Ninjas Ate My Lunch…So I wrote a blog about it.

Now, before anyone gets too freaked out about the title of this post I want to be clear – this is a mostly PG posting. Mostly. Moving on.

After spending a very relaxing day at the beach on Thursday, Carolynn and I were ready to do more sightseeing in Spain today (Friday). My friend who lives here graciously offered to drive us to a region called Empuries where there are beautiful beaches alongside Roman and Greek city ruins. History AND being lazy in the sun? Sounded like the perfect combination.

And really, it was. Arriving in the heat of the mid-day sun we decided to start at the beach and then explore the ruins which are 100% outside, with no trees for shade. Ancient Greeks and Romans were a much tougher bunch than the three of us, so we bee-lined it to the water’s edge and I immediately jumped in. Well, jumped isn’t quite the right word, more like waded for a mile before the water touched my chin. A very different shoreline on this part of the coast, for sure. Even the sand was different, the kind that is very soft but that gets in all your crevices as opposed to the pebble variety at the beach near our apartment.

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Keeping in theme with how our trip started out, Italians have continued to make me smile as our Paris trip comes to a close. As I sit enjoying the fact that the airport is on the same wireless network as my hotel and therefore I can get online, a large Italian man heading to Bologna begins yelling loudly at two airport security guards. It’s gibberish to me, however he’s passionate and it’s a scene to watch. Digging into my freshly opened package of chocolate biscuit cookies I enjoy the show. Caro takes notice of the action and stealthly hides her passport (total side note – it appears Caro might be more paranoid than I am, but that’s the subject of it’s own blog.)

As we wait in the cluster-fuck that is the Paris Beuvais (??) airport I am reminded of cattle or, as Caro referenced while doing a crossword puzzle, “#23 Down, another word for a Disorderly Mob.”

Caro and I decided to, after a long day of sightseeing, to treat ourselves to a nice dinner in a Parisian restaurant. On the street of our hotel there are a number of cute ones, and we chose one advertising itself as a “Pizza Resto.”

“Pizzaria” seems to be used pretty broadly here and in Spain, but this particular one did indeed have pizza on the menu, as well as other Parisian/Italian fare. It also looked pretty reasonably priced, so we went in.

Now, it must be mentioned this was our first opportunity eating a real meal at somewhere other than a cafe. Multiple courses were available, as were lots of wine choices (much to the enjoyment of the person in our party whose name starts with a “C” and ends with “arolynn.”) We were seated by a very friendly waiter/manager/owner who I swore was speaking some sort of French-Spanish hybrid and was quite a smiley guy.

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Is the best! After much hesitation and sweating on my part, Caro and I were able to abscond with some extra food from the hotel breakfast this morning. Though the breakfast wasn’t free it was a buffet, and everyone knows that’s what you do at buffets. Or maybe it’s just what Americans do which is why I got cold feet for a minute there. Luckily Caro has no qualms about stealing food and now I am the proud owner of two slices of bread, cheese, and an orange! Fuel for sightseeing, which we will be doing a lot of today!

On the agenda: Cemetary, catacombs, some garden, Musee d’Orsay, and Eifel Tower in the evening.

For dropping not one but TWO of my calls after I was on hold with my bank for a total of 20minutes. For real??? Now I can’t get my card working (another issue) for one more day.

OK Skype, I forgive you now. Thanks for keeping me connected but stop being so fickle and do your job.

Love, me

And other happenings from Paris, France.

Caro and I arrived in gay Paree after waking up alarming early to catch a shuttle to the Girona airport at 4am. Shuttle ride was smooth and we arrived with 2 hours to spare at the aeropuerto. Preparing to fly on RyanAir, the self proclaimed “cheap fare airline”, was a challenge considering their baggage restriction of 10kilos (20lbs) per person. The amount they pound it into your head that this is the MAX per passenger, you’d think it’s punishable by death. Or just a 25 euro fee… Which to someone with no income for 3 months is a similar fate. Anyway, Caro and I were up to the wee hours of the morning packing and weighing our luggage, getting them to 9.8 and 9.9 kilos, respectively. We are packing goddesses!

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Upon arrival in Barcelona I had about 6 hours to kill before my friend was able to meet me. I took the train from the airport into the city center (about 20 minutes), changing trains once to make it there. It was recommended I get off at the Estacio de Franca stop where there is a beautiful building and access to a park and the sea side. I wandered around a bit and, to my surprise,  stumbled upon the Barcelona Zoo! I gladly paid the 16 euro entrance fee and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the animals and watching people. I was enthralled by these animals, and even teared up a bit when I watched a few.

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Preparing myself for this trip I bought THREE, yes three, brand new pieces of electronic equipment to keep me both entertained and connected while in Spain. I checked and double checked everything, talked for what seemed like forever with my cell-phone carrier about coverage, and got Mario to give me the run down on how to get online while I’m gone.

Armed with my new tiny laptop (Acer baby!), iPhone (with an international calling AND data plan), and Kindle I figured there would be no way Spain could keep me off-line. Oh, how wrong I was. Things were fine during my first leg of the trip, I was texing with Mario in the JFK airport. I even was able to send a mass text when I landed, letting everyone know I arrived safely. That was where it ended though.

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Number of attempts at sleeping, 2. Number of successful attempts at sleeping, 0. My head keeps falling forward in that really jarring way that both wakes me up and makes me feel ridiculous.  However other than that the first leg of my journey has been pleasant, minus the tears and snotty nose at the airport. The flight is full and cozy,  a blanket is keeping my legs  warm and so far things are fairly comfortable. One can of tomato juice, two glasses of water, and one stretch break under my belt I am now enjoying an episode of the Office. Not too shabby…

My vast array of electronics has been great so far. I LOVE the Kindle, although my seat in the middle of the plane doesn’t have a good source of light to read from. I’m a whopping 8% through my first book, Under the Banner of Heaven a book about Mormonism. Pretty interesting so far. I was worried the 13 books I downloaded wouldn’t be enough, so we’ll see.

Underneath everything I am starting to feel a glimmer of excitement for what is coming next…not a whole bunch but a glimmer. As my mom hugged me goodbye at the airport she said, “Hey, it’s a vacation!” And of course she’s right, but any time I travel it comes with a lot of emotions. This time a little more than past trips because of the length of the trip and how I’ll be spending my time. Or rather, how I don’t know how I’ll be spending my time. BUT that being said, I hesitate from letting myself get too excited yet because of tendency toward “catestrophic thinking.” I’m not going to think more about that right now, just take one challenge at a time.

Update: Something just started to smell gross, and I noted that the super professional traveller guy sitting diagonally across from me just pulled out a hard boiled egg and muched it down. That’s good, protein for the trip. He’s got his Bose noise-eliminating headphones on, working on some fancy looking document on his laptop, eating an egg. Oh, and now there’s an 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet of seaweed being added to his snack. My goodness…

So the blog begins. This is meant to be a place where I document, in some form, my trip to Platja d’Aro, Spain during 8 weeks in the summer of 2009. The trip begins tomorrow, June 21st, bright and early at 7:30am. Look for stories and hopefully photos of my adventures, whatever they may be!