Sleep Deprived Sightseeing

Madrid, Toledo and Segovia

Day 10

Madrid, the capital city of Spain, apparently 3.4 million people live in the centre of the city alone!

I arrived via train and found it relatively easy to get to my pre-booked hostel - Las Musas Residence in Tirso de Molina. The Metro here reminds me of the Matrix with rolling blue symbols down a large screen wall. I think it must be fairly new as the carts are roomy and really clean.

Once bedded and showered, and now with no idea of where to go, I manage to find a few architectural buildings such as 'Puerto del Sol', 'Plaza Mayor' and 'De La Villa', before stumbling across the beautiful 'Palacio Real' (a mahooosive palace).

Spain is going through some changes at the moment, and the streets are filled with protesters, tents and their signs all over the place. I think there is another election coming up.

In order to meet a few new people, I head along to the flamenco night that my hostel is organising. There are about 15 of us going, and we fit comfortably in this random underground bar.

Flamenco dancing is gorgeous, the dancer was immaculate and controlled the band perfectly. It consists of a singer (a girl with an amazingly husky voice), guitarist, flute player and the dancer.

That nights sleep was possibly one of the worst nights sleep in a hostel ever. I was not a happy girl. At around 12 I start to get into bed, my bed being the top of a swaying bunk, which starts to make me nauseas, and at 2 a.m people are still coming back making the loudest noises, flicking on lights, spraying perfume and heading out again? They also think that packing their bags is a good idea at 2.30am. Disrespectful or what! 

 

Day 11

One of the reasons I came to Madrid is to go to Toledo, a small city about 50mins south west of Madrid.

I managed to find 4 friends at last nights Flamenco, that were all keen to check it out.

Tom and Dave from USA, and Kasia and Basia from Canada.

Conversation flowed as we all got to know each other on the tube ride to our bus stop.

Toledo is lovely, a fortress surrounds the old city that holds many intertwining streets. A Spanish-Moorish monument, the 10^th century Mosque called 'Mezquita Cristo De La Luz' was our first stop. It is famous for the legend it holds: 'When King Alfonso IV entered Toledo in triumph after the reconquest, the horse kneeled down before the mosque and refused to move, as an act of worship to the Christ that was behind a partition in the wall, lit by a lamp'. Apparently the lamp had been lit for many, many a year.

Right smack bang in the centre is high Gothic cathedral built back in 1226.So we check that out for a bit.

We then make a pit stop for some lemon beer and Spanish omelette. You could spend days in Toledo, its really pretty, the streets go on forever. 

Toledo is famous for its metal works, all the swords and metal wear used on Lord of the Rings was made here.

 

Day 12

So a nice early rise of 7.30am, seems to be common here. Way better sleep last night, only 1 girl snoring and I managed to shut her up after 'coughing' my arse off! Ha I got her!!

I was stood up by the girl I met last night, she was from London and was 'soooo keen' to go on a day trip that she didn't turn up. So I left her sorry ass behind, and went to find the tubes myself. Eventually, after being told the wrong stop, I did find the right bus, and then the bus was over sold and 2 older ladies had to get off which caused so much commotion I thought I was about to get robbed again!

I didn't check the weather forecast before leaving, as I thought every day in Madrid was perfect and way too hot to even move. I was wrong. When the bus pulled up in Segovia, it was pissing down.

I was only wearing shorts, teeshirt, and jandels (or for those in England – Flip flops). It's a higher altitude in Segovia too, and was actually quite chilly.

I randomly met some Americans in the same situation, well the lady was, and we ended up buying 2 ponchos to wear around while sightseeing. They invited me to join them, and me being the lonely sod who was stood up earlier, accepted! They were really lovely people, in Madrid for business, their jobs something to do with aero-dynamics? Claire was pretty much unimpressed with Madrid, she was also pick pocketed but they took her whole bag. Luckily she got her passports and credit cards back, but lost out on a lot of cash and some diamond earrings worth a fortune.

Anyway, we carried on through the town, John leading the way as he had been there previously. This group I was tagging along with were all in the 40's and 50's, and had some interesting stories and different perspectives on things. I was keen to chill out and listen in.

The Viaduct kind of appears from nowhere, it is so beautifully made, and is why I decided to make the hour long trip out there. Worth it, and the rain that came with it!

It is from Roman times, and leads quite the distance through the town.

We walked up to the top, and along the walls of the city.

We were all craving food now, and even after seeing the dead piglet bodies in the restaurant windows (its a delicacy and is well known to eat piglet in Segovia) we take a seat in a small restaurant.

