Fullerton, USA
Well, it's over. I guess I could write about the things that happened to me while carrying a fake Syrian passport through four different airports, but those stories are better in person. On my US customs form where it asked for countries visited I just started listing them counting backwards from Spain, and got up to Finland before I ran out of space. I just left it like this and desperately hoped they wouldn't ask any questions, because I really didn't want to answer to what I was doing in the Middle East. When I got off the plane in LAX I realized that I had just gone through the gate located immediately next to the gate through which I had left en route to Cairo three months ago. How fucking mundane. Yesterday I signed and dated my tax returns, but accidentaly wrote the day before the month, as I've been doing it for the past three months. I was in 20 different countries. I stayed in 39 different hotels and 13 different hostels. I took 15 flights on 9 different airlines and in all was in 19 different airports. I took 23 trains, 2 ferries, 17 buses, 10 autorickshaws and 80 taxis. I used 4 municipal buses and 9 different metro systems.
16 April 2009
13 April 2009
Madrid, Spain
I´m coming home. When I first left, I envisioned this trip lasting about one year. But three months has been enough. This is tomorrow for me:
British Airways Madrid - London-Heathrow
American Airlines London-Heathrow - Boston
American Airlines Boston - Los Angeles
One month ago I was in St. Petersburg
Two months ago I was in Muscat.
Three months ago I was in Alexandria.
I´m coming home. When I first left, I envisioned this trip lasting about one year. But three months has been enough. This is tomorrow for me:
British Airways Madrid - London-Heathrow
American Airlines London-Heathrow - Boston
American Airlines Boston - Los Angeles
One month ago I was in St. Petersburg
Two months ago I was in Muscat.
Three months ago I was in Alexandria.
12 April 2009
Madrid, Spain
It´s good to be in Madrid...AGAIN. I love to be snob and point out that fact, since this is one the few cities I have visited more than once in my life. Today I went to the Prado...AGAIN. Then I went to the Royal Palace...AGAIN.
One month ago I was on a train to St. Petersburg.
Two months ago I was in Dubai.
Three months ago I was in Cairo.
It´s good to be in Madrid...AGAIN. I love to be snob and point out that fact, since this is one the few cities I have visited more than once in my life. Today I went to the Prado...AGAIN. Then I went to the Royal Palace...AGAIN.
One month ago I was on a train to St. Petersburg.
Two months ago I was in Dubai.
Three months ago I was in Cairo.
11 April 2009
10 April 2009
Madrid, Spain
I have to admit, I was a little sceptical about Spain, seeing as it´s such a fad "in" travel destination right now, but I am really enjoying it. I realized in Barcelona that it was Semana Santa, something I totally had not factored into my travel plans. Last night in Zaragoza I started seeing people walking all over the city in those weird robes and carrying the wizard hoods and realized that they were assembling for some kind of function. Then later I heard a bunch of noise so went towards it to investigate, and ran right into a fucking procession of one of the brotherhoods (even though at least half were women) that carry the saints through the streets. I was thrilled since I thought they only do this in Sevilla. What always shocks American tourists is that the outfits and hoods they wear are identical to those used by the Ku Klux Klan. Of course, the KKK stole this from them and they´ve been doing it for hundreds of years before them, so it´s not fair to associate this Spanish custom with racism. Still, I think it´s hilarious and since I don´t know what these people are actually called, I will just be the ignorant American that I am and call them Klansmen. It lasted a long time with a lot of drumming, then at the end a bunch of people jumped in the streets to follow the procession. I jumped right in with them. They moved very slowly through the streets and then stopped in one place where they got out microphones and started giving some kind of a speech. This got kind of boring so I left and got a donner kebab. Going back the way I came I ran right into another procession, and this one was a hell of a lot bigger. I think they´re different brotherhoods that represent different neighborhoods of the city. Of course wikipedia would have the answer, I just don´t actually care. In this one they were all wearing purple Klansmen outfits. At this point the crowds gathered were massive. Once they passed I tried to get out of there, but the police had blocked off most of the major streets even to pedestrian traffic, because more processions were coming. The sea of people brought me to another street where yet another procession was going down, and this one was the longest so far, with a huge float of some saint at the end iluminated by at least 100 electric candles. Before the saint there was a line of Klansmen carrying staffs that at the top had a big orb with the words "Lágrima I", followed by "Lágrima II", "Lágrima III" and so on until I think "Lágrima VII." Lágrima means teardrop, but I don´t really know what this represents. Did Jesus shed seven tears on the cross or something? I am amazed by the number of Chinese immigrants here. It´s just kind of strange to hear Chinese people speaking Spanish. There are also a lot of immigrants from Latin America. In an internet cafe yesterday in Zaragoza I could tell that the woman at the counter was from Latin America by her accent. Then I had to print something and she had some difficulty getting the printer to work, so we ended up talking for a little bit. She was from Venezuela. I didn´t even ask her why she lived in Spain, she volunteered the information: because of Chavez. She told me that right now there are a lot of Venezuelans living in Spain because of Chavez. I once heard that Madrid is considered ugly, but I highly disagree. I think it´s very nice. And being here has actually made me wonder just what IS the big deal with Barcelona?
