montpellier, cerber, and beyond
so, after it being so nice in Nice, we expected a low...
but it didnt come in montpellier! we went to visit marie and alex sokosomething that i met on convoy last year. at that point, they didnt speak englisch or german, so it was hard to communicate. we did alot of gesturing and asked the same few questions over and over.. i could tell i liked them alot, though. this time they spoke englisch really well, and we were able to have some really great conversations. i wish we could of spent more time with them (espesially instead of cerber) but they are moving this weekend, and we didnt want to impose too long.
the first night we went with them to visit friends. the city itself was pretty cool, as well. the second day they showed us all around, until we both unfortunatly got sick.
moving on, still sick, we landed in cerber and realized it was a mistake right away. there was barely a train station, and no taxis (we called 3, but none had cars!!). the resort we ended up at also had nothing to do. the highlight was talking in french (kate can do that) to the shop owner. he also ended up to be the most friendly frenchman on the face of the earth, and when the hotel couldnt organize a way for us to get back to the train station, he closed his shop and drove us.
today we arrived in barcellona. and man, it is sooo uch better. we already went out for paella. our hostel is on las ramblas, and seems cool enough. they play good music, and when they couldnt find our reservation for the 8 bed dorm, they gave us a two bed room at the same price! so, any tips on barcellona are apreciated (murr and meg.. i look to you guys..)
and just to keep up the itenerary: from here we fly to teneriffe in the canary islands in five days. :-D
posted by xate @ 12:03
3 comments
3 Comments:
you must not be getting our emails... hmm...
bcn is SO wonderful. you must go to montjuic, the mountain with the palau nacional (wonderful museum). also, for sure get out of las rambles and walk around -- it's really touristy there. go to the renaissance quarter and shop in the markets, walk along the beach, go to the cathedral, do all the gaudi stuff. gaudi is fantastic. go to the park, the apartment and DO NOT MISS the sagrada familia.
if you can find it, there's a WONDERFUL chocolate shop called "cacao sampaka" -- wait, found a link for it here: http://www.cacaosampaka.com/
for tapas, avoid any touristy areas. tapas there are awful. the renaissance quarter has some wonderful restrauants that you can just pop into.
oh, if you're going to a lot of museums, they have an "art pass" that will let you get into 7 of the major museums for 20e (I think that's the price). It's a very good deal if you go to all the museums. there's the picasso museum, the contemporary, the miro, etc. we loved the tapies museum. it's pretty easy to pick up a pass and get the map to all the various museums. some of them are close to the price of the pass alone.
okay, that should keep you busy : )
if you get more time, take the cable car down from montjuic, that's really fun. murray and i loved just exploring on foot. it's such a lovely city. be sure to look out for all the roman ruins that have been built into postmodern architecture.
love you! have fun!
(we'll be in london at the end of june, then in athens for a few days and we'll spend july on tzia, an island about 2 hours from athens, then back in athens for a week in august and back to the states mid-august... then we move to providence, ri).
[from Murray on Meg's computer]
I agree with all that. Ask a local for a good tapas restraunt--don't just pop in some place unless you feel like getting burned. At restraunts, a good deal is to go with their "deal of the day."
WHATEVER YOU DO, DON"T MISS THE SAGRADA FAMILIA.
That chocolate store Meg mentioned is really good. They're famouse for their hot chocolates. Get the dark hot chocalate for sure. So thick your spoon will stand strait up.
Coffee is generally awesome everywhere (even for non-coffee drinkers).
Skip the Picasso museum. Terrible. They don't have anything. Skip the Miro Musuem and the Contemperary as well. But the big Art museum on Montjuic, the Palau National is awe inspiring and has glorious art.
Murray
Yo Cate,
Just thinking about you....okay so the fact that I went to play my AFrica CD from you and it came up "blank"!!!!!.......might have had something to do with it!
Anyways, I had been wondering about you as I hadn't heard anything for awhile. What a surprise! Seems like your summer is going great! Wow, what a great trip! Be refreshed in every way as it sounds like things have been pretty tough back at home base. God knows what his kids need.
I'm buried in the books this summer, but enjoying it quite a lot. I have the nicest little attic nook from which to scuttle away from the world and absord history and literature.
I'll keep in touch:)
In His Love,
Charissa
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