Viva Italia!

Day 63
Before I had fallen asleep I met an American girl named Lisa. She was interested as I was by the Museu de la Xocolata. My guidebook promised free tastings. As chocolate and free are two of my favorite words it seemed like it would be perfect for me.
We went the long way to the museum, my fault. I didn't have a map and was just doing it from memory.

When we arrived I simply assumed that the tastings would be at the end and did my best to concentrate on the museum. Did you know that the Aztecs used cacao beans as currency? A hooker cost the same amount as a goat. Most of the displays were on how the cacao bean is refined into chocolate as we know it. This was all very familiar to me because I've been on the chocolate tour about a million times at Hershey Park.

What stood out were the chocolate sculptures. Some of them were a bit shabby looking, definitely passed their expiration date. What was odd is that very few of the sculptures had dates on them. I would have liked to know how long some of them have been there. There was a white chocolate gorilla, a Roman with his chariot, and a colorful king and queen. Some of the sculptures depicted famous Barcelona monuments, including Gaudi Park, and a bull fight. Another room had what I could only assume were newer sculptures. These were not behind glass and had some recent movies and even a soccer pitch.

At the end of the tour I was disappointed to see that there wasn't any chocolate to taste, just expensive bars to buy. Let's Go, why have you forsaken me? Lisa moved on to visit Sagrada Familia and I spent a rushed hour in an internet cafe. I spent just a bit too long there and had to practically run back to the hostel to pick up my things and then run to the bus station to catch my bus to the Girona airport.

Once I had checked in I looked around as if I had never been there before. The problem was that I have been there before, I took a three day trip to Barcelona from London about 5 years ago. My lack of memory made me feel like I needed to write with more detail in my journal, I don't want to forget anything this time around!

My flight to Trapani, Italy was without incident. Or I had thought so anyway, I slept through most of it. When the plane touched down most of the people started to clap. Now, where I come from, this really only happens after a really bumpy flight or landing. I thought it was odd, although, later I learned that it was something you get on just about any plane coming into Sicily.
While waiting for the bus I met a guy named Marco. He got the bus driver to let me off right at the end of the street that I needed. Marco was there to visit his parents who lived close to Palermo. Due to the odd bus times he had missed the last one and was a bit frantic in making phone calls to find a hotel. I had given him the number for mine, but they were full. He lucked out and by the time the bus had arrived found a place close to where I was staying. Marco also asked if I would like to join him for dinner.

When the guy from the hotel met me (apparently its not covered 24 hours a day) he told me that there was some sort of problem and that I would actually be staying at a hotel around the corner. The place he brought me to seemed more like an apartment than a hotel. There was a living, dining room and a kitchen. The only room I actually saw was the huge and very clean one that I was staying in. After all of the hostels in Spain it was nice to have my own space for the night, and it was definitely worth the $30 I paid for it.

I met Marco some time later at a place just around the corner that had typical Sicilian food. I picked his brain about the places that I should visit while I was here, as well as what to do in Milan, where he was currently living. I also told Marco about my trip. When the bill came he unexpectedly and very kindly insisted on picking up the check. I thanked him and promised him that he would get a mention in my blog.

It was quite late by the time we had finished dinner and we each went our separate ways. I promised to send him an email when I get to Milan, suggesting that we could get a drink there.

Some Confusion

Day 62
When I had arrived I thought that I had checked the bus times to Barcelona. It turns out that I had looked at the time to Madrid. Because of this I had several hours to kill in the bus station before my ride. I spent the time reading my vampire book and eating.

In fact, this is what I did on the bus as well, except here I slept a little. By the time I got to Barcelona everything was closed and there was nothing to do but make myself some dinner. Later on I went out for a drink with some Americans who had been studying in Helsinki. I wasn't out long though, they were headed to a club and I wasn't willing to pay the $15 entrance fee!

The day was really pretty anti-climatic and must have been boring to read about. Still, I ended up where I needed to be, and I guess that is the important part.

