The Free Tapas Challenge

The tapas origin story goes something like this: there were too many flies in [famous bar] in [amazing coincidence - city you happen to be in right now] and they were always getting into the customers' wine glasses, so [famous bar owner] decided it would be a good idea to cover them with small plates.  And why not top these plates with a free sample of something delicious, to show off the chef's skill?  (Alternately, something salty to increase thirst.)

In many places tapas are merely inexpensive rather than free, but the tradition continues in Granada.  Order a drink by itself most anywhere, and you will be served something to eat with it.  Carried to its logical extension, one could have a whole meal without ever ordering any food, provided you had enough to drink, and you didn't mind taking your chances.  Challenge accepted!  What follows derives from the notes I hastily assembled as the night progressed and sobriety decreased:

1. I think this was the fish one.  In... a sauce.  Tomato?  Or is this a flashback to the fish of regret?  Close to the tourist center, on a street with "Ruta de las Tapas" signage.
2. Patatas bravas y carne (fries and steak tips). I remember this one. The most American of Spanish dishes.  Clearly visible from #1, which proved less awkward than I'd feared.
3. Potatoes?  Pork rinds?  Not really sure.  In some sort of gravy.  And something else. There was definitely a second part to this dish.  Was it the cheese?  Must have been because there's no cheese in this list otherwise.  Really nice cheese oil bread herb something.  The menu looked suspiciously like #1's - not that I was actually ordering from it - so I think many of this street's bars were owned by the same company.
4. Potato sticks and... Ribs?  Very small ribs.  From what, a squirrel?  Best not to think about it.  On that note, let's head for the modern city, retracing my steps from the previous night's cab ride.
5. Pollo curry and olives served by a lovely tattooed butch woman.  This bar didn't look too appealing from the outside, but it was certain to have a bathroom, which was the only thing that mattered to me at the time I entered.  This was also the only indoor venue on the list.
6. Crab potato salad with almonds.  Served riverside.  But not the river near my hostel.  A different one, since I had walked a good deal at this point.

With that I was full, as well as pretty certain I didn't need any more to drink, so I headed bedward.  On the way I passed a bar/bakery which I had read about: a popular stop for students after drinking due to the excellent churros which come in massive quantities.  In a last-ditch effort at preserving a shred of dignity, I won't tell you how many churros I had.

Good night.

Looking at Things, Like Everyone Else

You know I love exploring, choosing random directions to wander in, and heading off the beaten path.  But I had tourist days too: inevitable when you want to see the same thing everyone else does.  My trip to the Alhambra was one of these, and naturally best experienced by photo gallery.

This was the most thoroughly planned part of my trip.  I had read that you need to get tickets weeks in advance - very true!  A few weeks before traveling I tried to get a straight Alhambra ticket that at least overlapped the time I expected to be in Granada, and I was unable.  The only options remaining were as a combo ticket: either as part of a tour group (ugh, no!) or the Bono Turístico, which also works for local transit.  I figured I'd need that anyway, so I made a purchase and got my half-hour window for the Nasrid Palace along with a stern warning about being late.  The whole of my trip had to pivot around this point.

No point in wasting time: I'm up before dawn!  (Not that difficult to do, since Spain is 2 hours ahead of the sun during daylight savings.  I saw many sunrises, actually.)  The sun is low and the grounds are mostly empty when I enter the Generalife Gardens.  Hedgerows, trees, flowers, fountains, canals, waterfalls, and lovely views of the city, across to Sacromonte, the Albayzín, and beyond.  Turn left to view the might of the Alhambra, our hilltop neighbor.  The buildings of the Generalife are impressive too, intricately ornamented with Islamic calligraphy, though my understanding is that they're but a hint at the wonders to come.

On to wonder, then!  The Alhambra walls dominate the hill, and in turn the whole city.  On entering, there's a sign indicating that it's still a 15 minute walk or so to the Nasrid Palace, so you'd better have timed this correctly.  I was very early, as planned, so I enjoyed the central area of the Alhambra.  Judging by the ruins, there must once have been a whole city's worth of buildings up there.  "Don't walk on this" said the sign.  I didn't.  Eventually I made my way to the Alcazaba (fortress) - the highest and most imposing part.  Up a tower, see some amazing views, back down, rinse, repeat.  It was amazing to me, but I am at a loss as to how to make sightseeing interesting to you, dear reader.  Perhaps it's like the Matrix, where you have to see for yourself?

