TO THE EAST

(disclaimer: the "y" and "z" are swapped on the slovanian kezboard, so anz tzpos are not mz fault, and zes, i am to layz to fix them)

Back in Granada, which at this point seems like months ago, at the Nasrid Palace in the Alhambra. Tough enough to try to describe how it looks and the details in everything. One thing that certainly impressed was their masterz of water. Aquaducts bringing water into central Spain, up to the fortress on the hill, and all throughout the Alhambra. Even today one can see small trenches that carried water into and out of the private living areas throughout the complex. I was also impressed by the ability to keep things cool inside the complex. It was a sweaty 40C out the day i was there, but down inside some of the rooms, it felt better than airconditioned. Something about being out of the sunlight and surrounded bz the clay and rocks, but I guess such methods were necessary to keep the whole of them from melting under the sun.

Now before it was finished, the King and Queen of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabel, drove out the Nasrids and took control of the Alhambra. They went about upgrading and redoing it, making it into a palace of sorts for the royal family. Again, the Muslim symbolism went away and the Christian ones moved in. Now, its a matter of 250+ staff keeping up and improving the complex despite the 8 million tourists treading through each year.

Moving on to Alicante the following day, the proximity to the coast turned the arrid landscape into more fertile and hospitable terrain, and orange groves replaced the olive trees. Outside of the orange for olive and green for brown swap, much remained the same. Arrived in Alicante at 10pm and hoped that mz three phone calls to the hostal during the day would prove useful and keep me from wandering the streets looking for a place to crash. All good, room ready, although the 38C temp inside and 6 inch window to provide airflow to the 6 inch fan weren't too comforting. But the rooftop patio made up for it. Made a quick run a a rollo kepab and a beer, and set back to chill out under the castle, the view being the same as in the pictures. Chilled out with a few Aussies, trading some good traveling stories and the like, before being joined by a Brit and a fwe Frenchies. As the room was still a balmy 37.7C, my efforts to crank up the fan showing minimal results, I resigned to staying out as late as possible. So after the Aussies made a run for it, ended up heading to the town with the 4 Frenchies and the Brit. Shared a few pitchers of Sangria over attempts to patch the conversational circuit across spanish, english, and french. The Frenchies, being on a week vacation and possessing a rental car (such luxury), were all ready to tear it up, so i headed off with them to a club at some point. Nice enough as they were, I didnt end up paying for anything, which is fortunate, b/c a round of drinks at their hangout would have blown my budget for sure. Regardless, by the time I made it home at 5am, my room was just cool enough to fall asleep, albeit with the fan blowing straight on mz face from 12 inch away.

The following daz I vegged out at the beach. The beach (=sand) itself was nice, but the seaweed and garbage in the water didnt reallz justify the oh so proud EU blue flag beach status. And the surrounding scenery out apartments and roads didnt quite match up to Thailand. But the sun was out, and I enjoyed a nice productive afternoon of doing nothing. That night, after making the trip to the grocery store during the day, I enjoyed a hot ham and cheese sandwich, probably one of the best ham and cheese sandwiches ever, after a month of cold ham and cheese sandwiches. With that a L of Sangria I went to camp out on the roof. This time the crowd consisted of a few Canadians, Aussies, and an Irishman, and maybe a few others. Enjoyed the typical full conversation circuit - travels, life before travels, sports, politics, etc - well into the night. Packed up the following daz before making a 15 minute bus trip to a neighboring beach, which turned out to be a combition of retirment beach and package vacation beach, perfectly illustrating the problem with southern spain in teh summertime.

Jumped a bus for Tarragona to spend a few days camping before hitting Barcelona. A bit of research on the net turned up a few campsites that appeared to be a step or two up from the usual ˝tent and camper parking lot˝ that most campgrounds resemble. But after a late arrival, a bit of aimless wandering, and a thin bus schedule I found myself at an aforementioned parking lot campground withing a stones throw from the train tracks and highway. My other option was wait til 1002pm, take the last bus out of the citz, and hope to find the other campsite 10km away, in the dark, and hope it would be open and available. So I waited out the hour and went for it. Seeing the signs for the intended campsite, I got a bit excited, not wanting to leave the marked path, and made a premature exit out of the bus, leaving an extra 1km walk. N o bother though, b/c I did arrive and the bus stop I was told to get off at turned out to be a bit further out of the way than 1 km. So I showed up, well past the usual arrival time, loaded up with my gear, to be greeted at the gate with ˝Completo, Terminado˝. Uh, not good. As I went into pleaing mode, explaining I only needed a little space and had no where else to go, the wing man came up and sorted me out, taking my passport in exchange for a map and a fine recommendation on where to set up camp. So I found myself an available patch of hard rocky ground, and went about trying to set up in the dark. Turns out mz tent stakes were no match for the ground, and quickly wilted into contorted figures instead of anchoring themselves into the ground. Ended up with a rather improvised set up, tying the tail end to a fence post and sticking a stake into the softer ground in the hole where I had unearthered the brick. Good enough for a former government employee, at least. But the extra time spent cost me, and even my pleadings couldn,t get the restaurant to whip me up a sandwhich or anything. So dinner consisted of some prepackaged ice cream dessert with whiskez on top.

The next day and night were spent doing nothing important or noteable, except for the photos which were all taken from the base of my tent. The second night an impressive lightening and thunder display just off the coast awoke me at 5am, just enough warning to pull my pack and other accessories under cover before the rains came. Thankfullz, things cleared up by the time I got up around 6am, and as photos of the sunrise will attest to. Had no problems on the bus to the town and walk to the train station to get there for the 815 ride to Barca.

****BARCELONA and COSTA BRAVA......COMING SOON*****

Met up with Chris in Milano on Friday, a good 7 weeks after leaving him in Bali as I set off for Europe. Spent a day messing about, seeing the Doumo, and onlz frmo the outside, being about the most significant activity before a nice Italian feed and some overpriced beers at the only open bar/pub in our district. The plan to go to Venice and on to Ljubljana from there sounded easz enough, but the Italians have their own way with the train szstems. First off, you buy ticket for a route, but the ticket doesnt specifz when or what tzpe of train. And you might or might not need a seat reservation, depending upon the train taken. So after shelling out €48 for the ticket from Milano to Ljubljana, we hot hit up for an additional €9 on the ride to Venice. Figuring on getting ahead of the system, I inquired at the station in Venice regarding reservations for the next leg, only to find out, once again, ˝Completo˝. Nothing availabe. Not quite sure what to make of that, but we quicklz decided the onlz truely important factor was to get on the train and leave the station. So we got on, quickly fuond out that yes, indeed, it was completo and no seats remained, and resigned to roughing it between cars for the next 4 hrs. Now since we have a ticket, but dont have a seat, we figured we wouldnt have to pay for a seat reservation. Wrong. Another €8 to the man. The final three hours we spent crouched in the dining car/bar. No seats for sitting, just some spaces more out of the waz than others. Regardless, we arrived, and that was the goal. Just had hoped on arriving with funds, not without funds.

Time to move on, will hit up Barca and Ljubljana next time.