Backpashing Europe

27 Jan 2002

Hola.....

Back in beautiful Madrid! (actually I seem to be saying that about a lot of places but there are truly many beautiful places here and we have visited many).

I left Paris on Wed morning after 6 fantastic days........Our last day there was mostly looking for postcards and souvenirs etc.... We also visited the Pere Lechaise Cemetary where you get to see the graves of folks like Jim Morrison (complete with lots of flowers and love poems written to him), Edith Piaf, Balzac, Chopin, Pisarro, and many others. Almost got locked in too as we arrived about 45 mins before closing time and the security guards came chasing us out the gates with stern warnings! In the evening we headed down to the non-existant Bastille, did some meandering around the Marais district (the centre of both Paris´ Jewish community and the its gay life - interesting combo!) and went to our favourite little Chinese restaurant just around the corner from the hotel. I tried to persuade Denise to try some escargots but she shuddered at the thought. I can´t say I blame her - for me it was absolutely a once off thing....maybe frog´s legs one day though.

Anyway, Denise had to fly out of Madrid yesterday so she came straight back down from Paris while I headed to San Sebastian (Donostia) in the heart of Basque country. This place is (wait for it...) extremely beautiful.....there is the old town with lots of great shops, bars and cafes, three impeccable beaches with REAL sand, and two mountains up each end of the beach strips which offer fantastic views over the beaches and the Bay of Biscay. I didn´t actually do much in San Seb but sit on the beach and squirm my toes in the sand whilst reading a travel guide, wander about the old town, eat some Tapas at this nice little bar we found opposite the main beach and scale the (smallish) mountain on the side near the hostel. There were a couple of Aussies at the hostel and we contemplated going for a swim out to the little island that is 500m out or so from the beaches, but the water was seriously icy - much colder than in winter back home. One of the girls from the hostel and I (she was actually from Sydney which is cool because no Aussies I have met thus far have been from anywhere but Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth!)..... caught a bus out to Bilbao (a dump) to see the Guggenheim collection. It houses a great collection of modern art and an exhibition of Frank Gehry´s architectural models and furniture. He also designed the museum which is in itself, a fantastic site! Outside the museum is a ginormous puppy dog statue (Jeff Koons designed it) which is covered in flowers and is quite fun.....Julia (Sydney girl) said it actually was in Sydney a couple of years back so maybe some of you saw it then....

Unfortunately no big riots or explosions when we were in San Seb - not that I really wanted one but it does sound a bit more exciting when you talk about your holiday. We did come across some tiny protest of about 60 people outside (presumably) some government official´s workplace.....the cops were there with those riot shields and batons and machine guns (serious!) but nothing eventuated as far as I know. I was a bit disappointed to not even hear a smidgen of Basque being spoken by the locals either.....Spanish everywhere......

Anyway......back in Madrid...I am staying at the hostel which is right up the other end of town from where we stayed before. Not sure what the place is like yet as I dumped my stuff off and headed into town. I was hoping to meet up with some Aussies for Australia day but the only guy I met at the hostel was a Pom! Then again, it was mid afternoon and everyone is out sightseeing etc as they should be. Tomorrow I am going to visit the Prado (last gallery for the trip!) as it is Sunday (free day), go to the bullring and walk around the Parc del Buen Retiro (a gorgeous park with an amazing fountain, some statues and lots of chi-chi mamas with their poodles!

I´m thinking about heading out to Salamanca on Monday but it is a three hour ride one way and I am going to be doing a heck of a lot of sitting between Tuesday and Thursday (on the plane) so that may not yet happen.....Avila is much closer and so maybe I will go there instead.

OK Well this is it for me........I have had a fantasitic 9 and a bit weeks but it will be sooooooooo nice to get home to some normal food, TV in English (although it is fun to try and translate), my family and friends (most of you anyway), and of course my cat! The poor little bugger won´t remember me!
Hasta luego!
Bel x

Hola...

Still in Madrid but we have had a sudden change of plans. We are heading up to Paris for about 5 days. Because I have been able to change my flight and it was too difficult to manoeuvre the Lisbon-Santiago de Compostelo trek, I have some extra time, and also several days on my rail pass with which to play around.

Anyway, we have had a great past 5 days here. I think Madrid is a fantastic city - definately in my top three favourite European capitals - the city is beautiful, there is great food around the place (especially if you are a fan of ham, as there are Museu del Jamon [Museum of ham], on every street corner), there are fantastic galleries and parks and lots of great shops!

