Country: Spain Date: 08.01.09 We get off in Madrid, at this point I am a little bit disorientated, haven’t woken up properly and we need to keep moving, Charly very helpfully offer for us to leave the bags at his place, but that will only make things more complicated, so we say bye to him and head off to the ticket office to sort out our next overnight train, Oops I can’t find my cash passport card… its time to sit down and run through everything in my bag, Nop its no where to be found. After getting a little pass to get into the trains we decide to make our toilet invasion, I really enjoy putting my stuff everywhere and having a very dirty cleaning, though we really want, we can’t have a shower in these toilets. We both realise later I left my cash card in the cable car ticket machine, I feel relieved at least I know where it is and no one is going to get it, it must have been all the excitement and the amazing landscape… I might of gotten a bit distracted with my poetic thoughts there, whilst looking through the window, not to worry I will sort it out later. Now its time to find the train that will take us to El Escorial, we can’t really find easily what train it is, and we keep going up and down the stairs, for some reason feels like there is a train screen missing in this train station… we get on train but as we are not sure if it actually will stop there we stop at Piti. We do know we are in the right direction, but we can’t get a timetable that will give us the information and the one we find it was only up to last year… right,… we try to get help but seems that the Spanish guy knows as much as we do, which is not much really. Alice is not overly impressed with the trains here, and to be fair the train system in England is pretty good. After looking very very lost and thinking about getting the next train and maybe leaving in another train station nearer to our destination, a random guy approaches us, speaking English and tell us that the next train is actually the right one#, and so we head off to El Escorial. We stare amazed at the cold landscape and pay a lot of attention to the temperature, that keeps going up and down but strangely never going above 0!!! When we finally arrive we sort of decide to follow the bus route, probably would be cheap enough to get it, but we walk for the adventure sake, we are on a budget, so we need to carry our bags up the hill. There are some funky houses contrasting with the traditional “vivendas” that could be either here or in Portugal. As we walk up with me not so excited and trying not to moan, we realise there’s not even a café, restaurant or shop near by, really is not as I had imagined it, I m pretty sure this would be a lot busier in the summer, who the hell would come this far in January to see a 500 year old building… Where are the little houses matching El Escorial? Where is that feeling of being in somewhere else, every turn I hope I can see it there, I get a bit excited as we approach. I love the mountains in the background!! But still think that “O Palacio de Mafra” is better looking. I’m going to try to contain my patriotism and see it for what is it, this one is 200 years older than its Portuguese twin, as I found out recently, has a bit more history, and I’m going to try to learn something from being here. Hey, at least its sunny!! We walk up to it get in, I finish my cigarette, we get in, seat down, open our shopping bags and rudely eat a snack while we look at the prices, it’s a bit more expensive than I thought but Its important to me to see it inside, would of love to be here 3 years ago, so now I have the chance and I’m determined to do it, even knowing I’m not that excited it just has to be done. I m pretty sure they will not let us in with the bags, but then the guards are kind enough to give us a massive Cage for us to leave them there, for free, after scanning them on the Bags X-Ray machine… We decide to miss a room or two to make it cheaper and not to go on a tour as the really don’t have the time anyway. We go around trying to peak into all those little places that we are really not allowed to go, hoping we cant actually see some hidden amazing room. Alice is trying to take a few pictures as I m checking where the guards are, there’s one hidden talking on the phone… had to be a woman… we walk around I’m pretty sure we missed a room, there’s disappointment in my face as the Cathedral is closed for the winter, my favourite part is all the tombs from the Bourbon Family, its cool. Still haven’t learned that much from being here but at least I have seen it. We leave through a different door, this one should have been the main entrance during the four centuries it was actually used, in front of us there are stone buildings actually matching the El Escorial, still not very impressed. As we go back in through the initial door, we see a passage way between the buildings, we both agree to through it as soon as we get our bags. So after another snack sitting inside the cages, we head off there, and we find some sweet tiny roads, and a massive nativity thingy, there’s little Jesus in the river, Mary and Joseph all the animals and much more, there’s fishermen and women picking up the fruits in the trees and they’re all shorter than me!! There is a little imitation of Belem, I greet the nearly human sized muslims,(I know they‘re not Muslims but I really want them to be Muslims), this is obviously comparing with me, which means they might not be that human sized after all, but hey, I’m my world, apart from the