Grail Quest

Day 60

After a few hours of sleep I was feeling awake enough to check out Valencia as soon as I arrived. It didn't take me long to drop my things off at the hostel and start exploring. Nothing was opened yet and I grabbed some tea while I read my guidebook and planned out what I would do for the next few days. Eventually I found the tourist office and then an internet cafe. By the time I had done all of this I could check into the hostel. I was definitely greatful for a short nap and shower.

Not wanting to be a bum for the entire day I decided to check out the cathedral. Something major was going on by I had no idea what. There were chairs lined up and a large stage. What I thought was the cathedral was loaded with people praying at the various chapels. It was really standing room only. I didn't want to deal with the crowd, and couldn't see what I was looking for anyway so I moved on.

This was when I found the actual Valencia Cathedral, what I had found before was a Basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary. I didn't want to run, I'm a traveler not a tourist you know, but I still decided to do the free audio tour geographically rather than numerically. For some reason the program they had laid out had visitors seeing the things nearest the door last instead of first.

Like many churches in Spain the building had originally been a mosque. When it was refitted as a cathedral only low cost materials were used and they declined to have an overabundance of frescoes or sculptures. This gave the place a more austere look than most cathedrals have. Before I hit 'the' chapel I passed a decrepit painting of St. Sebastian, it was the first renaissance painting created in Spain.

Soon I was there, in the chapel of the holy grail. Valencia's grail is said to be the cup that Christ drank out of at the last supper. The cup does date to the 1 century B.C., however, ornate handles and feet were added at some point during the medieval ages. The grail has been in the cathedrals possession since the 15^th century. The grail was small and behind glass and then behind a rope. It was rather hard to see.

There is so much grail lore in Europe that there is no way I could seek out each lead. On top of that I have no desire to really do something like that. Still, whenever there is a bit of grail lore nearby I will be sure to check it out.

After I had finished with the grail I moved on to the rest of the church. There was a small museum with some excellent sculpture and artwork from the long history of the cathedral. Well, the works themselves were not that great, but how they had them displayed was. They were arranged by time and the guide discussed how styles and techniques evolved over the centuries.

A few relics were hanging out in some of the chapels. There was the skull of St. Thomas and one of St. Vincents well preserved arms to check out. Most of the chapels were dedicated to the Virgin and much of the artwork was quite similar.

One I had left the chapel I spent some time browsing a nearby market. I don't really want to buy anything, I just want to look. Back at the hostel I had all the makings for pasta and had a quiet dinner. Later on, while I was writing, I met some of the other people at the hostel and I spent the rest of the evening chatting with them.

Goodbye with a Sigh

Day 59

After lying awake for several hours I got my clothes on and headed to the Alhambra. It was dark and the walk was a bit unnerving. Luckily, I met a Norwegian mother and daughter as I was about to head up the darkest area. It was completely unlit and I was happy to have them there. I waited in line for about two hours before I was able to buy my ticket. I had gotten the time that I wanted though, so it was worth it.

I headed back to the hostel at this point for a few hours of sleep and some food. Around noon I met up with the American girls from the night before and we headed to the Alhambra. They had bought their tickets in advance and didn't need to wake up at stupid o'clock with me.

The Alhambra sits over the city and was built in the 14^th century. It is said that if you die without seeing the Alhambra you have not lived. I don't know about that, but it is a one of a kind site and the reason for coming to Granada.

When I was in line for the palace, or Alcazar section, for some reason I was moved to the front of the line. They made me wait there for a while, I was getting dirty looks from the people who were waiting in line. Eventually I had to fill out some paper and sign it, I think it said incident report, but I couldn't be sure. I don't know if I got the time wrong, or if something else I hadn't realized was happening. I wasn't happy to be split up with the girls, I had wanted to use them to take pictures of me! At least I got in.

The Alcatar is really amazing, truly unlike the other Moorish palaces I have seen. My problem with it is that it cost $18 to get in and there were no descriptions about anything. For that you needed to pay another $10 for an audio guide. It's a bit of a rip if you ask me.

I took my time taking pictures and taking in the Islamic decoration. I tried my best to get shots with out other tourists in them, but it was basically impossible. There were courtyards with reflecting pools, and rooms with intricate carvings. According to my guide I saw the harem, but I wouldn't know which room it actually was.

