Sat, 25 Oct 2003

author Tim	location Paris, France
posted 21:23 CET 31/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Leading up to The Big Bus Journey ( 13 photos )
We awoke with not a good situation on our hands - Liz was not feeling well at all. By this stage we had worked out it must have been some bug or other in her system, as we eat almost identically and I was feeling fine.
I organised us out of the hostel, putting our things in the storage area, before we decided that not much at all was going to get done today. Instead, we rested, taking the opportunity to get some journal done sitting in the hostel. We would have liked to see some more things, but we had infact seen a lot in our days around the city and thought some R&R would be the best thing.
Around 2pm, we jumped on a Metro down to Marty's to pick up our big bag we had left there previously. First we went into the huge supermarket there to grab some supplies for the bus journey, where we bumped into Katherine. She was also leaving shortly, flying out on a plane a couple of hours before us - lucky thing!
We walked up to Marty's, managing somehow to press the right doorbell button and get inside. Since we had to get moving and Liz still wasn't feeling the best, we didn't stay too long, bidding them both farewell until we see them in Sydney over Christmas.
Our next stop was to the EasyEverything internet café to use up the credit we had purchased when first arriving, which had lasted us well. It turned out we could use it on two computers at the same time, leaving us both to get through some emails.
We also wanted a wander up and down La Rambla once again, this time with me with digital camera on hand for some snaps around the place, including Monumnent a Colom at the bottom of La Rambla. This done, it was back to the hostel to organise some dinner, and by this stage Liz was feeling much better. Perhaps getting out and on the town a little had fixed her up.
There wasn't much left in the day but to wander slowly to the bus station with all our gear to catch our 8pm bus to Paris. Along the way we found a really cheap barber, so I sat down and let him go more than a little overboard, happy that however bad it looked at least it cost five euros. And even that I had found earlier in the day on the ground :)
After a little bit of a scare (the bus company we had booked with was actually operating under a different name), we located our bus stop and just had to wait until it arrived. Once it did, we chucked our bags in the back, and went through the crowds to get inside. It was a huge double-decker bus, and the bottom level was full, which didn't bode well for our travel sickness concerns. The top level was also pretty full, but we managed to convince a couple to stop hogging two seats each, leaving us together for fifteen hours or so towards Paris.
This couple also had a young baby, which was more than a little concerning, but he behaved himself amazingly well, and was more than a little interested in us strange-looking Aussies.
It turned out that we didn't feel sick at all!! This was an amazing breakthrough, as my parents will no doubt attest to just how sick I used to get just driving around Sydney, let alone on long journeys. We made our first stop around 11pm back in Girona, then we dozed off for the night, lulled to sleep by the dark lighting and people deciding to be quiet around us.
Somewhere along the way, we crossed the border back into France.

