Change
Things change.
We have always made a point to re-visit the people we miss in places where we’ve lived. And part of the returning to those places is seeing how much it has changed.
For PKP’s birthday trip we travelled to Barcelona. I saw the changes in the city through his eyes. He lived in the Catalan capital for about a year. It was a bustling city then. Now the traffic includes buses using natural gas, plus electric bikes and scooters. He says that the city seems more stylish and modern than he remembered it. Catalan flags fly high across the city, a shared pride in this unique region. Together we visited Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s immense and impressive Basilica. Gaudi was a genius architect, with an extraordinary vision. The structure has continued to change, over the 140 years since it’s construction began. Since his last visit, PKP said that so much of Sagrada Familia has changed, looking more finished, with lots of stunning stained glass installed.
But it’s not just the places that change.
We’ve changed too. 25 years on we were not so interested in going clubbing till sunrise. We don’t play in the same way. Priorities change.
While in Barcelona, two close friends turned up at our hotel room, another surprise for PKP’s birthday. They had travelled from Madrid. We worked out that we hadn’t met in person for about 13 years. But those years just fell away. And conversations flowed.
After Barcelona, ‘birthday season’ continued at home. It was a delight to bring special friends together over a lot of food, wine, pasticerria and homemade Nocino. We hosted friends for nine days, such an interesting and international bunch. Collectively they’ve worked in many countries in the world. They are mostly people that we know from our NGO work or the years in international schools; special friendships made in Zambia, the U.A.E and Kenya.
Everyone shared an interest in travel and a passion for wine.
Five of us are friends since we were all working in Dubai, going back 16 years now. Since we all moved on, we had visited one friend in Doha a couple of times and met with another as she prepared to move to Estonia for work. Time had passed. But just like with our friends in Barcelona, old friends can pick up again where they left off, in this case over a decade ago. Our lives may have changed, taking us all to other countries and living in very different ways but nothing much had changed between us.
Some things change. Maybe true friendships never do.
© Maggie M / Mother City Time