There and back again, a traveler's tale

2 June 2009

Here be some music having to do with my conflicting feelings about going home. 1st half is the sadness to go, the second half is my excitement to arrive.

We had our final dinner on the 22^nd at this place called the Trobador. It was delicious! The layout of the restaurant was not convenient for our type of gathering though, which really sucked. We didn’t have our own room this time, so it was really hard to hear the speeches and awards that were being given out. B*Town was there, but he didn’t bring his gorgeous wife. Oh well. Elena came over and talked to us twice—once to tell us that 2 people’s bags had been stolen and the other time to tell us she was leaving and to study hard, but not too hard! They people who stole the bags had been wandering around our group and they stuck out like sore thumbs. We all knew they had no reason to be standing in the middle of our group looking around, and I’m surprised they didn’t realize the same. Well, anyways…finals were fine. I definitely gave them my all! Marianne’s last class was challenging, but great nonetheless. I turned in my final paper yesterday morning, and I am finally free! SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Tuesday night was Allie’s last. We all went to Oveja Negra and had a drink before the final goodbye. She cried and told me I had a heart of stone, haha! True, unfortunately. I transferred all of my money back to the US. The Caixa had been remodeled since I was last there, so I was a bit confused when I walked it. The guy asked me if I was going to watch the game and I asked if they were going to show it at Plaza Catalunya. He had no idea, but said sometimes they put the jumbo up! I had my last Boqueria experience. They had a lot of Barca flags up and there were lots of people doing the Barca cheers in the market. Since we were wearing our jerseys for the game, lots of people were yelling to us and cheering on the streets!

The Barca-Man U game was aweeesome! Instead of showing it at Plaza Catalunya (which apparently they did later), they had it playing on a jumbo down at Mare Magnum—the big mall down by the port. It was ridiculously crowded there! On the bridge over, we heard that Messi scored a goal and the people on the bridge went nuts! When we got

over there, there was nowhere we could stand to watch, so we tried going into the mall. No dice, but it was funny to see people running around the mall drinking and smoking. We found a good place to stand on the ot

her side and camped there for the night. Insane crowd and game. Ronaldo is a little bitch. He’s so cocky and arrogant, yugh! Long story short, WE WON! Barca has now won the Copa, the Liga, and is the new Campion! Insanity ensued in Plaza Catalunya. The people who had restaurants or plants along the rambla had to chain things together so no one took stuff or trashed it. There was a lot of dynamite, fire, drunken cheering, and people climbing light posts. After hanging out for a while, Amy and I decided to head home, but the way was blocked. So we had to go aaaaaall the way around the Plaza, which was practically impossible due to

the amount of people. I stepped on a piece of glass that got stuck in my foot (no biggie, just a small piece). Here are some Barca sayings or cheers:

“¡VISCA BARÇA!”

“Ese portugues…hijodeputa es” – in reference to Ronaldo

“OH LE LE! OH LA LA! Ser del Barca es, el millor que hi ha!”

“Copa, Liga, CAMPION!” – to the chorus from We Will Rock You

Thursday afternoon, we got all the way to the bus stop before realizing the Tibibus doesn’t run on weekdays. Instead, we went to Parc Guell. A lot of it was blocked off due to storm maintenance, so that wasn’t cool. When we got back into the city, we went to 4 Gats for some yummy crema catalana. I got my ear pierced (it was only 9 euros, haha), bought a don Quijote painting on the Rambla, got some other little doodads, and then went to SIX—a store the US desperately needs. No joke, I wanted to buy half of the store. Their stuff is so cute! On the way home, we ran into a mob in Plaza Catalunya. Everyone was wearing Barca stuff and carrying flags, so we assumed the team was going to come by! We ended up waiting 2 hours for them to show up, but it was totally worth it! They showed up on their Barca bus and were dancing and waving flags on the upper deck. They were totally wasted—it was hilarious! Behind them was an Estrella party bus that was playing music and stuff. It was SO cool to see them all up close! When we got home, we told amy what she had miss and then went with her to Aribau to watch them again. Perfect timing! This time we saw the other side of the bus and different people! Score! So awesome! Later that night we met up with Jimmy and his adorable Italian roommate at Oveja Negra. We taught him to say “keep your pimp hand strong” and then told him to go say it to the group sitting next to us. Unfortunately, they were Kiwis and didn’t know what that meant anyways. So, they settled on ripping up his cardboard Barca hand and then tried to steal him, haha! Funny night.

