And GB to Madird

Well today is the last day in Spain. Last night was crazy, as you would expect a last night in a country to be, we went out with people from our hostel and found a good bar that served one euro beers (which is rare in Europe). Early in the day Shawn and I went to the National museum which had some good art in it and then to this park called Retiro, or at least that is the stop that you get off at to get to the park. There is a lake (pond if you will) in the center and you can rent row boats and go out on it. So that is what we did. Anyway, short post, it was a good last day in Spain, and I will be back in the good old US very soon.

Chao

Missing flights and other travisties of travel

Well everyone has there “I was on the train and it stalled out and I missed my flight story” and this is mine. So when checking out of the hostel I asked the person if I could catch the airport bus at the same place it dropped me off and he said I could but that taking the train from the station closest to the hostel was cheaper and faster. By the time the train came I was on a tight time frame to get to the airport, but still doable, until the train stalled out three stops from the ariport. I ran to my terminal (the farest from the train station) only to be told by the guy at check-in that I needed to be there 40 minutes before the flight left (it was 35min before my flight). I had to go and get a seat on the next plane and the reservation person even said she was surprised they didn’t let me check in (thank you veuling). It only cost me 10 euro to get on the next flight so that wasn´t bad, but I would miss Shawn at the airport, which would only complicate things. Long story long, got the flight, met up with Shawn at the hostel and what could have been a really bad situation turned out to be fine (woot!). Shawn and I went on a walking tour yesterday of old town Madrid (saw lots of stuff, took some pictures, not really going to list it all now) and then came back and rested at the hostel for a bit (seeing as Shawn had just got to Spain yesterday). Then went out on the town for some much needed corousing. Anyway it is getting late in the morning and we need to go tour some. More to follow.

Picture count: didn’t check my camera before writing this, probably something around 210 or so.

P.S. Renate, had some gazpacho yesterday just for you (and it was yummy and refreshing, thanks for the tip)

Bye Bye BCN

Every city has a rhythm, well multiple rhythms that make up the tune of how life is lived. There are the bakers and executives that get up before dawn, and then the old and young, people going to school. Then there are the visitors, these have different rhythms as well, the people who are going on cruises, people leaving for the airport in the morning, and then there are the hostellers. I finally found the rhythm of the hosteller on my second day. What you do is see as much as you can between the time you wake up (hopefully before breakfast ends at 10) and the time you realize you haven’t had enough sleep to warrant trucking through the city for five hours. That is when you stumble back to the hostel and take a well deserved nap (from around 5-9pm). You can’t sleep longer then around 9 because this is when the people (other hostellers) start to drink in the common room (which is right downstairs from my room) and is also when you mingle with the other travellers (drinking, singing songs, and carrying on). This goes on from 10-12pm or whenever the hostel tells you you have to leave because your making too much noise. It then moves out into the streets and you migrate from the hostel to Barcelona centre where you will search for the club/bar you want to frequent. We went to a bar named Apollo (think that is how it’s spelled) got there at 1 and it was dead. Not to worry though, the rest of the people hadn’t come yet, and by 2:30 it was a fire marshals worst nightmare. Rinse and repeat.
Yesterday I went to see the other famous cathedral in Barcelona Sagrada Familia (http://blog.hotelclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/sagrada-familia.jpg) see the link for the picture. Then headed on over to this really cool public park called Guell Parc, which is nice and outdoors, if you hike to the top then you can see views of the whole city, and there is lots of cool buildings (I have pictures). After this stopped off from some seafood payeya, very good, and then wandered into this open market, with every fruit and vegetable and meat you can imagine and stocked up on some needed fruit. Then it was off to the museum of modern art, cool building and a roam through the south-eastern part of Barcelona. After that it was back to the hostel and rinse and repeat. My flight for Madrid leaves at 8:40 so I need to stop writing this and check out of the hostel.

Picture count: 180 (getting there)

P.S. Requests for an itinerary so here it is:

May3-6: Barcelona
May6-8: Madrid

I fly back on May 8, to Dallas and then from Dallas to SFO arriving at 9:30pm.

Nathaniel out!

