Dias 103 a 105 - Fui a Valencia apenas por ser um nome conhecido, não por qualquer interesse particular pela cidade. Por sorte, nos três dias que passei por lá, fiz valiosos contatos para o resto de minha viagem. Uma francesa que trabalhava no albergue foi a primeira a me ajudar. Madie havia viajado por vários meses pela Ásia e estava disposta a contar todas as suas aventuras para mim. Eu precisava de mais informações sobre vistos e ela tinha tudo o que eu queria. Conversamos um pouco e ela prometeu me trazer tudo o que tivesse no dia seguinte. Na [View Full Entry]

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Ever wondered how many flights there are per year from Glasgow-Malaga? Thousands I’d guess, maybe even tens of thousands with all the chartered flights at stupid o’clock in the morning, packed with neds and louts keen on bringing the reputation of the UK down in the summer season. Out of the thousands of people who fly that route every year, I doubt there are many on the outbound flight from Malaga to Glasgow who are genuinely excited and happy about leaving a country where there are over 300 days of sun to a country where there are over 300 days of [View Full Entry]

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Dias 96 a 102 - Londres tem dezenas de artistas de rua, mas não tem um céu azul sobre eles. Palermo tem mercados de rua, mas neles não há muita coisa para se comer na hora, e nenhum vendedor é simpático. A Bélgica tem gente simpática, mas não tem artistas de rua ou mercados. Paris tem boa comida, mas apenas para quem tem cinquenta euros para desembolsar em uma refeição. A Suíça tem organização, mas não tem vida. A Irlanda, bem, a Irlanda não tem nada mesmo. Barcelona tem tudo isso. Artistas de rua por todos os lados, um mercado de [View Full Entry]

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The transition my brain had to make upon moving to Spain was immense, coming from Asia. My first realisation I was back in ‘civilisation’ is ironically a very uncivilised tale itself. For the first time in my life I am living in a city with one of the best transport systems in the world. My first rides on the metro produced excitement akin to what the first moon-walkers must have experienced. I had thought unbroken pavement and occasionally effective pedestrian crossings the height of sophistication but the white and blue whish and whoosh of the metro litera [View Full Entry]

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At the end of October, when it was still warm and leaves clung onto Madrid’s trees, my parents rang to say a large brown box had arrived safely in Cork from Vietnam. At the time they phoned, I was chewing down a jamon y queso asado near Calle Serrano, before racing to the first Colegio of the day at Santiago Bernabeu (where the Real Madrid stadium is) to teach nine eight year old chicas. I wasn’t sure at first why they were telling me about Vietnam and the mysterious parcel; obviously the mysterious box had been delivered to the wrong address. [View Full Entry]

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Tooth able and travelling fit again. Left a drizzly, cold Manc to arrive in lovely warm Gran Canaria - exactly what I'd hoped to experience, a dose of December sunshine, away from the Christmas frenzy. Easy island to travel about on by public transport, well used to tourists too. Travelled up by local bus to capital city Las Palmas. Enjoyed great jeep 'safari' into the central island mountains for a day which included a typical Canarian food lunch. The saharan sand dunes at Maspalomas, where I stayed, are amazing. The pics say the rest ..... hope to one day return and [View Full Entry]

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Kaliyoga Retreat, Spain These last two and a bit days at the Kaliyoga Retreat have been surprisingly full and rewarding. I found this wonderful place through a volunteer exchange program, which means in return for a few hours work each day I receive free accommodation and food. This suits me well as I'm completely broke but desperately wanting to stay longer in Spain in order to learn the language and absorb this culture I have fallen in love with!! On Day 1 we learnt the redistribution business. Big pile of rocks gets redistributed into long line of rocks. Big pile of [View Full Entry]

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All these titles lead up to one thing... Holiday seasons are meant for families/friends to come closure together in the WARMTH and happiness of Love and marriment. So much so, that when an entire country celebrates it's independence there's only one thing to do.....celebrate......and only one place to do it "Madrid". It started early enough, leaving our lovely honeymoon hotel for the unknown world of Portugal or so we thought.... We arrived at the Malaga City train station with no problems at all, ready to try our hand at our first use of our Eurail passes. We had planned to catch [View Full Entry]

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So, I never did get to write about Marbella. Marga and her family invited Sarah and I to spend the weekend with them in Marbella. One of Marga's nephews lives there. We camped out in their apartment, did lots of sight seeing, and had some great tapas. The harbor there was lined with so many yachts that it would put Key West's harbor to shame. Seriously, some of these boats were mansions. For those Pennsylvanians out there....they even had their own "spillway". In some areas along the dock the tourists are constantly feeding the fish. The ducks weren't quite walking on [View Full Entry]

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Hey everyone! Yesterday it snowed in Guardo for the first time this winter! Everyone has told us that last year it started snowing in mid October and throughout the winter there were particularly heavy snowfalls, so the snow has arrived in Guardo quite late in comparison to last year. This fall in Guardo was unusually warm and sunny for the most part, so I'm still bracing myself for the colder weather yet to come. This past week the temperatures have stuck close to freezing throughout the days and nights so I haven't faced anything yet that I'm not used to. It's [View Full Entry]

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