I think I last rode a bike in 2003, although I am probably forgetting something in New York. Remembering how to ride a bike was much easier this time than that time, when I almost fell off while trying to get on. And to think, I used to be good at it.
We went on a 3ish-hour bike tour around Barcelona today. Our guide was an enthusiastic woman who never told us her name but did give us some pretty neat historical information, including a lot that essentially proved wrong all the wild theories we had come up with during our self-guided tour yesterday. We covered a lot of the same ground, but this time it did not involve walking through 18 miles of Metro connector tunnels. We also saw a bunch of new stuff, including the Arc de Triomph and the Parc de la Ciutadella, which had an amazing fountain. We found out that a lot of the shorefront hadn't existed before the Barcelona Olympics, which means that there were not a lot of unfortunately naked people on the beaches before the Barcelona Olympics. And we saw a ton more Gaudi, because his stuff is everywhere. And insane. And awesome. Although I would have nightmares if I lived in any of his houses.
Perhaps most miraculously, none of us got hit by (or ran into) a car, bike, pedestrian, dog, scooter, or building, despite the fact that the traffic lights were absolutely impossible to figure out, although Cameron did manage to lose the group immediately after the ride. And on the way from the Park to the Sagrada Familia, I almost found myself left behind, as I was engrossed in a very deep metaphysical conversation with a guy from Sweden and a girl from Seattle. We were discussing the NBA playoffs; he had played for a Swedish basketball league, and she had played college basketball, and I played in grammar school and read a lot of espn.com. These are the things that bring people together (or apart, if we're talking about the rest of the bikers).
Tomorrow, Dublin! I may be forced to drink whiskey (Cameron has already stated that that is one thing he wants for his birthday. Another thing he wants is his Marissa Miller magazine, which Christy has not yet returned. Another thing he wants is a pony.) Oher people on this trip seem to want me to be more entertaining. I think that by "entertaining" they mean they want to see me do something photo/blog-worthy, like run head-first into a pole or hitchike or order Jameson and ginger ale for the entire bar or say something grammatically or common-sensically incorrect, like, "I don't want no euros." I do not know how they get these ideas into their heads.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Gaudi this and Gaudi that.
I am awake and feeling like I can make it the whole day without sleeping on the floor, or dropping whenever I feel tired. I was able to see a lot of the city today. We took a three hour bike tour and learned why some of the Sagrada Familia is clean; it is because it is new. They are not finished building it.
Amazing buildings are tucked everywhere in the city. The tour was full of information and quite a thrill. We rode on the streets with the cars and all of the scooters. In fact any serious scooter enthusist should come to live here. We saw a lot of Guadi's' works and everyone loves him here.
It is an experience. Barcelona has been a lot of fun, but sadly my spanish, while handy, isn't what I thought it would be. They have different words for everything. I don't know why I try learning anything.
I think Matt is enjoying the trip as well, but he is suffering from continued night terrors. I am pretty sure that he wakes up every hour or so sreaming for someone to save him from his nightmares. I usually just turn up my headphones. Tomorrow we leave for Ireland.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Capri's are in
Cinco de Mayo:
Today I am feeling much better. Started the day by heading out on the Metro towards the Sagrada Familia...amazing. They are in the process of cleaning it so it was half clean half dirty and full of lines. I took a picutre of the dirty portion, since it was the best anyway. After that we went to the Gaudi park; so much fun. He tried to design a entire neigborhood, but I guess ran over budget. The place was a lot of fun and packed. It was an excelllent walk which included walking to a vista with a view of the city. Apparently Capris are in.
Tonight we are going to watch a soccer game in one of the 20 irish pubs. If the weather holds tomorrow we will be going on a bike ride tour. That should be a lot of fun. I hope today marks the point in the trip where I adjust to the 8 hour time change.
Barcelona is full of MUCH BETTER LOOKING people than London. London had some interesting people but they all have something wrong with them. Here there are tons of great looking people each with tons of style. It seems like a very fashionable place and it was fun to people watch over lunch.
