Spain

13 quick, random thoughts from our Mediterranean cruise

After spending the last 13 days on a cruise ship, I’m glad to be back on solid land. After all those days going on shore excursions, you get a little stir crazy being on the boat If you’re going to eat like a beast, you better workout and go on tons of shore excursions else you’re going to get fat …

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Barcelona graffiti artists are awesome …

Walking around Barcelona, you cannot help but be amazed by the quality of the graffiti on all the walls and shop shutters all around the city. The colour and intricacy of the designs really add to the overall flavour of the city. You can find Graffiti on walls, trains, in art gallerys, and even legally painted on the shutters of …

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Barcelona = bars, Jamon Iberico and Clara con Limón

I’ve been to Spain enough times now to know the following Breakfast wouldn’t be breakfast without a café con leche and summer wouldn’t be summer without sipping a clara con limón at a terraza on a long, hot night. Arguing over serranos and ibéricos is pointless but I’ll still try to argue with the best of ‘em. However I will …

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La Sagrada Familia …you’re still a piece of artistic crap

Well you would figure after visiting this thing for the 4th time, I would start to be sufficiently impressed. Nope! I’m always impressed by the sheer scale and size of this colossal art abortion, but nevertheless it is and will always remain to me … an abortion of art. However, I’m always laughing at the signs in there … and …

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What says “Happy Birthday” to me more than a 9 country trip?

So yes, it’s my birthday! For my birthday, I’ve planned out the following trip that is to happen over the next couple weeks. With a couple stops along the way, I’m going to be revisiting some places I’ve been to before and going to be in some new places. The high level itinerary involves the following booking : YYZ-BDL-EWR-HEL-EWR-PTY-GUA-PTY-EWR-BDL-YYZ-BCN-IST-BCN-YYZ High Level …

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Chiaroscuros?? Words you learn about while reading travel blogs …

Seriously, I never knew such a word existed till this morning.Chiaroscuro in art is characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for using contrasts of light to achieve a sense of volume in modeling three-dimensional objects such as the human …

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Holy Toledo …

One of the risks about traveling to any country in the “off-season” is that you might encounter unseasonal weather. For instance, going to Japan in the off-season and one is likely to encounter rainy days or going to Iceland in the “off-season” and one is likely to experience hail, rain, sleet with some sun in between – it is the …

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Yawn … Alhambra … Yawn …

One of the supposed highlights of my trip was heading to Granada to see the Alhambra. Now, wait! Before all the hate e-mail starts coming in, questioning my eyesight, my intelligence and my taste in Red Castles, I have to preface my comments by saying that the Alhambra is a well deserved tourist attraction. The experts and people who track …

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Adventures on buses, trains, ferries from Asilah to Porto

If you’re like me and like to subject yourself to various amounts of self flagellation and sado-masochist torture, then one can attempt to make the trip from Asilah to Porto without stopping. There are no direct flights from Asilah (obviously!) to anywhere; hence one must get either to Tangiers to Casablanca for flights to Portugal or Spain. Flying in Morocco …

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