Doar nu era sa fie unu singur....;)

 

Lonely rider

    Yeah, this week end was very good for a solitary journey, since rain was announced all the way down to Valencia. I had thus the choice between Valladolid (so popular that they don t even have local t-shirts) and catching a bus north. I chose path B, so after a virtual breafast I took off to Santander, a cantabrian city recomended to me by my coleagues as "they have a beach"

 

    4 hours later I was searching for a place to stay, greatly disapointed by the salty cold breeze coming from the foggy sea. I got lucky at the third pension I visited, some creepy place in an apartment building, where I was charged as a down-right tourist, because "es una habitacion matrimonial, chica". 

 

    I left smiling, as the sun was peaking through the clouds, and hence I was able to walk along the harbour and  tour Playa de los Peligros (the only one in this case was to die of boredom, since it was empty) and Playa de los Bikinis.

 

 

On my way I passed zee ugliest building I ever saw in my whole entire life (sorry people from Santander, but it s just plain insulting :D), Palacio de Festivales

 

And the wonderful beach...

 

    Walking up the coast, one reaches Palacio de la Magdalena, a 20th century building, which served as a summer residence for the royal family. Its style is "eclectic" as all the other buildings I have seen in the north. The palace itself is not very impresive, but the 270 degrees view over the Cantabric sea and the gulf of Santander is priceless.

 

 

 

    The zoo next to the castle hosts some sea lions and some penguins. I cannot help myself from posting this picture of "their daddy". This animal was huge.

 

    My walked continue to the beaches of the sea, Camel beach being the most beautiful one (guess where the name comes from)

 

    The cathedral downtown being uninteresting, I sat for a beer on some terace, just to notice amazed that rain has started to poor down. Having been able to find my way all day, ofcourse I had to get pathetically lost somewhere two streets away from the hotel, under a llubia de la leche, which called for a new round of tapas. I got home frozen and wet to the bone.

    The next day was "getting up very early day", to catch the next bus to Basque country, namely to San Sebastian/Donostia (recommended to me as "they also have a beach"). After another 3 hours of bus ride, intense hopes to escape the rain which poored down all night in Santander and one stop in Bilbao, just to pick up zee drunkes hoard of sailors we got to Donostia. You guessed already, I felt like being back in Neuchatel - foggy and sleepy and wet.

Even the houses were wearing  rain clothes ;)

 

So I went to see the famous La Concha beach, thinking to catch the bus at 15:00.

 

But as I was taking pictures of french people and myself...I think H. woke up and started sending good vibes in my direction ;)

 

And so my journey to discovering one of the most beautiful cities I have seen began...Again lounging 3 km of beach and building castles in Spain

Seing a nice modern art./half natural sculpture called The Comb of Wind

 Taking the funi up to mount Igeldo (the bay is guarded by two mountains - Igeldo and Urguell) to see the isle of Santa Clara from above

 

And going down for lunch of calamares and pimientos con bacalao. Yummy.

The city is fascinating by its parks and very nice architecture, but also for its bilingual nature (my culture was limited, I found out before going there that they speak a language of unknown origins). So I took this pic, just to ask Maddish - ziceai ca nu poate fi mai grea ca olandeza??? Io n as juca fazan cu oamenii astia :)))

 

    I will spare you sights of the cathedral, or of the Maria Cristina church, both precious and "eclectic" :). 

    A short tour of the "most modern aquarium" in Europe (but also quite small) ended my day in a quiet fashion

 

 

 

 

    I loved this last day, sunstroke/burn included...Too bad for all the tense atmosphere between the basque country and the rest of Spain (which in fact it s not even true, its rather ETA and the rest of Spain), because it s a wonderful region, with a lot to offer and a lot to see.

    I still have sand in my shoes....

