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Published: December 1st 2007
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I think I will begin my blogging about Europe with a warning: It could be FAR more boring than Africa! Consider yourselves warned!
We got into Barcelona really late one night but still managed to rent ourselves a car and find our hotel without asking anyone for help! Of course there were not very many people to ask on a Barcelona highway at 1 am! We had not eaten anything since our wonderful pizza lunch in Marrakech but of course nothing was open at that hour. The hotel desk clerk suggested we go to the truck stop next to the hotel! This is where I got to try out my great Spanish for the first time. We would like some "Pringles verde" please! That's right, we had sour cream and onion Pringles, peanut M&M's and leftover plums from the previous hotel for dinner! We figured we hit all of the food groups with protein from the peanuts and whole grains from the Pringles!
We spent the next few days exploring the Costa Brava coast. It was absolutely GORGEOUS! It was everything I thought the Mediterranean would look like. Yuri also enjoyed driving like a race car driver on the
Fury Yuri
He grew a beard! It is gone now though because it got too itchy! very windy coast roads! He did have to slow down at the hundreds of traffic circles they have on the highways there though. At first they were annoying but when you are lost and have no idea where to go, they are awfully helpful. You can just keep going around and around!
It was after tourist season when we were there so a lot of the hotels were offering great rates. We found one in L'Estartit that had a balcony with a GREAT view. So great that we decided to stay there for a second night instead of continuing up the coast! We did take a day trip to Cadaques the following day to try and see Salvador Dali's house and museum. The museum was closed but we did get to see his house. What kind of person puts giant sculptures of eggs on the top of his house?!
For those of you that think the Mediterranean is warm, like I did, think again! We went diving the next day and it is definitely not warm! We did one dive around the Medas Islands which are the ones that we could see from our balcony! The fish and
inverts were very similar looking to those in CA. My favorite were the sea fans (gorgonians for those of you Bio nerds reading this)! We also saw lots of scorpionfish and a few rays swimming by!
After exploring the coast we decided to head up to Andorra to do some hiking in the mountains. More on Andorra in the next blog!
On our way back to Barcelona from Andorra my dog attracting ability kicked in! This is not a good thing here or at home! This time it was a yellow lab puppy with huge feet and a green collar! He was running right down the center of the two lane highway and the cars were just swerving around him. We, and he, were heading straight for a tunnel and we figured that this would spell disaster for him. We pulled over to the shoulder and he came right to us when we called him. We both just looked at each other and laughed. What do we do now?! Luckily my dad sent us on this trip with a satellite phone so we were able to use that to call the numbers on his collar. Thank goodness for
the numbers on his collar . I really don't know what we would have done with him otherwise. If you thought "Pringles verde" was impressive, you should have heard me try to explian to the dog's owner that we had him! I think I repeated "En un coche roja cerca de el calle ----------------- (insert name of road and tunnel name from the map here)" I can't for the life of me figure out why he didn't understand! I'm sure those of you who speak Spanish (Anitza and Milena) are loving this story! I really thought that I was doing very well but I wasn't sure if he understood so we decided to put Mr. Rufus in the car and drive him to the closest town! That way we could have someone call the numbers for us and explain where we were! Did I mention that he was sopping wet and very smelly? He had no trouble hopping in the car and snuggling right up next to MY backpack in the back seat! We saw some people chatting in a parking lot so we pulled in there and I did my best to once again explain my predicament! When she
didn't understand, I brought her over to the car and opened the door! She went "OH CHIA", which was the dog's name on his collar! She KNEW the dog! It was fabulous! She pulled him out, walked him over to her car and put him in! I couldn't believe our luck! She tried to explain something about shooting guns to us. My interpretation was that someone was shooting guns and he got scared and ran away. Yuri's interpretation was that he was a hunting dog and got lost when looking for his duck! Either way, we were just happy that he was going to make it back to his owner. Really we were just happy that he wasn't in the car anymore!! (:
We really only had one day to explore Barcelona and man did we manage to cram a lot in! We started the day with a walking tour (our favorite type of tour) of the gothic part of the city. I have heard the terms Gothic, Renaissance and Boroque more in the last 45 days that in my entire life. I still don't really understand the difference between them all though. Something about curvy versus square windows!
Just kidding art majors, I know there is more to it than that! After the tour we walked up to the most amazing church I have ever seen, and it is not even 2/3 done! Here is a link about the church because I wouldn't even begin to get the history and details of it correct. http://www.gaudiallgaudi.com/AA012.htm
Gaudi was just an amazing architect. What I love most about his work is how he incorporates natural items. There were vegetables and fruits sticking out of the top of this church! There were also tortoises, lizards and other creatures all over the sides of it . The columns inside were meant to look like trees that branched near the top where there are leaves! It was just so cool! (Remember your warning!) The crazy thing is that they won't be done with it for at least another 20 years so we want to come back when it is done. Anyone want to join us?!
It was already after 6 but there was an Aquarium in Barcelona so we had to go! Of course I am biased about the best Aquarium but I did enjoy myself! The strangest thing to see
for me was the tank full of 10 or more octopus living TOGETHER! I have never seen this before and had always thought that they would eat each other. Marine Bio peeps, help me out with this one?! They also had a giant model of a sperm whale that you could walk into! Inside you could see the giant squid it had eaten!
You can't go to Barcelona and not walk up Las Ramblas! You also can't go to Barcelona and not try tapas. Although, I have to say that trying to find a good tapas bar or restaurant on the very touristy street of Las Ramblas was NOT fun. We ended up in a place where the owner was a very jolly man that was eager to help us! So much so that he took the menus away from us and asked what kind of food we liked to eat. Meat and No Meat! Easy enough. He thought so too as he said "I will take care of you". Why are we so stupid? Of course when the bill came each "tapa" was 10 euros. Yeah you'll take care of us alright! So, if you go to Barcelona,
don't try and experience these great tapas restaurants in the touristy areas!
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