Today we reach a milestone. It is Day 201 of the 2001 Odyssey, and it is beginning to feel like we’ve been on holiday for a little while now. Well, we are still thinking of it as a “long weekend”, but when we think about the number of days, it is pretty impressive we’ve made it this far without strangling one another…*grin*

Coming to you again in the wee hours of the morning since the net is at it’s cheapest then. Costs 200Pts ($2 AUD) for 33 minutes during the afternoon and evening, but the same price for 3 hours between 5am - 8am. Of course, there are some perils and this morning walking down La Ramblas, I had to fend off a couple of transexual prostitutes would wanted to know if I’d like to perhaps spend my pesetas some other way. I was awakened this morning, not by the alarm clock, but by some drunk guy screaming like he was being murdered at 4:30am. It’s an interesting city…

Went to La Sagrada Familiar (a really big cathedral) the other day. It is covered in multi-coloured ceramic shards and is a really weird thing to look at. It costs 650Pts for students, but really, not overly worth it, since what you see from the street is what you see inside. It is a work in progress and nowhere near completion. At the time it was started, the designer (Antoni Gaudi) estimated it would take 200 years to complete. They’re not very far through, as it turns out, and the fee you pay is largely just to see scaffolding and climb the towers. Good view of Barcelona though, and it does help you to see the detail up close, so it’s possibly worth it for some people (Di appreciated the closer look), but a pair of binoculars from the street could probably save you

We did get our money’s worth playing Di’s favourite game - “Stupid Shoes”. This is a game she likes to play in airports and national parks, and basically it just involves looking at people’s inappropriate shoes and laughing. Hey, when you’re a traveller, you have to get your amusement cheap…

The shoes some people wore to climb 350 steep circular steps inside dark spires were impressive in their stupidity. Stilleto heels. Wooden clog-style scuffs. Plastic strappy sandals that cut through skin. It was hard to pick a definite winner there, to be honest.

The other thing that helped get value out of it was sitting and listening to all the guys (read: stupid prats) that were trying to impress girls by passing themselves off as appreciating architecture in a profoundly intelligent way. One guy from the US was telling two girls in a particularly animated and repetitive way how Gaudi had no formal mathematics training and had just thought of ways to make sure it was self supporting and stood up. Apparently he did this by “thinking out of his head, if you can believe it!”. No! Thinking out of his head, you say? Gosh, and there’s us going around thinking out of our forearms… Our SPOTD of the day, without doubt.

Di went out on a limb last night and decided to eat beef, since she was craving a steak. I declined and went with the pork chops which are probably no better, but at least I’m not going to be going around yelling “Moo! Hahaha! Moo!” like Di in a few years. Her reasoning was that a little bit of beef would not hurt, and by the time she gets to that level of illness, they will have discovered a cure. Ever the optimist…*chuckle*

If you’ve been reading these properly, you would realise we are not supposed to be in Barcelona at the moment, but in Rome by now. We, er, changed our plans. Looks like Rome is even more expensive than here, and we managed to change our flights so that we are now going there tomorrow instead, and then to London on the 3rd September.

Those dates took quite some time to organise since when we rang the airlines here, we were told that every seat on every flight was full and we could not get out of Rome for another two weeks. After dealing with the good folk of Iberia and Qantas in Spain (possible mottos: “Although We Say We Speak English, We Actually Speak It As Well As You Speak Spanish, Which Is To Say, Not Enough To Be Useful”), we ended up coming to the internet cafe, buying a phone link for less than it costs to call Madrid from Barcelona, and called Cliff, our Travelshop.com.au guy at home who just sorted it out in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. Yay!

Today, we’re going to go for a bit of a stroll around a section of town we’ve not seen yet. The “Let’s Go Western Europe 2001″ book probably describes it as something completely opposite to what it really is - the area of town we are in now is apparently what Spain is really like, but it is the area of town which could best be described as the ghetto where the Pakistani and Indian populations are located. Very few Spanish people that we can see. Prices are generally about 20-30% inaccurate.

Then again, the book is written by Harvard students on their vacations, so the accuracy of travel adventures written by Uni students is always going to be in question…*wry grin*

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Originally posted from Barcelona, this update was split into multiple parts (see related articles) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

Back in Barcelona now, we´ve been wandering up and down Las Ramblas, which is like a really long pedestrian mall. Lots of people everywhere, watching buskers and people pretending to be statues. You can buy anything from newspapers and paella to parrots and temporary tattoos along that strip.

It is still really hot here, and the pension we are in at the moment comes with a view of a balcony on the other side of the street where four guys stand about all day in their Y-fronts and comment on the girls going past. Why they choose to just stand about in their undies is a little odd, but that´s what they do. Makes for a bizarre view, but then, it´s so hot and the streets are so narrow, that the Spaniards probably lost all modesty centuries ago when it comes down to it.