    My journey ended apoteotically by falling asleep in the train ("ca o ciubota" for my romanian friends). Luckily the lady who checks the tickets woke me up, remembering that I was supposed to go down in Valladolid, otherwise  I would have written this post from Lisboa.

f^%&ando alrededor

Characters: wanna-be-funny me, nice spanish guy, an umbrella

 

"Look at the way you carry that umbrella...that s uber dorky. How about from now on, instead of Don J. we call ya Don J.Poppins?" (yeah, I am funny:D)

"How about we call you Ann Mary Poppins, it s closer" (cheap shot about my name - we can ignore)

"AAAAAA but I don t have an umbrella" (i can feeeeeel the victory)

"That's cause you forgot it in the last bar we went to :D" (and down I go in shame :)

 

 

Sa ne spalam rufele in privat

In romaneste adik. Nu de alta, dar avea dreptate E. sa ma atention

eze ca n ar trebui sa mai pun si io o dunga de vopsea pe cershaful murdar.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah cu atitudinea lu ciobanu mioritcu o sa ne ducem fix  pe....vale. "Nu ma duc la vot ca toti is o apa si un pamant". "Nu ma duc ca si Baselu a furat." " Nu ma duc ca am de baut o bere." Apai merita breh astia sa fie luati in tzeapa de PSD ul ... si nu odata, ci de mai multe ori. Zilnic daca se poate.

Ca daca pana acu n am invatat ce inseamna atitudine cetateneasca, daca nici macar acum ,cand astia fac concurs de care se mictioneaza mai abitir pe constitutie, n o sa invatam niciodata.  

Dupa cum ziceau altii mai destepti ca mine, de la elvetica: romanu are treaba sa isi cumpere mobila de la Ikea, nu il doare pe el ca se intampla lucruri prin politica (btw,Baselu e primu preshedinte suspendat pe motive politice :D). Sa luam aminte mai ales la ultima fraza: "fara sa realizeze care este miza acestei nepasari".

Mie nu mi se pare ca e momentu acum sa ne descoperim o coloana vertebrala inexistenta, sa zicem ca "eu nu vreau sa aleg pe cel mai putin rau dintre doua rele". Asta e o atitudine care ar fi trebuit s o avem la alegeri, sa fi iesit Ciuhandu:D. Acum e momentul sa doge the ball, respectiv tzeapa. Si daca asta inseamna sa votez NU pentru suspendare, I will do.

Sa ne spalam rufele in privat

In romaneste adik. Nu de alta, dar avea dreptate E. sa ma atention

eze ca n ar trebui sa mai pun si io o dunga de vopsea pe cershaful murdar.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah cu atitudinea lu ciobanu mioritcu o sa ne ducem fix  pe....vale. "Nu ma duc la vot ca toti is o apa si un pamant". "Nu ma duc ca si Baselu a furat." " Nu ma duc ca am de baut o bere." Apai merita breh astia sa fie luati in tzeapa de PSD ul ... si nu odata, ci de mai multe ori. Zilnic daca se poate.

Ca daca pana acu n am invatat ce inseamna atitudine cetateneasca, daca nici macar acum ,cand astia fac concurs de care se mictioneaza mai abitir pe constitutie, n o sa invatam niciodata.  

Dupa cum ziceau altii mai destepti ca mine, de la elvetica: romanu are treaba sa isi cumpere mobila de la Ikea, nu il doare pe el ca se intampla lucruri prin politica (btw,Baselu e primu preshedinte suspendat pe motive politice :D). Sa luam aminte mai ales la ultima fraza: "fara sa realizeze care este miza acestei nepasari".

Mie nu mi se pare ca e momentu acum sa ne descoperim o coloana vertebrala inexistenta, sa zicem ca "eu nu vreau sa aleg pe cel mai putin rau dintre doua rele". Asta e o atitudine care ar fi trebuit s o avem la alegeri, sa fi iesit Ciuhandu:D. Acum e momentul sa doge the ball, respectiv tzeapa. Si daca asta inseamna sa votez NU pentru suspendare, I will do.

A city "mas chulo que un ocho"

...or "chuler then an eight" as my spanglish would sound. This is a spanish expression that we have tried to figure out yesterday after a round of beers. Why would something be more beautiful then an eight? What s so cool about 8 anyways? But let s start with the beginning
 

    Our destination for yesterday, leaving at a very non-spanish time from Valladolid

 

was

    A city that has marvelously stood through the ages, with its famous Aqueduct built somewhere in the first century. This huge construction that carries water for over 6 kilometers, from the city to the palace is not held together by cement. Huge blocks of stone in equilibrium. One must definitely bow to the art of engineering those people had.