One month ago I was in Moscow.
Two months ago I was in Doha.
I have to admit, I was a little sceptical about Spain, seeing as it´s such a fad "in" travel destination right now, but I am really enjoying it. I realized in Barcelona that it was Semana Santa, something I totally had not factored into my travel plans. Last night in Zaragoza I started seeing people walking all over the city in those weird robes and carrying the wizard hoods and realized that they were assembling for some kind of function. Then later I heard a bunch of noise so went towards it to investigate, and ran right into a fucking procession of one of the brotherhoods (even though at least half were women) that carry the saints through the streets. I was thrilled since I thought they only do this in Sevilla. What always shocks American tourists is that the outfits and hoods they wear are identical to those used by the Ku Klux Klan. Of course, the KKK stole this from them and they´ve been doing it for hundreds of years before them, so it´s not fair to associate this Spanish custom with racism. Still, I think it´s hilarious and since I don´t know what these people are actually called, I will just be the ignorant American that I am and call them Klansmen. It lasted a long time with a lot of drumming, then at the end a bunch of people jumped in the streets to follow the procession. I jumped right in with them. They moved very slowly through the streets and then stopped in one place where they got out microphones and started giving some kind of a speech. This got kind of boring so I left and got a donner kebab. Going back the way I came I ran right into another procession, and this one was a hell of a lot bigger. I think they´re different brotherhoods that represent different neighborhoods of the city. Of course wikipedia would have the answer, I just don´t actually care. In this one they were all wearing purple Klansmen outfits. At this point the crowds gathered were massive. Once they passed I tried to get out of there, but the police had blocked off most of the major streets even to pedestrian traffic, because more processions were coming. The sea of people brought me to another street where yet another procession was going down, and this one was the longest so far, with a huge float of some saint at the end iluminated by at least 100 electric candles. Before the saint there was a line of Klansmen carrying staffs that at the top had a big orb with the words "Lágrima I", followed by "Lágrima II", "Lágrima III" and so on until I think "Lágrima VII." Lágrima means teardrop, but I don´t really know what this represents. Did Jesus shed seven tears on the cross or something? I am amazed by the number of Chinese immigrants here. It´s just kind of strange to hear Chinese people speaking Spanish. There are also a lot of immigrants from Latin America. In an internet cafe yesterday in Zaragoza I could tell that the woman at the counter was from Latin America by her accent. Then I had to print something and she had some difficulty getting the printer to work, so we ended up talking for a little bit. She was from Venezuela. I didn´t even ask her why she lived in Spain, she volunteered the information: because of Chavez. She told me that right now there are a lot of Venezuelans living in Spain because of Chavez. I once heard that Madrid is considered ugly, but I highly disagree. I think it´s very nice. And being here has actually made me wonder just what IS the big deal with Barcelona?
One month ago I was in Moscow.
Two months ago I was in Doha.
09 April 2009
Zaragoza, Spain
My favorite part of Barcelona was Barceloneta and all the new shit by the beach that they built for the Olympics. It´s touristy, but at least you can breath there. Who would have thought that Spain would have the best railway system in Europe, better than France and Germany? Granted, the train to Barcelona was a piece of shit, as was Barcelona´s Estació de França, but today I took a high speed "Ave" train from Barcelona´s main station, Sants Estació. The station was like no train station I´ve ever seen and functioned more like an airport, with a security check and a boarding gate to the track! Definitely the best train I´ve ever been on, and almost as fast as the TGV.
One month ago I was in Almaty.
