Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Placebo

The concert was moderately good. They did not communicate with the audience and it was just a little bit too loud, but the true 16-year old fans seemed to be enjoying themselves. Every me, every you and Special K were the only songs that got me going.

Monday, May 28, 2007

Power nap

I’m not sure how I do it, but each time I feel like taking a nap in the office and lie down on the couch, I always manage to nap exactly 15 minutes. I check the watch every time before and after. Not 18 minutes or 10 minutes, always 15. It usually happens around 2 or 3 o’clock. Can't figure out the logic behind it…

Friday, May 25, 2007

Catalonia travel diary – Catalonia & Castellon

Saturday
We got the car, a bus really – Mercedes Benz, awful blue colour though. Magnus took the responsibilities of the driver, I was almost settled on the seat behind the driver, ready to take a little nap, when Alain decided the most logical of us should read the map…and offered me! Suddenly I am the logical one? Please! No sleeping in car for me then, though I’m the best at sleeping in car. Anyways, I managed very well with the map, even if I say so myself. We were takin it really easy, no plans, no goals, just to look around, chill and enjoy ourselves. The first day it meant taking a look at almost all the seaside little cities. Had lunch in a town called Villanova, where we had a pleasant surprise as a 10-year old boy new Estonia and Tallinn and we got the best map of Catalonia from the local tourist information office. Shopped for food and for the evening ended up in San Salvador, because it sounded cool. Found a camping place for the night. Thought they’d offer us a bungalo or sth similar but what we got was a caravan, meant for the family of 4 but accommodated 6 of us easily. As the beach was right across the street, we took our sleeping bags and food and wine and had a midnight picnic up to 2 a’clock…or so.
Sunday
Sunday we spent some time on the beach but were not patient enough to do it for long and kept on moving. Found a nice little 100 000 city Tarragona (again we first thought it bigger) with amazing view. Oh, and we saw the cemetery. I just have to include a pic of it, it’s so amazing and we still haven’t solved the mystery of how they bury people there. I mean, there are alcoves big enough for holding caskets, so they probably do not cremate them and then there are burial alcoves for a family or a couple. So they put 1 in and if the other dies later, open it and add the second casket!? I am practically the queen of internet and I still haven’t found an answer. For the night we settled in Sant Carles. I promise, we didn’t pick this one in anyway, it’s not like we were choosing some sanctuary places, it just happened this way. We found a nice hostel by the help of local rullnokk (drivin a BMW of course), who only spoke Catalan, but body language always helps and he was nice enough to drive in front of us and lead us there. In the evening we searched out the only open bar in town (somehow places tend to be closed on Sunday nights in small places). Made friends with Brasilian barmaid and staid until they closed the place.
Kox, Maku and Ane:)
Monday
The next day we kept moving and decided it was time to see a bigger city again. Valencia seemed a bit too far but so conveniently on the way was Castellon de la Plana. This finally gave me the reason for enthusiasm. It was an absolutely adorable town – nice houses, small streets, tidy, and the best part was that we were definitely the only tourists in town. However, the fact that it wasn’t so touristic made it harder to find a cheap hotel. But as good things happen to good people we found it right on time. I think it was almost exactly 9 p.m. and this place closed the reception at 9, but I only noticed that later. After settling down we went out on town again. Good luck finding a place on Monday night. We had to settle for a kebab place for a late night snack and were almost on our way back to the hostel…yet took a couple of drinks for the road and miraculously found 2 bars which were open – they were called The Artists and The Comics. I think we chose The Comics. The first thing we saw after entering was a transvestite sitting at the bar. I guess it was this guy’s way of spending the evenings – donning a red dress, a wig and some make-up and going to a bar. I’m quite sure that during the daytime he was a normal guy workin in some office or a shop, because his act was incomplete. He hadn’t even shaved his legs. Well, so we were sitting there and having some drinks, when Allan suddenly noted “Did you notice that woman is wearing a wig.” Khm, khm, excuse me, but he is a man, and that is very obvious:) I blame it on the alcohol because otherwise I worry for Allan, should he ever travel alone, especially in..let’s say… Thailand.
Tuesday
Sob! It’s going home day. Did some final shopping, food for the airport and some delicacies for taking home and off we went. For the way back we took the motorway and that is where we had to pay 3 times in total amount of 23,4 euros. Grrr. Reached the BRN airport, sent the postcards, got on the plane and in no time reached the Stansted in London. Found a nice spot for spending the night, had our airport picnic and got a couple of hours of sleep on the floor. Thank the almighty that we’d brought the sleeping bags with us. The next morning the iron bird brought us back home.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Catalonia travel diary - Barcelona

