Travel Woes

I arrived this morning at Lisbon's airport and was disappointed at how horrible it was for the departing passenger. Thank goodness there are plans afoot to build a new one. Apart from a twenty minute delay, I had no problem in getting to Frankfurt. My flight to Heathrow was another story. For some strange reason I had my passport stamped (I never left Schengen) and then had to go through security again near the gate. The gate was full of people and I was informed of a delay of at least an hour. Lufthansa did provide snacks for everyone, which was very nice. Near boarding time, everyone waiting was forced to move to a different section, and then go through passport control. It was a madhouse though, because another flight was boarding at the same time in the gate next door and the two line ups got mixed up. We were finally bused to the plane about an hour and a half after the flight was supposed to leave. On the plane, I finally found out the reason for the delay. Apparently a plane had crashed at Heathrow and one of the runways had been shutdown. After an hour on the tarmac, we left, and then spent twenty minutes in a holding pattern above London. On the bright side, my luggage was one of the first pieces to come out.

Spain - Impressions

Overall, I have enjoyed Spain. I found hte people to be very friendly, the food decent (with a few exceptions that will be discussed further on) and the sights interesting. I think the highlight was the Alhambra, the museums in Madrid, and the monkeys in Gibraltar. The best hostel I stayed in was the one in Granada (the one in Lisbon was better still, but that is not in Spain).

I had to deal with a few issues particular to Spain, with the most pressing being the food schedule. In the end, I have solved that problem by snacking throughout the day and not going to sit-down restaurants (comedores). I find the cafe culture a bit strange here, as cafes (known really as cafeterias that also serve cheap food) always have old men crowded up at the bar standing and eating their food. Going into one that is busy is a bit intimidating, as I would probably have to physically push someone to get noticed by the bar tender. The food is good, with the exception of the bocadillos (sandwiches) which are appalling. If you get a ham bocadillo it is ham and bread, nothing else. Unhealthy and unnappetizing. I did really enjoy the tapas though.

I quite like Madrid. Strangely enough, the city in Europe that I think it is most similar to (that I have visited) is Vienna. Like Madrid there is no river going through the center (the Danube runs around the center), and it also has much neoclassical architecture. Madrid has a superb transportation system. I would definetly come back, but give myself four full days here, as there are a number a possible daytrips outside the city. I also think the city would be far nicer in the summer, as it truly has a wealth of green space, that sadly in winter, is not that green.

Madrid

I arrived at the Prado at 9:30 this morning to avoid the line. Overall, I was quite impressed. While father told me it was dissapointing, I think that may be because he went before the completion of the addition, which opened in the fall. I was particularly impressed with the North European paintings on offer. Because Spain controlled the Low Countries for a while, there are a great many Dutch paintings in Spain. One of the best is called The Garden of Earthly Delights, which portrays heaven, hell and sin in a triptych. Unfortunately only about half the museum has captions that have been translated into English. There were no English captions for most of the Italian paintings and none of the Spanish ones. I was also dissapointed that two of Goya´s paintings that I was particularly keen on seeing, The 2nd and 3rd of May, 1808 were undergoing restoration. However, I enjoyed the paintings of the Spanish artists, in particular the El Greco´s and Goya´s black period pieces. Across the street is another art museum called the Thyssen-Bornemisza, which is smaller, but contains art from the early rennaissance to the present. While it did not have any extremely famous works like the Prado, it was still a very interesting museum in its own right. It was about 3:30 at this point, and I arrived at the Reina Sofia, the modern art museum, which contains the famous Picasso, Guernica. To my extreme disspointment, the museum was closed! Apparently it is shut on Tuesdays, unlike the rest of the museums which are shut on Monday. I suppose I will just have return to Madrid. Ideally, I should have spent about four days here instead of my rushed one and a half days. I feel as if I´ve seen almost nothing of the city except the interior of art museums.