Two months ago I was in Doha.
My favorite part of Barcelona was Barceloneta and all the new shit by the beach that they built for the Olympics. It´s touristy, but at least you can breath there. Who would have thought that Spain would have the best railway system in Europe, better than France and Germany? Granted, the train to Barcelona was a piece of shit, as was Barcelona´s Estació de França, but today I took a high speed "Ave" train from Barcelona´s main station, Sants Estació. The station was like no train station I´ve ever seen and functioned more like an airport, with a security check and a boarding gate to the track! Definitely the best train I´ve ever been on, and almost as fast as the TGV.
One month ago I was in Almaty.
Two months ago I was in Doha.
08 April 2009
Barcelona, Spain
In Marseille I saw lots of campaign posters for Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. I would like to say something about France, since I have now been there twice in my life. Both times were wonderful. I have no idea where the rumor about the French being rude came from. I have never experienced this. I took a French train from Marseille to Montpellier, and transfered to a Spanish train to Barcelona. The couple sitting across from me started talking to me in Castilian, which I could understand, but when they spoke amongst themselves I didn't understand a word, so I hoped that they were speaking Catalan. But no, they were from Chile. OK, fair enough, out of all Spanish dialects Chilean is considered by far the ugliest and the most difficult to understand. The train stopped in Cerebere, the last town in France. I thought this would just be a normal stop, but all of a sudden the French Police Nationale were walking through the car demanding everybody's passport. WHAT???!!! My understanding of the Schengen Agreement was that this wasn't supposed to happen unless there was a terrorist attack or a World Cup. Since I crossed into Finland my passport hadn't been checked at a single border or airport. I guess this was probably normal, but I'm still not sure due to some things that happened on the Spanish side of the border (read on). Then the train just sat at Cerebere for a very long time, and nobody knew why. There was no explanation for the significant delay. Finally we got going again, only to a few minutes later stop again and an announcement was made that they would be switching the train for Spanish train gauges. WTF. This actually didn't take too long, and soon I saw signs in Castilian and Catalan and realized we had crossed the border. Annnouncements on board had been made in French and Castilian, but immediately after crossing the border they felt no need to speak French anymore, but added an announcement in Catalan after the Castilian announcement. Right after crossing the border we stopped in the first town in Spain. Soon it became apparent that this stop was also taking longer than normal. Then I heard some commotion from the next car, and a man exclaiming defensively in a frightened voice "¡no lo conozco! ¡no lo conozco!" The Chilean guy looked through the window and reported back that they were arresting somebody. Then I heard a woman talking loudly on a radio, spelling out names in the phonetic alphabet. They were Arab names. I immediately thought back to the passport check in France, and how I thought this wasn't supposed to happen unless there had been a terrorist attack. Realizing that the police were proceeding into our car, the Chileans got their passports ready. This wasn't necessary as they just came through, looked at everyone's face and demanded passports from the two Arabs in the car. Shit, a month ago I was being hassled by the police in Kazakhstan, but now in Europe my white ass is on the right side of things. Then later there was more commotion as several police officers were literally running through the train and all around the station, yelling loudly and talking on their radios as if they were actually in pursuit of somebody. I don´t know exactly how to describe it, but it wasn´t pretty. Finally, the train started moving again and everybody clapped. As we pulled out of the station I saw one of the guys they had arrested start to resist and they went all Guantanamo on his ass. We got into Barcelona well over an hour late and it was pouring rain. Today it´s just overcast. I came here with the intention of hating Barcelona, but I must admit it is pretty cool. But this is the problem. My God, it´s more touristy than Paris. It´s a Wednesday in April and I can´t move anywhere because there are so many tourists. I want to vomit seeing all these filthy backpackers with their RyanAir luggage tags. Of course I´m one of them, but the last thing I want to see is more of me, though this is inevitable anywhere in Europe. And then there are the French, and the Germans. I´m gonna be sick. The cool thing is that apparently I blend in here, since the Japanese tourists come up to me and ask me for directions, then take a picture of me. Just kidding about the picture, but you´d be willing to believe it. Some Spanish tourists even came up to me and said "hola, ¿eres de aquí, de Barcelona?" Even if Barcelona is a cool city, the things it´s famous for are stupid. Sagrada Familia is a hideous monstrosity. I want to say that Gaudí was an idiot, but actually I guess he was a genious to have designed the world´s ugliest building and gotten people to come from around the planet to come see it. And don´t even get me started on La Rambla. I walked down the entire thing and at the end thought "you´ve got to be kidding me." Why is that famous? Honestly, the Copenhagen Mermaid is cooler. At least you can get relatively cheap food here.
