Too many!! Sometimes you have to stop and say to yourself ´cease and desist´. I say that often to my dog actually. He just looks at me.
Hola! We made it to Barcelona. My two memories of Madrid Iwanted to put down were the lovely Chinese couple outside the Prado who asked R to take a photo of them and then took a photo of us. They couldn´t speak our language and we couldn´t speak theirs but the simple exchange of gratuities I love. And the black cocker spaniel who gravitated towards me while we were having paella for lunch and put his paw out to shake hands. Oh he was so cute.
Barca- Rach nearly got pickpocketed on the metro to our hotel. Had I known what was going on I would have socked the old guy one. That scared me a bit and I´m not one to scare easily. I might look nice but I have to side to me- some of you know my random abuse of people on the streets... so don´t fuck with me people.But since then so far so good we´ve been wary. Our hotel (Regencia Colon) is in the Barri Gotic quarter right next to the Barcelona Cathedral. We got the fast train from Madrid - the countryside made me think of centuries past and all the men that would havewalked over the thousands of klms to fight in their armour. You could see remnants of old fortified falls or mini cities maybe? like Hadrians Wall.
Anyway Barca is beautiful. So beautiful, i´t´s so big there´s so much to see and we have limitedtime. Rach is excellent with directions. We walked around heaps yday and made it to La Ramblas and then I could sense that we were close to the ocean. And bangthere it was in front of us. I was so excited. I really wanted to make it to the water. I think I´m truly happy when I´m near the water. It´´s like everything disappears and you just gaze out into the vastness and just let y our thoughts go. Lots of boats and ships and just amazing. It´s hot here but not like our summers. I got burnt today, so my shoulders and nose are red.Awesome! Love that red nose.
It gets dark after 9 maybe 930 even. The culture suits me perfect. Go out for the day,come back to room, snooze, t hen dinner at 830 onwards. We had sorta tapas last night and tried out all these different things on bread - spanish sausage, cod, jamon, potato and salmon, so yum. Everyone is out late, even families. So many streets - more like laneways with their multitude of apartments.
There´s so much that´s been going through my mind that I simply cannot recall it all. I never stop thinking and I definitely think too much. But I love it here it´s great. I´m pleased with some of the photos I´ve taken and oh yday we found a church that was open so we went in andhad a sit down out of the sun. I learnt I have a function on my camera where I can take photos without flash. I thought it was more respectful to do that in a church. I´ve got some really nice black and white shots too. And some night shots. Barcelona is a really big city.
We walked so much today and covered a lot of ground. Today was our Gaudi day so we walked up to Casa Batilla - i may have the street wrong but it´s his apartments. We did that took photos and then went up to La Pedera which was great and got to go inside to see an apartment and then on to rooftop terrace for view s of cityand sculptures. It was 11 euros whichwasn´t toobad. You could see Montjuic Castle/Cathedral from the top and I gotexcited about that. We´ll do G audi cathedral tomorrow as R wants to go inside but we need to get their early. We did a massive walk to Park Guell, Gaudi´s park.
I´t´s interesting seeing how other people take photos. For me I hate people in my photos. Hate it. Move o ut ofthe f&ki8ng way peoplke. Hate it. There was this mosaic dragon and every f(ker was sitting next to him, putting their hands in front of his mouth to feelthe water. It´s the first time I´ve cracked it . It´s ART not something you sit on. So all I couldget was a close up of said dragon, not dragon and what was behind dragon. The park was beautiful. I walked quite a way to the top - it´s so big we di dn´tcover all of it. VBut I got toa point where I could see over Barcelona to the sea and all of a sudden I had a ´moment´. No I didn´t cry or have a sook, but I did have a moment and I had to sit down. You know when all of a sudden everything is just so beautiful and you realise how lucky you are and there are no words or thoughts in your mind but that one moment and you just ARE or you just BE. It was that. It was around 3pm Barca time, so 10pm back home. I sat there on the ground, in the sun, looking out over the city and I just was.
There´s so much that I want to express but just can´´t because it´s all swimming around. Tomorrow we will do Gaudi´s cathedral and I´m very looking forward to going up to Montjuic. I read this book The Shadow of the Wind and it´s set in Barcelona in early 1940s and spans maybe 20 years - look it up I won´t have time to write what it´s about. Anyway I loved the book and from that book have abit of an understanding about Barcelona, hence wanting to go to the çwater, Barceloneta and up to Montjuic. I think that is all we will get time for. And I must find th is picture of two girls sittingdown infront of a light that lo oks like a double image of a sku ll. There´s a Dali exhibition but I didn´t pay8 eu ro for it. Maybe if we get downtimeI´ll go back for it.
What I did do is buy 3 postcards. 2 new Dali works I don´t have and they had reflection of elephants so I bought the postcard for that. That´s the pic that I had in the hallway outside the bathroom that Jess pinned me up against and broke the glass with the weightof my body being pushed against it. The glass broke and tore against the picture. I´ve never replaced the picture because it´s ruined and I couldn´t look at it without it reminding me what he did. So now I have replaced it - sure it´s a postcard but it´s a new memory now. And a better one at that.
I thought of my hound dog today. H ow I would have loved forhim to be inPark Guell with me, off lead trotting in front of me and randomly looking behind him at me...... I hope he´s ok in the kennels.
I´m not sure I´ll be able to get onto facebook today, I had tech issues before and was locked out. But if not for whoever readst this I hope you´re all doing great and everything is kicking along nicely for you all. I am thinking about you.
I kinda feel like I´m a shit travel b uddy for Rach. Yday she asked if I was ok because I was quiet. I guess I´m so used to being alone that everything is contained in my head. My thoughts I keep to myself alot. I spend a lotof timejust lookin g and absorbing than verbalising it all. Nadyne probably understands this the most - we are so alike in how we th ink and I was t hinking about that today. And today thinking about how Christine would write her blog and all the interesting and descriptive things she would talk about. And all the different chewing gum for Matt, and all the skaters for Jules- so many skaters, no hot ones though. Wondering how Sam is going, and h ow Maiki´s leisure time is going - don´t waste it!!! Steve and Nic will be getting read tohead off soon as will Guy and Angel. And Christopher, wondering what you would do here, aside from drink beer.
Oh I made such an ass of myself before. I have a bit of chesty cough happening so we went to the Farmacia and I go up to the pharmacy guy and say, hola, medecina ..... and then I coughed...... and you know what happened next? He replied ´´dry or chesty?´´. Are you kdding, you speak English....... I felt so dumb. I try all the time to speak Spanish. It´s fun Ireally enjoy it, even when they speak back and I no entendiendo. This lovely lady was speaking Spanish to us today telling us about thepickpockets and thieves... Rach was speaking english back to her telling her about the guy on the metro and the lady was showing us a knife and it was so lovely, despite neither understanding the language we still understood each other and I love those moments. Plus all the other people who ask us to take photos for them and then offer for us. I offered an Italian family for me to take aphoto - the husband was taking aphoto of mum and 2kids, so I offered a photo. They loved it. It´s important to capture those moments as one, not split up.
It still has not hit me where I am. That I´m the otherside of theworld, in spain. Although I did think today that my mum and dad came here in the late 70s before I was born, so maybe 74 or 75. They came to Barcelona and I thought it was really cool that all these years later my mother´s daughter got to come here too. I think she´d be happy with that.
I smell my skin and I smell of sweat, but damn I earnt that sweat today.
I probably won´t be on again until Paris - Thursday. Germany v Spain is tomorro