Madrid

I got up very early this morning, and to my dismay, had to walk through a torrential downpour to get to the train station. The train was decent, and had a cafe on board, which was a nice touch. Fifteen minutes after leaving the train stopped for fifteen minutes due to ´water´ on the tracks. We finally got going, although the train was painfully slow. When it reached an electrified line it did speed up, and I arrived in Madrid at 2:30. The Atocha train station is impressive, as it contains a small tropical forest. I took the metro and arrived at my hostel, where I was informed that I had been moved to a second branch. I found the second branch with no problem, but there was no sign on the building, and so I did not know which buzzer to press. Thankfully a resident of the building showed up and told me where to go. The hostel is new, and interestingly enough is nearly empty. I have a four bed room to myself. Apparently Madird does not get the volume of tourists that the south gets at this time of year. As the museums are closed on Monday, I went to the Palacio Real to enjoy the short part of the day I had left. It is a typical European palace, but has a couple of particularly garish rooms, including one with walls made entirely of porcelain. Afterwards I went to the store to buy some socks. Everything is on sale here for the entire month of January.

Gibraltar

I arrived shortly after twn in the morning on Sunday in La Linea and took a short five minute walk to the border. The Spanish guard opened my passport and waved me through. An extremely bored looking Gibraltarian guard didn´t even bother opening my passport. I was dissapointed they did not stamp my passport. I began a short walk across the exclave´s runway into the city. Nothing much was open, as it was Sunday morning. I wandered around, desperately searching for a tourist office to get a map, but when I located it, it was shut. The town is quite nice, and is like any other town in Britain, but is fringed with palm trees. Many of the locals speak a creole of English and Spanish. Thank goodness that Gibraltar does not follow Spanish time. I was able to have lunch in a pub shortly after noon. I ordered fish and chips and a half pint of cider. It was warm enough to sit outside and enjoy the sun. While I had wanted to walk up the rock, I could not find the way up, and had no map, so decided to go up the cable car. I saw a couple of monkeys from the car. At the top, I got off and immediately saw several of monkeys near cable car exit. They are very tame, and you can walk right up to them. The female monkeys all have swollen butts. I wandered around the top of the rock for a while, enjoying the views. The baby monkeys were particularly cute, especially when being carried by their mothers. The top of the rock has excellent views of Morocco and Ceuta. I took the cable car back down to the half station, and walked down to the town from there. Wanting to get some food for the train the next day, I went to the supermarket which is stocked with British food. Despite is having about a thousand calories, I bought a Melton Mobraypork pie for my lunch. Although it was five, I had an early dinner, and headed back across the border. There was an enormous queue of Spaniards crossing the border in cars, apparently because gas is much cheaper in Gibraltar. I also saw a number of people with shopping bags from the supermarker. They muct like the British food you can´t get in Spain. I had the displeasure of receiving some Gibraltarian money in change, and after bad experiences with the money of Jersey, am concerned that it will be difficult to get rid of.

Granada - Algeciras - Tarifa

On my last night in Granada, the hostel served a lovely dinner of Paella which was all you can eat. I think it's good that this hostel served food. Yesterday, as I waited for my bus to Algeciras, a woman walked up to me and asked me in Spanish if she could ask me a grammatical question in English. She switched to English and explained to me that she was an English teacher and was having a dispute with her superior over how to teach her students. Apparently, her superior suggested she teach all possibilities, and not just the most frequently used. The example was should she teach just 'you're welcome' or also teach alternatives, such as 'my pleasure' etc. I told her not the bother with the alternatives as there are too many, and many of them are confined to geographical areas. She asked me if I could go speak to her class, but I sadly could not because I was leaving.

I arrived in Algeciras mid-afternoon, which is horribly ugly, and checked into my hotel. You can see Gibraltar from accross the harbour. After checking in to my hotel (which is quite nice, but not four stars as advertized), I headed back to the bus station to go to Tarifa, which is apparently very nice. The bus ride took twenty minutes and was very picturesque. Tarifa is a beach town and is filled with surfer shops and hippies. The old town is like a well-restored medina. There was wasn't much to do there but walk around, so I only spent a couple of hours there before I returned to Algeciras and enjoyed the privacy of my hotel room that I did not have in the hostels.

