La Ramblaaa

After two nights in Madrid I caught the bus through to Valencia. The weather was getting exceedingly colder, and it was raining on and off, but I enjoyed my stay there. The weather change however (coupled with a lack of sleep) messed around with my sinuses and I ended up with flu for the two days that I spent in Valencia. Pity, because the hostel is so far second best to the one in Lagos, and Monday was Spain's National Day - one massive party.

I dragged myself down to the L'Oceanográfic (Oceanarium) at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias area on Tuesday. I think by the time I've finished travelling I'll have seen all of Western Europe's aquariums/oceanariums. Barcelona supposedly has the best, but Valencia's was definately the largest. It wasn't really worth the entry fee of €17.50 though. And I was disturbed to find they have two Beluga whales enclosed in small tanks in their Artic (sic) Ocean exhibit. Think Free Willy. And their cokes cost just under €2. Ok enough bitchin'. The dolphin show was great!

On Wednesday I walked around in the food market which was an experience... photos will follow. I saw some things that would easily turn me vegetarian.

Barcelona is everything I was expecting it to be, which was a lot because I hadn't heard anything bad about it before arriving. I'm staying just off La Rambla, a wide boulevard and "the most famous street in Barcelona". It's a crazy place and I spent yesterday just walking up and down, occassionally popping into a museum or market. There are street performers (musicians, clowns, dancers), pet stores, flower shops, restaurants.. and hundreds of people. And the shops on either side of course. At night it does a complete 180 - the prostitutes, clubbers and dodgy indians selling beer come out in droves. Tonight should be happening... we'll head out after a few rounds of asshole.

One thing Cape Town definately has over Barcelona is the outdoor life and great beaches. And CT isn't so touristed.

I received some good news this week: my Serco TransArctic Expedition website will be featured in a forthcoming book entitled 'Integrated HTML and CSS' by Virginia DeBolt.

Next update possibly from the south of France early next week!