Hola peeps! Sooo....as I write this, I am sitting in a tiny hotel room in the middle of Barcelona when I should be in the land of tulips and windmills. But we'll get to that in a moment.
First of all, Spain is amazing! It's a very clean and beautiful country and although I've only seen the cities, I am already in love with this place. Good food + good drink + lots to do and look at + great weather = pretty awesome. It doesn't seem like anyone does any work here. Men in suits are a rarity! So I flew to Madrid from Mombasa, via Nairobi and Cairo and all went smoothly. Took the metro from the airport and met up with Liz at the hotel which was worlds away from what I'd had in Africa...hot shower with disco lights, free coffee & bottled water, clean white bed sheets with no mosquito nets and a flat screen TV! I felt very spoilt. That night (Sunday) we met up with my Spanish friend Alberto, who I had studied with in the NL back in 2007. He showed us around Madrid and took us to all the good Sangria places. Liz and I did the typical Australian thing of eating dinner at a "normal" hour (ie around 7pm), but then later regretted it when we found out that most places give you free snacks while you're drinking there, plus we were given more free food by a guy Alberto knows who runs a little bar. I practically had to be rolled home. I was wrecked from my previous night of triple flights, so we called it a night around 2am...which is pretty early for Spanish standards!
Madrid is a great city and possibly my favourite so far. We had a good wander around, ate, perused, went in a row boat, took photos and then headed to Valenica on a bus for La Tomatina 2011! Arrived in Valencia to discover it was not the sleepy little beach town we were expecting, but rather a large city. Checked into our 'tour' hotel and had a wander around New Town where the aquarium and a bunch of weird looking buildings are...we think they're different types of museums! They're surrounded by massive swimming pools that you're not supposed to swim in. How silly. I waded through one and got told off by a policeman on a scooter. Went out that night to a part organised by our tour company around the harbour and met a fellow Aussie, Paige, who was travelling solo. She's 31 from Perth and very chilled out, so we made friends and had dinner together along the water at an Italian restaurant where I had one of the best pizzas I've had in ages. Mmmmmm, food memories. Went to the club/bar where the party was at and chatted to random drunk middle-aged men from the UK and danced with other Aussies before calling it a night early so we could be in bed by midnight. Grannies.
So La Tomatina was the next day and we had to leave the hotel by 7am - ouch. Arrived in Bunol about 45 mins later, dressed in our ever-so-attractive gear for the world's biggest food fight! Managed to squeeze into the fast-growing crowds to get a quick view of the ham (google it!), before making our way further back to avoid being crushed to death once the tomato-throwing began. Found a spot along the street where people were starting a water fight and eventually got sprayed by a local man with a hose! Ah well. Decided to go further up the street, away from the ham and the crazy people. Eventually the trucks arrived at our end, so we got the first taste of tomatoes...literally! At first, they just drop armfuls of whole Roma tomatoes on your head, but after a few minutes, it basically looks like someone tipped several hundred litres of pasta sauce onto the road! Tomatoes are quite acidic and not fun to get in your eyes, but the whole experience was hilarious and we had probably the best position - lots of tomatoes but not too many people! We were talking to people later on who were near the ham and they said they were so packed into the crowd that they couldn't even bend down to pick up the tomatoes or throw them! Glad we went further back where we had plenty of elbow room and an array of human targets on the opposite side of the road...will hopefully have some pics when Liz gets the photos from our disposable waterproof cameras developed!
The rest of Valenica was just hanging out, looking around town, meeting up a friend of Liz's from back home and generally just being tourists. We headed to Barcelona from there by bus, and at some point along the way, my passport disappeared. Fantastic. Called the bus company but they didn't find it. Lodged a report with the police and looked up the details for the Australian embassy in Barcelona, only to find the person was on holidays for 4 weeks and it would reopen on Monday. I had hoped the passport would turn up before it came to that, but I was not so lucky. Barcelona is a huuuuuuuuuuuuge city brimming with things to see and do, so I guess it's not all bad that I'm stuck here until Thursday, but still, I was supposed to be in Eindhoven by now! Some of the stuff we did here was: visit some famous Gaudi buildings, eat amazingly well (as in delicious, not healthy!), drink cheap mojitos, get lost in little side alleys full of cool stuff, walk along the harbour, swim in the Mediterranean Sea, hire a talking 'go-car' with gps and talking tour guide (scary driving on the wrong side in a massive city!), eat ice-cream, look at random buildings and walk and walk and walk and walk. Phew!
Liz left for Copenhagen yesterday morning, so I went and swam at the beach and sunbaked before wandering around town and stumbling upon a free concert in front of the cathedral that had traditional dances from countries all over the world, complete with live music - very cool! Today I went to the consulate to apply for my emergency passport and met a bunch of fellow Aussies in the same boat! We swapped stories of missing passports and I have to say I'm very glad it's the only thing I'm missing! There was a couple there who had had everything taken - bags, money, clothes, cameras, wallet, cards, ID etc. That would suck SO bad. At least I still have my credit cards and driver's licence etc. They have to send them to Madrid for processing, which takes 2 days, then they send them back. Which means I'm here in Barcelona until Thursday! Not the best situation, but I guess it's not the worst either! I've checked into a cheap hotel near the city centre cause I couldn't handle staying three more nights in a hostel with no space of my own other than my bed! So this shoebox room is my home for a couple of nights and I guess I will get to see a bit more of the city this week. Lucky there's lots to do, eh?
Anyways, I'm dying of dehydration, so I'm off to the nearest supermarket...or supermercat as they're called here. Thanks for reading and I'll let you know when I'm off to the next destination! Ciao,
Lou :)
No comments:
Post a Comment