Claire tells me about this weird diet she’s on, it takes forever as is everything she says. She is a classic American lady, very loud. We both order a chicken salad which is so good and I eat mine and half of hers!

Walking through the skinny streets we make our way to the 'Alcazar' castle (from the 13^th and 14^th centuries), where we buy tickets to see the castle and the tower. It's really raining now and annoying the hell out of me and my poncho. 

San Sebastian Day 6 - 8 The red wine detectives.

Day 6 

Great. We wake up to find a football on our balcony, the streets look disgusting scattered with beer bottles and the remains of goofy costumes from the night before.

The weather is really crappy, and so is my mood after I spent the night listening to the big English guy snoring. 

To get my bearings, I rain-proof myself and head out to find the beach and grab some food.

On the stairwell, I meet Mark from Australia who has been living in England for the past 10 years, and he stops to have a chat. He doesn't know it yet, but he's now my wine drinking partner for the next couple of days!

He was waiting to speak to the Hostel manager Gordon, the slack arse American who's never really there. We both hang out for a while and meet Sarah, a self confessed hedonist and bibliophile from USA Austin, Texas - she's a teacher.

With nothing to do and the un-clearing weather, we decide to go for a long hilly walk to meet Jesus, who 'is always above us'!!!! Ridiculous Mark at his best. Nice.

We took some lovely photos of fantastic views over the old town and main beach of San Sebastian.

Then watched some comedy films from the 1920s and 30s of sack races, high jump without the flop and general fun days on the beach.

The steep walk down the hill 'of animals' we saw the Spanish skipping terrier, and Sarah engaged in a long winded Spanish conversation to the cat lady who implored her to take one of the cats who had just been neuted to save it from death. She didn't, I hope he’s still ok!

Pintxos time.

With Sarah leading the charge effortlessly speaking fluent Spanish, charming the bar staff and locals

we wandered randomly through packed bars with cured pig legs dangling from the ceiling.

Obviously Pintxos was the order of the day, my favourite being a Baguette slice topped with Jamon smoked ham and goats cheese, nice and simple yet delicious.

This was all washed down with variety of Booze (Red wine, White wine, Green wine (Txakoli ), Sangrai and Cidre)

One small observation - for some strange reason, the Spanish throw their used napkins on the floor under the bar...its considered rude to leave it on the plate. It does get swept up later. But I felt so wrong doing it!!!

We were joined by Lisa who (my new walking buddy) marched ahead to the last bar.

That was the end of the Jesus mission, and we had our fair share of 'holy communion'!

We all spit up, and Mark and I walked the beach La Concha to the other end of the bay where we caught the funicular (if it was more €3 we were going to walk it!!!) to the top.

Immediately struck by the amazing views we took half a dozen pics if not more, and were then wooed by the boat ride (if it was under €2 we weren't going to do it!) It went for all of maybe 2mins?!!! But was brilliant! We thought it was just for the scenic ride, until we were encountered by Peter Pan and a bear!!! And then we had to get off.

After all the excitement, we thought we deserved an ice-cream. I had a single boring chocolate, and Mark gorged himself on Rum and raisin and Caramelised milk.

On the long down we found a hard, rubber bouncy ball, and the Spanish snog and show car area.

We walked down past 'Wimbledon' to find the Wind Combes and and blow hole where I had my hair blown from my head!!!

Another 2km walk home along the beach we were hungry again, and met up with Sarah to enjoy a Large pizza and bottle of Red.

Day 7

Wow what a beauty of a day! Lisa, the hard-core adventurer, walker, and sightseeing addict from Canada, invited me along on a bus trip out west to see a tiny town called Zumaia.

Basically, once there, we power walked the coast for about and hour or so and stopped in at 3 very picturesque towns and a beach with cool rocks along the way. 

Later in the afternoon, after the bus ride home I find Mark siesta-ing and manage to wake him up by punching in the code to my locker. Good, cause I was bored and needed entertaining!!

We find a local Lidl and buy a shit load of tapa type food and red wine, and go back to the hostel for food. Living in a hostel and having lots of spare time and nothing really to worry about, we have time for creativity, and Mark takes it to the next level by making a Sydney Opera House and a ship out of Bread, wrapped in ham and cheese with taco chips as the sail garnishing. Sweet.

We then proceed to the beach for some afternoon sun-napping.

 

Day 8

Unfortunately, another cloudy day in San Seb, after an amazing Day7.

Bummer. But Mark introduces me to a couple of German girls from Berlin. I love Berlin. We all take a walk around town to check out a few more sights. Mainly the shops, but we get a good look at the closed Cathedral too.

