Weblog » Around The World

Ok, I just bought some cold medicine here in barcelona, and let me tell you something about the pharmacies here…

You cannot buy NyQuil-like products in a supermarket at all… you have to go to an actual pharmacy… and then you can´t pick something off a shelf! you have to talk to they guy behind the counter, tell what you have, and then he hands you a box of pills “over the counter”.

And there’s really no choice… I had to tell him the exact medicines I wanted… it was crazy.

and then I had to buy stamps…. which are sold in tobacco stores!

Well, I looked into the trains to Algeciras (where the ferries leave from spain) and there are several options… I can go back to madrid and get a train there or take this weird train right to the center of spain, and then take a cheap regional train (with 4 million stops) to the ferry port.

I am cheap, so I’m going with the latter option.

Seriously, Europe is terribly expensive… without even taking the exchange rate into account.

But on another note, its great fun here. I’ve met tons of friendly foreigners at the hostel (much different from venezuela where there weren’t really any people at the hostel)

While I didn’t really intend to stop at touristy places with lots of non-natives, I have to admit that this is a unique experience in itself and is quite fun.

I met up with steve today, and we visited the sites of barcelona and he invited me back to eat real food with his host family. They were great and the food was excellent (and of incredible amounts) I really should have skipped the 5 euro chinese buffet lunch. (cheap spanish chinese food isn’t so hot in comparison)

Since it seems like I have the whole computer to myself here and no one is waiting in line, Ill go ahead and tell you some more stories of spain… i realize that my recent posts have been a bit lacking.

First off, Madrid was nice, but filled with tourists… old retired tourists. They even have a park full of them called “retiro”… i mean c’mon.

The train ride to barcelona was on a bullet train that traveled about 200 kph (140 mph) which was very nice… they run their trains over here like airplanes… you check in at the “gate” with a boarding pass, and then the cabins have the overhead lights and in first class they even serve meals with the little trolley carts.

One of the most notable things I found was that there are NO suburbs of Madrid… the city gets smaller and smaller and then just stops… its impossible to describe the suddenness of how civilization just ceases to exist. I got some pictures of the essentially barren wasteland that exists in the inner country of Spain. Wasteland is a harsh word, because much of it seemed like farms, but there were no farm houses, silos, barns, or anything to speak of… there were plenty of what looked like ancient foundations or battlements, but no sign of life anywhere. It was shocking and pretty amazing.

Barcelona is quite a party city. It seems like every student for 5000 miles comes here to party (some it seems on a frequent basis). I went out with a group from the hostel, and we got solicited by prostitutes. (for the second time in my life… first was coming home from the Reading library… but that was in a car)
This time, they came up to our group and started groping us and speaking in Catalan (sp?) Spanish… the language they speak in this region of Spain. I said to the one, “No Habla Espanol” and she looked at me and said, “You know… for the Sex!” and made a full body hip gesture.
I laughed hysterically. Right at her.

We learned later that one of our group had been pickpocketed by those same prostitutes. Their groping was simply a ploy to get in our pockets.

and it gets better.

the next night, walking down the same street, we saw the same girls again. All dolled up like the whores they were, they approached us again. This time we knew better and all reached for our personal belongings and said, “no no go away” and to distract us, the one lifted up er shirt and flashed us… the other meanwhile started groping the group and I could distinctly feel her hands in my jacket pockets… I would have pushed her away, but I was too busy holding on to my wallet.

other than the delightful pick-pocketing prostitutes, barcelona was great. We saw some Gaudi Architecture (which I might add was pretty gaudy). and even went inside one of his houses.
The free audio tour was hilarious. it seemed as if they opened up a thesauras and went wild. Examples:

Feel the strength and power of the heliocolloidal staircase…

The room you are entering is the most fantastic and extravagant room in which you have ever been.

You are entering Gaudis playground… as you step into the courtyard you are entering a sea of modernity.

Notice the undulating glasswork expressing the perfect fluidity of the dynamic window forms

In all, a great experience.

Tomorrow, I’m getting on the train to Algeciras and hopefully arriving there the next day (the first train takes 11 hours or so, and the second 4) then I’ll hop over the mediterranean and depending on how sick I am of trains, I’ll either stay a night in Tangier or simply head straight onto Casablanca after looking around the town a bit.

I’m not sure about the internet access in Morocco, so this might be my last post before the 19th when I arrive in London. If that is the case, I’ll give someone a call and have them update the site via a comment…

This poor old computer I’m at has a hard time typing vowels, so bear with me if I drop an “a” or so.

I think I picked up something on the train into barcelona. I’m going to go medict myself, and hopefully it will be a quick thing.

I’m suppossed to meet steve here today, and then I think I’m going to get on a train to algeciras to take the ferry into Morocco.

I’ll try to write again soon from where I don’t need to slam the keybord as much.

