I’m finally at the Edelweiss hostel in Barcelona. The trip was good but long. Delayed for almost two hours and a couple euros more than I wanted it to be. Ease and convenience cost money … inexpensive/cheap requires more work - a big lesson learned from my adventures. I hopped on a bus in Murcia thinking I was gonna get off at the train station. I totally missed the stop and ended up in some other city. So, I took a cab. Then in Barcelona, since the train was late didn’t feel like getting lost on another bus or figuring out the Metro, so I took another cab. Both dropped me off right where I needed to be, but cost 10 times more than public transport. No problems at all with me, other than just the usual language problems and tiredness! The train was delayed because someone tried to cross the track and was ran over. Never a good thing, but pissed off a lot of Spanish people on the train. No compassion!
Adrian and I parted ways at the bus/train station in Almeria this morning around 8:15 or so. It wasn’t a sad adios, if anything it was a little rushed. Adrian fell in the shower in the morning and bashed and cut his forhead open! So I don’t think he was thinking straight. He also wanted to get to the airport on time. I talked to him while the train was stopped and he got to San Sebastian ok, aside from my darbouka having been left in Madrid by the airline.
Anyway … I’m tired and hungry and my feet stink badly. I’m gonna eat my vending machine dinner and go to bed!
We´ve left Paola´s farm in Cabo de Gata. Adrian and I said our goodbyes, smoked a little with Chris and Tibo and got yelled at by Alicja for not coming when she honked the horn. We didn´t hear it. And, Paola gave up waiting for us to say goodbye. Now I´m once again sitting in the yellow western union internet cafe here in Campohermoso. We´re gonna catch the 4:00 bus to Almeriá. We have no place to stay yet. Tomorrow morning I will head to Murcia where I´ll catch a train, either tomorrow of the next day, to Barcelona. I´ve nowhere to stay yet in Barcelona, either. But I´ll figure something out. I´m tempted to call the farm in France and see if they will have me a couple days early. I can´t really afford four days in a big city anyway. I emailed five couchsurfing folks, and haven´t heard back. The delay might be from the couchsurfing.com site being down, though, so I can´t blame them (yet).
I have mixed feelings. I am really glad to be moving on from Paola´s. It was truly amazing, though, and an experience I will not soon forget. Such an extreme! The people, the place, the toilet … the feelings, the moods, the food … it was quite a trip. I´m kinda at a loss for words, really. It might be the anxiousness about catching the bus and not knowing where I´m gonna stay or what I´m gonna do for the next week. That, and this past week was marked with a baby goat dying, an older goat being very ill, an old, ugly duck being killed by Petr´s dog Dingo (and his subsequent decision that Dingo has to leave the farm), various arguments, odd and ill feelings between people, and the reality that our time was limited. I have a lot to tell, for sure. Just not now.
So yeah. It´s an interesting time, another chapter in the adventure. I´ll post pictures soon!
hasta luego (see you later).
While I may never know if the NH Ciudad de Almeria is indeed the most swank hotel in Almeria, it´s probably the swankiest hotel I´ll ever stay in on this trip. I was returning from Germany late, although I was actually early … the flight from Bremen was 30 minutes early, enabling me to catch an earlier than expected bus from the airport to Murcia, which in turn allowed me to catch the last bus from Murcia to Almeria. It put me in Almeria at 11:30 pm. I talked to James while I was on the bus and he looked up hotels near the intermodal bus/train station. I would have never walked into the NH hotel if he hadn´t let me know how much the rooms cost. 60 euros might be a little steep, I guess, but it sounded good at that hour. It was nice, and if I need to stay somewhere again, I may look up an NH hotel first. It was a sweet deal.
So now I have a little bit of time to kill this morning before catching the bus. Unfortunately there are no buses to Fernan Perez, the closest town to the farm. So, I got a ticket to Campohermoso, which is about an hour walk from the farm. Maybe I´ll stick my thumb out and hope for a ride, depending on how I feel about walking. I´ve brought back a heavier backpack than I left with, so I may not want to walk the whole way! I could use the excercise.
The trip to Germany and Denmark was good. I enjoyed seeing Mom and Gary and I took a lot of pictures, which I have no idea when I´ll be able to post. I haven´t edited them all anyway, yet. The highlight was definitely the island of Aero and the towns of Aeroskobing and Marstal. I definitely recommend it!
My plan over then next few weeks is to return to the farm for a week-and-a-half or two and then move on. I´ve been in contact with farms in France and have three lined up. I´m set to be there, barring any unforseen obstacles, for a month and a week or so. I may go to Paris sometime in July and maybe ride the train from Paris to Brussels to see some Belgian friends I met in Africa. Norway will hopefully be in mid-July into August. I´m looking forward to that!
The adventure continues …