[Super Duper Fantastic] ISFP/INFP. 4w5. World Explorer. Super Hero. Rose-colored Glasses.

My fondest memories of Spain are from the time spent in the Andalucía region, and it all started in its capital – Sevilla. We took a cheap flight down from Barcelona [YAY - Vueling!], hopped on the bus to the Santa Justa Station, then took another bus to the city center. For our short stint in Sevilla [3 days, 2 nights], we stayed with Marga [Hospitality Club] and Norbert. Such nice folks, and a very cute apartment.

We arrived in the evening, so it was really two days of actual time spent seeing the sights. The first night, Marga and Norbert took us out for a walk/drink. While the heat during the day was pretty unbearable, the evenings were perfect for a stroll. Not too hot, definitely not cold.

Some of the spots we visited during the first actual day: the Cathedral, Alcazar, Jewish Quarter, and also Plaza de España! Donna and I went to the Cathedral and Alcazar on our own, but Marga met up with us after that and made visiting the other sites a LOT easier. No map necessary!

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The Cathedral of Sevilla is the final resting place of Christopher Columbus. It occupies the former site of a mosque, which seems to be pretty common in this part of Spain. Moorish/Arab influence in the past that ends up being taken over… at least it wasn’t completely destroyed, just taken over and incorporated. [1] and [2] Outside of the Cathedral.

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La Giralda is a minaret tower, originally intended for the chief mosque, but now the bell tower of the Cathedral and symbol of Seville. We climbed up the 34 ramps for a view of the city. [3] View from on top of the tower. [4] This is the view from INSIDE the tower.

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[5] and [6] Inside the Real Alcázar – the palace.

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[7] and [8] Plaza de España – this is the site of the Spanish pavilion from the 1929 exhibition. Very neat tile art that represents each region of Spain. It was used as Naboo in Star Wars Episode II. How’s that for a random fact? Standing next to the columns, we look TINY.

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Here are some shots taken with Marga. [9] was taken in the Jewish Quarter – small alleys that we can stretch out our arms and reach both buildings. It’s known as Barrio Santa Cruz and wasn’t too far from the Cathedral, so after we were done with both the Cathedral and Palace, Marga came to meet us to take us around. [10] Marga in a fountain, filling up her water bottle. Apparently you can drink from the fountains. Personally thought it tasted a little funky, but it’s an idea. She asked us to watch for cops!

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[11] and [12] At the flamenco show! Afterwards, Donna and I walked across the river to Triana for late night eats. Of course, we were forewarned not to go to any place with no prices listed as it’s often the site of tourist traps. So we wandered for quite some time before we found a place! Ordering food was always such a chore because we had to yell over people in Spanish. So yeah, took awhile to get the food even once we found the place. It was great though, and in the end, the guy behind the counter wanted to give us some of the dishes free, but I was lame and didn’t realize it. I just kept telling him that his math sucked.

And the trip would not be complete without a jumping photo. This was taken on the roof of Marga’s apartment building. I had to take the photo, so I’m not in it.

More photos: Sevilla – June 2007

Montserrat was another day trip out of Barcelona. It was a bit more climbing than we had anticipated, so Donna was not a happy camper at the end of the day. Parts of the climbing involved these steep sides of mountains – oops. My legs AND arms were so sore after this day. At least we got some good pictures out of it.

More pictures from Montserrat: here.

Some time in early June, I went on a date with Dalí.

Okay, I lie. It wasn’t a date, and it wasn’t just the two of us. Donna and I visited the towns of Figueres and Cadaqués, where Dalí spent some of his life and where museums in his honor now remain.

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[1] When we first arrived in Figueres, it wasn’t so easy finding a map of the city. We’d follow signs leading in one direction, only to have lost them somewhere along the way. So this funny little reflection is located in the center of the city, just down the hill from the Teatre-Museu Dalí (Dalí Theater and Museum).

[2] He had an odd obsession with eggs. This is part of the front of the Dalí Theater and Museum, which he actually had a hand in designing and placing his work. It is supposedly a symbol of hope and love.

[3] Dalí is actually buried within the Theater and Museum! I had no idea when I visited, but I just read some info on his Wiki page. Nifty!