At last the appointed hour arrived.  I was vaguely on time so they ushered me into the Nasrid Palace.  One of the most amazing buildings I'll probably ever see, but again I have nothing terribly interesting to say about it!  The only eventful thing to happen was that my phone battery died after taking so many pictures.

Finally after a hard day's work of standing around looking at things, my feet were exhausted.  I rested a bit at the hotel, then went out in search of lunch.  I hadn't gotten my fill of the Albayzín, so I climbed the hill in search of hidden viewpoints and cafes.  I had more success with the latter: simple home cooking by a grandma, served by her daughter, on the sidewalk by a quietly bustling square.  White wine and shade.  Bliss.  No English was spoken here, but a halting conversation with the representative of the youngest generation eventually conveyed that the bathroom had no light.  Somehow this only added to the charm.

Not much else happened that day, and I'll leave the night to another post.

Are You Ready For Some Fútbol?

After my excellent bike tour it was time for an equally excellent nap.  My schedule was open for the rest of the day, so I took the opportunity to arrange the next travel leg.  Having learned a thing or two from my ticket purchasing experience in Barcelona, I arrived at the station prepared: exactly this train at this time going from here to there, not the more obvious option of the faster AND cheaper train with arrival times incompatible with my Ronda and Gibraltar plans.  My Spanish must have been improving, because I managed to talk the sales-guy out of giving me the simpler ticket.

Back to the hostel area for the usual tapas.  Ridiculous portions of meat.  I really think these are meant to be shared.  A little slower than I'd hoped but I know you don't rush these things.  So I'm a little late to the Fútbol game: Rayo Vallecano (Madrid, but not the good team from Madrid.  US equivalent = NY Mets?) at Granada CF.  Neither are particularly good teams, and it did not end up being a particularly good game.  Rayo scored the only goal, and that was in the overtime shootouts.  Oh well.  Still, the seats were excellent, and the quality of this matchup was probably instrumental in making it possible to get those tickets at the last minute.  And I still had a fun time.  I was surprised to find no beer available for sale in the stadium - wonder what the story is there?  That seems to be such a big part of sporting events elsewhere.

The taxi rides to and from the stadium brought me through (modern) parts of the city I hadn't seen yet.  Beautiful public squares full of life.  Fountains, rivers, and people enjoying the evening.  Worth a bit of exploration later!

Granada II: Electric Bike-a-Loo

One of the reasons I learned to ride a bike last year is so I'd be able to do tours when I travel. I'd heard wonderful stories of friends' experiences and realized that it's the sort of thing I'd really enjoy - if only I had the ability. I wasn't going to let this trip go by without taking the opportunity.

Granada's awfully hilly. That's why it became important: a river junction surrounded by good sites for fortifications. They worked well too: this was the last kingdom of Al-Andalus to fall to the Reconquista, in 1492. More relevant to this story is that it's not a great place to ride a conventional bike. But what about one with a boost? Play Granada offers electric bike tours, so I jumped on the opportunity to try one! A little hard to get used to at first, pedaling as normal but with a push. Hold on! The hills still required plenty of effort and gear shifting but the boost made a big difference.

We started by going up into the Sacromonte neighborhood - an area I expect I wouldn't have seen otherwise. This is where the Roma^* settled in caves. Many "houses" were simply façades on cave openings, and many of these now host Flamenco shows. The road up was so steep and narrow in parts that half of us (raises hand) had to walk our bikes for parts anyway. Amazing views of the Alhambra from here too. I hadn't realized it was so close. Maybe I would just walk there tomorrow? (Spoiler: nope)

On to the Albayzín, where I got a completely different impression. City walls and portals, little squares lined with bars/cafes/restaurants. I'll certainly come back here! This led to the Mirador (viewpoint) San Nicolás, probably the best site for Alhambra views, or at least the best known. This is the site of the only picture of me from the whole trip, taken by our excellent tour guide Joaquín. (Due to the high-intensity way I travel, I'm basically a scruffy, poorly dressed sweatmonster the whole time, not very photogenic. On this tour I'm dressed in athletic gear appropriate for the occasion.)

