Tag: ‘spain’
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
So after my stupidity of missing my train, i awoke at 5am, the first time of being awake that early since i would go to bed at that time ib winter. I caught a train to Barcelona airport, and caught my pla e on time. I had 45minutes in Paris, before catching a quick train down to Bordeaux(a convoluted route, but rapid and efficient), to enjoy the sun while I waited for alex after he knocked a guy into the ditch, then got lost. A tirin day, ended by hanging with his mates and siblings, but me too tired to speak French.
Said my good-Bye to alex over juice and off again.
Yesterday I drove up, pretty uneventful until I hit paris, which usually I avoid, but without map, driving alone, I let the gps do her job. It took me two hours to get around Paris, it Gould have been less than one. Je deteste la peripherique!
So to Amiens. I got here eventually. I tried contacting catherine earlier in the day, but got the number wrong. I met catherine in lacauno, in the campsite. But I got the number off my laptop, and she came to meet me. We walked through the pretty town, drank wine, when in France, then went to her friends party.
I’d met most of these guys already, and they were super drunk, entertaining, maybe embarressing for catherine.
I’m sleepy, in bed, chilled, happy.
Tags: amiens, automobile, barcelona, beautiful, bergerac, bordeaux, car, drive, drunk, españa, france, french, girl, paris, party, peripherique, plane, spain, speak, traffic, train, wine
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Friday, June 26th, 2009
I had a lovely vegorganic breakfast near the ramblas in Barcelona this morning. I haven’t eaten since then an am a bit peckish, I feel like eating cold tortilla.
Just now the waves came flying up the beach, screams all round, and some people fleed with wet towels 
I’m laying on the beach near mongat nord, it’s just about a barable temperature in the air. I’m waiting for laia to finish work, then see what we will get up to. Hanging in premia is boring, but going into Barcelona is expensive, so have to wait n see.
Last night I stayed in a pleasent enough hostel, ramblas house, supposedly a chilled place. I needed sleep, otherwise I would have loved to have joined the cards and drinking.
But the highlight was going to see the ‘magic fountain’ near placa españa. Last year the fountain wasn’t running due to drought, but my god, everybody has to see this. It’s an opera of water, a giant colour changing, musical phenomena. There were maybe 2000 people there. It was possibly better with the occassional showers passing over, and red yellow sky off inland.
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Tags: awesome, barcelona, bathe, beach, breakfast, bronze, color, colour, colourful, españa, food, fountain, hot, magic, mongat, music, opera, organic, sand, shopping, spain, sun, sunny, sweat, swim, veg, vegetarian, water
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Thursday, June 25th, 2009
I decided to head back to Barcelona. I enjoy Madrid, and could quite happily stay there longer, but wanted to leave before getting settled. I want there to be plenty of reason to go back, and go back I shall, maybe this year, maybe not.
I tend to appear into peoples lives quite suddenly, and disappear, just as suddenly.
But I want to work my way back to my car, and ultimately, England.
So as I drift in an out of sleep along the rails at high speed, dreaming of the future, I think I’ll add a little about the past few hours.
Yesterday I spent almost ten hours wandering Madrid, wandering lost, wandering lushous parks, wandering art museums, laying in parks, passing beautiful people all along.
The strangest coincidence for a while, victor, who I have never seen except on the snow or behind a set of decks, just so happened to live in the same hood of Madrid as esti. So I had a beer at his. Watched how his snowboard video of my friends is coming along. Copied lots of his music. Then we met esti for eats before bed.
I’m not so excited when visiting a classical art museum but the museo del prado had some works that are among my favourite artists whom I studed at school; Bosch, patinir and Dali, so it was definatly worth it.
Today i visited the museum of modern art, reina Sofia. I was a little tired for a two hour art gallery wander but it was enjoyable, though my sleepiness from just waking now leaves me wondering what I actually saw?!
So twenty minutes from Barcelona, I hve no idea where I will stay, I I’ve no phone numbers for the people I know, maybe a hostel. I think I’ll stay in Spain omirow night too.
Tags: art, barrio de pilar, beer, busy, city, classical, del prado, drink, eat, españa, fast, field, gallery, high speed, hill, lake, madrid, modern, museo, park, reina sofia, renfe, shop, spain, sun, train, walk
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Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Or 311kph, I’m on a train from Barcelona to Madrid right now. I think this is the fastest that I’ve ever travelled at on land.
My shoulders are peely from too much sun a week ago in lacauno.