[4] and [5] These two are inside the museum. So strange. You had to get in line to go up these stairs to look through a magnifying glass to see the first image. It’s supposed to be Mae West. Don’t you see her? In the second, I’m flying out of the mouth at the top of the stairs!

[6] This was taken at the top of the stairs in the Jewels of Dalí exhibit next to the Theater and Museum. The highlight of this exhibit is a jeweled heart that keeps on beating! A little creepy, and I was able to take a video of it.

[7] and [8] More eggs! These were taken in Cadaqués at Dalí’s home. This trip was a little out of the way due to the time constraint of the bus schedule. Basically, we got off the bus, ran up the hill to see the house, and then hurried back down to the bus stop. What a rush!

It was mostly a day of bus and train rides. Worth it, in my opinion, seeing as how he’s one of my favorite artists. He was such a strange man with a famous mustache and crazy eyes. One day, I wish to find a man as devoted as he was to his wife, Gala. Perhaps slightly less crazy.

The rest of the photos with Dalí are: here!

I’m taking quite some time to write these. Maybe I will finish by August?

Oh, Barcelona! Perhaps my expectations of you were a little high. Everyone we’d spoken to before the trip had raved on and on about you. You didn’t really disappoint. It just wasn’t as life-changing as I had imagined it would be. That, and after spending several days there, my wallet was already feeling the difference. Why must you cost so much more than every other place in Spain? Must be the popularity, huh?

After reading all these websites about scams and pickpockets all over Barcelona, I was afraid to leave the hostel. Seriously, we arrived at night, and the very next morning, we sat in the lobby for a bit because we didn’t really want to head out into the big bad world. Haha. We had a plan though – one person carry the bag, two people watch. Thankfully, our plan worked. Even though we were obvious targets for things to happen to, we were safe from all of that. It was one of our hostel friends who kept getting ALMOST pickpocketed – poor guy. Happened to him 3 or 4 times on his trip.

Gaudí‘s work in Barcelona is amazing. I’m still curious as to how he did not become famous until after his death. He was commissioned to work on buildings and the cathedral… Were people just blind back then? And the story of his death is a little sad too – of all things, he got hit by a tram.

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[1] Casa Batlló. The first stop on our tour of the various Gaudí structures on Day One. This was the most expensive of the bunch, but by far the best. If you could only see one house, this one would be it. It’s also known as the House of Bones.

[2] The very famous rooftop of Casa Batlló. They say it’s supposed to resemble a dragon. It does, doesn’t it?

[3] Looking up in La Pedrera. This was the other major house that Gaudi­ worked on. The inside was furnished in a very typical Spanish home of Gaudi­’s time.

[4] The entire neighborhood – Eixample [pronounced like EYE-SHOM-PLUH] – is made up of buildings of this modernist architecture. It’s gorgeous and quite amazing.

[5] through [8] La Sagrada Familia. It won’t be finished for another 30 years or so. I still can’t get over what a genius Gaudí must have been to come up with all this.

[9] and [10] Parc Guell and Gaudí’s House. We saved the trip up to Parc Guell for another day. We sorta went in through the back [up an outdoor escalator!] and ended up with a great view of the city from up top.

More photos: Barcelona – May/June 2007

We were freezing our butts off in these two cities in the Basque country. After leaving Segovia and hanging out with the hostelers we’d met at the hostel, we went on the sleeper train to Bilbao. After staying at a hostel, we were quite impressed with the train. We had our own little room with a shower, sink, and a bunk bed. Of course, the shower was cold, so that proved pointless. The rooms were narrow – with our backpacks on, after we walked in, we had to back out because turning around was just impossible. It was probably more expensive to take the sleeper train, but we just had to try it once! The conductor was a friendly old guy, making sure that we knew when and where to get off the train.

When we arrived, it was really just a matter of collecting ourselves and figuring out what to do. We wanted to head up to San Sebastian right away and then leave exploring Bilbao for the next day. With my broken up Spanish, we managed to make it all the way to the bus station AND get some meds for Donna at the pharmacy. Her stomach was still bothering her at this point, and it was starting to cramp the traveling style. Haha. :p And it was a good thing too – after taking the meds, she got better pretty quickly and was able to eat that same night! WOOHOO.

