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Tuesday 27th April
Alberta and I took a 40 minute train journey south to the pretty wee beachside resort of Sitges. Really nice place, very Mediterranean, and we even went for a swim and the water was beautiful. Lots of locals taking a day off to soak up some sun. Had a nice little lunch in the main part of the town and then headed back to Alberta´s in BCN. In the evening we caught up with my friend, Pep, at Cafe Zurich in Plaza Espanya and headed off for a beautiful traditional Catalan dinner at Madrid-Barcelona Cafe. I had the lamb shanks (which were very yummy) and chocolate dessert.
Pep is heading off on his big jaunt this Friday to Chile and then on to NZ and Sydney in July. Alberta and I walked off dinner and got home about midnight and stayed up chatting until about 1am. Alberta is a real sweetie and has a big heart and very generous. She will probably head off to Vancouver at the end of this week if she can´t find a job here in BCN. Bueno suerte Alberta y Pep!
Wednesday 28th April
Up at 10am and Alby made
me some nice breakfast and we chatted for a bit before she walked me down to the bus station and I caught the 12.30 bus to Valencia (30€ - $45). I slept for most of the 4 hour journey but one thing I´ve noticed here is you can actually see all the farmlands (right by the highway) with everything growing. You don´t tend to notice that kind of stuff in Oz. Heaps of orchards, vege gardens, glasshouses, etc. At least you know where your food is coming from.
Once in Valencia I eventually found my way to this brand spanking new hostel called Mare de Deu. Very niceplace but a little bit out of the main centre. Got a single bedroom for 35€ - $53 - with the world´s smallest shower in it. The doors opened on an angle and I could barely fit in, Winnie the Pooh-style. I then dropped the soap and that took about 3 minutes of maneuvering to pick that up. Very funny.
I wandered around town (Valencia is Spain´s 3rd largest city) and ended up having a beaut Mexican dish called chicken Quesadilla in a small bar while the football was on. Ahhhhh,
football. The Beautiful Game. This stuff is hilarious. (Apologies to Tom and football aficianados everywhere for the next rant...)
It was FC Barcelona versus some Italian mob. Some player is chasing the guy with the ball, pushes him over, and then holds up his hands going: ¨What, ref, are you and 40 000 other people in the audience frikking blind????? Didn´t you SEE that big blade of grass he tripped over? Whaaaattt¨Me?? I´m being stitched up here!! C´mon, give a guy a break....
Another guy gets the ball, he´s being chased by some other guy (I´m sure they all have very technical names like ¨Defender¨or ¨Wing Attack¨....Or is that netball?) and the guy with the ball waves his hands behind himself to steady himself, accidentally brushes the chaser´s chin, and the chaser goes down like the Zeppelin, rolls around on the ground in absolute agony as though he´s just had his eyes and throat torn out by wolves! Mio Dio!
Another guy gets kicked around the ankles/tackled and goes down on the ground, screaming in agony, writhing on the floor, life flashing before him, I think we´re going to have to amputate that leg right now in
front of the crowd, a penalty is awarded, wait, his leg´s feeling marginally better, in fact, it´s just a flesh wound, it´s a miracle I tells ya! Oscars all around please! It´s like watching World Wrestling. The beautiful game? The beautiful acting game, maybe. Tom Cruise and Russel Crowe should be getting lessons off these guys.
Postscript - I´ve since had it explained to me by a Liverpool supporter here that that was actually the Italians who pranced around like showponies and the rest of the football fraternity in no way condones this kind of sordid behaviour. Hhhhmmmmmm.....
Thursday 29th April
I hired a pushbike for the day for 10€ - $15 - and go cruising. I moved to a new hostel right downtown called Red Nest Hostel. Very groovy, baby, very groovy. My room is pyschedelic with love heart lamps and trippy wallpaper and the whole gaff has a good vibe to it. Got a double room for 40€ - $60 - with a shared bath. Internet´s only 1€ per hour - $1.50 - so cheap as chips. Big kick-ass kitchen, games room, outdoor terrace and not 1, but 2 beer machines. Result! Tres cool place.
Cruised around the big market where they have all kinds of food stuffs on display. Had some yummy mini pizzas for lunch. Found one of the original entrances with a moat to the city and climbed around there for a while. Must have been pretty cool in winter surrounded by all that stone. They used to drop boiling oil through the holes from the third floor onto the invading armies. I then went and did something I hadn´t done since 1996. I got a haircut at a hairdresser´s! My hair was getting a bit long so for only 10€ - $15 - they shaved my long golden locks off. I feel good looking again!
I cycled out to Malvarossa Beach. The beaches are about 60 metres from the road to the actual water. On the way there I passed some beautiful buildings which are the arts and Science buildings. Forgot to take photos but just google up Arts and Science buildings in Valencia and you will see what they look like. We think Sydney´s buildings are amazing but this stuff is way more intricate and world-class.
Had a snooze about 9pm and then got up at 11pm to
go on Johnny the Scouser´s pub crawl. As it turned out, it was only me on my own so he didn´t do the tour but I ended up going out with him and his mates until about 4.30 am. Johnny´s been here for about 2 years (he´s on the run from the Liverpool police) and is a really top bloke. Got free drinks at most of the places as he does tours around here every night. About to do it all again tonight!
Friday 30th April.
Up at 11am, feeling a bit dusty after only a few hours´sleep. Had the usual brekky of ham and cheese baguette. I met Johnny and about 10 others at the Plaza de Virgen and we did Johnny´s 2 hour tour of the city. Very funny guy and I offered him a job in Sydney but he´s already been there, done that. He does the tour for free (much to the chagrin of the local guides - however their tours are only in Spanish and cater for the older market, not the backpackers) but you have the choice to donate at the end. So I gave him 15€ - $22.
I then went
on to do his tapas tour but unfortunately it was with his offsider, Stacey, who was pretty quiet. It was only 10€ - $15 - and we got about 5 free drinks plus paella, and some other tapas so a bit of a bargain. Stacey is not exaclty a tour guide and knew nothing about the food or the places we went to so a bit disappointed but good value tour nonetheless.
Well the pub crawl is on again tonight so I´m going to get some kip first and see what happens
Ciao, amigos
Steve
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Sean Waddell
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Strawballs
Hi Steve ,enjoying your Bloggs ,when are you back in Sydney again ?How long are you away for Looks like you are having a great time as only you can . Straw balls