In Cinque Terre, Headed to Florence today!

Hi all,

Sorry for being so behind. I've been in Cinque Terre (a series of five villages on the west coast of Italy, near La Spezia) for the past three days, and am headed to Florence in about 4 hours. Cinque Terre was one of my favorite places so far, so I'll definitely be uploading some posts about it, but for now, just a quick update.

Left Sean in Milan (he's back in the states by now), and caught the train to La Spezia, then a regional train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore, where I stayed all three nights. It's actually one of the smaller villages, which made finding a place to stay tricky (very few places would rent a room to just one person; most would require me to pay for two), but was really cool, as it meant I got to know the village pretty well, even though I visited two others as well. Anyway, it's absolutely beautiful here, so I got a ton of photos I'm really happy with.

Now, I'm off to Florence, which I'm going to use as a base to explore Tuscany for five days. Don't have any particular plans for what to see, though I'd like to go on a vineyard tour in Chianti. I figure I'll just head to the tourism office as soon as I get there and see what day trips I can book.

Anyway, off to catch a train!

Nice

(Apologies for the lack of photos. I literally didn't think WiFi could function if the upload speed was this slow. Oh well, I didn't come to Cinque Terre for the internet. I'll upload some when I get to Florence, hopefully.)

Nice is very much a beach town, so we kinda followed a beachy schedule the entire time we were there.

Day 1, we got in mid-afternoon, and it was surprisingly cool, since it had just finished raining, so we just went and chilled at the beach. We walked down the Riviera, wandered a ways down the Promenade Anglais, found a good-looking bar on the beach, grabbed a beer, and sat looking at the water for a while. An excellent day, even if we had to pay 8 euro a pop for the beers. Was also funny to sit there and watch the police driving the lifeguard boat show off to impress the girls on the beach, almost grounding the blade on the motor in the process.

The next day, we did some more exploring, this time along a guided walk in Rick Steve’s guide to the Riviera. We got started at the Hotel Negresco, which can be summed up quite aptly as “old money.” Big, fancy place, covered in portraits, paintings, marble, mahogany, and crystal. The chandelier, by the way, was actually designed and built for the czar of Russia, but he couldn’t take delivery when it was completed, seeing as he was, you know, dead. So, the hotel bought it at a discount. It was funny going in; we weren’t sure if they’d let tourists go wandering around, so we just tried to look fancy enough that we could conceivably be staying there. We figured they wouldn’t turn people away unless they obviously were tourists, in case they were staying there. Turns out that was a good idea, as they had a guy in a suit in the lobby who looked like he was profiling people as they came in.

When we left, there was a team of people getting two girls ready to go parasailing, so we stopped to see how it worked, since neither of us had actually seen parasailers get up in the air. Turns out, they just hook you up to the boat, start driving, and tell you to run. Was fun to watch, especially since we’d occasionally hear one of the girls squeal when they drivers would take a corner. (Keep in mind, they were NOT driving close to the beach, so they had a set of lungs on them).

The next day, we were in Monaco, which will be its own post, but the next day was just kind of a chore day. We hauled our stuff to the laundromat to get some clean clothes, and I ran to the post office to get rid of some souvenirs. Oh, and ship my mom her (very belated) mother’s day gift. The post office was funny; apparently the French dislike for receipts extends to their shipping philosophy. I expedited two packages to the states, dropped them in the box, and left. About a block away, I had the realization that I’d just handed the French postal system around 200 euro of souvenirs, and didn’t even get a receipt, let alone a tracking number. I ran back, and the guy said it was 5 euro extra per package. C’est la vie.

Anyway, after that, I pretty much just wandered Nice on my own for a bit. Wandered around a few shops, through the touristy old city, through the actual old city, and back up the Riviera. Actually saw something in one of the shops that even I wouldn’t eat (yes, Ponnie, it does exist). They took a suckling pig, stuffed it full of scrapple (ears, snouts, tails, etc.), roasted it, then chilled it so the scrapple would recongeal. They sold it by the slice. Also passed a store that sold different kinds of salt, which was actually pretty cool. They had black volcanic salt from Hawaii, blue salt from the Mediterranean, red salt from the atlantic, and a few others.