My last couple of emails, have been a little truncated...but anyway...had a nice time in Lisbon. We stayed in a superb pensao (2 star hotel) right in the centre of Lisbon. We had a view of Plaça de Figura from our window where there is a statue of some most important dude (of which there are many many all over Lisbon) in the centre, and lots of shops, patisseries and bars. The first day we had there was a little drab as we had caught an overnight train (with lousy air-conditioning) and were most fatigued upon arrival....we also went looking for one of the apparently most important churches in Lisbon, but wound up in a decidedly seedy part of town and decided to hang out in the hotel for a couple hours before venturing out again to look at shops!

A lot of Lisbon is quite seedy....there seem to be packs of half a dozen to a dozen seedbags huddled around every 5-10 metres, for apparently no reason. Then there is the spitting....it seems that ´real men´ in Portugal (also in Spain and France) must be competent in the art of forming big boluses of saliva in their mouths and projecting them at tremendous velocities towards the ground. I actually saw a chick do this last night to my horror!

Anyway, we had a much better day the next day for Denise´s B´day (i think this is a rehash but bear with me)...went up to the district of Belem.....a lot of the lead up to it was just the shabby seaport, but then beyond that we saw the monastery of St Jeronimo, Tower of Belem and the beautiful Discoveries Monument.....also got my first look ever at the Atlantic Ocean (from a distance)......it looked much the same as the Pacific Ocean but it was smellier and the sun was in the wrong spot!

Spent the day after that in Sintra...it was quite beautiful and lots to see there but the city is very hilly and the points of interest are all over the place i.e. from the Pena Palace (which is great) to one of the monasteries ( it is 4km), and then there is some other stuff another 5 km in the other direction grrrrr.... Also went to this Moorish castle which has all but disintegrated but you can wander through all the old parts of the castle, and scale the walls for a panoramic view of Sintra and out to the sea. We caught a bus from here out to the Cabo de Roca which is the Point most "Occidental" (westerly) in europe.....that was pretty cool.....the coastline is extremely rugged and the sun in Portugal is tremendously glary....really beautiful there.

Day after in Cascais.....a charming seaside resort town. Lots of wandering around the town centre, and we walked up to the Boca del Inferno (mouth of fire) which is essentially a blowhole. Caught a bus back to Lisbon and went to this ginormous shopping centre...the biggest on the Iberian Peninsula...we found a Morgan de Toi shop with a discount bin (last season´s stock) and got some bloody good deals.

Back in Lisbon for another day.....I already said all this stuff though.

Arrived in Madrid on the 12th (am) - wandered up to Puerta del Sol and hit the shops. Also visited the Reina Sofia (Queen of Spain) Museum....

13th - took a bus out to the Valley of the Fallen (where there is a huge basilica and statue in tribute to General Franciso Franco - even though everyone hated him they still built this huge monument for him) and to the Monastery San Lorenzo del Escorial - there is a vault here where about a zillion princes and princesses and kings and queens have been buried.....room after room of it. Also a brilliant display of ancient maps - it is fun to try and work out where the hell some of these places are as they all have different names and their orientations are not always as usual.

14th - back in Madrid today.....some more shopping, and not much else.

15th - caught a train to Segovia for the day.......it is an extremely beautiful city but it was sooooooo cold there. It is at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, and it was bitterly cold and raining for much of the day. We visited the incredible Alcazar, the Cathedral, wandered about the Aqueduct and found the most amazing hot chocolate in Spain. I am totally converted.....no more of this watery hot chocolate with milk....this stuff is divine!

16th.....today! Went to Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza (an overly wealthy Hungarian art collector) where I saw some Italian stuff, a lot of Flemish and Dutch paintings, a stack of Impressionist paintings, and some post-impressionist, fauve, avant-garde, pop art and surrealist works. Also did a circuit of the city and wandered down Gran Via (one of main streets), saw outside of Royal Palace, San Miguel Meat Market, the Palace of COmmunications (which is the post office but looks like a palace), lots of statues, the town hall, and I found the Chocalateria of Saint Gines...I think it is the oldest one in Madrid. I´m definately going there when I get back here next week! Weather here is nice.....I am down to a t-shirt, jumper and jeans! But Paris will be colder I´m sure

Off this evening to Paris.....I shall write from there.

See ya

Love Belinda

8 Jan

Hola.....

OK this will also be a quick one.....but here is catching up on the past week or so.

Due to the overwhelming number of tourists in Barcelona for Xmas, we wound up getting stuck there for a couple extra days than anticipated which somewhat threw our plans into chaos......or rather, it put us behind a few days. Barcelona is wicked though, so I really shouldn't complain!

