February, 2010

• 25 February

  Rainy days with Gibraltar’s best tour guide

  Getting to the Rock was such a long process to figure out, with the little information online about getting to Gibraltar from Sevilla. There is a deliberate ploy by the Spanish to block out tourism and access to Gibraltar which includes stalling vehicles at a porous border, ensuring lineups to leave Gibraltar as well as not having any signs outside La …
• 25 February

  Why is getting to Gibraltar from Spain so hard?

    For the last three days, I have tried to figure out an economical, time efficient way to get from Sevilla to Gibraltar. There is very little established information on how to get to Sevilla to Gibraltar. A combination of train travel and bus travel exist but nothing that definitely explains how one should go about doing the trip. This …
• 24 February

  Flamenco greatness, Jewish genocide and Trini Tapas conversation … all in a day’s work in Sevilla

  Every country has its weird or different signs, but I wasn’t able to figure out what the following sign meant. Even the kids running with their briefcases … seriously, are Spanish kids so serious that they have briefcases? This just made me laugh, and the toaster on the sign made it doubly confusing. I have no idea what this sign is …
• 24 February

  A two day itinerary of Barcelona without museums.

  

  Barcelona is definitely one of my favorite cities, in spite of the all the hype about La Sagrada Familia. There are a number of reasons why this is just a great city to spend 2 full days visiting and touring: FC Barcelona Gaudi influence over everything including the dog Great museums Olympic Village However my visit through Barcelona did not …
• 22 February

  Mezquita of Cordoba … nuff said

  After paying a couple hundred bucks for a Eurail pass for Spain/Portugal, I’m definitely getting good use out of the pass. Going from Sevilla to Cordoba is only 45 mins by AVE (Spain’s answer to the TGV) and instead of paying the 45 euros each way for “Preferente class”, it only cost me 10 euros for the reservation.  Getting to …
• 22 February

  Why waiting for 5pm everyday can suck …

  There is a lot of romance associated with backpacking. Tons of stories of young adults who either just are in or just finished university, making their first backpacking trips across Europe. It’s become a right of passage and when joining the workforce, it gives those who’ve travelled, extra confidence that they know a bit of the world, since they had …
• 20 February

  Catalan Terrorist Pigeons in Placa Catalunya

  For some reason, every iconic picture of Europe I saw in travel brochures involved some low angle shot of a pigeon in a square or plaza with the background of some European travel sight. Why re-invent, when you can copy the same shots? One really good reason … these pictures don’t tell you about the inherent dangers of Plaza/Square/Placa/Zocalo pigeon …
• 20 February

  Andorra … might as well be Pandora

  I had all these plans for Andorra. I would get to the airport and take the 3 1/2 – 4 hour bus ride from Barcelona through the Pyrenees into the winterland that is Andorra. Once I got there, I would roam around for 3 hours, take a couple pictures and be back in Barcelona and then head out to Seville. …
• 20 February

  Touring Nou Camp…

  After having a great experience in touring Santiago Bernabeu, it would be a disservice if I didn’t tour Camp Nou, if just for a comparison and to say which tour and stadium is better. Initially after reading some bad reviews on the experience, I was quite hesitant to make the trip to the stadium since it is a trek away …
• 19 February

  Why are the best things in life, always the simplest?

  After a hard day of climbing mountains, running and hiking all over Barcelona, trying not to die of rain induced hypothermia and going all day without food, because I am terrified of the “manteca”, “queso” and “leche” that might be in my food, I get to Park Güell and there is music, people, dancing and bubbles?!?! I could write about …