If London was a marathon, Spain was a sprint

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We concluded our last evening in London with dinner with Saly´s Swedish friend and his friends (whom he was visiting in London), followed by a few drinks nearby. Pimms, we were recommended is a super English drink which is amazing and I´d say it´s somewhere around a Jerimiah weed/long-island but with much less alcohol. The next morning we checked out of the hostel, stored our luggage, and contnued our marathon, walking to Westminter Catedral for Sunday mass. We felt like we walked all of London in the end certainly totaling about 10miles a day. I mean we literally walked two 8 hour days plus to and from elsewhere the other days. The Westminster Cathedral has a boys choir school and so in processed maybe 15-20 boys and some of their male teachers singing like angels dressed old-school in red robes buttoned to the floor with white ruffle collars. The mas was almost entirely sung and about 75% in Latin. After mass we walked back, got our bags, and began our walk to the airport bus...which could have been shortened almost a mile has we known wher we were going. Typical. Oops. Our flight to Barcelona was obviously an afternoon flight. More telling of the experience is the fact that is was a budget flight... And FILLED with a Spanish highschool group. Budget means cheap, which means cutting corners- less staff, less organization, even less tape/pole stuff for creating lines in Hopes of organization. Ultimately, we were crammed into a small room with doors to the tarmak where we´d cross to the plane and climb the stairs. Well budget Also means no assigned seats which heightens the push and shove mode of the crowed full of fidgety highschoolers in a room growing warmer by the minute. When the doors opened allowing the crowd to pour out there was No lack of pushing and shoving or running toward he plane... moving quickly was all I could do to even stayon my feet. The idea really just seemed plain dangerous to me... all the while iwas wondering where the chaperone presence was for this group!? Upon noticing the escalating issue someone finally stopped the stampeed and I looked for seats as far from the group as possible. We arrived in Barcelona at night to our pre-booked hostel. and we of course talked to some people about the city and got a map, got oriented and took to the streets for some meandering. We found a bite to eat and chatted and planned a bit until probably 1am- though by the looks of e streets you´d htink it was just after dinner time. absolutely full of poeple out and about. Barcelona continued to prove to be quite a sleepless city, though we headed to bed that night.

