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Published: August 3rd 2006
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Las Ramblas
Early evening on Las Ramblas in the heart of Barcelona...Great potential for people watching. So After catching a taxi from the train station to the Barcelona Airport I sat drinking Cafe con Leche itching with anticipation for the arrival of the two most important people in my life...Betty and Ira, for those of you who don't know me...my Parents.
So after endless hugs and kisses, remember I've been away for over seven months, Mom needed a few minutes to catch up on hugs, we picked up our rental car and hit the road. Destination being Platja D'Aiguablava and the Paradore that sits on top of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Now I've been living in tents, hostels, cheap hotels, vans and huts for the last seven months and I was all ready to soak in the lap of luxury. We arrived at our four star hotel, rooms with terraces that over looked the Med. and my Parents easily got sucked into my style of travel...do as little as possible and enjoy every minute of it. Each day began with a breakfast buffet and ended with a dinner buffet. For those of you who know me, you know my appreciation for good food, I ate endless amounts of meats and cheeses, paella, veal cooked
Famous Gaudi Lizard
The famous sculpture at the entrance to Park Guell. every possible way you can think of, seafood and each dinner was accompanied by a nice bottle of Spanish red wine.
We spent three days at the Paradore, sat by the pool, read books, spoke endlessly about all the things I've missed at home while I've been away and soaked up the warm sunshine and fresh ocean breeze. The one big day trip we took was to the Dali museum, which even with my new found love for art museums presented me with a challenge to keep from running to the exit. That man was one sick and twisted fuck.
After three days in heaven it was off to the old city of Barcelona for another three nights. We visited Parque Guell designed by the famous architect Gaudi, walked around the city looking at all the great examples of modernist architecture from the early 1900's, walked along Las Ramblas people watching, visited the Picasso museum, ate Tapas, drank summer wine (Spanish Rijoa mixed with Lemon Fanta) and just genuinely enjoyed each others company.
Sadly it all had to come to end sometime. Pamela and my Parents needed to get back to NY and I needed to fall
off the face of the earth again and head back to Asia. We said our goodbyes and they left for the airport early in the morning while I still had half a day to kill in Barcelona before heading back to the Dam. I hope you all enjoy the following story because this is what travelling the world is all about...
My original ticket from Barcelona to Amsterdam was for the following day on KLM, but since my family was leaving Barcelona one day earlier I decided I would move my flight up one day and go back to Amsterdam. KLM wanted an obscene amount to change the ticket so I found a flight with a low cost carrier Vueling and flew to Amsterdam. The following day, more than 24 hours before my flight to Bangkok was set to depart I called KLM to confirm my ticket and tell them I would miss the Barcelona-Amsterdam leg of my journey, they informed me that my ticket was now cancelled. So here I am sitting in Amsterdam with KLM telling me that the next flight to Bangkok will be on the 24th of July (by the way this was on the
The Parador on the Cliff
This is our hotel on the cliffs over looking the Mediterranean. 15th), plus it was going to cost 900 euros, it's funny but they say all this so calmly on the telephone. I took it all in stride. Called Northwest Airlines who originally issued the ticket, lied to them and said I just missed my connection from Barcelona. It took a supervisor in Minneapolis to get me on a KLM flight at 12 noon the following day the 16th from BAR-AMS and I had to fly from AMS-BAR on another low cost carrier at 6:30 in the morning walk from the arrivals hall to the departures hall at the Barcelona airport and check in for my flight back to Amsterdam. At least they checked my backpack all the way through to Bangkok and the nice lady at check-in in Barcelona gave me an exit row on the flight from AMS-BKK. It was a hectic day, but alls well that ends well.
Right now I'm sitting at an Internet Cafe in Chaiang Mai, Thailand and I will catch everyone up later on the last two weeks of time since I got back to Thailand in another entry...
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Pamela
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Hi Alan!!
nice pics! love that depth of field :)