So, Barcelona is supposed to be great, right? I´m sure it is, if it didn´t look like a swimming pool right now. It´s dumping buckets. I got in this morning from Madrid, and since I stepped out of the Metro, its been raining at varying intensities. I tried walking around with my guide book to look at the sights, but trying to hold an umbrella that continues to turn inside out and a guidebook at the same time is pretty impossible.
So, three cheers for Starbucks. I sat inside for an hour and chatted with some peeps from Iceland. Now Im back at the hostel - couldnt get a couchsurfing host for tonight - drying off. I may read for a while or something, I dont know. The TV behind me has gifted me in the past half and hour with: James Blunt, Lionel Richie, and Jewel.... yeah. If the weather (or music video selection) continues like this, I think I´ll just go on to the south of France a couple of days early. I guess not every city is gonna be great. Too bad though, everyone and their dog was telling me that Barcelona was the bees knees.
Off to continue my adventure in the pages of a Hemingway classic...
Friday, May 9, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Boomerang
In the last 72 hours, I´ve been to Lisbon, Portugal and back to Madrid in Spain, where I now sit in a musky, sweaty internet cafe listening to random conversations in Spanish and the clickedy-clack of dozen of keyboards. You see, I was all on track to fly out of Portugal this morning on the plane flight that I purchased several months ago to leave at 10:10am. Well, this certain European airline decided to change my flight to 12 hours later, to leave in the evening. They leat me know about a month ago (I got the email in Liverpool), but since I´m traveling so much, I cant really keep track of every little detail. I pinned it in the back of my mind, and when the time came that it was about 3 days from the flight, now they tell me its too late to get another flight. I guess I could just be typing here "I missed my flight", but I paid for an hour here and I might as well use it all up, eh?
So, I got my money back, surprisingly, and took another overnight train back to Madrid. On Friday I take a morning train to barcelona, and get this - both train tickets combined are cheaper than the plane ticket! Bahahahhaha, take that stupid airline.
I´m so glad to be back in Spain. Portugal, while charming, had crappy weather, much like the UK. I think I saw the sun once, right before I left, of course. Portugal is kind of "old Europe" - not as develped and not as loud and brazen as say Spain or Germany (i hear). Sounds quaint, but you can spend a lot of time twiddling your thumbs in Portugal. So peace out I said, and back to big cities with all kinds of culture. Madrid is hopping right now - they are celebrating 200 years independance from Napoleon, and the celebration goes all the month of May. Im hoping to catch some Flamenco dancing tomorrow night before heading off to Barcelona.
And now, some pictures of the last three days......
First, starting with my most recent Madrid host, Mike. He´s an English professor here. Just imagine that really cool professor you had in college that made you understand or like something you had previously been uninterested in, and became a friend to you as time went on. I get to stay with that guy. Take a close look at the two pictures on the wall. Mike snapped the one of the right of a woman rushing out of a subway to kiss that guy. Then he snapped the one on the left a second later, and noticed that the guy reading the book was in both pictures, so he put them together (almost) on the wall. If you cant see it because of the glare, trust me.
Here I am on the night train to Portugal. L-R; Christian, from South America, Hiro from Tokyo, me, and another Brian, this one from Dublin. Hiro was so funny - not your typical Japanese guy. After two beers, he was slapping us all on the back like a Texas oilman and handing out his card to keep in touch. Brian was Irish, but had lived in Austrailia for a time, so every other sentence sounded either Irish or Australian. At 2am when we crossed the border, the train stopped for over a half an hour, so we all crowded out onto the platform. The bartender, Claudio (taking the picture here) had befriended us by then, so he was one of the guys at that point.
In Portugal now. First stop: a great flea market. I picked up a cool little blue army man that will be making appearances in future photographs. Here´s me testing out this bicycle.
Being riduculous, yes.
This one´s for my friend Tyler back in CA. This is the Portuguese Tyler. Even looks like him! This guy made all his own shirts and designs on his own screenprinting machine and sells them at several flea markets. I saw him at two different ones. My fav designs: The trumpet blowing butterflies on the little girl, and the flowers emerging from the machine gun. love you tyler, man. Follow your dreams, baby.