My baby's back!

Laptop's working again. Thank you random electronics store in Milan.

Now: I have a week's worth of photos and posts to get started on. Ciao for a bit!

Pebble beaches

So, Nice is famous for its beaches, but they're not beaches like we think of them. Instead of sand, they're smooth pebbles. It's a lot of fun to look at, but not much fun to walk on or lay on. You pretty much have to buy special shoes and mats if you want to be at the beach.

But! They do have one cool thing about them: the sound.

When a wave hits the beach, it splashes just like it would normally, but when it goes out again, you hear this loud 'woosh' as the water goes through all the little spaces between pebbles. Then you can hear the smaller pebbles rolling and clattering around, which is surprisingly entertaining to listen to.

Last days in Provence

So, for our last two days in Avignon, we booked a daytrip around Roman Provence (the baths, arena, and monument to Austus in Nimes, the Pont du Gard, and Uzes thrown in for good measure) and tickets to Arles for a day trip.

The tour was a lot of fun. The company was called Provence Panorama and had several tours based on the things provence is famous for (wine, truffles, flowers, roman ruins, etc). They picked us up in a van outside our hotel and drove us to all the sites.

Nimes has some amazin roman architecture (it's hard to call them 'ruins' when they're still standing and in pretty good shape), and their arena is excellent. The commentary was very un-provencal in that it was actually fun to listen to. They did a great job of explaining what life and the games were like back then, and even walked through a day of particularly interesting games.

Nimes itself was pretty interesting, too, or at least the description our guide gave us was. The city was a huge textile and industrial center for decades, so he city was (and to some extent, still is) swimming in money. As a result, they didn't really want or need tourism, so the city flat out refused to allow a hotel to be built there until the middle of the 20th century. It's still not exactly a tourist-friendly town, apparently.

Next, we headed to Uzes, the definition of a sleepy little French town. The guide walked us through the city, showing us all the little alleys and the gorgeous main square that make the city a lot of fun to walk around. She pointed out a mulberry tree which had some ripe berries on it (tasted like a very sweet, seedless blackberry), and explained how the Protestant nature of the city shaped its architecture.

The guide also told us how a descendant of a ducal family still lives in the palace at Uzes. He's apparently a crafty little bugger, as he has found a way to sneak around the tax laws in France. Apparently, anyone livin in a historic palace or castle in France has to pay a tax to live there, unless they allow public access. So, this guy basically roped off 3 or 4 rooms of his castle, sells 12 euro tickets to whoever's stupid enough to pay for them, and basically thumbs his nose at the government.

We then headed up to Pont du Gard, the roman bridge that supported the aqueduct from the spring at Uzes to the baths at Nimes. The bridge is a marvel of engineering, and it's amazing that it's still standing. What's even cooler is that the river it spans is still used as a beach area for people in Provence. How is that fair? When I go to the beach, I have to look at condos and high-rises. They get to look at 2000-year-old aqueducts. Not. Fair. At all.

After that, we crammed in the van (after chewing on some local rosemary bushes) and headed back to town.

The next day, I woke up and just had no desire at ALL to do anything, let alone go to Arles. No idea why, but I just decided to take a lazy day in Avignon. Sean still wanted to go, but came back really quick, thanks to alternating rain and bug storms. I wandered around Avignon for the day, where is was just slightly misting, and pretty much just people-watched. That turned out to be a little interesting, as the kebab shop I was eating in was visited by some Ren-faire folk, which was a little...unexpected. But, after that, I headed home to blog and upload photos.