fact that I’m not religious and… that they are fake, and woman wear far too many clothes and …what a hell is Jesus doing in the River? Nativity is not really what it was in those old days, oh the sweet old days!! This nativity set was definitely the highlight of our trip to the El Escorial, but I do think it might be because I have studied and guided tours in Mafra, and possibly had to the opportunity to spend 1000 hours more there learning and seeing some of those rooms filled with crap and dust, where the maids used to live, sat on top of the Palace and heard thousand little magic stories about it. Thinking about this, we walk down a different path, would be really cool if Alice had the chance to see both of them and give me her opinion, because I’m clearly still in love with that place. Its time to put our feet up in the train, another snack, my foot thingy on and back to Chamartin here we go. Once we get to the station I try to sort out the card thing but its pointless, I will do it tomorrow, Alice has been looking at the map and she knows where to go, thanks God that someone does, lets go to Atoucha now. Its impressive how many little train stations there are in Madrid. We both really like the way this station looks like, but we soon forget about it as we see some little stools with some funky hats, scarves, boxes among all sort of things, so we get distracted by doing some old good shopping, course we can’t spend much money, so we see it as therapy, need to forget the fact I lost my cash card!! Doesn’t take long for us to carry on walking, we get warned on the way to be careful with burglars, guess two girls carry around bags might give away the fact that we are not really from around here. There’s loads of the museums, churches, basilicas, parks, squares, and my favourite one El Palacio Real de Madrid to look at, with a quick stop to eat some more of those awesome sandwiches made of all types of pork. Madrid looks darker than I thought it would, and somehow its not really that impressive, it is a nice city, maybe that is the problem, looks too perfect and nice. After being in Barcelona which is so “in you face”, Madrid doesn’t really mean a lot, perhaps we should of done the other way around, maybe we should of seen the Spanish capital first and go around the Catalan capital later… The streets are getting very crowded, we go around looking at all sizes and kinds of shops, there’s some cool shoe shops around. I can’t really be bothered with looking at stuff anymore, however Alice is all excited looking at the sweet souvenirs shops, especially the Chinese shops. On the way to find the only hypermarket there is, in the centre of Madrid (El Corte Ingles), we stop at another Chinese shop, I confirm with the shopkeeper that we are on the right way. While I try some hats Alice finds some weird bright blue trousers with no sides to it just some strings keeping it together, she wonders who would wear it, as I say I would, we have a little dare, but there’s only one changing room, and we are both starving. I can’t help feeling some amusement because the poor sales assistant keeps looking at us suspiciously. Right around the corner is El Corte Ingles, we buy some supplies after carefully deciding what to buy, Alice doesn’t seem to convinced with my choices, but I m determined not to back down, she soon changes her mind. And as we are in such a massive department store we go around every floor… I m literally dragging myself now, every chance I get I sit on my bag, my faithful bag, probably the wheels wont survive till the end of this trip, but its alright. My plain boring lifeless black bag has been around for the last 5 years and has served me well! As soon as we get out of El Corte Ingles, Alice keeps dragging me around, there’s loads of people everywhere, the city is starting to get exciting and bright but I m using the reserve energies and there’s not much left in the fuel tank. All these stores remind me so much of Portugal, there’s Pimkie and I can see Fnac in the distance, between others. I actually get a bit excited to see Fnac as I had already mention it to Alice, so we head off there, we will hopefully be able to sit down somewhere and pretend we are interested in the books, DVDs, computers, sound systems, cameras, etc… Amazingly enough this Fnac doesn’t have a café, or a concert area, we look around for somewhere to seat but all the chairs are hidden, and the place where people can seat down and have a read is so crowded that is actually a bit claustrophobic just looking at it, can’t believe how many people read in Madrid. We seat in the stairs briefly and try to decide what’s the best way to get to Chamartin, the train is free, however Atoucha is too far to walk back, so we simply walk to the nearest metro station. The Castellano subway doesn’t look quite as cool, as the Catalan, but doesn’t really matter its good enough to have our little pick-nick, Now we look and we feel like real travellers, sleeping on trains, eating when we can, and having our daily washes in the big old main train stations, its like we are homeless people really, but at least we get to travel around. Here we are back to Chamartin again, we go around the shops, and sort all the sandwiches for what’s left of today and tomorrow till we get to my mums and then we can get seriously fed. We get to the train, boots off, feet up. We are not in a little cabin tonight so we’ll be antisocial like everyone else and sleep, we are pretty exhausted from Madrid anyway. See you in Portugal Alice.
