In 1996 I finished 8th grade at Fallston Middle school and my 3rd year of Spanish instruction. My Spanish teacher organized a trip to Spain for fourteen students, and for whatever reason this idea took root in my brain. I hadn’t really ever thought about foreign travel before, though I was certainly well aware that far-off places existed. I must have brought home a brochure or flier and sufficient enthusiasm that my parents thought it was an opportunity to be examined. They made it happen as a Christmas (1995) present.
These are some of the very first pictures I remember taking and while some are passable, I estimate a lot are very unremarkable. But for me they evoke favorable memories and feelings. Pictures like this call to mind the idea that photographs are the lasting fragments from younger versions of yourself which no longer exist, and represent what that person thought was interesting, beautiful, or just neat.
Saying goodbye to my parents at BWI airport. I guess technically my Dad took two of these. We took a smaller plane to New York and transferred to a trans-Atlantic flight. I remember walking across the runway from the small plane.
It was certainly the largest plane and longest flight I had ever taken. But we were all jittery with excitement; I’m not sure how much sleep any of us got. And so our curtain rises in a new country:
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Barcelona, Spain
We arrived in Barcelona and were taken to… somewhere in the City. I only recently located Carrer de Saragossa in the north-west as our insertion point. The bus couldn’t or wouldn’t drop us off any closer to the hotel, so we walked with our bags a couple blocks maybe to our first home-away in Spain.…
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Palma de Majorca, Spain
Now we’re on vacation! The second destination on my 8th grade Spanish class trip to Spain. Palma de Majorca is a European vacation destination and it really shone. The crystal clear waters and beautiful scenery were lasting impressions. After transiting through the night aboard a ferry, we arrived and were shuttled to our hotel, the…
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Madrid, Spain
My visit to Madrid was, quite frankly, inadequate. We flew in from Palma and after getting settled into the hotel for a bit, we learned that our teacher (and group leader) was ill and unable to guide us for the day. There was quite a lot of consternation between 8th graders about leaving her behind…