author Liz	location Paris, France
posted 20:00 CET 31/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Parc Güell, La Sagrada Familia ( 72 photos )
On Friday I woke up feeling much better than I had been feeling for the last few days, so we both enjoyed our breakfast's before heading outside to explore more of Barcelona.
Our first stop was at an internet café to check our emails, and then we caught the Metro and travelled across the city.
From where we got off the Metro, we climbed steeply uphill, making use of a few escalators that were in the centre of the road going up. At the top of the hill, we entered Parc Güell, a huge and beautiful park that was designed by Gaudi, the same man who built and designed a lot of La Sagrada Familia.
From the park we had excellent views out over Barcelona, with the sea in the distance and the sun shining brilliantly over everything. We spent quite a while enjoying the view and had a nice walk around the top of the park, before heading downwards.
Further down through the park, we saw the main areas of Gaudi's influence - his own beautiful house, the water fountains and seating areas all decorated with colourful broken tiles, the two 'gingerbread' houses, which I particularly liked, and the very famous 'Drac', a mosaic covered dragon.
We explored all around before exiting out through the bottom end of Parc Güell.
From there we took a long walk to La Sagrada Familia which took quite a while, but at least it got us off the busy tourist trail for a while. We stopped along the way for a snack from a bakery, and enjoyed looking around a different section of Barcelona's many streets.
After a while, we reached La Sagrada Familia, only we were at the other end of the church to the end we had seen the night before. But first, here is a bit of information about La Sagrada Familia...
La Sagrada Familia is a church that construction started on in 1882, and today, in 2003, it is still not even half-way to being finished. Gaudi had a lot to do with it's design, and he also did most of the work on one end, the Nativity Facade, the end of the church that we had seen on Thursday night. Unfortunately, Gaudi was run over by a tram in 1926, and died a few days later, for a long time construction slowed down or stopped altogether, partly because nobody knew just how Gaudi had planned how to build such a huge and complex building, let alone keep it upright for years and years. Now, they have a tentative finishing date of sometime in the 2020's, but a lot of people feel that the church should be left as it is, as a tribute to Gaudi.
So, Tim and I now stood at the Passion Facade, built long after Gaudi's death, sometime in the 1950's. It is instantly different to Gaudi's end of the church, and I have never seen such contrasting sections of the same church.
The Passion Facade still had biblical scenes, as does the Nativity Facade by Gaudi, but the stone carvings have very straight, severe lines, and it looks very modern, and hardly like a church at all. In comparison, Gaudi's Facade is full of flowing lines, soft curves and a lot more detail. Gaudi's Facade even has a tree carved high up, and the tree is covered in doves to symbolise peace. It's hard to explain....you'll just have to go and see it yourself!
Tim and I bought tickets to go inside, but before we went in, we stood and stared at the newer Passion Facade for quite a while. Then we went into the church.
It is quite strange to follow to line of a pillar, up and up and up, and then it just ends, with no roof, just a patch of blue sky. And only two or three windows, of the ones that have been built, have stained glass in them. There is scaffolding everywhere, and even some drink dispensing machines, which we thought was wrong. It is a church, after all.
You can walk around a little way inside the church, but there is scaffolding or machinery in most places, so once you see a bit of the inside, you pop out at the other end, underneath the Nativity Facade by Gaudi.
Here, Tim and I sat and stared and stared at all the detail. I could go on and on about this facade, because it really is quite amazing, but once again, you'll just have to go and see for yourself :)
Next, we climbed up into one of the incredibly tall towers, nearly to the top, crossed a bridge, and then wound our way down again. We went really high up, so we had great views looking down into the church and also out over Barcelona. We were so high up that I felt dizzy, especially after winding up and down all the stairs! Being up so high gave us a chance to see a lot of Gaudi's work up close, which was fantastic.
Back down on the ground, we had a bit of a rest while still admiring the church, before finding the nearest Metro station and catching the Metro to a station near our hostel.
We spent a while back at the hostel, relaxing and catching up on our journals, before cooking pasta and sauce for dinner.
Once we had eaten and done our washing up, we headed back outside and walked from Barri Gótic up to the Musical Fountain, which sits just below Palau Nacional where we had walked up to the day before. Here, they put on a show similar to, but nowhere near as good as, the Magical Fountain on Sentosa, Singapore. It had lights and music, but the views out over Barcelona were better than the fountain.
We met up with Marty and Katherine there, and after Tim and I had taken a few photos, the four of us headed off on a tapas and bar hopping spree.
We went to three or four different pubs, and at most of them had a plate or two of tapas (olives or potatoes bravis or calamari) and a drink. It was lots of fun, and the last bar we went to was the Wax Museum bar where we had been once before, with all the wax trees and so on, before heading back to our hostel.