InterRail Croniques Day 2
Country: Spain
Date: 07.01.2009
I wake up slowly as usual, the alarm clocks plays several times I jump out of bed and drag myself to the shower, that unfortunately doesn’t’ have any hot water, how lucky that I had a massive bath before leaving England, cause now I m going to be very smelly for the next 2/3 days. I return the Giant shampoo to Ronen and try to get him out of bed, he mumbles something and I head off to the kitchen, need to get loads of sandwiches ready and to have some breakfast is going to be a long day and we need all the calories we can get hold of. As we getting out we realise Tom is having a shower… wonder if he knows any trick to get to hot water running or if he is a bit masoquist. We get rid of the baggage, Alice mentions how unsafe it might be to leave it in Hostel on the way to the supermarket across the road to buy some more supplies for the day. We pass my reference point the big old brewery that we can see from the Hostel, we see Tom on the way to the subway passing the Hospital with a friend, its time to go the Saints Train Station to book our tickets to the first overnight train, we need to make sure we get to Madrid tomorrow, we can have all the fun today but we cant forget to board on that train.
Alice is loving the little shops in the train station, whilst we sort out the tickets and Ronen sorts out meeting his friends later on, after waiting for him we head off. Now we need to find out what direction to go, we are going to start our Barcelona tour from the point we had decide yesterday we were going to end it.
I cross the road running to see the names of the streets around that big square and come back running, oops I forgot to check the traffic lights, there will come the day I‘ll get run over but it wont be today. We start walking in the toward the castle’s mountain. We see trees and a steel dragon, how cool!!! I get all excited and start jumping around the stairs, I find a little slide and get them to come around to slide down! Me and Ronen slide first getting all dirty and wet, Alice slides the bag to us and then she slides down! Lol Ronen gets all excited and does it again!! Its good fun but we need to make a move so we carry on walking, making a little stop in a internet café as Ronen still needs to get in touch with his friends
.
As we are walking around I ask “how do we know we are going in the right direction?” and then I see it as I move my head towards the right hand side, the big palace welcoming us to the beginning of the exploration, its breathtaking, we run excited to the centre of the big roundabout, it seems that since I’ve learned to run in the middle of places I
not meant to, I cant stop it!! And worst now I passed it to them!! We have a laugh take some pictures next to the amazing fountain, full of detail and statues, and run off again. Without realising we passed all those big buildings and we are climbing up the stairs, there was some electric stairs but we are such tourists that we decide to go the hard way. There are so many steps that I decide to start counting, but it doesn’t last long for me to give up, there’s way too many but its worth it, the view is Awesome, Barcelona seems huge, we can see everything, the big buildings, and the amazing border of mountains covered in white, we don’t even feel the cold anymore after all this steps and the unforgettable view, I want to stay trapped in this moment forever, I want to go to those mountains!!
Guided by Alice around the little mountain we see another building this one is not very exciting at least not from the outside! We are too poor and short of time to see any of this in detail, we risk it by going to some trail to get quicker to a funky tower we saw earlier and walk up to it. Once we get to that tower, we take a few more pictures and we realise that truly Barcelona is everywhere, what a massive city, we can see the castle from here on one of the hills of Our mountain! By accident we find the Olympic stadium, none of us looks to impressed with the size of it, it’s a tiny sweet stadium with a cool big old clock and some funky statues of horse riders next to it, still cant believe we couldn’t figure out it was a stadium from the outside!
