Seven years of wonders, part 1
In the afternoon on the 30th of April 2017 I was sitting in car, anxious, waiting for the unknown. My mom was driving, we were both smiling, but I could see the motherly love in her eyes, with a slight worry in the mix. The car stops and I pick up my backpack from the trunk. I look at my dear mom, as our eyes water up a little and we hugged tightly, not knowing when we would meet for the next time. We waved our goodbyes, and I walked in to the terminal.
I got my backpack from my friend (thanks, you know who you are), it had seen some wear and tear, but it served the purpose. It had an astounding 50l capacity, which meant about 1,5 weeks of clothes, with about 1500€ on my bank account and that’s it. Well, I also had Pumba, but it doesn’t take much space. Anyway, there I was, at the Helsinki International Airport with a one-way ticket in my hand, which would take me to Malaga, Spain.
It was a pretty spring day with the sun smiling on the almost cloudless sky. In Finland we like to say “sää on kuin morsian”, which translates to “the weather is as beautiful as the bride on her wedding day”, so as pretty as it gets. The wait to get to on-board the plane was exciting. I had a couple of cold ones while waiting with some good tunes lifting the mood. Then after an hour wait which felt like a century I hear the call, time to hop in the tube and jump in to the unknown.
I can vividly remember the take-off, as the plain left the runaway to start the journey, my headphones started to play “On A Good Day” by Above&Beyond. I was wearing my sunglasses as always, and I can’t lie, I had tears in my eyes as I took the last glance at the city and land which I had called home for 27 years.
Rest of the flight is pretty blurry to me, I had a layover in Stockholm, but it was only like an hour which went by nicely. Then right after midnight local time, I landed in Malaga and my friend came to pick me up from the airport. In the taxi on our way to the city I had my first look at Spain at night, this place that seemed so distant, yet welcoming, was my new home for the time being. The warm air and the smell of the mediterrenean sea, I had never felt anything like that before. After about half an hour drive we get to the apartment I was about to stay in, dropped of my stuff, and as good Finns always do, we went to party.
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After three days I had my first breakdown, “what the actual fuck have I done? why am I here? why?”. It lasted for an hour or two, I went for a walk through the absolutely gorgeous old town of Malaga which calmed me down. The city was alive, full of people smiling like they had no worries of the world weighing on their shoulders. Little cafes and bars where people sat down happy, having a coffee or a glass of wine. Just genuinely happy people and that helped me mentally a lot.
At this point I think it’s good to mention, that I pretty much sold everything I had before I left, so I had nothing to go back to. This was intentional, as I knew there would be moments when I question my existence and the decision to leave. As then for the question why I wanted to go, there are couple of reasons; I had dreamt of living abroad since I was a teenager, and this was the time to leave. I had matured enough to be able to actually make it, younger me would’ve been too reckless and I would’ve ended up in situations I don’t even want to imagine. With that, I had also endured things that I wish for no-one to ever have to go through in life. There are some unimaginably evil things, and I had the misfortune of enduring some. I will not go into details, as they are not relevant for this story in itself. But leaving Finland behind at that time was necessary due to my experiences, my mental well-being was in the trash and I knew I couldn’t get it back if I stayed in Finland. Worst of it was over, but the walls were closing in as my home still felt like a prison. So once the evil was judged, I felt my time had come and that’s when I left.
The first couple of week in Spain, outside of my couple breakdowns, were pretty much just sunshine and rainbows. I was happy, full of life for the first time in a long long time. I felt free, I had landed in a place where I could smile and live without looking behind my shoulders.
On the first week I got my first lesson in life, as I was walking alone on the beach just being a happy person and a bit too open-minded. A pretty old and kinda pity looking guy comes to me to ask if I could “sign a petition”, well this was obviously a tourist scam, which I learned pretty fast. While I’m chatting with this dude without a common language, without me realizing what’s going on, he picks my pocket. We exchange a few more words and go our separate ways. About a minute later I’m trying to take snus out of my pocket, but it’s not there, “strange”, I thought. I try my other pocket where I kept my phone and wallet, and thank thy heavens they were still there, as I realized what had just happened. I was lucky, cause the pickpocket chose the side where I had nothing of real value. That was the first and last time I ever spoke or interacted with anyone on the beaches or in the cities that were coming to me asking for something.
I fell love in Malaga very fast, it’s a beautiful city with stunning scenery and golden coastlines for as far as the eyes can see. One of the coolest things was the lack of rush, people were not running everywhere. They were walking slowly, enjoying the weather and just taking it easy. That’s something we northern people should learn, just take a step slower, there will be another train or bus in a couple of minutes. No need to run and rush!
Biggest problem in Malaga was the work part, one could only really find call-center stuff, and hats off to those who do it, but I can’t do that. I speak quite a lot at times, especially when Im comfortable around people, and sometimes when Im anxious too, but I can’t do that as a job 8 hours a day. It literally sucks the soul out of my body. This and couple other reasons lead to the point in which I had decided it was time to move forward in my adventures after two months in that I had spent in Malaga.
..to be continued..