Dec 27 - we went to Figueras to visit the Dali museum. The town itself is, as Lonely Planet correctly terms it, a dive, but the museum is bloody fantastic......it is like you are walking inside a gigantic surrealistic lollipop.

There is room after room of drawings, paintings, sculptures, and in the centre of the building is a quaint little courtyard which has bizarre scupltures and a beaten up old car in the middle with mannequins sitting inside. Trippy music plays in the background and if you put a coin in the slot it actually starts ´raining´ inside the car!

Dec 28 - The next day we visited the monastery of Montserrat, which is nestled amongst the mountains to the NW of Barcelona. It is in the middle of nowhere and you have spectacular views across the valley and of the curiously shaped rocks that form much of the mountain range. To get up there, we caught a funicular up about 800m. It was pretty damn cold up there but it was incredibly beautiful and the views were spectacular.

Apparently Montserrat is the most important site of pilgrimage for Catholic Spaniard´s - they go to see the black Madonna, which is a pint sized statue encased in bullet proof glass. Up at the monastery we also got to chase around the feral cats - one of my absolute favourite European pasttimes! Sad, but true!

When we got back to Barca we went to the Picasso museum. We had visited the museum a few years ago and really enjoyed it as it has a tremendously diverse range of his work. Unfortunately, at the moment, they are refurbishing the place so half of the place was closed and only his typical stuff was on show, but still, it was pretty amazing. Also, as the city was inundated with tourists, and this was the first day the museum was open after Xmas, the place was a little overcrowded.

Dec 29 - we went to the Joan Miro museum - turned out to be a lot more fun than Picasso. Lots of weird and wonderful sculptures and paintings. They actually gave us free audioguides which was nice, though it did remind me why i never pay for these usually! They talk such bollocks! Also went to the Iglesia of Santa Maria de Mar, and the wonderful Palau de la Musica Catalunya - basically the multipurpose music centre for Barcelona....it is an extremely beautiful and colourful building, but it kinda seems as though it is a little too flamboyant for anything classical and the decoration would perhaps be distracting if you wanted to take in the music.

Dec 30 - tres ordinaire.....caught a 12 hour train from Barca to Granada as we couldn´t get on an overnight service. Quite nice scenery along the coast.....especially between Barca and Tarragona. I think the highlight of the day was trying to communicate with this wacky old lady who needed help with her luggage. A gentleman sitting a few rows down from us informed us she was at ´one o´clock´. We seem to be finding more and more people at that time as the trip progresses.....I think one of the folks we saw yesterday was at about half past 3!

Dec 31...Grananda!! First we visited the old Islamic quarter of town, before winding up looking like drowned rats as a result of the torrential rain! We got chased by gypsies around the cathedral who were trying to get us to buy lavender and other herbs from them. NYE was a bit of a write-off.......after last year´s NYE in Berlin, and hearing a few wild firecrackers go off around Granada.....we decided to bail on the celebrations and crashed early....Í don´t think the SPaniard´s are quite as batty as the Germans, but I don´t like fireworks being chucked in the air and exploding at random. So I'm a wuss!

Jan1... Happy New Year! Today we wandered up through more of the quaint Alcaceira (Islamic Quart) and saw several caves in the rocky hillsides where the local gypsies live. Also checked out the zillions of souvenir shops and chased the feral cats around the city.

Jan 2 - a fantastic day. We got up at the crack of dawn to head to the Alhambra at the top of the hill. This was the old Moorish palace and the last fortress of Muslim power in Spain. The buildings are gorgeous and there are incredible gardens with fountains all over the place. Thank goodness we arrived early as it become flooded with Japanese tour groups very quickly.... We had to race around to take photos of everything sans tour groups, and then wander back through more slowly to properly absorb everything

After we had done that, we sauntered back down the hillside to find people lining the streets - literally everywhere! We thought there must have been some royal family member or dignitary about to come past.....but it turned out to be a parade. For the 2nd of Jan is the anniversary of when the city of Granada fell back into the power of the Christians in 1492......Granada was the last Muslim city in Spain and on the night of Jan 1/2 the conquistadors captured the fortress and reclaimed the city.....anyway big party all round. Caught an afternoon train to Seville.....

