Summary (text) from Sicily to Spain/Portugal

we are in barcelona, spain...again.

liverpool just lost to my most unfavorite, chelsea football club. however, i write, though, am not impressed.

where i left you last time: we had such a mind blowing time in sicily and went from there on an overnight train to rome, where we had a rockin' day of ruin-seeing and stuff. after that we decided to take another overnight train back to the southeast, where we caught a train to amalfi. from the amalfi coast in italy we zipped as fast as possible to marseille, where we were fortunate enough to get tickets to the liverpool match (i bought mine for a 'fair' street price and ailsa's were given to her by a few scousers that were about to enter the match and a had a few $150 tickets handy). the amalfi coast was beautiful but we couldn't find fair accomodations for the night and, honestly, we were ready to leave italy.
italy is a beautiful country and there isn't anyone in the world that could convince me otherwise...however, like 11 years ago when i visited, i felt this country is far too intense. wherever you go, there are speakers blarring something in an accent that makes you go mad. they are so loud! to me, every rail ticket agent seemed to wish i would just die on the spot, or be anywhere but in front of them. all in all, it was worth the beauty of the place, but, man, they are intense...and, overall, just very rude (with a few sicilian exceptions...see previous post).
so, marseille was fantastic. we got into the game of a lifetime in liverpool vs marseille and screemed like little girls (well, i did). i found it kinda hard to focus in the beginnning of the match because the liverpool fans were a bit rowdy and i found myself acting as a shield for the (more pregnant by the day) wife. liverpool absolutely dominated the match and it was more than i could ask for. i met more than a few scousers, who were very pleasant and fed my wife chocolate, which was nice. i was not able to capture the match on my camera as i wished. the reason, i have demised, is due to me plainly losing my head. i just freaked out. it actually took all my effort to just focus my eyes on the match in front of me let alone take pictures of it. some of you understand my affection for liverpool f.c. and so understand how i could enter into such a state of emotionalism. others will just have to take my word for it, i was all a glorious mess.
after marseille, we were VERY anxious to get to spain. spain is a country that i have, since the teen years, always wished to visit. however, when i lived a couple years here in europe (england) i never had the funds or the time to make it that far south. so, naturally, i was so very excited to cross this particular border. our intention was to get into barcelona in time to attend the footy match between barcelona and stuttgardt. however, because of an unfortunate accident, our train was delayed and we missed the match by 1/2 an hour. we thouroughly enjoyed our time in barca, however, though we only spent one night and two days there. from there we took an overnight train south to granada. granada was excellent...especially the hostel we stayed at. we happened to catch them on one of the four nights where they cooked fabulous ethnic meals for their guests. the night we arrived was 'spanish' night and we had the most delicious roasted red pepper soup, potatoes (YES!!!) and all the sea-food paella we could eat. there was a japanese lad at the hosel that ate (no exaggeration) 4 heaping plates of it. i only managed a meager two.
after a night and two days there, we decided to head west instead of south to the coast, and made our way to portugal, via an overnight train (of course). once we arrived in lisbon, we made it our main objective to find an english/irish pub that would be showing the liverpool/man utd. and arsenal/chelsea matches. once that objective was accomplished, we left our bags with a jolly irishman and explored the city of lisbon. our original intention was to head to the south coast of portugal after the liverpool match, but after watching one match and filling our bellies with a few chips we decided to stay in lisbon a bit longer, miss the train to the south and catch the arsenal/chelsea match. after a dissapointing loss for liverpool to the much despised manchester united, and having realized that there were no other trains to the south of portugal, we caught a train west to the little town of sintra. in sintra, we found little castles dotted all over the landscape and also found our beds, for which we were grateful to snuggle into. the next morning, after a bit of sightseeing, me and the wife had a chat. this came about because we both had a look at a calender and were shocked by the reality of just how close we were to the end of our two month train adventure. in our eyes, we had two options. either we headed towards south portugal and found some place to rest for the last 5 days of our trip or we went to our favorite spot yet for 5 days to rest. the decision was easy. we immediately set off again for barcelona, spain. we both fell in love with barcelona the moment we set foot upon it. the people and culture made a connection with us that none of the, however many, cities had done yet, and it just felt right to go back. granada was excellent, but barcelona was just grand and romantic. portugal was wonderful but we realized there that it was time to stop and rest and so it will have to wait to be thouroughly checked some other time.
and so, we are back in barcelona. we have booked our first hotel, for three fabulous nights and we are doing nothing but sleeping in, eating our free breakfast, shopping for christmas presents throughout this WONDERFUL city, watching footy at night and eating TAPAS consistenly.
we have realized, just in the last day, that we have been like machines these last 2 months. we have seen so much. however, while we have most assuredly 'kicked europe's arse', we have yet to just relax in one place together for more than three days at a time. we feel priveledged to do this here in barcelona. it is indeed a proper finish to our adventure.
we love it so much here, in fact, that i have already gone to one of the TESL (teaching english as a second language) schools here and inquired about employment. it would serve as (at least) one decent winter of work and an opportunity to finish learning spanish. i obtained my TESL certificate in college as a minor and have always wished to use it. barcelona is perfect. we ablsolutely love it here. when i post pictures in the next post i will put one of the local market here. the colors are so vivid with fruit and veg that they look as if they are water-colors. the peopel are...NICE. the city is buzzing. there is sure to be quality football to play (if i can ever get back into shape) and to watch (barcelona's messi and ronaldinho!!) the food is incredible and i am sure there is, somewhere, a quality group of lads for myself and women for my misses to be found. but, i digress. i, am of course, just buzzing from my travels and can't say enough, in particular, about barcelona. we will leave here in two days, where we will catch an overnighter to paris and then go on to london for a much anticipated christmas with ailsa's english family.
we are already feeling both sad and excited about what is next. sad, because it means an end to one of the most wonderful experiences of our lives and excited because it means we are another day closer to seeing our families again and sharing the birth or our little boy or girl with them. we conclude our three months in europe on january 10. we will be flying to halifax and spending almost two weeks with our family in new brunswick before heading to seattle, hanging with our pals ray and jessica, pav and danielle and my cousin colby and his girlfriend, heather (we may even see seth and amy...maybe X), picking up our weiner of a dog and then heading to spokane, washington so my wife can nest away until the baby comes. she is HUGE, by the way (that pic will be included in the 'pic-post' to come). after that, all will be normal. well, as normal as child rearing can be.


the next post (quite possibly tomorrow or the next, since i have computer access) will have a thourough display of pictorial thumbnails (& relevant commentary) for your browsing bemusement. in fact, i will most likely feel compelled to include pictures from switzerland to where we are now so be prepared.

love to you all,

ty and ailsa