Your narrator

From the hilltop the only way down is... down. Barreling down a steep cobblestoned path in a foreign city (sometimes with cars and scooters) on a bike whose brakes I have only just met may be exciting, but it's frightening too. (Spoiler: I survived) I made note of a kebab place on our travels and returned there posthaste. Now you may be scolding me for not eating local-appropriate food, but remember the history of the Albayzín! Moorish cuisine, sucka. Also, it was AMAZING.

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* My choice of term. Spain clearly never got the We Don't Call Them Gypsies Anymore memo. ^↩

Granada: Not Too Large, Not Too Small

"Everyone in Spain travels by bus", the guidebooks say, because they're usually a good deal cheaper, and sometimes they're actually faster. But they're certainly not as enjoyable. Seats are cramped and the frequent high speed roundabouts are hard on the stomach. Unfortunately, there's not really a good train from Córdoba to Granada. They do appear to be building AVE tracks to fix that. Yay! Aside: we saw snow up in the mountains from this ride!

My hostel is close to the main tourist nexus of Granada, Plaza Nueva, for easy access to the good stuff. And boy is it hopping! Tour buses, street Flamenco, artisans, Policía, bars and restaurants, and confused tourists like me. Eventually I manage to find the right kiosk to pick up my Bono Turístico (for bus rides and Alhambra admission, pre-ordering an absolute must).

Ok. Great. Now the hostel. This is an adventure in itself. I'm staying in the Albayzín^*, the old fortified Muslim hill town, one of the main things I'm here to see. From what I've read, this is about the only area in Andalucía that retained its Moorish character, and there are plenty of new arrivals from Morocco, Tunisia, and the like, and Arabic is often heard. It's a level up in difficulty from the Barri Gòtic even before you consider that it's mainly steep hills. Oh and this particular section is essentially a bazaar. Spices for sale! Scarves, rugs, bags! Your Name in Arabic, 1 Euro! Henna! Tea houses (euphemism for hookah/shisha room)! The tourist maps are inadequate, so it's a good thing it's only a few blocks. Hostel This Way signs at strategic points saved me, but I'm realizing I have this to look forward to every time I go home.

After settling in, I roam the area slightly away from Plaza Nueva in a successful search of the legendary FREE tapas. I'm hungry, so I order some food I pay for too. Also more wine. Apparently in Spain I drink wine instead of beer. The options are generally a lot better. I've been really enjoying fino, a dry white sherry (Jerez) which is quite different from the sweet sherry stereotype. I'll have to look for Tio Pepe or Manzanilla when I get home. A short walk along the lovely bank of the river Darro (not to be confused with the Douro) and I'm ready for bed. 

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* often spelled Albaicín: not clear what the significance there is. ^↩

Dispatch from the road

• Audio: All About That Bass
• Video: What's Opera, Doc?
• Location: 50 km Southeast of Córdoba
• Destination: Granada
• Transportation: ALSA long-distance bus
• Condition: Regretting that fish

Dos siestas in Córdoba

Córdoba was a nice change of pace from Barcelona.  Once the capital of the great Caliphate of Al-Andalus, it's a moderate-sized city today.  There's much less for a visitor to understand, so I think this would make a good choice for a first visit to Spain.

This doesn't save us from all of our foolish decisions, however.  Like how I decided my hotel wasn't all that far of a walk from the train station.  Oh, it's a flat less-than-mile through an attractive park and downtown, but with heavy bags and humidity, my comfort gauge dropped considerably from the AVE bliss I started the day with.  At least I was in an actual hotel room this time, with my own shower!  Air Conditioning!  In-room Wi-Fi!  (It would turn out to be the only night of 22 to feature this trifecta [edit: until the airline strike].)  No matter that the room was tiny: I appreciate that Single Occupancy is even an option.

This schlep coincided with the siesta, so I found myself plowing through a mass of uniformed schoolchildren and their parents.  Fun that I got to see that aspect of the culture, though.  By the time I checked in and took a mandatory shower, I was concerned that almuerzo would be over.  Unfounded: lots of options in the Plaza de las Tendillas, my center-city address.  I drank a gazpacho (served in glasses here) and ate a fried ham roll stuffed with ham.  Different foods and no Catalan to be seen anywhere.  Maybe there's something to this idea that they're different countries.

