TripTracker.net - Western Europe 2010, The rain in Spain falls mainly on my brain

Prologue: Tribute to the SWC South Africa 2010!D-Day: A beginning Eastfield to Istandbul: Grumpyness at 30000ft Turkish shuttle Istanbul by day Istanbul by night Long walk to freedom Lisbon walking tour Discovering Lisbon Exploring Sintra Fado’s night out The rain in Spain falls mainly on my brain A day in medieval Toledo Madrid on a Sunday Flamenco por una buena causa To Barcelona Barcelona! Barcelona!Gaudi in the morning Olympic in the afternoon Chilling in Barcelona La Rambla To Nice A Nice night Relax, take it Eze Monaco in an afternoon Chilling in Nice To Venice Our first day in Venice The attempt at Venice night photos The second day in Venice The last night in Venice The Farewell Frenzy in Firenze Exploring Florence Conquering the Dome Conquering the Torra Lucca, I am your father Picnic in Pisa A day in Pisa When in Rome…Ancient scorching Rome Welcome to Naples (and its crazy traffic)A day in Capri Ancient scorching Pompeii To Santa Fortunata Chilling in Sorrento Back to Rome Aida and the catacombs The Vatican in a flash The End

jnroux

Western Europe 2010

The rain in Spain falls mainly on my...

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Jun 25 2010, 08:00 PM

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jnroux
Somerset West, South Africa

Journal

Location

Madrid, Spain

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I shaved my beard this morning to make sure I do not run into any Spanish gangsters tonight. We then had our final Yes! breakfast and bought an Aerobus ticket again. When we boarded the bus the Australian with us almost fell victim to a pick-pocket… he noticed what they were doing just in time and formally said: “I would not like you to do that!” From Lisbon we took our first Easyjet flight and it was not bad at all. Except for the fact that we were delayed for 45 minutes because of a French strike (probably because their team lost, hehe)… and we thought it only happens in South Afirca. We lost another hour during the flight (because of time lines) and we are now back on South African time. In Madrid we met Janno (our personal metro guide). We may also use him in situations where German is required (not sure what kind of situations we are talking about here). We bought 3-day tourist metro tickets, ensuring that we can travel anywhere for free on the metro during our stay in Madrid. We then made our way to Hostel Luis Velez… or like we like to call it “Huis Luis.” They did not have the rooms that we booked available, so we were upgraded to rooms with en-suite bathrooms! However, we were told that we have to switch rooms the next day. The Hostel is nice and tidy, but the staff is a bit grumpy and scaly-looking. It was already quite late in the day and we decided to buy food at a Supermarket that Janno found earlier the day. While we were in the Supermarket is suddenly started to rain (it gave me the feeling of a typical Pretoria thunder storm in the summer). After an abrupt stop of the storm, we walked to Palacio Real and had some cheese burgers (with Kagiso patties) and Spanish Free-way Coke on the stairs. Since everyone was watching the Spanish-Chili SWC game, we had Madrid to ourselves. From here we walked to Plaza de Oriente and thereafter to Plaza Santa Domingo. We browsed through a number of shops and Riana bought the most beautiful bracelet… apparently you can only buy them in Madrid or New York! Then it started raining, and raining, and raining… the rain in Spain does not only stay on the plain. Janno bought us three umbrellas and we ran for our lives. Luckily we made it to the Hostel with the essential things dry(ish)…

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	50. The End Jul 17 2010, 05:26 PMCape Town, South Africa4 photos Our flight in Istanbul was delay by 1 hour and 45 minutes AND our aircraft dated out of the 70s. No in-flight entertainment, warn-out chairs and very shaky (physically shaking) overhead compartments. Regardless of these things, we were still going home and it felt good. There was a lot of Afrikaans...

	49. The Vatican in a flash Jul 17 2010, 09:56 AMCape Town, South Africa11 photos For our last day in Rome we decided to visit the Vatican Museum, since we did not get to visit it during our previous trip to Rome (refer to Journal entry 41). Fortunately the closest Metro to the Vatican was also on our Metro line and we were “there” at about 8:55. We then stood in the longest...

	48. Aida and the catacombs Jul 16 2010, 02:46 PMRome, Italy9 photos Our first mission for the day (besides the getting to Rome part) was to see the catacombs and the second to watch Aida at the Baths of Caracalla. On our way to the bus station we saw our first accident in Italy (really a surprising first considering the way they drive). I heard a hard sound and...

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