dh

My birthday, for lack of a more articulate word, sucked. The draconian imposition of siesta hours is cute at first but when one has a night train to catch when restaurants are opening and cannot get a decent meal… rrgh. Oh yeah, that and the ketchup. The Alhambra was nice again, of course. We did make it in after maybe an hour queue.

We have been shifted from a decently-located hostel kind of near the center of the city (Barcelona, that is) to a couple beds in a nice flat near the Sagrada Familia (and therefore not close to much of anything else, if you have ever been here). We are getting the most out of our transport 10-packs and shoe leather.

The unexpected wonder of the apartment is that it has a grocery across the street and a washing machine within. This is good news, and I am now mercifully ketchup-free. I forgot to try washing the pair of pants that got chocolate on it in Brussels, but there is always tonight.

Barcelona is fantastic, as always. I finally made it to Park Guell and got my obligatory lizard picture. We have done all the typical stuff (Ramblas etc.) but today we wandered around Montjuïc and stumbled into the 1992 Olympic campus, which was pretty neat. The stadium was open, making it about 5000x cooler than Berlin’s.

My travelmate has gotten to the beach a couple times which she has enjoyed, although this last visit left me in a mood similar to hers after an art museum… for various reasons I am a bit of an anti-beach character. Hopefully nothing was taken too personally and we will get over it over dinner (and a Brazilian victory over France would be nice too).

It would also make me incurably smug in Paris tomorrow afternoon. I can’t wait.

The Sevilla night bus was stinky and miserable as could be expected, and then we got kicked out of the bus station for 15 minutes because it wasn’t open yet… insult added to injury. After the city woke up I introduced Alana to chocolate con churros and we found our hostal, miraculously equipped with a full ensuite. enSWEET. Much laundry followed, and then some sleep, and then the Cathedral and Alcázar (of which gardens I waxed lyrical on my last trip). And then a LOT of sleep… it was time to decompress a little.

After about 15 hours of sleep last night, A. decided that she did not want to pay the 8 euro for the Mezquita in Córdoba. Personally I think it’s worth it once, so it works out for me since I have seen it. She is missing out though. As a result we took a bus straight from Sevilla to Granada.

So here we are in Granada, ready to queue for hot hours at the crack of dawn tomorrow to try to get into the Alhambra–by the time I thought of trying to reserve it online it was too late, but they save some tickets for the day of entry. We went up to the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaicín (old Arab quarter) for a stunning view of the Alhambra (with Sierra Nevada backdrop) and then somehow came down in a very different direction. We seem to be alive somehow.

That trip marks our last significant bus travel (except for the hike out to BVA near Paris) and the last travel that had not been pre-booked.

Food is cheap here and so is the Net–both good things.

OK, so after a decent meal and the crazy Holland x Portugal match last night, and some late night walking, I think we are patched up for a few more days of 24/7 friction-building travel. We we neither the first in bed nor the first up at the hostel, which was gratifying. Ran into the Royal Palace and that area before dinner last night, which was an area I had not seen here.

We checked out, went to the post office, and then day-tripped off to Toledo and rode the cheesy but effective zocotren. Food prices off the beaten path were fabulous. The cathedral was expensive but cathedralrific.

After a little downtime in a park (with working water fountain!) we trekked back down to the bus station and got back to Madrid. Went to the Reina Sofía for a bit, had some Doner Kebap, and now we are internetting for a bit before our 23h night bus to Sevilla. That should be a pack of fun, with 5h arrival. Hopefully we will be up to enjoying the city on arrival.

Weather is classic Spanish. Warm but bearably dry and incredible in the evenings.

Hasta pronto.

After q hqrrozing series of trqins I q, in Bruges qnd boy is this keyboqrd tired:

(love this belgian keyboard)

So to avoid typing much… AMS Centraal is lousy. Schipol airport is a great alternative. Rotterdam is cold at 4 am. Ah, English mode… now to avoid looking at keys.

Luxembourg was very… Luxembourgy. Lots of Grand Ducal pictures, with the country shutting down or setting up for the national birthday party the day after. Neat castles, scary thousand-year-old tunnel systems, nice bridges and valley views, and so on. All that and a train station full of (potable!!!) water fountains.

The Bauhaus inn rooms in Bruges are right over the bar, which is a bad thing at night. Bar is a bit overpriced for food and drink… I may never get to redeem the drink voucher provided on check-in.

Bruges is very pretty and medieval (is that right? I hate spelling that one). The belfry was back-breaking but the churches have provided nice opportunities to relax.

The 2,70 euro for a cup of pasta was fantastic… we might see a 4,50/kg pancake place later. Good ice cream but hard to find. And now that I’ve covered the important food groups (chocolate is a little out of my price range, but I’ll try some of that / waffles / fries in Brussels tomorrow), a little rumination.

The parts of semi-northern Europe I have visited so far have been nice… safe, clean, etc. But tomorrow evening, if all goes well, I’ll be in my old stomping grounds in Madrid (a bit grittier, a lot hotter, and so on). It will be interesting to see how they compare.

I will also be delighted to throw away my Eurail pass after we get to the Brussels airport. What a pain… everyone wants to stamp it, forgets they stamped it, isn’t sure if the dates are marked correctly (they are, not rocket science), wants a passport… It saved a lot of money for this routing, though.

Actually I don’t much feel like ruminating right now. Without a notebook the opportunities (?) for intense introspection are not there, but since I’m blogging in public I should not be publishing those anyway. Traveling with another person is not impossible, but it is easy to get on each others’ nerves. Functionally during long night train rides it isn’t much different if you are solo or have a travelmate who puts on the music, starts writing, and shuts you out for a few hours… but everyone needs a break some time, and without that sort of thing the atmosphere might end up more on the poisonous side. Good or bad, I don’t know. I guess in a couple weeks I’ll be able to tell you whether Europe works better alone or with a friend, but I will probably wuss out with “it’s different.”

To preview, tomorrow involves an early train and grazing in Brussels on traditional Belgian street food (and I still have not had a Hoegaarden during this trip, sadly) followed by a flight from BRU to Madrid Barajas, a ride on the Metro system, a check in at Cat’s hostel, and hopefully a heck of a good time in blistering-hot Spain summer.

You’re going to have to wait for those, maybe forever… I’m tired and in a very bad mood from the trip here (Amsterdam) from Berlin.

Actually, you will have to wait for a lot, since the Internet doesn’t grow on trees here.

The server was down for a bit. It happens. It will probably happen even more often when I am not keeping an eye on it. Traveling is hard and getting where I need to be and seeing what’s around is my first priority. If I ever remember to buy a notebook, it might get updated later.

Briefly: Prague was pretty, badly overtouristed, and cheatful. Berlin was very nice, great Reichstag view and nice views from the ground too. Amsterdam… well, I just got here, and I’m not all tulips as you may be able to tell. We’ll see if I can do better–I’m planning to recharge with some art today if I can help it.