We took a bus over to San Sebastian. I didn’t really reserve a hostel, but had some idea where to stay based on someone else’s recommendations. So we walked from the bus station to the general area, and with Donna’s supervision, we found the hostel. It was a little disappointing though because after checking in to the one hostel, they took us to a different building, which just wasn’t as nice. :( We wandered around the area a bit, checked out the old town, and did a little hiking. San Sebastian is a typical resort town, known for the beaches and surfing. But the first day that we were there, it was just butt freezing cold. :( We DID pack for the summer, so yeah – not prepared. It was like being in San Francisco! Donna was feeling better by the evening, so we found a great tapas place and basically pigged out. It was so wonderful. In the evening, we didn’t go out or even socialize with our hostel. It was just a bunch of people gathered in the kitchen talking about their experiences while drinking. WOOHOO. Yeah, not my thing, so we hid out and went to bed early. The girls in our room were pretty loud and inconsiderate, so we were glad it was only for one night.

The next morning (of course, just as we’re leaving), the sky had cleared up. It was gorgeous out, and we had to go! So sad… We took a couple of pictures, but then we were on our way back to Bilbao, which hadn’t yet cleared up. In Bilbao, we did a lot of walking and a little shopping too. The shopping was more for staying out of the cold. I picked up a Mango zip-up hoodie – it’s been quite useful throughout the trip. Checked out a museum… Went to this one restaurant where we ordered a ton of stuff, but it wasn’t exactly delicious – only okay and edible. Some things were waaaay too salty. A little disappointed, but it kept us out of the cold for an hour or so. And some time during our trek through Bilbao, we witnessed some guy sitting by the river basically shooting up into his already bleeding arm. Ick.

Before heading to the airport, we found ourselves sitting on the top floor of Corte Ingles, a Spanish department store, sipping on cafe con leche. Next stop – Barcelona.

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[1] The Bilbao train station. When we first got there, we didn’t really have a clue what to do with ourselves. So first, we asked someone in the train station about perhaps putting our bags into lockers. Funny bit was that when he goes to open up a locker to let us put our things in, he finds someone else’s bags already in the locker – UNLOCKED. So he’s going ahead and calling security, and we wander off for breakfast and end up carrying our luggage all the way to San Sebastian.

[2] La Mejillonera – The Mussel. It was where we pigged out on tapas in San Sebastian!

[3] Footprints in the sand.

[4] The sky was so blue the second day. Such a difference from the first day. If we weren’t rushing back to check out Bilbao before our flight to Barcelona, we would have stayed a little longer.

[5] Bilbao is the current home of the Robert Indiana exhibit. There are numbers from 0 to 9 and then various versions of “love.” Yup, I’m lame. I went and took a photo of each one.

[6] through [8] The Guggenheim!

[9] Donna doing some crazy ass jump in front of the hanging bridge.

[10] The #6 was next to a weird patch of grass. Lumpy!

More photos: Bilbao – May 2007 and San Sebastian – May 2007

One of the day-trips we took from Madrid was to Segovia. Being the type of traveler that I am, I scoped out the site of the bus station from which we were to leave from the day before. Plus, since we were heading to Bilbao by train the night we would return from Segovia, we also figured out where the train station was and whether not there was a place to store luggage. Consigna automaticas – lockers! So we dropped off our luggage early in the morning and then headed for the bus station. Our hostelmate, Rebecca, also came along.

I’ve really been making use of my Couchsurfing resources. For the day-trip to Segovia, we met up with Leonardo and Romulo, two Brazilian guys studying in Segovia. They showed us around to see the sites – the Aqueduct, the Cathedral, the Alcazar (castle) – and then we had to hightail it out of there. I’m sad that we could not stick around longer. The guys were excellent company (apparently they cut class to join us!), and Segovia’s just a neat little town anyway.

This was also the first time we encountered Pans & Company and Patatas Bravas. Pans is like an upgrade of Quizno’s! And Patatas Bravas are just DELISH.

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[1] The Aqueduct – built by the Romans. It’s amazing that it still stands. The rocks are just stacked upon each other.

[2] The Cathedral – while we walked inside, the guys waited for us outside.

[3] Group shot in front of the Cathedral.

[4] The Cathedral from the Castle.

[5] Jump in front of the Castle that inspired the architecture of the Disney castle. How could we resist?! More outtakes are in the set linked below!