Photo by: Alain
Tuesday
On Tuesday we arrived rather late in the evening and headed for the flat, which was situated oh so conveniently in the very center of the town – on La Rambla. Rather quickly renamed into Ra Lamba. The only downside was the constant noise coming from the street throughout day and night. I tell you, it’s probably worse than living next to railway.
We didn’t even bother unpacking, found a little corner shop (the Paki shop), bought some food and mixers and had our first welcome drinks. After that we smoothly went on to have our first night on town and walked all the way to the beach where we met 2 drunk girls from Holland. One of them glued from lips to an equally drunk American guy, the 2 of them practically having an intercourse. What was really cool, was that they had some bubbly, real glasses and strawberries. We ate the berries and took off. Met some drunk Canadians on our way home and took loads of pics
Find me and the boys on the pic;)
Wednesday
In the morning Kox and Alasti went to sort out the documents for Alasti’s passport, which, as we discovered in Tallinn airport, was about to expire in a couple of days! Me and the boys hit the city, saw most of the old town and did some shopping. In the evening, I – the mum – cooked some spaghetti Bolognese and it was about time to hit the town again. After wandering around aimlessly we had us directed to a local club called Apollo. It truly was local – the people, the music, everything. For your information, all the guys in Barcelona have the same haircut. Short at sides, longer at the back of the head, sometimes having a couple of dread locks in it. The modern mullet. Being, as we were, three blonde girls, we were getting lots of attention but somehow our boys were not very popular. Probably out of sheer sadness the guys staid up and drank in the flat until 9.30 in the morning. Now, when I’m tired I can sleep through all kinds of noise but it’s rather difficult to sleep when someone keeps coming to you with half hour intervals, shaking you and asking whether it’s okey, and whether i can sleep with them being so loud:)

Thursday
On Thursday, the boys needed their beauty sleep, the girls went out on town and I decided to go for the beach. Did some people watching, witnessed drugs and money exchanging owners, took a nap. Later the boys joined me on the beach, after which we saw some more city close to the beach area, had a drink and tapas at a small bar. Allan fell in love with a random girl sitting in the bar, we saw some more old town, ate some kebab and headed home. In the evening we sort of kind of managed to have a house party with some more Estonians – Pipi, Tommy and Annika – who happened to be in Barcelona as well. Annika and Pipi left on a rather staggering pace.

Friday
Friday was the main sightseeing day. Gaudi buildings, Sagrada Familia, Park Guell. I’d done it all before so it was old news for me, and however beautiful the sights are, I can’t find the same kind of enthusiasm in me, as for instance Allan was feeling. Then again, I guess it’s hard to find Alllan-Allan’s type of enthusiasm in anyone:) In park Guell we bought a couple of those head massage instruments, which the English call orgaminators. The name is rather fitting, I must say. We had some Sangria in a place called Mylka bar and headed home again. In the evening we somehow managed to have another house party, this time around we invited the neighbour over. It was nice to find out she was English, after we had tried to speak Spanish to her on the balcony for several times. Ilja fell in love, again! So we left him home and went on to a party in a club near the beach, called Catwalk. This is where we tried to convince the rather big and angular guys at the door that we were Kimi Räikkonen’s friends and we were on the list. We thought it a good idea, considering the Formula 1 race was coming up in BRN and all. We managed to get the girls in for free and the 2 guys had to buy the tickets. To compensate for that, we bought them drinks in the club. On our way home we found 2 Latvian chicks on the beach but ditched them as fast. Then we found some locals with a guitar and sang a couple of Robbie songs with them.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Catalonia travel diary - Intro

Click on the pic to get a closer look.
So we did some travelling. Let me introduce you to our travel party.
Me a.k.a Tigu a.k.a Mum
Jane a.k.a Dzhein a.k.a Ane a.k.a Alasti
Kox a.k.a Koxi a.k.a Koxi-Moxi
Magnus a.k.a Maku a.k.a Paki a.k.a Paco
Allan a.k.a Allan-Allan, a.k.a Alain a.k.a Ilja
Karle a.k.a Carlito a.k.a Garlic a.k.a Carlos

First we conquered Barcelona, then we took the whole Catalan seaside region and as a bonus, a bit of Castellon region as well. The only things we had planned previously were the flights, the car rental and the accommodation in BRN. All the rest we figured out on the way. The picture above shows you our route and marks the accommodation spots – Barcelona, San Salvador, Sant Carles and Castellon. First 4 days we spent in Barcelona and then started moving south, taking the toll-free roads close to the seaside and having a look at almost all the notable little towns and villages on the way. More of everything in the following posts but first, some important facts (Kiwi, I stole this idea from you, forgive me:)!

6 – number of people friends in the beginning of the journey
6 – number of people still friends with each other at the end of the journey
3 (at least) - number of transvestites met
¥ – amount of consumed alcohol
23,4 – amount of euros charged by the greedy catalan people for driving on their motorways
1 – number of passports with expired validation date
4 – number of my bed partners
0 – number of times any of us had sex
174 710 – population of Castellon city which we thought was at least a 500 000 city and which Alasti thought had a metro:)
1 – number of times we tried to get into a party, claiming to be Kimi Räikkonen’s friends and models
3 – number of people (out of 5) who got in for free after the aforementioned claim
Edit: Sources tell me that the number of sexual acts is wrong, but i am not sure if the sources know correctly:)

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Back in business

I've been away, cruisin Catalonia for a week or so. Expect some travel stoories soon enough. First i gotta get some sleep.................