Sid's Travels

Hey! Well, we made it to Barcelona this morning after a crazy, screwy, funny train ride. We feel extremely jetlagged today. It was 12 hours overnight in a 4 person berth with two women we didn´t know, with no lounge to hang out in, and the staff laughing at us Canadians. For whatever reason, we stood out and were not so subtly made fun of by the train stewards. Alex kept us entertained in the too-narrow hallways outside our berths by imitating Steve Martin from ¨The Jerk¨. We obviously didn´t have many options... The whole experience left us feeling somewhat delirious today (tired and wired).

We´re staying with Alex´s cousin Nicholas, who is great. We´ve been out with him all day, drinking cafe con leche and just getting orientated. He is sort of an artsy, hippy early 30s guy who lives in a very 1960s apartment with four other people. Even though we´re pretty far from the ocean, we have a good view of it from his place. We finally had sun and blue skies again and it´s rejuvenated all of us. However, I feel like we´re starting over again with the language. It´s Catalan culture up here....a wierd hybrid of Spanish (well, wierd to us). It looks greek to me but really seems to be a mix of French, Portuguese and Spanish. I don´t know... Barcelona is a big city (2nd in Spain I believe) and much more modern than others that we have visited in the south. It is the ¨birthplace¨ of Picasso, Gaudi, and other famous artists and so has some truly amazing buildings here. Wierd, make-you-feel-like-your-on-drugs-kinda-buildings. We will visit some tomorrow and check out the world famous museums while we´re at it. We´ll also head to the ocean so we can say that we´ve been to the eastern Meditteranean. Too bad it´s too cold to swim.... It might just have to be a foot dip...

We´ve lucked out with our personal ¨tour guides¨...first Pam in Granada and now Nicholas in Barcelona. Though I have to say we´ve done pretty well on our own too! After three days of sightseeing in Sevilla, we´re physically exhausted and probably a little mentally exhausted too. But it´s addictive! I love seeing what´s next...food, people, sights.... I do miss good bathrooms though....hard to come by in Spain.

Anyway, we´re going for a nap to prepare us for the evening. Feel free to drop a line as always....

Shiloh