Tourism in Córdoba is dominated by the Mezquita (mosque), also known as the Cathedral, which was constructed in the center of the mosque.  Subtle, guys.  Too late to really do it justice, I decided to save it for the morning.  What to do until then?  The Royal Andalusian Equestrian Demonstration, perhaps?  The brochure said 21:00, a few hours away.  How about a walk in the old city, then?  That's my sort of thing.  Like a smaller Barri Gòtic, I had a lovely time wandering and attempting night photos.  I ended my stroll at the stables where they said "ocho" and some other things I didn't catch.  When they saw me counting out 8 euros, they directed me to a brochure much like my own but with the time at 20:00.  Oh.  Ocho PM.  Dammit, I had outdated info (and I thought they used the 24-hour clock exclusively)!  Uh, dinner?  A happier time, with more tapas of course!

I get up earlyish and head to old town.  The Mezquita is huge, a little absurd, and beautiful.  Red-white arches throughout.  There's a window in the floor to an archeological site: the mosque was itself built over an earlier Visigoth church.  I guess turnabout is fair play?  Successive caliphs added wings to the mosque, attempting to match the existing style with varying degrees of success.  You do have to look for these differences, however: rectangle + rectangle = rectangle.  Try extending a church by planting more churches next to it, and see how silly that looks.  There's lots of (Christian) religious art inside, including a nice collection of illuminated texts.

My tour complete, it's time for a snack.  I acquire the customary elevensies bocadillo and perch myself by the river Quadalquivir.  Here (upstream of Sevilla) it's a peaceful stream, but the heights of the bridge and banks imply it can get much stronger.  Or maybe it did in the past.  The bridge is low but imposing, dating from Roman times, and provides a fine view back to the Mezquita and the city.  A tower at the far side houses the Museum of Al-Andalus Life.  It fascinates me that an area of Western Europe was under Muslim control for centuries, and much of this trip is focused on exploring that era.  Of course I had to check this out.  I had read that it provides a useful counterpoint to what the Church has to say at the Mezquita.  Well.  If you believe the recordings at the statues and displays, Al-Andalus was basically the greatest period of human history ever, until the Christians came and ruined everything.  That may be overstating things a bit.  But there were certainly important advances from this era, and I enjoyed seeing things like medical instruments (yikes!), astronomy, and irrigation.  (Foreshadowing: I seem to have a thing for plumbing.  Yes I can tell you're excited.)  Big models of the Mezquita (pre-Cathedral of course) and Granada's Alhambra, plus river and city views from the top of the tower, and that adds up to a nice little museum.  A synecdoche^* of Córdoba, really.

My time's up but for lunch.  I choose poorly: an enormous bland fish filet in (tomato?) sauce.  I can barely finish half.  Oh well.  Not every meal can be amazepants.  (Most are!)  This time I make the wise decision to hail a taxi to the bus station.  It's a fun ride in a nimble little car through tiny streets.  ¡Adiós, Córdoba!

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* I'd like to thank my book club for this vocabulary lesson ^↩

A home away from home

My hotel, in the heart of Córdoba

Q: Why is it the called the Hotel Boston?  I'm from Boston!

A: Oh, I don't know.  We just like how it sounds.

 There's a bidet, though.  So that's cool.

Barcelona Summary Post

Here I am sitting in my hotel room in Ronda (city #4), nearly a week after leaving the first city Barcelona, but I'm finally done with those posts!  (except pictures)  If you've read them previously, there are now a lot of self links to add context.

Chronologically:

• First Impressions
• Sunday in the Barri Gòtic
• Casa Batlló [placeholder]
• Montserrat
• Sagrada Familia [placeholder]
• Picasso
• Boqueria Market
• Park Güell

Misc:

• Catalan
• Independence
• Getting Around

Barcelona: Getting Around and Getting Out

This is one hell of a well designed city.  Well, the modern part of the city.  The old town (Ciutat Vella) including the Barri Gòtic is anything but designed.  Of course it has its own charms.  Assume I'm talking about the modern zone for the rest of this.

The buildings have chopped corners at intersections, so each one is a little public square.  Some have things like fountains in the middle.  Crossings are offset a bit from the intersections, too, so turning traffic has some time to see conflicts on the destination street.  There are well-used special bus/taxi/scooter/bike lanes too.  (Lots of scooters!)

