Hola from Spain!
Sunday, December 24, 2006
They say Hola for hello here (pronounced as oh-la). About the only word I know, other than gracias ha. I know, I am pathetic. And most of them can't even speak much English. They keep greeting us by some common Japanese greetings, thinking that we're Japanese heh. All the Asians look the same to them.
Anyhow I've been here for quite some time already, but I still haven't gotten used to the weather. One day it's temperature cold plus sunny hot and another day it's raining cats and dogs and super windy and freezing cold. (And I do mean frostbite cold like today my hands and feet were so cold, they became numb after a while. But no, I didn't see snow, because it wasn't low enough but it sure wasn't high enough to be nice aircon coolness. Like not here not there, so it kind of sucked) Damn, can the weather decide what it wants to be? I feel kinda cheated by the weather reports. Even if they proclaim it'll will sunny without clouds, in Europe, there is still a high possibility that it will turn out to be the opposite like it did today. Grr and Brr.
Well, you can be sure that one thing stays constant: the humidity level, or should I say, the lack of humidity. It's so bloody dry here my skin keeps threatening to crack if I don't be super auntish and apply lots and lots of moisturiser.
Ok let's skip the complaints and go straight into the nice bits ha. The scenery is absolutely fabulous. You can never see the sun set as low, nor the sea as blue, nor plains and plains of grass and plantations over a vast area of land, nor as many cathedrals and basilicas to visit that you wonder if they were actually one and the same thing repeated several times.
Barcelona was an interesting city to visit, although I did expect a little bit more out of it. Don't ask me what but I think TV shows were exaggerating a little when they showcased it repeatedly, or perhaps I just didn't have much time to walk around more so I couldn't enjoy it properly. And you can't really blame this on me because the first day I arrived, I was made to walk several streets in the opposite direction of the square, which I wanted to visit, because my mother wanted to find her LV bags. Grr. Whatever happened to the fountain from which you could drink water from and which symbolised that you will again return to Barcelona next time? Barcelona lost much of its magic there and then for me. Fortunately, this was salvaged by the next day, in which we had more free time to walk the streets. Yet we suffered the horrible experience of having to eat cold dishes out in the cold, and I am quite sure those weren't the best Barcelona cuisine to be tasted. Perhaps that was what made me so vexed.
Madrid was simply beautiful. From what I had heard of it being a metropolitan city with alot of traffic, I really didn't expect it to be much, but I was pleasantly surprised by the number of old buildings which were restored and made into libraries, courts, museums etc. And mind you, these are really old palaces which are really big and spacious, and are still really pretty both on the outside and on the inside. Barcelona had a lot of old buildings are well, but Madrid kept its charm for me there. I can't figure out why still, but I was very sorry to leave Madrid for the next town.
After that, we visited a series of small and little but nice and quaint towns like Cordoba and Granada. I am currently in Torremolinos staying for the night but will be moving off to Gibraltar and Seville and finally to Lisbon in the remaining days. Not to worry guys, I took lots and lots of photos... there will also be a dogs in Spain exhibition here as well because I took many many photos of the dogs there. So just be patient and they will be up pretty soon after I come back ha.
And boy do I miss Misty! I hope she misses us too.
7:02 am
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