Food in Avignon

Day 1 in Avignon was short, so we only had dinner there. Our first night we did NOT go to the place our hotel recommended (30+ a plate), and instead went to a little creperie. I was still a little veggie-starved from Spain, so I got the Legumes a la Provencal, which was basically grilled veggies served with oil and garlic, a stuffed tomato, and potatoes au gratin. Also got a ginormous sundae, but I have no idea what was on it (asked the waiter what he liked, and he knew enouh english to answer but not say what it was). 'Twas delicious, though!

The next day, we were in a hurry, so I grabbed a basic sandwich made with ham, provolone cheese, and some French butter. Sounds kind of "meh," but the butter made it taste great. For dinner, we went to a Provencal restaurant, where I got the honey roasted duck (which actually tasted like honey, and not just generally sweet, like most honey roasted things in the States), which came with fried gnocchi and sautéed mushrooms. That was excellent, but dessert (a biscuit topped with slices of grapefruit and thyme) was so-so.

Lunch the next day was another ham sandwich and coffee near the market in Avignon. Went to a little pub that had one poor waitress running the entire place (waiting tables, making food, and taking deliveries). To save some money, for dinner that night, we just grabbed some bread, sausage, jam, and cheese at the grocery, and ate that. French bread and cheese continued to be delicious, particularly with jam made from melons from provence. We also split a bottle of wine from Chateuneuf-du-Papes, a wine-making region that used to serve the pope. We had grabbed that earlier at the papal palace.

The next day, we grabbed a weird burger-type thing with a fried egg on top on the way to catch the bus to St. Remy. Not exactly gourmet, but it was cheap and filling. Dinner that night was bread, super super runny cheese, and tapenade (Wasn't really hungry. It's amazing how filling a slab of meat topped with a fried egg can be).

Lunch on day 5 was actually swankier than dinner. We went to a place called Newground while we waited for our tour to start, where we got the daily special, which was salad, saffron rice, prociutto and melon with a few drops of really sweet wine, baked chicken in mushroom and pear sauce, and mango tart. Dinner was way more low-brow, but just as tasty. We went to a place called Tartine, which served everything on toast. So, we got some with pate, some with goat cheese and honey, and some with gorgonzola and prune compote, which was actually our favorite. I also got a glass of pastis, which is an anise flavored liquer you drink mixed with water and ice. Tasted like a glass of licorice flavored lemonade, but in a good way.

 

Our last day, I just grabbed a kebab and a coke for lunch, but we splurged for dinner and went to a really high brow French place, where the husband cooked and the wife waited tables. I got a salad topped with balsamic vinegar and goat cheese in pastry for the first course, and a tuna steak and sautéed veggies after that. I actually like the veggies better than the tuna (though that was still quite tasty); they were basically a ratatouille without the tomato sauce. Anyway, the next day we headed to Nice, and I didn't eat a bite until dinner, where I may or may not have pigged out a bit. But that's another post.

Folks in Nice and Avignon

Combining these two into one, as Avignon's would be too short on its own, but we met a ton of cool people in Nice.

So, Avignon first. Since we stayed in a hotel, not a hostel, we didn't meet anybody new like we have been through sharing rooms or hanging out in common areas. But, we could only get WiFi in the lobby, and we met an older Japanese couple there when we were uploading photos. The wife was...entertaining. She kept very subtly bragging about how successful she was, and was very careful to note that she was only staying at our budget hotel for a night, because the Hotel Grand Avignon was booked that night. She also said she didn't consider herself a success, but that she owned a few businesses. Sean asked how many, and she said 11 or 12, she couldn't remember -_- Oh, and she flew into Avignon just to see an opera.

Also met a couple on the tour we took of Nimes and Uzes that were funny. Nice folks, but they were just a touch of your typically clueless Americans. When we were in Uzes, they asked if it was supported by tourism, and the guide said no. They were shocked that it could support itself then. 

Wife: "But what does it do! How does it get money?"
Guide: "Umm...normal town things?"

