Quick update
Christelle took us to
Biot yesterday, where we wandered around the old town and looked at loads of beautiful and expensive artisan glass and ceramic work in loads of little shops, very picturesque. Went out for some drinks and exploration in Nice`s old town at night, had some cocktails in the centre of the town and briefly visited Nico's family restaurant. We sat on the beach watching the sunset over the town, and a labrador that wouldnt come out of the sea for its owner for about 20 minutes...
Today we sat on the beach in Nice and did some sun worshipping and a bit of lilo surfing, the sea is absolutely crystal clear here and vividly blue. We're a bit burnt again, I blame the lilo, although Christelle has lived here for 5 years and uses factor 30 sunblock on the beach, today we were using 8! Off to get the aftersun out again.....
Hullo
New photos up hereAdded lots of titles to them, new stuff here tomorrow.
Bye!
Poetry Corner!
here we go with the amazing train journey poetry, all criticism welcome on the comments page, in the form of poems preferably)....you can try and guess who did which ones, Ill stick them on in the order they were written....
They're best read in a comedy european accent of your choice.
2 spoons.We have two spoons,
that we don't need,
But Linsey thinks we might,
We got them for some yoghurt eating,
For yoghurt late at night,
We didn't eat the yoghurt,
It wasnt allowed to fly,
So now we have two spoons with us,
And thats the reason why.
Museo de JamonIn old Madrid Town,
The pigs wear a frown,
They know what lies in store,
A building has taken,
Every slice of bacon,
And displayed them like never before,
Ham, Ham
We have left Madrid, but your magic lives on,
In our hearts, our minds,
our every waking thought,
Are sausages, salami,
Stickey ribs and pork.
Street EntertainmentRobot man makes a BEEP,
Every time he moves,
Conehead man just seems asleep,
until coins kickstart his groove,
Tangoman was upside down,
as bent as bent can be!
But the king of them all was Graterman,
Cos he could cut the cheese.
Porn shoot through the tourists eyesOh, naked lady in the fountain,
modelling for a dirty mag,
Why don't you put some clothes on,
You naughty little slag.
Japanese BusinessmenWhoa! We are the drunken Japanese businessmen,
Hey! We're in Madrid and we're here to paint the town!
Yo! Lets go up this street, I'm demonstrating acumen,
Oh! Mr. Morita is kissing Mr. Brown.
Spanish CommercialsI like your jingle, Spanish commercial,
I just don't understand what you're trying to sell.
OpticiansThe Spanish love their glasses, contact lenses too.
There are seven opticians on every street,
When there really should only be two.
Take a break, an ode I am travelling through Spain,
A European tour,
All my dreams are coming true, and there is still so much more!
So what is troubling my amazing time,
With the man I dearly love,
How can I be even slightly sad,
When there are blue skies up above?
Alas there is no "Take a break",
There are no true life stories,
Of women who get labour pains,
and surgery, very gory.
Where are my household tips and bootsale buys,
My teen mum tales and trolly dashes?
I am finding it hard to cope right now,
My sadness rarely passes...
Take a breakdown"Closer" magazine is shite,
"Full House" is a fake,
"Pick me up"'s for morons,
Give me "Take a Break!"
12 hour train journey to Nice on Sunday, think of the creative gems that we'll come up with then!Cheers all....
Barcelona! such a beautiful horizon....
Hey, We´re in a pub in barcelona thats got internet access, its midnight and we´re a bit drunk. Nice.
Can yáll go and leave some comments on the photos too please, we´re loving reading it all.
Stuff so far in Barca:
Mark stood in dog pooh, well funny.
Mark took photo of pooh bear, without his head. He wasnt happy - youll need to see the photo when I upload it to understand.
Linsey thinks our hostel is a gay hostel, I disagree! Im sure I heard lady voices last night! Linsey thinks they were cleaners! Suspicious Germans this morning didnt help my argument.
Walked down La Rambla, around the beach, up La Rambla, saw a man in a dress (got a photo!) lots of Madridstuff to come....wrote some wonderful poetry on the 4 and a half hour journey from Madrid to Barcelona, which we´ll put up here soon (we were so tired we were on the cusp on insanity)
Hope you´re all doing well! Pass this site on to everyone please, want loads of comments below!
Brent - Tell Dave he´s a star! good news all round.
Linsey is loving the transexuals, took me a while to realise thats what they were....
Love to yez all!
Supremely chilled out Linsey and Mark in Barcelona signing out and going clubbing...
Robotman, Graterman, Coneheadman, Claywoman, Two-people tangoing man, Drunken Japanese Businessmen
Loads of people dressed up doing street entertainment. Graterman was my favourite, dressed in a costume made primarily of graters, he shakes a bit when you put money in his tin. nice. (we didn´t give him any money though) Close second was probably robot man, the kids favourite. he was a robot with a robot gun and sound effects to go with it.