Our first full dayin Barcelona we slept in a bit then of course headed out walking toward the beach. We stopped for lunch and I had a very Spanish seafood paella menu of the day. We then made our way to Plaza Reial where we joined a ´free´walking tour- right up our alley. (Through Europe there are tours at the end of which you are free to decide how much the tour was worth to you and pay the guie accordingly). The guided tour was all about he architect Gaudi and his work around Barcelona. It was really neat, and a well given tour. Gaudis work was really interesting too, not just he functional office with lines to draw your ey tis way or that direction. No, rather, mosaic tiles to look like confetti falling from the roof, incredible balconies curves, as he never used 90 degree angles because the´re not found in nature... absolutelyornate without being gaudyand obnoxious and all the while creative and fun. Google some of it if you haven´t had the pleasure of seeing any of it. The final stop on te tour was Familia Sagrada a continuing work in progess. Wow. It has 3 fascades , faces, and each is designed to represent and depict the 3 parts of Jesus´story 1) birth 2) death/passion 3) Glory/rising. The completed side is birth/ well mostly completed... it looks almost as if it were a mountain of wax that melted and dripped into some of the most fantastic sculptures. The sculptures are very real and exact because they were made from plaster casts of real people/animals. Yes, Gaudi got a donke´s plaster cast... of course he couldn´t convince it to hold still without chloroforming it first. Even the soldier who is shown killing babies under orders of king herod.... Gaudi obtained stillborn babies from the local hospital for the baby molds. This obsessive perfectionsim is certainly why he was and is continuously considered both a genius and a madman. Just as the tour wrapped up and we began to head to the subway my beachside seafood lunch revolted against me and left me throwing up in a street garbage can then again in subway stations. Getting back to the hostel was slow... and unfortunately at that hour the subway was packed. The only saving grace from embarassment was that i was very clearly not drunk. After relaxing back in our room for a while i was feeling much better when our new roommates (we were staying in a 4 bed mixed dorm) came whirling in, excitible and chatty, 2 guys from Belgium. We ended up showing hem to a pub the were looking for- we knew the way of course as we´d wlaked all day. I really only was interested in seeing the Spain vs. Honduras game- and a pub would be a good place. Spain, as you Should know, won. But I did meet an Argentinean living in Spain- I mentioned my upcoming trip to Argentina... after chatting we exchanged email addresses and she´d offered to put me in touch with some friends I could stay with in Cordoba... she said they owed her since she showed around some of their friends she´d never met prior.. and she mentioned that since I didn´t appear to do drugs she´d be comfortable sending me there. Our Begian roommates joined a barcrawl leaving from that pub and we went to bed. Unfortunately, later they cambe back in the same wild whirlwind fashion in which they´d first arrived. Needless to say between being awoken and kept awake by he most earthshattering snoring... wd didn´t sleep well. Even so with a list of things to see we got up, jumped on hte metro as our first destination was too far, even for us, to walk- and heded North to Tibidabo. Our journey included a bus followede by a tram car to get to the top of the mountain that hovers over Barcelona. On top of hat mountain stnds the Temple of Tibidabo, a Big church who´s construction was phrophesized by saint john bosco (of italy) during some of his time in Barcelona. The mountain´s name is Tibidabo, as is the long standing amusement park that sits just off it´s front steps. The juxtaposition of the 2 ´attractions´ is strange, but the church as well as the view of Barcelona from above was well worth the trip. We then made our way to another Gaudi site, Parque Güell which is pronounced more like ¨well¨than anything. This place was designed to be something of a posh gated community for the rich, and Gaudí designed the layour and common plazas and park areas, guard type towers that looke like he planned on Papa Smurf standing guard of candyland, and the grand total of 3 homes that we ever built there. The gated community there clearly didn´t take off, likely in part due to financial situations of the time. The city has since bought the land, buildings, plazas, walkways, sculptures, fountains, cave-like areas to hangout and all- all different, ornate and lovely. Today is is just an open public park, but it is beautiful. From here we headed to the beach to enjoy the weather we´d hoped for all along. Near the harbor is a sign describing a fun filled pier with restaurants, games, theatres...AKA Barcelona´s Navy Pier! We stopped, read the sign, simultaneously proclaimed ¨Navy Pier¨ and continued toward the water. The beach was packed but we were still happy to spend a few hours in the warm sun. From here we headed to a show we´d booked- a Flamenco show. We figured we needed to get a bit of the music and dance of Spain. Unfortunately, even with directions we weren´t sure where we were going... 2 people later we were finally pointed in the right direction but were running to make it in time. Once in our seats and served our sangría included with our tickets we took a deep breath and laughed about how we always intended to arrive early, find our way without being rushed or anxious and yet always find ourselved RUNNING. The Flamenco show was great and the influences of Indian music and dance were incredibly evident.

We left Barcelona the next morning- getting up at 4am to catch a 7am flight to Madrid. The bus was not where we 1) first thought NOR 2) where a police officer directed us. Needless to say by the time we got on the bus... it was getting very late. As I mentioned Barcelona, a sleepless city, was wide awake at 5am- people, many from bars and clubs the night before, loitering in Plazas and pedestrain roads waiting for the metro to reopen. Otheres just apparently with places to be.. it could just have easily been 9am. Except for the presence of the still drunk-including a man who felt the need to stand across from our bus stop full of people Naked yelling. Finally he yelled ¨You are Not qualified to view the spectacle¨I looked at saly, translated for her and as he was putting his clothes back on we said,¨oh thank god´. We finally get on the bus, said to take about 30minutes to the airport... but we didn´t think it would be stopping to pack in more passengers.. of course it did. As 6am came we started talking quickly about how we´d find our airline- splitting up and such. We got off the bus and my watch read 6:06am...when we got our boarding passes it said that boarding started at 6:30a. Fortunately, we managed to BLOW through security by 6:20am... and we were off to our gate B68. 68 of 69 in the terminal... starting with 1. uhoh. Moving walkway after moving walkway we were glad we hdn´t stopped moving as it seemed like B68 was on the other side of the country and we might as well walk to Madrid. Finally the 60s... but at the end of the building 65, 66, 67... WINDOW! What!? No signs. No nothing. We backtracked a bit fraintically... UPSTAIRS. 68 and 69 we find are UP. Oh geez. But we made it and jumped in the boarding line. Official CHAMPIONS of running through countries.