Now: Nice. Our hostel was a small place near Place Massena that was awesome for meeting people. The common area was the manager's office, and every night folks would pile in to talk, swap stories, drink wine, and occasionally head out to a nearby bar (We stayed in. Not my type of place). It was a lot of fun to hear where everyone was going and what brought them to Europe, and we met a bunch of cool folks.

First, Valerio (or Val). His dad owns the hostel, and Val pretty much runs it. Funny guy, knew Nice pretty well, and could play the guitar. I got a kick out of one of the girls attempting to teach him "Sexual Healing." That just became even funnier when I found out the girl was studying vocal performance at Berklee School of Music. Favorite story with Val was when he asked me to check someone in when he got to the hostel, so he could get everyone to the bar. Left me the keys and told me how to buzz him in. So, I think I can officially add "hostelier" to my resume.  Even if the guy didn't show up.

Next, roommates. The first two nights, we roomed with Joanna and Michelle from Alberta in Canada. They were studying in Italy, and decided to pay France and Spain a visit while over here. They also gave Val a bottle of homemade limoncello as a gift, which he then doled out to the rest of us. Again, Val's a cool dude (and probably reading this. Hi Val!). They left after two days to be replaced by a pair of Australians who we didn't get to know well, thanks to one of them getting food poisoning from what sounded like a sketchy kebab. 

Robin was the source of that quote I posted earlier about Scottish rednecks. Nice guy, and smart too. He's going into his last year of Mechanical engineering in Aberdeen, Scotland, and is going to work at BP soon. He came with us to Monaco and put me to shame in terms of shutterbugness. He and Sean also nerded out momentarily at the tourist office in Monte Carlo, where they spent a few minutes trying to read a cool voltmeter. I, of course, didn't tease them at all.

Next up, Adam, from Australia. HYSTERICAL guy, who hopped from hostel to hostel to the floor of a hostel while he was in Nice, based on who was where and where the cheap beer was. Fell asleep on the beach, and woke up with a sunburn in the shape of his necklace (you could actually see the individual links on the chain). He also apparently woke up half the hostel one night (I slept through it) when he was...umm..."fraternizing" with someone else. I'll let you be the judge of what that means.

Next up, some people from the States, finally! (So. Many. Canadians.) Alex and Steven both just finished off med school, and are starting residencies the week they get back. Nice guys, who had a few entertaining stories to share, including a few ways to NOT set an A-line IV, how they remove drugs from drug smugglers' bowels (I'll give you a hint: it involves laxatives and a bucket), and some stories from the ER. And a few medically-backed hangover cures that really got some of the girls' attention. Apparently a Compozene or a Finargin when taken with an IV bag of normal saline clears it right up. And there's apparently a guy in Las Vegas who goes around doling this cure out to tourists. Pay him extra, and he'll actually come to your hotel room. I don't know whether to be disusted or impressed by his entrepreneurism.

Next, Eva and Julia, two girls from Berklee School of Music, studying Vocal performance and music business, respectively. Julia was the girl who tried to teach Val "Sexual Healing," which apparently wants played at her wedding. Eva also played the Piano, even though she's not majoring in it, and has been playing since she was 5.

Isabel showed up on our third night, and came to dinner with Sean, Robin, and me. She's originally from Vancouver (hey, my neck of the woods!) though she's been studying business in Pamplona in Spain for a while. She also spoke way better French than pretty much anyone there, and shared my enthusiasm for photographing dinner.

Finally, there's Stacy and her sister Jennifer (I think. Only talked to her briefly). They only stayed at the hostel for a few hours, as they accidentally booked a bus for 4 am instead of 4 pm. Val called them a taxi and they headed out after a short nap.

Oh! And I'm not sure if you can count them as "people" per se, but we met some guys from UGA there, too. Nice guys, but they apparently got in an argument with some Canadians over whether basketball was better than hockey, and woke up most of the hostel. They did give us instructions on how to play at the Casino Royale, though, so I owe them that!