After the Alcazar I headed to the ruins of the Alcazaba, or fort. This part was built after the Moors had been thrown out of Spain. I climbed the Torre de la Vela for an amazing view of Granada. I could even see the mountain side caves that people still lived in. Still, most of it was in ruins and without an explanation it was a bit like staring at a pile of rocks.

The last bit I visited were the gardens. There were ruins from the Moors scattered around here as well. After a quick look at the Alcazar from a distance I headed back to the hostel and got my things together.

I had really wanted to just chill at the hostel until it was time to leave, but James constant smoking made me very uncomfortable. I couldn't listen to him say 'I don't know man, I don't know' one more time. Because of this I left hours early and passed my time by reading at the bus station.

In 1492 when the Moorish ruler Boabdil fled the city he took one last look at the Alhambra with longing. His mother berated him, telling him that he did well to weep like a woman for what he could not protect as a man. I too took one last look at the Alhambra as I walked back down the hill. My time in Spain was at the beginning of the end and I knew that I would indeed miss it.

This was to my my (hopefully) last night bus for a long time. When I got on I just felt that I was meant to have the window seat that someone else was in. Having a window seat meant that my chances of getting any sleep would be drastically increased. I asked a girl sitting nearby if I was right and she said that I was. I asked the woman in my seat to move, she refused. The girl who had helped me before stepped in and said a few words to her. This time she got up. A few minutes later she asked to see my ticket. I let her look keeping it firmly in my hand. She sighed at this, but stopped bugging me, she knew that I was right.

Even with the draw of my new book, Middlesex, I was able to get a decent amount of sleep.

Wandering the Maze

Day 58
I was up early, but the sound of the rain and the warmth of my bed made me lazy. Eventually I got up to see the Alhambra. Instead I decided to spend the day wandering the labyrinth of streets and eventually ending up at the cathedral.

The Albaicin was almost as confusing as Fez. The Moors had left their trace everywhere. At one point I even found a Moroccan souk. When I entered the cathedral it took just a minute to realize that there was a wedding going on. What was appalling was that despite that there were still tourists milling around and taking pictures. I decided to come back later. When I did return about 5 hours later there was another wedding going on and I just decided to give up on it.

While wandering I stumbled on an old hospital. Paintings ringed the Moorish courtyard. I met some Americans here who told me that they waited in live for over 2 hours at the Alhambra and were lucky to have gotten tickets. They suggested getting mine online.

With that piece of advice in mind I headed to an internet cafe. I wasn´t able to get a ticket online, but I did manage to get some blog work done. I took care of the rest of my work for the day by getting a bus ticket to Valencia for the following evening.

That night I went out with a group of people from the hostel for tapas. I didn´t stay long though, I had to be up very early. When I went to sleep I thought that would be the end of the story. I was very very wrong.

Around 3 am the rest of the people came back. One of the Spanish guys was very drunk and yelling loudly. For some reason he was also moving furniture around. He then went to the bathroom leaving both the door to the bathroom and dorm room open. I could see him almost fall out the window before I heard him throwing up for about 40 minutes. I never managed to fall back to sleep after this.

Groaning in Granada

Day 57
I was sad to leave Malaga. The town wasn't that interesting, but the hostel was great and I had made some really good friends while I was there.

The bus to Granada didn't take long and in no time I was in the middle of Granada. I hadn't remembered to write down the name and address of my hostel, so I ducked into an Internet cafe to find it. Once that I was done I attempted to get a cab, but none of them would let me in. I couldn't figure out why.

I headed back to the internet cafe to print out a map. It looked to me like it was quite a walk, also, many of the streets didn´t have names on them. I had spoken to the guy who worked at the cafe before and I thought he had a good handle on English. I asked him how long of a walk it would be as none of the cab drivers would take me. He misunderstood and took my map. On the back he wrote ¨quiero ir¨and the name and address of my hostel in big block letters. He told me to give that to a cab driver.

