I Love You Leo A. Destination Somewhere (312 pages) is the first in a trilogy of novels about a young woman, Leo, who leaves university and decides to travel around the world in 182 days. Wherever she goes, she finds graffiti that says ‘I Love You Leo A.’ The other titles in the trilogy are I Love You Leo A. Transit Station and I Love You Leo A. Arrivals Terminal…?

         It is 8 January 2011, and Leo sets out to travel the world in six months. Her mother accuses her of being selfish, leaving her family behind, and tells her, if she has any regrets, to catch the first flight home. She was supposed to travel with her friends Inés, Aldara and Martiño, but they let her down. Martiño arrives at the airport late, but Leo has already gone through security and is sitting on the plane. She realizes you can’t leave the voice of your conscience behind, but is determined to have this adventure.

         Leo was interested in studying journalism or audiovisual communication at university, but ended up doing a degree in business studies. Her father was the owner of an important building company and could offer her work. One day, however, she joined the university drama society and met her friends Inés, Aldara and Martiño. All of them wanted to be actors – though, to keep their parents quiet, they had chosen respectable degrees. One night on the town, the four of them swore to travel together when they finished university in three years’ time. This would give them ample opportunity to save up enough money.

         Her first night away from home is in Lisbon, where she is met by Inés’ cousin Rubén. Back in Galicia, the members of her book club agreed to recommend titles about the places she was visiting (for Lisbon, they recommended reading Fernando Pessoa) and, in return, she would tell them about the books she came across. But the first night in Lisbon is not a success. Rubén meets up with his ex-girlfriend, Leo is soaked through and, after several hours in a dive called The Black Cat, gets into bed.

         After a week, Leo realizes she has to leave Lisbon and buys a ticket to Barcelona. Rubén accompanies her everywhere and she feels she has never got to know the real city. He is annoyed that she is leaving. Leo remembers the passages from The Travels of Marco Polo her aunt Cris used to read her when she was a child. In her rucksack, she finds a copy of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities that she suspects was put there by her aunt.

         Leo remembers how her friends all came up with excuses not to go with her on the trip – one wanted to study for a Master’s, another to buy a car, the third to take advantage of a job offer. A woman on the plane to Barcelona tells Leo she must leave her problems behind before she can start to travel. In Barcelona, she finally feels her journey has begun. The youth hostel she chooses in order to save money is terrible, but she soon meets Ruth and company, a group of five Latin Americans – three girls and two boys – travelling around Europe with three dogs (one of which is called Ruth). Two of them, Andrés and Claudia, are brother and sister and come from Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, known for its violence. Together they go to squat in an apartment in the district of Raval in Barcelona run by a Senegalese, Mahmut. Edmundo is from Ushuaia in Argentina, the southernmost city in the world, and pays for his travels by maintaining a blog. Leo prefers to keep her trip private. Mayra, who is from Buenos Aires, takes them one day to find the most delicious bread rings in Barcelona, but the bakery is closed. They rest on a bench. On their way back to Raval, Andrés gingerly takes Leo’s hand. On the bench, somebody has left a message: ‘I Love You Leo A.’

         After two and a half weeks, Ruth and company decide to leave Barcelona. They have two days before their flight and agree to spend the time separately, but in Tibidabo Leo comes across Mayra and Lía, who is from Brazil, one painting a portrait of the other. On the plane, Andrés is nervous about flying and starts counting out loud. To distract him, Leo says she likes him. Andrés realizes this and calls her an idiot, but doesn’t count for the rest of the journey. Once in Granada, while admiring the Alhambra in the evening light, the group discuss whether it’s better to visit a place having read all about it or without knowing anything beforehand. At night, in the hostel, Leo cannot sleep and begins to miss her family and Santiago. She wonders where to go next, perhaps Morocco, even though her mother insisted she shouldn’t leave Europe. Her brother, Roi, was in a wheelchair, otherwise he would have come too. Their mother wondered why she couldn’t have normal children who stayed at home.

         The next day, they make enough money busking in the street to be able to eat well and enjoy themselves in the evening. They then sign up for a course on how to make puppets. Towards the end of the course, Edmundo, Lía and Leo agree to hitchhike to Córdoba, since it’s not far away. They spend a day admiring the Great Mosque, sleep rough and then continue to Seville. Seville doesn’t grab them, they stay the night and continue to Cádiz in the company of a truck driver transporting pigs to the slaughterhouse. As they arrive, Leo thinks she sees more graffiti that says ‘I Love You Leo A.’ They agree to stay in Cádiz for three days. Edmundo wants to see all the sights; Lía is the opposite, she prefers to let the place conquer her and not the other way around. In the end, Leo has had enough of their bickering and decides to return to Granada alone. She is sitting out in the open when she again spots the same graffiti, ‘I Love You Leo A.’

         On her way to Granada, Leo visits a national park and is roped in to help with a group of school children from Málaga. She chats to her family on Skype. On the way back from an excursion, she again sees the graffiti, this time at the entrance to the visitor centre. She hitches a ride on the school bus as far as Granada. In Granada, things have changed. The group doesn’t have any money and decides to embark on the pilgrims’ road to Santiago. But this is where Leo lives! She cannot go with them. Edmundo then suggests the two of them visit Morocco. He is overweight and doesn’t want to walk so far. He will meet up with the others in Santiago. On their last night, they go out for dinner. Andrés and Leo are left behind. Leo asks Andrés why he’s been leaving messages, but Andrés claims ignorance. Andrés asks Leo why she has decided to travel for six months, Leo talks about an accident, but doesn’t want to go any further. In the end, they kiss. The next day, they part company. Edmundo and Leo arrive in Marrakesh, are fleeced by a taxi-driver and surrounded by children who take them to the hotel where they are staying. Leo hasn’t been somewhere like this for ages and is entranced by the atmosphere of the place. She discovers she has spent much less than she thought, thanks to travelling in a group and busking with the others.

