Japan Day 6, Part 5: Nara Hostel and Dream

When staying in the cheapest hostel in Budapest, my travel companions and I noticed a sign that said, "The cheapest way to the airport is to walk." It became something of a motto for us: "The cheapest way to the Acropolis is to walk," etc. Keeping with that tradition, the cheapest way to the tourist information office is to walk. My walks in the sun earlier in the day had left me dehydrated and exhausted, but I was determined to walk nonetheless. Logistics of closing times and the shortest route between sights is a major part of travel for me. I rarely plan more than a day ahead, but I plan that day to maximize what I can see and do by going in a logical order, and I often find myself rushing to get to a location before it closes.  I managed to make it to the information office before five pm, but I shouldn't have worried since it was open until nine anyway. I received directions to a hostel and walked there, then trudged out again to go to a grocery store to buy water, trusting that hydrating myself would make the walk back easier. There was no grocery store where I was told I would find one, but I realized that the hotel kitchen had drinking water, so I trudged back still exhausted.

 I felt much better after drinking my fill, and went out to find dinner. While looking for a restaurant that appealed, I met a guy trying to sell his poetry. He talked to me about literature, which I would have appreciated if he weren't so condescending about it. He thought books could be boiled down to one word. He said he would tell me if I bought poetry. I wasn't interested in the poetry of someone who had so little appreciation for telling the whole story.

That night I had an intense and profound-seeming dream. I was talking with an ex girlfriend. Despite her (imaginary, dream-created) current boyfriend being there as well as a couple other (real) exes of hers, she greeted me with passionate kisses, between which I would answer her questions. She always asked me to define me terms, so when I mentioned love I said, "It is an emotional bond of mutual affection and attraction that makes the other person much more important and intense." (That isn't quite the definition of love that I would give, but it's not bad for being asleep, so good job Dream-Self!) As I said this last part, the ground rose to become a zen garden among cliffs. We stood on a dark stone pathway with thousand foot drops around it. Like love, the view made everything more beautiful and exhilarating, but the potential for being hurt was also much greater.