The many sights and smells of Spain

---

So spain has been a great start to my trip. First I got to spend 2-3 hours waiting for Alex at the airport... aparently there are two airports in Barcelona.... I guess it didn't help that he didn't have ANY of my flight details. oh well. anywho, once we found eachother there weren't anymore buses or trains to Girona so we were forced to pay 160 euros (!!!!!) for a taxi ride with the world's smelliest cab driver ever. im serious---it smelled worse than ass. actually, he had to stop mid trip to go to a bathroom. personally, i think he stopped cause he shit his pants cause about 1-2 minutes before he asked if he could stop it definitely smelled of shit. very very gross. so those are my memories of barcelona.......


Girona, however, has been quite a fun adventure. Alex's team apartment (none of the riders are here anymore) is right in the middle of old town where everything is cobblestoned and small narrow streets that im amazed fit both cars and people. Lots of cool restuarants tucked into quant corners--- from tapas to kabobs to sangria... its all been delicious. We went around the cathedral in the north part of town and found this cool courtyard area. It kept going around and up stairs but finally led up to these towers that you could see the whole city from. Very cool. Even cooler was the town wall that connected from tower to tower you could walk along. The best part is most of the tourists must have been discouraged by all the stairs cause there was almost no one by the 2nd tower. Similiar to the rest of europe though, the smell of urine was everywhere. There even seemed to be special corners built for people to piss in... and a hole for people to shit it that led down to the ground 60 ft below... crazy

A few nights ago we went out to a club called Lux and met these girls who took us to an even better club called the cathedral. My very first discotheque.... it was wild. Everyone is smoking cigarettes no matter where you are, stages are all over where there are more guys dancing on them than girls, crazy spanish songs and american songs dating all the way back to 1995 Mambo Number 5 Alex and I had a lots of fun and danced like crazy till 5 am. We asked the spanish girls to take us home and they called us wusses for wanting to go to bed already. apparently when they go out they stay out so late they get breakfast afterwords.

Alex and I frequently go on mullet watches around town. You see, the catalunya region of spain is one of those areas that wants to be recognized as its own country so it has extreme national pride. The funny thing is their mascot/symbol is a donkey.... so they all think having a mullet is about the best damn thing they could possibly have. I'm talking boys, girls, we even saw a fucking baby with a mullet today. I wish I had pictures, I just didn't want to rude... but we've seen some pretty gnarly stuff. They shave their head sometimes all the way to the crown and then have ugly ass mullet hair on the back. Sometimes its the shorter more traditional mullet. Once we even saw a guy who had shaved the top and dreaded the back. It's probably the most disgusting haircut I've ever seen... but alex keeps telling me about this new french haircut he saw when he went over there to race with his new team---they shave the front two inches of their hair and leave the rest normal.... I'll be sure to get pictures of that later tho.


hmmm I really like having a home base this week, but soon enough alex is flying back to boulder and I'll spend a week or two in Antibes/Nice and then be a lone backpacker around all over europe. I'm gonna miss knowing my way around the town im in... knowing I can just hop out of bed and go around the corner buy a baguette while alex makes me eggs.

Hopefully tomorrow we'll make it to the coast and hike down to a deserted beach off a cliff somewhere... hmmmm alright well enjoy the pictures and I'll write more later.

---

Photos

Above the city
alex working on his photographer skills i guess

pretty sweet view pt 2
the view over the city

pretty sweet view pt 3
alex was worried i was gonna get blown off...

River Pic
This is the main river that divides the town from old and new.

poop hole
I really cant imagine what else it would have been used for..

dragon liqour
There's a liqour/candy/individual beers/soda store down the street we call the "dust store" cause everything in the windows is so old and dusty... there's this bottle tho that really freaked me out.... crazier than eating the worm in the tequilla bottle

Alex riding on the coast
Alex took this picture when he was still training before I got here

Comments

[Jenny]

Im sooooooooooo happy for you darling!

[Joolia]

That looks like tons of fun. minus the urine smell, wtf?

[Adele]

wow a woo wah
this explains why you havent called me!! haha. i called your phone the other week to see if you wanted to go to tapas but i can see you're occupied! wow it looks amazing, like the coolest adventure ever. it must be so cool to be there with alex, i bet its so romantic. Harry and i just got back from mexico last week but spain is probibly way awesomer. are you nervous about being by yourself when alex has to go back to boulder? hows your german speaking-ness or i guess profeciency is a better word for that? do you find any weird language barriers? that would make me nervous if i were by myself. well, dont get mad cow disease or the plague! and i look forward to reading more! i miss you!