Ani MollerOnce Upon a Time, In a Faraway Land…

We left Barcelona on Sunday night on another crappy night train. We jumped on the train, walked down the cramped hallway to our “room” (jail cell) to find a stinky guy already lying down in one of the beds. While I spazzed out a little, we walked through the train to find somewhere else to sit – even though we didn’t have seats reserved, just the crappy couchette compartment. We found some empty seats and hoped we wouldn’t be asked to move. We didn’t. It turned out that noone even came by to check our tickets on the 9 hour train ride from Cerbere (border of France and Spain) to Monaco. Strange. The carriage was also of subzero conditions. In the middle of summer, I had socks and shoes, jeans, and two sweatshirts on. Grr! Thank god Barcelona was wonderful enough that it didn’t really matter.

Sonar was really great. We saw Hexstatic do an awesome DVJ set to showcase a new system by Pioneer. Massive Attack played live with a full band it was really lovely. We caught the last half of Kid Koala who is INCREDIBLE. Essentially, he’s just a DJ, but he actually makes music with his records – making violin sounds with the fader slide, trumpet sounds with the pitch control, and taking notes from certain ridges in the records to make completely new songs. Even if you don’t like DJs, if you ever get the chance to see him you should definitely do it.

We saw the Gaudi temple the day we left. It is incredibly amazing. It’s been under construction since the late 1800′s and it still going. You can climb all the way to the top of the older towers and you get a lovely view of Barcelona. It’s definitely worth the €8, because all the money goes to the completion of the temple.

One of the strange things about Barcelona is that at night there are loads of guys (typically Indian) out roaming the streets with six-packs of beer asking if you want to buy a beer. But they are actually selling hash, coke and whatnot, or have a friend nearby who is selling it. It’s strange coming from New Zealand via Houston, where you never see people on the streets selling dope (at least, I haven’t).

So, I’m back in Monaco for a day or two before I leave for Italy. P and I went to the beach today and swam with some fishies and got really, really burnt. Hopefully it will go before I have to sit on my burnt butt for 9 hours on a train, but I know it won’t have. C’est la vie!

P and I arrived in Barcelona yesterday after an 8-hour train ride. We caught a night train from Monaco and upgraded from our standard 2nd class tickets to a sleeping compartment. Well, compartment is a good word. The room was about 7′ x5′ with six “beds”. You couldn’t sit up unless you did it hunchback stylee. It was cramped to say the least.

The four people we were sharing the compartment with were all Americans. One of the women was about 45 or so, and at about 1am she got up and sprayed really stinky old-lady perfume. One of the guys had a serious sinus problem and snored louder than my dad the entire way to Spain. Many times during the night I comtemplated poking him, or attempting to roll him on his side, but instead I just coughed a lot and made noise so he would wake up just enough to stop snoring for 10 minutes. Needless to say, neither P nor myself slept much (I slept about four hours, but poor P only slept about one).

We arrived in Portbou at about 6am, and then caught a regional train (read, almost shittier, but I’m not sure because I really was in a daze) for about two or three hours to get to Barcelona. After a bunch of walking around, we arrived at the hostel we’re staying at in the early afternoon.

The hostel isn’t really a hostel, but more of an apartment type deal. It’s in this weird old building that used to be a garage or a shop or something. It doesn’t really have many windows, except ones that open up into the middle of the building, which is just a little hole that goes about six stories up. It’s relatively cheap though, pretty comfortable, has a kitchen, and the people there seem pretty nice. The only bummer is that it only has one bathroom for the entire place (which sleeps up to about 10 people). Which is why I am sitting in an internet cafe at 11am, unshowered, with massive muffin hair and furry teeth.

We haven’t seen any of Barcelona yet because yesterday was a complete waste. I think today we’ll shop because everything is so cheap here. Yesterday we ate a 3-course meal, including drinks, for €6.60. I also found the sneakers I bought on sale for $90 for €40. Spain is the land of shopping. Wee!

I still haven’t found any wireless to hook my laptop up to. I have around 200 photos sitting on my computer, but no way to upload them yet. Hopefully soon.

Time to go drink extra strong coffee and look at sneakers!

We arrived in Monaco two days ago, after taking the high-speed train from Brussels to Nice (Nice is only 20 minutes by train from Monaco). It is really warm here, but it’s really beautiful in the shade, by the ocean, and at night. I’m a wuss though, and after a while in the sun I get headaches. Thanks Dad, I know I got that from you!

People here are super, super friendly, although most don’t speak English. Again, I am lucky I have P with me to translate. And I remember a few words from high school French – although probably not enough to get by alone (Je ne parle pas Francais! Je ne comprends pas! Je suis stupide!). There are also loads of really rich people here (surprise, surprise), and loads of fancy yachts in the marina.

I can’t check my email and might not be able to for a few more days. (Weeks? I hope not. Or I might cry.) Who cares anyway, I’m off galavanting around the European countryside. And now, I’m going to take a boatride around Monaco in a catamarang with glass viewing panels on the lower level. Rock.

Note to world: Buy your long-distance train tickets before you arrive in Europe.

I’d been researching my tickets for while before I left the States and knew what pass I was going to get. I hadn’t bought it already because my parents went to Europe a few years ago and said you could buy them at any train station for only a few hundred dollars. I looked online and found the price and where I could buy them, which wasn’t in Antwerp, so P and I caught a train to Brussels today to get them.

Right, so if you’re a European citizen or resident, you can get an Inter Rail unlimited travel train pass which lasts a month and costs just under €400. If you are not a European citizen or resident, you need to get a Eurail pass (there are loads of different ones you can get). However, what the website doesn’t tell you is that you will save HUNDREDS of dollars if you buy them outside of Europe. So, I ended up getting a Eurail Flexipass Youth (I feel like such a kid) which gives me 10 days of travel over a 2 month period. For €600. €600! It was less than US$600 on the website, so I really got the shaft on that. Also, it turns out that the Eurail pass doesn’t let you travel to the Czech Republic while the Inter Rail pass does – however you can just buy an extra ticket – but I’m not paying more than the €1,000,000,000 I’ve already spent on train tickets. Oh well, I learnt my lesson! I’m going to be flat broke before I know it.

Anyway, I leave tomorrow for the rest of my trip. Because P and I decided to spend extra time in Antwerp we’ve had to change our travel plan quite a bit. We decided to catch a high-speed train down to Nice and Monaco, and to stay there until we leave for the Sonar festival in Barcelona as we suddenly realised we had to be there in only a few days. Doh! We also decided not to go to Portugal on this trip because it’s a really long journey from Barcelona and then back to Italy. So, Barcelona back to Monaco, and then on to Italy and wherever else we end up.

So, I leave for Brussels in about 7 hours, and I haven’t packed yet. I should probably do that. I really should stop procrastinating (but at least I have my tickets now!).