2. /Comfort/ 
Plaza Major, Madrid

Dear Reader

I’m sure there’s been someone out there whose done the numbers and written a thesis and has a proper academic backing to prove that the level of your comfort has a direct relationship to your life learnings!

After all almost every 4th other motivational video you’ll watch today, will urge you to get out of your comfort zone! But I think as we grow older, we tend to value our comfort more. That ‘throw away the bowlines and sail away…’ on your desktop isn’t as appealing anymore as it used to be in your 20’s.

So to get out my comfort zone for this trip, I decided to stay in hostels. Something I’ve never done in my solo travels before. I’ve always insisted on staying in unshared rooms. Many reasons – mostly to do with…comfort! And the last few days before I left for this trip, I diligently went through a list of things to buy and pack and then buy some more and pack to prepare myself for the coming of this time when I’d be out of my comfort zone. I had face washes in tiny bottles (hostel-bathroom friendly stuff), in cotton buds/wipes in zip-able bags with hand handles (to carry easily), an entire pharmacy zapped into a airline approved bag and 25 pairs of underwear. This wasn’t going to be a backpacker travel trip – I had even packed 2 dresses for those Lisbon bars I was going to hop.

So imagine my mind-fuck when I get to Madrid and my bag isn’t there. Not that I didn’t anticipate it, I did. Because all my long trip connections from Fiji do get missed but not when it’s only one connection! Going through customer service was hell with 100 other people and me not speaking a word of Spanish! Nonetheless I filled out the forms etc. in quiet confidence that they’ll have it delivered by the next flight (I mean they had it delivered the next morning in Peru).

It’s been 5 days and the tracker on the website still says ‘bag untraced’. I cannot tell you what’s it been like the past few days, living in the same clothes. I can’t even have a cry-out because there’s always other people in the room! Thanks God for Suruj making me pack a pair of underwear and a spare t-shirt in my backpack just incase. I refuse to spend my euros on buying clothes – fuck I don’t even know if they have a big woman store in Madrid.

Goes to show – careful what you ask for. Boy am I out of my comfort zone or what right now.

And with that I’m hitting the streets of Madrid to seek some good old comfort (life lessons can wait) which I’ve found in big glasses of G&T and some tapas.

Life – you can never prepare for it.

Shyamni. x

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