Hello from Sitges (June 2006)

Well I made it to Sitges, which is a beach resort about 30 minutes south of Barcelona. It's very hip with the gay community, I should have known better and spent more time here rather than Benidorm. This place is very cool with lots of neat shops and restaurants and things. And the weather has been nice and clear blue skies this whole time which has been good too. Still haven't made it down to see the beach, because now that the bad, bad laundry man has all of the bottom half of my clothes I tragically had to go and get some replacements!! Got some nice half shorts half pants things that will look good enough to wear to work in the summer, or on a mine somewhere where it's hot.

Salt cod hanging in the window in San Sebastian. Pammie in reflection; skirt now in the possession of the bad, bad laundryman.

Getting here was a bit of a drama. I had to get on the bus at 8:55 AM yesterday, which is a decent enough time. Dragged my suitcase down to the bus stop which if you remember is not actually a bus stop, just the side of the road. So I am there about 15 minutes early. At 8:55 the bus is still not there. Neither at 9:10. Nor at 9:20. I am starting to get worried. As far fetched as it seems, perhaps the bus was here really early and already left. Or maybe there's another departure point. I ask a girl next to me, she doesn't know. There are other buses going to Valencia, Alicante, Madrid. No one wants to go to Barcelona.

Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

I go to the ticket counter, where is the bus? They wave me back to the bus stop. There are not very many people there with luggage who look like they might be going to Barcelona also. At 9:45 the bus finally shows up. How can they be so late already this early in the morning? Then after about an hour and a half of travel, I realise, this is the milk run. We spend about 20 minutes on the highway then spend about 40 minutes getting off the highway, into the city center, pick up one person, then get back to the highway for another 20 minutes then another 40 minutes getting to the next podunk town, repeat again and again and again until 6:30 pm. Leon Cathedral, Spain
It's hot on the bus, it's only about 20% full, but I always have someone sitting next to me, we have seat assignments but it never occurs to anyone that they could possibly just find an empty seat somewhere else so we can spread out a bit. I would have done it myself but I was on the window seat and each time I had some fat Spanish dude next to me. We stop once for 25 minutes for a snack, then 45 minutes again for a disgusting roadside diner lunch. yuk.

Seville bullfight schedule 2006

We finally get to Barcelona, I was hoping that perhaps the bus would stop at Sitges along the way seeing as how we have stopped at every other little village along the whole entire coast. Nope. After trying to find Spain's especially well camouflauged metro system, including converting a major rail terminus into a gymnasium but neglecting to remove all of the train signs on it, I finally get on a metro to the main station then manage to get my train to Sitges.
La Mesquita, Cordoba, Spain

It's absolutely packed, I am standing up with my backpack, my luggage, my bullfight poster, we're squashed in there like sardines, it's very hot. Sheesh, and it's a 30 minute train ride. We go about 10 minutes and the train stops. For 45 minutes!!! We are all stuck in there, they won't open the doors because there are other trains going past us, at least the air conditioning is working a little bit. I have some fat German lady next to me who keeps pushing me. I have chosen this very day to carry 2 kg of water in my backpack. I manage to get my backpack off. A girl nearly faints and people make room for her and wave magazines at her. I'd give her some of my water but I can't bend over to get to my backpack because the German lady keeps pushing me.
La Mesquita, Cordoba

After 45 minutes the train starts up again and at the next station like 1 person gets off and about 10 people get on. We wait. We hear shouting. We see some cops run past. We hear shouting. We hear shouting in the different direction from where the cops are running. This is not good. Then we see an extremely drunk guy shouting, followed by an even drunker woman with a totally bashed in face with stitches in. He gets onto our carriage, shouting, he is spraying chunks, the lady's eyes are swollen shut and looks like she is going to hurl. Amazing how much space is immediately made around these two, like sharks in a school of fish. Fortunately they part the sardines like water and go through our carriage to the other end. Everyone is totally relieved and saying things in Spanish which could only be something like, "could it get any worse".

The Alhambra, Granada

Now I am not certain what my stop in Sitges is called. They have a very good system here of naming the metro stops with obscure names, not the name of the town it is in, how sensible would that be. They also have a very good system of not putting up station name signs on the platforms, so even if you know the stop name you can't read it anywhere. At one stop quite a few people get off, but I reckon, after 1.5 hours of standing on the train, that we still haven't gone the 30 minutes the trip is supposed to take. The train leaves, I can now see the ocean. Drats I've missed my stop. Well I can get off and go back. The train keeps going. Forever. And ever. Sheesh man. Finally it stops and whaddya know, there is a sign I can see and it says Sitges! Woohoo!! I find my hotel, it's now 9:00 which is only marginally embarrassingly early to arrive for dinner. And I had a nice dinner!

Alhambra tile detail

So today I will potter around, maybe sit in the sun for only an hour to top up the sunburn, and spend the rest of the day checking out this town. It's got lots of nice places, so I can easily make myself happy here. You don't have to check out of hotels till 12 noon so I will hang here till the last minute then go to Barcelona, check into our hotel and meet Cailli at the metro, which is a risky thing to do, because Cailli, like all mining engineers, has no sense of direction and is forever going in the wrong direction, (even though she can read a map). It'll be fun!