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- - - This is a long post but its my first one so I assume I will be forgiven - -
So I thought I'd just jot down some highlights and lessons learned so far. By the way, this is Sonja, and I am also on this trip, which you may have forgotten given that Cheryl's been the only one writing so far.
I loved Barcelona - a lot. We were awesomely located, just off La Rambla but in a quiet street so away from the noise. We were really close to the fresh-food market so I went out early every morning to get us some fruit from breakfast. Learned a very important lesson here. Touching nicely stacked fruit to pick the one you want results in being yelled at in Spanish by angry fruit seller. NO TOCAR! What youre meant to do is let them pick the fruit for you from the back and give you a rotten one, while keeping all the fresh, juicy looking ones on display. Silly me, how did I not realise... But not all stalls are like that, I found one with nice friendly people and yummy yummy fruit.
Things I most liked in Barcelona were all the Gaudi sights which Cheryl already mentioned. His designs are just so quirky and unusual and I think it is really incredible that one person can hold so much creativity in their mind.
Ok so I could write about Barcelona for a week, but I have a feeling thats not a good idea, so heres just a few other things very quickly - street performers equal awesome, crazy winiding alleways with colourful shops and cute cafes equal awesome, chilled out fun people equal awesome. Ahh. Me miss Barcelona.
As for Madrid....firstly let me just add something about the Temple of Debod that Cheryl mentioned. Thankfully the entry was free, or I wouldve been preeeetty annoyed. Theres really nothing to see, its just a few small stone rooms with some barely visible hieroglyphics on the walls. As this was the only sight we saw on our first day, Madrid was a bit disappointing, esp since it lacked the buzz in the air that Barcelona had. It did get better from there, the museums and esp the Prado, were pretty great. We both also liked the Royal Palace which is massive and its rooms are very elaborately decorated.
One of the most interesting things that happened in Madrid was our interaction with the train station staff - if youre at the train station in Madrid and need to speak with someone who knows English, ask for Sarah who is the TROLL OF THE CAVE. This is how her coworkers described her because apparently shes really ugly. When would you ever hear someone in the Australian service industry say something like that...
Oh actually, another cool thing about Madrid is the area called La Latina, which is full of funky tapas bars. Tapas bars are actual bars where you order alcohol and get a tapa to go with it, and then you stand around eating it rather than sit down at a table.
In Segovia, I really loved the Alcazar which is a 15th c castle and fortress. Really beautiful views of Segovia from its tower. Being in Segovia felt like stepping into a different time as it is a really quiet place and full of ancient ruins.
A funny thing happened in Lisbon last night. While crossing a road, Cheryl had a Marilyn Monroe moment when she stepped over this grate on the road and her dress blew up. Sonja laughed at Cheryl and teased her because the same thing just happened to another woman and Cheryl didnt learn from it. On the way back, while crossing the same road, Sonja had an even worse Marilyn Monroe moment while stepping over the same grate. Cheryl almost died of laughing at Sonja as did a couple of cops standing by the road, who I am convinced just stand there all night waiting for womens skirts to blow up.
The end.
P.S. This keyboard went weird in the middle of my writing and all the keys got jumbled up so I couldnt access the apostrophe key. So please excuse my poor grammar!
Hugsies to all!
Sonja
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