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

Getting the ol’ blog going once again with another trip to Barcelona, albeit MUCH shorter this time around. I can’t believe how lucky I am to get to be going to Europe twice in 4 months…I feel like I should pinch myself! Anyway, the details…I will spend 4 hopefully glorious days in Barcelona and then fly to Italy for a study tour/conference with my co-workers…AMAZING!!

Some updates on this leg of the trip…

I’m flying with Air France which I was a bit hesitant about given their not so wonderful history of plane crashes this summer. But I shoved those feelings away and tried to be positive (not hard with the plans I have…a positive outlook seems natural at this point!) I have to give props to Air France, my 10+ hour flight was AWESOME. I had an aisle seat, sat next to a really nice girl from SF who was chatty but not overbearing, ate some delicious chicken/potato/veggie dish that seemed to be drenched in oil/cream, AND was served an abundance of cheese at every meal time (dinner and breakfast).

To top it off, Air France’s entertainment services totally rock. You have your own tiny TV with choices of a ton of movies, tv shows, music, and games. I watched four, yes FOUR movies and a few tv shows. It was so great…I had a mini John Travolta marathon with Grease and then that Phelam 123 movie about hijacking a metro train in NY, watched The Ugly Truth AND 500 Days of Summer!!! Quite productive and enjoyable, to say the least.

Now, I’m hanging out in the Paris CDG (Charles de G…something) airport – a much nicer experience than the last one (see THIS POST from my travels this summer). There are these really cool lounge chairs that I am loving, and I MAY venture to find food. But I don’t really feel like interacting with anyone in “French” (my version of the language – saying “Bonjour” and then discretely switching to English.)

More to come!

Adios!

Totally rocks. And, as it turns out, it is a delicacy to eat the hardened layer that is on top of the yogurt when you open it. After trying some, I agree.  I am contemplating a way to bring a crate full of it home with me, but I don’t think it will be less than 8kilos to carry on the plane.

More to be posted about my trip to Istanbul later, when I’m not enjoying yogurt and pretending to pack. Until then I leave you with a rare sighting of TURKISH GODZILLA attacking Galata Tower! Rawrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Today marks 4 days of being sans travel buddy, and it has been growing on me. Slowly. I have been doing things that I like, even though most make me uncomfortable during some portion of it. One of the things I have done is sign up for Catalan classes to learn some of the language spoken here in Catalonia. It is different, but similar to Spanish, so I am able to pick up bits here and there. I found a Catalan woman who gives private lessons for 13euro an hour (about $18) and she is incredibly sweet. The first thing she said when we met was, “Oh! I thought you would be older! And taller.” I guess I write emails like a more mature, tall person?

Anyway, we have met a few times, and during our first meeting she took me to the tourist office in Platja d’Aro to talk about more excursions I should go on. It should be mentioned, at least to give an idea of her personality, that during that same meeting she brought me to a book store, to a shop where she bought her daughter a skirt, offered to drive me to some volcanos to sightsee and invited me to her house to meet her family and her dog.

One of the places she suggested is yet another beach side village called Tossa de Mar. It is actually quite close to where I am staying, so my friend said he could drive me there on Thursday, hang out for a bit and then come back to get me after he did other things. We headed there in the afternoon, around 2, and started off at the beach (this is becoming a trend that I love.) After he left I explored the city which quickly became one of my most favorite places I have visited so far. There is a medieval town running along part of the coast line which was built in like the 12th century or long time ago. At some point the town was walled off and a castle was built inside the walls as well. What is really cool is that you can walk through the town and also along the wall, very high up, and it gives an amazing view of the Mediterranean Sea.

High up view of Tossa de Mar

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What does it smell like there?   seriously! -
This depends. My first day my nose was going crazy! There are good smells and very bad smells, and the beach and the sewer, and DELICIOUS food  (you know they are some kind of starch, oil, and salt), stinky people too close on the metro smells, exhaust, laundry, smoke, me after a long day of sweating (yum!), books, wind. So many!

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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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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!