In October of 2019, I wrote an email to a gentleman I consider to be knowledgeable about geo-political goings on in the world, asking if I’d be safe traveling to Spain in November. He replied that he thought I’d be alright. I’d purposely avoided Spain in the past because I despised bullfighting. My small one woman protest.
An amazing package deal had come my way and my nearly constant wanderlust took over, so just before Thanksgiving off I went. Madrid was noisy and exciting. I loved the Prado and other museums and squares filled with night life. Vegetarian food was hard to find, but not impossible. These folks are big meat eaters.
A day trip to the walled early Spanish capital Toledo was beautiful but disappointing because almost everything was closed during the hours I was there.
My last stop was Barcelona. Here the Catalan language could be heard. There were peaceful protests in the streets everyday and signs warning of pickpockets. One did not wear one’s purse on the outside of one’s clothes. Pickpockets were all over the Rambla, Barcelona’s long main street filled with market stalls and tourists even in the slow season of November 2019.
Both the medieval architecture and the more modern Gaudi contributions were breathtaking.
After buying varieties of turrón candy for gifts and for my own consumption, I really wanted to get something for myself to remember this trip. Finally I came upon this wonderful mask shop run by two charming elderly people. Then I saw it, a doll of Dr. Peste, the plague doctor, a famous figure in Southern Europe during the Black Plague. I knew that was what I wanted. It was not inexpensive but it was handmade and well worth the money in my opinion.
Little did I consciously know at the time, but a novel disease from China was already making a small inroad in Spain.
Fahrusha is a professional intuitive and host of “Shattered Reality Podcast.”
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