The streets are laid out on a pretty strict grid.  In addition to more typical bus lines, there are numbered H and V lines (Horizontal and Vertical?) to help you navigate by coordinate if you're into that sort of thing.  (You know I am.)  The Metro has a lot of well-connected lines, but the stations are so HOT.  Wow.  The T never gets this bad in the middle of August - and the outside air has generally been reasonably pleasant here.  What's the deal?

Expanding out from the Metro to media distancia, things get more complicated.  The Rodalies network is a system of commuter trains to suburbs and more distant destinations.  Ferrocarrils is another such network.  I could not figure out how exactly they differed.  There's also a "Tram" which I never saw in action - possibly a third such system?

The national Spanish railway company Renfe operates the larga distancia trains.  Sigh.  Maybe Germany spoiled me, but in 2000 I could book a trip from any X to any Y in any small town train station, even including local buses, and even if the trip was outside Germany.  In Spain, you apparently can't even get a ticket leaving from the main station in town at the #4-ish station.  You have to actually go there.  (I'd buy online instead, but that just wasn't working at all.)  When I got to the station, the machine wouldn't let me buy the ticket I wanted, so I was afraid they'd sold out!  I would have to (shudder) talk to a human.  I found that they weren't serving after-today long-distance trains yet, which works on the take-a-number system.  And there was a line waiting for the number dispenser to activate for the day.  Oy.  While I'm waiting for my number to be called, I sketch out alternate plans for the rest of my trip in case I couldn't get to Córdoba on Weds.  Eventually I'm called to the window and my train is sold out at the low price (aha) but I can book Turista Plus (like airline "Economy Plus" ?) for 50 additional euros.  I'm kicking myself for not booking earlier, but it's worth it at this point.

Actually boarding this train, however, was a dream.  The 300 km/h (186 MPH) AVE is the equal of Germany's ICE or France's TGV.  Flying across the Spanish countryside (again, I'm thinking of Utah or Nevada) was so smooth that it was actually disorienting to disembark in a different city.  How was it possible I had actually traveled somewhere?

Late Afternoon at Park Güell

[standard picture disclaimer]

Back to the hostel to rest a bit an then I'm off to spend my remaining daylight at Park Güell.  Gaudí designed a planned community on a hill outside the downtown area.  As I understand it, the planned community failed but the city kept some of the plans to make it into a park.  There are trails, outlooks, and playful structures like fantasy-inspired stairways.  There's a paid central Monuments Area but the rest of it is free.  I assumed I wouldn't have time for the paid part so I didn't buy a ticket.

No importa: the free portion was a joy.  Lovely paths and gorgeous views, though a lot of it was in pretty bad disrepair.  Frequent ¡Peligro! signs and closed paths.  As I'm about to call it a day, I come across the Tower of Three Crosses, with a lot of people lounging on top.  Climbing up to join them was a little hair-raising with the hand rail stopping before the top, but I'm glad I did.  I was treated to the best view of the city I'd seen yet, and right at sunset too.  I'd been considering skipping the park in favor of rest - so glad I didn't!  It helped turned a meh day (that began with train frustrations and Picasso) into a great one.

In desperate need of rest for my feet and phone (I am abusing all of these) I return to my hostel for a shower and laundry.  While waiting for my clothes, I found a hammock on the roofdeck so I literally hung out there for a while, gazing upon Casa Batlló.  When I'm finally ready to go out for dinner, it's late even for Spain.  I have to try a few bars to see if they're still open, but I eventually find a nice spot in the Barri to eat a ridiculous amount of cheese and peppers.  On the way I saw a Dunkin' Coffee shop but sadly I didn't have a camera.

The Boqueria Market

The Boqueria (butcher?) Market is one of those big halls full of vendors selling meats, fish, produce, candy, pastries, and other goodies, similar to those I went to in Montreal and Cleveland earlier this year.  Unlike these, the Boqueria has a serious ham focus.  This makes sense considering the Spanish jamón obsession.  (Should I write a whole post on ham, or is that not meaty enough?)  Various bars at the market too, with assuredly fresh ingredients.  I picked one and plopped down next to an amusing Swiss family, choosing a zarzuela, a traditional seafood stew.  There was a bit of a challenge prying open the creatures, but it was worth the effort.  Add a little pan and an Estrella Damm and I'm a happy man.

