A friend of mine makes me jealous everytime I get one of her emails, but I love getting them because they are so unique. Kristin Moon, is a writer who I met a few years back as she was working for the University of Tenn. newspaper and doing an interview of me for one of our college sites in the area. We hit it off and have been talking ever since, but she sure knows how to get me riled up.

I had started a post about her a while ago and never actually finished, but let me tell you, some people are just doing it. She is one of them. She has traveled all over the world and never stops. Has worked for Newsweek, Frommers, NY Times, MTv, among many others who I can’t receall at the moment.

I just got an email from her today and it made me insanely jealous. If I could do it all again, maybe I would have paid more attention in English class. Besides the fact that I can hardly write a coherent sentence, I’d love to be doing what she is doing. Well Maybe i”ll leave the writing to her and just take the pictures!

I have some good links of stuff she’s written and sent me so I’ll post those when I can round them up.

Below is her email:

Judging from the e-mails and facebook messages I’ve received from you guys inquiring about the book, you actually do read my e-mails. So I’ll give you a “brief” (who am I kidding, that word is not in my vocabulary) rundown of my time in Spain and thereafter…

Spain
As most of you know, I was hired by MTV and Frommer’s to work on the first edition of MTV Spain, a travel guide for students. I was one of four writers for the book (to be published in early 2007) and spent six weeks in the Aragon, Navarra and Basque Country regions, meaning I got to see Pamplona (hated it, by the way - never go there despite what Hemingway says!), Zaragoza (fun city of 700,000), San Sebastian (possibly one of my top 5 cities I’ve ever visited), Jaca (town of 15,000, as of this morning, now a candidate city for the 2014 Olympics) and Bilbao (I was in bed sick with the Spanish flu for 6 days, so I didn’t really get to experience this one).
The life of a travel writer was not exactly what I expected - definitely more work than fun, as you are literally on the clock 24/7. Even when I went out at night with locals I met, I was constantly having to write everything down - bar info, atmosphere, prices, etc. It was very frustrating at times, especially with the language and cultural barriers, and the Spanish don’t exactly understand the concept of travel guides and would be more skeptical than thankful when I wanted to write about their establishments. Yes, I do speak Spanish fortunately, but still it is often difficult to relay everything in a foreign language. I only received free hotels about half the time, so the other half I had to pay for out of my own pocket. Not so nice for me, but I recently persuaded MTV to give me an extra grand to compensate for that, so yay for my powers of persuasion and negotiation. I also had to write my 25-page thesis on Spain for my program while I was there, which I didn’t put a whole lot of effort into due to the time the book took, but still managed to sell to the Colorado Springs Gazette this week. Still not sure if this (writing travel books) is the career for me - I may just stick to magazines instead - but I did meet some amazing people, many of whom I will hopefully keep in touch with for a long time. Now, it’s crunch time for the book as I have written about 80 pages (in Word) and have another 50 or so to go before my deadline next week. Yikes, wish me luck.
Spain Highlights
*Hurling myself out of a plane at 15,000 feet to skydive over the Pyrenees on the French-Spanish border
*Cruising around Zaragoza with my Spanish friend Erica on her hot pink Vespa with her maltese Richie strapped to her backpack on the front of her (hilarious, see my pictures for a better visual)
*Driving a stickshift for only the second time ever (and alone, what was I thinking?!?) through the Spanish Pyrenees, almost dying, breaking down in a tiny town and having to spend 10 hours with the kind people at the Red Cross till someone could come help out
*Randomly meeting Brad, a fellow Tennessean(!) who oddly enough graduated from MBA like 20 years ago but has lived in Spain for the past 5. His Greek wife Jara and he were awesome, and cooked dinner for me every night, let me crash at their place, took me places, etc.
*The Guggenheim in Bilbao, awesome museum (See 007: The World is Not Enough)
*The fabulous five-star resorts I was put up in when I did swing comp rooms (addicted to free room service, will never be able to travel modestly again )
*The Newsweek dinner Scott and I attended in Bilbao (I’m still writing for them occasionally, BTW), can we say fancy-schmancy?
-Pitchers and pitchers of sangria, need I say more?

Portugal
Scott met me the last week of my work in Bilbao, we stayed an extra few days, then headed down to Portugal for a week of relaxation. Mainly I just wanted to go there as it was the only country in Western or Central Europe that I had yet to visit, but it was pure bliss. After a harsh winter in Denmark, it was great to just lay by the beach day after day. The weather was perfect, and the beaches are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. We stayed in some cute, little pensions in old ladies’ houses and were often the only people on the beach as we found the secluded spots. We headed to Lisbon for the last few days, which was also a cool city, but a little too touristy for my liking.

Now Playing & Coming Attractions
After Portugal, it was back to DK for some hard goodbyes. We had our graduation, then one last night out with everyone, before people starting going back to their respective countries one-by-one. Currently, Scott and I are the only ones left in Aarhus, as the final group headed out yesterday. We move out of our apartment on Saturday (we’ve been living together for 7 months for those of you who didn’t know), head to Copenhagen to stay with Megan (who is currently living there), then go our respective ways. He goes back to Cali on Sunday, I’ll stay with Meg a few days before meeting my good friend Jo in London on Tuesday to head to Greece for a nice two-week holiday. So the adventures don’t end quite yet! While there, we’re also going to try to hop a boat to Turkey for market day…

I’ll be back in the States on July 12…for good or not, that I do not know yet. It will be nice to be back, though, after a full 11 months gone. Going on a cruise with the fam to Belize, Mexico and Grand Caymans from July 14-24, then back to Tullahoma for a bit. The job hunt is in full swing (I’m currently just sending the res to anyone who may have openings), but I plan on staying around Tennessee until at least the end of August to catch up with friends, family and make some nearby road trips. So if you want to come visit me or let me come visit you, just say the word (Note: Me visiting you is only likely if you live within 200 miles or so )!
And if you want to see the pictures of all my travels, they’re updated for the most part. One last thing, send me some e-mail lovin’!
Love,
Kristin