A short stop off into Lidl's again to pick up salad and 4 bottles of red wine...I know, piss-heads right! We make it back for a much needed green salad with chicken, and chill out for a while.

And then again, its time for more food so pop down the road to a local restaurant for beef and free red wine. Great. Lets just say I’m pretty much red-wined out!

Exceeding our 5 plus a day...does it count if it's the fruit slices in Sangria?!

Day 3

We started the day off with a teeny weeny pasty thing with cheese, tomato and basil for breakfast.

Then decided to catch the 'Hop on, hop off' open-roof Bus tour, which I’d totally recommend to anyone visiting Barcelona. Luke and Liz were also supposed to meet us, but they never got their acts together on time to catch up!!!

The first stop was at this penis shaped thing (Glories – Torre Agbar) that had a lovely shopping centre across the road where we had a nice big, thick, slurpy hot chocolate in the sun. Busting for a wee, the only place we could find toilets was in a kids playground, and the toilets were meant for 4 year olds! They were tiny and we were busting. Enough said!

Sagrada Familia was our second stop. It is a massive Cathedral that Gaudi was commissioned to build, but unfortunately he was run over by a tram and died, so couldn't finish it. It's apparently got another 50 or so years to go before its complete.

The place was packed out with tourists, a man playing the pan pipes, and even a guy running around with no head.

Unsuccessfully texting and missing Luke and Liz by minutes, we hopped on the bus to our 3^rd stop - Parc Guell. Wow. 

This park is tiled from top to bottom, it is very cute – like gingerbread man houses.

With amazingly blue skies, and our full sweat on, we made our way around the park checking out the rough rock balconies and columns.

Of course the 'Bag boys' were everywhere with all their merchandise, and I picked up a cool Bull's head fridge magnet.

We sat on the mosaic benches and marvelled at the rooftop views of the city, then continued the walk back down, random little Spanish bands were playing on the side of the paths and people were dancing, what a great scene!

We were getting a bit cold, and majorly thirsty at our next stop, as it was a long bus ride back into town. The stop was 'La Pedrera' which is another Gaudi building apparently built with no straight lines whatsoever. Nice.

We jumped out and headed for the closest store that sold Fanta, before jumping on the wrong bus, and then the right bus. Phew.

The next part is a bit of a blur - I know we got beer - went home - changed - and went out again for Tapas on the beach, something like: Sangria, Cured ham, BBQ Chicken wings, Mozzarella, basil and tomato, Hummus and pita bread. Fantastic!

Feeling quite pissy, we strolled to the 'World Trade Centre' and caught the bus to Montjuic where we stopped at the Olympic Stadium and walked down to 'Mnac' - a big domed building.

Bussing again extremmmmly tired and thirsty, we braved the fresh night time air up the top of the bus home to Barceloneta for ½L of Sangria and more San Miguel.

Day 4

With a luscious Chip breakfast in our bellies we walked the morning away in Cuitadelle Parc to see the lake, a mammoth and a fountain again. And what a fountain it is! Wow! 4 eagle headed lions surround it, and the middle of the fountain has a goddess. Its absolutely amazing, and so clean.

However, up the top and behind the fountain we found a homeless bum sleeping on a mattress along with his 2 dogs. Strange.

We then tubed to Sant Estacio Train station where Luke and Liz were leaving to train to Grinada. Big hugs as always and big goodbyes! I hope the rest of their trip goes well.

So basically we had the afternoon free to eat and drink.

We tubed to port, and found the MareMagnum..... where 'Tapa tapa' restaurant is and indulged in a fair amount of Tapas and a good litre of Sangria. And then headed to the beach to sunbathe.

The daily ice-cream flavours today were choc and hazelnut, mango and strawberry and cream, cream caramel, mandarin, choc and hazelnut. Lush.

We then freshened up, and tubed to Parallel to get on the Funicular to Montjuic again.

The cable cart was closed so we took a walk through the 'Jardens' and found musical instruments in the form of stepping stones. This was fun!

The walk up to the castle through the forest had some amazing views over the city, and we could pin point where the cathedral's and penis shaped thing were!

A monument of people holding hands in a circle stands in the centre, and we just make it into the castle before it closed. Lucky, because it holds the most beautiful views over city and port.

Naturally, Kelly is drawn to the stray cats, and there were a million that we stopped to talk to. As you do when your are with Kelly :) Foodles is doing Doodles on the Montjuicles!

On the walk back down we find a really steep random slide that I have to try, and also a great sunset over Mnac domes.

Talking about randomness...we come across a really weird private function where everyone is in Dresses and Tuxedo's. There are cocktails and Tapas on a rotating wheel, and performers in giant see-through bubbles doing whaky moves. Really cool!