Feeling a bit like Paddington Bear I tried the cabbies again. Still no luck. The only thing to do was take my crappy map and head up the hill. About 20 minutes into my treck it began to rain. I hated Granada at that minute. My back hurt, and I was getting wet. All I wanted was to get to the hostel and put everything down. Eventually I ended up in a square. I kept asking everyone but they all just shook their heads and walked by. Eventually a group of Dutch travelers walked by with a map. I asked if I could barrow it for a minute. They asked how long I had been walking with my pack and when I replied almost 2 hours they all seemed to really want to help me.

My little street wasn´t on the map, and one of the Dutch women pulled out her TomTom. She then walked me to the hostel. The street was so tiny that we could not have walked next to one another. Thankfully, this was the correct street. I was incredibly greatfull for their help, and thanked then.

Terripin Station is a very small place run by an American guy named James. He gave me a tour of the area to help get rid of my confusion. James also told me that he is at the hostel about 23 hours a day and that if he wasn´t there to let people in he was always back very quickly. I wanted to ask him how he could stand sitting around all the time, but didn´t.

It was quite late in the day by the time I had found the hostel and I had only had two pieces of bread. While I was making myself dinner an Aussie and an American came in . The Aussie, Hannah, was really nice, but Audry the American was a sponge. At one point of the night she asked if I would be cooking the rest of my food and if so, she wanted to help me eat it.

Eventually the three of us went out for tapas. The nice thing about tapas in Granada is that they come free with a beer. The bad thing was that both of the girls were veggie and we had to share whatever we had.

Audry had a friend coming later and went off with him when he arrived. Hannah and I simply headed back to hang out at the hostel before calling it a night.

While we were there James was smoking hash almost non-stop. I guess thats how he spends hours a day in a cold room with no tv. I was sort of wishing that moving to another place was an option, everything else in the city was either full or very expensive.

Castles and Clouds

Day 56
As I was walking out the door to explore I met an Aussie named Brett who was headed to the same sites as I was. After walking up what seemed like a million steep steps it looked like we had actually gone too far for what we had come to see. Still, there were signs indicating that we were headed somewhere and we figured that we might as well just continue to go up.

It turned out that there were actually two castle-like structures in Malaga. We had found the Gibralfaro. This was built in the 14^th century and was in an advanced state of decay. It was built to protect the Alcazaba further down the hill. The structure seemed blocky and dis jointed to me. The best part was a scale model of the city. I was pretty happy that it cost less than a dollar to get in.

After the Gilbralfaro Brett and I headed down to the Alcazaba. This was a Moorish palace as well as a small city. The structure dated from the early 14^th century, but had been mostly rebuilt in the 1930s. We had great views over Malaga, but once again I was glad that it was cheap to get in.

Brett and I had lunch before parting ways. He headed off to find a gym and I went back to the internet cafe to get some more work done.

That evening I layed low at the hostel. I needed to be up early. When everyone headed off to the beach to drink I turned in.

Laying Around and Finding Picasso

Day 55

I was in desperate need of doing laundry. I thought this would only take a few hours but instead it took most of the day. The dryer just took ages.

Eventually I was able to leave and headed out with Werner, a German, and Evelyn, a Dutch girl. We tried to find the Picasso Museum, but just ended up at the house he was born in. The museum there was quite small, but it was nice to see all of the photos taking throughout Picasso´s life.

We did eventually find the museum we were looking for. This has a lot of Picasso´s paintings and drawings. A lot of them were of his many lovers. Apparently he was a very busy man. There were also several paintings of his children. Some of the works were almost exactly the same, just slightly different colors. There were even some paintings he made as a teenager.

The Melting Pot Hostel in Malaga was one of the best hostels I´ve ever stayed at. The staff was super friendly and laid back. That night the hostel owners son took a group of us on a free pub crawl. We started at a Salsa place with free lessons. I didn´t join in, I´m just not that coordinated. I did watch though, it was actually pretty dirty. I don´t know how, but at each place we went Ludo got us all free drinks. Eventually I was too tired to go on and simply headed back.