Anyway, long story short: if you want to meet new people, small hostels >> small hotels.

And so I'm back!

(from outer space)

So, our hotel in Milan (oh, got here in one piece, by the way!) has free computers and cheap wifi, so I can blog again!

No photos, though. The USB ports are inaccesible, so I can't plug in my camera.

But, I have a few quick posts to make at least! I'll get them up asap.

Updates!

First off; typing this from a French keyboard, which has just a few random characters moved, so apologies for any typos.

(Typed normally: First off; typing this fro, q French keyboqrd; zhich hqs just q fez rqndo, chqrqcters ,oved; so qpologies for qny typos:)

Anyway; I ordered a new chord to be delivered to our hotel in Milan; BUT, amazon.it doesnt have expedited shipping, so there is only a 50% it will arrive while Im there. Im going to book my venice hostel tomorrow; and order a second one shipped to there:

Nice and Monaco are awesome and sunny and gorgeous and way more fashionable than I am. Met a ton of awesome nice people here (special shoutouts to Robin, Isabel, Valerio, Steve, Stacy, and Alex), the scenery is gorgeous, and the sun is warm.

Have a ton of stories (including royal car collections, snooty casinos, and a bunch of new friends), but Ill wait until I have a normal keyboard (one where I can actually find the apostraphe key) to post them!

Scottish wisdom

Me: Well, I guess they have rednecks all over the world.

Robyn: Yep. But in Scotland, we don't call 'em "rednecks." We just call 'em "Scottish."

Technical difficulties

Hi all,

So, my posts are going to be a bit shorter and more sparse for a few days. My laptop charger died, so I'll be blogging from my phone for a bit.

Plan is to order a new charger after we book our next hostel and have it delivered there. If that doesn't work, then I'll just be extra careful to book hostels with computers from here on out.

In Nice!

Took the train to Nice today.
Got in around 4, dropped our stuff, and went for a walk along the beach.

Tomorrow, we're going to explore Nice some more, then Wednesday we're going to Monaco. As for Thursday, no plans of yet, though we might use it as a backup in case we need more time for Nice or Monaco.

St. Remy-de-Provence

Day trip numero uno from Avignon was to St. Remy-de-Provence, a sleepy little French town about 10 miles south of Avignon. It has the perfect mix of “things for tourists to do” and “being an actual town,” since all the main attractions in town are actually a 20 minute walk south of town. So, we got to see some cool sights, but didn’t have to walk through hordes of folks trying to sell us cheap stuff.

First, though, we had to get there. Despite only being 10 miles south of town, it’s about a 40 euro cab ride, so we nixed that pretty quick (at that price, we could almost get a guided tour of the city that would pick us up at our hotel). Instead, we found out a bus leaves Avignon for St. Remy every 2 hours, and only costs 3.50 euros. Much better. Only catch to this was that the bus station in Avignon is…less than clean. It’s funny, the people aren’t sketchy at all (plenty of grandmas, school kids, and commuters were on the bus), and the station isn’t in a sketchy part of town, but it’s…kinda awful. The ticket office reeked of urine, and the entrance was right off a big highway, so we were a little put off at first. But then again, it’s kind of hard to feel sketched out when you’re standing next to a 13-year-old boy headed home from school for lunch and a group of chattering teenage girls with bags of shopping.

Once we got there, we tried to head to the tourism office, but they were closed for lunch. Since we only had a few hours, we couldn’t wait for them to reopen, so we just headed straight for the main sights south of town.

First: the St. Paul Monastery and Sanitarium, where Van Gogh was kept for a year after he cut his ear off. He was here for only a year, but in that time, he painted almost 200 paintings, and about that many drawings. It was really cool seeing all this, especially since they would put prints of his paintings next to scenes he had painted. For example, next to the olive tree grove were two prints of paintings he had done of the grove. They also had the room where he slept, which was amazing, as you could look out his window and see the wheat fields he painted. They’ve since converted them to flower fields, but it’s still cool, especially since little bits of wheat still grow as weeds around the flowers.

