*a work in progress
*internet cafe in Sevilla 17:32 June 30 2004
Thursday and Friday: Cindy´s friends Lauren and Adam arrive in Barcelona to start their honeymoon, regular touristy stuff, very nice young couple, party at Leo´s apartment where we end up staying up the whole night, the walk to their cruise ship takes forever
Saturday: last minute travel plans to leave with Cindy, Leo, his brother and friend in a rented car for Granada, we listen to a super random assortment of music in the car, get a call from Laura who tells me I missed her birthday and I feel like garbage, 4 hour drive to take a detoir to Alicante, finding parking takes forever, too tired to explore the beach but there are loud fireworks going off, shwarma, watch soccer game (holland vs someone holland wins) in the room, millions of people making noise in the streets all night
Sunday: in the morning quick rush to walk the beach (water is warm), there is a castle on the hill we don´t get to see but we find a beautiful cathedral, leave around 1pm and drive 2 or 3 hours, very scenic countryside, nice mountains, random gas station stops, lucky we have airconditioning, arrive in Granada late afternoon, a search for hostals and parking, asking for directions we find out the people to be super kind but have crazy accents (only pronounce half the word), huge arabic influence, shwarma, wonderful soloist and orchetsra show in front of the cathedral and a crowd of bright handfan-waving spanish ladies, watching a futbol match (Czech vs denmark, czech 3-0) in a pub, there are free tapas with drinks!, Leo and Alvaro wrestle in the streets all the time, back to hostel after hanging out with a bartender (Vane, apribers@hotmail.com or @yahoo.es) who wrote down her new favorite spanish summer songs for me
which are:
Aventura - Obsesion
Queco - Tengo
Aldo Ranks - Mueve Mami
Ozone - Dragostea din tei (not spanish, hungarian?)
Monday: la Alhambra (old muslim fortress and “water palace” in hills overlooking Granada) is amazingly beautiful, gorgeous gardens, fantastic artistry in the buildings, the tilework is superb, did I say its amazingly beautiful yet?, internet cafe, walk around later in the day, through arab quarter with everyone, more free tapas with drinks, no air conditioning in hostel that night, Granada is a lively city
Tueday: short breakfast of cafe con leche, drive 3 hours through even more scenic countryside, antics in the car, stop at some random cafe in the middle of nowhere for jamon bocadillo, always passing by ìmpressive castles and churches, detour to Cadiz for the beach, few hours in the long stretch with very fine sand, little kids with crazy andalucian accents, continue driving to Sevilla, arrive to the city during a rolling brownout, no electricity and its 47degress celcius (110?F), drop off the stuff at hostel buen dormir which is the nicest hostel Ive ever seen, out for cold gazpacho and a short walk through this wondeful city that has a “love at first sight” feeling to it, walk through Alcazar gardens late at night because the hostel still doesnt have power (no aircon)
Wednesday: already decided Sevilla is the best city in spain (next to bcn of course), white washed everything with straw and red trim, its freaking hot again, more cold gazpacho (which is the best Ive ever had), third largest cathedral in world where Chris Colon is supposidly buried, mulsim palace converted christian Alcazar which like Alhambra is amazing beautiful, tile work out of this world, breathtaking frescoes and carvings in the walls, i took lots of pictures, its still freaking hot, tour of the bullfighting rink is rad, Cindy charged at me
its too hot to do anything except sit here and type, we might go to a Flamenco show tonight, Holland plays Portugal at 9pm, might stay another day and ditch the other guys take trains the rest of the way, Cordoba?, Madrid?, Salamanca?, no plans, try to be back in BCN by July 6th.
