The Beginning

So I am finally starting this blog-thing.I figured it was about tiume that I actually started making an effort to keep in touch with people, so here it is!

I left Groningen a week ago with my overstuffed backpack and headed to Utrecht, a city not far from Amsterdam. My time there was good, but quiet, which was what I needed. I spent my one full day there wandering around the city in the sun (sun in the Netherlands is an exciting thing!!) with this very cool Dutch girl.

The next day, I flew to Barcelona. Just seeing the amount of sun and all the mountains from the plane got me very excited, considering it is quite different from the Dutch weather and geography that I have been used to for the past 5 months! In addition to the sun, Barcelona itself is just a great city! There was so much that I had missed my last time there that I made sure to get it all in this time! I am actually ashamed to say that I missed most of the Gaudi stuff my 1st time there, especially after seeing it and being so blown away by it all!

I also took a daytrip from Barcelona to Figueres, where Salvador Dali was born, where there is the most amazing museum I have ever been to. It was like being inside a surrealist work of art...the Welsh girl that I went there with and I were running all around like excited 5 year olds constantly saying "look at that! look at that!"

Then, on our train ride back to Barcelona, we experienced something terrbily pleasant (please insert sarcastic tone here). While sitting in a cafe waiting for our train, my friend mentioned to me that this really creepy guy kept staring at us. Finally, he left the cafe, but then on the train platform, he came and sat right near us and went back to staring. The the train came, we sat down, and where did he choose to sit? in perfect staring position, of course. So we got up and moved...so did he. Then, we waited a few minutes and moved further...he moved to, but he was only able to stare at the backs of our heads for the entire train ride. Then, as he was getting off of the train, as he passed us, he was obviously quite insulted that we didnt respond to his wonderful flirtation and gave us the finger!! The whole experience was a mixture of very creepy and just plain funny.

Anyway, I left Barcelona this morning and headed for Valencia, where I am staying at the "Purple Nest hostel"...yes that was indeed part of the reason I chose it. Although I was a bit disappointed that my room is red and pink and not purple. (Yes, I am aware that this is a problem). Other than the semi-purple hostel, there is not much to report on the few hours I´ve spent here, but we shall see what happens!