Another cool thing is that the monastery still acts as a psychiatric hospital, and they specialize in art therapy to help patients recover. The gift shop (in addition to the typical Van Gogh-themed mouse pads, mugs, and calendars) sold the patients artwork, which was pretty amazing.

After that, we wandered the fields for a while, looking at the trees, flowers, and mountains, then headed further south to the ruins of the Roman city of Glanum. Glanum was a totally NOTHING roman town, which is part of its charm. When you go to Rome, you see grand basilicas, arenas, and monuments, but no ordinary buildings; the modern city was just built on top of those. At Glanum, though, you can just see what a blacksmith’s house was like, or how a Roman village’s roads were laid out. There was also a tour group of little schoolchildren, who were all dressed in togas and traditional Roman clothing. It was just ever so slightly adorable.

Afterwards, we started to head back, but took a wrong turn on the way, so we got kind of turned around. The map from the guidebook we had only had the main roads, so we couldn’t figure out where to go at first. In a city like Paris or Barcelona, this could be a bit of a problem, but St. Remy is about half the size of my neighborhood at home (i.e. really frickin’ tiny) so it took us all of five minutes to find the bus stop again. Once we found it, we killed time in a truly American way: snacks! Mint chocolate chip is apparently just as tasty on this side of the Atlantic, too.

Once we got back, we pretty much just bummed around for the rest of the day, then grabbed dinner from the super market.

St. Remy photos are up!

Photos of St. Remy-de-Provence are up!

Set is here.

Avignon

Day 1 in Avignon was pretty straightforward: catch train, check in, grab food, sleep. Had a rather amusing moment where we pulled out cash to pay and the hotelier looked at us like we were nuts and said, “Non, monsier. You pay at checkout.” We thought this was sketchy as all hell (budget travellers always have to be on the lookout for places that try and squeeze extra fees onto checks), til we realized that’s how it works in the real world (i.e. the non-hostel part of the world). We ended up paying the next day, anyway, though. After that, we grabbed dinner at a creperie (and not the 30-euro-a-plate restaurant the front desk sent us to), which was plenty tasty. After that, Facebook, blogpost, and bed.

Day 2 was a planning day. Since we were spending 6 days in Provence, a general schedule was necessary, so we spent about an hour checking train schedules, calling tour companies (…okay, our hotelier did that for us), and asking the front desk about the bus schedule. After that, we got tickets sorted out (which actually took less time than the planning did, walks to and from the station included) and set off to actually see the city we were staying in.

First stop, something horribly, horribly touristy: the tourist train. Most European cities have them: a train on wheels that tourists are shoved into and then driven around the city in. Conductor in full-on engineer attire and decorative front car optional. We’d been snickering at them pretty much everywhere we went, but this train was only 7 euro, so we figured it would be a good way to get oriented to the city. While we weren’t wrong, it wasn’t a mind-boggling experience, either. The train went in front of the palace, up to and through the botanical gardens, down to the River, and past the bridge before coming back to its starting point. Not a waste of 7 euro, but we didn’t really see anything amazing or learn anything new aside from a general orientation.

Anyway, we headed up to the botanical gardens, where we got a great view of the city and saw a few rather adorable families of ducklings in the pond. We grabbed a snack and watched the ducks for a while, then headed down to the Rhone and up to the bridge.

I’d actually never heard of the Bridge of St. Benezet until Anna told me about it right before my trip, but it’s apparently pretty well known, thanks to a nursery rhyme I’d never heard. Basically, it’s a bridge that used to cross all the way over the Rhone, but over years, the current in the river kept knocking down arches, until the town stopped trying to maintain it. Now, just 3 of the original arches remain. Afterwards, we wandered a bit, then came back to the river to see it at night.

