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Published: April 21st 2007
Hola Everyone,
Before i get on to the exciting task of recounting the last 10 or so days of my fabulous world adventure, it has been brought to my attention by the team from Globdollock and Frentargy Associates that there has been a suprisingly small amount of attention been paid to a super quick dry towel given to me by their client Patrice. So in an attempt to rectify the situation, and thus satisfy the terms of the court agreement I will attempt to sketch in the past 2 months in the life of the super quick dry towel. The towel has travelled everywhere with me, it has seen what I have seen, experienced what I have experienced and been a constant companion and friend in tough times. It has dryed me after the coldest of showers and dried rapidly afterwards. Often seen hanging from my backpack whilst it dries it waves happily in the wind to all those that I pass. So far our times have been happy together, except once when i was forced to move rooms at a hostel quickly and threw the towel in a plastic bag with the plan of getting it out later and
letting it dry. Unfortunately I was distracted in my aim and the towel was forgotten for all that day. This meant that it went moldy in the bag and began to stink and I was forced to use my back-up towel until I was able to get it cleaned. However the story ends happily as the towel made a complete recovery and we are the best of friends again!
Alright, now that is resolved I guess it is time to catch you up to date on my travels. When I last updated you I was in Oban, Scotland having had a marathon typing session replying to various e-mails and writing this blog. The next day (Wednesday the 11th) I got all my stuff ready, said a sad goodbye to my Granny's house and caught the bus from Oban to Glasgow at 6pm. I arrived in Glasgow at 9:30pm and caught a connection to Glasgow airport. Now you might think that this is building to me ending somewhere very exciting that night but unfortunately I am about to disappoint you. That night was spent in the always exciting, always comfortable and always my favourite place to be ... Glasgow airport. You
see I had to catch my plane at about 7:20 the next morning and it wasn't going to be possible or particularly worthwhile to spend the night in Glasgow and then attempt to make it to the airport a couple of hours before the plane left. It wasn't too bad a night though. Glasgow airport has an area that is full of beach style reclining chairs which were fairly comfortable and enabled me to lock my bag underneath so that the only way to get my bag was to lift the entire chair that I was lying on. So i got some sleep that night and read a lot of my book, "One flew over the cuckoos nest", which i heatily recommend (its a great movie too!!). Anyway I woke on Thursday to catch my plan and had a mild heart attack when I was unable to find the check-in area anywhere, and began to fear I had spent the night at the wrong airport!!! But don't get upset, I was right in the first place and excitedly caught my EasyJet flight with plenty of time to spare. So anyway you may be questioning where it would be worth sleeping
in the airport in order to travel to, although I'm sure most of you quessed it from the informative title of this piece.
I was heading to Malaga, in the south of Sunny Spain. Unfortunately when i got on the plane we were all informed that whilst it was Sunny in Gloomy Glasgow, it was Raining in Sunny Spain! So I arrived in Malaga at 11:40 and whilst it wasn't an amazing day, at least the rain had stopped! So I caught the bus from Malaga airport which involved catching the bus almost the whole way down that bus line which was pretty stressful because everyone else got off just leaving me on the bus hoping that i hadn't gone too far and unable to ask the driver as he had no english and i have no spanish abilities beyond what is the Lonely Planet guide. Eventually i took a guess and got off the bus at exactly the right stop, and after a quick walk I arrived at my hostel called Picasso's corner. I spent that day investigating the Malaga area, including climbing up to Castillo Gibralfaro which had amazing views of the city and harbour (by this time
the day had become nice). I kept walking and eventually got lost in the newer part of town which had less exciting things to look at. It began to drizzle but as it wasn't hard rain I just ignored it. Luckily for me I was passing under a shop front when all of a sudden the rain came pouring down so I was able to get my umbrella out and avoid getting soaked. I should explain that Malaga is on the coast of Spain and thus is a popular beach area, but as you can imagine I did not feel like swimming! That night I finished "One flew over..." and couldn't be bothered trying to get to know people, instead opting for an early night and a little bit of a catch up sleep. The hostel was beautiful inside and well situated in the town but I couldn't get over how poorly designed the bathrooms were as they were either amazingly decorated very large bathrooms, or very tiny and sparse and lacking in privacy. Needless to say I just waited until the luxury bathrooms were available!