author Liz	location Paris, France
posted 19:00 CET 31/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Olympic Site, Crazy Café ( 44 photos )
When we woke up on Thursday morning, we had breakfast at the hostel, and then Penny and Jonno checked out and went off to find a place to stay that was closer to the bus station as they had to catch an early bus the next morning to take them to the airport. Tim and I stayed in the hostel we were in, as it was nice and central and was one of the few hostels in Barcelona that had a kitchen. So we spent our morning checking emails and organising a way to get from Barcelona to Paris.
This ended up being a bus to Paris, all the way from Barcelona, 15 hours in total. We booked it for Saturday night, and although it was the cheapest transport option by far, neither of us was too excited about such a long time on a bus.
We met up again with Penny and Jonno at Midday and decided to walk from the main bus terminal where we were to the 1992 Barcelona Olympic site, across the city.
The walk took a long time, but the weather was really nice (our first perfect sunny day in Barcelona), and it gave us a great chance to look around the city.
We stopped at a busy but nice place for lunch, and sat at the bar eating our food and watching all the drinks and food being prepared.
A bit more walking, and then we came to Plaça d'Espanya, a huge and busy square that lead us up a long wide road, complete with a fountain along it's length (although it wasn't turned on). At the end of this road, we could see the huge and grand Palau Nacional, that contains the Catalunya National art museum. The building looked very impressive up on the hill, and the view out over the city as we climbed up the hill was also very impressive.
Much further up the hill, we walked through a small park, and then came to the Olympic pool. Further up the road was the Olympic Stadium, where we wandered around it's outside for a bit, before going and having a look inside the stadium. It was suprisingly smaller than Stadium Australia, but it was good to see it.
Back outside the stadium, and around the other side, we started going back downhill. There were lots of beautiful views of the city, especially when we came to the Olympic diving pool, with the spectator seats all lined up on one side of the pool, and all looking out across Barcelona and the diving pool. It would have been brilliant to sit there and watch Olympic diving as well as getting to enjoy such a nice view of Barcelona!
On our way down the hill, and guy called out to Penny and Jonno, and it turned out he was an Austrian whom they had met on their travels through Spain. The five of us decided to go for a coffee, so we made our way all the way back down to town and found a small bar/café to have a hot drink. The drinks were good, but the barman was a bit mad. He got all excited that we spoke English and spent half an hour explaining an American movie plot to us (in Spanish) and getting us to teach him some of the words from the story-line in English. At least that was what we think he was doing! In the end we had had enough of him, and wandered on a bit further.
We said goodbye to Jonno and Penny's friend, and went to a supermarket where Jonno and Penny bought some supplies. From there we caught a Metro to La Sagrada Familia.
Tim and I went back to La Sagrada Familia the next day for a good look around, so I will say a bit about it in a minute, but to see it that first time was amazing. The spires of Gaudi's uncompleted church towered above us as we came up from the Metro, and we just stood and stared at it for quite a while. Anyway, more about it later, but it was spectacular by night, so we couldn't wait to see it the next day.
The four of us found a small bar and sat playing cards for a while before meeting up with Marty and his girlfriend Katherine. Then all six of us went out for a drink and then dinner.
Dinner was nice, with Tim trying a Spanish speciality - pig's cheek. We all spent many hours talking, drinking and eating.
After saying goodbye to Marty and Katherine, Tim, Penny, Jonno and I caught a taxi back to the Gothic quarter, and there we said goodbye to each other, as Penny and Jonno were leaving for London early the next morning.
Back at our hostel, Tim and I flopped into our beds.

author Liz	location Paris, France
posted 18:00 CET 31/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Back to Barcelona ( 21 photos )
On Wednesday morning I woke up feeling sick, so I didn't eat much of the breakfast that was supplied by the hostel, but Tim, Penny and Jonno seemed to enjoy their breakfast's.
We had decided to find somewhere to stay that was in the middle of town, as although it would cost a little more for the accommodation, we would save on transport costs and perhaps have a kitchen to cook some meals in too. Tim called a few places and found a hostel in the Gothic quarter, about five minutes walk from La Rambla, and they said they would hold beds for the four of us for an hour.
We caught a bus into the city, with me feeling quite sick along the way, and very happy to get off the bus at the end.
After a bit of walking through the Barri Gótic, we found the hostel, Alberg Palau, and claimed our beds in the dorm room with a small balcony overlooking one of the Gothic quarter streets Carrer Palau.
Jonno and Penny went out for a while to collect a package from the post office, while Tim and I went to an internet café on La Rambla and then came back to the hostel.
The weather was bad again - lots of cloud and rain, so the four of us sat inside the hostel for a couple of hours, eating lunch and playing cards.
At 3pm, the clouds broke a little and the sun shone through, so we went out for a walk.
From our hostel, we walked through lots of the Gothic streets and up to Esglesia de Santa Maria del Mar, a large and beautiful church, with some gorgeous stained glass windows inside.
We kept walking and made it to Parc de la Ciutadella, a huge park, complete with duck ponds, a very pretty cascade, lots of green trees and a concrete Mammoth! It was very nice to wander around the park and get some fresh air and a bit of sunshine after being cooped up inside for a lot of the day.
It started getting cool, so we headed back to the hostel, stopping for a coffee in a small café along the way, and exploring yet more of the Barri Gótic streets.
For our dinner we cooked at the hostel which had a kitchen, and made a big stew with chicken, beans and vegetables, all topped off with some wine and our own version of Sangria. It was all delicious, and it was great to have a kitchen to cook in after not being able to cook for quite a while.
After dinner, we sat around playing cards, chatting and drinking hot chocolate until quite late, and then we all went to bed.