 

 

 

     Since it is not possible to walk on it, as some of us would have wanted :)) we wondered a bit on staircases and lonely streets up to the cathedral, which is ofcours situated in Plaza Mayor :D

 

    The cathedral is a late gothic work of art. The entrance is payant, but it s all worthy.

 

    We walked then through the Juderia, the Segovian ghetto for a lot of time. It seems that every people had a period when it felt the need to confine jews. For fear of what? This quarters are surrounded by the famous wall of Segovia, which tells the tale of the many arabian attacks

    The wall goes all the way up to the Alcazar. Now, apparently this is another this all big cities have. We have still to figure out on Monday the difference between an alcazar, a castillo and a palacio :). All in all it used to be the residence of the spanish kings until the 18th century, when it served as a prison. The architecture is quite severe and the decoration tasteful. It must have probably been a summer residence, because it has no heating system. The sturdy rocks that served for construction keep a pleasant atmosphere inside - beats all the air conditioning in the world. From the tallest tower one (152 stairs up on a "snail"  staircase) one has a beautiful view of the city. 

 

 

 

    The trip continued with lunch:D.  The traditional dish of Segovia is the "toston", which is basicaly a 2 months old piglet, grilled and served entire. We, the girls considered this too cruel and hence settled  for a portion of judillones, some incredibly big beans (also speciality of the region), with their tomato salsa. A fake toston, just to get an idea why we couldn t go for that (event though the guys described in detail the fine taste and the crunchy feeling):

 

 

     The day continued in La Granja (the farm), a tiny village next to Segovia, one of the many royal residences.

 

    The palace is quite small, but its gardens are fabulous. The fountains decorated with characters from the greek mithology (kind of weird to see in such a catholic country) chill the summer air after a very well defined schedule. We managed to see just one of them in action. Ofcourse, we were on the wrong side (it didn t cross our minds that if all the other people are sitting on the opposite side of us, there must be something fishy) and hence we got a well deserved shower from Diana's hunting horn

 

    And I went looking for trouble again :), photoproof of this existing from many sources:

 

    Our walk in the gardens continued (apparently they are supposed to be a copy of the ones of Versailles,  and they have a maze and all the gear, like Schonbrunn and all the rest) until sunset, when we got back to Segovia, to immerse a bit in the night life there.

    The stories are not to be posted on a public blog. It involved some trashy vocabulary lessons for me - though I know it wouldn t exactly have been necessary :)

    The point is that I liked Segovia better the Salamanca, altough both have a special charm, a special something , where ocre and green and blue colide. Where the sun shines on orange/grey streets, where the people are friendly and tapas are served with any small beer that you order, where...welll....hay que joderse for every little thing you see :D.

Little things

Or as our spanish friends would say

 

It took me a while to understand wether it s petites choses or petits choix. It ends up to the same :D A cool "we have everything store".

My present from two days ago (it is an italian psychedelic post modernistic vision of a turtle on her way to the sea.Notice how the fish fly to give her space)

 

Life is made out of little things, like the careless gift of a child, a group dance at a rock concert, a spontaneous trip to an unknown destination,  

 

Stupid people, dirty country

For all my western friends (xcept R. who reads Der Spiegel :D), who don't know: the president of Romania has been suspended today. By a corrupted and completely fucked up parlament (whoevet tells me again that I should be less vulgar looses ten points :D).

Even if he s an ex sailor, even if he curses on national TV, even if he has a funky hair cut, and inspite of the fact that he s arguing with our prime minister like a young naughty couple - the guy happens to be the best thing that happened to Romania in the last 15 years. Might not be ZEE thing, but every people has the president they deserve.

Now, we are gonna have anticipated elections and we ll have to chose probably between:

-this guy (that s gonna get his ass trashed all over for the next 30 days, so he might loose some points, or some people support)

- a shepherd with 4 gymnasium classes, who can barely spell his name and who s bible is some shitty Coehlo book

- a complete extreme right maniac

- an ex commi, inheritant of all the aunts of all Romania. Including Tamara. Who has asked two years ago the parlament to count his eggs.