Drunken Japanese Businessmen appeared last night when I was sitting on the balcony finally getting to the end of "A short history of nearly everything", they were absolutely smashed, and from our balcony I had the perfect view of them wobbling about and propping each other up in the street. Most disappeared up a side street, leaving a couple who started to drunkenly bow at each other and then collapse into some sever hugging, at which point I woke Linsey up because I didnt want her to miss it.
Almost forgot to mention the musicians in the street - If you´ve seen Eddie Murphy in Coming to America - the start of the film where he´s woken up by an orchestra as an alarm clock; we hd pretty much that experience on the first morning we woke up - a virtuoso violinist was busking under our balcony, it was probably the best way to wake up in the world. He was joined later on by another violinist and a cellist, and even me with my shitey knowledge of classical music could pick out pachelbels canon and Elgars cello concerto from the bunch. Good room. Hostal Riosol, if you fancy staying in Madrid sometime. 39 euros a night for a double room too - the rom had its own shower but the toilets were shared.
Madrid
Final day in Madrid... loads of stuff happened since we last wrote on here, I wrote about 5 pages of stuff on the train from Alicante to Madrid, but don´t have enough time to transcribe it noo, so heres some bullety points to help me remember when I get some more time.,.....we´re in Hostal Riosol in the Sol district of Madrid - the room has a balcony that looks out onto one of the busiest streets in the city - there are always street entertainers, musicians or street traders all over the place, makes for entertaining balcony viewing. We ended up travelling first class to Madrid because we didnt book 2nd class in time and it was totally booked up when we got to the station. It wasnt cheap! (The europass rail tickets were a slight subsidy towards it though.) Was pretty relaxing, but in order to avoid the same happening again, we booked up our train tickets to Barcelona as early as we could.
Memo to me¨: Heavily sunburnt shoulders and 4 tonne rucksacks are not a good combination.
Okay, heres the Madrid bullet points for us to spraff on about later:
Did two Madrid walks past a million beautiful old buildings
Linsey had on a tiny white dress which lots of old Spanish guys were loving
Went rowing in the main park
Saw porn shoot in a fountain in the park
Fast glass lifts in the museum that houses Guernica
Guernica
Openheim exhibition
Marble palace exhibition (white everywhere)
Glass House
Hungry sparrows and unfed pigeon
Marks amazing accents
Friendly help at the train station
Museum of Ham!
Museum of Ham!
We went clubbing in Madrid
Clubbing
Went to a club called Palacio del something....will try to remember it, an old Spanish mansion converted into a nightclub, but still with all the original fixtures and fittings, there are some pictures on the
photo pagegood!
Linsey was bustin´some funkadelic eye-poppin´ moves on tha flo´, we got pretty drunk, Linsey went to the Gents accidentaly and I banged my head on the Museum of Ham window afterwards, as we had both decided to inspect the ham window exhibits as closely as we could.
great fun, we went out to the club at 1am, got in about 5am , got up the next day at 12pm. yay!
Photos!
Just got some photos online...there´s a link on the right, or go here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/magneticsandals/
the newest ones appear first for some reason.....
Alicante- my thoughts that are irrelevant
Random things from alicante-
the man at reception at the hotel goya has a strange hand.
We saw a wioman that looks like an egg.
Our hotel is in the same street as a gentlemans shop called `sexyland´.
no-one appears to be alive between 3 and 7 pm. at all. anywhere.
There was the most amazing thunderstorm on Wedensday night with huge downpour, but no rain the next day.
it really is the most liad back place, I think it would be ideal for families with young children as it is laid back and lacks that ´brits abroad 18-30 thing, which I feel is a bonus. The town is so clean, and the marble and tiled pavements are really something to see. Its great for a relaxing beach holiday buyt has enough going on a night to keep you entertained until the small hours.
Terra Mitica
We wrote some notes on the train to Terra Mitica (the theme park linked to below), here they are (Mark first!)
There are 14 stops to Terra Mitica, dry Spanish hills to the left and the coast on the right, it was a ropey comedy sketch getting on the train - people almost fighting each other for the doorway so they could get on for a seat (its a two carriage train). We´re standing again. Stood on the ultra-packed tram to get to the train too. There´s something that looks and smells like vomit in the bin next to us, it isnt pleasant, but we cant move away because the train is so packed. Linsey wants to go on a banana boat on Friday!
Not sure what to expect at Terra Mitica, but hope there are plenty water rides, because I need some serious refreshing after being stuck on sweaty sardine transport for an hour and a half.
Later on!
Linsey´s notes:
Went to Terra Mitica today, it was ace! As Mark said before, the train was packed as well as the bus that took us to the park afterwards. Same on the way back! But it was all worthwhile as we had such a good time. The park itself is beautiful and has some of the best ways to have fun while keeping your clothes on, albeit very small clothes judging by most people there. Was roasting when we got there but clouds and occasional showers meant that we stayed cool, but still felt mediteranean! My face is peeling a bit, but apart from that it was a great day and on that I hope Mark and I will always remember.
