Good Vibes Only!

My friend Steph and I often talk about ‘vibes’. She came back from Bali a few years ago reporting on a bar that she believed to be my vibe. I very snappily responded ‘What are you talking about? I don’t have a vibe’. Well a few weeks later I went to Bali, and went to the same bar and discovered she was right. She had found my vibe - beach views, palm trees and pineapples. It was a lovely experience not only cos I love palm trees and pineapples AND bars, but also because it made me feel incredibly grateful to have friends who sometimes know me better than I know myself. 

I have been wondering if my vibe is changing though. Perhaps instead of a palm prints and cocktails vibe, I am more of a hiking a cliff top at dawn to watch the sunrise type of girl. 

Then Tuesday happened and I’m back to wondering about my vibe. On Tuesday we had a rough night. We stayed in a tiny alburgue that was totally my vibe. It sits on a cliff top looking out over this amazing rugged beach. The sun shines as pilgrims drink beers on concrete benches. It was magic! 

But as the evening dragged on and the bunks started to fill up with more people, and more and more, I thought to myself where will all these people sleep? and still they kept coming. 

I’m going to be honest here, it was a fucking zoo! Included in this zoo was a family of 8, about 5 lost cyclists and the most adorable Spanish autistic boy who constantly walked back and forth across the room alphabetically naming animals in perfect English. A is for alligator! - humans have been known to escape alligators. V is for vulture - vultures eat meat, Z is for zebra - like a horse but with stripes etc etc! Mum and I were enthralled by him, we liked him a lot. 

But after a night of lights being switched on and off, people going in and out of the doors right next to our beds, loud Spanish men drinking beers and shouting at each other, Austrians and Germans kissing in the corner, I no longer felt the good vibes! In fact I felt very bad vibes!

At 6.30am we’d had enough so we set off into a forest in the pitch black, with only our phones for light. We walked 13km to the next town and checked into The Parador. Maybe this is my vibe?

We have towels bigger than our bodies, our bathroom is the same size as the room we shared with the 20 or so people on Tuesday. We even have a terrace with ocean views! We feel like total princesses. Clean, glamorous, relaxed. Very good vibes! So much so we decided to treat ourselves to an additional night here. 

But when we woke up this morning, we wanted to walk, we don’t know what to do. Should we wash our hair again? Just for fun? Its 9.30am and we would normally be sitting down for our first coffee in the fourth town we walked through. I don’t even want to look in the shops. 

So now I’m sure, my vibe is not princess doll anymore. I’m an adventure loving nature baby! Yup that’s the new me! That’s my vibe - but maybe I could keep the towels.