Well, my dad’s comment was correct (even if it was in all capitals… must’ve been from his work computer or something — I think they have a mainframe system there which takes all caps.)

Anyway, yes. Barcelona is insane. I’m not sure if its just the fact that my Hostel is in the middle of the “hostel district” (with about 10-15 hostals within as many blocks) but it seems like one giant international university.

There are thousands of college aged kids here from every nationality race and creed, speaking every language and all (it seems) on some sort of spring break. The menu at the little tiny local restaurant I went to was in 6 different languages… for fun I ordered in German.

Now, about Madrid… I tried to find the “Palace” but there are something like 5 or 6 Palaces on the tourist map. I went to a few and took some pictures. But essentially, I just wandered around the busy parts of the city and took pictures of stuff that was interesting. Then I went into what little restaurants I could find that weren’t either packed, expensive, McDonalds, or unfriendly looking.

I’m planning on staying here in Barcelona until the 14th when Steve comes back from his class trip. Hopefully I can stand the crazy “second college” I’m at for another day.

OK, this message is like 3 minutes after my previous one, but I wanted to get this out of my head while it is blaring here in the internet cafe.

Overseas (Both here in Madrid and in Caracas) the music that is playing is always 70s or 80s dance music. Seriously, right now its ABBA.

I’ve decided that it is far too expensive here in Madrid. Also, I don’t have a guidebook, so I’m spending most of my time wandering around aimlessly taking pictures of things that look interesting.

Everyone here speaks English… which is no challenge at all, nothing like barely surviving in Caracas. In fact, I feel like I could wander around town in the middle of the night with no worries at all here… in fact, I did.

I met a sociology teacher from William and Mary college here today… she is on her spring break…. and hasn´t graded her Mid-Terms yet… I yelled at her for procrastinating.

Madrid is like a quieter, cleaner, nicer smelling New York City. Its quite strange really… the whole place smells oddly of flowers or something. I figured it out though the second day I ws here. They have these guys who go around with sidewalk zambonies. Its like a streetcleaner for the sidewalk. When the one guy passed me, I could most definitely smell whatever it is they wash the sidewlks with. That cannot be good for the environment.

But anyway, being in a city that reminds me of a New York where they don’t honk their horns isn’t exactly what this trip was about. Especially since I met other Americans and everyone speaks English, this place just seems too “touristy”. Nope, not for me, its off to barcelona for a bit to say hello to A7 Steve, and then off to Morocco where there may be tourists, but everyone is clutching their belongings and avoiding rug merchants. Ahh, the thrill.

Anyone want a rug? Too bad, I can’t carry it.

PS on a side note, the metro here in madrid runs Windows 2000 on a Pentium III 800Mhz with 256MB of RAM… basically the same computer hosting this website (my personal one)
Mine, however, doesn’t crash lke the Madrid Metro… thats how I figured out what it runs; the entire metro system’s display blue-screened and then rebooted.

Actually, in Newark and Houston, the display screens there are also running Windows, but they didn’t crash, they just had a delightful “Illegal Operation”(Newark) and “Windows is Expanding the Page Cache”(Houston) message on the screen overtop of the Arrivals and Departures display.

This is why I run Linux.

I have arrived in Madrid… alive!

I have to keep this short because the Internet cafe costs a fortune here, but I believe that the restaurant below me might have wireless access so that I can actually use my laptop! Otherwise I’m now on the search for somewhere where I can do that and a cheap hostel.

The place in which I am staying is actually smaller than the place in Venezuela… I didn’t think it was possible. It has a bed that is smaller than any bed I have ever slept in… it is most certainly smaller than the twins in college (extra longs) and smaller than the regular twin I remember from childhood. The rest of the room features equally tiny things, like a tiny desk and tiny closet. Fortunately, they believe in hot water here and everything is very cozy and quaint. So I’m enjoying it very much… even if it is costing $100 a night.

Which brings me to the main point of this post. Besides the dollar only being worth 70 cents over here, the time is completely off. I am 6 hours ahead of NYC time, and spent all of yesterday and a bit of today trying to get used to it. I decided in houston that because I am travelling so much, I wouldn’t bother playing with my watch at all… so its 6 hours behind the actual time here… the rest of my things are up-to-date though, so don’t worry.

Hopefully, I’ll get to see some of madrid tonight and tomorrow and find a cheap hostel for a few more nights. Then I’m not sure whats next. I have to be in Casablanca on March 19th, so there is over a week left to roam Spain and Morocco.

The one thing I’ll be sure not to do is to visit Portugal. When I arrived in Portugal, they had this list of passengers and they pulled me aside to talk to me. I was at the very top of the list and had quite a few remarks under my name. Apparentlyfrom what I could decipher from the code on the paper (because he went in order and checked them off as I answered the questions) I am suspicious because, I was the only american, flying one way, from a country that I do not live in, have no onward journey, and am travelling alone.

