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Published: April 21st 2010
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Hooley dooley! OK, so I finally made it out alive out of Barcelona. What an awesome place - could easily spend another 6 months there.
A friend of a friend gave me her friend´s (Pep) number here in BCN. Pep is a company director here and took me out to his fave place in BCN - La Cabana de Parque. (If you´re reading this, Brenda, Pep said you´d be jealous!) He also took me to another great place - Cafe Velodrome - where only the cool kids like me can hang out. Very classy. And the man paid for everything! He only just met me so very impressed - Muchas gracias, Pep!
16/4/10
It´s now been a year since my wee bus, Kitty, was stolen so am now spending the insurance money! Would rather have Kitty back but I´m sure whichever scoundrel nicked it is enjoying her as much as I used to. One of my old Spanish/Italian guides, Alberta, who used to work me for 3 years ago replied to my emails and she lives in Barcelona! Superb! So I caught up with her and managed to get my washing done and get some clean undies again!
I´ll catch up with her again when I get back to BCN.
I caught a train out to Castle Monserrat - a 9th Century monastery built by those wacky Benedictine Monks. The train only took an hour to get there and then you catch this cable car up to the monsatery itself. I´d booked in for what I thought was staying a night in one of the actual cells that the monks live in - supposed to get a free monk as well - but it turned out just being a hotel room. Had a wander around the grounds - awesome place about 1100 metres above sea level with wicked views over the whole valley. Not much to do at night so just had some dinner then read.
17/4/10
I was up bright and sparkly next day for the 7.30am Mass. (Yes, Mum, I went to church! First time voluntarily in about 25 years! And I lit a candle for you, too!) What´s the deal with these nutty monks? Let´s find the most inaccesible place to build a monster of a monastery, make sure no other mofo can access it, spend about 400 years building it, all so
we can get closer to God? Baffles me. Well, at least they´re getting lashings of tourist dollars there now. Did I mention it was an awesome place? And what´s with all the miserable religious icons? They´re like early day Emo kids. Cheer up, dudes! Isn´t God on your side? ¨Oohh, but I have a whole day of self-flagellation to attend to. Do you think that shit is funny?¨ Really, a little smile every now and again wouldn´t hurt you, would it?
OK, back to the Mass - it was quite cool. All singing but no dancing. The organist was pounding out some fresh tunes on the Hammond, the monks filed in and took their spots. Not sure who the Top Monk was but they all did a great job - beautiful acoustics and all. Apparently they´re number 3 on the Spanish charts and heading for platinum! However, there wasn´t much life in the monks today; just going through the motions, it appeared. Mind you last night was Friday night so they might have had a big night on the Mead. Not to mention they play this gig about 5 or 6 times a day, 7 days a week so
maybe the novelty kind of wears off? I mean, not even the Beatles played that much! Half hour gig and they were off to the Bat Cave again for a Mead topup. Very serene, though.
Back down the cable car, into BCN and hired myself a wee Opel Corsa - Connie to her friends. The licence plate, 3954-GDY, even says Gidday! (207 Euro ($330) for 8 days) Bust a move north out of town and headed to a wee fishing village called Cadaques. Salvador Dali had a house there until he hit that big museum in the sky in ´89. Scored a nice room right by the water for 30 Euro ($42) Wandered around town but everyone was indoors watching the 2 big BCN soccer teams play - Barca vs Espanya. It was a nil all draw so not everyone was happy about that.
Sunday 18/4/10
Hit another town of Figueres today. This is where the Dali Museum is. Talk about crowded! Good thing this is the off season - I´d hate to see it when it´s in mid summer. Man, the hombre was busy! There must have been a couple of hundred works there, all very technical
stuff, too, not too many stick drawings. Lots of bizarre and not so bizarre but quite impressive nonetheless.
I then headed over to Andorra via the Pyrenees Mountain range. The views were absolutely stunning! Snow capped mountains everywhere you looked. I´m surprised the Spanish bother travelling as they have everything scenery wise here. The highest point I crossed was 1800 metres high. Little Connie didn´t like the hills (only a 1.2 litre) but fairly good on petrol and good braking and handling. Passed lots of pretty little villages but not enough places to stop and get a photo. They also wouldn´t give me a stamp at Andorra passport control. Now everything´s one big happy Europe, there´s no need for pesky stamps for dumb tourists.
OK, have to go, it´s dinner time. Watch this space, I´ll be back.
Steve
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Luis
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Having fun eeeeee!!!
Hey Steven........here waiting at the hostel to make another check inn I got your bloq adress......how´s everithing going up there?? by the pictures and your comments sounds great...I'm glad you´re spending some good time man!! I´´ll be catching your trip up through this blog....muchos saludos desde blue hostel amigo Have fun!!! Salud!!!!