On Friday I ate breakfast and chated to a great couple from Munich (needless
to say the conversation was in English, not German!) and then headed down to the train station to buy my ticket to Seville. It took a while for me to find the train station as it was quite hidden and i kept walking past it. I booked the 4:30 train, although this was a challenge as it required using my very limited Spanish. However luckily the guy i bought the ticket from knew the word "one-way" so i was able to get the ticket without too much pain. It was a much nicer day so i spent most of it walking around the old part of town and sitting in the sun. For lunch i bought paella for 3 Euros which was really good and a pretty reasonable price. That day i had planned to see the Picasso Museum however I realised i wasn't going to have time as I wanted to make sure i got to the train station without too much stress. But i guess you can't see everything!
So i caught the train without too many problems and headed off to Seville. I arrived at about 8pm. Unfortunately the hostel was hard to find and involved catching
another bus where again i had no idea when i was supposed to get off. However I guessed pretty well again, got off the bus and managed to use the various maps around the town to find my hostel - Triana Backpackers. It didn't look very impressive from the outside but was amazing when you got in. Luckily the hostel also had organised tapas on the roof so I was able to join in with that rather than try to find somewhere to eat by myself. So i met some really nice people whilst on the roof. There were 5 American girls who were all studying in Granada, a kiwi couple who seemed to be seeing everything in Western Europe but seemed to be treating it in some ways like a chore that they had to complete, a Australian couple, a French guy and some other people I can't really remember. So the Americans, Kiwis and me stayed up talking on the rooftop about various stuff till about 1am, and then decided to call it a night.
My first day in Seville (Saturday the 14th) started off very gloomy with thick cloud covering the sky. I started off with my
usual getting lost in the city, although there is a river running right through the city so it was quite easy to work out where I was. I've discovered quite a few wierd, non-touristy things when I go on these pointless rambling walks but I have to say my most exciting find so far this trip was when I found a massive golf ball type structure in the middle of a dilapidated area. I came across this giant ball when I crossed to the other side of the river where there are more businesses and less cathedrals, etc... The ball resembled the sunsphere/wigsphere from the Simpsons episode where Bart gets a fake license and drives Nelson, Milhouse and Martin to the world's fair. The giant ball was just sitting there with an amazing fountain system underneath which was covered in grime, and all the tiles in the area were cracked, often covered in weeds growing between them. The ball was sitting right next to a really creepy childrens amusment park which seemed like it is probably the Seville version of Wobbies World. Suprisingly it was quite busy but none of the children seemed to be excited about going (so I
think it must be educational - or just really crap). In the end i discovered that the ball was to do with an exhibition in 1992 to show off Seville (actually not that different to the Simpsons episode!).
About halfway through the day the weather picked up and blue sky began to penetrate the grey clouds. As I was walking back towards the older part of town I came across a rally in the streets - although it seemed like more of celebration than a protest rally. There were a few big signs saying - "Seville por la Republica"and lots of red, yellow and purple flags. So i followed the rally until I arrived at a free concert and I just sat and watched for a while, soaking up the area. I spent the rest of the day walking around the older part of time, looking in the various gardens in the centre of the city and enjoying the nice weather.
That night I sat drinking with the 5 American girls (Maggie, Michelle, Erica, Jessica and Laura) and an Australian guy (Matt). We started by playing F#&k the dealer, but promptly ran out of alcohol so had to send some
people to pick up some more. Then when the alcohol arrived we played another card drinking game called arsehole but unfortunately the entire hostel echoed and so we had to try to be as quiet as possible (which is really hard to do when playing drinking games). At one point quite early in the game, Matt (the other Aussie) disappeared for about 10 minutes, then came back and resumed drinking despite the fact he had just gone to throw up! (I think he must have been drinking quite a lot during the day!). So anyway eventually we decided to call it a night and i headed to my room to sleep. When i got there i discovered a English guy and a Korean girl chatting in the room, so i sat up for another 45 minutes talking to them by which time i got so tired that i had to go to sleep.
