Adventures in Spain
March 18, 2006
Hello Adventurers,
I am challenged and inspired again across the ocean wandering purposely traveling alone. Not a soul would know where to find me as I am staying in a network of narrow medieval streets in at a budget hostel. Four floors up, I have a small room on the roof next door to a big church bell tower. I have stayed here before so the owner knows me. She did not ask for a passport. A smile worked just as well, and she gave me the key. I´m sure she has no idea what my name is, though she might guess that I am an American...
I share a bathroom with about twenty others. The owner keeps it quite clean. Mind you, I wear shower thongs. Last night I tried to wash the clothes I have been wearing for over a week. I had the brilliant idea of getting in the shower fully dressed and washing my clothes like I wash my hair. Bad idea. Have you ever tried to take off a sopping wet sweater or a pair of dripping jeans? It´s not something I want to try again. But I think I got them clean enough for another day or two at least.
My travelers, Cathy and Linda, arrive in a few hours so it was time to do laundry. I´m off to the airport next to meet them and our ten day tour will begin. Tomorrow we will take the train south to Valencia for the Las Fallas Festival (along with three million other people!). We return on the night bus at 2am. I hope we can sleep. During the following days, we will fully explore Barcelona, followed by a two day trip west to Bilbao by car. This is the plan anyway.
I am looking forward to having company. Another bread and cheese dinner or take out falafel is about all I can handle. (Though the food balls at the funky restaurant ¨Food Ball¨ have been quite wonderful! Delicious!) Still, a real sit down meal with wine is anxiously awaited.
I´ve been here about ten days total on my own. In that time I´ve been all over Barcelona looking for new and interesting places. I have found many! One evening I hopped on the overnight ferry and went fourteen hours across the Mediterranean over to Ibiza, the second largest of the Balearic Islands. After a full day´s trek exploring the city, nearby beaches and historic landmarks, I headed over to Mallorca, the largest island - a seven hour ferry ride from Ibiza. I arrived in Palma, the main city, at midnight without a hotel reservation. I managed to get the waiter from the restaurant next door to bang on the hostel door until someone came. A British man, John, let me in, and I ordered up a room - not the best decor, but I slept well.
The next day, I headed on an interesting walk through town to the small train station. The old-fashioned 1912 train with wooden cars, took me across the island to the northern side, to a place called Soller. Quite a set of mountains this island has! Several beaches too! I visited the port of Soller and marveled at the Mediterranean Sea crashing against the rocky shoreline while perched safely with my camera on the cliff above. Breathtaking. I could watch that forever. The wind was strong, and I was fast loosing heat. Back to Palma on the cute little train and back to Barcelona by ship the next day.
It was a quick jaunt over and back but a place I had been wanting to see, Ibiza especially. I have read this is a party island with hopping clubs. Somewhere there is one where you can be waist deep in foamy bubbles, 24 hours a day! I was there on the off season, maybe a good thing.
The rest of my days were spent here in Barcelona rambing along the Ramblas, a famous walking street where musicians, dancers and puppeteers show off their exceptional talents for a coin or two in a tin can. The entertainment is never dull. The usuals were there, the ones I have seen before: the man painted white who sits reading a magazine on the pot! He hauls an actual porcelain toilet onto the street and up on a white pedestal... If you´ve been to Barcelona you know what I mean. Not to mention the cowboy, the Golden Buddha, the man who rides a bike with his skeleton friend and the Michael Jackson impersonator. It is an amazing mix.
Yesterday I saw a new one. It was a man (or woman?) inside a gray sort of bag sitting very still. I think she or he was supposed to be a ROCK. Just inside the fabric she or he sat, quietly waiting, motionless. A big crowd had gathered around to watch this performance, a rock. As soon as a man got out his video camera, the rock started to move. He held a styrophome head, like you´d find on the counter at a wig store. Through the stretchy rock fabric he or she pushed the head, profile of the face, out toward the crowd. The face looked down to the bucket of euros. Hint, hint. Pay now! Quite creative if you ask me.
The day before last, I rented a car and drove up to the French border and then meandered my way back down along the Costa Brava - the Rugged Coast. It was beautiful, aside from the one hour traffic jam in one town. The Dali Theater Museum in Figures was strange to say the least. Though I admit he and I share a craziness, an over-the-top-what-if sort of view of the world. Maybe everyone shares it, and that´s why he became so famous. His work is good, bad and ugly!
So I hope you will join me on my travels next time, if not in person then at least through my Adventure Journal, which has its moments, most of which are ¨to be continued¨...
A few hours after landing in Detroit at the end of this trip on March 26, I will be at the Banff Mountain Film Festival at Rackham Auditorium in Ann Arbor (Washington Street) at 5:15 pm. The show starts at 6pm. So come early and visit the Of Global Interest Adventure Travel table in the lobby. My dear friend, Robin ¨Sherpani¨ and I will be selling tickets to the show for $10 rather than $12 at the box office. That´s a $100 savings if there are 50 of you!!
I sent my film ¨Altitude¨ to this Festival in 2002, but it didn´t win a thing. Oh well. I hope one of these years I can invite you to come see my winning film!
Robin and I hope to see you on the 26th.
Sincerely,
Heather O'Neal
Of Global Interest LLC Adventure Travel
Ann Arbor, Michigan
(734) 369-3107
www.ofglobalinterest.net
Back to the journal index 
|