Tarragona

Was it two days ago that I last posted? Or yesterday? I lose track here. Regardless, I spent the night last night in Sitges, the town with the worlds best beach, and the worlds dingiest pensions :) I´m not joking, my room was above a bar, which was closed all day so that 6 old ladies could sit around and play bridge. They didn´t serve a single person, but had the tables set out. My room was at the top of the stairs, where all the noise and smoke traveled, and I was rocked to sleep by the sound of germans coming home drunk and purging themselves of their nights toxins. Ahhhh, bliss.

But the beach was beautiful!

Now, I¨m in Tarragona. It´s a gorgeous town, right on the coast, and I have a lovely room, cheaper than last night, on the third floor. From my window I can see the roman ruins, and the courtyard. I´m upstairs from another cafe, but this one was actually serving people. My room has it´s own bathroom!!! I don´t have to share a shower! And - get this - they provided me with two towels!!! LIFE IS GREAT!

After wandering for two hours trying to find a pension with a room available, I dumped my stuff and headed out to the roman ruins. I love this town - for entrance to 5 of the 7 museums in this city, I had to pay a whopping 4.10 €. Yep. That´s just over the cost of a meal for me. Wow. And for that 4.10, I have, so far, walked thru an ampitheater from the 2nd century, climbed up the steps, sat in the seats, walked across the middle where gladiators once fought their battles, and looked out over the ocean from the place where the royalty sat to watch the fun. It was awe inspiring. Nothing I could ever describe. The steps are amazing, all rocks the size of a melon, stacked on top, hundreds of thousands of rocks. And then, the middle has these channels running through it, and a big platform in the middle, where the carved granite columns sit exposed, still holding up the walls like they did nearly 200o years ago. Huge blocks of carved granite make up the walls to the center, separating it from the stands, each has a saying or picture carved into it. To stand on the floor of the ampitheater, and look out into the stands, I could imagine the crowds of people, all screaming, or shouting, filing in thru the various doors, talking with their neighbors, and finding a seat. I can´t possibly describe it to you. It was amazing.

After that, I walked up to the ruins down the street from where I¨m staying. Here I got to walk thru the Circus arena, and then into the Roman public building. I walked down the corridors that the gladiators used to get ready for the fights at the ampitheater. I wandered throughout a tower that was once occupied by roman monks, and then onto the upper chamber where the upper crust of society would meet to talk over the pressing issues, before heading down the street to the forum (a place i have yet to visit). This city is amazing.

And now I sit in an air conditioned internet cafe, because it is so freaking hot outside! After the sun gets out of the middle of the sky, I´ll head down to the forum, tour that, and then maybe the temple or castle. I´ve already been thru a roll of film, so there will be plenty of pictures to see! And, I´m staying here all day tomorrow, so I can hit the botanical gardens and such! Maybe the beach too. I´m excited to be able to share all this with you thru photos and such. It´s been an awesome trip so far, with it´s ups and downs, and it´s not done yet. Which is both exciting and exhausting. Sometime next week I´m supposed to go to London, then back to the states if I don´t have a job yet - but I´ll keep you all posted on what the plan is, and how things evolve. In the mean time, I´ll just tell you about the cool things Spain has that Michigan doesn´t, and then you can remind me of all the wonderful things in Michigan that I¨m missing out on, like BBQs, and good beer, and my friends and family, and camping trips. Talk to you all soon!