Merry Malaga

Day 54

I usually managed to get enough sleep on night buses that I can function the next day. That just wasn't the case this time around. I was reading a really good book called Sepulture by Kate Mosse and was having problems putting it down. Also, the woman next to me could not stop moving around. At one point I think she was trying to push me off of my seat, but I had the larger ass and she eventually gave up.

I waited at the bus station for the sun to come up and then headed the short way to the hostel. I was there way too early to check in so I left my stuff and went to explore.

I picked Malaga because I was a bit tired after the crazy pace that Al and I had kept and needed a break. There are a few sites in Malaga, but none of them are too terribly impressive, so if I sat around and did nothing for three days I wouldn´t feel like I had missed out. Plus, there was the beach and for some reason I felt like being at the beach.

Due to lack of sleep I didn´t want to visit anything that I knew I wouldn´t appreciate. After wandering the beach I went back to the bus station to check bus times to Granada. I even found a tourist info center and picked up a map. Eventually I just sat down in an internet cafe and screwed around on You Tube.

When I made it back to the hostel I still couldn´t check in so I decided to go to the beach. I don´t really like the beach, so I don´t know why I so badly wanted to be there. I got ready and then stood in the cold water for about 10 minutes. After that I couldn´t figure out why I was there and just went back. Thank goodness after showering it was time for me to check in and take a nap.

After napping I went back to check out the shopping area and bought a couple of shirts. I ´ve sent home my winter clothes and was left with only a couple of Old Navy tanks. I really was feeling the need to look different on occasion.

I spent the evening with a glass of wine (made by the hostel) and chatting with some of the other people staying there.

Cerado Part 2

Day 54

I was up pretty early after my early night and after packing up and putting my things in the lock up for the day I headed off to Segovia. Different people will tell you that either Toledo or Segovia is the best small medieval city. I wanted to be able make up my mind on my own.

After wandering blindly I found the first big attraction, a Roman Aqueduct from the 1^st century. I think that this is the first time that I have seen something like this. It was really amazing. No mortar was used in the aqueducts construction, rocks were just meticulously placed. I loved it and spent some time just staring at it, amazed at the construction.

According to my guidebook the fairy tale looking Alcazar was opened daily. This wasn´t the case. It was a Monday, and things do often shut on Mondays, but I was taking my books word. I wasn´t bothered so much that I wasn´t going to get to go inside of it. I´ve been to loads of castles, how different could this one possibly be? What bothered me was that because of all the trees in front of it I couldn´t even get a good look at it, let alone a picture.

The biggest frustration was that everything has been closed for the last 5 days. Don´t these people know that it´s a holiday and not a holiweek?

The only thing that was open was the cathedral. Let´s Go had said that the outside was the best part, however the sheer size of the building was interesting. I decided to check it out despite the lackluster review. The outside is amazing, I tried to get several close up pictures of the stone work.

Inside the cathedral had an interesting story. The original cathedral was located across the street from the Alcazar and was destroyed in 1521 during the Communeros war. Instead of repairing they picked a new spot and built an entirely new structure. In order to save on building costs, some parts of the original cathedral were used. This made the interior an odd mix of the old and older. Some of the chapels were pretty interesting and I managed to sneak a few pictures. There was one painting called the tree of life that showed Jesus with a skeleton cutting down a tree. They both appeared to be doing the cutting. On the top of the tree was a big table with loads of people having a party around it. I didn´t quite get it, but it was still interesting.

If the castle had been opened I may not have bothered with the cathedral, but I am glad that I saw it.

When I got back to Madrid I made one more attempt to get the blog up to date, I was getting so close!

Soon I was off, on a night bus to Malaga. I was glad to leave Madrid, I had spent 6 nights there and was ready for a change.

Cerado

Day 53
After a really good nights sleep I woke up not quite knowing where I was. I had a long breakfast with Susan and Alberto. Alberto had been to New York a few years before and we chatted about the city and what he had done while he was there. After breakfast they offered to let me crash at their place one more night. I really appreciated it and would have loved to take them up on the offer, but I had already book and paid for a hostel and felt that I should use that.

