Category: Spain

Day 198, Friday 19 July 2012 – Barcelona to Alcaucin

My final sleep in Barcelona was pretty much as lousy as the first two. I thought a couple of whiskies might have eased me into a doze, but at 1:30 I was still restless and ended up turning the air con on and popping the unused half of the previous nights pill. Even that was not overly successful and I had fairly long night. There is a lot on my mind at the moment and I am hoping some down time from travelling and sightseeing in Alcaucin will allow me some head space to sort everything out and start to organise phase two of my journey.
I was up before the alarm went off at 6:30, packed and drinking the final sludge-like free coffee at the hotel before 7:00 and on the road at 7:30. There was no real need to leave that early, my flight was not until 11:50 but the day was already warm and walking even only one or so kilometres with a pack and a wheelie bag when it got hot was not something I relished.

The hotel recommended the airport bus over the train and it was so much easier and quicker than the ride in from the airport, the things you know when it is too late ! I arrived at the airport almost three and a half hours before my flight – something I am used to though, a habit formed in the past few months. I found the check in for my flight and it was even manned -I thought to myself “great, I can ditch my bags and go have breakfast and un-sludge-like coffee”. But no, way too easy, after waiting for fifteen minutes I finally asked one of three people chatting what time they opened, they said an hour. Way to go Ryan Air, awesome customer service, leaving me standing there like a twit. Another nail in the Ryan Air coffin. I stomped off with my stuff and struggled negotiating the closely packed tables and chairs in the cafe while carrying coffee, breakfast and three bags.

The flight was OK, reasonably smooth, but Ryan Air does not even provide passengers with the little pouches on the back of the seat in front – which means holding magazine, glasses, mp3 player etc on my lap for the flight – not so much fun. The landing however was a different kettle of fish, I am pretty sure we dropped from a hundred foot straight down – it was the roughest landing ever, even worse than Vietnam Airlines and I thought those were bad.

My cousin Ian met me at the airport in Malaga and we left pretty much immediately for the forty minute drive to his house in Alcaucin, with a brief stop at Macca’s on the way 🙂 Ian is ten years younger than me and has lived in Alaucin for about eight years, he currently shares his house with two dogs – Rosie,

And Muttley.

I am sure these two will appear a few times over the next few days !

Alcaucin is a small village sitting at 500 metres on the edge of the Sierra Tejeda mountain range it has a population of about 2500, plus a few summer residents.

Ian and I spent the afternoon catching up on the past few years, with me admiring his CD and DVD collection – and planning a few movies sessions when he is out and about over the weekend !

mmmmmm, what is this outside my bedroom wall…

I am staying on the ground floor of Ian’s double storey house; I have a bedroom, bathroom and a lounge area with my own TV and best of all – a stereo. I am so looking forward to using the stereo and listening to music of my choice that is not being played through the tinny speakers on my laptop or the headphones on my Sony Walkman.

Once the worst of the heat had gone out of the evening we wandered up to the village and had a couple of beers and some dinner at one of the restaurants in town – nice.

it is great to be here I have been looking forward to this for a while.

I posted photos of pets !!! Obviously I need a break 🙂

Day 197,Thursday 18 July 2012 – Barcelona

Probably due to the half sleeping pill I popped or possibly because I’d only had a couple of glasses of el cheapo rioja instead of the normal three or four – whatever the reason, I had a dead man sleep until about 7am. It was the first good sleep I’ve had in days and it was extremely welcomed.

I lounged in bed for a while then grabbed what was the least disgusting of the hotel free coffees I have had and got ready for the day. Today was my original check out day but I have extended a further day; this however, requires a change of room, so before leaving I had to pack my stuff. This is always a bigger task that it should be.

I was still out the door by a hugely respectable 8:00 am and off to find the Picasso Museum, which is the last thing on my MUST do list for Barcelona, there is still a (lower case) must do list and also a would be good to list too, like any excellent city there is more to do here than time allocated. Excellent city to do list = allocated days + 1.