author Liz	location Paris, France
posted 17:00 CET 31/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Tarrrrrrragona ( 5 photos )
For breakfast on Tuesday, the four of us had coffee in the bar downstairs, accompanied by a few of our 'Magdalena' cupcakes that we had bought many of the day before.
We spent a while working out what to do for the day, and decided to go further north to Tarragona, another town right on the coast of Spain, but still a little way south of Barcelona.
Jonno and Tim went for a walk to find out about a bus that might take us there, but without much success, so we all checked out of the hotel and walked up to the train station.
Here we also had troubles. There were no seats available on the train until 4.30pm that afternoon. It was only about 10.30am, and Tim and I were especially un-keen about the wait after all our other hours spent waiting recently, but we decided that getting tickets for the 4.30pm train was better than nothing.
So, after getting our tickets, we shouldered our bags once more, and started the long walk back to the beach, about half an hour away. Along the way we stopped at a supermarket and got some food for a picnic on the beach, and then we spent the day sitting on the beach, eating, drinking, talking and playing cards.
It looked like it was going to rain, so we walked back to the train station and sat on the platform playing cards. We were also entertained by a cute little dog with huge bat-like ears, and an older man that came and stood silently watching our game of cards over our shoulders, looking as though he would give Jonno a tip on how to win the game at any moment!
The train arrived on time and took us to Tarragona in an hour.
Our plan was to find some cheap accommodation for the night, but after ringing around lots of places, and Tim and Penny walking to hotels near the station, we still had not found a place to stay. We even carried all our bags up to the town centre, high on a hill and overlooking the sea, and had a look all around there for somewhere to stay. But we still had no luck finding anywhere that wasn't too expensive.
In the end, we decided to go back down to the train station, passing all the expensive shops along the way, and catch a train to Barcelona. Luckily, there were plenty of seats, and we caught a train that got us to Barcelona not long after 8.30pm.
The place we ended up staying the night at was the HI Alberg Mare de Déu Montserrat, a bit out of central Barcelona, so when we had to catch a Metro to get there and then walk uphill a little way to find the hostel. It turned out to be a nice hostel, set in an old stone building and beautifully decorated inside with mosaics and coloured marble.
We dumped our bags in the dorm room and then went and caught a bus into town to find some dinner.
It was quite last by now, so most places in the Gothic quarter, where we were looking for dinner, had stopped serving food, or were simply out of our budget. We ended up choosing a kebab place where we had some beer as well and then sat playing cards until they dimmed the lights and turned the music up. So we went to another bar and sat playing cards until the wee hours when they kicked us out.
We caught a taxi back to the hostel, and went to bed sometime after 3am.

author Tim	location Barcelona, España
posted 12:37 CEST 25/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Vinarós ( 12 photos )
We left the pension for a final time and walked strapped to our packs to the station. Trains back north were full, we were told. Not good news for us, and yet another transport annoyance in Spain.
We could get as far as the edge of the Metro system back in Castello, so that we did (at least it was cheap). From there however, there was only one train and that was going to cost us heaps. So, it was back to waiting at the bus station - the same one we had hated with such a passion days before.
This time, a bus turned up almost on time, and we payed the rather cheap fare up north to Vinarós. However, the limitations of bus transport rapidly became apparent, as it was quite full and we had to put our packs on our laps for the whole journey.
The bus stopped at about a thousand stops through the suburbs of Castello, which didn't bode well for us getting to our destination any time that day. But once outside the city, it stopped only once all the way there, so that was much better. We watched the country roll by, strange to be back on the road again (as opposed to some rails). It's a pretty place to travel through, but hard to do justice to buried under large packs and not able to stop whenever we want. That's for next time.
We stopped in Vinarós, jumped off and had absolutely no idea where we were. There's not much going for this place besides its rather nice beach and the fact that almost no tourists want to go there, so it is cheap. We followed the only signs we could see, walking through anonymous streets line with similar shops, searching for a sign to the centre.
One eventually made itself found, and we walked past yet more little cafés, bars, shoe shops, markets, squares and the like until we sighted the beach. There we plonked ourselves and picniced, not having any better plan until we heard from Jono and Penny. The beach was one of the nicest we have seen in recent times, having almost real sand but still a little too polluted. The water was quite a bit colder than Nice a few days earlier, due mostly I guess to the storms.
Jono rang, saying that they were at the train station and would walk down to meet us on the beach. Here, the station is about half an hour inland, which Liz and I had noticed when we came through it on the train a couple of days ago.
I almost fell asleep in the sun, but was awoken by the sight of two very fit people saying hello - Jono and Penny, fresh from several hundered kilometres of walking around Spain. We haven't seen them well and truly since Sydney, so it was great to catch up on the beach for quite a while, trading travel tales. But eventually we needed to find somewhere to sleep for the night.
We had no real opposition to staying in this town, so we set off in search of a cheap pension. They both speak quite good Spanish (one of the reasons they are here is to teach English), so this proved no real problem. We found one back towards the station above a lively little bar filled with locals. It was pretty basic, but very cheap and we were happy enough there.
Dinner was next on the list of requirements, so we headed back to a large supermarket Penny had spotted earlier, stocking up on bread, meat, cheese, amazingly cheap wine and beer, all of which added up to a great meal for not much money at all.
We searched for a little while to find a place to eat it all, settling on an area just near the beach overlooking the port. Here we sat for ages, just chatting yet more, munching, and everyone enjoying the opportunity to talk to other people after so long with nobody really other than each of our partners to blather at.
The sunset over the port was gorgeous, and we stayed until after dark, ducking into the nearby bar when nature called, hoping nobody noticed!
Back to the pension, we retired to our separate rooms for the night.