The other thing that is weird is that we are dealing with everything in Spanish, except the music. We figured that we´d hear lots of Spanish music, but what we´ve heard more of is American pop music, and frankly, it´s a little surreal to be strolling down Las Ramblas listening to some car go past with “Destiny´s Child” blaring from the stereo. Okay, not just surreal. Painful. But then, that´s just the music - the country you hear it in is irrelevant when it comes to that group of three female talentless hacks…

Off to Rome tomorrow…

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Originally posted from Barcelona, this update was split into multiple parts (see related articles) for the sake of reducing the loading time due to the images involved…

Checking in from the city that never sleeps, or at least the people outside in our street, it´s another MooQuack. Actually, the people last night were pretty quiet, but my sunburn kept me awake most of the night. It´s not too bad as long as I don´t breathe in or out, or move or lie still…

We went to a bullfight in Valencia the other night, and it was great! Just as we hoped, it was not always the bullfighters winning, and a couple of bulls hurled the matadors into the ground and started pummelling them which made everyone cheer in a sadistic fashion.

It was all very ceremonial. First a couple of blokes with funny hats on horses came out, and they seemed to be the masters of ceremony or something. Next, the people against the bull came out in their sexy outfits. Nothing like the sight of 20 guys in spandex to enrage a bull.

Basically, they would release a bull, and then it would run around for a bit, charging at some guys who would run away and hide behind the walls when it came near them. Eventually, it began to slow down a little due to running fast, and then the guys got braver, beginning to wave the cape a little and trick the bull into charging the cape.

After about 10 minutes of that, a trumpet would sound and a couple of people on horses came in. The horses were really well padded with some thick material, and were blindfolded, presumably to make them not just run away from the angry bull. The bull then attacked the side of the horse while the rider sat safely on top, sticking a lance into the bull to weaken it a bit more. Given the bulls all came out with a ribbon stuck into them with a big pin, they were already irritated for good reason, and this did not make them any more happy.

After the mounted guys had stabbed the bull a bit, they retreated, and the next step was infinitely more bizarre. Armed with nothing more than a couple of stakes covered in material, a guy would charge toward the bull charging him. At the last second, he would leap to one side and stab the stakes into the neck of the bull and jump out of the road. The timing in this was impeccable, and really impressive.

Six stakes into the bull, and it was beginning to really get angry, but also was weakening a bit, so that is when the bullfighter came out to do all the cape-twirling which is the typical scene of bullfighting. The first bullfighter was dressed in an aqua green spandex bodysuit covered in sequins, and thus I dubbed him “Pretty Boy”. Man, was I cheering for the bull!

He waved his cape and the bull ran past. He did it again and the bull went past again. He got down on one knee and then waved the cape and the bull again went for the cape. He then got a little too cocky and put the cape behind his back, and stepped toward the bull inch by inch.

The idea was that he would dance up to the bull, wave the cape to one side and then the bull would run toward the cape, missing his body. The bull came up with a better plan and simply ran at him. He was dancing up to it, a mere foot from the horns when it bowled him over and began ramming him into the ground. Support staff came from all directions, waving capes to distract it, while the crowd began to cheer “Go Toro!”. Since the crowd was mainly tourists, we were all there for the bull, and we imagine a local crowd would have been more sympathetic.

“Pretty Boy” escaped, having just lot a little bit of material on his cheeks of his bottom, and he recovered himself quickly enough to get back out there and finish the bull off a few minutes later.

The bullfighter has a sword that they stick into the neck of the bull, and the bull drops about 8-12 seconds later. A support staff member runs in with a sharp knife, and with one blow, kills the bull properly by stabbing the brain. At least that is the theory…

It worked properly the first time, but the other five bulls were not so lucky because they were not professional bullfighters. In some cases, the sword did not go in far enough, and the bull would shake it out, and they´d have to stick it in again. In one case, the aim was so bad, the sword stuck out the side of the bull and it looked awful. People were booing greatly at that one, especially the locals.

Also, the support staff of one of the three bullfighters seemed to be novices. One bull took nine stabs to the brain to kill it, because the guy with the knife kept missing the vital spot. It was truly a gruesome death, but we´re glad we went along anyway. Probably the only “sport” in the world where you can buy a Coke and watch a guy sharpen a dagger in between plays.

