Anderae Anderae Eba Eba

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We have now completed our Western Loop and start the Northern Loop tomorrow. So currently resting our weary heads in where else but Paris!
Since i wrote and you read i have been to Avignon, Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian and now Paris.
I am currently fighting the codrel cold monster you see on those adds. Yes its not nice but its only been a day so im hoping i will recovery rather quickly. Today was our one day in Paris, as we are coming back at the end for a week. We did a free walking tour... very informative. uno problemo.. the pouring rain. that didnt stop us wandering round listening for 3 and a half hours about kings and world wars and architecture. Back in the hostel with drying shoes and jeans but now in the trackies and jumper 😊

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Barcelona
We arrived in fine spirits and found out at the hostel that not only did we get breakfast included but DINNER as well.. ahh YES please! Barcelona was a very cool place. Reminded me a bit of Melbourne. As we were too stingy to pay much we went and saw the outside of Sagrada Familia which was very interesting. For those who are unawares as i was.. Its a church designed by Goudi.. as is a lot of buildings and parks in Barthelona. There were snakes and lizard statues around the outside as well as bunches of fruit on the tips of the spires. and star wars looking figures at the entrance to the church. We then headed to Goudis park. Just your regular park.. with a few cool additions. Two gingerbread looking houses at the entrance. A terrace held up with multiple columns that you can waltz through underneath and lots of mosaics. Under the terrace there were two men, one playing violin and the other on keyboard. They sounded amazing! i couldve listened all day. This is terrible i know but i am struggling to remember what else we did. Im pretty sure we just wandered the rest of the afternoon. Got a little lost but then back on track. There are street performers every two metres so thats something to look at but what surprised me were the amount of pet stalls along the main strip. Not shops with nice little glass cages but stalls set up next to the tourist stalls with multiple animals in one cage. These included mice, turtles, pigeons, hamsters, lizards and frogs, rabbits, ahh other ones too but as i said im finding it hard to remember. Our second day in Barcelona was also spent wandering. We went to the Picasso Museum which was really cool. It was his works before cubism, as a 14 year old boy he was an incredible artist. And it showed about 30 years worth of work our something along those lines. Then we went and visited the statue of Christopher Columbus. We were happily taking photos and this american lady asked if we would like a photo together. Sure we said and after she snapped us her sentence was "i might have cut him out of the top but i got all of you in it" Well thanks a photo of the spire that he stands on with us and as it turns out about half the photo is ground beneath us. Thanks lady 😊
Our last night in Barcelona and we had booked ourselves into a spanish cooking class which was overbooked at 6 so we went to the 8:30 session. Turns out it was more of a demonstration but the Paella was good! The tapas were just a choice of stale bread that we were able to but tomatos cheese and or salami. Plus home made Sangria. Turns out we were sitting next to a girl who grew up in Mt Eliza and her sister was good friends with Claire Weber. It is a small world.

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Next Stop Madrid via Valencia
Our stopover on the way to Madrid was Valencia. Only 30 minutes but thats enough time to buy and eat an orange. Very delicious orange. Who wouldve guessed.
SO Madrid. There wasnt really much to do we found. Except Galleries and Museums. So the two days spent here were spent reading and listening to music in two of the cities very pretty parks. We did walk and look at the Royal Palace. which noone including the king lives in. Ah well. On our second night we went to a Flamenco show. It was insane. The way they move their feet so fast oh my!! We had met two ladies in the hostel, Sara and Lisa, so they tagged along too then we went and had dinner afterwards. That was about Madrid. We did all send home some packages with our summer clothes. As they are pretty much now just dead weight! We went to a tapas bar on our last night which was filled with smoke and crazy busy. As it was buy a drink and get free tapas. So i had dinner for only 2 euro. Sweet!
One night in San SEbastian. Which is a nice little beach town.

Then Yesterday which began getting on the bus at 8 am and arriving in Paris at around 9pm. We watched A lot of Friends episodes and then The Bourne Identity. THen Catch me if you can. SO the entertainment is good on the buses. On the bus trip before that one we watched 3 episodes of the Long Way Round. Which is a documentary with Ewan McGregor about his motorbike trip from London to New York through Europe and Russia. Which was rather intersting but we only saw 3 so we were left hanging in Mongolia. We have yet to see them fly to Alaska and ride through Canada and US. But anyway enough of that.
We are now in Paris. I have a cold and my sinuses are all blocked up BOO HOO! The weather is getting colder and more miserable but we are off to Bruges tomorrow Then Amsterdam.. Berlin..Prague..Cesky Krumlov..Vienna.. Munich then back in Paris
I am at my half way point in 2 days.. the seventh of October. and from then i have 52 days. So i beleive i will be home before i know it. I made a calnder today of my next 2 months. I have 8 bus days left. 3 planes trips and 2 train rides. So the next two weeks are spent with a maximum of three nights minimum of one night at each place then i have a more extended period of time at least a week everywhere i go from then on in. A week in Paris.. A week in Copenhagen.. well i lie cos i have 2 days in London at this point but then 3 ish weeks in Wales 😱 I cant beleive i only have 3 weeks left with the other girls and then im flying solo!
But the past few days i have been a little stressed because phone calls home have involved talking about uni and attempting to reenrol or deciding to drop my course and have another year off and its just been ARGH! to say the least. oh well i think im settled now.

Well hope all is well. xoxox

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Comments

[A.Megan]

Eliza, finally caught up with your blog after the busyness of the last couple of weeks.. everything sounds so wonderful. Hope that cold hasn't settled in and that you've sorted Uni stuff out, what a downer to have to worry about life after your adventure hey. lots of love xox