I have been writing everything in wordpad since villa doesn't have WORD and we cannot find internet anywhere. If Sonja were here she would have enjoyed me asking for an Internet Cafe; the guy ignored me completely. Apparently all the cool kids ask for Wi-Fi.
Hasta Manana.
Today I am feeling much better. Started the day by heading out on the Metro towards the Sagrada Familia...amazing. They are in the process of cleaning it so it was half clean half dirty and full of lines. I took a picutre of the dirty portion, since it was the best anyway. After that we went to the Gaudi park; so much fun. He tried to design a entire neigborhood, but I guess ran over budget. The place was a lot of fun and packed. It was an excelllent walk which included walking to a vista with a view of the city. Apparently Capris are in.
Tonight we are going to watch a soccer game in one of the 20 irish pubs. If the weather holds tomorrow we will be going on a bike ride tour. That should be a lot of fun. I hope today marks the point in the trip where I adjust to the 8 hour time change.
Barcelona is full of MUCH BETTER LOOKING people than London. London had some interesting people but they all have something wrong with them. Here there are tons of great looking people each with tons of style. It seems like a very fashionable place and it was fun to people watch over lunch.
I have been writing everything in wordpad since villa doesn't have WORD and we cannot find internet anywhere. If Sonja were here she would have enjoyed me asking for an Internet Cafe; the guy ignored me completely. Apparently all the cool kids ask for Wi-Fi.
Hasta Manana.
PS - I think matt might be a vampire. He doesn't ever sleep and if he nods off for a minute he has night terrors...guilt for all the people he has had to kill over the years as an undead solider.
Finding the Internet...
The morning was spent waking up quite early and heading to the Gatwick Express. The train took us to the airport we arrived in Barcelona. I read it was supposed to rain the entire weekend, but it was in the high 70's and beautiful. I am still thinking about the outstanding match I went to yesterday. It was really something to see everyone go nuts for the team. Everyone chanted for the entire 90 minutes; I have never seen such dedication. Everyone should experience something like that; even people that hate the sport. So. Much. Fun.
Barcelona started out with some massive amounts of walking. We made it to the beach and saw some of the sites. After a walk filled afternoon I made it back in time to pass out for four hours. The time change probably caught up with me. In the evening Matt and I cruised around the sites, and had a few beers in the one of the plazas. Very enjoyable. Due to my four hour nap and some super jet lag I stayed up until 4am. Probably not what I was looking for.
Barcelona is pretty and pretty large. It seems much more filled with tourists than London was. Also, I it has been impossible to find the internets anywhere even though I know it exists world wide. This is probably why I had to post all these "blogs" in one day.
Barcelona started out with some massive amounts of walking. We made it to the beach and saw some of the sites. After a walk filled afternoon I made it back in time to pass out for four hours. The time change probably caught up with me. In the evening Matt and I cruised around the sites, and had a few beers in the one of the plazas. Very enjoyable. Due to my four hour nap and some super jet lag I stayed up until 4am. Probably not what I was looking for.
Barcelona is pretty and pretty large. It seems much more filled with tourists than London was. Also, I it has been impossible to find the internets anywhere even though I know it exists world wide. This is probably why I had to post all these "blogs" in one day.
Today was outstanding. I almost have the hang of being 8 hours ahead. I can usually push through the slow spots by using my outstanding will power. Woke this morning, washed up, and headed out for breakfast. We walked a ton today seeing the Buckingham Palace, the river, and St. James's Park. Last night we hit the other big monuments and sites. To be honest it was underwhelming seeing the palace even thought there were 10,000 people waiting to get inside.
We headed to the tube and went out for the real prize of the day, footy match. The atmosphere was great around the stadium and we walked around for and hour or two. It was only after we went in the stadium that we realized that they had cheap everything inside; that includes beer. I was shocked. We had Carlsbergs for 7 dollars american; sadly this was the best deal of the trip.
I took video of the first goal. It was a free kick and I wasn't really ready for it, but Villa was also taking video as well. I hope his turned out better. London is an amazingly interesting place. However, be warned, everyone here is just a bit...off. No other way to describe it.