Just a beautiful little part of Portugal. Dont miss the man smoking in the window.
One of my favs from Portugal. Old men gather in parks everywhere and play cards like its the world championships everyday. They take it so serisously. About 10 seconds after I snapped this, the game was over and they all dispersed. Just in time!
You could hear this ice cream man about a quarter mile away. His motorbike sounded like a Kamakazi airplane. The pollution coming out of the back didnt let you forget it anytime soon either.
Can someone please explain this one to me?
This old woman was the third woman in five minutes to fuss over the correct way to wrap these flowers. I just stood there in the doorway and watched. I´m not sure she even saw me.
A dinner of sardines! They were soooo good. Very salty.
Here´s the coast.
Back to SPAIN! I arrived this morning on a night train - the same one from three days ago. Yes, not only the same train but it was the same bartendar that hung out with us out on the platform, the same staff and porter, and even one of the same guys from my room! And he and I had the same bed number assignments! Although last night, instead of hanging out with the guys, I spend 2 hours talking with an eldery but feisty Australian couple and their daughter-in-law. The man, who introduced himself as ¨Montgomery¨ (which I soon found out was his last name - he just liked saying that better first than ¨Frank¨), took pride in the fact that he had never worn or owned a pair of jeans or a T-shirt. Crazy. We all sat around, ate cheese and bread, and talked about everything from American politics to Japanese karaoke to how much they loved South Park. Sooo awesome. Sleeping on night trains is over rated. I wish i had a picture of them!
The celebration in Spain continues. Today I got to see a wonderful free concert outside of the Royal Palace.
These soldiers all took pretty good pleasure in making the rookie soliders they just passed (not pictured) salute every single one of them seperately. hahahaha
That´s all for now folks! Gonna go read some Hemingway now.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
El Sol en Madrid es Muy Bonita!
Hola! Yo estoy Madrid con muchos nuevos amigos. Y comida. Mmmm. Im in Spain!
First a bit more of France. I had escargoe. Um, amazing.
I passed an old woman in a red coat walking alone down this boulevard. This may be one of the ones to frame later on.
SPAIN!
So, Im writing this at the end of my time in Spain, just about to get on a night train to Portugal. It's kind of difficult to sum up these three days here...Ive felt like its been two weeks. In a good way. Everything is so rich here, and people really enjoy their lives in Madrid. My Spanish has rolled of my tongue here in Spain. I've had many conversations completely in Spanish, which really amazes me. I can't believe how much I actually know - but of course, I'm mainly conversing about food, traveling, where i live, what i like, what i do, etc. Not exactly pontificating on the meaning of life or politcal climates in Madrid. But then again, not many people do here I think. It's all pretty chill.
I spent three nights in three different places. The first was the hostel. Then from there, since the hostel was full, I went to a guys place on a moments notice. I got there at 11am, and this Spanish playboy informed me that he had just gotten home from the disco (club, haha) and that i needed to be quiet and take a nap because he had done a lot of drugs that night and needed to sleep. Haha, I'm sure I just made my family jump. Not to work though - dont forget in addition to my keen sense of judgement, im also a black belt and my Swiss Army knife has a toothpick. But in the end, he did my laundry for me while I was exploring the city, so there you go.
Then the third day and night I came over to Mike's place, an older gentleman from England who now teaches English here in Madrid (picture to follow on the next blog.) Very proper and English, he greeting me with breakfast and a refreshing conversation in English. It's been fantasic staying with Mike - many short conversation about fables, culture, and the many differences between men and women (and the art of wooing).
Now, come with me on a pictoral journey through Mardid. A few short videos await you and the end of this post...
Check out what i saw in the train station...
The first thing i did was seek out tapas, which are small plates of awesome food, usually some sort of meat, cheese, and or calamary. Or basically anything. Just grab a toothpick and eat something!
Spaniards love meat.
Sometimes a simple table in a square all to yourself is the most romantic thing.
