R.I.P. Pablo. Today I had to leave behind the best travel buddy a traveler could ask for.
About 4 months ago after leaving my old travel water bottle on a beach in Portugal I spent 3 days hunting for a Spanish Bota (wine drinking vessel). I finally found Pablo hanging out the front of a store and he had my name written all over him.
If you have met me traveling through Europe you will no doubt have noticed Pablo swinging from my belt. He hardly ever left my side, even when going out drinking, rock climbing or going to the beach he was always there to quench my thirst and save me tonnes of Euros on Bottled water. He was a great conversation starter, always got weird looks, comments and mistakenly thought to contain Wine (fortunately he never had to have that vile stuff inside him).
While hiking in Meteora a few days ago the final modification I made to keep Pablo up and holding precious fluids caused him to spring a leak. I couldn’t bare to throw him away myself so instead when I left for Albania I left him behind at Lina’s house so she could deal with the burial ceremony.
In a last minute spontaneous decision adorably forgetful Lina decided to come with me to Albania for the weekend to make sure I made it though this difficult period of mourning, so I have picked up a new temporary travel buddy. She doesn’t hold fresh water like Pablo, she is still pretty useful as a translator, border crossing speed demon and a awkward taxi ride wrangler.