Jan 3 - visited Alcazar and Cathedral. The cathedral is apparently the 3rd biggest in the world, after St Paul's in London and St Peter's at the Vatican City - quite impressive, I have to say. Also wandered through the tiny little streets and looked at shops. Also went to a bullring and museum of Torreadors. I still don't get the whole thing with bullfighting though! It's such a horrible sport! In the late afternoon we went to Plaza de Espana which is a semi-circular building with little curved seats all around it which have mosaics which commemorate the joining together of all the different parts of Spain to form a nation.....there is a huge fountain at the front and you can row boats around the water. It is really quite delightful

Jan 4 - went to Ronda for the day. This place is incredibly beautiful and we wished we had had more time there than in Seville or Granada.....We visited yet another bullring (Ronda is the home in bullfighting in Spain), wandered down the gorge to see the gorgeous (no pun intended) bridge and look at views over the valley, and visited the museum of Bandits! They trace the history of bandits in Andalucia, show you comic books featuring legendary bandeleros, show you costumes they used to wear and play schmaltzy music as you go through....it's quite a fun place. I didn't realize there were also female bandits that used to reek havoc about the place but apparently they were quite nasty.

Jan 5 - went on a day trip to Cordoba......mostly to see the Mezquita, apparently the greatest hybrid of a mosque and cathedral anywhere in the world. It's truly bizarre to walk through this mosque that has St Mary and Marthas and Antonys and whoever else in portraits all over the walls. Also visited the Palace of Mondrian, the Jewish quarter and ate some fantastic Churros con chocolate...I think they need to get this stuff happening back in Oz. Long doughnuts that you dip in thick hot chocolate - divine...sublime... In the evening back in Seville we went to the Three Kings street parade where all the children are thrown lollies from floats passing through the streets. The three Kings are dressed like Santa Claus, but one wears red, one wears green and the other blue! Any excuse to party in Spain, it seems! The streets were absolutely choked with people and the amount of lollies thrown from the floats was unbelievable..........we weren't even trying and scored 135! It is quite peculiar to Spain.......it seems as though there is a constant siesta......the 2 weeks I have been in Spain we have had about 6 holidays and about 4 parades! All people seem to do in Spain is shop, eat, drink and party.........which is fine if you are there all the time but somewhat frustrating if you want to see stuff.....

Jan 6.....everything was closed so unfortunately there wasn't so much to do. Also as we had quite a spat with the manager of the hostal the night before so won't really happy to leave our things there so just up and went! Caught a night train to Lisbon last night.......quite a long trip. Took about 13 hours on the rickety train but it also didn't cut down sightseeing time so it is definately a good option.

Anyway, will write more from Portugal

Adios

Belinda xx

Dec 27, 2001

Felice Navidad

¡Hola!

Am now in Barcelona and it is absolutely sweltering here....ok slight exaggeration, but it might be about 12 C right now....so pretty impressive Actually the internet cafe is about the hottest place i´ve been all week!

Since I last wrote.....I spent a couple days in Montpellier and have been in Barca since Saturday.

I stayed at a lady´s house in Monpellier - a girl from the hostel in Nimes recommended this student house so it was quite a fun and comfy place to stay. I had my own queen-sized bed, my own TV (only in French) and fantastic food included in price of accommodation. Oh and she had an adorable fat cat too. Didn´t do much sightseeing in Montpellier as I stumbled across Galleries Lafayette, and then Mango and Zara shops, so I did some damage to the credit card instead got some fantastic clothes though!

The train ride to Barca was great.....the scenery on the stretch of coast between Languedoc-Rousillon and Catalunya is quite spectacular - all this parched land on one side with snowcapped mountains in the background (partly Pyrenees) and then estuaries and the ocean on the other. I sat next to a gendarme for part of the trip....he looked insanely similar to the guy from the Wagon Wheel ad! I wound up getting a shoddy connection between Montpel and Barca and had to wait about at the train station in the border town of PortBou for 2 hours.....I had the delight of watching the annual Xmas lotto draw which went on for the duration of my time in the station cafetaria and then probably longer.....there were kids dressed in uniforms reading out the numbers in song......sounded like tellitubbies had taken too much ritalin! grrrrrr prime time viewing though it seems as the entire cafe was enthralled by it!

When I arrived here, I headed for a walk along La Ramblas - it´s a busy street lined with cafes, shops and home to lots of markets, street theatre, and animals! Also went for a walk along down to the port where there are more markets, shops, Imax theatre and the marina. Visited the Museum of Catalonian History.......It looked kinda ordinary but turned out to be quite fantastic as it not only gave you a crash course in Catalunyan history, but also had lots of hands on stuff.....you could grind corn, spin wool, practice spining a long gun like they do in the changing of the guard, and could press different buttons to hear different bell tolls or patriotic Catalonian songs.....for some reason you could also play Beatles music, Madonna and The Doors.... good stuff.

