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.