PEOPLE 2 of 4 JOHN'S REFLECTIONS OF THE TRIP.

PEOPLE

In any trip it's always the people you meet that stick in your memory, because people are generally interesting in thier own way. On this trip there were so many people that I will remember.

On the guided tour I met an American named Sam, who had been a pilot all his life. Sam was a constant source of wonder and admiration to me as he could tell at any given time which direction we were heading in, or should be heading in, and roughly how long it would take to get there, all with no navigational aids at all. 

To someone like me, who has absolutely no sense of direction, this was something akin to a God given gift of black magic. Jurgan was another person I met and whose company I enjoyed. Although German, Jurgen had lved in  Melbourne for so long, that he had picked up the Aussie sense of humour with a touch of the larriken. You might say he was a bit of a character. 

Some of the most important people on our trip were the guides.  Our Insight Tour guide Tim, always 

seemed just as enthusiastic about seeing places as if it were his first time, instead of who knows how many. 

There were all the other guides, especially the walking tour guides who were both knowledgeable and delighted to share their knowledge with us. They ranged from Nigel, old school British military, to Beatrice, our guide in Seville. 

A young lady full of confidence who seemed to use her job as perhaps the way of meeting the man in her life! "People call me Honey Bee because I am so sweet, but I don't care what you call me!"

                                    

It was worth doing all the walking just to hear her tell the story of Carmen, the opera character in the opera set in Seville, told in the Spanish way with a thick Spanish accent.

"Carmen was a beautiful woman, like me. Spanish, long black hair, beautiful big brown eyes, and her lover said to her he would follow her wherever she went. ... I don't have a boy friend so I just stay home nights."

"And after all the years, he sees Carmen again. He is so angry that he kills her ... Knife ... Stab ... Dead."

And while we are on the subject of Carmen's there was Carmen the waitress in our hotel breakfast room who seemed just as firey as her opera namesake. With her almost non existent English, and my dodgy Spanish we got along really well! In "chatting " with Carmen, I learnt that tryng to speak in the other person's native language is sometimes not a good idea. Carmen always insisted that I forget standard Spanish which she seemed to regard as an inferior language, and learn to speak "correctly" with an Andalucian accent.

"No No, in Andalu(cain) habla (you say) benty say," Buenos dias, no. Andalu Bwen D" However, Julie and I got a hug and a smile when we left. 

While we are on the subject of languages in future I might just stick to English. In France, they thought I was French if I really tried hard. In Italy when I spoke Italian they thought I was English, and when I spoke Spanish, the Spanish thought I was Italian!

However on this trip, as in life, the most impotant people are family, and friends of family. It was nice to say hello to Ruth again after such a long time, and It was delightful to meet Staurt at last after hearing so much about him (all good). 

On the trip we met many lonely people. It goes without saying (but  I'll say it anyway) that the trip would not have been much more than a pleasant jaunt had I not had the company of Julie. Without her the trip (as in life) would not have been so enjoyable and fulfilling.