Ronen time with us is running out as he has to meet his friends soon, we walk to the Castle that seems to take forever, there is a cable car on the way, we might go there later, I feel all inspired and take a few good pictures with Ronen and Alice’s cameras, really miss my camera now, this place has a lot of potential, could stay here endless hours taking pictures, Barcelona is getting bigger every minute, from here we can see the big marina with all those cruises… aww those cruises, I wish we could just jump on one of those and get out in the next port, but we are only happy penniless travellers we cant afford to do it… one day, for now I will dream with bigger travels, and we will go around this Castle exploring what might be the most perfect city in the world, after Lisbon this is…
We leave the Castle and make our way to the cable car, we check the prices and straight way I just think it has to be done, and so we do it, cause if not, we will only regret it, we get the tickets and say bye to Ronen, he s heading off the centre by bus, I give him a big hug. What a exceptional place to say goodbye, love the scenery, I m sure in those melodramatic books where people say goodbye for the whole eternity is in places like this, so I give this brief goodbye to our very new traveller friend a poetic meaning, and excited and hungry we jump on the cable car, love the scenic landscape, cant get over the snow covering those mountains in the distance, so perfect, the ride feels too quick and we jump off, get out of the little station and seat in the middle of a little roundabout crowded with statues of children, eating Filipinos, round cookies made of dark chocolate covered in white chocolate, yummy!! Alice’s cravings for sweet things do pay off!! While we are eating Alice realises the cable car didn’t finish there, it was only the first stop!!! Oops!! We run off back inside the lady doesn’t want to let us back in, and insists that once you’re out of the station you’re not allowed back in, thanks to our stubbornness, valid arguments and a phone call she made to her supervisor we are allowed back in!! Yay, we just still cannot believe we missed it!! Don’t think anyone in the world would be able to do this!! And this is only the first day, what else can happen??…
Whilst having a personal conversation, goin
g down the hill and passing to some funky graffiti walls, and some weird trees covered in something looking like sharp less rose nails, with some weird fruit which according to a old lady, looking a bit like those the pigeon lady from “Home Alone”, are not good to eat, we make it to the modern area of Barcelona. Alice really wants to see the wiggly bridge, I would love to actually cross it to head off to the beach, but I look at the mobile and as we received 20 minutes ago a text from Tom asking us if we want to go meet him at the Tapas Bar, we just completely forget about our new ideas of where to go and head off as quickly as we can to the bar hoping he is still there, passing some funky Circus carriages on the way.
We get to the bar, Alice looks a bit shocked with all the Jambon hanging out from the ceiling, I look around and let me be taken by the whole environment, its like a long crowded corridor with all sort of people standing and food all over the place, people throw the rubbish to the floor, the little kids are sitting down the high cupboards, and I m loving it, I mention to Alice how this would never happen in England, and I don’t want to go back, tired of all the nonsense endless rules about health and safety and children related if they misbehave and fall they will know not to do it again, I like it, its
so cool to be here, there’s no background music though, but there’s no need for it, there’s all the sound of different conversations, laughter, people eating and enjoying themselves. As soon as Tom sees us, he orders our food and a bottle of Cavas Rose and only then he realises that Alice doesn’t drink, so we have to drink it between the two of us. Oops, that wont take long by the way he pours it into our cups. We get some amazing dessert, Alice doesn’t get her hot dog in the end, I think the guy who we ordered it to, left the building, still cant believe this is the quiet time of the day, after 4 will get really busy according to Tom, (as its not busy enough!!!) The amazing wine bottle only cost €2.10, after 4 they only sell the little cups which are like €0.40 each, Tom takes a bottle home with him and I wish Id done the same thing, I m feeling slightly tipsy, Alice looks at me realising I might be a bit drunk, I think its funny, really want more of that… hmm…
We walk towards the old gothic town, passing the old great amazing post office building, we say bye to Tom exchanging emails, so we can hopefully meet one day somewhere
out there.
The old Gothic town for some reason looks at bit dark, narrow streets surrounded by tall buildings, some of the quietest passages really take me to a time where I haven‘t lived… Would love to see these streets in a bright sunny day. We carry on distractedly looking at the dazzling shops, making our way out of the old town with all those outstanding buildings with so much detail, the streets start to get busier it’s the end of the day, the sky is gorgeous reminds me of a twisted rainbow with different tones of pink and blue, everyone is finishing work and we are walking in the busy main street, where everything happens, we even have background music to the perfect city atmosphere, “Every step you take” being played by some street musicians… live music always makes me smile, wherever it might be. It just makes the world magically into a better place. We get to the first Gaudi building and I stare dazzled by the complexity, looks a bit like a caveman work done perfectly, a bit like the Flintstones houses, just bigger, with some skull looking balconies, contrasting with walls full of dots and splashed paint. After the next one, we head off once again to the Sagrada Familia, we might get lucky this time.
Unfortunately its pitch black again, and there are not many lights illuminating the big monster in front of us, we can see the shape of it, but we will not be able to take pictures of it with Alice’s little camera and just a few lights, so we decide that we are tired and head off to the Hostel to pick up our stuff, to relax and we could also go to the shop to get more food.
The hostel its cosy and warm, me and Alice get to the sofa completely ignoring everyone and have a little nap, that we make last as long as we can, right there in the common room, and then stick to the plan. Get the subway and go back to Sants Train Station.
As soon as we get here, Alice goes around the shops looking for a little souvenir, I m worried about the time, there’s only 7 minutes left for the train to leave when Alice leaves the shop, which means we got to run, and run fast! We get to the train and sit down somewhere… I literally mean anywhere, as Alice wants to stay in random seats, but I go around trying to find where is our little moving home for the next 10 hours, when I find it get Alice who s on bare foot already and pick up our stuff.
