Giant fish and river/park - Valencia

Spain. IX.2013

Sent off by the police, we step out of the barcelonian highway. It seems that they have a problem with people walking on highway by foot in the middle of the night, ok. By some forest roads and beach we get back to Tres Estrellas.

Blablacar seems to be very popular in Spain - it is basically cheaper and faster than trains or buses - at least from what we have learned. And definitely more efficient than standing for two hours on the side of busy highway full of speeding and not willing-to-stop cars. Disadvantage is, that sometimes you can come upon a driver, that doesn’t speak any English. With hitchhiking it works somehow, but trying to set up a meeting on Blablacar website in spanish/english gives different results… My spanish is not perfect, but I believe that “Hola, dos personas quieren hoy viajar contigo a Valencia” is somehow comprehensible, even if not correct grammatically. But results in great shock on the face of the driver, when we show up on Placa d’Espana and there is somehow two of us. Luckily we find a place and in five we squeeze into the car and head towards Valencia, and even one of the passengers speaks english!

Generally, people don’t understand when you ask them about a place to camp in the city - some forest, a big park, outskirts - where you can place the tent. Where, in the city? You mean camping field? No, no, just in the wild, some forest would be enough. What, you want to sleep in a park? It is forbidden! It is hard to explain.

On the way I am writing again to Alejandro, whom I’ve met the same summer in Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria, where we grilled some sausages and slept in the park. We wrote also on the valencian main page on Couchsurfing, but Alejandro tells me on the phone, that the guy that replied to our request cannot be trusted (?), and maybe he can find a place for us. It is first time I encounter this kind of situation, but I decide to rely upon his judgement.

Some time around 11pm we get to Valencia, completely not knowing where we are. Subway is not working, as well as buses in this part of the city. After the change of authorities in Valencia to other political option than in Mislata (which is a separate “city”, despite it is practically a Valencia neighbourhood) they revoked the night communication between Valencia and Mislata. And that’s where our host lives.

We manage to meet with Alejandro, who offers us los platanos machos (bananas that are edible in their fried form, in contrary to their known sweet cousins) and gives us place to sleep for the next two nights - great thanks!

In the morning we rush to see Valencia and discover the great atmosphere of this city.

We discover also the richness of street art movement in small streets of Valencia. All for my great enjoyment and for questions from Dani (“why do you stop constantly to take picture of every stupid wall instead of beautiful sights?!”).

It’s a shame this is not art 

Except for the street art in Valencia, we are astonished also by two other aspects of the city. First is Riu Turia - river that has flown thorugh Valencia more or less calmly untill the year 1957, when it flooded the city in a “less calm” episode. Revengeful inhabitants split it in two after that, heading one of the parts around the city in a canal, and letting the other part flow through the city. But the wide riverbed was turned into a magnificent, longitudinal park, across which we can still see the bridges. Peculiar view, indeed.

Second aspect is a oceanografic/museum/God-knows-what complex designed by Felix Candela, that catches attention by it’s fish-like form. We didn’t manage to get inside, due to the price of the tickets and our stinginess.

We are wandering towards some bars recommended by Alejandro, in which we can taste the famous spanish tapas - snacks given away with beer, which - as some say - are so big that can suffice as a regular meal. We check several places, where we get few slices of meat and cheese… in the end we get angry and resign from pursuing this tradition.Touristic legend, it’s not like aperitivo in Milano.

We manage to get to salsoteque, where we take a glance on the dancing couples. After that and a round of vodka cocktails we gather courage to dance few dances on the side of the main dancefloor, not to catch to match attention...

After day and a half spent in Valencia we want to go further to Granada. Again with a tested method - Blablacar, this time with Spanish guys that know English. Our place for the night will be the Travellers House - recent project of a Serbian travellers organization. Each year they rent a flat in one European city, hosting everybody who needs it. Last year was Stambul, and this - luckily for us - is Granada

Our drivers are even willing to give us a lift straight to the place, which is a great help regarding the fact, that we get to Granada at 11pm. But good intentions are finished on the steep streets of Granada, where the car gets overheated and breaks down in a very awkward situation.