After seeing the Olympic pool we tube back to Drassanes and again visit 'Tapa Tapas' for ½L sangria and more Tapas.

On the walk back to the apartment we find a random concert with a girl singing – Kelly thought it may have been Morcheeba.

Day 5

What a fantastic sleep to wake up from! Each morning we wake at 8.30am by someone else’s alarm. The Beach was calling, and we sunbathed for about 2 hours before tubing to Montjuic.

Due to the Gondola across to Port Vuell being closed, we had nothing left to do but eat again, and that we did at Tapa Tapa's where we scored some free Sangria for 'Beautiful ladies, No Men!' Ha! 

Another sunny afternoon, so of course in our blurry Sangria warped eyes, go down to the beach. Weirdly enough a man walks across the beach in front of us wearing absolutely nothing! 'What are you doing??!!!' I say. 'I am a nudist, I walk from one beach to another.' He replies with his nut sack hanging out. And that was that.

We seem to attract the weirdos, just after the Nudist Fellow, a beach beer seller guy approaches us saying 'I want sex with you two girls.' Obviously we explain that we are together and don't want anything of the sort, thank you!! And he replies with 'why sex no good with man?' It went on and on. Basically he was a dirty man, but actually quite funny. It would have been better if we got free beer off him!!!

Later on that evening we found a lovely restaurant called 'Opium' and we had a fantastic meal.

On the walk home along the promenade, we are swarmed with a massive group of roller-bladers.

Day 6

So the shitty day we have both been dreading for months and months is finally upon us. Kelly and I have go our separate ways for a while due to my VISA running out. There were a few tears as we made our way to the train station and then on to the airport. We said our unwanted goodbyes and I left to catch the train back to the station to catch yet another up to San Sebastian, while Kelly boarded the plane back to Bristol and then on to Newquay.

It was a bit of a crap day really, but the train ride up was ok, the chairs provided ample room, and the tray held my laptop perfectly.

The journey took 7 hours, and I arrived in San Sebastian lonesome, but at least the hostel is easy to find. Its clean and tidy, almost like a flat. Straight away I meet and Aussie couple, and English guy (who later snored his face off, and our ears.) and an American lady.

I Skype Kelly with the interruptive internet service in my room, and she has made it back to U.K fine.

Sleep is the next thing on my agenda, the others go our for drinks. The streets are mad outside, there is so much noise due to a local football game that was won earlier, and they are all dressed up probably stag dos.

Emotionally damaged in Barcelona. The first 2 days.

Day 1:

5am Alarm: Frantically, we race around the room packing the last of our stuff as Dave (Kel's Dad) arrives 5 mins early to kindly gives us a lift all the way from Newquay to Bristol – a whopping 2+ hour journey one way. Cheers Dave!

After a sneaky Bulmers cider and BK Burger, we board the plane in a rather dazed state where we both snooze most of the way to Barcelona with our hoods up over our eyes.

Arriving in Barcelona, the Airports nice, the floors look kinda wooden with gum in the groves, but we think its marble/stone. There's also a nice Horse statue with chunky legs. The information guide gives us good directions to the train, and a huge map.

It's pretty easy travel on the train from the airport to Passeig De Gracia.

To get to our stop 'Barceloneta' we take a massive walk through a tunnel to find the right metro train.

Somewhere during this time of trying to work out the metro, understanding the Euro, working the ticket machines and generally not knowing what's really going on, some thieving bastards take the opportunity to rob the shit outta me.

Brilliant.

I don't realise this until we are well out of the metro and as I open my bag to phone our apartment fella.

Basically, we think it happened on the Escalator as it stopped and started to make some commotion, and this guy was way to insistent on carrying my big bag and cuffuffling around.

Basically I kicked the street a bit and cursed the world. As you do.

Our next drama was to find our apartment, and after a few teary phone calls and going in the wrong direction we eventually get there.

The apartment is really nice, quirky and clean, in a great location and has a comfortable bed.

Barceloneta is bound by harbour on one side and the Mediterranean on the other.

Emotionally drained, we still need to file a police report about my lost money and passport. So back to the tubes it is. We stop to ask if anything has been handed in.

Through the horrific language barrier and after a phone call or 2, the lady tells me that someone – somewhere has my passport.

A surge of energy now running through my veins, my eyes welling up with happy tears, I'm now the happiest person in the whole metro circulation!

Little did we know we would be spending the next 3 hours walking the halls trying to find this 'person' who has hold of my passport. Its a blur really, but I do remember - in the midst of trying to explain to yet another metro worker (by using very bad hand signals and sign language), finding this lovely lady on her way home from university. We never asked her name. She was our blessing, generously helping us with her time and interpretation.