On Friday we rented bikes and rode them all over the city. Let me tell you…Barca is not a bike friendly city. People kept getting mad at us and I was super annoyed. We eventually made it all over the city and saw everything we wanted to revisit in a day! My allergies were HORRIBLE though. When I got home, everyone in the piso thought I had been crying really hard because my eyes were all bloodshot and watery and I was sniffling a lot. Nope! Just allergies, yaaaaay?

We finally made it to Tibidabo on Saturday. Our bus driver was so chipper and he was playing oldies music all the way up. Tibidabo was so fun! We got to see the big church and then went on a bunch of rides! We went on the rollercoaster twice, a swinging ship twice in one go, the hurakan (which is 2 rows of seats that spin, all attached to arms that go in a circle), the bumper cars, and this insane ride whose name I don’t even remember. This last one was terrifyingly awesome! It raised 4 people on seats up incredibly high and then dropped them. If you were sitting on my side, the seats tilt so you’re facing straight down on the way down. It was so fun! I have a video of it which I will put up later since I realize that description didn’t make much sense. It was a very fun day, but I got sunburned even more on my left side. Oh well!

Sunday we had planned on going to Sitges, but since none of us had finished our papers, we decided to call it a work day. That night, we went to the magic fountain show in Plaza Espanya which is one of my favorite things in the city. Of course, they did part of the show set to My Heart Will Go On from Titanic. I had already been upset during the day since it finally hit me that this was one of my last days in Barca, and writing my sad story only augmented those feelings. So having to watch that, I felt like I wanted to cry the rest of the night. Boooo!

Monday I was better. I sent my paper in and packed most of the day. We made a hodge podge dinner last night of things we had lying around. It was fun! We watched some Undeclared. Very funny show by the way.

Here I am on Tuesday. I made my arrangement for my taxi tomorrow already. The woman on the phone was so nice. After giving her all my info, she was like “okay, don’t worry. When the driver gets there at 5:30, he’ll buzz your apartment, okay?” What a nice lady! Not sure what I’m doing today. I was planning on going to bed at like 8pm so I could get up at 3am, take a shower and finish packing and such, but I don’t know if I’ll be ready to sleep in 8 hours. Today I ran and got some squishy candy and then went to the beach! It was SO hot today! We went later in the afternoon so we wouldn’t have a heat stroke. On the way back, we did some shopping along the rambla and got some gelato at our favorite place. And guess what they were playing?! MGMT! Sweet! We also saw (on 2 separate occasions) an old man riding his bike though Barcelona butt naked! Hilarious, but why? Lovely last day! I’ll be back up in 5-ish hours to start my day from Hell. Ugh, I cant wait to just be home and done with all of this traveling!!

Anyways. This year has been amazing. Thank you to my parents for their love and support—I couldn’t have done this without you! While I know I didn’t do a lot of things on my “To Do in Europe” list, I am not upset because I did things I didn’t even imagine I would do! This year has been a whirlwind of ups and downs, and I wouldn’t redo any of it! I am sincerely grateful to have been able to come here for a year. I have evolved as a person, and am better for the experience. While I know it will be incredibly hard to say goodbye to my little home in Barcelona, I will get to look forward to seeing my wonderful family and my puppies! Given all of this, I know I shouldn’t cry because it’s over…I should be happy that it happened. Europe isn’t going anywhere. I’ve got my whole life to come back to it, and I’m sure I will one day. So everyone, thanks for the memories, thanks for the laughter, thanks for the tears, thanks ever after.

Until I’m in the 720

Much love,

Abby

La corrida de toros

1 June 2009

So back to this bullfight I went to. I’m going to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly and then I want to know what you think of it!

So in Spain, a bullfight is called a “corrida de toros” (running of the bulls). During one show, 3 matadores get to challenge 2 different bulls for a total of 6 bulls at each show.

So the first thing that happens when the bull comes out is some toreros distract him so they run at their capes. They do this to see how ferocious and courageous the bull is. After running the bull for around for a bit and doing some fancy moves with the cape, they have the option to save the bull. If the white panuelos are waved in the air, the bull is spared! If not, we move on to the second phase.