Granada

I went on another tapas tour last night. In Granada when you order a drink in tapas bars, you also get a serving of tapas, with you often not being able to make the choice. So, for one and a half to two euros, you can get food and a drink. I don´t think I´ve been to anywhere in Europe that is so cheap, and the tapas was were good as well. I even liked the deep-fried eggplant they served me.

I stayed up too late, and then this morning was woken up at seven by the Koreans in my room, and have thus been very tired all day. I left the hostel at 10:30, and slowly headed up to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is not just one Moorish palace, but is a collection of two Moorish palaces and a rennaissance one. I pre-booked my ticket, so did not need to worry about tickets selling out. I first went to the older Moorish palace, which is very small, but it was still much nicer than the palace in Morocco. At this point, it was nearly time for my entry into the Nazraid palace, the famous one. They are serious about staggering entry too, I had to wait in line for over fifteen minutes. The Palace was absolutely beautiful though. I heard Japanese tourists gasp as they walked into one of the grandest rooms. Next to the Nazriad palace, is the renaissance palace, which had an art museum inside. It was not that interesting, though. After the Alhambra, it was finally lunch time (2:30), but I had been starving for over two hours. I really dislike Spanish eating times. I went for a walk to find out what an orange building was near the Alhambra, which was simply a garishly painted hotel. It was fun to walk along the hill paths to get there. I also went to the cathedral, which I did not think was that great, and was also really cold. I was tired at this point, and had rn out of things to do, so I decided to take a siesta, which made me feel much better.

Sevilla - Granada

I woke up at eight, and of course was the first one awake in my room. I had breakfast (which at this hospital is just toast), and still seeing it was too early to leave for my train, went out and bought a newspaper. I ended up leving at about ten and waited an hour and half at the train station. The train ride was pleasant enough, and I arrived in Granada at three. I had some difficulty finding the hostel as it is located in the former Muslim quarter, which is like the medinas in Morocco, confusing. I also had to haul my bag up stairs, which was not pleasant. The hostel seems nice, but I was disheartened to find people still sleeping in my room. I am getting tired of hostels and their lack of privacy and am dithering over spending a bit more for a hotel in Madrid. Yes, there would be no one to talk to, but I wouldn´t have to worry about what to occupy my time and when to go to bed. The hostel offered a tour of Granada at five, which I attended. We walked up the hill and got a panorama of the Alhambra and saw where hippies lives in caves. Now I have to occupy my time somehow before yet another tapas tour at half past nine.

Sevilla

I got up at around 8:00 this morning, and was of course the first up in my room, even though I was not the first to bed. I spent nearly three hours dithering on the internet, trying to sort out my itinerary. I've decided to go to Granada next, and then Algeciras so I can get to Gibraltar. There are no hostels in Algeciras or Gibraltar, so I had to splurge on a hotel, which is still a relatively cheap 40 euros a night, but twice as much as the hostels. I've also decided to go to Madrid and spend two nights there. I asked the lady manning reception whether I should go to Cordoba or Madrid, and she said that Cordoba was similar to Granada but not as good. So, I'll go to Madrid before returning to Lisbon for a night.