It was quite an experience… they searched my luggage both my carry ons and my checked bag. They did not, however, make me go through customs because I wasn’t staying in their country… and for some fluke of the computer system, they didn’t send me through customs or immigration in spain.. not sure whats happening there.

anyway, times running out. I’ll update soon.

Well, apparently all keyboards in Venezuela are weird. Its like one big universal “every language” keyboard… minus arabic and the asian languages… I guess I’ll see those in China and Morocco.

I leave tomorrow and have to be at the airport (aeropuerto) 3 hours before my flight because they overbooked it… why I have to suffer I don’t know, but oh well.
Speaking of flights has anyone noticed the little intricacies in my itinerary? Due to the wonders of time zones, this next set of flights is going to take a day or so, even though I’m only flying for like 10 hours.
Wait till I fly into LA… then I actually arrive before I leave.

But anyway, let me tell you about my days here so far. I found a nice internet cafe, but I still don’t know if I can plug in my laptop to get my email and update my travelogue portion of the website… It might just have to wait till Spain.

Two days ago, I visited all of the historical sites in Caracas. I took pictures of the outside of most of them, but there were lots of guys with semiautomatic weapons that didn’t seem happy about my camera, so I wasn’t able to take pictures inside. The places were nice, alot of churches, which explains why I wasn’t able to get online yesterday (the whole city was closed) and there were lots of statues of El Libertador who is like their George Washington.

Yesterday, while the city was dead, I went up to the top of the mountain next to Caracas. I was wrong about the funicular… it was a cable car or teleferico… the people here just like to agree when I say funicular… not sure why really.

Anyway, I went up to the top and took some pictures. Unfortunately, the mountain is so high that you can’t see the beach on the other side because of the clouds below you. I’ll try to get the pictures up asap so you can see just how small of an area there is between the mountain and the ocean (no tsunamis here).
I had to roam around the national park a bit through “trails” and on a “road” before I came to a place where I could take a picture of the city… apparently no one likes to take a picture of the city — even for postcards. I didn’t have my machete with me, so I couldn’t really explore the “trails” very much, but I have a picture for the website when I get it updated.
They had a big sign at the bottom telling people to wear jackets because it would be cold at the top… it was about 76 degrees — the most comfortable place I’ve been all week.

On the way down, I thought I was going to die. Really. To get up there, I took the metro (a very nice system btw) and got in this little run-down bus to take me from the station to the teleferico. (it cost 50 cents) That part was all well and good, but I forgot to ask how I get back from the teleferico to the metro station! so when I got back on groud level, I wandered around a bit before I decided to just try to walk into the city.
What a scary experience. There were lots of taxis, but I wasn’t going to trust my life to a 1970s beat-up old Ford with a pice of paper in the window reading “taxi”. So I wandered through the “barrios” of Caracas. I think I took one picture, but didn’t want to leave my camera out for too long. The barrios reminded me of downtown Reading, PA. Lots of people sitting in the streets speaking spanish. (I kid, I kid) One memorable experience was encountering on a busy street a partially destroyed building that once sold Pittsburgh Paint. the “Paint” part of the sign was gone, so it just looked like this sign for “Pittsburgh” in the middle of rubble and debris… humourous because it is true

Anyway, I made it back alive. it actually wasn’t as far as I thought… I guess it seemed farther in the car because it was uphill. Every day here has had at least one experience like that… almost dying, but not quite. I think one of the major reasons people don’t bother me is because of my camera case.

Thank You Mom. It turns out that with my camera case on my belt with my shirt over top it looks like I’m carrying a gun. An with my under-shirt wallet thing I bought, it looks like a holster. I was wondering about all the weird looks I was getting until the National Guard pulled me aside at the cable car and made a big deal about my camera case… when I showed them the camera, they all laughed and pushed me along. I was so confused.

Another, less scary thing I’ve discovered… venezuelans drink coca-cola out of a can through a straw. its the weirdest thing to look at. Not wanting to seem different I went ahead and tried it, but let me just say that you lose the whole experience of “the can” if you do it that way. I don’t want to be judgmental about a culture’s habits or anything, but that is just wrong.

Anyway, Its time for Spain. Venezuela has been wonderful, but I’ve had my share of arepas and death defying experiences… and I don’t need any shoes. I haven’t seen any mud, so I think the whole report of mudslides must be occuring elsewhere. There is a lot of dust though…

When I arrive in Spain, I’ll turn on my phone, and then people can call me. Otherwise, you’ll hear from me in a few days.

Adios.

Well, I had this delightful message here abotu this funky keyboard i’m using and the fact that I can’t figure out where most of the punctuation is. I also wrote about 5 paragraphs on the city of Caracas and how I’m still alive, when the internet cafe I’m at just up and crapped out.