The Sunday I changed hostels from the Triana Backpackers to Oasis Backpackers. Late that morning and early afternoon I continued looking around Seville. This included the Plaza de Espana which is one of my favourite places I've seen so far and the Cathedral which was also really
impressive. Late that afternoon I headed back to my new hostel and joined the group of people lazing around the pool. This included two Canadians (Gillian and her brother - never knew his name), an Australian (Shane), a Kiwi (Louise), a Swiss guy, a Dutch couple (Kyell and Janice - named after Joplin) and an English guy (Greg). We sat around the pool for a few hours just chatting and enjoying the really nice weather (the pool was tiny but served its function well!). I was planning on going on the hostel organised tapas tour but the pool group got really hungry and also wanted alcohol, as it was a Sunday no places were open and the people we had sent for alcohol had been gone several hours by this point. We headed to a local tapas bar and I drank a few tinto de verano (cheap red wine mixed with a sprite type drink) and ate a really good tapas which was chicken stuffed (and covered ) in a cheese and garlic sauce. Unfortunately I can't remember what type of cheese it was - but it was delicious! Me, Louise and Shane decided to try and still go on
the tapas tour so hurried back to meet the group before it left. The first place we went to was quite a traditional tour place and when i was talking to the Canadian girl in charge of running the tour she said we would've been the only tourists in there. It was very crowded, and to get any food you had to be pushy and loud. There was lots of ham hanging from the ceiling, and the waiters calculated how much you owed using chalk on the bar top. I didn't get any food because we'd just eaten so i kept drinking my tinto de veranos. However Shane ordered something that he thought was a stew but turned out to be tripe! We then went to a second tapas restaurant which was a sit down place. We had a jug of Sangria between the three of us, and i spent most of my time chatting to the really nice Canadian tour leader. We shared four dishes between the three of us. First we had fried Camembert which was really good. Then we had a green curry served with potatos, another dish i can't remember served with potatos and also a
plate of potatos (we didn't realise that the other dishes had potatos). So by the end i was kinda potatoed out! We then headed over to the free flamenco performance. The dancer was quite funny as she would hiss at people when they were talking during the performance and also didn't seem to have a dancers physique. It was still a great performance although every one kept telling me that the professional dancers were much better. So after all that finished we headed back to the hostel for a much needed rest.
I guess I should mention at some point that I decided not to go see a bull fight. Whilst most of the people in the hostel went to see a bull fight and said that they thought it was a worthwhile experience they also said they could never go again. I decided that i would feel too sick and too guilty to enjoy it at all. I don't like seeing animals killed (I always go for the prey in animal documentaries) and I definately don't like seeing them killed painfully and unnecessarily. So i decided that just by going i would be supporting the practice, and it would
be a waste of money because i would hate every second.
The next day (Monday) I headed to the train station and bought a ticket for the bus to Cordoba to leave at 11am the next day. By this time my Spanish had already improved (I think as i gained a bit of confidence), and whilst i couldn't have a conversation with anyone I was able to book tickets, ask for left luggage, and that kinda thing without too much stress. After that i had a bit of a walk around but in the end spent the entire afternoon chatting to everyone around the pool again. There was a few more people as well (although the Canadians had left), but i never really got to know them as well. I spent the evening (from about 6 until 9:30) drinking a litre of cheap Sangria (it comes in a box like you can sometimes get orange juice in and only cost 1 euro). Speaking of juice though, i have to say that the most disappointing thing about Spain was the quality of the juice you could buy which all tended to be made from concentrate. Anyway that night the hostel was
Dead Bodies by the River
Don't worry they were just filming something (or were they??)serving paella and sangria on the roof, but people said it really wasn't worth the money so instead we headed out to a bar. CAUTION - stop reading here if you are concerned about excessive alcohol consumption. At the tapas bar (same as the night before) I drank three tinto de verano and bought the same chicken dish to eat for dinner. After that place Louise headed back to the hostel and the rest of us went out. Me, Kyell and Janice had a blue vodka shot that looked like mouthwash (and tasted much worse), we followed this by having a shot with whipped cream on top (which as you can imagine has logistical issues in actually shotting it). By this time Greg had joined us and suggested tequila with glasses of beer afterwards. We had three lots of these but on the second Greg snorted into his shot glass and got tequilla straight into his eye which meant we then spent a while trying to ease his pain and suffering. Then Janice and I walked a Canadian guy who had drunk way too much back to our hostel, and then when we returned everything went kinda crazy. While we