author Tim	location Barcelona, España
posted 11:55 CEST 25/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Valencia ( 20 photos )
One thing you usually don't get in a pension is a breakfast included, and this was no exception. So, the first mission for the day was to find a cheap breakfast somewhere.
The place was right near Plaza del Ayuntamiento, a triangular-shaped thing with a fountain in the middle, lined with pleasant if a little touristy shops. But on the whole, the city is far from over-touristed. I think we only saw one actual souviner shop the whole time.
Not too far north, we passed a few cafés before choosing one offering a cheap croissant and coffee deal. We sat down upstairs, with plenty of locals doing the same, just reading papers and doing not much at all. Liz ordered English Breakfast tea, which was actually real leaf tea in a strainer thingy, something very rare here where almost nobody drinks tea at all.
Further north, we passed L'Almonia, the heart of the Roman town of Valentia, where there are on-going excavations. Next door was Plaza de la Virgen, where hundereds of locals were gathering doing whatever it is that locals do on a Sunday morning in a Spanish square. Also, there was an area where people were madly swapping football cards, huge piles of them with about fifty people all wandering around trying to find that elusive player. Mums were even there with a printed list of the cards that little Hosé needs to finish the set off. It was all quite interesting - the Spanidards are truly fanatical about their football.
Next we crossed another interesting feature of Valencia - the old river-bed which once carried plenty of water through the city, now carries local kids playing football and a plethora of great gardens under the banner of Jardines del Turia.
Over one of the bridges which are no longer really required but most people use anyway, we located the tram station for a ride towards the beach. The port and beach area to the east of town are where the locals head in droves every lunchtime. If I had a three hour Siesta each day to sit and eat, I would do the same, so that's exactly what we intended to do this day.
We didn't have change to buy a ticket for the tram, so intended to buy one from the conductor onboard, but one never turned up. Just as well, since the first tram was the wrong direction anyway and we had to come back. We got off and walked a few minutes down to the beach, Playa de la Malvarrosa. Along this was a promenade of restaurants called the Paseo Marítimo. We took our time picking one, as there were so many all looking great. Eventually we followed our noses, sat down at a table facing the water and soaked in the atmosphere.
Our paella arrived, and we devoured it with great gusto. It's a great dish, so tasty and filling while still remaining quite healthy. Here, where the stuff was invented, was a great place to eat it, washed down with a couple of local beers and just watch the sea do its thing infront of us.
To settle that down, we took a walk out along the headland where some surfers were bravely battling the still-rough waters after the stormy days. Plenty of people were watching these two guys, but the best waves were breaking right onto the rocks infront of us where nobody dared to surf. However, the local cat population had set up house there, with about thirty cats and kittens all sitting on the rocks and occasionally running away from waves. Somebody appeared to have been feeding them, but they all looked pretty mangey.
We decided to walk back to town rather than get another tram, as it appeared to be quite direct. Short it wasn't however, and we spent a couple of hours pushing towards town, stopping only for an ice cream and some water. We crossed back over the Jardines del Turia "river" at Plaza de Zaragoza, where there were lots of gardens both above and below the "water line".
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent trying to decypher Spanish and strangely enough German TV which was a novelty, not having seen it for so long. No dinner required after a lunch of that magnitude.
Jono and Penny rang us from Morella to find out where we were, and we told them the bad news about the buses. We agreed to meet up the next day back north in Vinaròs, and as such this was as far south as we were going to get in Spain.