Check out that refelction.
Yup, Im ridiculous.
A favorite people watching moment. A dad teaches his son to walk amoungst the flowers.
Here he shows his son some flowers.
Ole!
A famous tapas bar. All these bulls fought and died in the sqaure outside the restaurant. There are gory pictures on the wall of bullfighters encountering the bad end of a horn.
Check out all the people relaxing in the sun and enjoying food and drink.
Some friends from the hostel. I went up to each one of these people individually and got to know them, and then kind of brought them all together in this group. I was kind of the Kevin Bacon here (finally, haha)
Here's the common room of the hostel. Just imagine a bunch of drunk, smoking travelers from different countries watch TV, and possibly looking for a hookup. hahaha, that's traveling!
The hostel kept all there wristband keys on this huge stick, which I just thought was so cool. Hahaha. This girl was a little embarrased I think that more than one person wanted to photograph this cultural artifact.
This one needs no explanation. Im just a doofus.
Check this out: there's a projector TV inbetween subway tracks. People can catch up on current events and news by staring straight forward at this screen that just barely fits between the trains. Also a good distraction for pickpockets.
The 2nd and 3rd of May are big days in Madrid. There are even twin paintings of the same name showing their revolutiona and independance from the rule of Napoleon. This year marks the 200 year anniversary. So it was basically three days (culminating on the third) of events and fesitivals to celebrate. And I just happened to be here on these days by chance! Awesome, huh?
Check this out: they had a violinist standing next to this guy who cranked a wheel and spunt these guitars. Each one was tuned to a different key, so when spun it was sort of a Jack in the Box sound.
This was sooooo cool. They were using industrial instruments that made some sort of sounds when you hit or plucked them. Click on it for more detail. There was a symphony in the background, and in the foreground, factory type workers making music on forklifts.
It's funny what you see and remember on a trip. The first month or so of this trip I will remember many things, but one stands out: The movie 'Fools Gold'. Panned in the U.S., this movie just hit Europe. I've seen this dumb poster in three different languages now. I love it and hate it: Love it because it reminds me of something familiar, but hate it because I can't escape it. The title kind of changes to with the language. I dont have to worry about being lonely though: Wherever I go, Kate Hudson and Matthew McCaunaghy are with me.
This is part of the festivities! Children had built this huge puzzle of a famous painting next to this huge church.
I happened upon this mock wrestling match. Very Venice Beach style, but family friendly. These two guys had the crowd in the palm of their hands. They also liked to flirt with any women, which always equals good times in big crowds.
These guys were so funny. They had put the George W. Bush mask next to my one a kid at one point to illustrate that he was the villian of the wrestling match.
Life is a bit slower here in Madrid. Another favorite people watching moment.
Something with Sacramento in the title! Huzzah! It's the name of the street here. All the street signs here have drawings on them so that before the majority of the citizens were literate, people could still get around.
Selling stuff on the street here is apparently illegal, but shifty guys still try to get away with it, with one eye on the cops (which is easy because cops here wear reflecting neon yellow), and one eye on your wallet. Click the picture for a close up look to see the strings attached to all four corners of the cloth so they can pull it up and make a getaway at a moments notice.
In the evening, I happened upon these evangelists doing street evagelism in both English and Spanish. They've been here for over 20 years. Much similiar to the evangelism I did in India. This was so great!
In the evening, there was this huge fiesta in a major plaza with people suspended from cranes and inside huge hamster wheels in the sky. "Hampster Wheels in the Sky" - the next Radiohead song I assume, haha.
The crowd was worse than Disneyland on New Years. Not kidding. Ive been there. Maybe not as many strollers as Disneyland though, thank goodness.
Today I was sitting in the plaza reading, writing, and just generally people watching, and here are these old guys just chewing the fat. One of my favorite people watching moments so far. Almost as many canes as dogs in this plaza.
These stores are everywhere. They're kinda the Target of Madrid. They have everything you need, except instead of having them all under one roof, they're all spread out. So you may be shopping for clothes, but if you need toothpaste or a radio, you'd have to go to two different stores around the corner.