Yesterday I met laia on the beach at premia se mar. We had some beers, dinner, wine, And she got quite drunk. She’s made a new song, it’s nice but needs much work. I’m impressed that she’s working things out to have time to make music, and live.
This morning I had an hour on the beach, so I feel a little rosy, but not burned, good!
Today will be the first time that I’ve ever been to Madrid, flying in on the way to Peru doesn’t count.
So I guess I’m staying with esti, maybe see victor, maybe a friend of laia, I have no idea about this place.
Tags: barcelona, beach, beer, cataluña, cheese, españa, fast, food, friends, high, hot, rail, sea, spain, speed, sun, sunny, swim, train, travel, wine
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Last night I stayed at the sant jordi hostel. It’s supposedly a Big party hostel, but it was Sunday and everybody was suffering a little. I managed to guess a guys accent as pensylvanian, super impressive!
So I went out with 3 canadians, after we watched Italy have it’s ass kicked in the conferate league. I’d never even heard of this tournament!
So we went to the harbour for ricey dishes, introducing them to paella and sangria. Then I acted as their tour guide wandering the streets with beer.
We ended up in placa catalunya, winding up the old men selling beers and drugs.
I got chatting with a couple of glaswigians down for sonar, out of drugs, and we headed to city hall, a club, a sausage fest, and then I went back to the hostel.
Today I’ve just wondered about, trying to check the balance of my Swiss bank account, but with no luck. In gracia I bought a shirt and met a lovely polish girl who’s doing pretty much the same as I, working, travelling.
Now I guess I’ll head to premia as all of the shops are closed.
Tags: barcelona, beer, canadian, cataluña, city hall, club, drink, españa, girl, glasgow, graçia, hostel, paELLA, party, polish, sangria, sant jordi, scottish, shirt, spain, walk
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Saturday, June 20th, 2009
So I’m still t the house of alex the kid. We’ve been chilling on the whole today, finished off with a bit of ‘the Mitchell and Webb situation’ which is funny. It’s by the guys from peep show, requires watching and listening intently as the jokes build up and finally make sense at the end.
This morning alex worked on his dads pool.
I took my car to get the boot lid lock fixed. I spent a while wandering eymet, cute little frence town, with a strong ex pat British presence, but spent most of the wait with podcasts and the guardian.
So now I have an iPod I seem to find use for podcasts, or is it that I now have the time to spare for such things as these?
So the boot was fixed, and for less than half of that I was quoted the other day. But they found out the cause of the horrible noise, which is quite obvious, the bearings are going.
I’ve been driving super carefully, and rightly so as I wouldn’t want to cause any serious damage to the car.
The biggest problem is that it’ll take fours hours for the repairation, and I can’t be fitted in until next Friday. So now I can’t drive to Spain tomorrow, via Toulouse, as planned. So I’ll leave the car here, alex will take it to the garage, and I’ll be off backpacking by train.
So all of my cuts and grazes from being drunk at le mans are all red and a bit nasty, so you better not touch them!
I updated my iPod and it doesn’t seem to work properly. Since upgrading to OS3.0 the wifi is being really sketchy. Also when watching videos or video podcasts I can’t get up the video controls, can’t change position or volume, the screen just won’t respond until I press the home key, leaving the video.
I plan on having fun tomorrow night in Toulouse, but my friends from there I have no number for, and I receive no answer on facebook. Strangely I can’t find much in the way of hostels, no way any party hostels. So I guess I’ll just turn up and see what happens.
Tags: audi, b5, backpack, barcelona, bearings, bergerac, bordeaux, broken, car, cut, eymet, france, garage, graze, hostel, ipod, le mans, noise, os3, party, problem, repair, s4, sound, spain, toulouse, travel, trouble, wheel
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Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
summer is over, and it’s been great, i’ve seen more countries than i can remember.
barbados was ace with izzi. it was the end of the rainy season and we caught the tail end of a tropical storm, so a little wet, but still sunny at times. we rented a little car, mini moke which was great fun to drive, and explore the island, and a great colour!
it was great to be in london for a couple of days, though i will be back there this weekend coming.
i hope to go to the metro snow show at olympia, and the festival at battersea.
so im in spain, and leaving here tomorrow. i think i’ll miss it and marta a bit. but i am hugely looking forward to winter.
i’ll be driving back with harriet to verbier tomorrow, dad is convinced she’ll be sick everywhere, but we’ll have to see. she’s very good, and hasn’t needed sedation at the vets, which is great. she now has her european pet passport, so she can travel around europe easier than many people can!
so off on the next adventure.