On my way out, I'm thinking dessert.  Nougat sounded like the thing but the free sample wasn't to my liking.  I passed a cafe and realized I hadn't tried a Xocolata amb Xurros yet.  Bingo!  The chocolate was so rich and thick, and coated the churros nicely.  Mmm!

I still don't like Picasso

Barcelona loves its artists, especially Antoni Gaudí and Pablo Picasso. The former is showcased by his houses like the Casa Batlló and grander projects like the Sagrada Familia and Park Güell, and the latter at the Picasso Museum. Assuming the ticket line would look similar to Sunday's, I bought in advance. A quick Metro trip and I'm in, easy as paella^*.

The museum houses the collection of Jaume Sabartés, Barcelonan and Picasso's BFF whenever he was in town. Indeed many of the paintings and sketches feature him as a subject. We start with the early years. Traditional styles, formal training, school assignments. The kid had talent, which I knew because of the awards he won.

Let me digress for a moment. Recently I attended an Aphex Twin listening party. Before putting the records on (yeah actual records) the host read a review of the album by someone who clearly has no business reviewing electronic music, as they don't even like the genre. This is roughly how seriously you should take my art criticism.

Anyway, I rather liked the young stuff. My favorite was called Science and Charity, or something like that. Moving on to a more impressionistic style, I enjoyed these works too. Sketches and x-ray videos helped bring the process of creation to life. But here comes the blue period and cubism, where Picasso becomes PICASSO, and now you've lost me. See, I've never liked Picasso. I feel his work is the kind of thing you need an art degree to appreciate, like a Frank Gehry building. To the uninitiated, it's just an ugly mess. My hope is that I would be able to educate myself a bit, but the museum was of no help here. Alas. Time to seek out lunch.

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* I have no idea how easy/hard it is to make paella ^↩

HDR Bleg

Photographers!  This noob needs your help.
 
I'm taking a huge number of photos, and I would like to post-process many of them in HDR.  Can you recommend software for this task?  Optimize for ease of use here.  Or maybe there's a better choice of processing I'm not aware of?

The reason I'm thinking HDR is that I'm often facing this situation: the sky is very bright and my subject is also bright (white or yellow) partially in shadow.  Since it's super easy to do so on my phone (HTC One M8) I repeat most of my shots 3x, with appropriate light levels for sky, subject, and shadow.  Or maybe these shots will work on their own - I haven't reviewed them yet.

Sagrada Familia

Placeholder post - will update with photos when I get back.

Montserrat

[Yes, this is another one that would be greatly enhanced by pictures.]

The serrated mountain has a distinctive look, pointy yet rounded, like termite mounds, a grey mass rising up unexpectedly from its red-green-brown surroundings.  So I was pretty sure that's what I saw out the airplane window.  I was able to confirm that suspicion with a closer peek.  Boarding the train at Estació Plaça Espanya, I was surprised to see my train wouldn't be the refined European rail experience I was hoping for, but the Ferrocarrils commuter service.  Packed tight with no seats available, like a Big Red on the T (though the train car itself was much nicer, of course).  So: an hour of standing.  But my excitement built as we rode over the Barcelona basin hills and into the country.  Around a bend the mountain arose, and a substantial fraction of us disembarked at the Aeri (cable car) base station.

With a chill in the air, the cable car took us up into and through the clouds, by way of a cleft in the mountain to the monastery.  Impressive that it was built at these great heights, and then the access road, train, and cable car.  The complex contains a basilica, residences, (I think) a hotel, a cafe, a bar, a museum, and various viewing points.  Funiculars too - one up to the summit ridge and one down to a cave, and a network of trails to connect their endpoints to religious sites and other views.  I bet you can guess my primary motivation for this trip!  Up the funicular and a beeline for the highest peak.  I figured I had just about enough time to get there and down to be at the Sagrada Familia at my reserved time - which I had timed to take a decent look at it before it closed.

