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Published: September 13th 2009
I met up with Tim Q on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Balcombe, Sussex, after leaving Mum in Blackboys, where she was staying for a couple of nights. I met him at the pub where he currently works and lives - The Cowdray. After a catching up over a couple of drinks (mmmm cider) and lunch, we set off for a walk through the forest nearby. Our destination turned out to be a place called Worth Abbey - which in its present life is a rather swanky private boys school. The massive private golf course was a bit of a giveaway! After a few happy snaps ('look, its me next to something with my surname written on it!!') we wandered back to the pub for some more drinks. Staying up late that night was probably not the best choice we could have made - we had an early start to look forward to on Monday; a 7.30am flight to Madrid. But everything went relatively smoothly the next morning and eventually (after a 10 minute shuttle bus from terminal to plane, wtf?!) we were on board our plane to Spain, albeit sitting separately. I choose to blame the selfish lone travellers who
get on the plane first and all get seats that aren't next to anyone else, so all thats left are single seats. A bit annoying, but it was only a short flight so whatever.
on arrival in Madrid one of the first things I noticed was the lack of English. Admittedly I haven't been to a whole heap of non-English speaking countries, but I'm sure I remember seeing some translations around the airport in Germany and Malaysia... But not so in Madrid. This was definitely a sign of things to come, with the language barrier proving quite prominent as a lot of people didn't speak any English... thank goodness that Spanish phrase book and dictionary was on sale in the bookstore back home... :P It was VERY useful.
The second thing I think I noticed about Spain was the DAMN HOT weather - like 35+ degrees. A big change from the chilly Perth that I left in August, but not so different from a Perth summer, I guess.
We successfully purchased some 'Billetomumble mumble' for a bus from Madrid to Valencia, where our couchsurfing host Hadi had kindly offered to pick us up. Now, at least part of the countryside
from Madrid to Valencia reminded me a lot of the wheatbelt in Western Australia. The colours were the same and it felt strangely familiar, but the topography was as if someone had taken the 'flat blanket' of Western Australian farmland and shoved a bunch of random stuff underneath it - you know, in that way you do when you are being lazy and not tidying up or making your bed properly. Also, the crops were sunflowers instead of wheat, and the landscape was studded with heaps of massive wind turbines. But it was definitely familiar.
It was a big relief when we arrived in Valencia and eventually met up with Hadi (we had some 'lack of credit/inability to use the payphone' issues). We had been travelling since 6am that morning, and it was about 8pm when we got off the bus in Valencia, so I was pretty tired. We drove 40 minutes or so from Valencia to Alcublas, a little village just outside of which Hadi lives. The view during the drive and from the house - which is in the mountains, was spectacular. We were just a little bit too late for the sunset, which was unfortunate because it
would have been AMAZING. Staying with Hadi was technically staying with a stranger in a foreign country, but it felt like staying with a friend I already knew. We all got on really well, seemed comfortable around each other and Hadi made us feel very welcome. I hope all my couchsurfing experiences are as good!!
On Tuesday we visited a place called Montanejos - which was a lake formed in between some rather large rocks... kind of like the gorges back home with rivers running through. Only smaller, i guess. The water was a beautiful blue colour and quite clear, with (mostly) smooth pebbles on the bottom and fish swimming around just an arms reach away! It was pretty hot that day so we had a nice swim and it was very enjoyable. It was actually SUPER enjoyable, because (and I haven't told you this yet, so don't feel bad if you don't recall it...) I had this stuipd stupid rash all over me - some kind of allergy or something. Allergic to English beer??! to London? who can say. It's a bit of a mystery, but it was massively itchy and being able to swim was SO DAMN GOOD.
Its important that I tell you about my ailments, because so far they have been my excuse for not doing certain things (ie, seeing more of London). And once again, having a mystery problem stopped me. The last wednesday of August is a pretty interesting day in the little town of Bunol (not far from Valencia), and Wednesday 26th August 2009 was no exception. Its the day of La Tomatina, a festival where a bunch of insane people throw a bunch of disgusting tomatoes at each other for an hour. I'm sure you've heard of it. Hadi, Tim and I went along this year, but sadly (or perhaps i'm secretly relieved??) I didn't participate in the madness because I was covered in stupid itchy spots and thought tomato juice probably wasn't going to help very much. So, I stood on the sidelines while Tim and Hadi made their way into the crowd. Apparently it was pretty intense in their, people pushing and shoving and just being nuts in general. They both lost their shoes, what can I say. Another thing to be warned of... the smell was AWFUL!! This was something i never expected but which I suppose makes sense
since these tomatoes have been sitting in big trucks for a while. But anyway, it was fairly unpleasant and I have sympathy for anyone that was a long way from a shower... Luckily for us Hadi didn't get too messy and Tim crashed a shower party in a CAR WASH at a service station we walked past on the way back to the car. All in all it was an interesting experience for me, even just seeing it and seeing the aftermath. You'll have to ask Tim how he felt about it, but he seemed to have a pretty good time.
Now its time for my birds of the world entry :P A few times while we were driving around with Hadi I saw these birds that were really familiar looking, but I never managed to get good view. This was interesting because most of the birds I've seen so far look very different, or they are just pidgeons. Anyway I eventually got a pretty good view of some, and I'm convinced they were Rainbow Bee-eaters (your 'favourite', eh Pat??). Now, last place I saw a Rainbow Bee-Eater was Exmouth, WA, but I've also seen them in good ol'
La Tomatina
here are some people I don't know, covered in gross tomatoes.Scarborough. Ok, I won't offended if some of you have stopped reading by now, or are getting bored, but I think its pretty damn cool to see a bird (BESIDES a pidgeon) that I see regularly in Australia, in Spain! Come to think of it I remember reading something about some of them being migratory, but I never knew to where they migrated. Thanks travel.
Ok ok, moving along! On Thursday morning Tim and I departed from Alcublas and Hadi's hospitality and took a train from Lliria (near Alcublas) to Valencia. Before going to the bus station to get tickets to Madrid, where we had accomodation booked, we stopped in a little alley (that advertised “we speak english!!”) for some lunch. We'd been sitting there for some time, having a nice leisurely feed, and were probably about 5 minutes from leaving when who wallks past but Ness, with Kirsty and their friend who's name I can't remember, Sorry! I could not believe my eyes! I knew she was in Valencia but what were the odds that she would walk down that street at the same time that we were there?!?! Awesome. For anyone that isn't aware, Ness is a
friend from back home, and we are meeting up in a couple of weeks to travel together in Western Europe :-)
So that was awesomely awesome to see her under such circumstances. Aaaaaaaanyway, on to Madrid. We stayed two nights in Madrid at a nice hostel quite close to the city centre. During the day we wandered around the city and had a short walk through the Retiro Gardens - that I think used to be the Gardens of the Palace or something, but really I don't remember. What is important is that now they are public gardens, and we walked there. And actually, we saw something rather disturbing, and worth a mention. In the gardens there is a rather large water feature, with little paddle boats you can hire, and stuff like that. We also found out its full of goldfish and/or koi - when we saw a massive seagull (oh yeah, did I mention the seagulls in Europe are massive??) pull a bright orange fish out of the water, onto a jetty. It was a bizarre sight. Well, i thought so, anyway.
And on that note, its time to move on to my Contiki tour - in
the next entry!
(and i will try to add some photos sometime soon...)
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Lois
non-member comment
Thanks
Thanks for sending the link - it is great to 'catch up' with you. I will follow your travels with interest - even the bird bits. A lyrebird has taken to strolling across Christine's lawn scratching up beetles, that's impressive! Lo