passed through my head yielding: No, trouble please, just passing through!
And when that thought that moved like a comet in the night sky finished passing over my head and disappearing in a fraction of a second, the officers laughed simultaneously and then he sayed: She thinks you look like the singer of Red Hot Chili Peppers and then both bursted laughing.
And right there, all the small tension that arriving to a new country creates, vanished and a smile was drawn on my face, meanwhile at the same time, tried to remember how the heck that singer looks...
Welcome to Scotland, enjoy your stay lad!
Took the airport shuttle to the city center where the lodge was located and after leaving the bags at the hotel because I arrived early, went surfing in Glasgow's streets towards downtown.
Glasgow is the largest city of Scotland, hosting around 640,000 inhabitants.
It has become a Scottish force in terms of manufacturing, technology and culture, hosting three highly regarded universities: University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University.
Walking by the streets to reach downtown which was around 2 kms from the hotel, cruising in tourist mode, observing, smelling, hearing and feeling the new and unknown scenario, that after 15 hours of being inside an airport and plane, appeared surrounding and interacting with my senses.
It was a sort of gray day with some 17oC in the streets. Observing with the eyes wide open the city built in the 19th century with it’s Victorian detailed architecture that shows all that greatness of the detailed hand labor of the older times. Spotting pubs in every corner of the cities downtown, which many of them by 11am where serving to the lads some pints of beer already. At the same time I realized the locals of Glasgow where kicking off the day at 11 am, I also observed the people walking on the streets and some people that seemed to live on the streets. Some vagabond looking, other decadent looking mixed with the normal looking people, no one looking fashionable or demanding any attention with an attractive and/or produced look, most of them dressed in a normal long, dark, clothes, many of them where smoking cigarettes and most of them not looking any sporty at all, made me realized that I was on a city and culture where there is not much attention to the body esthetics and a place where perhaps the society have being prey for generations of harsh cold weathers, and the good old alcohol warm companionship. A downtown that on a thursday, grayish and coldish morning, didn't look too appealing for me.
Later on I learned that parts of the great movie #Trainspotting where filmed there and bringing some of those scenes back in my memory helped me a beat to try to understand the kind of culture that inhabits the largest city of Scotland, even though, frankly I think i just didn´t made the time to try to understand it.
On the other hand of this grayish sort of decadent looking scene, Glasgow is surrounded by beautiful parks and green fields, with castles and classic looking buildings here and there.
Stayed there only one night, not much of a city guy here and decided to go to the coast and see if the rider inside gets lucky and nails a sweet session in the sea and wind of Scotland.
Having contacted a local school for renting a board, I charged in next morning to Glasgow´s train station where I stayed outside of it for a while, staring at the central’s architecture.
When I was inside and saw the big esplanade that met the rails where the trains are lined up waiting for the passengers to load or unload, I got pretty excited since in my country we only have one tourist train line on the northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico.
It happens that in this collective kind of ground transportation which carries hundreds of passengers with only one big engine and several compartments where you normally sit quite comfortable with good enough space given between seats, au contraire to the space between seats in todays planes, where a guy like me with long legs, has to lean on the side or stick the knees on the back of my front neighboors seat. Back in the latin kid trains fantasy, it happens that sometimes, several times, the seats are equipped with a table in the middle, which allows you to fully enjoy the deli cappucchino you got before jumping in the modern wagon, factors that make it normally a pleasant and efficient way of transporting ourselves.
Meanwhile you enjoy the coffee, you are able to observe the outside scenario as much as you can or if you already know every inch of the visual journey, you can instead work, read the newspaper, a book, waste precious time sneaking in others lifes in your social media app or even take a nap with some snoring included if u like, without having to worry about the traffic, the driving, the shitty roads, the maintenance of the car, etc. Trains are such an efficient way of collective ground transportation, that don´t face traffic at any time and allow you to enjoy the scenic view, withouth having to worry about pretty much anything else but not letting the coffee get cold or snore to loud.
I wish with all my heart that we'll have the chance one day to travel around my beautiful country again in a train, zipping a deli beverage, enjoying the visuals of the diverse natural scenarios and stopping in many of the thousands of magical towns that give color and folklore to my Mexican culture.
So back in to the Scottish train scene, the all new scenario was unveiling itself upon my eyes, changing almost at the rhythm of the zips given to the coffee, but not changing much at the same time. Landscapes that once we where out of the city, comprehended forever green fields with fat, fleecy sheep eating their summer infinite green and leafy grass, ruminating completely unworried in the Scottish prairies.
