March 28
I had a bit of a struggle with an unactivated Eurail Pass at Atocha as my pass was apparently not "activated" at Algeciras, but a nice grandfatherly Renfe employee helped me out and I didn't miss my train to Barcelona. When I got out of the metro in Barcelona looking for my hostel I got a bit lost. I got to the rather spacious hostel and got acquainted with the more diverse crown (LA, Chicago, Denmark, UK, NZ, Germany). During the afternoon I visited Montjuic and the Olympic Park, which was gorgeous and had a fantastic view of the city. I wandered through the Barri Gotic which had a fantastic Old World-feel, similar to Tangier, but less suspect. Barcelona reminded me a lot of San Francisco the more I thought about it.
March 29
I missed my scheduled bike tour due to my failure at map reading (a very uncommon occurrence), so I wandered through the Parc Guell and visited La Sagrada Familia (I must have walked halfway across the city of Barcelona and back). I checked out the Camp Nou, where FC Barcelona plays, and I was a bit surprised to find that it had gone fully Nike commercialized, although I probably shouldn't have been. I bought lunch in La Boqueteria, an exceptionally large farmer's market. While wandering the city I happened upon dozens of beautiful plazas and buildings randomly hidden throughout the city. That night I went out on a date with Stefanie, the German girl, to get Tapas and wander the city at night.
March 30
I made it to the bike tour today and that was rather fun as I spent most of the time talking to the guide and the guide in training. I found out that the guide in training thought I was also training to be a guide, so score one more for my attempts to not appear outwardly touristy. We saw a large portion of the city I visited the previous day, but this time I actually learned the history behind it. I spent more time with Stefanie today seeing the Museum of Barcelona history and lounging about a park. It was a nice vacation romance, but it wasn't meant to be.
March 31
Don't book 6 am flights, because that means you have to be at the airport at 4 am, which is stupid. I'm pretty sure I was the first person at the Barcelona airport that day. I had to connect in Amsterdam to make it back to SFO and I had the tightest connection of my life, making it by about 5 minutes after getting stuck behind a family with small children at Schengen Zone customs in Schiphol. I flew KLM, which was pretty nice, except for the huge group of Italian tourists who were going to San Francisco on what must have been their first vacation ever.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Spain - The Revenge of Madrid
March 25
I left Algeciras in the morning after stopping at a rather nice farmer's market I stumbled upon the day before. I read 100 Years of Solitude on the trip, which I think has made me more introspective than I otherwise would have been. I realized that I really do appreciate making a deep connection with other people. The train ride was rather uneventful, except when I realized the guy sitting in front of me was the same guy who took my picture on top of the Rock of Gibraltar two days before. I took a stroll around the university district and I was kind of surprised at how industrial and "downtown" the buildings appeared. The students, however, were impeccably dressed, much better than American college students. I got to my hostel in Madrid (right off the Plaza del Sol, it was actually a fantastic location) and found it full of other American college students (surprise?). I went out for vegetarian tapas and a museum visit with the girl from Berkeley. We visited the Reina Sofia and I spent a long time contemplating Guernika. I was also rather interested in the Spanish Civil War Royalist propaganda which stimulated my design/history/Spanish interests. After dinner we met up with the other students from the hostel and went out clubbing at a huge place called Kaptial in Atocha, that is apparently famous/notorious. Went home at 4, which was apparently early. Oh well.
March 26
I left the hostel fairly early, after having a surprisingly good conversation in Spanish with girls from Argentina and Spain in the hostel "kitchen," and spent a while at el Museo del Prado. Glossing over my impressions of particular paintings, I did take a much closer look at the painting than I did the last time I was here, almost a decade ago. When I visited the Parque del Retiro it was pretty much exactly as I remember it being. I visited a food market near the Plaza Mayor that had dozens of delicious things to eat that I wish I could have taken home. I even decided to take a siesta today. When I woke up from my siesta I found out that I was sharing the 8-person hostel room with 7 girls in a group from Memorial University in St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada.
March 27
I spent the morning perusing El Rastro (giant flea market) with the Newfies. The only thing I found that I liked was a print, however, when I tried to haggle the owner said "No, this is art." There were a lot of get to know you questions, but the girls started to warm up to me. We parted ways for dinner while I went to meet my friend Walter at a sherry bar near Plaza del Sol called La Venecia, which was a little run down place, but fantastic Sherry. Afterwards, Walter and the Newfies and I went to El Tigre in Chueca, which was a phenomenally fun and cheap bar. They served huge plates of tapas with every (huge) drink and we had well more than we could eat. We hit another bar after that with a group of American college students doing a trip abroad, but that was much less interesting. Hanging out with the Newfies made me feel like an experience traveler, an old hand.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Spain/Gibraltar/Morocco - Finally Made it to Africa
March 22
I decided to take a trip to Spain for Spring Break before starting my new job and to take my first entirely self-financed trip. First stop: the southern tip of Spain and Morocco. I got their flying Air France through CDG in Paris, which was an interesting experience. I definitely felt that AF took better care of me than US carriers do. CDG is an interesting airport. I love the train station in the middle of the airport, however, it is a HUGE airport and my flights were, of course, on opposite ends of the airport, but I still made my connection. I even had time to hunt down a (well-hidden) ATM to have some cash before I got to Spain. I landed in Malaga and I was a bit concerned about making it to Algeciras as I was planning to hop a metro train and then bus in a place I'd never been before, but it all actually worked out fine. When I got to Algeciras, it kind of reminded me of El Paso, which was odd.