Day 3, we got an earlier start than usual (out the door around 10:30, I think) so we could go to the market, which is only open before 1pm. Was pretty cool to see, though we didn’t buy anything (wasn’t there as a sight for tourists, so we didn’t think they’d speak much English). Afterwards, we grabbed coffee and sammiches in Plaza Pie (pronounced pee-yay, though there was a ‘café 3.14’ to make fun of the double pronunciation).

Afterwards, we went to the papal palace. The story behind this is that in the 14^th century, Italy was undergoing a series of civil wars, which made the country a dangerous place to be for foreigners. So, when a French cardinal was named Pope, the king of France persuaded him to move the papacy to Avignon until things settled. The Italians, obviously, were outraged by this, but the papal seat stayed in Avignon until 1377.

The palace was enormous and obviously very grand, but it was hard to picture what it was like when the pope lived there. Avignon and Provencal cities in general have a bare-bones attitude towards preserving historic sites, in that they tend to only maintain the materials that are there, and nothing more. That’s fine, but it meant that the palace is BARE. Most of the frescoes were incredibly faded, there aren’t any tapestries or reproductions on the walls or ceiling, and there wasn’t any furniture. So, while it was cool and obviously amazing, we never really got a sense that it was a palace fit for the pope.

Oh, and Provencal tours are…amusingly literal and factual. They don’t really give you any juicy rumors or stories or tidbits, like most tourist sites; more just straight facts, like, “The ceiling is supported by 6 stone arches,” and “The hall has three windows, which you can see to the left.” I can see and count the arches and windows quite clearly, thank you. The tourist train had been the same way, telling us how long streets were or how tall buildings were, without really saying why they were important or interesting.

After dinner that night, Sean and I split up to wander on our own. Avignon is an incredibly safe city (there are very few foreign tourists around, so pickpockets and the like aren’t a problem), so it was cool to see what the city was like after dark. I wandered down to the river around sunset to grab some shots of the river, then pretty much just wandered the city trying to get lost. I ended up wandering through a residential area, which was fun, as I could hear French families finishing up dinner through open windows. There’s also apparently a lot of cats in these parts, all of whom are crazy skittish. I’d be twenty feet away, and they’d tear off down an alley.

That was our “last” day in Avignon, even though we stayed there for four more nights, as we did day trips every other day. I’ll post those as separate posts later.

Barcelona's done, Avignon photos are up

Read the title, yo!

Directions

Being mistaken for a local in a country where you don't even speak the language twice in one day is rather amusing.

As is giving people directions in a city you've only been in for 5 days.

Piece du l'Rennaisance

So apparently they have Renaissance fairs in France.

Was eating at a kebab shop, and a dude in full-on period medieval garb walk in and says, "Monsieur! Directions, s'il vous plait?" The kebab shop owner just kind of stared for a second, then said, "Uhh, oh, oui, monsieur," and helped him find where he was going.

I took the chance to look outside, and saw a guy dressed in a beggar costume and a woman in an aristocrat's gown.

It would appear the French are just as capable of geekery as Americans.

Souvenirs and mementos

I like souvenirs. Not the "I went to Madrid and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" souvenirs you see in shops, but things that are unique about a place. Much to my overfull suitcase's (and underfull wallet's) chagrin, I've been picking up stuff as I go.

So, my swag so far:

• Copper ginginha drinking cup from Lisbon
• Lapis lazuli prayer bracelet with the cross and scallop shell of St. James from Santiago
• Damascene carving of Toledo from Toledo
• Hyper-parabolic modernisme coffee mugs from Barcelona
• Watercolor of Avignon and the St. Benezet bridge from Avignon
• A wind-up music box that plays the Avignon nursery rhyme from Avignon
• Bottle from the Chateauneuf-du-Papes (the vineyards that served the French Popes) from Avignon
• Stalk of wheat from the wheat fields Van Gogh painted in St. Remy-de-Provence

Barcelona

The train ride from Madrid was largely uneventful and, thankfully, pretty short. The ride from Santiago to Madrid took almost seven hours, but to Barca, it was only about two.