After an hour and a half of scenic train trip, I arrived at the small coast town of #Troon in the west coast of #Scotland where meeting with the guys of Kitesurf Scotland was arranged.
Dropped the clothes bag at the reception of the yacht club and went walking to the kite spot carrying on my back the sweet 9m #fone #banditXV, a 5:4 neoprene and my harness in case I got lucky enough to get a foil session. After waiting for a while at the public beach without seeing any kiters around, any wind and no phone signal, decided to get some wifi at a coffee shop. Had a small tartlet and received the pinned location so started walking there.
When I arrived, saw that a foiling lesson was barely going on with a 13m, meaning very light wind for me and around 30 mins after it completely dropped.
Meanwhile I got to meet few Scottish kiter-lads, trying to decodify their English, partnering in showing my teeth and a smile when they all laughed without knowing very well what the topic was about. Observing their pale and perhaps thick skin, couldn't stop wondering on how much cold their bodies could handle, when they go out for a session in autumn or spring, when the weather up there happens to be quite cold but the wind can blow quite strong. Since right then it was a summer day and we where on some 17oC on the outside and the sea water temperature was around 14oC.
After hanging out and waiting for the wind that didn't appeared for the rest of the day, they gave me a lift to my airbnb which was located on a nice neighborhood quite near the sea a couple of milles north of the town. The Scottish white potatoes showed quite a warm hospitality to the Mexican brown bean.
We arrived to the new lodge and there was a porsche cayenne parked on the side of house and one of the younger dudes inquired: so airbnb ha?
A sir looking around his 60´s came out the front door and after presenting ourselves, he welcomed me inside his house and showed me the room. We talked and immediately felt a nice energy with him, so we arranged to have dinner together in town. Then I took a nice warm bath in a slim shower, relaxed for some 20 mins in the cozy bed and then got ready for dinner with the host gentleman who showed much interest in interacting with the new sun tanned guest. Drove the 1998 cayenne in town with the pilots seat on the right side. He felt like going to this Spanish restaurant where he liked the paella. After a couple of pints the paella arrived and we digged in. It was more or less the outcome of it to be honest, being a beat spoiled, having tried the real paellas from Valencia or the ones my uncle used to prepare for the whole family back home, but still tasty enough for us to have a good time talking about of all sort of topics and stories.
The wind forecast was looking very good for the next day and a beat tired from the traveling went to bed sort of early, even though the sun on that northern side of the world, in summer, takes a while to go down. It was around 11 pm and the sun was still stuck at the horizon.
The wind started blowing early in the morning but the day awaked gray, rainy and cold. Luckily around 10 am it started clearing out and the sun showed itself still a bit shy. Having had a delightful breakfast prepared by mr. Keith; composed of two eggs, several slices of bacon, toast, butter, mermelaid, orange juice and coffee, spiced up with an interesting morning conversation about living out side of the matrix, doing yoga, the solitary wolfs path and the philosophical origins and beliefs for both not to be vaxed, gave me all the energy and good vibes needed to go out and ride one of his bicycles towards the kite spot.
The wind was blowing strong, for what I could feel and observe on the sea, calculated around 20-25 knts, just perfect for the size of kite I had with me. Since I wanted to travel a bit before reaching the final teaching spot, I only took one kite and inside the kite bag, my harness and neoprene, where in traveling with boards make it just much more complicated and expensive.
After the morning rain, with the sky completely cleared out and the sun getting on its whim, everything looked shiny, fresh and windy, just as beautiful as a morning can look!
Arrived at the kite spot and there where already #kiters riding, others rigging their gear, others arriving, others chasing their kids in the beach and others taking pictures with professional cameras. Went straight to prepare the gear and then rubbed my self inside the #Manera comfy wet suit.
The wind was blowing now from 25 to 30 knts, which simply means: Caaguaabaangaa, this #mexican #bandit is gonna #fly!
Managed to nail a powered up session of 3.5 hrs non stop and shared with my new pal Grant, owner of Kitesurf Scotland some cool jumps and tricks.
When these kind of sweet conditions meet in a spot, it happens to become what can be called an epic session and that’s when you see everybody shredding in the water meanwhile others on the beach, try to find a refugee from the flying sand which at that speed can be like little acupuncture needles on the skin.
Also when sunny and windy days appear in this coast town of Scotland, local photographers come out and get some shots which later on are shared for free, so if you are looking for a free photo shoot, this is the place to be. I just felt blessed for such a kiter reception by the Scottish wind.