One month ago I was in Almaty.
Two months ago I was in Manama.
In Marseille I saw lots of campaign posters for Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. I would like to say something about France, since I have now been there twice in my life. Both times were wonderful. I have no idea where the rumor about the French being rude came from. I have never experienced this. I took a French train from Marseille to Montpellier, and transfered to a Spanish train to Barcelona. The couple sitting across from me started talking to me in Castilian, which I could understand, but when they spoke amongst themselves I didn't understand a word, so I hoped that they were speaking Catalan. But no, they were from Chile. OK, fair enough, out of all Spanish dialects Chilean is considered by far the ugliest and the most difficult to understand. The train stopped in Cerebere, the last town in France. I thought this would just be a normal stop, but all of a sudden the French Police Nationale were walking through the car demanding everybody's passport. WHAT???!!! My understanding of the Schengen Agreement was that this wasn't supposed to happen unless there was a terrorist attack or a World Cup. Since I crossed into Finland my passport hadn't been checked at a single border or airport. I guess this was probably normal, but I'm still not sure due to some things that happened on the Spanish side of the border (read on). Then the train just sat at Cerebere for a very long time, and nobody knew why. There was no explanation for the significant delay. Finally we got going again, only to a few minutes later stop again and an announcement was made that they would be switching the train for Spanish train gauges. WTF. This actually didn't take too long, and soon I saw signs in Castilian and Catalan and realized we had crossed the border. Annnouncements on board had been made in French and Castilian, but immediately after crossing the border they felt no need to speak French anymore, but added an announcement in Catalan after the Castilian announcement. Right after crossing the border we stopped in the first town in Spain. Soon it became apparent that this stop was also taking longer than normal. Then I heard some commotion from the next car, and a man exclaiming defensively in a frightened voice "¡no lo conozco! ¡no lo conozco!" The Chilean guy looked through the window and reported back that they were arresting somebody. Then I heard a woman talking loudly on a radio, spelling out names in the phonetic alphabet. They were Arab names. I immediately thought back to the passport check in France, and how I thought this wasn't supposed to happen unless there had been a terrorist attack. Realizing that the police were proceeding into our car, the Chileans got their passports ready. This wasn't necessary as they just came through, looked at everyone's face and demanded passports from the two Arabs in the car. Shit, a month ago I was being hassled by the police in Kazakhstan, but now in Europe my white ass is on the right side of things. Then later there was more commotion as several police officers were literally running through the train and all around the station, yelling loudly and talking on their radios as if they were actually in pursuit of somebody. I don´t know exactly how to describe it, but it wasn´t pretty. Finally, the train started moving again and everybody clapped. As we pulled out of the station I saw one of the guys they had arrested start to resist and they went all Guantanamo on his ass. We got into Barcelona well over an hour late and it was pouring rain. Today it´s just overcast. I came here with the intention of hating Barcelona, but I must admit it is pretty cool. But this is the problem. My God, it´s more touristy than Paris. It´s a Wednesday in April and I can´t move anywhere because there are so many tourists. I want to vomit seeing all these filthy backpackers with their RyanAir luggage tags. Of course I´m one of them, but the last thing I want to see is more of me, though this is inevitable anywhere in Europe. And then there are the French, and the Germans. I´m gonna be sick. The cool thing is that apparently I blend in here, since the Japanese tourists come up to me and ask me for directions, then take a picture of me. Just kidding about the picture, but you´d be willing to believe it. Some Spanish tourists even came up to me and said "hola, ¿eres de aquí, de Barcelona?" Even if Barcelona is a cool city, the things it´s famous for are stupid. Sagrada Familia is a hideous monstrosity. I want to say that Gaudí was an idiot, but actually I guess he was a genious to have designed the world´s ugliest building and gotten people to come from around the planet to come see it. And don´t even get me started on La Rambla. I walked down the entire thing and at the end thought "you´ve got to be kidding me." Why is that famous? Honestly, the Copenhagen Mermaid is cooler. At least you can get relatively cheap food here.
One month ago I was in Almaty.
Two months ago I was in Manama.
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