I can not thank Susan and Alberto enough. Without their hospitality I would have been up a creek without a paddle. Couchsurfing is a fabulous website and I´m very happy that it was there when I needed it.

Still, after almost of month of mostly homestays and hotels it was time for me to rejoin the world of hostels. In less then ten minutes I went from the girl who was crashing with friends in Madrid, to the girl in room 2, bed 5.

I decided to join the tourist droves and headed off to Toledo. Toledo is a well preserved medieval city, and also where El Grecko painted many of his masterpieces.

After an hours bus ride I followed the long line of tourists up the hill. At the tourist info center they told me that pretty much everything was closed except for the cathedral. That was fine with me because that is what I had come to see.

The cathedral was pricey at 7 euros, but I paid it anyway. I also sucked that I wasn´t allowed to take pictures in the cathedral, there were guards around telling people to stop the second they would pull out a camera. It was also irritating to find that none of the explanations were in English. I was lost without my translator. I decided that I should pay the euro for a 10 minute description of the place. It was basically worthless, all they did was say the names of the different chapels and when they were made and how big they were. Boring.

There was a small museum attached to the cathedral. There were several stunning El Grecko paintings, one was of Jesus as he was being captured. He looked as if he was praying. According to the guide I overheard, El Grecko wanted to paint Jesus in a more human light. There was a small VanDyck painting hanging nearby, I found that to be a bit odd.

One of the rooms was filed with pope hats, I don´t know what they were actually called. Another room displayed religious robes. There were some relics, but most of them were too far behind the velvet rope for me to be able to read who they had belonged to. There was one small room with paintings of every bishop of Toledo, the last 400 years were individual portraits. The last 6 bishops all wore glasses.

As I couldn´t read anything and I couldn´t take pictures and there wasn´t really anything else to check out in town I passed some time drawing stick figure versions of some of the paintings. I would love to show these to you, but they didn´t really photograph well.

The alter was pretty interesting. I spent some time trying to make it a stick figure masterpiece, but there was too much going on and I couldn´t fit it all on the page.

Right at the cathedrals exit there was a food fair. I grabbed some yummy cider and sampled loads of hams, cheeses and jellys.

I spent some time just wandering around the old streets before I decided to head back. I spent some time on the Internet before grabbing a quick dinner and heading back to my hostel. The hostel didn´t have a common room and there wasn´t really anyone around so I simply called it a night.

Couchsurf

Day 52
Al had to be up early for his flight and I was up with him. It was hard to say goodbye again. We had had such a great time traveling together. I was very sorry to see him leave. I could have spent most of the day in our fancy hotel room, but I just didn’t want to be there alone and got my act together as quickly as I could and left.

I mentioned a few days ago that I was having difficulties finding a reasonably priced place to stay. I didn´t know about the holiday until to late and everything was booked. I decided to turn to couchsurfing in hopes that someone would take me in. Couchsurfing is a web site that connects people who are willing to meet travelers for a drink, give them a tour, or even let them sleep on their couch. Susan and her boyfriend Alberto were kind enough to let me sleep on their couch for the night. I was a bit nervous as this was my first time couchsurfing, but both of them were wonderful. They gave me their living room with a pull out bed for the evening.

Susan gave me a nice tour of Madrid, taking me to the main squares and fountains. We even spent some time in the Retrio park. We had tried to go to the Renia Sofia museum, but the line was beyond long and we decided to ditch the idea.

After another Internet session (i´m getting close to catching up) I headed back to the apartment for a rest. Susan told me that they were going out to dinner and invited me to join them. A friend of theirs, Sergio, also joined us. We ate at a locals place, and shared everything we had. It turned out that Sergio was also on couchsurfing, but Susan had not known that. We had quite a lot of fun talking about cultural differences and languages. Everyone spoke good English and didn´t mind translating for me when I didn´t understand.

Dinner was followed by a couple of drinks at a nearby bar. I was very tired from the sun and waking up early. When we got back to Susan and Roberto´s apartment I fell asleep quickly.