Next day I felt little energy in the body. I thought it was perhaps dehydration from the previous kiter marathon plus the jet lag. The day after I took the train to Edinburgh with still very little energy on the body. I wondered what the heck...
The same forever green scenarios along the way where observed until the capital city of #Edinburgh was reached.
Edinburgh with its unique authentic medieval architecture at the old town, really threw me back in time.
Once you are out of the train and walking in the streets you can observe a much more cosmopolitan and fancy city than Glasgow, with a strong clash of modern and medieval architecture. It is also interesting to observe collectively the bodies and stereotypes of certain region of the world and their differences with their neighbors for instance. Edinburgh immediately showed itself as a city where people do care more for esthetics and looks. It shelters around 520,000 humans and in a sunny summer like this, the amount should rise up drastically, because of the amount of tourism that a beautiful city like this attracts. The streets of the old town where quite filled.
I was walking towards the lodge carrying my bags by the Lawnmarket street, that goes all the way up to the castle. Stopping every few steps to regain energy and take some time observing with detail the classic architecture with its intrincated decorations of carved stone which show a nostalgia of the old times merged with the modern functional architecture on the outer ring of the city.
Walking up the same street, suddenly a soft but sharp sound appeared floating in the air. A specific sound that comes from an air instrument, which happens to be the insignia instrument of this culture and land.
The sound of the bagpipe floating and bumping into the old building walls, found itself clearly inside both of my ears and in automatic reaction to this sudden hypnosis, made me walk like a sound zombie in search of the fountain of that beautiful nostalgic sound. Met two pipers on the way and stopped to listen for a while those sort of sharp frequencies made from that specific instrument letting it carry me like in a cloud of sound to other times, much older times. The bagpipe dates before the 1700s.
Finally, after a stroll through the old town, found the cozy studio booked for the night, just downhill from the castle, in a grayish and fresh 17oC summer day. Having burned all of the little energy I had, walking and carrying my bags, in the steep streets of Edinburghs old town, the cozy bed called me with desperation, so took a shower and then a nap hoping to get some energy back for the afternoon and be able to go walking and wandering around the majestic one of a kind downtown. Managed to get out of the warm and comfortable bed for an afternoon quick stroll. The temperature dropped down a couple of degrees and by 9 pm every restaurant had no more service; "Apologies, we have to close a this time by governments law" they all said to me. So had to skip dinner that day, by governments law, which didn´t mean much deal, since I hadn't much appetite. That night, back at the studio, I felt like getting a strong flu and got nervous about it, I had the flight to Dublin booked for the next day.
To be in such a beautiful medieval town constructed all with carved bricks, with small passages of stairs crossing in between streets where finding a hidden pub full of people enjoying a good old pint was found; but with the body feeling now like shit was a strange contrast, one that reminded me about the naive vulnerability of our bodies and the never ending contrasts that this life gives.
Next day I waked up and decided to move on and take the plane to Dublin, Ireland, since the fella from Hooked Kitesurfing in Duncannon town was expecting me to arrive.
When arrived in Dublin, took the airports shuttle in to town.
It’s modern looks also merged with the older ones and having a river going around the city and into, the royal canal, plus the huge Guinness factory showing itself proud just by the Polka River, close to the cities center and hosting around 2 million people, you can tell Dublin has being an important commercial and naval place of the northern Europe.
Found Dublin quite expensive, more than Edinburgh for instance and honestly for my personal eyes not as exquisite looking as the capital of Scotland, but still with its own magic and deep Irish & Celtic essence.
Stayed in a hostel of 12 bed mixed room for 85 dl de night and this is as expensive as I have paid for a hostel. Airbnbs and hotel rooms where around +200 eu the night. I couldn’t believed it.
The day after I moved early to a small coast town called Wexford, in order to get closer to the final spot and that’s where all hell came upon me…
Fever, the shakes, diarrhea and zero energy in the body. Luckily I found a nice room with a big bed, a seducing shower for us lovers of a good shower and a spacious bathroom with an uninteresting view to the roofs of the neighbor buildings, in a hotel placed on top of a famous bar called the Crown bar, for 100 eu the night.
That night couldn’t sleep at all, strong fever, sweating, shaking, no appetite, stomach issued, etc, etc.
Such a strange feeling that one of having an external and unknown microscopical entity in your blood, in your cells, in your body, in your head. It felt like having lead in the blood stream, like hosting a metallic, synthetic and heavy element that was just repugnant for my system.
A shitty situation was then confirmed by my body. I now had all the clear symptoms of covid.