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We´re off to see a bullfight tonight, since the Spaniards love to do things late at night. It begins at 10:00pm and goes through past midnight apparently. It seems the best bullfighters are in Madrid, so with a bit of luck, we´ll get a real amateur out there in the ring with an angry hunk of meat on hooves who manages to get one of those nasty injuries they show on “Real Life Caught On Camera” shows…*sadistic grin*

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We’ve made it safe and sound out of the USA and all the way to the land of Spain. For the sake of interest, the rain in Spain does not fall mainly on the plain. Or the plane. It´s just bloody hot and it does not rain! Man, it is hot, and we are sweating like piglets under the new-found weight of our backpacks. If only we had a 1990 Ford Econoline van to carry our stuff around in…

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This should be the last time we check email in the USA, and figured we’d do it in New Jersey - our 41st state of the travels.

The last time we sent the mail on what we were sad about leaving behind. This one is the one on what we’re looking forward to leaving behind/seeing once more when we get home. This is not to say we have not enjoyed ourselves here, but let’s face it - there’s no place like home, and nothing like travelling to make one long for the simple pleasures of familiarity.

1. Meat pies and sausage rolls. You’d never think that such a stupid little meal would be craved for, but it is. The closest we were able to find were “pot pies” but the pastry is like rubber, and not a nice flaky puff pastry like we’re used to.
2. Cartoons that allow kids to be kids. It seems the days of kids being entertained by the concept of a coyote chasing a roadrunner are over. We’ve seen cartoons here that had storylines involving a girl and boy on a first date when she suddenly felt sick in the stomach. They thought it was food poisoning, but it turned out to be cramps as a result of her first menstrual period. That was an eye-opener as to what kids are learning today!
3. No more cheese in everything. Cheese in biscuits. Cheese on steak. Cheese in a can. Cheese inside hotdogs. Deep fried cheese curds. Cheese with extra cheese. Yuk! And not even normal looking cheese, but some weird orange coloured stuff - no colour in nature exists the same as American cheese…
4. Speed limits that mean something. Oh sure, I’ll regret putting this one in, since some day in the next couple of years I’ll get a speeding ticket at home, but it does get a little scary out there on the roads. Yesterday, we were on I-80, doing 75mph in a 65mph zone. A truck screamed past us uphill, and I accelerated to know what speed they were doing - turned out to be 89mph (142kph). When a semi-trailer is doing that speed, and you’re in a Hyundai Accent/Excel, it’s a little alarming.
5. Pickup trucks called utes. Gas called petrol. Sidewalks called footpaths. Soda pop called soft drink. Fries called chips. Curbs called gutters. You get the idea - it’s hard to learn English as a foreign language.
6. World news. There is nothing happening in the world outside the US according to the media. Even CNN which has 24 hours of news devotes all the rest of the world into a snippet called the “Global Minute”. We’ve watched this desperately, trying to sneak a glimpse at life outside the continental US, but the definition of “foreign news” is a little dodgy. George W Bush talking about how the Israelis and Palestinians should stop fighting is “foreign news”. Canada is “foreign news”. Mexico is “foreign news”.
7. Stupid people that cannot fall back on the excuse that we are from a foreign country. We stayed at the Wilkes-Barre Travelodge last night due to a torrential downpour. They promised a “continental breakfast”. This turned out to be chocolate frosted mini-donuts, and when we politely asked for the cereal or toast or continental breakfast, the desk clerk got really irate and yelled that “we’ve had that for 3 years and nobody else has complained - you obviously just do it differently where you’re from”. On the plus side, at least we know now what to expect for breakfast in the next leg of our travels - until then, we did not know that the chocolate frosted mini-donut was the only thing eaten in Europe for breakfast. Yeah, right…
8. People who get sarcasm. I know we have met many US and Canadian residents that appreciate droll comments, but there are so many out there that do not. It’s rather irritating having a conversation where I joke that I have no accent and it is the other person with the accent, and then have to endure the other person patiently trying to explain the concept of accents to me.
9. Metric. Need I say more?
10. People who don’t believe:

• Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, is a bloody idiot.
• Foster’s tastes bad.
• They are called “prawns”, not “shrimp”.
• We don’t barbecue them anyway.
• We do not drive Subaru Outbacks.
• Koalas are not harmless and cute.
• Kangaroos are not a common pest in central Sydney.
• There is more to Australia than Sydney.
• Yes, even more than Sydney and Ayers Rock.
• No, the snakes are not lined up at the airport to kill you when you get off the plane.
• We do not have pet kangaroos.
• Socialised medicine is not a bad thing.
• You do not need a gun to protect your liberty.
• Trigger locks are useless if you keep a loaded gun on the floor behind your chair and you have toddlers.
• Yes, there really is an Australian Dollar.
• Saying “Giddoi” as a farewell is stupid.
• And not just because you cannot pronounce it.
• No, I am not Crocodile Dundee just because I wear a hat.
• Yes, currencies can actually be not on a 1-for-1 basis.
• The Canadians are lucky to be at $US0.65 - we’d love to be that high with our exchange rate.
• Yes, we drive on the other side of the road.
• Yes, The steering wheel in Australian cars is on the opposite side of the car to cars in the USA.
• No, it is not scary to drive on the other side of the road - it’s easy.
• A pastie has vegetables in it.
• New Zealand is not part of Australia.
• Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, is a bloody idiot, and though we’ve said it before, we’ll say it again because he really is.