Anyway, from the station, we grabbed a set of 4-day metro passes (which were incredibly expensive at about 25 euro apiece; I’d forgotten how expensive the metro system was. We got our money’s worth, though) and headed to the hostel. It was in a fantastic location (1 block from the Arc d’Triomf metro station, and a ten-minute walk from my old residencia), and the people running it were nice. Also did my laundry for 6 euro. Considering that’s about how much it costs to do it yourself, I was pretty happy with the deal!

After we checked in, we went to warm up for Sagrada Familia with some lesser-known Modernisme. The Arc d’Triomf was a block down the street, so we went there, grabbed some photos, and meandered into the Ciutadella, a big park in the heart of the city famous for two things. One, it was a former fort that the Castillians built to keep an eye on the rebellious Catalonians several centuries back. As soon as it was vacated, the Catalonians tore it down and built the park. Two, it has a fountain designed by Gaudi and one of his students in the middle of it. It’s also a phenomenal park in its own right.

After that, dinner, then bed.

Day 2, went back to the station to reserve our seats to Avignon, which was an experience. After two hours and four attendants who spoke about as much English as we did Spanish, we finally realized that we didn’t need to reserve seats, since we were taking local trains. After that, we did Sagrada Familia (which I’ve already posted about), then headed to La Rambla and slowly made our way down the water front. On the way, we stopped at La Boqueria (the big market here, where I grabbed some guava agua fresca) and shook our heads at a Catalonian bachelor party making its way across town. They were…thoroughly sloshed by the time we saw them, and had air horns, whistles, and megaphones to herald their arrival. Anyway, we wandered down the waterfront for a while, then headed back for dinner.

On the way, we walked through the Carrer de Ribes neighborhood (wanted to see if the Italian restaurant was open), and got to see the joyous sight of what happens when you give small children matches. While we were walking down the street, we realized, “Oh, that trees on fire.” Some kids had apparently wanted to see what happens when you held a lit match to the bark of a palm tree. They were initially highly amused by it, but when it worked its way up the tree, they got a little panicked when they realized they weren’t tall enough to put it out. It was honestly hysterical to watch all the adults scramble over to extinguish it (Though one guy started hitting it with a flip flop. I don’t know what he hoped to accomplish, but someone ran out with a 2 liter of water, which did the job).

The next day, we headed up to one of Gaudi’s other masterpieces, Parc Guell. After trying (and…somewhat succeeding) to get a photo with El Drac, we wandered around, meandered through Gaudi’s house (which, oddly enough, he didn’t design), saw the bench, and hike up a bit to get a good view of the city). On the way back down, we also got to see a rather amusing fruitbasket turnover, as all the Pakistani guys selling knick-knacks heard a police siren, wrapped all their wares in the sheets they were laid on, and VANISHED. They straight-up BOLTED out the front gate of the park in about a minute.

After that, we killed some time before dinner, then headed out for tapas. Unfortunately, a tapas place I remembered (the one I ate at my last night in Barca) was closed for the holiday (Spanish memorial day, basically), but a dim sum place nearby was open. So, we pigged out on Chinese food, then headed to Placa Espana to see the Magic fountain show.

Day four, we headed to the beach to grab a cable car up to Montjuic. The ride was expensive, but worth it for the views of the city we got. We hiked up to the peak, taking a few breaks for ice cream and coffee, then walked down the other side of the mountain, walking past the Olympic plaza, the Palau Nacional, and the Mies van der Rohe pavilion. That night, we just kinda chilled at the hostel while we ate dinner, then went downstairs to the TV room (which had a VERY nice screen) and watched the Spanish classic El Caballero Oscuro (i.e. Batman: The Dark Knight).