Cerrado

So after barcelona, my next stop was Valencia, home of paella. The entire town is filled with architectural marvels that were made evident to me after taking one of those bus tours of the city. It was actually a good thing to do because my travel guide sucks. The first glimpse of cool architecture was the train station, a very interesting design. that continued with the ayuntamente, or government building in the plaza d'ayuntamente. Here was housed the museum of archaeology and even cooler was the museum of history. The museum of history had all the minutes of the town councils dating back to the 13th century on display.

next stop was this brand new museum of arts and sciences. i cant even describe how it looked, very modern architecture. the arts museum is still being completed but the science museum was completed. They had one exhibit on gem stones. The only problem was that all the huge rubies and emeralds, etc. were on loan to the UAE, damn UAE. So i made my way to this market that has been in the same place and busy since the 12th century. As soon as i walked in, all i could smell was fish, shell fish, and huge chunks of ham. i quickly left.

I next visited the cathedral which was amazing. Inside they have the holy grail -- the cup Christ was believed to have used during the last supper. It is housed in its own cathedral. Very cool. The church also has this tower that you can ascend which provided nice views of the city.

So i did have paella in valencia, paella sin pescado and sin mariscos. so i had it with chicken, and it was good, especially with a cold cerveza. I love cerveza.

My next city is sevilla and this is where i am writing from now. However, i was told so much of the southern coast of spain i decided to rent a car and drive it over 2 days. I started from valencia and went to alicante and muicia. From there i was told to stop off at cabo de gata right before Almeira. I went to this little town called San Jose, way out in the middle of nowhere. It was a total laid back resort area. Very few people, unbelievable beaches and totally laid back locals. I spent a couple hours there. Then i drove down N-340 towards Malaga. The stretch of road from almeira to malage winds along the coast sandwiched between mountains and the mediterranean. It was awesome. Every now and then you would see a bit of beach that looked amazing. I almost crashed like 100 times because i couldn't keep my eyes on the road. It was worth the trip. I stayed the night in Malaga next to the beach. My dinner that night was at this family run argetinian rest. where i had the most amazing sirloin and spanish red wine. I finished the entire bottle. I have to say that i am surprised I even made it to Sevilla. Avis gave me this Peugeut shitbox to drive. The damn thing wouldnt go more than 60 mph without shaking. The worst thing was all these cars would zoom past me and there was nothing i could do about it. You know you have problems when a Ford Focus flies by you -- and i knew it was a Focus because they are so ugly. But i made it.

The next day i drove to Sevilla. It is so damn hot here. The locals dont go out in the middle of the day and all you see is stupid tourists like me sweating uncontrollably under the intense heat. Yesterday i went to the cathedral and saw the tomb of cristobal colom, or as we know christopher columbus. I also climbed the Giralda tower and saw the gardens. I planned a large itinerary for the next day. So the next day today, i wanted to see the fortress, museum of fine arts, and history museum. Little did i know that all museums and the like are closed on mondays. All the signs read: Cerrado. I hate that word. My guidebook neglected to mention that. Did i tell you my guidebook sucks. So i was able to see the Plaza D'Espana, Plaza D'America, the old town, and did some shopping. I even took another bus tour, which again was worthwhile. Tonight I am going to see some Flamenco dancing and i will let you all know how it is in my next entry. Tomorrow i leave for madrid where i finally plan on enjoying some more of spanish nightlife. hope all is well back home.

just a quick note to my friend Jen, hey jen hope things are well over there in NYC, and this note was not prompted by any affinity for any raincoats especially those of the yellow kind with I's or palm trees on them.