With 8 days left of my trip I broke down and bought some new clothes. 10 euro velvet flats from H&M, as well as a cheap sweater dress and a black pullover.

This is terrible to say, but wearing new stuff out last night was sort of a trip. I kept looking down and thinking "why are my arms covered in this strange black material?" I guess I have just gotten so used to seeing my ONE sweater in rotation every third day that I didn't know how to react to something new. Maybe it's time to be thinking about going home . . . .

I don't know if it makes me a bad backpacker to spend a half day's budget on clothes, but I guess I don't really care. One of the downsides of the last week of tapas and free-love-for-smokers is that my clothes were all beginning to permanently smell like a smokey fryer - I could not imagine walking around in Paris, the fashion capital of my imagination, or even San Sebastian, a city out of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, looking and smelling like a casino or a KFC.

I have also realized that when you get used to having nothing, getting even really little things can change your whole outlook - that $40 worth of cheaply made clothes made my week!