And stuck again - Logrono, Spain
visited Aug 30, 2006
Having given up on hitching and decided to get the bus to Logrono, we arrived at the bus station at about 8pm. It was still light, not at all late, but it seems that noone in spain travels after about 7, as we had missed the last busses and trains to Bilbao for the night. Grrr. So we ascertained the bus times for bilbao the next morning, lockered most of our stuff at the bus station, and set off with only a dodgy map from the bus station information person to tell us where there might be some cheap hostals or pensions. The first one we found didn´t answer their bell, the second wanted 60euro, and the third only 30. We took it, dumped our (little) bags, and went to find something to eat. The first thing we saw that looked recognisably like food we both knew and knew how to order and eat, was a doner place, complete with a sign out the front in German, strangely enough. After a rather excellent doner each, we felt a lot more human. We must learn to eat a little more regularly... The room was fine, the shower was wonderful 8any shower would be wonderful after three days on the road) and the loud neighbours and paper thin walls didn´t bother us too much. The dog barking insistantly in the minute courtyard (or light well, depending on your perspective) did though. At least that didn´t start til nearly 9am anyway, and we had a bus to catch at 11! A stroll through town on our way to the bus station found us breakfast, and, unexpectedly, a market that sold pomegranates! Haven´t eaten it yet, but we´re looking forward to it, after having become addicted to them in Turkey last year!

Stuck - La Poveda de Soria, Spain
visited Aug 30, 2006
Hitching was really hard today, and we ended up in a tiny village called "Almarza", a few kilometres south of La poveda de Soria. When we were told it was three hours to the bus to Logrono, we though "no, wel´ll stand on the road and get a lift before then, for sure!". But no. With only an hour left to the bus, we decided to go wait in the shade of the only pub (we had to walk past most of the town´s 10 houses to get there). We were lucky enough to get the front seat on the bus, which meant we could almost pretend we were in a truck, but one where we both got a comfortable seat, and I didn´t have to talk to the driver!

Night in a forest - El Burgo de Osma, Spain
visited Aug 29, 2006
ok, so it was a plantation forest, and we had some light all night from the town streetlights, but we were definitely outside the city limits. We could see the back of the "you are leaving El Burgo de Osma" sign from the tent, more or less (well the side of it, anyway). It was a nice little town, with a pretty main square and street that reminded me a lot of Italian small towns. And we had paella and pizza that we saw being taken out of the freezer in the restaurant we stopped in, but it was very good nonetheless. it probably helped that we hadn´t really eaten all day!

Whizz - Fraga, Spain
visited Aug 29, 2006
Didn´t see fraga at all. whizzed past at 150 km an hour in David and Hose´s car. that was a fun ride. Just don´t tell my mother I willingly got in a car with a couple of young guys who slowed down to 80km or so occasionally to take coke, but otherwise drove up to 170km/hr (excellent driving skills though - I never felt scared, strangely enough) (oh. hi mum.). The most fun we´ve had on a ride, though, and they drove us about 100km out of their way, just for the fun of it, I think! They left us a petrol station somewhere between Fraga and Zaragoza, and, before leaving, arranged with a truck driver to take us as far as zaragoza!

well, almost balaguer - Balaguer, Spain
visited Aug 28, 2006
we didn´t quite get to balaguer, but within a few kilometres. That´s where the strange and slightly scary moroccan man who picked us up in Tremp was going. He wanted to give us money to spend the night at his place. For food, showers, and sleeping, he said. hmm. we said a very firm no, strangely enough.

Almost out of the mountains - Sort, Spain
visited Aug 28, 2006
We didn´t want to be way up in the pyrenees for the night (it was chilly up there during the day, camping would have been quite cold, I think)so we managed to get to Sort, which is still in the foothills, but a much more pleasant temperature for mid summer! More to follow, as usual...

Ma Famille Francaise - Venerque, France
visited Aug 28, 2006
Im staying with my french family again in Venerque le vernet. but i still refuse to write about it using this ridiculous keyboard!