2 picadores come into the ring on blindfolded horses. They each have a lance which they will use to poke and wound the bull with (right between the shoulder blades). The horses have protection on one side of them, thankfully. Based on the way the bull charges the horse, they can tell which side it favors and would that side more. This is the first time we see blood. Now when it charges the capes, it has the tendency to trip over itself and fall over. One of the bulls in our show face planted it, got his horns stuck, did a full on head stand before falling over. Not cool.

In stage 3, the banderillos come out. There are usually about 3 of them, and each have two flags (more accurately, they’re razor sharp barbed sticks) which they stab as close as possible to where the picador made the first wound. More blood loss, weaker neck and shoulder muscles, and the bulls try to shake them off since they’re so uncomfortable. Between this stage and the final stage, one of the bulls that we saw ran back to the place he had come out from and stared at it. After realizing no one was going to help him, he ran over to some people who were standing right outside of the ring and stared at them…it was so heartbreaking.

Last step—the matador. The matador does some fancy passes with his little red cape, and shows how close he will get to the bull that has now lost a ton of blood and is very weak. They use a red cape so you can’t see how much blood is on it, not because the color angers the bulls—they’re actually colorblind. Towards the end of his part, he holds the cape down low and shakes it. The bull looks down, and if the matador does his job properly, he will stab the bull between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart. However, stupid matador in pink did it horribly wrong BOTH times! The very first bull we see was completely tortured and suffered a horrible, horrible death thanks to that man. He stabbed him completely wrong and he just stood there. Usually if you stab them correctly, they walk for about 30 seconds and then just fall over. But this one wandered and then stood there, his whole body convulsing, with blood spewing from its mouth. It was quite possibly the most horrible thing I had ever seen. I don’t think the matador and his people even knew what to do because they all stood there and stared at each other! Not only did all of the black bulls look like Ripley, but they were so sweet. The bulls are not mean by nature, they’re actually very peaceful animals. When he wasn’t having a cape shaken in front of him, he just stood there and looked around. They only go for the capes because is a foreign, wiggling object. The matador in white was by far the best. He was very professional, unlike the pink man who seemed to be just dicking around out there. Pinky man even had the nerve to put his elbow on his dying second bull’s head to show how brave he was! No! You’re doing it wrong! They’re not supposed to be coughing up blood, you ass! The matador in red was okay except for the fact that on both of his bulls, his first kill attempt was a major fail. He would stab him, but then the sword would fall out and he would have to do it again. He had the last bull of the night, and let me tell you, that thing would not die. He was a feisty one. I thought this one should have been spared, instead of the brown cow. The last bull would not let that horse go. They had to pull its tail and try to drag him away from it after about 5 minutes. Poor horse. But yeah, he wouldn’t die, so they gave him a death jab in the back of the next and he dropped to the floor like a towel. On the way out, we followed the smear of blood and saw where they were taking the bulls. Two words: meat hooks. Yugh. All of them were skinned and hanging there except for the newcomer who was currently being attached to hooks and being raised up. Poor little guy. His head fell and splashed in the basin of blood below it =(

All in all, I thought it was interesting, but I don’t think I would go to another one by choice. I was rooting for the bull and the horses the entire time, haha!

Other facts to ponder about bullfighting:
+Spanish people yell “olé” when the bull charges the cape
+If it weren’t for bullfighting, this breed of bull would have gone extinct years ago
+While they’re living, they’re treated like kings. They get the best food and the best lady cows.
+They give the meat away, usually to the poor
/A bull fighter who does well can receive a prize of one ear, two ears, or the tail, which is the best prize
-Sometimes the horses that the picadors ride on are all doped up so they don’t even hear the bull near them
-Even if the bull falls down within 20 seconds they are still stabbed repeatedly until paralyzed and then has his spinal cord cut. Even so, it may still be conscious as its getting its ears or tail cut off, and being dragged out of the ring by its horns
-Bulls are often weakened and disoriented before a fight by means of drugs or other cruel methods
-Sometimes they shave down the bull’s horns, making them incredibly sensitive or they yank their balls to make them mad

I’m anti-bullfighting. What are your thoughts?