Al´s Last Day

Day 51
We were both exhausted after the bus ride, but Al was faring a bit worse than me. I guess that I am getting used to the things. Despite the confusion of exhaustion and my water bottle springing a leak we managed to get to our hotel near the airport. Right away we turned around and went back to Madrid.

Al had wanted to get some souvenirs and gifts and I needed a memory stick for my photos. We stumbled upon a different festival. Apparently this was the bicentennial for the end of France’s occupation of Madrid. The crowds were terrible and once again, nothing was open.

I managed to get my memory stick, but little else was accomplished. We ended up just heading back the 1.5 hours to the hotel (the next day I found that it was really on 35 minutes from Madrid). There was nothing near our hotel, not a supermarket, or a restaurant or anything. This forced us to have a rather expensive dinner at the hotel.

We spent the rest of the evening watching MTV reality shows (that was all there was in English) and packing our bags. Al was nice enough to take back a handful of things for me to lighten my load.

After an uneventful last day we both fell asleep, not wanting the morning to come when we would need to say goodbye.

May Day

Day 50
There was a lot to do and very little time to do it in so we got up early in an attempt to see it all. Al had planned on visiting the Picasso Museum while I was heading to the Chocolate Museum. I had seen the Picasso Museum on a previous trip. This didn´t go as planned because both museums were closed due to it being May 1, the day of the worker. We had known about the holiday but never thought that the museums would be closed on a Thursday of all things.

We tried to regroup and visited the tourist information booth to see what was open. We didn´t have time in the morning to try and see what we could so we grabbed some ice cream and sat for a bit. Every time someone walked by with a workers day sticker on Al would say “go to work lazy, go to work.” I felt bad that he was missing out on the museum.

Our next step was to head to the Plaza de Espana to meet with Nora, one of Al´s cousins. Nora brought her 4 month old Molina with her. Nora took some pictures of the two of us as she caught up with Al. Al did his best to translate for the both of us. We weren´t able to stay long though, and soon we had said goodbye.

Al was headed off to Sagrada Familia (I´d already seen it) and I was going to explore Mont Juic. Eventually I ended up at an internet café to once again try and get caught up with the blog.

We were early for our night bus, not sure why, its not like we were looking forward to it. Soon we were off, trying to sleep, just looking forward to getting back to Madrid.

Roman Holiday

Day 49

We woke up mostly refreshed after our 10 hour train ride. Quickly we found out that it would take a lot longer to get back to Madrid than we had thought. Luckily, our hotel let us change our plans and we bought tickets on a night bus for the next evening.

After resting for a bit and taking showers we decided that it was time to explore Barcelona. Luckily Al was feeling much better. Our first stop was the Barcelona City History Museum. Most of the museum concentrated on the Roman city of Barcino. It began as a retirement community but eventually grew into an administration center. The highlight of the museum is walking through part of the Roman town ruins. It seemed like the town was full of factories. We walked through the Laundromat where they used urine to clean the clothes, and the place were some sort of fish slurry was made. The most interesting part was where they made the wine. Wine was part of every meal, but in order to not get drunk people would water it down.

During the medieval ages the city grew both in population and in importance as it became a hub for Mediterranean trade. The section on medieval history was quite small and the museum was about to close so we didn´t really have time to see it all properly.

After a quick dinner at Subway we simply went back to the hotel. Al still wasn´t feeling great and we wanted to make sure that he would be better for the next day.

Exploring Alone

Day 48
Cordoba´s main attraction and the reason I was up early is the Mosque. When the Moors controlled this part of Spain they built a huge mosque here. After they had been expelled the building was refitted to function as a cathedral. If you showed up at 8:30 am you could get in for free. Always looking to save a buck I knew that this was for me. Unfortunately Al was not feeling well and he decided to stay in bed. So I was, once again, on my own.

The structure itself is absolutely amazing, more so than any of the chapels. A countless number of columns were set about 10 feet apart in perfect rows. The columns were white marble with red checked arches connecting them. I wanted Al to be able to see it so I took pictures of everything. Every chapel and probably every column. Despite the free entry the place was almost empty and I counted myself as lucky to have such an amazing place to myself. The whole thing is basically one giant stunning room.