We made it to andorra! - Andorra La Vella, Andorra
visited Aug 27, 2006
I´ve wanted to go to andorra for a long time. And now I have! That´s yet another country for the country count! Photos and details to follow.

how did we end up here? - Narbonne, France
visited Aug 26, 2006
Youll have to wait to find out. I refuse to type my adventures on a french keyboard!

Back in Barcelona. - Barcelona, Spain
visited Aug 23, 2006
I like this city. Last time I was here I stayed at the squat the whole time (it was queeruption) and so I didn´t get the barcelona, funky laid back feeling. Were staying in hostel Kabul on placa reial.´This is the place Nathaniel, Kieran, Jen and I wanted to stay for new years a few years ago, but they were full. We´ve unded up here now because we arrived in barcelona at midnight last night, at sants station, which was closing in 10 mins, and so we didn´t ahve time to ring any of the numbers I had copied from the time-out barcelona in a glaswegian bookstore, but I looked at the metro map and saw liceu, recognised it as next to placa reial, and figured that here or the horrible place next door (where we ended up staying that new years!)might do us for at least one night. Turned up here, at about quarter to 1 in the morning, and low and behold, they had a bed for us. Two of them in fact. Though they made me sing before they´d tell me they had them. I sang the first thing that came into my head: "Show me the way to go home, I´m tired and I want to go to bed!". He said that that was very suitable and he could help. And now we´re meeting Diana (my teaching partner for 4 of the last 6 weeks) very shortly, and I did want to have a very short siesta before then! Might go and try that now.

grrr - Glasgow, United Kingdom
visited Aug 22, 2006
The plan was to get up early, get the bus to glasgow, out the bags in a locker, spend the day exploring and then get the train to the airport for our flight to barcelona. The reality was: getting to glasgow at least an hour and ahlaf later than planned, and the flight being an hour earlier than we thought, not to mention the current 2 hour check in time required for all flights. So we had an hour and a half in glasgow, which made it not worth putting the bags in a locker (at 6pounds each) so we spent most of the time in Borders bookstore. At least I got to write down a whole heap of phone numbers from a spanish lonely planet! Having bought the middle east guide book, I don´t have one for spain and portugal and morrocco... grr.

Yay! Edinburgh! - Edinburgh, United Kingdom
visited Aug 20, 2006
Abby is a wonderful person! We stayed with her for two nights. I like edinburgh. it´s the first place in the UK that I´ve seen where I think I could live. Got to meet up with Stephanie again as well, which was great! More later.

A tent in a "field" - Washington, United Kingdom
visited Aug 19, 2006
This post is yet to be written: suffice it to say that we ended up trying to hide under the only tree in a small patch of green around the corner from some guy´s house in the middle of a village on the edge of newcastle.

Finally leaving Cold Ash - Cold Ash, United Kingdom
visited Aug 18, 2006
We´re finished. finally. And tomorrow we set off for Edinburgh, travelling, once again, by thumb, which should be fun, in the UK. So this is the first entry of a New Itinerary. As the planned middle east trip is obviously not going ahead, we´re heading down through spain and portugal to morocco instead, flying from Glasgow to barcelona (we weren´t going to fly, but we found flights for a total of 27pounds each,which is pretty good). I realise I haven´t been updating this much, but I have put on all the cities I´ve been to on excursion I think (though only once each), and I´ve written a few posts on www.nontravelblog.blogspot.com and my whole class have been updating www.katsstudents.blogspot.com regularly, if you are lacking something to read... I will try to keep this updated while we´re travelling, but internet time is often rushed, and I don´t have time to do it properly. And this time, I´m NOT travelling with my laptop! So I can´t write posts offline. I thought it was unecessary, and I should learn to live without it for 4 weeks. I´m sure I´ll get withdrawals, but I´d rather that than lose it or ruin it by taking it hitching with me! I´ll write more when I can.