MORE PHOTOS
Corrida de toros

i decided not to put videos up for three reasons:
1. they're upsetting
2. i already packed away my external hard drive
3. i'm lazy =)

if you want to see them, just ask and i'll show them to you when i get back!

Hey, Czech out my blog!

here are some songs you probably dont know, but will probably enjoy!

17 May 2009

9 months and one day. Time flies so fast when you’re being swept away into a fabulous adventure.

So I’ve been having MAYJAH problems with my allergies lately. I’ve tried multiple Spanish allergy medicines and used the ones I had left over from the US, but none of them seem to work for me! It got so bad at one point that I was suffocating when I ate or drank anything because I couldn’t breathe and do either of those things at the same time. Ugh. I went to the first creative writing workshop with Marianne on the 5^th which was really cool. Not many people showed up since people are “writing papers” and “studying,” but I almost liked it better that way—it was a more intimate setting! We did a lot of writing exercises in which she prompted us to think about things I’ve never really thought about. It was very interesting. I realized that there are a lot of little things I’ll miss when I leave Barca. Oh well, I guess it will just be an incentive to come back in the future! We also saw Amy’s phone guy again while we were on break. He was sitting in a grass patch behind a tree in the garden area behind the school. It was so random and weird. Apparently I said “OMG! That guy again!?” really loudly when we weren’t that far away. Ahh the joys of being half deaf…

Basilio was being incredibly silly in class on Wednesday. We were talking about symbols and how the image of a woman with “pelo suelto” or hair that’s not pulled back was an instrument of the devil. Women depicted with their hair pulled back were more pure. Then Basilio was talking about the girls in the patio who hold their books in their arms and lean against the walls. Then when the wind blows they move their head around so their hair moves in the breeze and the guys notice them. Not only did he tell us this, but he reenacted it! He went to the center of the room, looked like a sad nerd holding onto his invisible books and then waved his head in the non-existent classroom breeze, hahaha! What a funny old man. I wiki’d him…he’s 79. When we were talking about el Camino de Santiago, he showed us a picture of the house that’s been in his family for over 700 years. That’s older than our country!! Good lord. He was telling us how they would give food to the people on the pilgrimage and how he would enter his house by climbing the tree and jumping through his window instead of using the front door. One day an old man was eating at their house and Basilio and his cousin or brother were trying to figure out whether or not he was God. Oh Basilio.

BERLIN & PRAGUE! Such a great last trip! It was so weird going to the airport knowing this was probably the last time I would ever take this exact route to the airport in my life. I always think about things like that. Will this be my last time taking the renfe from Passeig de Gracia? Will it be my last time walking on the walkway over the street? I don’t know why do that…it always ends up making me feel sad. The flight was really unorganized. The seats weren’t assigned but they were still trying to board by groups. I don’t know. It was just very chaotic. When we got in, we had to take a train into the city but had to switch a couple of times. Then when we got to one of the main stations, we were supposed to take the U2 to the hostel, but the metro closed since it was so late! So instead, we hung out at the station and got crepes! We ended up just taking a taxi over, which was fine because it was only 7 euros total. We were totally hoping we wouldn’t have a fourth roommate, but we did!