author Tim	location Barcelona, España
posted 11:17 CEST 25/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

NOT to Morella, but Valencia ( 4 photos )
Our general aim for this day was to get a town called Morella, inland in the Valencia province, where we wanted to meet up with Jono and Penny who have been walking around Spain for a month or so. I went to uni with Jono, and interestingly when we went out for dinner back home a few times, we always ended up at Spanish restaurants. So now we were keen to go one better while we were here with them.
Up early, we left our large blue carry bag at Marty's (a welcome change with all the weight in it), and got the Metro back to Sants, where a ticket guy who spoke little English did a little 'running' mime to indicate that the train we wanted was about to leave and we should be quick. Very helpful, and we got the point and high-tailed it down to one of the platforms.
To get to this little town, we had to get a bus in from either Vinaròs or Castello, both stations on the train line south from Barcelona to Valencia City. Marty had helpfully phoned the bus company and used his Spanish to extract from them that there was no bus from Vinaròs (the closest station to Barcelona) on a Saturday, but there was one from Castello - a bigger town but further away. And none from anywhere on Sunday, which often isn't counted as a day here in Spain at all. For instance, buses run "every day" from some places, but if you ask what time the bus on Sunday is, they say "oh no, not Sunday". Weird.
We spent the hours on the train looking at the citrus trees all around the area, and doing the maths, basically working out that we would probably make it in time for this only bus at 1:30pm by about fifteen minutes. All was going well right up until two stops or so out of Castello, where the train proceeded to stop. We egged it on, knowing that our chances of meeting up rested on this useless slow train getting moving again. Soon a fast train sped past us, but still we didn't move. Something eventually spurred the driver into action, just in time to get us into Castello about three minutes after the bus left.
We ran around like mad things trying to find another way, ask people or just generally get to Morella in anyway possible. Disheartened, we were about to go back inside and get on a train to Valencia City when we noticed on the electronic bus noticeboard that there was another bus to Morella at 3:50pm! All we can guess is that this one is operated by a different company that we didn't know about.
So, we sat and waited, doing some supermarket runs for food, but cursing the fact that carrying books to read would mean more weight, so we don't really do it.
I amused myself for a while playing with my new camera, a Kodak CX6330 (3.1MP, 3x optical zoom) which takes great pictures, weighs not much at all and is tiny. However, it's designed for people who just want the photos and as such is pretty dumbed down. No arguments from me, it's going to be just fine for what we want it for, and it was cheap!
By 4pm, plenty of buses had come and gone, and we had asked all of them if they were going to Morella, but none did. We could have gotten to Romania though. By 5pm, we were part of a growing crowd not happy that there was now no way to get to this little place until Monday. Once most of that crowd got into a car that they had hired or borrowed or something at around 5:45, we decided that we had done enough waiting for the day, went inside and got on a train to Valencia instead.
This was much better, as we were actually at the far northern reach of the city's Metro system, so the journey in, while stopping at every little stop, was nice enough and plenty efficient. Not so the buses around this region.
Valencia City didn't look significantly different to anything else as we walked North from the train station, and to Hostal-Residencia Alicante, a pension (cheap hotel) located above Calle de Ribera, a lively pedestrian street with cafés and bars. The price was good but not fantastic, so we had a quick look at a few other options before deciding that we had had enough for the day and just taking it.
The room was great - a little double with its own shower and sink, very clean and also convenient. We relaxed, not having to wait for something for a change, except for our stomachs to start rumbling.
When the eventually did, we headed out for a wander around the town, where a cheap tapas run by a lively local turned out to be a great option.

author Liz	location Barcelona, España
posted 11:09 CEST 25/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