What fun.

I’ve been spoiled by linux and its never crashing… now I’m goign to save frequently. Right now in fact.

Ok, well in the 30 minutes I have left, I’ll try to write as much as I can.

I arrived and made it to my backpackers hotel with my own private room with a lightbulb and a window… high quality for sure.

To answer some of your questions, yes there is a beach about 15 minutes away, but I’m not sure how to get there because there is an enormous mountain in the way. Literally. The city comes to an abrupt halt right at the base of this mountain/park. It shoots up into the air and lords over the whole city. I’m goign to try to take the funicular up the mountain tomorrow and take some pictures of the city on one side and the sea on the other. (the last post had a witty comment about the word funicular spanning languages… but oh well)

Remember how you all said that I could find bottled water anywhere? well, you lied. There, I said it. Fortunately I’ve determined how to order beer (Polar Cervesa) and Pepsi (Pepsi) so I haven’t had to drink too much water yet… and my purifier tablets have come in handy.

The prices here are crazy. I got myself dinner yesterday and it cost me $10. my room costs $11 a night, and my suntan lotion cost $8. so some things like food and rooms are cheap, and other things are the same as in America. The day I arrived the official rate of exchange went up for me, so I was able to buy an extra pepsi at dinner… ¡yay!

Save again. 17 minutes left.. damn keyboard and its 4 million keys each with three letters.

Ok, what else? I found a store that sells Herman Miller Aeron chairs, you know, like the one I have… so I can’t yet figure out how to order food, but I could buy a chair if I wanted.

Also, every second store here is a shoe store. I guess they all care about appearance here, or else they are all just naturally hot. They say they have 5 miss worlds and 5 miss universes… frankly I think miss “universe” is a bit pretentious… I mean we need a colony on mars before I’ll consider it legitimate.

But yeah, thousands (or mils as they say — how confusing!) of hot people buying shoes. And there is a huge outdoor market where they all buy other stuff too. if you come to venezuela, bring an empty bag to fill with stuff.

The city is also crawling with schoolchildren in uniforms. It reminds me of high school. they all seem to be middle-high school age and are around at every hour every day… its quite strange, I can’t figure out when they actually go to school.

Save again. 10 minutes left.

Ok, well I’m not sure what else to write about. I’m goign to go and get some food after I put more sunblock on. last time I pointed at the menu and got grilled chicken… I’m on the lookout for fried ants.

I’ll try to update again as soon as I can, but for now just to let you know, I can read these messages here much easier than I can check my email. once I get my laptop sonnected, I’m goign to log into my machine at home and set up webmail so I can check my mail more easily.

Ok, back to the world outside. talk to you all soon!

Well, I’m at an internet kiosk in Houston, because my flight from Newark was delayed.

I missed my connection and the nice people at Continental put me up in a hotel and paid for my tasty Texas Bar-B-Que meal.

I’ll be arriving in Venezuela tonight, a day late, but no less excited.

Actually, the whole airport experience was quite delightful. Here’s the story:

In Newark, I went to the customer service counter and asked to join the frequent flyer program. The very nice large Carribean-American woman helped me fill out the form. Then she said, “If I catch the guy who left his trash all over that counter, he won’t be happy!” (Note: don’t anger a large black woman… A thing I learned from Chumleys.)
So after I was done, I picked up that guys trash and threw it away. The people at the desk were happy, and I felt good doing something useful during my time stuck at the airport.

Now, when it became clear that I was going to miss my connection due to the delay, I went back to the desk and the lady recognized me and called me over.”What are you still doing here, honey?” She asked. I explained the whole situation, and she helped me look for alternatives… There was an alternate flight, but I’d arrive in Caracas without my luggage because it was already loaded… better to stay overnight in houston and with my luggage. And, “because I was so nice earlier, she’d send a message ahead and make sure they’d give me a hotel for the night… they don’t do that usually.”

So I arrived in the wonderful city of Houston, with wonderful weather and good food. The person at the desk pointed me to the customer service desk where they indeed did have my information, and along with the non-english speaking customers they would put me up in a hotel.

And get this, the woman’s name at the customer service desk???? — Mini. Yes. Thats right. Her name was Mini.

So now I’m back at the airport waiting for my flight to Caracas. I’m living out of my carryon which only has books and bottled water in it… I need some mouthwash.

My mobile phone only forawrds my calls to my new international phone, so I won’t be able to receive calls (or voice mail) until I hit Spain. Leave messages here and I’ll see them. Email might be a little tough as well until I get my laptop to a full service internet access place and not just kiosks. So leave messages here if you want me to get them.

ok, Off to Venezuela… where I don’t know the language at all. I hope I’ll meet a nice person like me to help myself out, like those poor people who didn’t speak a word of english who missed their flights and stayed at my hotel.