On My Way to Sitges (June 2006)

Sitting here checkin my mails and my little knees have about six mosquito bites on them! Little buggers are hanging around in the dark under the desk! At least I won't get malaria but you know what it's like....they always freak you out.
As I mentioned before, Benidorm doesn't rate any photographs. Here is the train station at Porto instead.

I'm out of here tomorrow, going to stay in a beach resort called Sitges south of Barcelona for the two nights before Cailli arrives in Barcelona. I bought my bus ticket last night and the person ahead of me wanted to pay for his tickets in one euro coins. Which the guy behind the counter didn't want to know about. So there was a major big argument about that. I guess the guy doesn't have very good counting skills or something because he had to stack the coins up in stacks of five then line them all up and make sure they were all even heights.

Sintra palace at Tavira in Portugal. Note the Islamic influence in the architecture, tiles, and the kitchen chimneys.

Anyways unbelievably another person working behind the counter noticed the hold up and opened a second desk and I got my ticket for 8:55 in the morning to Barcelona. I asked for the arrival times and it gets in at 17:30. Wot....that's a long time. I ask her, is this via Madrid? Via Paris? No, the stupid train goes back down south to Alicante, then back up past Benidorm and then on to Barcelona!!! Agh!! I hope she's wrong, that would really annoy me, because I know the bus I was on the other day from Granada stopped at Alicante first then continued to Benidorm then on northwards. Queluz palace in Queluz, Portugal

The other day I was standing in line at the train station in Seville to buy a train ticket to Cordoba. They have signs above the desks saying immediate sales and future sales. Since I wanted to travel that day, I stood at the immediate sales desk line. I was next up to be served when a guy opened the desk window to the right, and motioned me over. His sign said future sales though. Anyways I said I wanted to go to Cordoba. He said at 11 AM. I said at 12:45 please which is the cheaper slower train which I have a pass for. He started pointing at the other line. I said well frack I was just in that line you *^%$# and you said you could serve me. Actually I only just thought that. Then he started shouting 11, 11, 11 at me. I wasn't sure what his deal was, did I need to go to counter 11, because I didn't want to go on the 11 AM train, and I knew from the schedule there was one at 12:45. The guy behind me in English said I needed to buy a ticket. Well what the heck do they reckon I was trying to do, and why was this guy behind the desk shouting at me for anyways!! I just left! I was just going to jump on a train and buy the ticket on the train but they had some kind of security line you couldn't pass unless you had a ticket, so I had to go back in (another!) line to get my ticket from a normal person. Jacaranda and bouganville at Alcazar gardens in Seville

I was awake at 5:30 and most of the early morning, it was absolutely freezing in my room. I tried to turn the air conditioning but I think it is centrally set, which seems to be a common thing here, and there are no blankets on the bed, just a sheet and a thin cover. So I shivverred most of the night. Oh well I can have a nap later. Got a bit nuked yesterday so I am out of the sun today. I will go and sit on a sun lounger in the shade later and read my book. I need to find a coffee, I had breakfast in my room, got some croissants and some orange juice from the local supermarket. My laundry is getting done at the moment too, woohoo!! Just as well, they have these loose tiles here and twice now I've stepped on one and filthy water has shot up my leg, and I've been wearing skirts, so it's not a nice experience at all. The scary part about the water is that it is very dry here and certainly hasn't rained for ages, these tiles are out front of pubs so they can only be sewerage pipes or else from when someone's been power hosing down the floor of the pub...argh!!

The Alcazar in Seville

This place is really something. I am ready to leave tomorrow morning. At night it is reasonably cute when the little old folks are out in full force. They get in a big tangle on the sidewalk and it's hard to get past them and all their canes. They have heaps of open fronted cafes with sing alongs, dancing, bingo, etc. The old fellahs are quite cute, watching them dancing and getting their tans. Remind me not to get old though. But some absolutely dreadful Brits around, unbelievable. I overheard one lady outside a shop, counting her change with a look of disbelief on her face, saying over and over "I've been done! I've been done!". And another lady going into another tacky junk shop saying "we 'aven't been in this one yet 'ave we Kevin".