had been gone Kyell and Greg had offered to take an American guy back to the hostel as he had gotten too drunk. However the American guy asked Greg to take him back as he thought that as Greg was British he was less likely to rob him on the way back. Of course Greg was outraged as was Kyell and everything was very heated when we returned. Janice was also really mad and it all got close to a fight starting. In the end everyone quieted down but i was pretty upset cause I'd never really seen racism directed at someone i was friends with and i know this is very niave but i kinda always hoped and thought that maybe racism was disappearing (I also kinda upset about something else that day). So Janice was really nice and kinda looked after me (which of course made me feel worse cause they seemed to get over it fairly fast and probably wanted to try and resurrect the night but i was kinda still shocked). A think a lot of the reason i was a bit upset was cause i am really bad at dealing with people when they are
fighting. So in the end we moved to a different bar (grabbing Shane on the way past who was rapidly heading downhill). At this new bar we drank beer (cause thats a good answer to all the problems)!! Then went to the place Janice and Kyell were staying. They were at the same hostel but it has two locations and because they booked a double room they went to the other place. It was only 2 euros each more expensive but they got almost an apartment. So Shane passed out on one of the spare beds and the 4 of us talked until i realised it was 6:30am and i had a bus to catch soon. So i headed back (with Janice's e-mail - i now have a place to stay in Amsterdam if i want). Got back at 7am and got up at 10am. Headed to the bus station as fast as possible (of course it was clear across Seville) and made it a couple of minutes after 11 but luckily the bus was still there.
Okay so that was Tuesday and I headed to the town of Cordoba. I spent the day in Cordoba with the intent of
catching the 7pm bus to Granada. Cordoba is a beautiful town but i was glad i wasn't spending the night there as it (like Oxford) seemed to be populated mainly by tourists, especially school groups and tour groups of older people. However i really enjoyed my time there and considering the events of the proceeding night i didn't feel too bad. Cordoba is full of beautiful winding streets, and the main tourist destination there is the famous Mezquita which is a large mosque dating back to when it was pretty much the Muslim capital on the peninsula. The mosque was amazing, although i think i probably preferred the cathedral in Sevilla. For lunch i had an amazing salad full of salmon, shrimps and olives and covered with a lemon dressing (pretty much all my favourite things). That afternoon i checked out the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos which had some of the most beautiful gardens (check out some of the pictures below). At 7 i went to catch my bus where i was a first told that there was no bus at that time I began to dread trying to find somewhere to sleep for the night. But then he
sold me a ticket and i managed to catch the bus, so i have no idea what happened but i was happy anyway. So i caught my bus and arrived at the bus station in Granada about 9:30pm that night. I got off at the wrong stop for my hostel, got a bit lost in the very windy, very narrow, very creepy streets of Granada and turned up at my hostel about 10:30. As i had no map of Granada showing the hostel i took a photo of a map in the town centre and used the photo to find my way. So i arrived at the Makuto Backpackers and got an early night. I stayed in Granada for 3 full days (4 nights) but unfortunately never got very good weather whilst i was there. In fact it was fairly overcast every day and occasionally drizzled rain.
My first day in Granada (Wednesday) was spent as always just walking around the town soaking up the atmosphere. I also headed up to the Mirador de San Nicolas which had great views of the Alhambra. That night I ate the food at the hostel which was paella and sangria. It was all
really nice but I knew I was paying too much (10 euros) for what I was getting but it was just easier than going out and meant i got meet a lot of people at the hostel.
The next day I woke up at 6:30 am, left the hostel by 7am and queued up at the Alhambra by 7:30. You see tickets for the Alhambra sell out weeks in advance and the only way to get in is to get up early and queue. The Alhambra was amazing and I even forked out for an audio guide tour!! I was glad I had to go early though as the crowds weren't too busy in the morning but by the time i left at 1pm the crowds were massive (lots of tour groups and screaming school groups). That afternoon I had a siesta and then that night i met up with 3 out of the 5 Amercian girls that i met in the first hostel in Seville (Michelle, Jessica, Erica) and a couple of their friends. We went to a restaurant called D'Caudros and everytime the 6 of us ordered a drink we would get 2 free tapas dishes. So we
Drinking games at the Triana Backpackers
Matt (Aus), Erica (US), Laura (Not sure if she spells her name that way, cause that isn't how she pronounces it - US), Maggie (US) & Jessica (US). bought 3 drinks each in the end. For the first and second lot of food (we got the same twice cause the dishes we chose were soooo nice) we had a pasta dish and some really good honeyed eggplants. Then for my last one I had a pizza, which to be perfectly honest didn't live up to the previous dishes. Then i had a pretty early night at about 12pm.
