keepin' it REAL

Wow. Tired today! Big day! Full of sweat, and sore muscles, and awesome scenary, and succulent food... mmmm... Heck YES it was a good day! I asked myself as I was scaling the mountain just outside of Granada, I wondered why the hell I choose to do these damn hikes hungover?? Ever single time it's been that way, although keep in mind I've only gone on a major hike about twice this trip. heehee But still. My statement is well-founded.

TAPAS
So, uhm , I was gonna tell everyone about what a Tapas is. A tapas is when you order a beverage of any kind, though it usually contains alcohol, and you get a plate of food for FREE! What a brilliant idea! And you not only get a free plate of food, but you also get to CHOOSE (in some cases) what kind of food you want! The first place on the tour last night incidentally was a tapas bar that was recommended to us by a pair of aussies we met at our hostel in Killarney, Ireland. This bar in particular gives you quite a large portion of food. We had the tortellini in a white sauce... mmmm... very good. With our next cervesas (beer in spanish) we tried the spring rolls. Stuff like that is usual for tapas. And fries with a garlic mayo. After the 3 tapas bars, one of which was a shot bar filled with americans studying abroad who were spending their last night getting loaded before going home for the holidays, we went to a salsa club and I got SCHOOLED! I had never danced salsa in all my long years circling this lovely sun of ours. The dude had mucho patience that is for certain cuz I just couldn't get the steps!! He was doin the fancy moves too apparently and so taking that bit of information into consideration, I certainly wasn't an abomination nor detestation, more a toleration than anything. But he was smiling! haha Worked up a sweat too! After a night of drinking, eating, and dancing, we went back to the hostel - our oasis - which was at about 2am or so, stayed up til about 4am "talking" with our posse... where large, hearty laughs ensued. ;-) Where the term "keepin' it REAL" originated from, well, at least it's been our inside joke all day. haha And speaking of big laughs, one of the dudes from last night - Simon from Victoria living in London - out of nowhere starts singing "knights in white satin..." and we just about lost our whits and everything about us. I mean, when was the last time anyone has heard that song?? Seriously! I told him I was gonna write about that in my journal and so, as Moses once said: So it said, So it is written!

THE HIKE
Well, considering how late I went to bed and the amount of smoke I inhailed, I didn't think I was gonna keep my promise to myself about taking this hike. No way, josé. At breakies, I was a hurtin albertan for certain. But, I asked myself in an inside voice "why not go on this hike? What the heck else are you gonna do with your day? You might as well get off your fanny and actually go out see this city in which you are calling home for only another 2 nights!". Of course, this inside voice is usually right, and not to mention a little intimidating at times, so I took the pep talk into consideration and decided to go with it. I am so glad I did. It was so GORGEOUS!! The sky was clear, albeit a little hazy, but the visibility was still pretty incredible considering I had never seen anything like that before. Each country has its own distinct beauties and these mountains were definitly no exception. And yes, I took many photos. Yay! The hike itself was excrutiating at first, out of breath and sweating, straining muscles that hadn't been worked in quite some time. But it felt so good to be outside and doing SOMETHING! I mean, how many people can say they woke up after a night of tapas and laughs and took a 4 hour hike in the mountains of SPAIN??? Ya. So, ya. It was definitly worth it. The view from the top of was of course breathtaking, with the valley down below and the white caps in the distance... We got a great view of the Alhambra (an old muslim castle, huge) and the city surrounding it. The walk down was much more enjoyable. haha Stopped into a tapas bar with a wonderful young aussie named Kat (we met the night before at the hostel, had both gone on the tapas tour the night before) and our hike guide. Kat and I then decided to go for some hubbly bubbly and good conversation. She is only 19 years old but has lived such unique life full of amazing life experiences. It was awesome getting to know her! I love this life of moving and meeting people, creating a circle of friends for the short time we stay in any given place...

