A week to remember – Part I: “A picture worth a 200-km train ride”

It would be the second time I would see my sister Bebis in the last four years so I couldn’t just wait for her in Bologna: I went to the train station and got myself into a 200-km train ride to meet her. I guess that’s not that much in the end but, when you live long enough in Italy even just 20 km away from your home seem like a big deal! It’s easy to get just too used to Italy’s “La bella vita” way of leaving.

My sister would land in Pisa after a flight from the UK, where she’s currently living. Then, of course, she would rush towards Pisa’s Leaning Tower and would spend some time there before going north towards Padova and Venice by train. I wanted to see her the same day she’d land but people around me told me to take it easy , not to go there and waste two hours in a train and money just to get to the city and be there for a couple of hours. It was not worthy. I sadly recognize that I gave this a thought.

Too good I didn’t listen to them in the end! I took the train (two trains, actually), met my sister and her friends and, although the whole afternoon ended up in no time, we had so much fun together before we got to the train to Padova! We walked the city’s streets, ate together (sorry, at a McDonald’s, they were starving and didn't want to wait: hamburgers and a bottle of Bolognese wine I brought…); we spend some time admiring the city’s famous tower and took so many pictures! She’s my sister, and it was just too good to se her again!

Only God knows if there will ever be another time in which the two of us will have the chance to be right there at that wonderful place. This is my favourite picture from that day, taken as we were approaching the tower and saw it for the first time. Gee, we were excited! I clearly remember stopping my walk and looking at it. I was some meters away from Bebis and saw the tower before she did. I called her and she saw 5t t66, standing right next to me. We hug with some big smiles in our face and ask the guys to take this picture. What a wonderful moment it was! Every time I see this picture I tell myself that it was definitively worthy, that it would be worthy spending more hours and much more money in reaching her or anyone in my family, even if it is for sharing just a few hours.

We could spend just a week together. At this time of the year I have to work a lot and so does she, so we couldn’t have that much time for the two of us, just a five-day vacation. Anyway in those few days we had so much fun, talked, and travelled to places I have never been to, even after being in Italy for seven years! I feel embarrassed about this. I think I have forgotten so much of my Colombian soul and tend to forget one basic principle of martial arts: “there’s just one thing that truly exists: THIS MOMENT.” All this time I haven’t been to many places, I have always found a good excuse not to travel and not to do many other things I was meant to do years ago. This is terrible but, thank God, Bebis came here to make me notice this big mistake, and to remind me that life must be lived with as much intensity as possible, that we, the “Guzman De La Hoz Family”, are one family of “no-complainers”. “No-complaining” and “Always Moving Forward”, always, trying to be better, trying to learn something every single day: these are the lessons we’ve learned from our parents, I’d better keep them in my mind and soul, and behave and live coherently with these teachings.

In just a few days we managed to spend some time in Maranello (Ferrari’s hometown!!), Modena, Padova, Venice, and a place at the seaside named Sottomarina. She even went to Prato, Florence and Rome, and planned to spend another couple of days in Madrid and Barcelona, even if it meant to, basically, sleep on trains and buses while reaching those places; long hours to reach a place and enjoy it for just a little bit of time, and take some pictures of it all. As many as possible! A very “Zen” thing, after all, isn’t that what I do all the time at the dojo? Train hard for hours and hours so that I can do well one single kick or punch, just one! My sweet sister Bebis is amazing and it seems nothing can stop her! I wish I could see her more often… I hope to see her again the soonest possible.