What a gorgeous hike this was!  Some in light forest, but much in the open on a ridge of the weird rock Montserrat is made of.  Close up, it was revealed to be a conglomerate (yes, geologists?) of small rocks cemented together, kind of a natural concrete.  It wasn't always obvious whether a trail feature was man-made concrete or if I was just walking on a piece of the mountain that was already present.  There were helpful "time to X" signs" every 10 minutes or so, but after a few of these I could tell I was falling behind.  At the final junction, I knew I wouldn't be able to make my destination, and I was even concerned about getting down in time via the cut-out trail.  That brings us to the moral of our story: oh no, it's not that I shouldn't pack in so many things on my itinerary that I drive myself crazy trying to do it all.  I'll never learn that lesson.  It's that the point of a hike is not the destination.  The hike was already pretty great as it was, and I was seeing most of what the highest peak would give me on the ridge.  Views all around, up to the peaks of my mountain, across to others, and down to the countryside.

The hike down was interesting too, with views back across the other side of the valley made by the "Torrent de Santa Maria" - dry btw - which I followed all the way down.  I bet the cable car cleft was also formed by the Torrent.  The trail occasionally took me back into forest to reach the valley floor, and sometimes the trail was the Torrent.  The rocky parts were scary at times!  Steps cut into the mountain quite close to a dropoff.  Also challenging, which I guess makes sense as I was dropping the altitude I had achieved by funicular in addition to my hike up.

Spoiler: I did make it down on time!  Even had a chance to make a quick sweaty tour of the basilica, though I didn't wait in line to get close to the featured attraction, the Black Madonna.  Leave that to those who can really appreciate it.  Cable and train back to Barcelona - standing only again, but at least this time there was floor space to collapse my butt down onto.  A good thing, because I needed to rest up for my tour of the Sagrada Familia!

Gaudi's Casa Batlló

Placeholder post - will update with photos when I get back.

Catalonian Independence?

If you're a news dork like me, you've probably been following the Catalonian independence movement.  Their big vote is coming up next month (or is it?  Spain is trying to stop it) and polls show high support, more than Yes got in Scotland.

Catalan flags and independence slogans are a common sight.  Campaigns have slogans like #SiOSi (yes or yes?  Yes, oh, yes?), ara és l'hora (guess: the hour is now?), simply 9N (the date of the election), and 9/11 > 11/9, which I pieced together as a reference to the Siege of Barcelona, 300 years ago on 11 Sep (remember, euro style dates).  Maybe that's how they picked the vote's date in the first place?

On Sunday I saw lots of flags waving in Plaça Catalunya, both Catalonian and Spanish.  Also ... (semi-guessing) anti-independence slogans in Catalan?  The first I'd seen of these!  Later I would see ads for "12 Oct, Spain's National Day" - oh right, Columbus Day.  It makes sense that No would rally then.  The crowd was mostly older folks and had dispersed entirely by the time I returned that night.

Casual Sunday in Barcelona

I had this great plan to buy a bunch of things when I landed, so I wouldn't need to bring them with me: stuff like shampoo and sunblock, and a cheap emergency cell phone with a local number.  But my travel day (Saturday) left me frazzled, and I apparently do not know how to shop.  I eventually purchased about half of my list at the city-block-sized department store El Corte Ingles, which has an integrated supermarket.  But no sunscreen.  I was very afraid of the Spanish sun!

Most stores and many attractions are closed Sundays (like the rest of Europe) so my first full day was a good one for a casual stroll.  There was a miscommunication whereby I missed a walking tour of the old Gothic Quarter (Barri Gòtic) and then a bike tour too but it's probably for the best as I still did not have sunscreen.  Instead I explored at my own pace, ducking frequently into shade.  These tiny winding streets are so fun!  It's easy to get lost there, and I did, many times.  Lots of restaurants, bars, shops, (Italian-style) gelaterias, and Roman walls blending seamlessly into those of later eras.  Man.  It's hard for me as an American to comprehend the idea of a city founded by an ancient civilization.  Romans are basically elves or fairies as far as I'm concerned. 

Anyway, I finally solved my sunblock problem at a convenience store (supermercat) here, easily found all over.  Another reason why this is the better place to stay rather than my oh-so-fashionable local address.  I visited the cathedral (shorts JUST long enough this time, my salvation from a Vatican Too^* experience) and had a salad on a terrasse in Plaça George Orwell.  It was doubleplusgood.  I also saw lots of people with flags in Plaça Catalunya and bought tickets at the info center for Casa Batlló and Montserrat.