We headed to the tube and went out for the real prize of the day, footy match. The atmosphere was great around the stadium and we walked around for and hour or two. It was only after we went in the stadium that we realized that they had cheap everything inside; that includes beer. I was shocked. We had Carlsbergs for 7 dollars american; sadly this was the best deal of the trip.
Our seats were second row and amazing. We were amazingly close to the pitch and the action was great. The home team ended up winning 2 - 0. This was a result of the guy behind us getting into the Birmingham City players. One of their players was called out by name, "Hey Murphy!", when he turned to look the guy behind simply said, "Fuck you". It was clear and concise. Murphy didn't play the same after that.
I took video of the first goal. It was a free kick and I wasn't really ready for it, but Villa was also taking video as well. I hope his turned out better. London is an amazingly interesting place. However, be warned, everyone here is just a bit...off. No other way to describe it.
Cheers.
happy Cinco de Mayo to all you people at work
Day 2 in Barcelona. So far, we have walked roughly 300 miles, which is a lot even for me.
Yesterday we walked to the beach, where there were some very unfortunately naked people, and then Mike and Cameron napped for roughly half a day while I watched some amazing music videos (remember when the Offspring didn't suck? Me neither.). Then, for some reason (namely, hunger), the Baron and I decided to go back outside.
Continental Europe operates on a schedule very much like mine. People eat dinner at 11 p.m., watch sports highlights into the early morning, and mostly don't sleep (on the flipside, they are much, much, much, much better looking, and that includes the strange street mimes who dress like trees and robots). After the required 10 p.m. Espresso Hour, Cameron and I went to one of the town squares and got drinks, and I am pretty sure that, along with the bothersome tourists and homeless jugglers, there was a school field trip or three that showed up after midnight. And they all stopped to drink beer with us. So that was cool. Then I went back to the hotel and singlehandedly deciphered the secrets of the Metro system while listening to the sage advice of 90210 in Translation.
Today we pretty much had our minds blown by the Sagrada Familia (the church designed by Gaudi) and Park Guell (Gaudi's hilltop park-city). Both places are a testament to the fact that sometimes individuals come up with things completely beyond comprehension or imagination. Beautiful, creepy, monumental, magical... I've had nine hours to think about what I saw, and I still haven't come up with much. I spent a lot of time walking around looking up and running into poles and swallowing flies and being one of those people that I usually point and laugh at and give incorrect directions to.
This would be the point for photos, but unfortunately Cameron is asleep on the floor. There will also be photos of Cameron asleep on the floor once I figure out how to hook his camera up to the computer.
Tomorrow: bike tour! Mike and I are going to dress up like Lance Armstrong and Floyd whatever his name was and wear bright yellow spandex. It will be glorious.
Yesterday we walked to the beach, where there were some very unfortunately naked people, and then Mike and Cameron napped for roughly half a day while I watched some amazing music videos (remember when the Offspring didn't suck? Me neither.). Then, for some reason (namely, hunger), the Baron and I decided to go back outside.
Continental Europe operates on a schedule very much like mine. People eat dinner at 11 p.m., watch sports highlights into the early morning, and mostly don't sleep (on the flipside, they are much, much, much, much better looking, and that includes the strange street mimes who dress like trees and robots). After the required 10 p.m. Espresso Hour, Cameron and I went to one of the town squares and got drinks, and I am pretty sure that, along with the bothersome tourists and homeless jugglers, there was a school field trip or three that showed up after midnight. And they all stopped to drink beer with us. So that was cool. Then I went back to the hotel and singlehandedly deciphered the secrets of the Metro system while listening to the sage advice of 90210 in Translation.
Today we pretty much had our minds blown by the Sagrada Familia (the church designed by Gaudi) and Park Guell (Gaudi's hilltop park-city). Both places are a testament to the fact that sometimes individuals come up with things completely beyond comprehension or imagination. Beautiful, creepy, monumental, magical... I've had nine hours to think about what I saw, and I still haven't come up with much. I spent a lot of time walking around looking up and running into poles and swallowing flies and being one of those people that I usually point and laugh at and give incorrect directions to.