In the morning, some maids came into our room and starting ranting in German and Turkish. Apparently nobody’s supposed to be staying in that room. Well that explains a lot of things, like the lack of mirrors, the lack of a ladder to the top bunk, and the two huge bins of towels and sheets! There were also no mirrors in the bathroom but there was a sink whose water did not run into the basin but onto itself. Our roommate from Vienna turned out to be really nice! Apparently he studied abroad at SIU for something involving filmmaking. We met downstairs for breakfast with everyone and then headed out to get to our bike tour! Our guide’s name was Francis and he was a kiwi! The bikes were so awesome! They were those old fashion looking bikes with the bigger handlebars and big seats. They each had a squeak toys (for the dogs and small children) and a bell to alert the locals we were coming! So we biked around and hit all the major points like the Rathous, Museum Island, the wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the area above Hitler’s bunker, an outpost by no-man’s land, a bunch of really old churches, the Reichstag (their parliament building), the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Brandenburg Gate, and much more! We stopped at a beer garden half way through and I got a beer and some mountain sausages, haha! They were delicious. I must say, my favorite thing about the tour was probably the fact that we were riding bikes. Those bikes were so comfy and fun! I cant wait to ride my bike around town when I get home! After the tour, we waited around forever for the other group to get back. Apparently they went to another beer garden. Damn them. So in the mean time, Amy, Carolyn, and I wandered around, found some souvenirs, and then ran into a street band! We met up with the girls again. The others still weren’t there. They got there about 30 minutes after that and we all started making our way to the Brandenburg Gate since we didn’t go through it on the tour! Once we got there we all split off. 3 went back to the hostel to change clothes for the pub crawl, 3 went to go get ice cream and then go back to the hostel, and Amy, Carolyn, and I stayed in the city center and revisited things from the tour that we wanted to check out. It’s so much easier in small groups! Making decisions in a group of 9 is so difficult because everyone always wants to do something different! So we went to the gate and then the Reichstag before heading over to the meeting point for the pub crawl. We decided it would be better to get there early, eat over there, and be there so we could get the free t-shirts for being the first ones there, haha! We just ended up getting food from a vendor in front of a restaurant. The man was so adorable! He didn’t speak English very well, but he was so friendly! He accidentally flung some mustard on me, felt horrible and gave me free fries, haah! Then he kept offering to make us more food! Such a cute little man! We got our free t-shirts and then had a free beer while we waited for other people. We met Juan Diego who has never booked a hostel although he has been traveling Europe for a while now, lots of Canadians, and some Aussie’s. The others showed up at the last minute and then we headed off to the first pub. The table the others were sitting at was full, so we went to a different one and played Asshole again. We met some cool Hawaiians who we hung out with for most of the night. Lots of shots and lots of beers were had and good times were had by most. I hadn’t intended on going to the club since I didn’t want to get sick again, but I ended up going anyways and Amy, Carolyn, and I were the last ones to leave of our group. I think this was the most I’ve drank in a while. So we came home, Amy fell asleep within 5 minutes, but Carolyn and I stayed up and chatted in the hall since my allergies were bothering me.

I was up at 7:44 and ready to go. I think I only slept for like 4 hours, but I was glad to just get up since I was having breathing problems. We were checked out of the hostel and on our way at 9:00. Nobody in the other group and told us of any plans to meet in the morning, and since we didn’t want to wake them up at 3:30 am or at 7:45 am, we decided to let them sleep while we figured out the transportation situation. The guy at the front desk told us that the bus takes the same amount of time but only costs half of the price of the train, so we figured we would go scope that out for everyone. Turns out it wouldn’t work since the busses were too late, so we headed back. We went to the train station to figure out those tickets and were just about to call the others when they called us! They said they were going to take a later train since they wanted to go to the Holocost museum before they left. Okay! Since we had some time to kill before our train, we went back and walked through the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was really cool. As make your way towards the center, the blocks get progressively higher, making you feel like you’re in a big maze! The ground was also hilly. We went down to the museum which really good. In one room they were listing names and telling how they died. After hearing the one about the 4 year old girl, I left. How could anyone be that sick!? The next room wasn’t much better. There were phone booth things along the wall where you could choose a place and they would tell you about it. I heard way more than I had hoped on the last one, so I left that room too. It’s so weird to think that this didn’t happen that long ago. They should have known better—you don’t treat people like that! Come on! I mean, I could see this maybe happening in medieval times, but about 50 years ago?! That’s sick, disgusting, and unacceptable. On the way back to the train station, we ran into the other group. Their roomie from Norway was still hanging out with them, haah! The train was awesome and reminded simultaneously of Harry Potter and Eurotrip! So pimp—unlike the businessman who joined our compartment and ruined our party. However, while I thought he was bad, the guy that came after him was even worse. No, I will not give you money to buy a train ticket!! Really? Really? Wow. Having lived in Barcelona for a year, I immediately grabbed my purse and kept it close. Then he proceeded to take off his jacket, tie it around his waist, and make himself comfy. I totally thought he was settling in. Thank God he wasn’t! So we made our way to the hostel which was very nice! It was basically a shared apartment with other people! We all showered (thank God) and then wandered around by the hostel. It was so warm and the air smelled like lilacs! Mmm. We went by the modern building that looks like 2 people dancing and then walked along the river. We held out for a bit on dinner to see if the others would let us know they got in, but since they didn’t, we went to a little bar-restaurant for dinner. We had some goulash which was actually very good! The best by far was the apple strudel—so delicious!! There was a thunder and lightning storm outside when we left, but it wasn’t really raining. I cant wait for thunderstorms back in the US!! When we got back, we texted them saying we were going to do the morning walking tour, but we didn’t get a response. I didn’t sleep again. Like, at all. Damn allergies.

