In Barcelona...flying to Rome on the 11th
Trip Start
Aug 20, 2005
1
7
25
Trip End
May 06, 2006
Barcelona, Spain
Saturday, October 8, 2005
Madrid and the rest of the Los amigos crew spread out through Europe. To find the next best thing,I arrive in Valencia in the afternoon to see what I can conjure up.
Valencia,the third largest city in Spain, but really doesn`t seem large, again, beautiful architecture and a lively night life like most tons in Spain I imagine. People come from every corner of the city to line the narrow, dirty yet beautiful streets in search of good food and plenty of alcohol- which I found both very easy to come by.
Brenda (girl from California) and I encountered a few random happenings walking the packed streets at night. Something caught the upper left corner of my eye, looking straight up to find that two people had snuck up into a construction site. They were making out like school kids on the tenth floor minus the walls and anything else resembling an apartment. Very cute, seemed right out of a movie.
Next was a large group of grown men marching the streets sporting chef hats and clanking wooden spoons together chanting some Spanish tune. They were following the leader who had a full body fuzzy yellow chicken suit on. We didn`t ask.?! so free entertainment was always near by as well as the graffiti that covered the buildings like wallpaper. At night the shop keepers pull down the metal fronts for safety and it is as if the eye lids of the city shut only to reveal even more colorful webs of tags and murals, setting the scene for the night to come.
Lying on the beaches, to the north beautiful scenery and to the south lined with Industrial plants. Last day in Valencia, I was able to view the eclipse from our terrace at the hostel.. I was thinking of you Bruce!
A train ride away was Barcelona.
So far it has been very good to me.
Very inspiring.
Stayed three nights in a hostel that was basically an apartment shared between 8 people right on Las Ramblas (the main strip in Barcelona.) We managed to see the city in a different perspective at 3 am, checking out the techniques of the pick pocketing women praying on the drunken men.
Had a few runs along the beach, seen a few Gaudi buildings which were unbelievable. Climbed to the top of one of the points of the Sagrada Familia. I really can`t explain how mental the whole experience was. I only wonder what kind of drugs he must have been using when designing the cathedral.
Next adventure.
A unique one.
I`m flying to Rome to meet Brook(the fountain swimmer from NY)turns out I kinda miss him. Then hes off to finish his round the world trip in South America and me... back to Barcelona where I will take a ferry to Mallorca to stay with a friend of a friend named Craig.
Pemberton Thanksgiving:
Ì have to say I am missing the Big Thanksgiving Gong show at the Franch, but I`m there in spirit. Have a good one and make sure the fam is nice and hung over for the rum`n coffees and fabulously greasy breakfast at the river. I`m craving the fresh Pemberton air at the moment. But I`ll suck it up and deal with the thick cigarette air, I gather I smoke a pack of second hand a week by the rate they smoke here. Can`t really complain though,I`ll live!