I love our little home for tonight, there’s only one lady here and seven seats left, cool! Hope no one else gets in here, it’s the first time we are staying in these little cabins, really feels like we are in some sort of old film of which for now I don’t want to get out of. The Spanish lady is very friendly and patient, as she helps me out with my Spanoportuguese, her name is Margarita, she’s from Chile living in Barcelona, she is on her way to Madrid to get a Visa to visit her two baby girls in the States, we talk about everything and nothing at all, well I did want an opportunity to practice some Spanish and now hopefully I’m literally stuck with it. A couple who I assume is Spanish joins us, they look nice enough, don’t join in the conversation but that’s fine. Later on another member for our little cabin group joins us, he’s very slim and tall and has a massive old style brown suitcase with him, I wonder straight way where his from, who is he, and millions of other things that only women or artists can wonder, I’m feeling like I am creating a fictional character for this story already. As he joins our conversation I find out his name is Charly, he’s French currently living and studying something boring thing in Madrid. A couple of minutes after Charly joining our conversation, I turn to Alice to carry on translating the conversation but she is fast asleep with her feet on top of his suitcase, we all agree that she looks comfortable and let her sleep, we chat for a couple of hours, Charly seems to be very interested on doing an InterRail, so I give him all the info, and at some point we all decide to sleep and we make the lights go a bit dimmer. Another passenger comes to our cabin which is getting a bit crowded, Alice wakes up. She can’t sleep, she decides to make a move to the carriage’s corridor. I keep an eye on her as I worry she’s probably freezing, suddenly she disappear, as I wait for her to come back and she doesn’t, I’ll go to the many times used toilet and then check where did she go, I find her in the bar sleeping, and she’s not the only one. There’s people all over. I head off to the cabin for the last little sleep of the night.
Date: 07.01.2009
I wake up slowly as usual, the alarm clocks plays several times I jump out of bed and drag myself to the shower, that unfortunately doesn’t’ have any hot water, how lucky that I had a massive bath before leaving England, cause now I m going to be very smelly for the next 2/3 days. I return the Giant shampoo to Ronen and try to get him out of bed, he mumbles something and I head off to the kitchen, need to get loads of sandwiches ready and to have some breakfast is going to be a long day and we need all the calories we can get hold of. As we getting out we realise Tom is having a shower… wonder if he knows any trick to get to hot water running or if he is a bit masoquist. We get rid of the baggage, Alice mentions how unsafe it might be to leave it in Hostel on the way to the supermarket across the road to buy some more supplies for the day. We pass my reference point the big old brewery that we can see from the Hostel, we see Tom on the way to the subway passing the Hospital with a friend, its time to go the Saints Train Station to book our tickets to the first overnight train, we need to make sure we get to Madrid tomorrow, we can have all the fun today but we cant forget to board on that train.Alice is loving the little shops in the train station, whilst we sort out the tickets and Ronen sorts out meeting his friends later on, after waiting for him we head off. Now we need to find out what direction to go, we are going to start our Barcelona tour from the point we had decide yesterday we were going to end it.
I cross the road running to see the names of the streets around that big square and come back running, oops I forgot to check the traffic lights, there will come the day I‘ll get run over but it wont be today. We start walking in the toward the castle’s mountain. We see trees and a steel dragon, how cool!!! I get all excited and start jumping around the stairs, I find a little slide and get them to come around to slide down! Me and Ronen slide first getting all dirty and wet, Alice slides the bag to us and then she slides down! Lol Ronen gets all excited and does it again!! Its good fun but we need to make a move so we carry on walking, making a little stop in a internet café as Ronen still needs to get in touch with his friends
.As we are walking around I ask “how do we know we are going in the right direction?” and then I see it as I move my head towards the right hand side, the big palace welcoming us to the beginning of the exploration, its breathtaking, we run excited to the centre of the big roundabout, it seems that since I’ve learned to run in the middle of places I
not meant to, I cant stop it!! And worst now I passed it to them!! We have a laugh take some pictures next to the amazing fountain, full of detail and statues, and run off again. Without realising we passed all those big buildings and we are climbing up the stairs, there was some electric stairs but we are such tourists that we decide to go the hard way. There are so many steps that I decide to start counting, but it doesn’t last long for me to give up, there’s way too many but its worth it, the view is Awesome, Barcelona seems huge, we can see everything, the big buildings, and the amazing border of mountains covered in white, we don’t even feel the cold anymore after all this steps and the unforgettable view, I want to stay trapped in this moment forever, I want to go to those mountains!!Guided by Alice around the little mountain we see another building this one is not very exciting at least not from the outside! We are too poor and short of time to see any of this in detail, we risk it by going to some trail to get quicker to a funky tower we saw earlier and walk up to it. Once we get to that tower, we take a few more pictures and we realise that truly Barcelona is everywhere, what a massive city, we can see the castle from here on one of the hills of Our mountain! By accident we find the Olympic stadium, none of us looks to impressed with the size of it, it’s a tiny sweet stadium with a cool big old clock and some funky statues of horse riders next to it, still cant believe we couldn’t figure out it was a stadium from the outside!