It was the first time I got it, after two years of the virus doing its thing around the world and it got me in an uncomfortable moment: traveling in an expensive country.
Next day went to get a test and indeed came out positive.
So had to prolong the stay in the small coast town of Wexford, physically alone and very far away from home.
Spent a lot of time at the hotel room, eating loads of mashed garlic with bee honey, since this is one of the most powerful natural antibiotics that can be reached easily and people know little about its powers when taken raw.
Well as it happens from time to time to all of us, now it was fully clear that the time for putting up with shit came to me.
Besides smelling like garlic all day and watching Clint Eastwood's old wild west movies, since there was nothing else interesting on that tv to watch, I went walking once a day to the big and long jetty where there was no people around with the objective of moving the skeleton and breathing deep for oxygenating as best as possible the body and mind. In the mean time, I inherited a lot of time for thinking, feeling the virus inside sucking your energy and attitude down while being stuck lonely somewhere completely unfamiliar.
It’s interesting what happens in the self when you are knocked down by some external force that makes you feel sad, without energy, uncomfortable, observing how sudden depressive brain work-thoughts happen. It’s interesting what happens when you are brought out of the comfort zone into the uncomfortable zone. Random situations that for more than you do yoga, meditate, eat well and try to be the best human possible, they will appear in your door from time to time and won't ask permission for coming in, they will simply charge in. Situations that where originated from our human designed system that have its own flaws, its mistakes, its positive and negative intentions. So when this random system errors-fails occur to you, they will simply take you out of the comfort zone, which normally moves you from the positive polarity to the negative one, from the joy to the suffering one, from the healthiness to the illness. And that's when you have to decide how far down you are gonna let the shitty situation take you, having no other option but initiating the extra inner work and effort in order to bring us back in the track we like or we want to reach. "The true man is revealed in difficult times". Epictetus.
This experience showed me again that when shit happens, you just have to put up with it and be as efficient as possible to bring your self out of the stinky hole and back in to the road you where or you wanted to get.
It seems there’s always random external situations that we have to encounter in different stages and moments of our life, some natural, some synthetic, some visible, some invisible, situations that exile us for a moment on an uncomfortable and many times uncertain place and the only thing we can do is either letting the situation beat you and take you down in to crisis mode or take them by the horns, be patient, be focused and work them out from the center of that shitty place in order to transcend them. We humans tend to be quite resilient animals and evolution-revolution carried. To be aware of the force that turns on the survival mode that each one of us has inside and strongly connecting with it, will take us out of most of the shitty, dangerous situations, that randomly happen from time to time. Evoking and connecting with our Prana and the life's Prana will lead you through easy, pleasant times and so through the difficult and sacrificed times.
There where few sayings that come from very wise men which mysteriously appeared in different places where I randomly looked that resonated deep inside and helped me to keep my self clear and strong minded in the down, lonely, feeling like shit days.
“What doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger”, Nietzsche.
Inside ourselves we have the survival and thriving mode set up in our bodies or better said, our vehicles borrowed for this human journey and connecting with that mode can be very powerful, sometimes just to much, excessive attitude that has created massive egocentric conflicts and destruction between human beings, villages, countries, corporations, etc, etc. But used properly can definitely be the petrol to help the individual and collective vehicle move in search of a more comfortable, beautiful and harmonious place.
I’ve learned in this life journey that experiencing situations that bring you out of the comfort zone, accelerates the personal growth, synthesizing this life's journey in a business (work) and pleasure (joy) one and that the greatness about this process that inherently requires inner and outer work, sacrifice, is that we get to enjoy it as much as we want.
After few shitty days stuck in Wexford, managed to get rid of covid and did the final move to meet Niall at the next town called Waterford and from there drive with him to Duncannon.
The scenery from Dublin all the way to Duncannon was filled with mountains, green fields, forests, little towns anchored on top of medieval style buildings, a bunch of beautiful castles looking still quite solid after all these years standing there and some views to the Irish Sea and others to the Celtic Sea. Since I was feeling quite down, didn't have the energy and attitude for photographing much of this scenarios...
I was now with around 55% energy back in my body and having learned a bit more about resilience, patience, courage and will in my quiet, lonely, feeling like shit time, yet still felt my self in a very introspective stage, when meeting Niall. Did an effort to be cool and enthusiastic.
Not only I learned about those important human values and the needed attitude to survive and thrive from an uncomfortable situation, but also about some kite wave spots that the southern coast of Ireland offers!