And now, onward to the rest of the world…

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I met this fellow in the Mohawk State Forest in northern Massachussetts, and he was one of the more interesting people I’ve had the chance to converse with here in the USA.

We were chatting about the campground and he told me he went there every weekend and holiday time he had, because he liked it so much. I didn’t know there was much there, so asked him what brought him back repeatedly, since there was obviously something there I’d be interested in finding out more about.

It was, he told me, “a connection inside”.

Er, okay…

He went further and explained that since he was part native American (though *I* look more native American than he did!), he was in touch with the environment and he was an “earth person”. This meant that he was able to get energy from trees. He was also “learning to channel energy from rocks”. This was not something I thought one could just learn, so we chatted a little more.

Do you need to touch the trees? What sort of energy? Is it like a shock?

Yes, you need to touch the trees. He apparently placed his hands on the trees and he could feel the energy of the tree coming through him. Sometimes there was nothing. Other times, it was like touching a small battery. One tree though, had given him such a shock one day that he was almost blasted backward onto the ground.

Did anyone else see this?

Yes. It was reliably backed up by the person he worked with, who could see auras.

Oh…

No, really. Auras. She could see them, and it must have been the combination of his “earth energy” and her “spiritual energy” and the tree’s “energy” that formed a big localisation and that is what made the shock so powerful.

By this time, my face had betrayed me and was adopting it’s “you must be my SPOTD” expression, but he mistook this for me thinking he was just pulling my leg.

He was very worried I thought he was tricking me, and went to great lengths to explain that he was deadly serious.

I wondered at this point, what this man did for a living, and here’s where it just got great…

He cuts down trees for a living.

Yes, cuts them down.

I could not help myself and giggled a little. Surely this was a conflict of interest?

Ah, but you see, first he made peace with the trees. Placed his hands upon them. Said prayers for them. Then he performed the task of removal.

Oh, well that’s just fine then. Earn the trust of trees, then lop them off at the base. That’s got to be some form of “lumber entrapment” or something.

Ah, you gotta love the SPOTD’s. They make life just that much more interesting. I’m wondering who we’re going to encounter next - a marine scientist that goes clubbing seals on weekends?

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Yes folks, we are back in Ohio again. Why, you might ask. Because, we might answer.

Actually, it was to sell the van. A friend here allowed us to use their phone number in a newspaper ad. For a few days there was no interest, so we departed, thinking it was a dead loss.

Turned out that three people got interested in it several days later, and since it was hot and humid and rainy on the coast, we went west once more, figuring more people in Ohio were interested than the yuppie population of Boston where the new Beetle is the most common vehicle on the road.

So now we are van-less. Very odd. Have rented a compact Hyundai to get us to New York, and it is compact! No walking through this vehicle in search of food from the storage areas!

Departing the US on 19th August for Barcelona, moving quicker through Europe and Asia than we’ve done the USA.

To all those in Europe and Asia, see you soon.

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NB: This page was added after we returned.

As we rapidly ran out of time in the USA, I realised I’d not taken any images of some of the more amusing items in Walmart, so at 4:30am in Fishkill, New York, I went for a wander through the Walmart Supercenter.
The items that amused me most were the range of cereals, (none of which appeared to be healthy), other foods of convenience, and of course, the guns and ammo section (see related articles).

Coming from a completely different world, where guns and ammunition are not sold in department stores, it always seemed a little alarming to come around the corner and find someone carrying a shot-gun. Even though not anyone can buy one - I doubt we could have, given our residency status - the presence of guns, crossbows, pistols and other hunting paraphenalia in front of us all the time was unsettling.

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NB: This page was added after we returned.

As we rapidly ran out of time in the USA, I realised I’d not taken any images of some of the more amusing items in Walmart, so at 4:30am in Fishkill, New York, I went for a wander through the Walmart Supercenter.

The items that amused me most were the range of cereals, (none of which appeared to be healthy), other foods of convenience, and of course, the guns and ammo section (see related articles).

The foods of convenience were not all bad - it was cheaper to buy frozen mixed vegetables for a stir-fry than it was to buy them individually and try to keep them in a van, even with a fridge. However, for the most part, they were some truly horrifying things to eat, all of which would enlarge the waistline…

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