So we were up early for our walking tour which was led by a Czech girl named Jenna (pronounced Yenna). We were discussing tour guides the night before and she totally went against everything we had said. We had said that they’re usually boys with cool accents who are very funny. Jenna was a girl, with very strange intonation, and she was only funny because she was politically incorrect, haha! She said something about the people from Singapore walking slow because they have such small legs, haha! So we saw all the main parts of Prague like the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town, New Town, Lesser Town, Josefov (the old jewish ghetto), and much more! We stopped at a really cool bagel shop for some lunch half way through. After the tour was over, we retraced the tour and spent more time in the really cool places. We had a small lunch at this cool restaurant that had their tables and chairs out front on one big glider! It was so relaxing! After that, we went back along the river and decided to rent paddle boats! It was so cheap! We got to spend an hour on the Vltava River on our paddle boat that had lounge-beach chairs instead of the normal plastic seats! While we were out there these two women paddled up to us and were like “do you want a Red Bull?” I said suuuuuure because I wanted one but I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to pay. So they gave us 3, told us to have a good day, and paddled away. Then we saw their Red Bull cooler and it all made sense! There were a lot of people out on the river that day. When our hour was up, we hung out on the little island for a while before headed back to the hotel so Carolyn could shower. We went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner but realized none of us had money and we couldn’t pay with a card. The dine and dash episode of That 70’s Show immediately came to mind. Carolyn saved the day and took money out while we waited in the restaurant. It was so weird seeing prices in the hundreds. For example, my meal was 130 czech koruna which is about 5,20 euros. Money went fast, haha! We had intended to go to a bar and hang out, but everything was closing since it was Sunday, so we got some juice and candy at the market, went home, and played MASH! Yes. We are 9 years old. It was so fun! However, I was the only one who didn’t get a happy ending either of the times we did it. Whatever. You guys are out to get me, haha!! I slept better this time around—yay!

On our last morning, we grabbed some breakfast and then hung out at the park before heading to the airport. Time to go home to Barca! All in all, the last trip = GREAT SUCCESS (think Borat). It’s so weird to think that the next time I’m at El Prat I will be beginning my journey home home. Insane.

This past Wednesday was Cardona’s last day. He’s having prostate surgery (“which is something you ladies will never have to worry about!”) so he wont be able to make it to class, the dinner, or the final. Boo =’( He gave us a little speech at the end which was very sad. He was saying how to us he’s just this chubby old guy who tells us things we probably don’t care about, but to him, his writing and his students are his life. He’s so adorable! I’m going to miss that man and his big barriga!

Allie was over the other day when it started down pouring huge, chubby raindrops! I threw a bucket outside to see how much I could collect, got impatient, and Allie and I threw it over my balcony, haha! I wonder if anyone got hit. Haha! Silly.

On Friday we took our last excursion as a group. Bittersweet. We first went to Pals, a little medieval town by the sea! We got brief tour in which she explained how the town used to protect its people and valuables when it was raided by pirates! There were slits in the walls so they could shoot arrows and bigger holes that were created later on ones firearms came to be. It was the most adorable picturesque town ever! I really like visiting the little pueblos. It’s more the image of Spain I had before coming over. Next stop was a beach on the Costa Brava! Pilar has a summer house there because she’s cool as hell and loves the sun! We had a delicious lunch outside by the beach and then Amy, Carolyn, Jillian, Nick, Jimmy and I took one of the paths along the coast and walked to the other beach. So beautiful! It was like paradise! On the way back, we stopped at the park and the boys pushed us on this cool tire swing + rope contraption. So fun!! I walked along the beach on the way back. The sand was so soft and cool where the waves had hit it. Oh Spain, you are so lovely.

Going to a bull fight tonight! I mean, how could I live in Spain without seeing one?! We’ll see how well I keep my dinner down.

MORE PHOTOS

Berlin

Prague

Pals

Costa Brava

Edit: Just got back from the bullfight. It was horrifying. Details later.