[6] It was siesta time, so the streets were EMPTY.

More photos: Segovia – May 2007

Where does one begin? It was a 3-week trip. I was pretty good at documenting the first week or so, and then I just got carried away on the journey. There was just no time to write, especially by hand. Takes a lot longer. I’ve finally uploaded about half of the photos from the trip. They’ve proved to be quite useful for refreshing the memory.

So first stop was Madrid. A city that I enjoy because everything is easily accessible and within walking distance. We stayed at Mad Hostel, which had the most ridiculously difficult locks we’d ever had to deal with. You put your key to the lock, hear it click, then twist… but apparently, twisting was not enough. We heard so many others struggle at their doors throughout the night!

During the first stop in Madrid, we were really just there for a day. We arrived on Saturday night and were planning to take a train up to Bilbao on Monday after spending the day in Segovia. So we really only had intentions of seeing Madrid during Sunday. We actually ended up seeing a lot on Saturday night since Manu from Couchsurfing showed us around after he picked us up from the airport and showed us to our hostel. Gotta love the friendliness of fellow Couchsurfers. So since Donna and I both have pretty good senses of direction, Manu’s tour at night made wandering around the next day a lot easier. We probably saw more of the city because of it.

So on Sunday, we went to El Retiro, Museu del Prado, Plaza Mayor, the Cathedral, and the Palace. At night, we ended up hanging out with a group of fellow hostelers. Good times. On to the photos…

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[1] El Retiro Park – probably one of my favorite parts of the city. It’s pretty much like Central Park for NYC or Golden Gate Park for SF. Lots of people there on the weekends. There’s also a lake in the middle for paddleboats.

[2] Plaza Mayor – most cities in Spain have one of these. It’s just the main square of the city. The one in Madrid houses quite a few restaurants and is supposedly used as a government building. We saw a lot of people just sitting in groups on the floor of the square.

[3] Museu del Prado – lots of paintings. It was free on Sunday, so it was quite crowded.

[4] and [5] At the Palace – it was closed on Sunday due to regional elections, so we didn’t go inside.

[6] From the rooftop of the hostel – a great view of the sun setting.

More photos: Madrid – May 2007

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On another note, I am being unfair to S. All I want is not to be forgotten. I want to stay friends, but I feel as though I’m holding on for dear life when maybe he doesn’t really want to. I just don’t know. Maybe I should just stop calling all the time. Yes, maybe. Then it would give him room to breathe…

20 days later, and we are back. A little sad that it is over for the time being, but looking through the photos definitely brings back the memories.

Anyway, just thought I’d update and let whoever still reads this know that I’m back. Haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth – no worries.

I am writing these and typing them up when I have the chance, which is why a few entries at a time.

May 26, 2007

9.5 hours sitting straight up, trying to figure out if there is any way to be comfortable at all. But alas! Of all the seats I could have picked out, my luck really freakin’ sucks. On top of that, no new camera. Maybe it is a foreshadowing of what’s to come on the trip, but my overexcitement seems to have me seeing otherwise. Yeah, that must be it.

20 minutes or so to LHW. Then a quick sprint over to our departure gate. We will have 30 more minutes than expected to make the transfer, so hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Aside from not being able to really sleep, flight’s been good. I have a very nice older couple sitting next t ome. Surprisingly, I have not been antisocial. They’re going to Italy for a month where they’ve bought a house. Kinda crazy. They are from San Francisco, but live in the Marin, so I guess it makes sense. Didn’t ask for details, but I am picturing an Italian villa!

Wonder if I will get any sleep on the next flight.

One more week, and I’ll be sitting on that plane heading east. Funny how something I have been planning since January is now here, and I am still not ready. Procrastinated quite a bit, and I’ve not figured out what clothes to bring nor have I picked up that new camera to go along with the trip. Oh well…

Checked the weather for at least the next week, and looks like Spain’s weather will be in the 70s and up to the 90s in the south. So yes, t-shirt, tank tops, shorts, and skirts weather! Our plan is to bring backpacks. Hopefully they will be big enough to hold three weeks of traveling! Last minute shopping this week!

On another note, if you’re interested in getting a postcard, email me. My email’s on the upper right corner of this page.