The Rain in Spain, New Camera ( 4 photos )
On Friday, Tim, Marty and I all had a long sleep in until 10am after our big night our on Thursday. And then we didn't really do much but sit around relaxing, eat a big greasy breakfast complete with bacon and sausages, have hot showers and chat to each other. The weather was still awful outside, so that made it a big incentive to stay warm and dry inside!
At 3pm, the weather cleared a little, so we got off our lazy bums and walked out to the beach. The surf was really rough, and we got sprayed by sea water, but it was really nice to walk along the beach and listen to the waves breaking.
The storm over the last few days had washed away most of the sand on the man-made beaches and the water was very brown and there was quite a lot of rubbish on what was left of the sand, so it wasn't the best looking beach, but we still had a nice long walk all the way to the harbour where we had been the day before.
We stopped there for a late lunch. There were about eight small fast-food places to choose from, so I had fish and chips and Tim and Marty had burgers.
Feeling satisfied, we headed up La Rambla and then we turned off it to find some camera shops. We spent about two hours looking around various shops and exploring through the back streets. The good news is that Tim found a camera that he liked and at not too steep a price. So we bought it. It doesn't have as many features as the camera he lost, but he is much happier now he has a camera again, and we both think it is definitely worth having it for the memories.
It was now dark and raining once more. We made our way through the rain to a movie cinema that showed some movies in English, but finding none we were keen to see, we decided to get a taxi back to Marty's flat and stay out of the rain for the night.
We had some pasta and sausages for dinner and sat around chatting until we went to bed.

author Liz	location Barcelona, España
posted 10:13 CEST 25/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

Into Barcelona ( No photos )
On Thursday, we had a bit of a lie-in before going downstairs and having breakfast at the hostel. It was quite good - breads, cheese and sliced meat, hot and cold drinks, and delicious lemon cupcakes.
Back upstairs, we packed our bags and then checked out and made our way to the train station. Along the way we got a few photos of the medieval streets of Girona and the residental areas along the river-bank.
At the station, we were on-time for our intended train, and even better, the train itself turned up - only five minutes late!
So we went from Girona down to Barcelona, and at midday we were standing in the central train station - Barcelona Sants.
We put all our bags in a locker, and gave up trying to get a city map from the very slow and busy tourist information.
Our next twenty minutes were spent trying to locate the Metro station near Marty's (Tim's uni mate) house on the station maps. For some reason, we just could not see the station we were looking for. Afterwards we found out that the station we were looking for was quite new, so it obviously hadn't made it to the maps we were looking at. In the end, we asked an assistant where the station was, and he pointed it out on yet another map.
Marty was at work, so Tim and I bought a T-10 (a public transport ticket that gives you ten trips on all transport) and caught the Metro to a station that was close to the first things we wanted to see.
Unfortunately, the weather was very overcast and later on in the day it rained heavily. Walking around Barcelona in bad weather didn't really do the city justice.
We found a large square that had thousands of pidgeons, all keen to get food from all the humans to the point where they kept jumping onto our feet, or even onto the bench next to us. We at some of our bread and peanut butter, and shooed the pidgeons away, and then decided to keep walking as we were getting quite cold sitting there.
Our first adventure was La Rambla. La Rambla is Spain's most famous street and stretches all the way from Catalunya Square to Colom, a huge Colombus monument. Down the middle of La Rambla is a wide pedestrian boulevard and two single road lanes either side, then more footpaths and shops, cafés and old buildings at the sides. The middle is lined with huge trees all along the length, and looks very pretty. But, it is most famous for the bird stalls, flower stalls and vibrant buskers and beggars.
The first section we walked along had the bird stalls - little stalls packed with cage after cage filled with parrots, pidgeons, chickens, ducks, even rabbis and baby turtles. It was interesting, but a bit sad seeing many birds squashed into small cages, and quite a few of them showing signs of distress. Tim and I also wondered if some of the exotic parrots we saw had maybe been smuggled from their native countries.
Next were the flower stalls with a huge array of brightly coloured flowers and plants. Along the sides were buskers or human statues, people on stilts and even a "Michael Jackson" dancing to music. And of course, lots of other tourists.
We went off to one side and had a look through a few souvaner shops, walked more along the pedestrian bit in the middle, and then crossed to the other side to go into Mercat de la Boqueria, a large and busy food market. We walked all around the market, smelling olives, fruit and seafood, seeing lots of fresh meat - so fresh that poultry was dead and plucked but otherwise whole, and suckling pigs and so on. A bit gross, but I guess that's what we eat most of the time.
We went back out onto La Rambla, and walked all the way down to the Colombus monument looking around us as we went.
The Colombus monument was quite tall, with a statue standing on top, and we had a good look before heading onwards down to the waterfront. We crossed a footbridge going past hundereds of yachts moored at the marina and looked up to the hill on our right, which was the main sight of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. On the other side of the bridge was Moll d'Espanya, a former wharf which is now a big shopping centre complete with restaurants on the harbourside.
We walked through the shopping centre, then went back across the footbridge and back up La Rambla a little way.
We turned right and headed into Barri Gòtic, the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. It is full of lots of little grubby streets, tapas bars, coffee shops and above all the shops and bars are lots of flats. It is full of rubbish and there are lots of beggars, but it still has a certain charm and was quite fun to explore around the many streets, often getting quite lost!
This was what Tim and I did now, wandering randomly through the streets, occasionaly coming to a small square.
We saw Catedral (not Cathedral), a big church but it was covered in scaffolding and green mesh, which obscured nearly the whole building. In the square outside was a junk market, which we looked through for a bit and then we came to a wide pedestrian street which was lined with expensive shops and department stores.
By now, it was quite cold and windy, so we caught the Metro back to Barcelona Sants, got our bags out of the luggage locker and caught the Metro to the station near Marty's house.
Outside, it was even colder and raining too - not the sort of weather we had expected to have in Spain!
Marty came and met us outside the station, and we went up to his flat where we stayed inside for a few hours and watched the miserable weather through the windows.
Tim and I hadn't had anything to eat for ages, so Marty cooked us some pasta and fried eggs. It was delicious - we hadn't had eggs for ages, and as a bonus Marty was cooking for us!
Later on in the evening, we did go out even though it was still raining heavily. First we checked our email, then we ran through the rain to a huge shopping centre where we got some food for later and where Tim had a look at digital cameras.
We then caught the Metro into the middle of the city and our first stop for the night was the Wax Museum Bar. Incredible - the whole bar was full of waxwork trees, with hidden faces that were really expressive when we finally managed to pick a few out. It was like being in the Enchanted Forest and I loved it. We had a few drinks there, and when it closed at 1am, we did more running through the rain to a wine bar for a few drinks.
We got back to Marty's place about three or four am after catching the night bus and getting soaking wet and freezing cold!