This would be the point for photos, but unfortunately Cameron is asleep on the floor. There will also be photos of Cameron asleep on the floor once I figure out how to hook his camera up to the computer.
Tomorrow: bike tour! Mike and I are going to dress up like Lance Armstrong and Floyd whatever his name was and wear bright yellow spandex. It will be glorious.
London Part I, postscript
We're not in London anymore, but we do have internet, and this is what I wrote sans internet a couple of evenings ago (also, my apologies for the lack of photos, but that is what Cameron and his digital camera are for [more to come on that later])...
Christy picked a good hotel. It has art and things, including a painting of a giant panda face, which is pretty awesome because it is like they decorated the hotel based on our softball team's name (the Stupid Pandas, for those of you not familiar with the team; and I say "our" team despite the fact that I am not on the team. I feel that I contribute quite a bit to team morale by joining Mike's grandpa in yelling from the bleachers.).
The hotel is at the southwest part of West End (I figured out we were in West End because we are down the block from where "Wicked" is playing, and one of the posters outside said something about it being a "West End sensation"; that is a significant improvement over the book, which blew.). We are a 10-15 minute walk from the Thames and Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, which all look spectacular at night. The Abbey was built in something like 1065, which is just silly. That was, like, before the wheel was invented. We are also about 10 minutes from the Albert, a Pub we have already hit up twice. It serves "extra cold" Guinness, which is pretty much the greatest thing ever. It also seems to have a playlist that only consists of disco and Queen songs.
We went to a football match today. I will leave it to the football fans (i.e., go see Mike and Christy's blog: http://twovillasineurope.blogspot.com/) on this trip to describe it justly. Suffice to say, my new crapass team to support will be Fulham, because I was the only one who managed to get a jersey, and because I am all about lost causes. Fulham is at the bottom of the Premiership standings and in danger of dropping into the lower division, and when they scored a goal to make it 2-nil with about 10 minutes left, the crowd started chanting, "We will stay up! We'll stay up!" We had seats in the second row, close enough for everyone (including the two 10-year-olds sitting in front of us) to scream obscenities at the opposing team's players. The energy in the stadium was palpable, even though it was a match between bottom feeders in the Premiership.
and then we left England way too early on Sunday morning to go to Barcelona, where there is real food... and moving on to blog #2.
Christy picked a good hotel. It has art and things, including a painting of a giant panda face, which is pretty awesome because it is like they decorated the hotel based on our softball team's name (the Stupid Pandas, for those of you not familiar with the team; and I say "our" team despite the fact that I am not on the team. I feel that I contribute quite a bit to team morale by joining Mike's grandpa in yelling from the bleachers.).
The hotel is at the southwest part of West End (I figured out we were in West End because we are down the block from where "Wicked" is playing, and one of the posters outside said something about it being a "West End sensation"; that is a significant improvement over the book, which blew.). We are a 10-15 minute walk from the Thames and Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, which all look spectacular at night. The Abbey was built in something like 1065, which is just silly. That was, like, before the wheel was invented. We are also about 10 minutes from the Albert, a Pub we have already hit up twice. It serves "extra cold" Guinness, which is pretty much the greatest thing ever. It also seems to have a playlist that only consists of disco and Queen songs.
We went to a football match today. I will leave it to the football fans (i.e., go see Mike and Christy's blog: http://twovillasineurope.blogspot.com/) on this trip to describe it justly. Suffice to say, my new crapass team to support will be Fulham, because I was the only one who managed to get a jersey, and because I am all about lost causes. Fulham is at the bottom of the Premiership standings and in danger of dropping into the lower division, and when they scored a goal to make it 2-nil with about 10 minutes left, the crowd started chanting, "We will stay up! We'll stay up!" We had seats in the second row, close enough for everyone (including the two 10-year-olds sitting in front of us) to scream obscenities at the opposing team's players. The energy in the stadium was palpable, even though it was a match between bottom feeders in the Premiership.
and then we left England way too early on Sunday morning to go to Barcelona, where there is real food... and moving on to blog #2.
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