Ronen time with us is running out as he has to meet his friends soon, we walk to the Castle that seems to take forever, there is a cable car on the way, we might go there later, I feel all inspired and take a few good pictures with Ronen and Alice’s cameras, really miss my camera now, this place has a lot of potential, could stay here endless hours taking pictures, Barcelona is getting bigger every minute, from here we can see the big marina with all those cruises… aww those cruises, I wish we could just jump on one of those and get out in the next port, but we are only happy penniless travellers we cant afford to do it… one day, for now I will dream with bigger travels, and we will go around this Castle exploring what might be the most perfect city in the world, after Lisbon this is…We leave the Castle and make our way to the cable car, we check the prices and straight way I just think it has to be done, and so we do it, cause if not, we will only regret it, we get the tickets and say bye to Ronen, he s heading off the centre by bus, I give him a big hug. What a exceptional place to say goodbye, love the scenery, I m sure in those melodramatic books where people say goodbye for the whole eternity is in places like this, so I give this brief goodbye to our very new traveller friend a poetic meaning, and excited and hungry we jump on the cable car, love the scenic landscape, cant get over the snow covering those mountains in the distance, so perfect, the ride feels too quick and we jump off, get out of the little station and seat in the middle of a little roundabout crowded with statues of children, eating Filipinos, round cookies made of dark chocolate covered in white chocolate, yummy!! Alice’s cravings for sweet things do pay off!! While we are eating Alice realises the cable car didn’t finish there, it was only the first stop!!! Oops!! We run off back inside the lady doesn’t want to let us back in, and insists that once you’re out of the station you’re not allowed back in, thanks to our stubbornness, valid arguments and a phone call she made to her supervisor we are allowed back in!! Yay, we just still cannot believe we missed it!! Don’t think anyone in the world would be able to do this!! And this is only the first day, what else can happen??…
Whilst having a personal conversation, goin
g down the hill and passing to some funky graffiti walls, and some weird trees covered in something looking like sharp less rose nails, with some weird fruit which according to a old lady, looking a bit like those the pigeon lady from “Home Alone”, are not good to eat, we make it to the modern area of Barcelona. Alice really wants to see the wiggly bridge, I would love to actually cross it to head off to the beach, but I look at the mobile and as we received 20 minutes ago a text from Tom asking us if we want to go meet him at the Tapas Bar, we just completely forget about our new ideas of where to go and head off as quickly as we can to the bar hoping he is still there, passing some funky Circus carriages on the way.We get to the bar, Alice looks a bit shocked with all the Jambon hanging out from the ceiling, I look around and let me be taken by the whole environment, its like a long crowded corridor with all sort of people standing and food all over the place, people throw the rubbish to the floor, the little kids are sitting down the high cupboards, and I m loving it, I mention to Alice how this would never happen in England, and I don’t want to go back, tired of all the nonsense endless rules about health and safety and children related if they misbehave and fall they will know not to do it again, I like it, its
so cool to be here, there’s no background music though, but there’s no need for it, there’s all the sound of different conversations, laughter, people eating and enjoying themselves. As soon as Tom sees us, he orders our food and a bottle of Cavas Rose and only then he realises that Alice doesn’t drink, so we have to drink it between the two of us. Oops, that wont take long by the way he pours it into our cups. We get some amazing dessert, Alice doesn’t get her hot dog in the end, I think the guy who we ordered it to, left the building, still cant believe this is the quiet time of the day, after 4 will get really busy according to Tom, (as its not busy enough!!!) The amazing wine bottle only cost €2.10, after 4 they only sell the little cups which are like €0.40 each, Tom takes a bottle home with him and I wish Id done the same thing, I m feeling slightly tipsy, Alice looks at me realising I might be a bit drunk, I think its funny, really want more of that… hmm…We walk towards the old gothic town, passing the old great amazing post office building, we say bye to Tom exchanging emails, so we can hopefully meet one day somewhere
out there.The old Gothic town for some reason looks at bit dark, narrow streets surrounded by tall buildings, some of the quietest passages really take me to a time where I haven‘t lived… Would love to see these streets in a bright sunny day. We carry on distractedly looking at the dazzling shops, making our way out of the old town with all those outstanding buildings with so much detail, the streets start to get busier it’s the end of the day, the sky is gorgeous reminds me of a twisted rainbow with different tones of pink and blue, everyone is finishing work and we are walking in the busy main street, where everything happens, we even have background music to the perfect city atmosphere, “Every step you take” being played by some street musicians… live music always makes me smile, wherever it might be. It just makes the world magically into a better place. We get to the first Gaudi building and I stare dazzled by the complexity, looks a bit like a caveman work done perfectly, a bit like the Flintstones houses, just bigger, with some skull looking balconies, contrasting with walls full of dots and splashed paint. After the next one, we head off once again to the Sagrada Familia, we might get lucky this time.
