Oh no

My tour of Spain is nearly over - oh man!!!!! (it also means my holidays is more than half over). I´m enjoying myself heaps and seeing some amazing sights.

I wrote a big long blog over the last few days and accidently deleted it - grrr!
So I´ll endevour to fill you in on as much as I can considering I´m tired and its late and this keyboard keeps putting weird punctuation in that I have to keep deleting.

I had a great time at the Alhambra - it was so beautiful and interesting. The muslim architecture was unique and pretty and with a little imagination you could see all the rugs and silk pillows and harem women peeking through the wooden shutters from the floor above. The king had 4 wives and according to the guide a few hundred concubines. The first wife was the first one to bear a male heir - not a fun place to live >I think with all those women.

The gypsy dancing was cool and they are very clever with their footwork. One of them pulled me up to dance with her at the end so i did. It was fun and I guess I can cross of dancing with a gypsy in a cave off my to-do list.
An early start the next morning and to Valencia. We had an hour to wander the beautiful old streets and see the cool architecture of one particular designer who filled an old river bed with a huge long park and the most amazing-spaceage looking buildings. It was a cool idea instead of filling in the old river site (they diverted it because it flood so much) and they left all the old bridges and put parks and buildings and pools of water in there. I tried honchetta which is made from a nut (tiger nuts - which I hadn´´t heard about - and yes I know how that sounds) and milk and sugar. It was nice - I had a pastry to dip into it. It was very sweet and not too bad. From there we went to our hotel and had some paella (traditional dish of valencia - rice dish or risotto). Then I went to bed as we had an another early morning to get to Barcelona.

On the way (past the beautiful Mediteranean sea) we stopped at Peniscola which was like Greece and Bondi put together - beautiful whitewashed houses perched on a cliff and sandy beaches (yellowy-brown sand though). It was delightful to wander around for an hour but as with many other places - I wanted more time to explore and relax and enjoy the gorgeous view. I would definitely come back there if I came back to Spain.

We arrived in Barcelona during a public holiday which celebrates the patron saint of the city (Spain cities all have their own particular saint) and most places were closed but there was a carnival atmosphere in the centre with a parade and music everywhere and concerts later on tonight. I saw the La Sagrada Familia which was awesome - so much better in real life. I´´m definitely coming back tomorrow to stand in the endless queue to go in. I saw some other Gaudi architecture but seeing as it was as we were flying past in the bus again - I´´ll wait to see it tomorrow.

Well I´´m exhausted and have a big day of sightseeing tomorrow (all free time which will be nice). The tour has effectively ended - there is a farewell dinner tomorrow night and the accommodation is sorted but as I´´m not doing any more optional tours, thats it.

Since I have free internet here (yippee - at last) I´´ll blog tomorrow. Hopefully it will all be good news. Barcelona has lately become a pickpocket mecca. We´´ve been warned to be really careful at several other cities but they said this one will be the worst (and especially with all the people around with the festival). With some horror stories ringing in my ears, I´´ll be sure to hold on tight and make use of the hotel safe.

Again, thanks for reading.
Kym