MY NEXT BOLD MOVE?
Well, I have no clue really. Maybe it'll be me hitting the sheets early tonight when I know people are staying up and will miss my awesome presence... I'd say that counts for boldness! heehee I kid, I kid. Naw. I would like to go to sleep soon and wake up refreshed, eat breakies, go and walk around this place cuz I guess it's known for it's cool graffiti art, buy some colored yarn and wrap a few dreads... add some spice, if you will! But who knows. Chances are good I'll hit up another tapas bar at some point tomorrow, not to mention there's another tapas tour planned! And I think there's a concert outside the city in the caves where the gypsies live... flamenco dancers and music! I'd like to do that for sure. I'll have to write another entry, but I'll likely wait til my last day in Madrid, Monday evening, since I'll be leaving for Bangkok on Tuesday!! Crazy... Oh, and so you know, we'll soon be adding another album to the yahoo collection illustrating our time here in Spain. This will happen before we leave the country so make sure you tune in!

Here I am at Camp Grenada

Well, coming from the city of Barcelona to the Island of Ibiza to another city called Valencia to where I've currently set my pack down, has been quite the journey in itself. haha So maybe I'll say few words about each of the previous places before I describe this pretty cool place. Oh ya, if you have no idea how to visualise geographically speaking, check out the "map of Spain" link to your right... maybe that'll help you!

Barcelona
Flying into this Olympic city after having spent a little over a month in dreery Ireland was a definite treat! Let me tell you! Palm trees! Warm weather... I whipped out my flipflops and haven't done that since Turkey! We met up with Monique's best friend Erica from Calgary and she travelled with us for about 10 days. We spent about 3 nights in Barcelona... the first night we met a woman named Michelle from NYC who was travelling alone. We spent the evening out on the terrace, drinking wine and talking. 2 other dudes from I can't remember where joined us and we all had a blast until 3am when we were warned the neighbors were gonna call the cops on us. haha So, needless to say, we called it a night. Went to the Aquarium the next day, hungover, but still had a wicked time... there are some crazy fish in the sea! The shark tank was the coolest and the biggest... you stand on a moving walk-way and the tank surrounds you! the sharks and eals and manta rays are swimming all around you! That night we decided to drink beer and again, stayed out on the terrace quite late having a grand time indeed! ;-) We did a hop-on/hop-off bus tour of the city the next day and got to see alot of the Gawdy (not sure on the spelling at the moment) architecture... WOW. That was really cool. So unique. I have pictures, don't worry! But overall, Barcelona was cool but not really my kinda place.

The Island of Ibiza
We took a ferry out there, ferries are expensivé! But since we were 3 and it was low season, we stayed at a beachfront hotel for like 14€/night! It was awesome! We were there for 3 nights. We went to that big time European night club called Pacha where you definitly have to drink BEFORE you go cuz beer and water there are like 9€! Insane. The pub where we pre-gamed was cool and owned by a dude and his husband. We have a cool pic with the 3 of us with them behind the bar. They gave us free shots. mmmm... We went to Pacha at 3am and got home around 5:30am and then slept til about 2:30pm. Ya. Right off day for sure. The day AFTER that day, we rented a car for about 10€ each and drove around most of the island! We got to see it from a different perspective and at our own pace... it felt so good to drive again! AMAZING place... I can't wait to upload those pictures... I would like to go back some day during the summer for sure.

Valencia
Now this was a cool city. Our hostel was located in such a prime area too! Our very street was one of the places recommended to check out cuz of the old architecture, the old buildings, and the HUGE wooden doors, so skillfully carved... We did a lot of walking around that area, it was hot in the sun. We visited the the Space and Science Centre which was way more fun when I was a kid... as in, that's what I realized. The imax film was a highlight though! We had to wear head gear! Hilarious. El Mysterio del Nilo was the title. I recommend it to everyone. The park that runs through the city used to be where the canal divided it until it flooded once too many times a while back and killed some people so they decided to move the canal and convert the space into a pretty cool giant green park. Fully equipped with a large fountain which is situated just in front of the music hall and at night they play classical music, light the fountain up, and the water squirts out to the tune of the music! A neat thing to see. Just a really cool city to visit if anyone is thinking about going to Spain.

