Sav´s travels

Hi everyone! As always I hope that anyone reading, friend or stranger, is doing well...it is Thursday my last full night in Spain...I fly to London tommorrow evening, overnight it and then make it to Vancouver on Sunday...I had a really good lunch with my sister Pam today with lots of wrap up talk and her famous "Top 1-5" questions, which I enjoy thoroughly...I am on and off again sad today at leaving...but what I am excited about is having the chance to be with friends and family at home and room for perspective on this trip...I have 28 hours in Spain and as far as I am concerned that´s plenty of time for adventure...we´ll see...

The two previous days were a total treat...I had to go to Malaga to wrap up some remaining passport fun and planned on heading straight back to Granada. Two hours in the dry, decorative-free Canadian consulate and I had my emergency passport...good for one travel only, and to be submitted and destroyed upon arrival! Yessir! Anyway, it´s funny what good can come from not-so-good...I decided that after all this, I was going to really visit Malaga and change my opinion of it from the first time, which was really that I had no opinion...I had only made it to the outskirts around the bus-station so of course, nothing to really impress or see. This time however, I found the historic centre which is large and was wowed repeatedly at every street I visited...the buildings, the empty buildings, the buildings just waiting to be explored...I must have about 50 pics alone of these streets (in the world of non-digital, this is a lot)...I visited the Alcazaba and the Castillo, had some unique (tasty!) tapas and got lost...so lost in fact that I came to a big theatre and decided to consult my map...as I was opening my map, my eyes were caught by a poster on the front of the theatre advertising the one and only Van Morrison...immediately I was lost in wow, wouldn´t that be amazing, daydreaming...I have forever wanted to see this man play but he´s not known for making it to Edmonton or Canada too much for that matter (I think)...anyhow, the concert happened to be for that evening and the next...at that point, I easily convinced myself that things happen for a reason and that I was meant to end up in Malaga to get a new passport and meant to get a little lost...of course... so I went to the nearest internet cafe to see prices and the cheapest was 30€´s so instead decided on the spot to get a hostal and see if I could get a scalper´s ticket...and if I couldn´t I could just stay another day in Malaga as there really was so much more to see and do. I got my hostal, and headed out again...I got to the theatre and stood around and watched people try to sell their 60€ box tickets...it didn´t look too promising so decided on settling outside to see if I could catch scraps of his voice...I happened to be standing near two men who I found out were from the States, and they wondered if I wanted their ticket..I said I couldn´t and 5 minutes later when they knew they weren´t going to sell it for their no-show friend, they said, "here you go kid"...and I had myself a box-seat to see VM....I had to maintain composure, very difficult...at this point, they invited me to a glass of wine in the lobby and we went our separate ways...I truly had the best seat in the house...about 50 ft away from him with a full view of the 9 piece band...it was incredible...incredible, incredible....I have no other words at the moment...sharing the box with me was a man from Ceuta and his sister, who was my age...we had lots of fun dancing and singing and decided afterwards to go out for drinks, us and the American fellows...we had great tapas, lots of Moscatel and wine and then walked to a close-by salsa bar where we danced for about 2 hours straight, and until I wanted to collapse...I left these fun, gracious, people who felt like friends by the end, and after an exchange of emails went "home" to bed...the next day, I explored the Castle and the town some more, ate tapas Catalunya style (counting toothpicks at the end) and finally got on the 5pm bus, sunburned, walked-out and very happy that those jerks in Barcelona inadvertently gave me two wonderful days in Malaga...

So, that brings me to here and if anything fun to report happens tonite or tommorrow, will be back to report...I am addicted to this machine...

Ciao!
Savannah

...time´s up!

Hola everyone,

I am sitting in the best/worst Internet cafe in Barcelona I think...I don´t know the name of it, but I will find out and recommend it anyway...it´s 50 centimos for a half hour which is pretty cheap for this city as far as I can tell, but in a dungenous basement with no air circulation and smoking a la the 70´s in N.American Dairy Queen´s...so I decided that even though I wrote yesterday, it´s too good of an op. to not take up at 50 cents.

First of all, I am going to put out there to anyone reading this that might have some advice for me....I would like to get more random shots of people that I see all around me...I find that I am just not brave enough to either ask, or to photograph them outright without their permission... the other night in Sevilla, we made asses of ourselves, trying to photograph this woman sitting at a table two down from us...we would focus my Minolta SLR at the very non-exciting balcony above her head and then at the last minute bring the camera down and try to get her without her noticing...she was either very flattered or very unobservant as we had to take about 3 pictures using our "method"...how do any travellers out there get pictures of the people that make up the landscape without offending or ruining the spontanaiety that makes those pics so great to begin with??