Madrid is very aware there are tourists, but also just very proud of their heritage. A perfect storm for scenes like this. Much like when I saw the Scotsman with bagepipes in Edinburgh by the train station.
Here's me introducing a fine, Spanish institution.
Here's a bit of the musial festivities to celebrate "3 de Mayo"!
First a bit more of France. I had escargoe. Um, amazing.
I passed an old woman in a red coat walking alone down this boulevard. This may be one of the ones to frame later on.
SPAIN!
So, Im writing this at the end of my time in Spain, just about to get on a night train to Portugal. It's kind of difficult to sum up these three days here...Ive felt like its been two weeks. In a good way. Everything is so rich here, and people really enjoy their lives in Madrid. My Spanish has rolled of my tongue here in Spain. I've had many conversations completely in Spanish, which really amazes me. I can't believe how much I actually know - but of course, I'm mainly conversing about food, traveling, where i live, what i like, what i do, etc. Not exactly pontificating on the meaning of life or politcal climates in Madrid. But then again, not many people do here I think. It's all pretty chill.
I spent three nights in three different places. The first was the hostel. Then from there, since the hostel was full, I went to a guys place on a moments notice. I got there at 11am, and this Spanish playboy informed me that he had just gotten home from the disco (club, haha) and that i needed to be quiet and take a nap because he had done a lot of drugs that night and needed to sleep. Haha, I'm sure I just made my family jump. Not to work though - dont forget in addition to my keen sense of judgement, im also a black belt and my Swiss Army knife has a toothpick. But in the end, he did my laundry for me while I was exploring the city, so there you go.
Then the third day and night I came over to Mike's place, an older gentleman from England who now teaches English here in Madrid (picture to follow on the next blog.) Very proper and English, he greeting me with breakfast and a refreshing conversation in English. It's been fantasic staying with Mike - many short conversation about fables, culture, and the many differences between men and women (and the art of wooing).
Now, come with me on a pictoral journey through Mardid. A few short videos await you and the end of this post...
Check out what i saw in the train station...
The first thing i did was seek out tapas, which are small plates of awesome food, usually some sort of meat, cheese, and or calamary. Or basically anything. Just grab a toothpick and eat something!
Spaniards love meat.
Sometimes a simple table in a square all to yourself is the most romantic thing.
Check out that refelction.
Yup, Im ridiculous.
A favorite people watching moment. A dad teaches his son to walk amoungst the flowers.
Here he shows his son some flowers.
Ole!
A famous tapas bar. All these bulls fought and died in the sqaure outside the restaurant. There are gory pictures on the wall of bullfighters encountering the bad end of a horn.
Check out all the people relaxing in the sun and enjoying food and drink.
Some friends from the hostel. I went up to each one of these people individually and got to know them, and then kind of brought them all together in this group. I was kind of the Kevin Bacon here (finally, haha)
Here's the common room of the hostel. Just imagine a bunch of drunk, smoking travelers from different countries watch TV, and possibly looking for a hookup. hahaha, that's traveling!
The hostel kept all there wristband keys on this huge stick, which I just thought was so cool. Hahaha. This girl was a little embarrased I think that more than one person wanted to photograph this cultural artifact.
This one needs no explanation. Im just a doofus.
Check this out: there's a projector TV inbetween subway tracks. People can catch up on current events and news by staring straight forward at this screen that just barely fits between the trains. Also a good distraction for pickpockets.
The 2nd and 3rd of May are big days in Madrid. There are even twin paintings of the same name showing their revolutiona and independance from the rule of Napoleon. This year marks the 200 year anniversary. So it was basically three days (culminating on the third) of events and fesitivals to celebrate. And I just happened to be here on these days by chance! Awesome, huh?
Check this out: they had a violinist standing next to this guy who cranked a wheel and spunt these guitars. Each one was tuned to a different key, so when spun it was sort of a Jack in the Box sound.