On the way back to the hotel I picked up breakfast for the two of us and hopped that Al would be feeling better. We had a train that night and wouldn´t have a place for him to sleep if he was sick. Al still wasn’t doing well so I helped him pack up and then we found a shady bench in a nearby plaza for him to rest in. He told me to go ahead and explore, so I left him promising to come back quickly.

Before hitting the next site I stopped for a quick lunch at Duffin Dagles, it looked like Dunkin Donutes and tasked like it, but it wasn’t it. Odd. I then went to explore Cordoba´s Alcazar. This wasn´t nearly as interesting as the one in Seville had been. In fact, I would recommend skipping out on it. The gardens were nice, but I’m not a real garden person. There wasn´t much open on the inside of the building to check out. This Alcazar was where King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella made the decision to finance Christopher Columbus’s exploration of the new world. There was statue dedicated to the moment.

When I returned Al still wasn´t feeling better, but with me there to keep watch he was able to take a bit of a nap while I wrote in my journal. Eventually we ended up walking over to the mall where he decided to see a movie and I headed off to an internet café to try and catch up on my blog work.

I had a bit of a heart attack because I thought that I had lost my jacket. It would be cold later and there would be no time to get a new one, if I could even find one I liked. It turned out that I had dropped it on the floor and the guy at the internet café had picked it up.

Al and I met up in time to grab our stuff and head to the train station. Still not feeling well and in desperate need of some sleep Al decided to upgrade us to a couchette compartment on the train. We both fell asleep to the rocking of the train.

The Cordoba Code

Day 47
We had checked out and were up early to catch the 8 am bus to Seville, and then on to Cordoba. The bus that turned up was broken and we had to spend some time waiting for a replacement. While we waited we chatted with 3 American girls who were teaching English in different towns. Talking to them took up the entire 3 hour trip to Seville and made the trip a lot more fun.

After a quick lunch we were on the next bus to Cordoba. Most of everything was closed due to the time and because it was Monday. Still, there was plenty of daylight left so we decided to do the quiz that the tourist office had. Basically we were each given a sheet with 6 questions. We would need to follow the clues around the city to answer each of them.

We mapped out our route and were off. It wasn´t long before we had stopped for a churros with chocolate break. In Tarifa I had managed to trip over something and twist my left leg. I think it was worse than it would have been because I was carrying my pack at the time and the added weight nearly caused me to fall. It hurt, but I was ok walking around. While we were looking for one of the answers I managed to walk into a pole, hitting the same leg for a second time. Al took a picture of the pole.

The clues lead us through parts of Cordoba that we would have never seen. We passed cute little squares and churches with little tourist interest. We found frescos that we would have never even noticed if we hadn´t been looking for them. My favorite was a small courtyard with a statue of a matador in it. We managed to answer all of the questions but one. It was about what type of tree was in the courtyard of an old palace. We didn’t have access to the courtyard and no one we asked seemed to know.

After dinner of pork chops, Al wasn’t feeling so great so we decided to call it a night. I was pretty tired myself. We had been traveling at breakneck speed and I think it was catching up to both of us.

Return to Spain

Day 46
We were up early once again to catch the train to Tangier. I screwed up the time though and we just missed the first train out. Because of me we had to wait about 3 hours for the next train. It really put our whole day behind. While we waited I spent our last dirhams on snacks for the ride and Al returned to the Medina to see if anyone had any patches.

On the train we passed some pretty run down little towns. It was really quite sad. When we got to the ferry terminal we were shocked to learn that we couldn´t use our credit cards. We ended up paying in euros, but we didn’t quite have enough. I made up the difference with a 5 pound note I had kept from the UK. We got a bit ripped because of it, but at least we were getting out of Morocco.

The ferry wasn´t long, but Spain is two hours ahead of Morocco so it seemed to be very late. We didn´t have a map and out of sheer luck found the hostel I had booked for us in Tarifa with no problems.

It was too late to do much and we ended just picking up cold cuts for dinner and going to sleep. I did however, get one picture of some ponies in a field.