Upon arrival in Madrid at about 9:30am with only a few hours sleep we found that we couldn´t check-in to our hostel until 1pm...unless we paid 5€ more to upgrade to an insuite bathroom with AC which was available immediately. We looked at eachother with tired eyes and decided a nap and a well rested da was worth 5€. So that´s what we did and it was SO nice to have the AC as it turned out to be 95 degrees for the day! We napped for 2 hours then made our way out to our list of must-sees for our Onlyda in Madrid! (As we left the next morning -which was today June 24th).

We first took off for the Plaza Mayor and found lunch, followed by Puerto del Sol, another Plaza area. Each Plaza has a different feel, some quiet and secluded, other bustling and buzzing, some very archetectural others filled with greenery and fountains. All perfect in their own right. The number of ¨place to hangout¨outside is incredible and yet they are all full of poeple enjoying their existence. It was a shame not to have the time to stroll so lesiurely through each one of them. We really only took our time in Parque Retiro where we sat on a bench in the shade chatting with an icecream each, trying to cool off if just for a moment. Retiro wa a really large and diffeent place with a pond encircled by stone railings and a huge statue on the far side surrounded by a semicircle of columns. Many popel had rented row boats to meander about the pond while others sunned or relaxed in the grass. This Parque Retiro visit was actually after our visit to Museo de Prado an incredibly old art musum. It was HUGE an full of over 900 years of art, so we deicded to focus on the Spanish art plus seeing the Rafaels. Ti was incredible to see, some we´ve seen reprinted in books in such. From the Prado Museum we went to Retiro as I mentioned then on to the bull fighting ring! It is of course still used but we just took it in as a sight andimagined the sight of the spectacle. Tickets are interestingly sold not only based on your distance from the spectacle but also on whether or not you´ll be in the sun or shade. Reminding me of the Galeano book about soccer in the world ¨en sol y sombra¨. We headed home for a short rest to cool off and rehydrate as we´d been walking for 6 hours in 95 degree weather and blaring sun.. wishing that This was the beach town.

After our rest we went to get dinner before making our way to Templo de Debod which is a park with a replica of the Egyptian temple by the same name. We read that it would be a fantastic sunset sight.. though This was the place we Actually spent some time just sitting and taking it all in, rehashing our days and silly little turns of events that made them what they were.. And the sight was even better all lit up after night fall. It was like a reward for having rest there just as all those around us were. We couldn´t help but notice Spain, especially Madrid is really a country/city of couples. Pairs everywhere making out, holding eachother laying one achother in every park, subway, corner of the place. Living single there could really be quite depressing. We chatted about the times we played frogger in street crossing in diiferent countries always comparing them to Egypt... the most dangerous yet. And finally it turned bittersweet that we´d be recapping the days passed in preparation of parting ways the follwoing morning. We made our way back to the hostel and got ready for our individual trips.. trying to figure out if we´d be able to spend the mornign in the airport together as our flights were from distant terminals. Only at the last minute on the train today did we debunk every plan and realize that No, in fact the metro would be our last ¨stop¨together. And it happened so fast. One minute we wehre scheming how to spend the mornign together, the next we were hugging loaded with backpacks and for the first time in 10days Saly´s back was to me and the doors closed between us. And I was alone. And not the good kind of alone time we sometimes crave. The choke back tearons a train in a foreign country and push on with your trip kind. And now as I finish this entry seated next to a kind couple from Tennessee on my flight from Miami to Lima, Peru those tears come flooding back. Excitement mounts for the days ahead but I just spend so long writing this, recounting my last days I am grateful and happy for the experiences passed, the number of people who guessed my nationality to be French when I spoke to them in Spanish, the kind woman in Madrid who nearly walked to us to Templo de Debod.. and the roles we played in eachothers trip- I the Map and Saly as Dora. Each so requisite to the other, and so simply fitting I was and am sad to see her back as she walked away from the train... Its been ages since I´ve gotten to spend such intensive time with her. And I miss her. I just hope 1)She finds a new ¨map¨, that poor girl will be really lost 2) she is safe and has fun.

In just a few hours I arrive in Lima, Peru and will be met by the niece of a woman my mom does yoga with. The world shrinks all the time, and poeple everywhere are surprisingly similar. Next stop South America, City 5, Country 4, Continent 2.

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