And observing those beautiful green fields and cliffs cutting down straight into the sea, I felt a sparkle of excitement lighting up inside. A sparkle that couldn't feel for the past 10 days.
We arrived to #Duncannon and the fort that caught my attention on the researched web photos, didn’t hesitated in showing itself live, when arrived in to the tiny Irish coast town.
I was surprised with Nialls relaxed attitude towards me just coming out from covid. I had a large bag of chips with me and we both finished them on the way to his place. It seemed to me he didn't worried much with the virus and not worried much in general, perhaps one of those "stress free persons" that are lucky enough to exist in this time of the world. Will see.
He actually told me that in his wife's work there where few employees off, because they also recently got it. It seemed another much less lethal wave was incoming or already there.
He took me around the tiny town and in about five minute drive we went through all of it and noticed that there wasn't much going on.
We came straight to give a trainer kite lesson for a dad and two kids, that where hanging by the beach.
In the meantime the spot recognition was assessed. Meaning, to analyze the spot with the purpose of teaching kiteboarding there, with its respective conditions according to the wind direction, tides, geography, rules and zones.
The idea was to do some work to the kite shack of Hooked Kitesurfing which is in front of the beach, exactly in the center of Duncannon's town, in order to make it habitable for a kite instructor like me that would take care of the school, but it resulted that the shack needed more work than expected.
And exactly in these days a high pressure system came in form of a heat wave, shutting down completely the wind for the next 10-15 days on the forecast.
These days where as sunny as it can get, quite warm and strong the sun felt tanning up all of those pink, pale and reddish Irish bodies. Everybody was on the beach with their families and I was impressed of the strong family essence witnessed on that town and side of the world. Full of kids and couples of all ages enjoying the sunny day of 24 oC with the cold water of 14oC at Duncannon bay.
I actually heard the sarcastic-but-could-be-right comment that Ireland and Northern Europe such as England and Scandinavia, where going to be quite requested by southerner europeans, in the upcoming years, while the earth’s temperature keeps rising, they said, the northern countries of the old continent would be the new southern countries, offering in the upcoming years a close to perfect summer weather.
What goes up, must come down. Isaac Newton.
The ones behind shall be in front. Prepare for Moctezuma's revenge...
There was nothing to do in the tiny town of around 400 people but arranging the mess in the shack and do some handy work for trying to make it habitable which for this task an Irish carpenter and well equipped handyman came to help, exchanging a couple of days of his work for a discount on the purchase of an used 8m kite from the school.
He is a 41 year old single Irish dude that has just learned to kite and now he needed a smaller kite for those strong windy days. Christopher was very handy indeed, he brought a bunch of machines for carpenter works and a welding machine. And in a couple of days of our energy, attention and Chris's handiness, that messy shack looked as a proper kite shack.
Chris lived in the mountain side of Ireland, around 5 hours drive from Duncannon, in Cork county and showed me some beautiful photos of that side's coastline making me wish for a cozy and spacey van with a beautiful female partner to go explore and wonder around those majestic scenarios meanwhile chasing the wind and waves.
When I told him my recent story with the virus and how shitty I felt for most probably spreading it to someone while I had to be on the move, he told me that when the first covid's lockdown happened in 2020, there where actually pubs in the mountains that didn't close, because they didn't care and since the police didn't normally reached those out of range villages, they just kept opened letting the local community gather in the pub as they always have done.
He also told me that when he got it in 2021, he had to keep working because really needed to pull out the job he was on to, in order to survive the locking and economical freezing as a freelancer carpenter and handyman he is.
Hearing this and observing his relaxed attitude about the virus, same as Nialls, helped me realize that there actually are other sides of the world, where people don't care or not give much attention to this kind of shitty panicking controlling propaganda and not only in few bubbles of people I know.
In the meantime, the volunteer work on the shack kept me somehow doing something useful and also had me trying to decodify Christians Irish tongue, while feeling inside trapped in a far away town where there was nothing going on for me.
So around a week passed by without any wind whatsoever, not even for a foil session and having to put up with sleeping on a noisy and stinky room with a toilet that didn't flushed and a shower that didn't worked well, plus no groceries store nearby, plus no other kite school or kiters to hang out with, put me again in a uncomfortable place that needed to be efficiently transformed. The eternal polaric contrasts that the path to the promised land carries.
"If you want rainbow, you have to deal with rain". Augustus.
