Selling the bus!
This is a HUGE one. I am not going to cut it short. Neither will I attempt to include everything. If I tried to, I would never catch up with my own game of sharing daily.
This is also more day where I took no pictures. I am too absorbed in the now, in the vibration of what happens. The photo again is cheating, not from the day, but a BeReal from one of the days when we emptied the bus.
And maybe there is a beauty to it? Some of the most epic moments in life can not be documented, only felt, only remembered, only flowing on the surface, like a bubble - there for a moment before bursting, like a ripple - moving clearly but disappearing, like a rainbow - there on the sky, but in what level of reality?
Letting go of the bus is a full-circle experience for us. It is so on the level of our history.
On a cold February day almost six years ago, we bought it in Sweden. Over a beautiful summer at some friend's house, we converted it. On a clear October day, we drove it out of the country. In search of a different life. A life of adventure. Of sunshine. Of new cultures, new people, freedom to be wherever we wanted, and most importantly, be together.
A late night, while my husband and children were playing table football at a cafe in Paris, I received an invitation from Catalunia from a woman I had never met who owned an animal sanctuary. I remember the feeling in my stomach, like falling in love or being very surprised or both simultaneously. At the time, we received a lot of invitations, as I had put it out there on social media, that we were coming and would love to meet people. Way too many invitations.
This one was so right it almost was painful.
We took our time, driving from Paris, exploring the south, meeting the yellow vests demonstrants (remember them?), driving over the Pyrenees, and exploring the Dalí museum just after the border. There was a lot to do.
When we crossed the bridge to get to Mon la Bassa, there was no rail on the right side, and it seemed like a tiny bridge for a massive vehicle. and my husband said two things:
One: "Put this on the list of things I did that I did not dare do at the moment I did it."
Two: "I am not sure I will ever do it again."
The latter meaning: We can never leave.
After a few weeks, the people we met there threatened to bomb the bridge to ensure we would never leave.
We made such great friends. Laia, the owner, and the inviting person, became my friend as she walked towards me, and I felt her energy for the first time. We did not share a language except the one of being human, and it was such an interesting way to start a friendship. Sisterhood. I feel we have known each other since forever - since the stars were born! It was also a great motivator to learn to speak Spanish!
Over the five years the bus has been parked there, we have spent something like two as residents on the parking lot under the carob trees. It is too much to try to share it all in this form, so I will just say it has been our base, and we have been very grateful.
The last time we came back, in 2022, from a summer adventure, we felt the time had come to leave the bus for good and did half the work of emptying the bus. Then we went for ten months. While away, it became clear that we wanted to sell the bus; our life has to move on to other adventures in other forms, and the bus needs new friends, energy, and new dreamers with new vibes.
Coming back this year, suddenly, we realized the bus wanted to stay and sold it to the sanctuary for a fair and low price. It will retire there and spark life into a great initiative while we move on to new adventures.
We will always consider Mon la Bassa, Playa de Sant Salvador, El Vendrell, and most importantly, our friends here one of our homes, one of the most important places in our life, and it is with great honor we let go of the big red bus to this amazing project.
With love
Cecilie Conrad
Thank you for reading
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