Sunny Spain

My Ryanair flight goes to Barcelona (Girona). For those unfamiliar, Ryanair uses city names somewhat liberally, for example the flight was from Brussels (Charleloi). However Charleloi is a completely different city, about as far south away from Brussels as the country goes. The Ryanair flight to Vienna (the capital of Austria), actually lands in Bratislava (the Capital of Slovakia).

Most Ryanair airport cities are godawful places which offered up cheap land for airport development. Girona however is a charming small city with a history dating back centuries, so I opt to wander around for the day. Unfortunately anti-terror laws meant that the public lockers had been closed, meaning I had nowhere to stow my enormous backpack, so I walked with it, up hills to the monastery, crossing the bridges and walking the cobbled stones, feeling every ounce of my pack in the sunny heat. All the shops are closed during the hottest part of the day, it’s a clever idea, but when you want to buy a bottle of water its somewhat more irritating. By far the most interesting sight were the Arab baths, which were in fact built by romans.

I meet Tatevik in Barcelona, we had rented a flat in the Gothic area for the few days, right by the Picasso Museum. We spend our days walking to the sights of the cities, the various Gotti buildings, the massive gardens and citadel, and of course the Ramblas. We do a pub crawl and a cooking class, and then end with an afternoon on the beach.

We ride to the airport together, we’re both boarding planes, Tatevik for Tallinn, I’m headed for Madrid. The goodbyes are as hard as ever.


Arriving in Madrid I wander down to my hostel, a very open concept place with lots of friendly travelers. I meet some Americans and a couple Aussies and we walk to the palace, the main avenues, and the parks. Its very stately but much less vibrant. We take the time to see the priceless art the city had collected, but I was sorely disappointed I couldn’t see the Guernica, because some Museums don’t open on Tuesdays (...)