author Tim	location Barcelona, Catalunya, España
posted 10:38 CEST 17/10/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Espana ( all photos )

We Made It! ( No photos )
(Continued from France 1)
Depending on what you chose to believe, Port-Bou was either in España (Spain) or France, but when we arrived it was clear we had crossed the border. Signs were different, French was now the third language, behind Catalan (the regional dialect) then Español (Spanish). English was nowhere to be seen - hooray!
Not really being prepared to wait two hours for the next train, I gave up the idea of explaining that we wanted long return tickets all through España and back again, opting just for two (dos) singles to Girona.
Another town picked for the location of its hostel, and the fact that it lie about half-way between the border and Barcelona, Girona was a little more interesting than we expected. The train station was quite a wander away from anything of interest, but at least the information office woman was able to communicate that the tourist office lay in 'that' general direction, which we set off in search of.
Back pretty much as we crossed the border, the weather had turned quite sour. This was not what we had expected at all from sun-soaked Spain. We zigged and zagged through anonymous streets, crossed the river Riu Onyar and found the tourist office. There a girl who had at least some grasp of English showed me on a map where the hostel was, then proceeded to explain on the list of hotels that this was the "price" and these are "hotels" and these are "pensions". She seemed so excited to be able to communicate in English, something she was only fairly new at. Good on her - our Español thus far stretches to "Non hablos Español" and "¿Hablos English?", which is of course "I don't speak Spanish" and "Do you speak English?". The most important phrases in any new country! Oh, and love the upside-down question marks at the beginning of sentences!
The HI hostel Alberg de Joventut proved to be not far from the tourist office, through into the far more attractive old section of town. We checked into the hostel, which unfortunately is always a bit of a let-down, because it's pretty much all in English, so we could have been anywhere.
We dumped our stuff then set out to explore the city a bit. We had heard of the legendary cheap and excellent Spanish food long long ago, and were keen to check it out after so much pasta-and-sauce. The reception girl drew a few places on our map, and we set off out into the rain in search of a couple of them.
First stop was a nice wine bar overlooking the river off Plaza Independéncia and a few of its cute bridges, where we sat for an hour or so before going a few shops away to an empty but cheap and reliable looking tapas restaurant.
For those who don't know, tapas is a concept where you get lots of small servings of food, so that you eat about seven courses, each quite different. We had chicken, spicy potatoes, ham croquetes and all sorts of yummy goodies, finished off great with desserts that we couldn't quite fit in after all that.
We wandered back to the hostel, glad that for a while at least the French regional rail system was behind us, and we could make some progress with our trip.

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