I feel like I´ve been in Barcelona for a week instead of just under 2 days...yesterday we got in and with Alex´s cousin we headed down to Las Ramblas and went to a great restaurant that serves Galician food...we walked and walked and then gave into siesta to come back to the excellent apartment we have for a couple of days to sleep off the memories of the train ride...I can´t get over how we lucked out with this place to stay...we were told that it would be uncomfortable and I had visions of 5 pot-smoking guys walking over us sleeping on floors in a tiny room and 1 unusable washroom...this apartment is luxury though!..I have counted 5 bedrooms so far and a lot of unmarked, closed doors unexplored...huge kitchen and the best thing of all is the front enclosed sun terrace that we get as our room that spans about 24 ft across with a view of the Mediterranean, a partial view of Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia and a super deluxe 60´s couch to sleep on...today all of us ventured out in search of the ultimate "tourist" day in Barcelona...I realize our ambition when 7 hours later we had managed to see "only" the Sagrada Familia which is beyond amazing in person and the Museu Picasso...I will write a little more on these as it was very worth it to spend almost 3 hours in each...we had originally planned on doing a bus tour and seeing the Museum of Contemporary Arts, but these places deserve more attention than just visiting for the sake of visiting I think...

We will do our best to tackle more of it tommorrow before our friend leaves to head back to Canada but for now, it will be a relaxing night writing, reading and just enjoying being off our feet!

Must run, but would like to elaborate a little on the experience of being in the Sagrada Familia...here is a link for anyone who would like to see some of his amazing fantasy-like architecture...enjoy!

Adios,

Savannah

Well Orgiva is coming to a close...I´m kind of sad now actually! The quiet (and cheap!) time is about to come to an end...but i am actually quite excited for what´s on the agenda...this Friday, Shiloh and i are heading to Malaga to meet a friend flying in...from here it´s a bit of a mystery...i have the mini-itinerary that i posted in my last entry about what i think we´ll be doing for the next month or so...hope it all works out!

The last couple of days in Orgiva have been mucho Spanish...as in lessons and homework...my head is on fire, as a Spanish lady said to me who was learning English...it´s such a beautiful language...if i can´t get a grasp on it here, and actually, even if I can, i plan to continue it at home...i am no longer scared of learning it, so i definitely can´t give it up now...

also, and i swear, it´s a case of someone/thing placing us in the right place at the right time, we spotted a cat on the roof of the library who had a plastic bag wrapped around its head...we were shocked and anyone who knows us, knows how we must have panicked.."We must save the cat!!" So we went to the Guardia Civil and told him in our broken Spanish and lots of strangling noises what the situation was...he laughed, which didn´t surprise me, and said they didn´t have a ladder...i was starting to scope out ways that i could climb onto the roof...so we went to the police and he came out with us and was actually a little bit concerned! So he called the City Hall and by now, there were people stopping to see what the mini-commotion was all about...so the guys from the city came and slowly got out there ladders, chatted a bit and went up the roof to the cat...they took a long metal thing and bounced it off the cat´s head a couple of times (while we looked on thinking, what the...??) and the bag came off...we cheered...
It´s been twice now that we´ve rescued an animal here that was caught up in a bag..the other was a pigeon that flew right to us and sat on a fence where we were...he sat there while we untangled it from his wing and flew off again...these two things made my day...sigh, how boring I know...where are the crazy travelling stories...they´ll come...this past month has been for unwinding, learning, sleeping and dealing with culture shock i think...also, because i told everyone that i would be gone for at least 3 months (with not a lot of money), being holed up in the mountains has allowed me to stretch that out and for the next month and a half, I´ll blow the rest of my money and say, " I made it!"...

I am being kicked out..it´s siesta time!! Wine and sleep!

Will finish this off tommorrow, hope everyone is doing well!

Ciao

Well, I have finally decided that Órgiva is a very interesting little village...I am glad that I snapped to this realization before leaving here in two weeks from now! Shiloh and I have discovered a wonderful little tapa bar, a true tapa bar on a side street...I have also discovered that if you´re looking for any real experience for tapas and interesting conversation (even if you can´t understand it) then, head to the side streets even if they are out of the sun..this is in Granada too! This place that we found is largely male dominated and mostly older gentlemen...but if you can pretend you´re not listening and just eavesdrop, it´s a lot of fun...and the best tapas!! We have had fried eggplant, potatoes and garlic mayonnaise, calamari and tasty salads....and a quirky bartender who delivers it all with that sly Kevin Spacey style smile...and 2.5 hours later, it only cost me 3€ to be full and well, full of beer too! Well worth the $750 plane ticket! hint, hint...

It´s been sunny and we attended to our harem of dogs, feeding them the blood sausage, the only tapa I wasn´t prepared to eat today...I am going to search out the possibility of sending one of these dogs home...crazy I know, but I am in love with him...

We also had a lesson today with a British woman, en español of course! It was our second today and really helpful...I feel like there´s a chance yet!!

Other than this, it will be more reading, I have to take this chance while I have it and 8 days from now, I have a friend coming to visit, so that will be a trip to Malaga...from here, a trip to Granada which I couldn´t recommend more to anyone reading this...after this, it will be Morocco and then Portugal...my only thing left to wish for is a trip to Berlin...I could actually fly home at that point, content to possibly leave some sightseeing of Europe for another time...although, it´s getting harder to think that way...

Adios!
Savannah