Gabe
*internet cafe in Salamanca 21:23 July 3rd 2004
Wednesday: (continued) we didnñt end up going to a Flamenco show, bar down the street to watch Holland get dominated by Portugal, the bar had no aircon, i sweated through my rounds of tapas, after walk around the city at night
Thursday: Cindy and I wake early to see the picturesque Placa Espana, load up the car and we head off to Cordoba, visit the infamous candy stripped mosque, we leave for Toeldo, I get to drive through the dry olive tree spotted landscape of Castilla de la Mancha, during a pass through some hills I try to pass two slow cars in front of me and the only cops we have seen all trip come out of nowhere, the first ticket I ever recieve in my life is from a Spanish cop I could barely understand, “no respetando la linea de traffico,” though its a shame it is more funny than anything (I´m keepìng the ticket as a souvenier), pass over a bridge where some police point there rifles right at us for no apparent reason, arrive in the town of Orgaz just outside of Toledo around 9pm and decide to spend the night, nice cheap hotel, we watch Greece come out of nowhere to beat the highly favored Czechs in the downstairs bar, chorizo is good
Friday: wake late and discover some castles along the road to Toledo, awesome ruined castle in Alcidra de Toledo(?) that is on the top of a dirt hill the car can barely made it up, probably one of the 10 people a year that visit the abandoned castle where El Cid supposidly lived, sweet view of the countryside, drive to Toledo, third time there with the regular stuff, I drove to Madrid that night, the guys hostal is full and crappy so find a nice one a little further down, walk around Madrid at night, suprised how well I know the city from my last visit, gazpacho and chocolate con churros
Saturday: abandon the guys and hop a 3hr train to Salamanca, lots and lots of stuff to see, (more later)
*internet cafe in Madrid 12:56 July 6th 2004
Saturday: (continued) Salamanca has about 3 different cathedrals, the best is the convent, famous University of Salamanca which one time rivalled Oxford, has a cool facade which is well known for the little stone frog, temperature is nice, out for vegetarian food (guacamole!), the streets at night are crawling with teenagers, make friends with a group of italians who are sitting in a circle on the ground in pl mayor, discuss american geography (miami is not in california)
Sunday: search for the bus station, 3hr bus to Segovia, medieval city on a steep hill overlooking the surrounding countryside that still maintains a lot of character, another cathedral (probably the 100th ive seen this year), amazingly sweet castle with a moat and everything, it was already closed for the day, to the other side of town to see the massive roman aqueduct, still in magnificent condition, to a coffee shop with some nasty white chocolate, walk around town and then to a back alley restuarant where weordered too much chorizo, walk through quiet streets at night
Monday: up early to see the storybook castle, still freaking awesome, humongous, gorgeous on the inside as well with its suits of armour stained glass throne room etc, the backside is literally hanging off the side of a cliff and you can see for miles around the countryside, climb the main tower to see a good view of old town Segovia, walk to the bus station, hour bus to Madrid, a bit of tiresome shopping around placa del sol, out for “la marcha” with Cindy´s old friends from Madrid to a few old famous bars
Tuesday: in line to buy Renfe tickets to BCN which cost 59euro each, most trains full, while Cindy visits el Prado
after shes done I think we are both going to the Thyssen which I missed last time. I leave for BCN tomorrow at 7pm. I´m pretty tired of traveling and wearing the same dirty clothes every day. Soon I go home to California. A little under one week now. Ive started to get a little bit excited but I know this is only temporary. Its going to be hard to leave Spain. Im trying to prepare myself for the “bigness” of america.
Gabe
and the awards go to:
Alicante: Most Random Fireworks, Loudest Streets at Night
Granada: Nicest People, Most Free Tapas, Most Beautiful Palace
Cadiz: Most Sunburning Beaches, Laziest People, and special regonition for the Children You Can´t Understand Award
Sevilla: the So Hot You Want To Die Award, Best Bullfighting Ring, Best Gapacho of All Time, Biggest Cathedral, Prettiest Tilework, Runner Up for Best City in Spain
Cordoba: Mosque Most Likely To Be Confused For A Candy Cane
Orgaz: Funniest City to Add An M To, Best Hotel, Best Bar To Watch a Futbal Match
Toledo: Most Hills To Walk Up Award, Most Random Escalators, Marzipan and Swords Do Mix Award
Salamanca: Best Church, Most Cathedrals, the Teenager Party Town award, Best Place To Meet Italians in Spain
Segovia: Radest Castle, Best View of Surrounding Countryside, Tallest Aqueduct
Madrid: Most Museums, Most Confusing Metro Transfers