I’m glad I left early as the museum is a bugger to find, at least it was with the Map I’m using. But once found I went in search of some breakfast and espresso – Loving, just loving short coffees now! After my morning shot I was back to the Picasso Museum for the queue. Thirty minutes before opening and already a decent queue had formed, by opening time there would have been in excess of five hundred queued squeezed into the wee alley. Though the surly guy in the front of the shot was possibly not one of them!

The gallery was very cool, with a vast collection of early period Picasso works, with over one thousand pieces being donated by  the artist. I spent most of an hour in there, which is pretty good for me in an art gallery.

There was also a small collection of work by Vilato, Picasso’s nephew, which was quite cool – though very influenced by his more famous uncle!

From the Picasso museum I wandered up to the Arxiu Fotografic de Barcelona with the hope this was a gallery dedicated to photographic works. It was dedicated to photography but was sadly not a gallery per se, more of an archive – which I am sure would have been great to explore! They did have a small show which I checked out. Why do photo exhibitions make me want to shoot mono again?

Spain has the unenvious record of an unemployment rate of 24% with youth at an incredible 60% – it is not all smiles and works of art in Espana 😦

My next goal was the Museu D’Art Contemporani De Barcelona (MACBA for short – don’t ask why). It took a while to find but was worth the visit, both externally and internally.

Though interestingly the gallery (new obviously) is in an area of Barcelona that was heavily “renovated” and the subject of the exhibition at the Arxiu Fotografic – though not directly this part of town. The MACBA was very cool, I loved the building and some – not all, of the exhibitions were interesting, it was quite modern, most of the art was from the last 40 or 50 years. There was a great exhibition on some “live art”/hippy shit from the 70’s. I loved the video footage – (God save me if I am turning into a freaking hippy). There was also a photo exhibition from the late 70’s /early 80’s of the local area as it was changed – similar to the above. The photo gallery was so quiet, the stand out sound was the click of slide projectors – awesome !

token selfie…

I stopped for a beer and some tapas in a cafe on La Rambla – the main drag, and paid through the nose for the pleasure – the most expensive cheap feed I have had in Europe. Doh ! BTW – I did not use the ketchup…

I foolishly decided (it is 30+ degrees) to walk up to the fort above the port, my aim was to find the cable car, but (see above) my map was crap and I ended up walking all the way. At one stage – well away from the public eye I will add, I made the radical choice of removing my shirt to get some of the most vaguest of breezes on to my skin. It was hard work – but when I went to the cable car to take it down the hill later on it was 7 Euro a trip, glad I walked. Hot as it was it really wasn’t that far!

The castle was dull and full of tourists, but with awesome views over the sea and the city. Though confusing which was the way in 🙂

I went the wrong way!

I spent half an hour up the top enjoying the breeze and views as well as avoiding the sun before heading back down into the city centre to find my way back to the hotel.

Once down past La Rambla and into the old part of town I decided to stick to the alleys to avoid the sun

and ended up doing a few circles before popping out in familiar territory and finally stopping for a cooling beer at the taverna next door to my hotel.

I was on my feet for eight hours  Chucks are not ideal for a long days walk in the heat, my feet were a tad swollen by the end and I knew it had been a long day.

After unpacking (read throwing stuff all over the show) in my new and incredibly noisy room overlooking the main street, and after a wee lie down I wandered down the road to my new favourite kebab shop and consumed the most awesome chicken kebab ever ;I was starving ! Once sated I went and had a drink with the Pakistani guy who worked there (he of course did not partake) I chatted with him for a while, I think he enjoyed being able to speak English rather than Spanish, and to someone who knew who Shahid Afridi was !

It slowly went downhill from there as Johnnie Walker was cheap…

Though not too downhill as I am still typing and it is only 10:18 pm 🙂

Opinions on black and white photos ? after seeing a lot today I am very keen to go back !