Unfortunately its pitch black again, and there are not many lights illuminating the big monster in front of us, we can see the shape of it, but we will not be able to take pictures of it with Alice’s little camera and just a few lights, so we decide that we are tired and head off to the Hostel to pick up our stuff, to relax and we could also go to the shop to get more food.
The hostel its cosy and warm, me and Alice get to the sofa completely ignoring everyone and have a little nap, that we make last as long as we can, right there in the common room, and then stick to the plan. Get the subway and go back to Sants Train Station.
As soon as we get here, Alice goes around the shops looking for a little souvenir, I m worried about the time, there’s only 7 minutes left for the train to leave when Alice leaves the shop, which means we got to run, and run fast! We get to the train and sit down somewhere… I literally mean anywhere, as Alice wants to stay in random seats, but I go around trying to find where is our little moving home for the next 10 hours, when I find it get Alice who s on bare foot already and pick up our stuff.
I love our little home for tonight, there’s only one lady here and seven seats left, cool! Hope no one else gets in here, it’s the first time we are staying in these little cabins, really feels like we are in some sort of old film of which for now I don’t want to get out of. The Spanish lady is very friendly and patient, as she helps me out with my Spanoportuguese, her name is Margarita, she’s from Chile living in Barcelona, she is on her way to Madrid to get a Visa to visit her two baby girls in the States, we talk about everything and nothing at all, well I did want an opportunity to practice some Spanish and now hopefully I’m literally stuck with it. A couple who I assume is Spanish joins us, they look nice enough, don’t join in the conversation but that’s fine. Later on another member for our little cabin group joins us, he’s very slim and tall and has a massive old style brown suitcase with him, I wonder straight way where his from, who is he, and millions of other things that only women or artists can wonder, I’m feeling like I am creating a fictional character for this story already. As he joins our conversation I find out his name is Charly, he’s French currently living and studying something boring thing in Madrid. A couple of minutes after Charly joining our conversation, I turn to Alice to carry on translating the conversation but she is fast asleep with her feet on top of his suitcase, we all agree that she looks comfortable and let her sleep, we chat for a couple of hours, Charly seems to be very interested on doing an InterRail, so I give him all the info, and at some point we all decide to sleep and we make the lights go a bit dimmer. Another passenger comes to our cabin which is getting a bit crowded, Alice wakes up. She can’t sleep, she decides to make a move to the carriage’s corridor. I keep an eye on her as I worry she’s probably freezing, suddenly she disappear, as I wait for her to come back and she doesn’t, I’ll go to the many times used toilet and then check where did she go, I find her in the bar sleeping, and she’s not the only one. There’s people all over. I head off to the cabin for the last little sleep of the night.
Happyness is a journey not a destination.
Life is an Odyssy, unpredictable, mesmerising and exciting.
Sometimes your steps in this adventure call life will lead you somewhere you never thought you would be, other times it might take you to an exciting place where you have always wanted to be.
Sometimes you need to grab the wheel and take control, other times just let yourself go and trust the unknown to lead the way! Sometimes you will feel that things have been taken, other times that you could not possibly ask for more.
Live the adventure, make happiness your mean of transport and the goal let it simple be to have lived.
Live the adventure, make happiness your mean of transport and the goal let it simple be to have lived.
