Living the Dream

I'll never forget the day I set my foot in Barcelona.
As a child I had this dream, to go to Spain and see the street Flamenco performers. I was about 14 years old, a child utterly devoted to studying, sports and languages. My parents barely managed to bring food on the table, but I remember always to be loved and having the attention a child needs from a parent. The lack of financial support never bothered me enough to compromise my drems. I went to University and started working in any place I could find a job and soon saved some money to book my ticket to Spain.
I remember setting my foot in Barcelona and believing that I could some day make any dream come true. My cousin Sofia joined me for this 2 week trip to Barcelona, Seville and Madrid. We booked an interail ticket and the journey begun. We wandered around the cities we visited, tasted the local cousin and made accuaintances with complete strangers who lived there. I had no expectations and I was open to new experiences. I was barely 19 and I thought I had it all.
I found Barcelona a multicultural center of inspiration and arts, but we wanted to see more of Spain. seville was our next destination. This town in the south west of Andalusia, where the art of flamenco started gave us the real felling of what it is like to live in Spain. We stayed in a hostel full of people from all over the world and found a real familly with the people we shared our room with.
Our flight back to Greece was from Barcelona so soon we needed to leave again and stopped in Madrid to see the capital. The impersonal interactions with people there was nothing like what we experienced in Seville, and we both knew that sightseeing was the only thing that attracted us at this time at this city.
In Madrid however, I got reobbed, they stole all my personal belongings including phone, money, ID. I was devastated and I wanted to get back home. My intuition had warned me from the first moment in this town that I would not like it. But this was a unique experience as well, and it proved to have a good outcome. I had lost all my money and at first I was scared but then our roomates offered take us to dinner, we had a lovely time, met some streets musicians and threw an impromptu live concert. It was the day I'll always remember, especially because I learnt a valuable life lesson: "Having a good time does not depend on how much money you have in your pocket".