We find the passport.

It really sucks being robbed. Make sure you lock your bags up tight. Kelly, you were an angel, thank you for putting up with my 'besidemyselfness'!!!!

We did get to see one of the major Gaudi buildings afterwards, Casa Batllo. A very colourful and strange looking building that looks like it is made of skulls and bones, the skulls being the balconies and the bones the supporting pillars.

On the way home we walked down Las Ramblas in all its glory, raging with tourists, markets, buskers, and random men selling light-up blue flying things, and mouth pieces to make stupid duck noises.

We ended the night with some dinner bought from Spar, Chips, Bread, herby cheese spread, beer and cyder. Not the best day of our holiday.

Day 2:

So today we woke up after an average sleep, but in a much better mind setting.

A beach walk was in order, so we walked down the gorgeously hot sands to see the The Barcelona fish (Piex) and balancing ball thing.

Sunbathing on the beach would have been really relaxing if not for the Thai ladies who march up and down the beach yelling 'hola, massagey?'(a 5euro massage on the beach) 'they come all the once...like buses!'

The culture here is interesting, we found that the abruptly rude people outweighed the insanely nice people. We also noticed the different groups of people, these African men who sell rip off brands on the side of the street on a white sheet with rope tied to each corner, and when their 'spotter' says there is a police officer approaching, they pack up in a split second and move on like nothing happened!

Then there's the buskers who form in groups, like this one band that played a full length song through the restaurant we were eating at.

And there are very alternative people who really like their piercings and brightly coloured hair. 

 

Next on the agenda was to file that police report.

In the 3 hours that we were in the station waiting for that piece of paper to be printed out, we met a Kiwi who's mate's jacket got stolen from the back of a chair in a restaurant. Also, a former English soldier who got mugged in the street by 3 guys. And a poor Swedish guy who had 3 hours until his flight but had just lost his passport and everything that goes with it.

Basically the station was full to the brim of tourists with something missing.

On the way to our daily ice-cream stop (this time consisting of chocolate/hazelnut, Oreo cookies and cream, white choc, blueberry, Oreo cookies and cream – meant to be cream caramel, and toffee) We walked down Las Ramblas and came across a full on 'pet store' in the middle of the street. It had Chipmunks, baby ducklings, ferrets, and turtles.

At the end of Las Ramblas is a monument of Christopher Columbus pointing out to sea. It is surrounded by yawning lions, and of course being the tourist I am, I had to have a photo on the back of one.

The streets lead to Port Vuell where the Imax cinema, Aquarium and a couple of really nice restaurants are. We had a nosy around and ended up finding a reasonable restaurant for pizza and a large jug of Sangria.

Back at the apartment, my good old pal Luke and his girlfriend Liz showed up for a little while to say hello or probably G'day as they are both Aussies! Both with tired eyes, as they had just arrived from Singapore. They are off to Girona for the Grand Prix. It was lovely to see a familia face and as always get a really good hug from Luke!

The night ended well, with a walk through Parc del Paraiguel where we found huge temple that we would later re-visit, and the Arch de Triomf. This area was also home to some cool local bars and dinky little streets.

Adventure Points

After months of procrastination, finally my travel route and dates of where and where i'll be are planned out. All that's left now is how to city hop... Eventually I will get there.

1.5 weeks until I depart the U.K - well until I get the boot outta England. Damn Visa limitations.

There are so many places I want to see, luckily i'll have my ever so faithful Lonely Planet - Europe on a shoesting 'bible' to guide me.

England

16 May @ Bristol [Flight]

Spain

16-21 May @ Barcelona [Train]

21-25 May @ San Sebastian [Train]

25-28 May @ Madrid with a couple of daytrips to Segovia/Toledo [Flight]

28-30 May @ Lisbon [Train] 

31-02 May/June @ Journey up to Porto [Flight]

France

02-06 June @ Paris [Flight]

06-10 June @ Nice [Train]

Italy

10-14 June @ Cinque Terre [Train]

14-16 June @ Florence [Train]

16-20 June @ Rome [Train]

20-21 June @ Ancona [Ferry to Split]

Croatia

21-06 June/July @ Croatia [Flight]

United Kingdom

06-07 July @ London [MEGA Bus!]

08-25 July @ Newquay [MEGA Bus!]

25-26 July @ London [Obviously Flying Home]

In Transit

26-28 July - Above the world in the Airplane

New Zealand

28 July Landed in New Zealand - Give me a job!