Grenada
Well, after an 8 hour train ride from Valencia that didn't even leave til like 1:30am, we were quite pooped upon arriving. However, we got to our hostel, Oassis, and fell in love with the atmosphere here!! Free internet, free breakies, free welcome drink, free tapas tours every other night, 3.50€ gets you a 3 course meal which is offered every other night as well, free spanish lessons from what I hear! And there are tonnes of people still here even in low season! We did a bit of walking along the cobblestone streets after waking from our siesta. I think I'm really gonna like it here. I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and take our own little tour of the city. Oh, tomorrow night is Tapas tour night and so you can be assured I'll be recounting the events here! haha Ya, Grenada. Awesome. Very cool shops, very cool vibe. And most importantly: VERY CHEAP! If anyone isn't familiar with what a tapas tour is, you will find out soon enough... it's brilliant!!!

Well, I'm tired. Happy reading!

A FIRST ENTRY...

Well, what can I say? I'm on the last leg of my "European Tour" and lemme tell ya: it's been a wild ride! I've seen so many beautiful cities, experienced such wonderful cultures, and have met some pretty awesome folks along the way. I've learned much about myself over these past 3 months. I've really gotten to KNOW myself on a profound level because I've had a lot of time to think... all those bus and train rides... It's truly amazing what the brain will come up with if you allow it some time to ponder in silence and tranquility, without the day to day, mundane stuff it's grown so accustomed to. I'm impressed with my brain! haha So, my brain is impressed by itself? My brain is self-impressed? I don't know how to put that since I'm talking as though "I" am a seperate entity from my brain... Ok. I can't think about such things right now. Maybe I'll come back to that, maybe not. But ya.

Where have I been?
I've been to Yack n' back! haha Seriously, we - my travelling companion, my partner in crime: Monique and I - departed Toronto on Septemeber 11th and landed in smoggy Athens, Greece. We spent 2 weeks touring mainly the islands of Santorini, Naxos & Mykonos. We ferried our way to Turkey where we spent 3 weeks with Monique's bro Jean-Paul. What a country! My favorite country thus far FOR SURE! Flew out of Instanbul to land in a pot-smoker's dream city: Amsterdam, Netherlands... spent a full week (minus a day) there and indulged ourselves quite chronically. ;-) On to Berlin, Prague, Munich, Frankfurt, Dublin. Spent a whole month (plus 3 days) in Ireland, stayed a while in Greystones with some funky fellas: thank-you Stephen and David Flynn! and toured around down the east coast, to the south, then up the west coast and back to Dublin where we flew to Barcelona on Dec. 4th. We met up with Monique's pal Erica and spent 3 nights there, moved on to the island of Ibiza, to Valencia, and tomorrow we're off to Grenada! yay! We will be there til Sunday before we overnight it to Madrid, our final Spanish destination before Monique and I part ways: she's off to Canada and I'm off to Thailand!!!

Where am I going?
I never really know where I'm going, or, at least, I have learned to play it by ear. Never plan anything, never have expectations, go with the flow and it'll all work out for the best. This has been one the major lessons I've learned on this trip. Not to say don't have a "game plan" or anything! I mean, I always have a general idea of where I want to go and sometimes you have to knuckledown and book a hostel, a train or plane ticket in advance. And as for Thailand? Well, I'm meeting up with a lovely lady named Carly and we'll be spending the holidays together since we're both on our own and out of the country this year. I'm not telling the whole truth about that since Carly is much more than just a pretty face... And if this is about where I'm going, then I'll be talking loads more about this incredible and inspirational woman in the near futur. I'll be back in Canada around V-Day, but until I am back, there is so much more to experience on this excellant adventure and I'll be documenting as much of it as possible.

Awesome. Let's see if this works. All the commands and everything are in Spanish since I've started this blogger here in Spain. So I'm not completely sure of what I'm doing at the moment. This is a test of the emergency broadcast system... heehee

Buenas Noches!

sausages to leprocauns

Hello all! It's been a while but I have finally found some
(expensive) time to write about my travels from Berlin, Germany to
where Monique and I are now: Greystones, Ireland.