More walking, toward the port this time.  Turning a corner brings an immediate change: all is palm trees and modernity.  The lower sky is filled with sailboat masts, and the upper with bridges and skyscrapers.  There's a giant statue of Christopher Columbus, pointing to the sea.  Which is east here, but I suppose it would have looked silly for him to point away.  Then I head back along the popular pedestrian zone Las Ramblas and back into the Barri for free admission to the Picasso Museum.  That line turned out to be as long as you've probably already guessed, so I went back to the hostel to recharge myself and my devices.

That night (based on an excellent recommendation from Victor) I went to the Casa Batlló, conveniently near my hostel - each visible from the other's roofdeck.  I think we won out in that deal.  And what a Casa!  All was curves and natural light, including an innovative central "light well" and glass elevator.  Doors were hobbitesque and walls gave the impression of being underwater.  The façade was all scales: but dragon or fish?  And what kind of bones are these?  WHY ARE THERE BONES AT ALL?  I really dig this Gaudí fellow and I'm excited to see more of his work in town.  I took many pictures which I will eventually link to here.

A teaser from Casa Batlló

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* if you think I'm going to pass up a pun like that ... do you even know me? ^↩

Catalan For Beginners

The no-fact-checking edition

Catalan is Castilian (Spanish) + French + Italian in a blender.

The first words learned were those I saw everywhere: Sortida (exit) was easy, like the French Sortie.  Amb (with) was jarring because I couldn't connect it to any other language, but the omnipresent Rosetta Signs confirmed it.  Quatre (four) is straight French to the eyes but kwatrah to the ears.  The letter X plays more of a role than usual, where Castilian uses ch: xocolata amb xurros.  T can be silent: Batlló is pronounced close to Bayou.  C can have a descender, like French and Portuguese: plaça.  Ll is common, and it's perfectly fine at the beginnings and ends of words.  Buy some llibres at the llibreria, after a trip to Park Güell!  There's also a separated version, with punctuation apparently used to indicate that it's really just 2 Ls, not the y or j that ll usually makes.  The mark used can be a period (Avenida Paral.lel), a dash (col-lectió) or a mid-height dot (my favorite, the Il·lusions store).  I've never seen this in a language before.  Exciting!

Barcelona: First impressions

The mountains remind me (from the plane) of California wine country. On the ground, the land reminds me of Las Vegas initially, then progressively turns into Montreal as the train heads downtown. Many signs are trilingual: Catalan is the clear winner, but they want English and Spanish speakers to find their way around too.

Now downtown at street level, everything is impressive. Grand boulevards, stately buildings, a city of lights. So many people out and about on this Saturday night. Yet: so much of what I overhear is English. And much of this crowd is dressed in Obvious American. My Barcelonian co-worker described my hostel's location (the Passeig de Gracia) as "a fashion area" so that may be skewing my perspective.

My first meal is at a Basque-style tapas bar at the proper time: 9ish. I can't make any sense of the menu (is it in Basque, or Catalan?) so I go by pictures until I see English menus are available. Spanish too, hehe. Regardless I had a tasty time for just 13 euro.

My hostel presents some challenges regarding both Wi-Fi and charging, so you may have to wait for the next city to get the rest of my Barcelona experience.

posted from Bloggeroid

Wilkommen in Frankfurt

I have landed in Europe! It amuses me that the first language I get to practice on this trip is German.

I should have time for a wurst oder etwas before my Barcelona flight.

posted from Bloggeroid

Health update

I had hoped to post a few times about the planning process, but I've been feeling pretty miserable with sinus congestion for two weeks.  This threw a serious wrench in my plans to ... well, actually make plans, let alone write about them.  But the good news is that I'm feeling reasonably well on the day of my departure, and I've even reserved beds in 6 of my 8 nighttime destinations.  I should be able to buy the necessary train, bus, and ferry tickets to complete my journey in-country, but I'll need to do additional research today on my Portuguese rental car idea.  (I've already had to rule out my Spanish car plan.  Sad.)

Well Hello There

Hi!  I'm Joel.  But you probably know me already.  I'm taking a solo vacation to Spain and Portugal.  I'd love to take you all with me, but I'll try to make frequent updates instead.

Click "Itinerary" for an overview of where I'll be headed.

Blog Noob

This is my first attempt at blogging, so let me know if you have any noob suggestions.  Design advice is welcome, too, since I have basically no sense of aesthetics.

¡Salud!