Basking Under the Mediterranean Sun
Trip Start
Jul 29, 2006
1
20
21
Trip End
Dec 06, 2006
Summer is not yet over for me. It may be the end of November, but it's short sleeve weather again, with temperatures in the low 20s most days. And to think I'm missing the snow and frigid temperature back home! Not knowing much about Spain and only a tiny bit of the language, I decided to make it one of my stops. Although it's Europe, the architecture is nothing like I have ever seen before. I'll have to let the photos speak for themselves... some of the buildings are quite wild and bizarre. And most of the interesting ones were designed by an eccentric guy named Gaudí. The tall and strange nouveau-gothic temple called La Sagrada Família is still being built. Construction started in 1882 and is not expected to be finished for another 20 years if you can believe it! While waiting in line to get in, I overheard the people behind me talking about Vancouver. They were speaking what I thought was German, and they kept saying the word Vancouver. So I finally turned around and said "Hey I'm from Vancouver!" It turns out they were talking in Dutch and the couple is from Seattle. Ron and Tiffany were visiting Ron's brother who is also Dutch, but lives near Barcelona. And it turns out they are vegans as well, so we had lots to talk about. And now I have an invite to a vegan meal next time I'm in Seattle. Barcelona is a great city to just walk around and stare at the buildings. First couple days I spent riding a tour bus just getting a feel for the city. A nice way to see things, but the tour gets rather repetitive on the second day when you stop at the same places and the guides say the exact same things. Lots of museums and attractions to see here. A couple of high places too, including an amusement park on top of one of the highest points in the city. Other than that, not really anything exciting has happened to me so I'll keep this entry short... just taking it slow and relaxing. Picked a bad place to stay again. It's an apartment style hotel, very cool and in a great location. But the walls are paper thin and you can hear your neighbours, doors slamming at all hours and the housekeeper wakes you up each morning cleaning the corridors and adjacent rooms. Also, the shower leaks all over the floor. Enough complaining. I'm really exhausted now from being a tourist. Just one more stop to go and it's back in North America. Adiós for the time being.