~sigh~

So, Berlin. Ya. It was rainy and our hostel was shit cuz it was
full of stupid teenagers and it was expensive and sheets & breakies
was extra money and the bunk beds were so creeky. So I didn't
really get a good vibe from Berlin and all I wanted to do was go
back to AMSTERDAM! Can you really blame me? But, since we were
there, we thought we might as well see the city and decided to take
a bike tour! Yay! Mike's Bike Tours. Our guide was this greesy
aussie with SUPER long and wonderful dread locks. He was pretty
funny and showed us some pretty interesting and of course historical sites. Let me see if I can remember some of them... The Berlin Wall - or rather, what's left of it cuz in most places it's just a stone line in the ground and in others it's the actual wall with the gap in between the 2 sides of it are still kinda there. It's all graffitied to shit now too and stupid tourists would go out at night and ram into it (with their vehicles, yes) to make chunks fall so they could take home a piece of it. Checkpoint Charlie of course, which is where the old American and the East Germany borders met. The University where all those books were burned, the old palace, museums, Marienplatz (where all the political rallies and such were held... pretty cool... there are statues of Karl Marx and Staline we got pictures with), the hotel from where Wacko Jacko dangled his baby and nearby from where Pink Floyd played and from where David Hasselhoff (AKA: The Hoff) performs. haha Kinda funny. But uh, so Berlin was almost all restored cuz so much of it was destroyed in WWII and so you can see the covered bullet holes in so many of the buildings. It was pretty neat riding our bikes in a huge tour around the city. It was definitly a highlight.

Berlin to Prague, Czech Republic! Uhm... I have a feeling I already wrote about Prague... So, I'll skip it and say that we stayed 6 nights there and I loved every minute of it and the beer was DELISCIOUS and so was the food! haha Let me know if I didn't send a mass on Prague...

Prague to Munich, Germany! Munich was beautiful, sunny, and the vibe was great. We spent the better part of our first 'day' visiting the 1st Nazi Germany concentration camp... we went to
Dachau (pronounced: da-how, with a sort of phlegmy sound for the H)
and got a tour of what's left of the camp today. So eery. Our
first stop on the tour was inside where the SS would hang 'the
undesirables' from the beams by their wrists - BEHIND their backs -
and so their shoulders would pop out and they would be in so much
pain and the only way to avoid the pain is to hang as still as
possible - find the centre of gravity - except, thing is, since they weren't considered people from the moment they walked through the gates, they were already dead to the SS and so the SS would push them and hang off them and whip them until they died the most
excrutiating death... I'm sorry for the vivid description, but I
really want to emphasize how the guide described it to us... I
cried so much that day... To NOT be considered a PERSON, a HUMAN
BEING and to be treated in such a horrible manner, more horrible
than anything you can imagine... as horrible as the Christians
described Hell. And it wasn't just the Jews who were treated this
way, but germans, homosexuals, anti-socials, catholic priests, the
Roma and the gypsies... this happened all over Europe and because of one man... So ya. The whole tour was just indredibly somber and
Monique and I hardly spoke the whole time. The Gas Chambers were
well, very REAL and I was almost sick with sadness... If you ask me
about it some time, I'll tell you, but I'm not gonna write this
stuff here... it's too disturbing. I'm glad I experienced that
place though. We are both glad.

The next day we took a free walking tour of Munich and so that was
MUCH more lighthearted. I loved it!! Bavaria... The famous clock
was really nothing special, but everything else was pretty cool.
The cobblestone roads, the nice people, the YUMMY beer, the
history... Munich, much cooler than Berlin! I have pics and so
I'll post them soon. They'll tell the story. I'm going to try and
add captions to them so you can understand what you're looking at.

Munich to Frankfurt, in a car pool we discovered through one of the
girls from the hostel! Awesome ride! Nice dude for sure and he
drove us right to the city centre where we could catch our shuttle
to the cheap-ass airport Ryanair flies out of. Listened to some
great music!! We had a beer in Frankfurt which means we were
OFFICIALLY in Frankurt. It's a lot more modern than any other city
in Germany, full of skyscrapers and cutting edge technology. We
only spent a few hours there before we flew out to Dublin that night.

Frankfurt to Dublin, Ireland!!! Ahhhhh... Dublin. We are
definitly liking it here, except for the rain andthe cold though!!!
We walked all over the city pretty much, well the centre part
anyhow. We caught a Tracy Chapman gig last night!! That was so
cool! Greystones is so cute and I will write more on that another
time cuz my internet time is expensive and... well... I'll be here
til Christmas! Yay!

Until next time, (sorry I just cut off like that) take care of
yourselves and know you are all in my thouhts and in my heart. I
hope your're enjoying the photos!!! yay!