Blogs from Spain, Europe - page 1155

The other night over dinner, just before we were to leave Spain for Italy, we asked the kids to help us make a list of what they would most miss about Spain (i.e. the best things) and what they would not miss at all (the worst things). Here, in the order in which they were mentioned and with only minimal editorial embellishment, is out list: What we’ll miss: topless beaches; Serrano ham; siestas; sangria before the siestas; paella; drinking wine with lunch; all of the flowers; the beaches; the mountains; friends; finding garnets at the dormant volcano; the double kiss upon greeting friends; the history and architecture; the sunshine; almonds; tapas; football on the streets and on TV; the school bus with comfortable seats and a video system playing cartoons; ice cream every day; late ... read more

After the previous night's shananigans, I was in a shitty shitty mood the entire day. So I decided to go to the beach alone and avoid any human contact for fear of creating a situation... Fortunately the weather was in my favour and relaxing at the beach made everything better. My night ended up being spectacular. I ran into a guy who I had met the first night from South Africa who had just set up his own hostel, and his friend, who was an electrical engineer, was there visiting him. We talked about travelling, and nerdy EE stuff, and ended up getting VERY drunk. I had a bottle of red wine, a shot of Absinthe, a shot of caliente (vodka + tobasco), 2 cale muchos (red wine + coke), and probably something else too. The ... read more

(You have to read our story to get to the good stuff) Sevilla is small, beautiful and the traditional ‘Spain’ we were expecting to find somewhere. The taxi driver from the train station drove through some urban neighborhoods and then stopped next to a road leading through a park with palm trees. He told us that our hotel was up the road and he couldn’t drive there because it was a residential zone. After we wandered through the park, some tiny narrow streets, and rang random houses’ buzzers to awake their owners from siesta, one of them told us how to find our hotel. It is situated right down in the oldest part of town, Santa Cruz. We could see why the cab driver could not drive down there. Virtually the entire historic downtown has ... read more

Viana-Navarette 23 km. Davon 10km zu Fuss und die restlichen 13 km mit den Bus. Mein Knie schreit vor Schmerz und die Fuesse sind so extrem angeschwollen. Heute Ruhetag in Navarette. Gestern schoen fleissig zu viert gekocht. Spagetti Bolognese mit anschliessender Musik von Per. Gaensehaut feeling pur(da in der Herberge von Viana eine Super akustik herschte). Mal so ganz nebenbei verfolgt uns schon seit Estella ein Spanier der in der Nacht furzt und schnarcht. Immer hoffen wir das er nicht in unseren Zimmer uebernachtet und heute in Navarette war es soweit! Hihi. Heute um 06.45 Uhr los und gemuetlich nach Logorono gelaufen. Auf den WEg verlaufen an eioner unuebersichtlichen Stelle. Hinter uns (Marget, Norbert, Marie und ich) die drei jungen Iren sind nachgelaufen. Auf den Weg kam auf einmal ein Spanier und ist mit uns den ... read more

I’ve realized this year’s trip is not about the places I’m seeing, but about the people I’m to meet. And I’ve also realized this trip started before I left California. A couple weeks before I left, I went to a 10-day Yoga Intensive in Encinitas and the biggest gift I received out of the 10 days was meeting John Harrison, a chiropractor who was one of the guest lecturers. It doesn’t seem right to label him a “chiropractor” because he is so much more, but now I hope to just call him my friend. When I told him about my upcoming trip he said I need to meet his friend HJ who lives in London. I didn’t ask any questions I just said “OK”. HJ invited me to meet her and her friend Lawrence at ... read more