When we arrived in Paris there was nobody checking passports. We just walked outside and got a taxi. I actually printed my ticket from a kiosk in Germany and never once did I even remove my passport. We took the taxi to our hotel near the red light district. Jin found the hotel. It was a nice classic Parisian joint with all the fixins. It was the Eldorado hotel.
There was a cute little garden outside and a restaurant attached. We had to walk through the kitchen to get to our ground level floor just outside the garden. We decided to have dinner at the restaurant. It turned out to be the best food we had the whole time in Paris. We got in late and decided to tuck in early for the big day ahead.
In the morning we decided to have the "breakfast," which was included. What they meant to say was a baugette with assorted marmalades. I mean just a baugette. Nothing toasted, no eggs, just the bread. I saw people walking around Paris with just a baugette under their arms tearing off a piece here and there. Straight up. Just eating a baugette. The stereotype is true. Tell your friends.
The trains were on strike so we decided to take the walking tour of Paris. Our first stop was the Arc de triomphe. We walked down champs elysees for awhile and had a 6 euro shitty coffee. While we were in the cafe we watched to labor workers on their break smoke about 6 cigarettes or so and just put them out and the bottom of their shoe and drop it on the ground. Apparently that's how Paris rolls.
So just to make sure if you're going to Paris bring a baugette and put your cigarettes out on the floor no matter where you are.
From there we deiced to see what the Eiffel Tower looked like. We walked up the steps of a museum/theatre/university thing to get a better look at it.
We walked through the park and waited for a bus that went towards Notre Dame. Most of the buses weren't running either so we caught which ever one was. Notre Dame was beautiful and probably the most excellent 'site' we saw in Paris. Inside the cathedrale was even more breathtaking. I had seen pictures in art history class with the flying buttresses and what not, but it was truly magnificent in person.
From here we stopped off at the Lourve. We decided we didn't really care much to walk through it though. I did although want to see where Tom Hanks had stolen the secret treasure or whatever happened in there!
So it had been a long day and we went down to the metro to see how bad it was. We waited about 10 minutes for a train to come by. Sure enough the train came rolling in with people smushed up against the windows. The doors opened. No one got off. Some people pushed their way on. I looked at Jin and we both thought, I don't want to do that. The doors closed and I swear there was one guy essentially horizontal to the ground with his ipod in one hand and face pressed firmly against the glass.
We walked some more and got a cab back to the hotel. Later that night we went to the Bastille to check out some French Hipster bars. They were pretty cool, but Paris doesn't apparently drink like Germany. The places were fairly empty and they closed at 2. I know you can find clubs and what not open later and it was a Wednesday, but so far Germany doesn't really care what time or what day of the week it is to drink.
The next day we moved our luggage to a hotel in the Bastille. This hotel was more of the 'let's just get it over with' types. Luckily it was located next to all the cool bars and shops. We took it easy that day just walking around seeing what there was to see.
Around our hotel were many little cafes with happy hour special. I had found a few I wanted to go back to and they ended up being quite fun. I remember the bartender at one bar was really happy it was Friday. I ordered mojitos for me and Jin and watched all the Parisians mingle. Across the street from that place was another place going off.
I don't really remember much of what it looked like, but I do remember going downstairs to find a bathroom and instead finding a basement with a 60s style French Mod band playing. It was like a train tunnel with a bar one end and the stage on the other. I think the place was called "Pink's" or at least there was a flyer there that said so and I wanted it to be called Pink's.
The next morning we headed out of Paris to catch our flight to Barcelona. I don't remember when it became hard for my to fly. You would think things would get easier as you get older. I had never had a problem with flying, but now days I just always wonder. Maybe it's just the cheap Euro hopper flights I've been taking lately.
Barcelona is nice. We rented a 3 room apartment for 3 days in the old fisherman's quarters. The place was nice and cozy. Perfect for a little get away. We were just meters from the ocean and the weather couldn't have been better for late October. Reminded me of LA.
We rented a scooter and took that thing all over the place. From Montjuic to eixample to where ever. That was probably the most fun part of the trip. Having my girl behind me on top of 125-cc's of pleasure. Oh yeah. But for real, scooters are really fun and I think I'm going to buy one when I get back to LA. They're nice for just around town stuff and they get a million miles to the gallon.
We took it relatively easy in Barcelona. With the beach and the palm trees, the ambience just told us to relax. So we did. We didn't quite find the night life until later that week, but that was ok. I was just happy to ride around on a moped and have a place to call our own. It was nice just going home to an apartment and imagining what life in BCN would be like.
It's a young crowd with lots of cool ideas. There was a start up innovative idea everywhere you turned. And things were cheap! On the beach were these train car like containers that opened up onto the boardwalk as a little bar. It looked simpler than anything to make and run. Inside the scooter store were these over sized bean bag pillows you could just hang out on. Every building had some crazy architecture to it and some law of industrial design had been implied. Pretty much if you want a business that has men riding around on unicycles on the beach selling ice cream cones, then you should do it in Barcelona.
