We hit up Nice, France on our way from Venice to Barcelona. It's a place I had been wanting to see having heard about it from some French exchange students from Avignon that my family hosted for a few weeks when I was in high school. See it was about all I did, and for a relatively brief time at that. We booked two nights at a dorm in a hostel near the train station but we didn't arrive until pretty late on the first night. That left the next day for sightseeing. I awoke that morning with a sore throat and a low fever so we ended up spending most of the day in the room, with me lazing in bed reading. We did venture out in the evening to catch the sun setting behind the hills along the gorgeous Nice coastline. It was a lovely view from the boardwalk and beach (all pebbles) but the downtown wasn't what either of us expected. Instead of some quaint French seaside town, Nice is a lot more bustly than that, heavy on the designer stores and a bit light on the charm of Paris. Still, it was worth that coastline view.
Barcelona
The train trip from Nice to Barcelona was not without delays, but we made it to our hostel by 10pm, just in time for all the supermarkets to have closed. Everyone says that Spain is full of night owls who go out to dinner around 10pm and then stay at the clubs until the wee hours of the morning. When we went out looking for restaurants at 10:30pm, most of them were closing their doors. We had to settle for a Mexican restaurant. Go figure. The portions ended up being tiny so we went back to the hostel for midnight sandwiches with our lunch leftovers.
On our first full day there, we started at La Rambla, the city's main tourist street lined with vendors and street performers. We saw a super old church (aren't they all?) and then gaped at the gothic cathedral but couldn't get inside because we had just missed the 12:45pm to 5:15pm daily closing time. Those Spanish and their siestas...even the priests get nap time. It didn't matter that we missed it because the outside was spectacular and we spent a lot of time admiring the interior of the first church we went into on the way.
Being then lunch time, we made our way to a nearby park that is famous for picnickers and set ourselves our own little picnic just on the other side of the gigantic woolly mammoth. The flies were fierce but we managed to enjoy our usual bread, cheese, meat and wine in relative relaxation amidst a smattering of other picnickers and botany students. On a little hillock by the park's exit, we took a post lunch siesta and then walked 13 blocks or so to view the still incomplete Sagrada Familias church designed by the famous Gaudi. This church has been under construction since 1882 and is currently expected to be complete in the year 2026. However, if you would like to contribute to the church's completion fund, you can pay 12 Euros to view a tiny part of the interior. Can you guess whether Amir and I decided to do that? Right. The outside was way cool. It's very modernistic with lots of fun angles. The Jesus hovering above the entryway is definitely the coolest, grooviest looking Jesus I've ever seen. If you're in Barcelona, I definitely recommend checking out the exterior.
Our second day, Amir took charge of our agenda which resulted in us first walking by the outside of the Barcelona football stadium and then trudging up a giant hill on dusty dirt tracks to view a castle that ended up being nothing more than a damn 4-foot high stone wall with a few turrety-looking things. I was still feeling under the weather so a lot of outdoor exertion in under the hot sun was not exactly on top of my list of things to do. It was hard to tell whether I was sweating more from the heat or my fever. We did have a nice picnic lunch at the top, though, on a bench under some shady conifers near the ping pong tables.
Spain decided on a transportation strike that day which cut short our goal of seeing the Gaudi designed section of town and resulted in us heading back to the hostel from our castle hike to take a nap instead. We made some awesome dinners while at that hostel. One meal was a pasta dish with a Bolognese cum aoli sauce served with a side of sliced tomatoes and chicken. Another was pork chops done up in barbecue sauce. Red wine for both, of course.
Granada
I got fully and irrevocably sick with a nasty cold and low fever the day we took the train from Barcelona to Granada. Fortunately, we met a cool LDS couple, Chad and Allison, on the second train which made the time pass by quickly. They were a couple of years older than us with three kids traveling by themselves through Spain for a two week vacation. We were both impressed that they were able to leave a 10-month old, 2- and 4-year old to travel, something they try to do on an annual basis.
We had one day in Granada and intended to use it to see the Alhambra. I had booked our tickets online in advance because they sell out quickly so we had our time slot for the Nasrid Palace at 5:30pm. It ended up being a blessing that it was so late in the day because I spent the entire first part of the day in bed trying to shake off the medicine head I had leftover from Nyquil the night before. We took the walk up to and through the Alhambra pretty slowly. The gardens were extremely well manicured and lovely to walk through. The best part was definitely the Nasrid Palace, though. It was delicate, intricately carved and tiled and just generally gorgeous. We could easily picture royalty wandering about the grounds back in the day.
Sevilla
Sevilla and Grenada are only a few hours away by train so the trip was blissfully easy and short to get here from Granada. My 6-day fever finally broke on day 7 which was a boon. We checked into our hostel and dropped our stuff before finding out with great dismay that there was only one bathroom/shower for the entire hostel. Had we known that, there is no way in hell we would have booked it. Can you imagine? Let's just say it isn't pleasant. Thank god we only have two nights to deal.
We set off sightseeing and ogled the gorgeous gothic cathedral and got to the Alcazar just in time to see the doors close for the day. Then we walked around and saw some amazingly cool semicircular plaza before heading off to the grocery store to stock up on dinner materials and more wine.
On day two, we queued up and toured the Alcazar, which is Europe's oldest castle that is still in use and is very reminiscent of the Alhambra but on a much bigger, more colorful and somewhat more intricate scale. After that, Amir's ability to sightsee further diminished to zero and we spent the afternoon hanging out at a Festival of Nations drinking wine, enjoying the people watching opportunities and eating the world's best charcoal grilled chorizo in a sandwich served with an awesome chopped garlic and herb sauce. Tonight we plan to see a free flamenco show at a nearby bar.
Tomorrow, we head to Madrid for a few days before going to Porto to meet some family friends of Amir's, Vibha and his wife Tina. Hello, port!
sore throat is not a lot of fun its just uncomfortable and difficult to swallow.
ReplyDeleteusually, i would take the Nim Jiom Cough Syrup (www.geocities.jp/ninjiom_hong_kong/index_e.htm ) which has a thick consistency formulation. it coats the throat and includes herbs that are particularly good for that application.