Xana
Car Lights
(2008-10-10)
Another sleepless night where I get lost in the my most recent favourite memory, sitting in a bus stop watching the dark blue sky becoming pitch black, observing the cars passing by, observing the reflexion of the lights in the dark road, some a bit dim others brighter, just like so many moments I have watched passing by, some as part of them, some as an humble spectator acquiring an experience which doesn’t belong to me, loved watching all these cars passing by, every car a moment, another memory, past, present, future, a gate between time… Could of stayed there for endless hours, following the lights, each one of these different lights carrying different lives, random people going to their different destinations known and unknown.
I sat and relaxed, ignoring the cold and the rain, felt the warmth of my thoughts running through my soul, listening to the narrator hidden in a discrete corner of my mind, speaking of that moment like it was unique, so special, and atypically focusing only on the moment the cars were passing by, wasn’t relevant to know where they were going, wasn’t important to wonder about the beginning of their journey, was all about the diversity of the subdued lights and what they represented in that very moment. Was all about those reflexions that instantly faded away on the pavement, was about the now, a now that can very rapidly disappear becoming something else, nearly as it is happening but not even that was important, only the lights were important for the narrator on another lyrical delusion.
Lyrical, cause you need to be a poet to see “the lights” grab them like a common object and turn them into a dove, believing that the magic is already there.
I sat and relaxed, ignoring the cold and the rain, felt the warmth of my thoughts running through my soul, listening to the narrator hidden in a discrete corner of my mind, speaking of that moment like it was unique, so special, and atypically focusing only on the moment the cars were passing by, wasn’t relevant to know where they were going, wasn’t important to wonder about the beginning of their journey, was all about the diversity of the subdued lights and what they represented in that very moment. Was all about those reflexions that instantly faded away on the pavement, was about the now, a now that can very rapidly disappear becoming something else, nearly as it is happening but not even that was important, only the lights were important for the narrator on another lyrical delusion.
Lyrical, cause you need to be a poet to see “the lights” grab them like a common object and turn them into a dove, believing that the magic is already there.
A night at the Elms
(personnal review from a open mic night on the 06/07/2008)
Wanted to be there still, enjoying that great night, lost in time, lost in space, completely untraceable, breathing every second of it, fulfilling every need of my body with those sounds, not wanting anything else, not having the need or the desire for anything but that moment… every succession of seconds, every little detail of the night, where the darkness was light, and nothing in the world we inhabit would stand its ground against the unequal sound of those drums, followed by the guitar amazing strength, accompanied by a keyboard reaching down my heart in its deepest level… and the subtle harmonica undressing my soul… turning me free.
Free for a moment,… free from a past I cannot understand, free from my present mistakes, from the my dwelling thoughts, from the pressure on my soul for that quest I eager to fulfill. There was satisfaction without asking for anything in return, there was the genuine silly mistakes that turn life into magic, there was equality and individuality spontaneously mixed in a such perfect way, which turned a small old pub into the world secret stage, the stage where special gifted people, who we call musicians, played their own music and made it the same, unique for their public, unique for them, unique at the highest level of its meaning, a meaning which no dictionary written by the greatest language experts would be able to describe.
I could write more, write forever, write too much in the humble attempt of describing the powerful sounds which filled the souls of the lucky ones who were there, however would never be able to convert the amazing feeling into written words cause there is not enough terms I could use invented by any being, earthling or extraterrestrial that would allow me to do so.
So ladies and gentleman come to The Elms and experience Music at its best, spontaneous rhythm with an amateur touch that turn simplicity into greatness in a magnitude that every single one of you will experience in exclusive way going back home wishing you were still there.
Free for a moment,… free from a past I cannot understand, free from my present mistakes, from the my dwelling thoughts, from the pressure on my soul for that quest I eager to fulfill. There was satisfaction without asking for anything in return, there was the genuine silly mistakes that turn life into magic, there was equality and individuality spontaneously mixed in a such perfect way, which turned a small old pub into the world secret stage, the stage where special gifted people, who we call musicians, played their own music and made it the same, unique for their public, unique for them, unique at the highest level of its meaning, a meaning which no dictionary written by the greatest language experts would be able to describe.
I could write more, write forever, write too much in the humble attempt of describing the powerful sounds which filled the souls of the lucky ones who were there, however would never be able to convert the amazing feeling into written words cause there is not enough terms I could use invented by any being, earthling or extraterrestrial that would allow me to do so.
So ladies and gentleman come to The Elms and experience Music at its best, spontaneous rhythm with an amateur touch that turn simplicity into greatness in a magnitude that every single one of you will experience in exclusive way going back home wishing you were still there.
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