After sorting all that out, I headed out into town. I first went to Casa Pilates, which is a former ducal palace. I was amazed at the similarity to the architecture of Morocco. It was like the Bahia Palace, but much better maintained. I finished there at noon and was desperate to eat, but couldn't due to the spaniards late eating times. I ended up going to the cathdral to pass the time. It was huge, and while it had originally been a mosque the only part of the mosque structure surviving was the minaret, which looked the same as the one in Marrakech. I walked up the minaret and was impressed with the view. It was shortly after one when I finished, and even though no one was eating yet, I was famished and went to a Paella restaurant, where I ordered Paella coloured with squid ink. I ate slowly as I had a newspaper to read, and by the time I fnished at around 1:45, people were just beginning to show up for lunch. I then headed to the bull ring, which was recommended to me by a girl I talked to last night. It was pretty dissapointing unfortunately, as I had to pay five euros for something that I could have spent five minutes in. The tour took half an hour. I saved the best sight for last, the Real Alcazar, a formar royal palace. The palace was orignally build by the Muslims in the 9th century. It, once again was like the architecture in Morocco, but much nicer. There was a lovely garden attached to it. Like in Morocco, many of the trees are orange trees covered in juicy looking oranges. I decided that I had not been getting enough vitamin C, and therefor removed a particularly juicy looking orange from one of the trees. I had been warned in Morocco that there was a reason they were not eaten, and when I bit into it, I understood. It was so sour, that I had to throw it away. After I finished in the palace, I walked down to a big building called the Plaza Espana, which was moderately interesting. Still needing to pass the time, I stopped at one the city's numerous Starbucks for a beverage. I also got a salad there for dinner, as I did not want to wait until eight to eat. When I finished my coffee, everything had reopened from the siesta and the city was buzzing. I passed by the art museum, hoping it was open despite the time (six). It was, and while most of the paintings were pretty mediocre, there were a couple of good ones. The rest of the evening has so far been spent reading my book and browsing the internet. I'm off to Granada tomorrow.

Lisbon - Sevilla

My final night in Lisbon was spent doing a wine tasting at the hostel. I tried something the Portuguese call green wine, which I was told 'many people liked'. I was not one of them, and thought it tasted foul, being slightly fizzy and sweet. In fact, all the Portuguese whites were awful, being far too sweet. I much preferred the reds. I spent all of yesterday on a marathon bus ride of eight hours from Lisbon to Seville. The bus driver took a route that violated Pythgoras' principle, and thus took much longer than it should have. On the bright side I walked around for a few minutes in Faro, a Portuguese city in the far south of the country. I had a hard time navigating when I got to Seville. A local approached me as I stood looking at my map, and she offered to take me to the plaza that my hostel was off of, but she said, that having lived here her entire life had never heard of the hostel. Thankfully, I didn't have any trouble finding it once I got to the plaza. I'm also surprised how much Spanish I can understand. I'm not really having any trouble communicating, and people aren't switching into English either. Shortly after arriving at the hostel, I went on the hostel's 'tapas night'. We went to two tapas bars, and I ordered a total of three tapas. I ate an order of Venison stew, spinach with chickpeas and fried calamari. They were delicious, and surprisingly cheap. I was completely stuffed (and I ate barely anything the entire day due to the bus ride), and it was only 6.80 euros total! After the tapas bar we went to a free flamenco performance. I thought the music was pretty mediocre, but I enjoyed watching an extremely mammose woman defy gravity while dancing. It was completely fascinating.

Lisbon

I arrived in Lisbon yesterday after a good flight. Lufthansa provided excellent service, and I was delighted to have flown an A300 for the first time. I like how European airlines still provide meals on flights. My hostel in Lisbon, the Traveller's Hostel is one of the nicest I have ever stayed in. It's nearly like a hotel, and they served eggs for breakfast. I also got my laundry done for a very cheap price, which is good because I had run out of clean clothes. I watched two movies in the evening yesterday, Blood Diamond (terrible) and An Inconvenient Truth (interesting). The hostel staff even gave us popcorn to go along with the film.

Lisbon is very nice, and very warm. When I arrived, I started sweating because I was still wearing my heavy jacket from Paris. Transportation here is also dirt cheap. A metro ticket is only 75 cents. Overall, I like Lisbon. It is a pretty city, and the people are very friendly. Today I went to Sintra, a world heritage site. There, I visited two palaces and a ruined moorish castle. Interestingly, the Moorish castle was reconstructed into a 'romantic' ruin in the 19th century. The first palace was a medieval one first built by the moors, which made it much different from any palace I have ever visited. It was very nice, and the kitchen chimneys were quite remarkable. The second palace was built in the 19th century, and looks pretty from the outside. Unfortunately the inside is much to stuffy, with tiny rooms filled with too much furniture. The palace did, however, have a lovely view and nice gardens. Since I walked up a huge hill to get the second palace I was completely exhausted after my visit and fell asleep on the train.