March 23
Gibraltar is an interesting place, lots of Spanish being spoken everywhere and people tell me that its primary purpose it to indulge Spanish vices (smoking, gambling and boozing). The cable car to the top of the Rock was fantastic and the view was great, even if it was a bit overcast. The monkeys were literally everywhere and they were quite ambivalent to my presence. I rather like the small walking streets, it gives off the best of small town and big city feel. I walked all the way out to Europa Point, which apparently is something not a lot of people do as it is not that easy. I spent a lot of time walking on roads I probably shouldn't have walked on, but it turned out fine. And when I got to the point, there was a rather ornate mosque that was a gift of the Saudi royal family (I think).
March 24
Today was an eventful and excruciating day. Excessive winds caused a change in my transportation from landing at City of Tangier to landing at Tangier Mediterranean, which is 50 miles away. I ended up in Morocco about 4 hours late (The misery of waiting in airports is nothing compared to the misery of waiting in Ferry terminals). When I finally met my tour guide Aziz we had to rush through the tour, although Aziz was less talkative than I expected. I did get a chance to see where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic and I got to ride a camel and visit the Pillars of Hercules. When we got back to the Kasbah, Aziz pawned me off on his assistant, who was a little bit suspicious. He took me wandering through the Kasbah until we got deep into it, far away from others and I got spooked and led us back to a more populated area. Out there, the assistant met a "friend" who talked off on the side while looking at me. I stand by my suspicions. Eventually the assistant dropped me off back at the Ferry Terminal with 2 hours to wait for my ferry back to Spain. This time we had to land at Tarifa instead of Algeciras, so I didn't end up getting back until 1am. Ugh.
I decided to take a trip to Spain for Spring Break before starting my new job and to take my first entirely self-financed trip. First stop: the southern tip of Spain and Morocco. I got their flying Air France through CDG in Paris, which was an interesting experience. I definitely felt that AF took better care of me than US carriers do. CDG is an interesting airport. I love the train station in the middle of the airport, however, it is a HUGE airport and my flights were, of course, on opposite ends of the airport, but I still made my connection. I even had time to hunt down a (well-hidden) ATM to have some cash before I got to Spain. I landed in Malaga and I was a bit concerned about making it to Algeciras as I was planning to hop a metro train and then bus in a place I'd never been before, but it all actually worked out fine. When I got to Algeciras, it kind of reminded me of El Paso, which was odd.
March 23
Gibraltar is an interesting place, lots of Spanish being spoken everywhere and people tell me that its primary purpose it to indulge Spanish vices (smoking, gambling and boozing). The cable car to the top of the Rock was fantastic and the view was great, even if it was a bit overcast. The monkeys were literally everywhere and they were quite ambivalent to my presence. I rather like the small walking streets, it gives off the best of small town and big city feel. I walked all the way out to Europa Point, which apparently is something not a lot of people do as it is not that easy. I spent a lot of time walking on roads I probably shouldn't have walked on, but it turned out fine. And when I got to the point, there was a rather ornate mosque that was a gift of the Saudi royal family (I think).
March 24
Today was an eventful and excruciating day. Excessive winds caused a change in my transportation from landing at City of Tangier to landing at Tangier Mediterranean, which is 50 miles away. I ended up in Morocco about 4 hours late (The misery of waiting in airports is nothing compared to the misery of waiting in Ferry terminals). When I finally met my tour guide Aziz we had to rush through the tour, although Aziz was less talkative than I expected. I did get a chance to see where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic and I got to ride a camel and visit the Pillars of Hercules. When we got back to the Kasbah, Aziz pawned me off on his assistant, who was a little bit suspicious. He took me wandering through the Kasbah until we got deep into it, far away from others and I got spooked and led us back to a more populated area. Out there, the assistant met a "friend" who talked off on the side while looking at me. I stand by my suspicions. Eventually the assistant dropped me off back at the Ferry Terminal with 2 hours to wait for my ferry back to Spain. This time we had to land at Tarifa instead of Algeciras, so I didn't end up getting back until 1am. Ugh.
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