Blogs from Girona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe - page 4

Abdul is around 25 years old and he's from Uttar Pradesh. He's married to an Indian girl from Goa and they have one son who is ten months old. They lived in many different places around India and now they are in Mamallapuram, a small touristic city by the sea in the state of Tamil Nadu. Abdul owns a small music shop in the city center. He makes the instruments (as his father taught him) and sells them: flute, sitar, drums, guitar.... I met him some months ago when I was looking for a sitar for my father. I had to go to his shop several times and we became friends. Last weekend I went to Mamallapuram. I'm leaving India soon so, so it was my last weekend there (for now, who knows?). It was Sunday ... read more

My final day in Spain passed quietly. I was up early for another solitary breakfast, quietly staring out of the window at the people outside. I packed up my room and left my things in storage while I set off for a last walk around the city. It was a peaceful morning. Relatively few people were on the streets and I again took to exploring the narrow alleyways and stairways leading upwards until I reached my favourite place amongst the old city wall ruins. The sun was warm and birds chirped in the trees and as I entered the quiet place the chimes of bells rang clearly from the cathedral. I sat on the grassy hillock high above the city and enjoyed the solitude. It has been a funny time in Spain. For so long I ... read more

I returned to Girona after a pleasant couple of days with my friends. I travelled to Barcelona on Tuesday after my morning's sightseeing, stalking along the streets my suitcase rumbling behind me. I successfully bought my ticket to Barcelona and hopped on the train. In Barcelona Sants I bought my ticket on to Sabadell, temporarily wedged myself in the turnstyle and managed to get onto the train without a minute to spare. Without a train map on me I spent the majority of the trip worrying that my Spanish had faded over the christmas break and I'd misunderstood instructions and got on the wrong train, but sure enough I arrived in Sabadell without any hiccups and emerged onto the dark street and plonked myself down on top of my suitcase to await my lift. I waited ... read more

The day before - as perceived by Nancy It was exciting to ride on the train from Prague to Spain but it wasn't totally full of fun. The first leg from Prague to Zurich went quite well even though the sleeping car was for 6 people not the normal 4 so we were unable to sit up and talk (the headroom between bunks was too low for sitting up). But basically I went to sleep soon after we started and slept till morning. The train station in Zurich was so lovely with a Christmas market and a fantastic crystal Christmas tree that the fact that the temperature was well below freezing INSIDE the station didn't really matter much. The ride through Switzerland was really great with beautiful scenery outside the window all day long. I ... read more

Ah, to be a child again There are so many things I would like to say about this museum. First it was so much more than I expected. Second I was totally enchanted. Third I ended up sad not to be able to stay longer and buy a copy of their magnificent children's film. The first part of the museum really caught my attention and held me for about half an hour. Someone had made a slide show of hundreds of children from the 1800's to the present with their toys. The pictures were so loving and so compelling. I loved to see pictures of children the age my parents would have been at the time playing with toys that they might have owned. Some I KNEW my mom had owned like the pictures of children ... read more