 

Et voila Romania, breaks my heart to think about you, but for once, just for once I hope this people will WAKE THE FUCK UP and do something for themselves. Or do we always need external intervention to start a revolution? Hearding like sheep. Go Gigi, so to say.... 

 

 

 

 

For all berndeutsch fans

Check out the mp3 player thingie on the right....

 

Thanks, H., for the song and for everything. 

 

 

 

(These flowers are called swallow's dress. When I was a child, about a hundred years ago, I used to wait anxiously for these wonders in bloom to pop up and show me their purple heart. It wasn't spring until that old fucked up fence that fenced nothing was not covered with there. And I have never seen an imperfect one. So yeah, better then this I could not describe childhood and dreams and butterflies in the head)

 

 

But life goes on

 

..... for the families of the students from Virginia University. In their places I would be mad, not because a wacko started shooting around but because zee great american police force had a crapy act. I mean, come on people, it s lack of common sense to let 2 hours pass between the shootings...how can you as a parent forgive that? I always protested when people said americans are stupid but God forgive me, sometimes they pass all the limits.Or at least those who represent them like the police, the army and their president. 

       And second, as maddish asked, why does this happen in the US?It s not only in the US, Australia had the same problem like..20 years ago and they have gun control. 

       The country with the higher number of guns/person is Switzerland, and swiss people don t go on killing sprees. Recently things got a bit fiery over the increase in the number of homicides and suicides comited with the army gun and people are thinking of not giving the weapon to everybody who does their military service - so there, a solution. Not yet voted and aproved, but at least PROPOSED.

       Makes you wonder, what do they eat in US, how is their brain functioning as to have things like this happening. Is it this reddish orange alert they live in? Is it the movies (fuck it, we have the same). Is it the NRA?

       I m not happy I am not there. I just feel sad because young people that could be us didn t wake up this morning. And moreover that could have been prevented. :(

 

 

 

O zi de trei lei

Asta pentru ca ma duc la  work la 9:30 ca sa astept juma de ora si trei tigari sa vina careva sa deschida usha.  

Asta pentru ca ma mananca in fund (cur) sa invat biologie moleculara in spaniola, ca sa ma simt de 5 ori mai idioata decat sunt.

Asta pentru ca cer sfaturi de comportament de la gay big brother.

Asta pentru  ca am plecat din .ch cu treburi neterminate.

Asta pentru ca ala de ar trebui sa le termine isi prajeste bicepsu prin Italia.

 

Note to self: Ia viata-n...gluma/N o mai lua direct in piept

*

Not missing you at all. At all. Not a single little bit. Not even a drop. Not even a nanoparticle of missing inside. :P

 

 

 

 

 

Asomate a Valladolid

A kind of "Neuchatoi" campaign, but just here, in sunny Spain. Yes, sunny because somebody very special to me sent some my way. So here it goes, the story of my morning/siesta in pictures. I got lost in some shops, so didn't walk through the whole city. 

Wondering what's out there.... 

 

Placa Mayor (like I told you, I think there are just two lost villages in Spain that don't own a Placa Mayor or Placa d'Espana). The one in Valladolid is lovely, red and pretty.

 

The Academy of Cavalery seen through a beautiful fountain

 

After that my little walk in the park with my ice cream (ok, there was this icecream space very strategically placed at the park entry and ..i just felt like 5 y o again). The park is the biggest in Valladolid, obviously named Campo Grande

 

Could it be...le Jet de Geneve? Non, c'est le Jet de Valladolid :D

 

 

The Cathedral in Valladolid is half build. The architect left the works in the middle and went a bit south, to build the Escorial. And besides that, one tower was damaged by that famous earthquake that hit Spain and Portugal so bad. But still, Jesus is holding on up there (I don t know why when I see this I always think of Brasil)

 

 

And the funky statues. One of these days I ll post a pic with the one that freaked me out the most, but here are two of its brothers. One can find them anywhere in the city, in the most awkward places. It s like they had a statue sale, get 10 and the next 10 are for free

 

And in the end, a piece of Pisuerga river (yes, funny name I know, reminds me zee Bahlui of my home town. Just as big, just as dirty). But they have a beach and a lovely running area close to it