We are living in a time frame of human life with no precedents, sharing a hyper globalized world where back in time the humans seem to be more territorial than these days where you take a plane and in few hours, you are in the other side of the globe in a sense that we are surrounded of parallel realities which thanks to the technology of these days, those realities are quite accessible and reachable. Making the process of the own reality creation easier but maybe trickier than before. So its my belief and the one of many other human siblings, that if you are experiencing a reality that is uncomfortable, shitty or simply not your thing, being humble enough is perhaps the main key to open up and receive the learnings that each situation carries, with the sole purpose of becoming tools for us to grow and then just move and do whatever you need to do in order to metaphysically and physically build the new reality, the searched one, the one you like and fulfills your present in most of the ways. Focusing the attention in the intentions, meaning visualizing it plus taking concrete and constant action will take you there. The devoted practice will normally lead you to the #promisedland at the right time.
So following the need of changing my reality at this moment of my summer of 2022, found my self again in the search of much better conditions for thy being in order to do what thy being loves to do which is teach kitesurfing and have a good & balanced time in a beautiful natural place.
Contacted again Mateo from Liberan Surf School in Croatia and told him that I was already in the UK and there where direct flights from London to Split Croatia. To which he answered: Alex, you called exactly in the right time! An instructor is gonna leave by the end of the month so you can take his place and if you come earlier it’s fine, we have work for you and a place to stay in the camp.
And suddenly then, the unknown question of where to next was answered, as the light showed itself by the end of the dark tunnel.
Had few Guinness pints on the towns pub which was underneath my room and the Mexican brown bean said farewell to the reddish Irish lads.
Back to Dublin's airport and from there to London. A city where I still haven’t
being before. Luckily two good old friends where there and sounded happy of hanging out with me in the English capital city.
In Edinburgh and #London, specially in London, there was a massive amount of tourists like me, from everywhere in the world, walking in the streets, enjoying and taking advantage of these beautiful, sunny and hot days, that the heat wave gifted to the norther countries of Europe and in contrast again, punished to the southern ones with wild fires.
Walking those days through the south bank, just next to the Thames river, so crowded of people, I couldn’t help thinking that in few years, people where going to fall down like rebel sardines squeezing out of the can and back in to the river. Besides my traffic terror very short in the future movie, I also observed the majestic, ultra refined architecture of the #Parliament while enjoying deeply the wandering around the cliché places such as #ChinaTown, the Soho, the Borough Market and the subculture they represent inside the great city of London.
Met a Mexican friend, that haven’t seeing for years, taking me on a fun and complete stroll around the city where she’s being living for the past 12 years, where she happened to explode her professional hairstylist career, become a mother of two beautiful kids and a partner of an interesting English fella.
She took me to the #TateContemporary museum and we had a visual blast for a couple of hours and then kept strolling and observing the city with micro pixel view thanks to all kind of the thc oils and electric pens she carried for this special occasion, besides enjoying the folklore of our Mexican language and the familiarity of being with a friend that you know since around 20 years ago.
Suddenly right then, enjoying deeply the flow of the super sunny day, being a passing through Mexican in London, with a beautiful company and tour guide, observing how the thc oils gave me some extra sensibility and also clearly reducing the level of stress to which my self faced for the past two weeks or so; having worked for years and will keep on working till the state of "stress free being" is completely reached; I felt that the shitty days where coming to an end.
We ate delicious marine food at a restaurant in the Soho district and by 6-7 pm she had to go back home to her kids, so I walked back to the centric hostel which I wished, I wouldn't have booked in advance, but in the other hand, it resulted very convenient for transporting my self by feet the whole time in the central zone of the great English capital cit. Contrasts...
Next day I met another friend, but this time and English lad, that met back in my home spot, Puerto Morelos some 9 years ago. He’s a programmer and music composer, one of the most sensible dudes I've met. His mind is sharp and is always searching for spiritual growth. He was also a magnificent collaborator of the previous project that I work on, which was the online portal of Ideal Edenic.
We went around downtown for a stroll too and got inside the Institute of Contemporary arts, which happened to be another massively beautiful museum full of art from all times.
After these two beautiful encounters and strolls in sunny, majestic, full of tourists London, the energy of the trip started to shift more in a positive and expanded way. Also the energy on my body started feeling refilled and the time to move and fly out of England came.
In search of the place to live, learn, teach, ride, enjoy and share the vibes of my last summer of the 30's decade. In search of the promised land.
Thank you #England and #Ireland for your beautiful green prairies , old and modern scenarios, warm hospitality from the hosts and your sort of harsh, random but strengthening learnings.
Will come back one day for a kite road trip through Ireland and the UK.
Mexican #bandit rides with the Scottish lads.
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