Denise arrived on Sunday morning and is having a bit of difficulty adapting to the cold.....fair enough when you come from 33 degree Aussie heat! I keep assuring her it will be warmer in the south, but she is still keen to invest in a divine winter coat......any excuses for shopping

What else- visited lots of Gaudi stuff here.......the guy was an absolute architectural genius....we went to La Sagrada Familia (a great big drip castle like church which is like nothing you have ever seen - it is a bit of a shame that they are continuing to construct the church - it has been in and out of construction for 100 years - because it is not in keeping with the original design....at least not at the moment so hopefully they will leave it be), Manzanas de la Discordias (block of discord), Casa Mila (A museum of Gaudi stuff, rather like a lollipop house), Parc Guell (huuuuge big parc designed by gaudi with lots of weird and wonderful buildings, seats, archways etc).

Have wandered round the Barri Gotic part of town and seen the old Cathedral, lots of markets and the Ajuntamiento (town hall). Also went through the Mercat de la Boqueria (food market just near where we are staying) where you can buy everything from divine looking olives to full pigs, live lobsters squirming about on ice, and whole chickens hanging from their beaks....it is a bit gross but i guess it is just depending on what one is used to. Where we are staying is right on teh middle of La Ramblas and there is a huge Miro mosaic on the pavement, a Gaudi designed side of a building with japanese paintings, a dragon and some umbrellas.....kinda weird.

A couple of days ago we decided to take the funicular up mount Tibidabo to see the Sagrat Cor (sacred heart church), tower and amusement park and get a good view over the city.....turned out the funicular was not running so we decided to walk it.....it is only 521m elevation but it took forever to get up there as the path winds and winds and bush bashing is inconceivable as we quickly discovered - blackberry bushes and privet etc all over the place. It was a good walk though - even saw some snow at the top!

We had a nice Xmas. Xmas eve we went for a wander down La Rambla and listened to a group of uni students playing miniature guitars singing Felice Navidad (apparently different faculties from the uni send out reps every year and they all dress up in their academic robes etc - quite fun), watched the mime artists and looked at the markets. There are some regular strange folks who are in the same places everyday.....there is a contortionist who is on the pavement for about 8 hours a day with his shirt off, a 70 + yr old man who has a stall of broken dolls, old toys and a mannequins leg who is there all the time, and two skanky american guys who ask everyone for money.

Of course practically everything was closed on xmas day.....but we went for a walk through the Parc Ciutadella and watched the old men play bocce (presumably their wives were at home cooking the lunch for Navidad) - i hadn´t noticed before, but just like when folks watch high jump, spectators for bocce also lift their leg when someone throws the bocce ball---- tres amusing ¨). Also had a look at the Cascada fountain, bought a great Miro t-shirt, Manzana de la Discorida, La Sagrada Familia and the Arc de Triomf. For Xmas dinner we found a place that served fantastic Italian food......quite cheap too! And we even managed to find a VIPS (book shop and cafe) which had churros con chocolat (Long deep fried doughnuts you dip in thick hot chocolate sauce). I love the food here...... you get incredibly large serves of fantastic tasting food and it is so cheeeeeeap. Had some nice paella the other night, lots of yummy pastries and tomorrow we will go back to the Xocalateria and see if they have more yummy foods

Today we went to the Miro Parc, Bull ring (inhabited, of course by feral cats), and to Montjuic, the olympic park. Saw the olympic stadium, olympic pool (which is quite green and has ducks swimming in it), the tiny tiny olympic flame and had a wander throught eh gardens. Also went to the Museum of National Art-----great collection of Romanesque and gothic art, as well as a temporary exhibit of photos on the spanish civil war.

Tomorrow hopefully off to Dali museum in Figueras and if time, to Montserrat Monestary.

Time is low, so gotta go.....

Adios
Love Belinda

6 Jan

Hola...

Still having lots of fun. Been very busy the last week or so. Am currently in Seville and heading to Lisbon tomorrow night. Spent today in Cordoba, came back and watched the Three Kings parade in the street (for Epiphany or something) (we managed to get 135 lollies that the multicoloured santa claus impersonators and overweight tellitubby kids throw to the multitudes of Sevillians), and then went back to the hotel to tangle with Spanish bureaucracy - dodgy hotel man quoted us a price that differs to the price we found listed in a hidden spot in the hotel.........grrrrrrrrrr not impressed.

In the last week we have visited Dali Museum in Figueras, Monastery of Monserrat, Picasso and Miro museums, spent a couple days in Granada, the day before yesterday in Seville, yesterday in Ronda (this is fantastic!), and today in Cordoba.

Will write in a few days or when I can get online.........
Cheers
Belinda x