We had 3 days in the apartment and then 3 more days of doing whatever we wanted. We hadn't got any hotels and I wanted to rent a car and drive up to the Pyrenees Mountains to see the beautiful foliage of the season. I knew it was the off season, but nonetheless the mountains are forever calling me.
Driving through Spain was quite a trip. From Barcelona we drove up North toward the French border about 500km. Along the way we stopped off in some small Spanish towns just to see what they were like. Nothing could prepare me for what I even think I was supposed to see. I mean a small Spanish town in the middle of no where. Go ahead imagine it.
What really got me were all the ruins. You would see the skeleton of an old town on the side of a mountain. Maybe a river had dried up. Maybe the leader was really stubborn and didn't settle his town by the river at all and everyone was like, well whatever let's just stop traveling. Who knows.
We ended up driving all the way up to a ski town called Formigal. It was getting late and I didn't know what to do, but I just wanted to keep driving for some reason. Jin thought otherwise and I probably should have listened to her, but I just wanted to get to my preordained destination in my head. Guy style. Once we got up to Formigal, of course it was a ski town, but a ski town in late October. There was no body there and it was kinda spooky. I mean what's going on Big Bear in October? Not a whole lot I imagine. So we went back down to Sabinanago and got a pretty decent hotel.
The next morning we were greeted with the sun and the vibrant colors of the trees. Luckily the only station that we could get throughout the whole trek was classical and it fit with the changing scenery.
How were the roads you ask? Amazing, especially in a 1.2L 60hp Polo. Oh yeah. Straight sex that thing.
We found the Ordesa National Park just outside a small city Torla. Jin mentioned an old man walking in every little city we passed through. There would maybe be some cows or sheep and and old man. No one else but the old man. It's like he came with the city.
At the national park we walked along a trail for awhile, but being unsure of our next move we didn't stay long. I wish we would've stayed longer now, but it just wasn't as easy as driving up to Yosemite and getting a cabin or something. Most places were closed and there was absolutely nobody in any city. I know this might sound exciting and just what a secluded adventure should be. But after 3 months of living outside of the US and not being able to speak Spanish or any other language for that matter, and not really having any means of reading anything to figure out where to go or what to do, can make it a little hard to have a preemptive spontaneous vacation.
Visit the Flickr Site
for more pictures of Ordesa, there are too many.
Nevertheless we saw some beautiful country side. Based on my fear of not knowing where to stay and not having the proper equipment to have a mountainy adventure we decided to head back in towards the Mediterranean. The drive back down wasn't so bad, but it was getting dark and we didn't have any reservations so we decided to stop in Taragonna just outside BCN to see what was going on there.
The city had some of the world's most well preserved artifacts of the Roman Empire. It was crazy to see some things that had lasted for over 2000 years. And to imagine inhumane structure of the empire. We didn't stay long and headed up the coast to BCN.
Luckily on our drive up the coast we decided to stop off at a random beach area called Sitges. It turned out to be the location of St. Sebation Beaches. We had some of the best food, I thought, in Spain here and the waiter was funny and knew I was from LA. I was like, huh? But anyway I thought the little town was really pretty and this was one of my favorite places throughout the trip. I don't know what it was, but I remember it just happened. Jin and I were hungry, she looked at the map and said ok here's an average sized dot. I looked up and the exit was there and said ok.
It had been hard for me to let go and just experience things. I had been planning everything. From the hotels to the sites to everything, and I had forgotten how to just let the journey lead you. I finally reached this realization as I started to not care what Sitges had at all and just give it a chance. Of course maybe it was beautiful but it was also because I let go.
We arrived at our super posh hotel that I had reserved for the last two nights in BCN. Not only was it brand new and designery, but it was affordable too! In this regard, I like to plan things like this. It was called the Prestige Congressional and they have different hotels in a couple cities around Spain. The had taken the approach of Blue Ocean Strategy and made everything user friendly. They even had a Segway in the lobby you could take with you or rent.
From here we took it pretty easy. We found a fun little Japanese Udon restaurant playing a funny Japanese movie about cooking noodles. I forget the name but Jin knows it.
The next days I got a little sick from all the traveling and just watched Premier league soccer at the Hotel. We went out for one last stint in the Born area. On our last day we finally found some cool bars and restaurants. The other places we found were cool too, but I guess the 'area' in born is the place to be. We ate at a little diner that was trying to emulate itself around a classic American Diner. I didn't realize this until I read the walls and thought it just looked like it would be a cool restaurant in Silverlake. The food was excellent and it made Jin and I want our own little cafe. So in effect we would model our diner after the one we found in Spain. Which was inspired from something the owner saw in America. So it would be the American diner translated through Spain and then back to America. No one would ever know.
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