Fiesta Barcelona

Spain. IX.2013

- You're lucky. - says the driver, who stopped in the middle of a roundabout to give us a lift from El Prat to camping in a small village on the Barcelona outskirts. Frankly speaking, this is our only hitchhiked ride in the whole Spain, something around 5km. - You've arrived in Barceolna in time of the biggest celebration, La Merce. There will be parades and concerts all around the city.

After all these trouble with hitchhiking, three days waiting for a cheap flight from Bergamo to Barcelona, finally the luck is on our side. But right now the most important thing for us is the fact, that we are in this unattainable Spain, come what may - we'll see Barcelona and the returning flight from Sevilla is not that far away.

We find the camping Tres Estrellas, which was adviced by my friend Kasia during the preparations for the wandering (thanks, first class place!), we set up the tent and leave for the beach. Unbelievable change of action, not further then yesterday we were camping in a half-deserted stone mine in Albino in the Orobian Alps (about this in other text), and today with towels and beer we set off in full sun for the spanish beach. There's a reason for saying, that during travelling in three weeks you live the time as for three months.

After an hour I am so bored I build a castle, but Dani is having a great time. After all, the beaching & frying was high on her expectations list, mission completed!

We devote two days for seeing Barcelona, checking the most important sights on our list. Mostly the free ones, because prices in Barcelona are killing us. Entries to museums around 15 euro per person and long queues even in the end of September - thank you very much.

But the free ones are also amazing - Park Güell, designed by architect Gaudi and built in the beginning of the XXth century:

Generally speaking the whole Barcelona seems to be full of Gaudi spirit, but it's natural - not only seven of buildings he designed are now on the World Heritage list of UNESCO, but also he was a great catalan patriot.

Speaking about Catalonia, it is a very interesting case. Autonomic region, with separate language - for me catalan sounds a bit like a merge between spanish and french, which would be geographically correct - with separate history and culture. I won't write much about it, because I haven't gone deep into this topic, but you can see the emphasising of autonomy of Catalonia on every step. Catalonian parliament announced the will to hold a referendum on independence from Spain in 2014.

We differ with Dani in the matter of buying souvenirs from the trips. I am not a big fan of them - as a utilitarian I hate all the cuuuute stuff to put on your shelf, as memories my photos and stories are enough for me. But in the end I give in to the thought of buying something useful and being a souvenir in the same time - cork for a wine with Gaudis mosaic and a glass with Barcelona's sights. I don't want to be perceived as a a soulless robot, do I? Dani, in contrary, is like a fish in the water, choosing fridge magnets for herself, for the family, friends... What in the end led to some problems on Bergamo airport, when she was stopped for a luggage control and being asked especially about the magnets. She was carrying so much of them, that probably they thought she's a smuggler.

After shopping for  magnets and leaving the shop far behind, we want to check further directions. Dani realises, that her tablet isn't with her - in the fever of buying souvenirs she left it on the counter in the shop...

We managed to retrieve it, and thanks to coming back to Calle Princesa we unexpectedly encounterd the La Merce parade:

Horsies:

... and a necessary team after them:

Pikachu - national hero of Catalonia?

...  probably yes, here hand in hand with Capitain Catalonia:

Giants parade - great figures, which can be seen above - has been organised for more than 100 years, and La Merce origins can be taken back to 1871. The celebration is connected to saving Barcelona from locust plague in XVII century and also to conquering Barcelona by Burboun's army after 14 month long siege. I couldn't dig up the reasons, why would Catalonians celebrate the day of defeat as their national holiday. Because of this defeat their autonomy started to decrease, and applying Nueva Planta decrees led to unity of Spain.