I was pretty tired by this point so my final day in Spain was spent with a little bit of walking around and quite a bit of listening to music in a hammock and replying to e-mails. Then that night I was supposed to go to flamenco with the hostel group but due to lack of numbers they cancelled. But instead they recommended a nearby place and so i went with a French woman to see a flamenco performance in a tiny bar. The performance was awesome, although I think this type of performance could never be done in Aus because the passion on the faces of the dancer and singer would probably have been met with laughter. I loved the whole performance especially when the dancer really let loose.
Earlyish night that night and then got up at 6:30 the next morning to catch the airport bus to the airport (where else would an airport bus go?!?!). And then got to Colchester by 4pm and got picked up by my Mum and Aunt and that night we went to an Italian restaurant in the centre of Colchester. We had three really nice pizzas between us (with things like feta cheese, salmon, chicken, olives and other really nice toppings). Then when we got back we had chocolate cake and champaigne.
So my Spanish trip was lots of fun, and along with the trip that me and Lise made to Barcelona a couple of years, I have decided that it is probably my favourite place to visit (except maybe Scotland and wherever my family is - eg. here in Colchester). Later this week I'm going for a job interview to work in a school holiday program with learning disabled children. It has a really good wage, would last for about 6 weeks in the summer and would be great experience for my psych degree. But the interview is a panel interview so i'm a bit nervous (however the application form was
really long so often that means when you get an interview then you have a good shot at the job!!). Hopefully the next time I update you on the job front I will actually have been offered this job!
So today I've pretty just done this, talked to Lise and watched some much needed TV. I've decided that whenever i am in the country and support Essendon is when they do badly (you could never dream of calling me a band wagon supporter after all of the games I have been to after the last couple of years and the percentage of these that they have actually won!!).
I hope everyone has bought their Audrey's tickets for the gig at the corner (or will be buying them soon) cause they keep sending me e-mails telling me that they think the gigs are going to sell out. Speaking of mailing lists everybody should check out the new video clip by Angus and Julia Stone on their myspace page - its really kinda freaky but cool. Also the Scissor Sisters sent me an e-mail to say they are releasing a new single - Kiss me off - which means that whilst i
like all their songs, they have pretty much released my 4 least liked songs from the album Ta Dah! Oh, and if anyone can be bothered flying to California for a couple of days, Amanda from the Dresdon Dolls is going to be filming a video clip there and are recruiting people to be in it - for the song Shores of California.
CRAP, Girlfriend by Avril just came on TV downstairs and I can't be bothered walking down there to turn it on so I'll just have to suffer. Speaking of people I hate though, I have to say that the new-ish song by Fergie - Glamorous- is actually kinda catchy and often find myself drawn into watching it when watching video clips. I know that she represents so much of what is wrong with mainstream music but i have to confess i'm coming around (don't worry i still hate the Pussycat Dolls).
Speaking of music though, I don't know if she is already popular in Aus (as i think she recently cracked the US market) but if you don't already know Amy Winehouse you've gotta listen to her stuff as it is amazing, my Aunt got me hooked.
She has a rivalry with Lily Allen over here and I love both of their music and can't work out who i prefer. I think Lily Allen is probably more original however probably also more irritating, and I'm obsessed with a couple of Amy Winehouse songs at the moment - particularly the song Back to Black.
Finally, Helen I thought we were going to keep our relationship a secret. I'm not sure the world would approve of an age difference quite that large!!
PS. Hopefully by the time most of you read this there will be pictures for both this blog and the proceeding one! I'm also hoping that over the next couple of days to actually update and use my facebook account so if anyone has or wants to make an account then i'd love to add you as a friend.
PPS. Have fun at pilates Daniel!!
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Teri
non-member comment
hi
Alex your writing skills are fantastic! I feel as though I am there too! you make it all so vivid. Glad you are having a good time and meeting lots of people and learning lots too ciao Teri