Life as a beach

So for a beach day, I ended up taking more pictures then yesterday and walked even further. Started off the day right, free breakfast (even though I know it is included in the price of the room, don’t ruin my fun). After this I was off to the beach, but got side tracked along the way. Ended up getting off the metro at the Arc de Triomf (yeah they have one in Barcelona too) so now I have seen the one in France and the one in Spain, though the one here is red and smaller (hmmmm). After this took a stroll in this huge park and just stumbled onto a giant fountain with dragons in it and a woolly mammoth statue. After this I wondered on down to La Rambla (yeah I have been spelling it wrong the whole time). On the way, had some churros and chocolate, today’s thanks goes out to Kenneth, who suggested I get that while here). It is like hot chocolate (but real hot chocolate) and then fresh churros, needless to say very good. After this kept trying to head to the beach, and after an hour of roaming around, found one. Let me just say, what they say about European beaches is try (but you have to take the god with the bad) and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Now yesterday one of the guys in my hostel said that the first beach wasn’t that great because it had fake sand (as in it was not a real beach before the Government hauled in sand to make it one) the sane at this beach is bad, it sticks to your skin and is the really big black flake stuff. Needless to say, I was covered from head to toe with black flakes and probably looked like a leaper or something, but I have officially swam in Mediterranean (sweet). After this just took it easy and mulled around checking some of the cool buildings in the finance district and elsewhere. The night is still young, there is trouble afoot.

Picture count: 130

P.S. If you read this blog, you should become a fan if you have g-mail, just to make me feel special if nothing else.

Nathaniel out!

The only blond boy in Barcelona

As a continuance of the last post, I reread it today and realized that I left out some details (probably because it was 4:30 in the morning yesterday when I decided to write that blog). One of the things that I left out was that I went to the Museu Picasso, which if you can’t tell by the name is a museum dedicated to (you guessed it) Picasso. The best part about going to this museum was that it was free!!!! and no it is not free everyday, it is only free on the first Sunday of every month and I just happened to be there on the first Sunday of the month. Sometimes you just want to get down and thank your lucky stars. I have never much cared for Picasso’s work, too much cubism and many paintings that look like there done by my niece. With that said, because this is the Picasso Museum, they trace out the evolution of Picasso from his early childhood all the way to his death. It is interesting to see how he developed and changed over the years, though it seems that he just ended up copying the people he was hanging out with at any given time. Also, La Ramba street is like Hollywood Blvd, there are people dressed up like statues, fairies, and I even saw the alien from the alien movies (ah tourist traps). Anyway, wanted to add that in there and to say that I got separated from my group last night and was still able to find my way back to the hostel (yeah take that Google maps).

Nathaniel out

Shawn Nathaniel Barcelona

You knew that I had to do that title. So for all you not in the know, I got a job and am celebrating with one last hurrah, seeing as I am currently in Spain, Barcelona to be precise, if you couldn’t tell from the title. So lets see, my flight left out of SFO at 7:45am (thank you Cuyler for driving me), which was good because it meant I didn’t really get any sleep the night before, and seeing as there were two (yes two) babies around me I thankfully slept almost the entire trip. Landing in JFK was cool because you can see the New York skyline when you land, the bad part was that my flight got delayed by an hour and a half, but then I got to see the skyline at night, so that kind of made up for it (not really). Sat next to the most interesting older woman on the plan (she has been everywhere, really) more stories to come when I get back about my cougar attracting powers. Landed in Barcelona, had to fill out a health survey (because we were leaving a country that, you guessed it, is infected with swine flu, I hate pigs!). Got to hostel, weather was gorgeous and slipped into some shorts and sandals and hit the road to La Ramba (the old city). Went to a cathedral (my favourite) and did about 3 miles of walking (yeah all on very little sleep). Came back and took a shower and a much needed break before waking up to my roommates (got to love hostels). Two of them are from Austria and invited me out for the night. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but this post was posted around 4:30am our time. I will let your imaginations do the rest. Anyway off to bed, but tomorrow is a beach day (yes!) this is a vacation after all.

Picture count: 65 (not bad for half a day)

P.S. Spain is the land of PDA. I know it is a cultural thing, but I have already needed to throw up several times do to the amount of smooching and hugging that goes on here.

Nathaniel out!