Tags: adventure, barbados, cat, driving, izzi, london, show, ski, snow, spain, switzerland, travel
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Saturday, August 30th, 2008
so i haven´t bene doing much. i wake up, walk a bit, look for things to do.
mainly i spend the day trying not to move unless it´s worthwhile, because otherwise i sweat a bit. i´m glad i´m not a big swaeter, because i think it would be horrible here.
the most productive things that i have done are book some flights.
on the 8th i am flying to seville to meet harry ben and amy to spend some time on the beach at cadiz. so life as usual, except stronger sun, so need to get some stronger cream.
i return here on the 16th, only to fly to england on the 17th. i´m flying to manchester. dad wont collect me until the evening of the 17th, so i have to find something to do with myself for a day.
then we are going to go walking in teh lake district, so some cool weather which i can´t wait for!
then i´m back here the 21st.
harriet has an appointment with the vet on the 25th. and then maybe i will make a move. unless i have to make another vet appointment. i want to get harriet her passpiort as soon as possible.
i had a serious look into buying a car,
so to register a car in spain and get licence plates will cost over 3000euros!
cars in spain are more expensive than say germany.
cars are nicely cheaper in germany and switzerland.
if i really feel i need a car when i get back to switzerland, i will get one there, as most other countries will be difficult to get my own insurance in.
cars wise i was looking at audi a4 estate diesel 4wd, as this looks the most sensible option. i can afford a nice one, but do i need it.
needless to say i will forget about that for now, and hope that the rover does it´s job.
more flickr updates to see:
here
fin.
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Tags: a4, audi, buy, cadiz, car, cat, england, flickr, fly, harriet, hot, lake district, photo, photoshop, search, sensible, seville, spain, swaety, vet
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Friday, August 15th, 2008
so i have been a little busy since i last updated. we haven’t had a good wifi signal here for a while.
i have sun bathed on a nudist beach. i much prefer being naked on the beach, even if it is with a friends family.
i went for a walk to a castle. and on the way home rescued a homeless kitten
she is beautiful and cute, and friendly, and always wants feeding!
the vet says she is in beautiful shape. she had worms and bacteria, but they have been cleaned up. she is in for her first vaccination soon. it will be a while before she is a ok for a passport, in the spring she should be ok to travel to the UK.
but she will join me in the mountains this winter.
it’s a little peculiar being vegetarian and buying meaty stuff!
we finally sold granny and grandad’s house which is great that it is out of the way.
marta and i went to andorra. do not go to andorra it is horrible. the mountains around there are nice. but andorra is a tiny cramped country, steep mountains with it’s valleys filled with horrid shopping centres selling overpriced crap to thousands of smokey tourists.
i have finally managed to get up to date uploading my photos of my travels and life to flickr. it has taken me 8-9 months to get back to this state, but i’m sure i will fall back when i get moving again! it helps to upload pictures that are 1024683 rather than 3888×2592, much quicker!
so have a look at a few:
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so we’re off to the beach now, woo!!!
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Tags: castell, castle, cat, chat, cute, de burriac, denmark, flickr, france, french, fun, gallery, gato, harriet, image, kitten, photo, photograph, photoshop, spain
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Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
so today turned out pretty unproductive.
last night i spoke with dad online, and then just as i was about to head to sleep nic came online, so for her it was afternoon and me it was morning already, so i got to sleep late, so woke up late, and spent today uploading to flickr, researching jobs, reading about history, and checking out gadgets.
i have a plan set for tomorrow and places to visit. i’m not so comfortable about cheating the train company, but not paying, whether it’s a fear of getting caught, or morals, it doesn’t matter, but hey it’s spain and everybody seems to do it. i find it hard to take in, how open people are about stealing in this country.
so a photo: (anne in our hotel room in the Qbic hotel, within the Amsterdam World Trade Centre)
i saw indiana jones in copenhagen, thought it was pretty crap, but am now downloading hulk and batman. funny how i find this acceptable, but i grew up with this, as i guess do spanish people with their lifestyle!
good night
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Tags: amsterdam, batman, copenhagen, film, flickr, foto, hotel, hulk, idealogy, indiana jones, job hunt, lazy, morals, photo, procrastinating, qbic, sleep, spain, stealing, world trade centre, wtc
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