In the evening we watch fireworks show in a terrible crowd, It wasn't worth it, especially that while returning to the camping we get lost in small villages around Barcelona in the middle of the night. Thanks to directions from a friendly Libyan bus driver we find the correct way, and after few kilometers we get to the highway, on which of course you cannot walk on foot. So we go - straight onto a police patrol.

Heinz, night at a cementary and italian haven

Croatia & Italy, IX.2013

- Welcome, my name is Heinz Guderian, general of Panzergruppe.

What the hell? A middle-sized, dark-haired man about 25 years old and with left arm in a cast approaches us and greets me with his right hand. When he starts to speak again I gather all my croation powers on trying to understand what is he trying to tell us. He points on our beers, from which I conclude he wants us to buy him one. I refuse, 'cause in the end we have little kunas ourselves. He shakes his head in disapproval and disappears in the bar.

To our surprise, he appears again holding two bottles of beer and hands them to us. He stutters a bit, but we manage to understand him.

- You see... you see, what kind of man would I be, if I wouldn't agree my fellow man with a bottle of beer... - he explains. What is this all about? He points at my eyes.

- You and me, you see... You and me, we are arian race, we've got blue eyes. We've got to help each other. - if introducing himself as a general of a Nazi army hasn't convinced me that he's nuts, his dark eyes has done the job. - You see, I am Adolf Hitler. - he salutes us. In this moment Dani is really scared, taking into consideration my polish nationality [as well as her dark hair, eyes and skin - Dani] - We've got to help each other for the sake of german race. - he turns back and marches into the bar. In just a moment he returns carrying two more bottles. And then comes the awaited question to me (he ignores Dani all the time):

- Where are you from? From Germany?

Possible consequences of the answer are running through my head, but what the heck.

- No, from Poland.

He thinks about my answer for a bit, but finally salutes me, gives me one more "we've got to help each other, what kind of a man would I be if I wouldn't buy you a beer" and returns to bar. Right now all we want is to empty our bottles as soon as possible and find a place to spend the night, cause the dawn begind to fall, but we haven't even started on the second bottle.

Heinz/Adolf looks from the bar's door and asks me from out of the blue:

- Do you want to kiss me? - from inside of the bar we hear the laughter of Krapina inhabitants, who probably provoked him to ask this. It all turns into some grim absurd... I kindly refuse, we grab the unfinished beers and rush away to find a place for the night.

We head up the hill, in the direction of a forest, a bit lost on the streets. Finally, we get out of Krapina, we pass a small chapel, a cementary and in the edge of a forest we put out the tent. I'm cooking some pasta, Dani arranges the tent. In the morning, when we look out of the tent, it turns out that in the dark we haven't really passed the cementary...

Trying to get out of Krapina we find communication problems again, by foot we get to another village. Luckily, from there a friendly driver takes us all the way to Celje in Slovenia. We leave our luggage at the train station and for the first time we go out to the city without backpacks and in the full sun.

We decide not to take risks of hitchhiking and to Ljubljana we go by a cheap train. About what interesting is there to be found in Ljubljana - Metelkova Mesto - I'll try to write later. We sleep in the city park, which freaks out Dani again, and in the morning we continue with public nad private transportation. First - to windy Trieste:

... with Trenitalia to Monfalcone - next "in the end of the world" type of place, where even the touristic information they don't speak in english, starting every sentence from a friendly "Alora":

... and with the helo of Blablacar and wide metro system we reach well-known Milano. Here we find our peaceful haven at Fabio's place, who's helpful as always. Great thanks, man!

Full of new optymism, energy and aperitivo-food, with washed clothes, after a hot shower and night in comfort, we decide to give hitchhiking one more chance - in the end this is what we wanted to do in this wandering. We get out of Milano accoring to Hitchwiki only to find that the described spot is taken by road police patrol... so we go a bit further, in the end spending hour and a half holding sign TORINO like idiots on the side of a road in totally other direction. A search for internet place, good mood fades away, feeling of being lost and frustration return.

Slowly a thought appears - maybe we can look for cheap flights to Barcelona? There's probably no chance for that, but we can take a peek...