         One of their hosts, Cayetana, takes them on a guided tour of the city and teaches them how to walk in the busy streets, how to deal with stallholders in the market. They are overwhelmed by the sights, smells and sounds, and Leo sends tweets to her brother so that he can experience the city with her. Cayetana leaves them and they make their own way back to the hotel. They are given three free nights in return for some publicity on Edmundo’s blog, but agree to stay longer. When Edmundo goes out one day, Leo secretly goes on to his computer and discovers that he has numerous online identities. She realizes she barely knows the person she’s travelling with. She talks to Roi on Skype, who is getting better and has managed to take a few steps without the wheelchair. She also finds out about the revolutions taking place in Tunisia and Egypt, but her hosts are only interested in their business.

         Edmundo and Leo visit the square Jemaa el-Fna and are speechless before its beauty. But what surprises Leo most is the discovery of more graffiti in one of the cafés overlooking the square, ‘I Love You Leo A.’ She decides the time has come to leave Morocco on her own, without Edmundo. She goes for a walk and tries to ask the opinion of passers-by about the Arab revolutions, but a faceless voice tells her to watch her step and a young boy explains she can’t just go about asking such questions. When she gets back to the hotel, a large group from Valencia has arrived. They are missing a guide to go to the Atlas mountains and Leo volunteers. She accompanies the group and everything is fine until the fifth day, when one of the jeeps has a puncture. On their way back into Marrakesh at night, Leo spots more graffiti.

         Her next stop is Istanbul, where a friend of Roi’s, Iria, works at the Cervantes Institute. She invites Leo to stay for several days. At Marrakesh airport, she comes across more graffiti, which she continues to attribute to Andrés. She must change plane in Casablanca and Cairo, where she has a stopover of more than nine hours. She decides to visit the pyramids during this time, despite the political situation. It takes her much longer than she expected to get a visa to enter the country and the traffic is terrible, but Leo manages to catch a glimpse of the pyramids before returning to the airport and boarding the plane to Istanbul. In Istanbul, Leo is bowled over by the Bosphorus, its position between Europe and Asia, and decides she cannot take any more beauty in one day and must rest. She has to allow the memories inside, her hectic visit to the pyramids, her experiences in Marrakesh, a chance to catch up with her. The next day, she visits the old city, the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Iria gives her advice about how to deal with people who try to bother her, but Leo is confident she can manage after her stay in Marrakesh. Iria explains how Turkey is caught between its past and present, its wish to preserve its traditions and at the same time form part of Europe. She has arranged for Leo to stay with one of her students, Zerdali, in return for helping the student learn Spanish. That evening, Iria and Leo have dinner by the Bosphorus. Despite initially not liking the idea of staying with someone she doesn’t know, Leo ends up feeling grateful. During the night, she cannot sleep and goes on to Iria’s computer to find an email from Andrés in which he explains that Edmundo was arrested at Marrakesh airport with a suitcase full of hashish. Edmundo insisted the hashish had been planted there by somebody else. The owners of the hotel bribed a local police officer and managed to secure his release, but Leo is tremendously relieved she parted company with him earlier.

         Leo spends the next day visiting the Basilica Cistern – where there is more graffiti, ‘I Love You Leo A.’, though this time she doesn’t notice – the Grand Bazaar and the Egyptian Bazaar or spice market. She is totally enthralled by the experience and manages to emerge from the two bazaars without buying anything except for a small bag of dried fruit. In the evening, Iria introduces her to Zerdali, in whose house she will stay for the next few days in return for Spanish classes. Zerdali is a woman in her forties who lives in a luxurious apartment overlooking the Bosphorus. Leo cannot believe her luck! She spends the next day in Zerdali’s apartment, while Zerdali is at work, reading Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul and catching up with the latest news about the Fukushima Daichii nuclear disaster. The next day, Zerdali takes her to visit Dolmabahçe Palace and in the evening Leo chats to her family on Skype. The following day, Zerdali and Leo visit the district of Eyüp with its mosque, cemetery and Pierre Loti Café. Leo is taken aback when in the cemetery Zerdali bursts into tears and explains that her mother is dangerously ill. Meanwhile, as they are leaving the cable car, Leo spots more graffiti, ‘I Love You Leo A.’ In the final chapter, it is 19 March 2011 and Leo has 111 days of her journey left when she returns to Zerdali’s apartment to find somebody waiting for her. She fails to understand whether this means her journey has just begun or reached its end. The reader isn’t told who this person is or who has been leaving her messages.

         I Love You Leo A. Destination Somewhere is an extremely rich narrative which takes the reader on a tour of Lisbon, Barcelona, Andalusia, Marrakesh and Istanbul. The reader is treated to detailed descriptions of all these places and the sights worth seeing. The author is also keen to quote from books that talk about these places as a way of enriching the experience. There is also plenty of advice about travelling, the pitfalls and advantages. The trilogy I Love You Leo A. merited the Book Brotherhood Prize in 2014.

Synopsis © Jonathan Dunne