Heading straight out of Madrid with the rental car, on a Sunday, was a good idea, but expecting anything to be open in any of the cities between here in the far south reaches is stretching it. Toledo, the first city that we hit up, was completely dead. Not a damn thing was open, and it’s a decent sized city.

Toledo is a beautiful city surrounded by a high wall, with turrets at every corner, and churches just about everywhere inside. Jillian was feeling pretty ill, having caught a flu or cold of some sort, so we took a break and had a good meal at a restaurant. Afterward we were all feeling like we needed to roam around and take pictures. It was a gorgeous day, but it soon became too dark to continue hand-holding our cameras, so we headed out of the city toward Cordoba.

After a great sunset ride south toward Cordoba we arrived at our destination… sort of. We got hopelessly lost in the labrinthine maze they call the city streets. The one bad thing about having girls with me is that they’d much rather me drive around in circles for six hours in order to drop them at the door, instead of finding good parking and walking a block and a half up the one way street going the wrong way. But one of the good things about having girls with you is that they aren’t afraid to ask for directions, and usually get better results doing so than I ever would have. We were successful in asking for directions from the police, but they decided that it was far to dificult to explain it to us, so they escorted us directly to the hostel. Sorta made us feel like VIPs, pulling up with a couple of motorcycle cops in leading the way.

We parked in front of Cordoba’s famously huge cathedral (which was once a mosque) and walked three or four blocks to the hostel, got a room and enjoyed having a whole room to ourselves. Mylaine decided that sleep would be more fun than trekking out in search of food, so Jillian and I went out for tapas and red wine. To me, being pissed means that your extremely upset at something, but to Jillian, who’s an Aussie, being pissed means that your drunk. So we got pissed, closed down the tapas bar and went out in search of good photo opportunities. The mosque was wonderful from the outside, and although none of my photos of it stood out tremendously, I will never forget being in complete awe of the place.

In the morning we saw the inside of the mosque, and some of our group (excluding myself) stole, sour oranges from the monestary within. Shameful thing to do, but fun nonetheless.

I’ve rented a car from Madrid in order to see the southern parts of Spain more completely. I’m dissapointed that I feel that I won’t have the time to see the nothern end, but I know that I’ll be back. I’m already thinking of hiking the pilgrimage to Santiago next season, so I’ll eventually see more of the north than I’ll probably ever need.

My plan right now is to just see Tarifa… and everything along the way. If I get bored, I’ll just head north.

I’m still burnt out on museums, so I took a bus tour, and although bus tours on freezing cold days are a bad idea, it’s a great way to get around town and get a quick overview of the city.

Knowing that I want to see more of Spain than I have time for, I made a trip to the train station to buy a couchette to Paris (for my return trip to LA), and rented a car for the following evening, which was to be returned seven days later. A week in a car, in a country I’m not familiar with, alone. Not too bright, but sounded really adventurous… and was reasonably priced considering what I was getting. A road trip in Spain would definately not be the same as a road trip in the States, but it would still be cool. Besides, it’s the only way I could figure on seeing as much of Spain in a short amount of time as I had.

Hanging out around the hostel, waiting for dinner (dinner in Spain doesn’t start until 9pm, so most restaurants aren’t serving until then), I met Mylaine and Jillian, who were doing the same that I was. We all decided that it would be a great idea to find a place that does great paella and eat together. While eating we bonded fairly well, and I invited them both along on the road trip that I’d planned.

Stopped here on the way to Madrid, on the recomendation of a travel friend… Not much here except a bunch of eight-story apartment buildings. It’s kind of sad to see a city have nothing to offer but a modern-building apartment farm. At least there’s a little shopping district which makes for some interesting pictures (if you don’t delete them accidentally), and has a great carneceria (meat market) just south of the train station.

Trying to make it to Barcelona from Perpignan as planned proved more difficult in execution. The train to the border never showed up, and having few options left I jumped in a cab to the train station at the border. My feelings read a little like a credit card comercial: Train couchette from Venice to Nice using an unlimmited use two-month Eurail Pass– 45EU; Train from Nice to Perpignan — 20hrs; Dean Koontz novel for five hour layover in Marseille — 11EU; Cab ride to Spain — 100EU; Getting the hell out of France — Priceless.

Maybe it’s because I had to fight for it, but I love Barcelona. It’s got a little bit of everything for everybody.

Shopping for clothing and antiques was a blast. I’m not much of a shopper, but it was so nice to be in among the older buildings, on winding, blink and you get lost streets. The antiques offered in most of the shops here are top quality and certified. Of course if I were intending to actually buy anything I would be a little more descerning, but if you’re just browsing it can be nearly as entertaining as going to a museum — if you know a little spanish, ask about the back stories to some of the cooler looking articles.

The aquarium here is world class. I felt like killing a couple hours before a late dinner, so I dropped in on the aquarium to kill a few hours. It just happened to be the same evening that they were celebrating the tenth anniversary of the opening day of the aquarium, so there were a ton of people in suits and dresses drinking free champagne everywhere — I felt so underdressed. I know that the Long Beach aquarium has totally spoiled me for other aquariums, but this one has definately beat out all others for a strong second place. Of course thier mediteranean and tropical collection far outweighs LB’s, but they just don’t have the tank sizes that LB has. The whole aquarium was also very well maintained, but with the ticket price being as high as it was, it had better be. Most impressive was the wooden conveyor belt that took standing guests through an underwater tunnel (see pictures). As well as functional, it was completely gorgeous; the tank you traveled through had numorous sharks, rays and tropical fish.