This was sooooo cool. They were using industrial instruments that made some sort of sounds when you hit or plucked them. Click on it for more detail. There was a symphony in the background, and in the foreground, factory type workers making music on forklifts.
It's funny what you see and remember on a trip. The first month or so of this trip I will remember many things, but one stands out: The movie 'Fools Gold'. Panned in the U.S., this movie just hit Europe. I've seen this dumb poster in three different languages now. I love it and hate it: Love it because it reminds me of something familiar, but hate it because I can't escape it. The title kind of changes to with the language. I dont have to worry about being lonely though: Wherever I go, Kate Hudson and Matthew McCaunaghy are with me.
This is part of the festivities! Children had built this huge puzzle of a famous painting next to this huge church.
I happened upon this mock wrestling match. Very Venice Beach style, but family friendly. These two guys had the crowd in the palm of their hands. They also liked to flirt with any women, which always equals good times in big crowds.
These guys were so funny. They had put the George W. Bush mask next to my one a kid at one point to illustrate that he was the villian of the wrestling match.
Life is a bit slower here in Madrid. Another favorite people watching moment.
Something with Sacramento in the title! Huzzah! It's the name of the street here. All the street signs here have drawings on them so that before the majority of the citizens were literate, people could still get around.
Selling stuff on the street here is apparently illegal, but shifty guys still try to get away with it, with one eye on the cops (which is easy because cops here wear reflecting neon yellow), and one eye on your wallet. Click the picture for a close up look to see the strings attached to all four corners of the cloth so they can pull it up and make a getaway at a moments notice.
In the evening, I happened upon these evangelists doing street evagelism in both English and Spanish. They've been here for over 20 years. Much similiar to the evangelism I did in India. This was so great!
In the evening, there was this huge fiesta in a major plaza with people suspended from cranes and inside huge hamster wheels in the sky. "Hampster Wheels in the Sky" - the next Radiohead song I assume, haha.
The crowd was worse than Disneyland on New Years. Not kidding. Ive been there. Maybe not as many strollers as Disneyland though, thank goodness.
Today I was sitting in the plaza reading, writing, and just generally people watching, and here are these old guys just chewing the fat. One of my favorite people watching moments so far. Almost as many canes as dogs in this plaza.
These stores are everywhere. They're kinda the Target of Madrid. They have everything you need, except instead of having them all under one roof, they're all spread out. So you may be shopping for clothes, but if you need toothpaste or a radio, you'd have to go to two different stores around the corner.
Madrid is very aware there are tourists, but also just very proud of their heritage. A perfect storm for scenes like this. Much like when I saw the Scotsman with bagepipes in Edinburgh by the train station.
Here's me introducing a fine, Spanish institution.
Here's a bit of the musial festivities to celebrate "3 de Mayo"!
Off to Portugal!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Hola, Amigos y Familia, de España!
Hey, I actually found the key on the keyboard with an ¨ñ¨! Cool. This is just a little short post to say hi to everyone from Spain, and thank you for all your comments and well wishes on my blog here. I dont have much time to write or put any pictures for Spain yet. Its a HUGE holiday here - 200 years independence from the dand French. Im at an internet cafe right now, and stayed at a hostel for the first time on the trip last night.
I´m staying with a guy tomorrow night, so if there´s time, ill put some of the amazing pictures Ive taken in Madrid thus far. All I can say is Madrid knows how to eat! Anyway, thanks again for posting everyone, it´s good to hear from you. Nice to know people are keeping up with it! I wish I could have some friends here in some of these cities, but at least you´re kind of here with me. Take care, Im off to eat dinner in about 6 different restaurants - tapas - and its 11pm!
I´m staying with a guy tomorrow night, so if there´s time, ill put some of the amazing pictures Ive taken in Madrid thus far. All I can say is Madrid knows how to eat! Anyway, thanks again for posting everyone, it´s good to hear from you. Nice to know people are keeping up with it! I wish I could have some friends here in some of these cities, but at least you´re kind of here with me. Take care, Im off to eat dinner in about 6 different restaurants - tapas - and its 11pm!
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