Mark (efter the theme park!)
Memo to me: Always use tourist information services when available. Went to the wrong station first this morning, then asked at the tourist info point and the fluent english speaking woman told us where we needed to go (miles away), gave us a map, bus, train and tram timetables and a beeg Spanish smile. no mucking about!
Memo to me 2: Spanish public transport involves lots of standing, and most of the time lots of standing next to lots of other people standing.The bus back to the station from Terra Mitica was another shove-fest, but we were too British and reserved to get involved and ended up managing to get on in front of quite a few other folk then realising we were the last two allowed on board. We ended up standing so far up the front of the bus that the driver couldn´t see his mirrors cos my lnky body was in the way. Then we were first off and straight down to the station back, where the train taking us most of the way home arrived 20 mintes earlier than the timetable said!
Anyway - Terra Mitica was fntastic, had a great sense of mythological thatre about the whole thing, and when I finallyfind an internet cafe tht lets me transfer pictures I´ll put some up here...
If you visit the Terra Mitica website you can see all the rides - here are all the ones we went on:
Falls of the nile (went on twice! mummy boats going round in water dropping off crazy chutes - Linsey loved it, I screamed like a girl)
Minotaur´s Labyrinth: we had to wait in a big queue for this one, which involved sitting in a car thing which slowly moved round the labyrinth while you shot various monsters with light guns that were in the car. It was fecking difficult! was good fun, but the long wait to get in had us expecting some sort of groundbreaking malarkey, which it probably wasnt....
The Lost Temple: cool simulator thing based on Indiana Jones, like one of those simulator rides in bowling alleys, but forty times bigger and mildly more shaky.
Tritons Fury: another water ride, which we went on twice, running back up the second time like big kids. it was ace. enough said.
Alucinakis: mini roller coaster we went on to prepare ourselves for the gigantic mother of all rollercoasters. It was quite scary on its own, which made us even more worried about the big beast t the top of the hill.
Bravo train: a rollercoaster with a bulls head. probably for kids, but we went on it and screamed anyway. it was frightening. honest.
Dodgems: Linsey was a demon driver, I was the target of some (unneccesary!) violence from some young kids who were totally out to get me. all good.
The rescue of Ulysses: crazy, crazy water ride - slow, but full of all sorts of mythological stuff. it was utterly bizzare. god knows what that dog was doing to the wolf with a mans head. and the bloke spinning in the water?????! anyway...
Rapids of Argos: water rapids bumpery thing, great, especially as you could go and spray water guns at people on it after you were finished. we really pissed off a random family by soaking them. then we ran away very quickly.
The Icaruses - high up in the air swingy thing, good. lots of kidson that one too, but it was pretty scary. had a great view from it though.
Magnus Colossus: This was the daddy, look it up on the website - its got a video there - gigantic wooden rollercoaster, designed to make clattering noises as you go round, just in case the drops into nowhere and the crazy speed aren´t scaring the hell out of you enough already....we spent all day working ourselves up to it and it was fantastic. look at the video- go on!
First Two Days
Hullo, Its 11.15pm and we´re sitting in the hotel, just about to go for a drink...
Got to Newcastle airport and were checked in with about 20 minutes to spare - arrived in boiling hot Alicante and got a taxi to the hotel. Stayed in a wee room with twin beds on the first night, but got that sorted out on Monday and we´re now on the top floor with a balcony and quality Spanish tv channels that play adverts constantly - Result!
Heres Linsey:
Hi! Went for a walk round the harbour and had nice spanish meal on the first night- Alicante is really spanish and non-touristy which is nice! everything is shut during the day and kids and old folk are out and about til two in the morning.
Had brekkie in the hotel every morning- ate some crazy red stuff which i think was raw meat and tomatoes. went to beach, got burnt and jumped about in the sea. Really really good fun!!
As a side note- a man selling sunglasses called mark ´big friend´ and he also got propositioned by a lady of the night- he turned her down, lucky for him!
walked up giant hill today, came back down again and had more beaçh fun with a bat and ball set. It really is great here, just having fun and so excited about whats to come- no plans yet set in stone! I have terrible tan lines- so will concentrate on that for the next few days as we go to a theme park and visit a castle and have crazy times! Oh, there is also a shop called sexyland and we got drunk on sangria after being in the sun all day- so you can tell we are enjoying spain! Hola!
Mark again:
Aye!
Hope alls well and exciting in Scotland - Lisa, let me know if that bag turned up, we had a look but it definitely didnt come with us - you can leave comments on this thing to let us know...
I´ve walked a thousand miles since Sunday, eaten fantastic ice-cream, drunk mohitos in secret bars beside the cathedral and am slowly becoming the most chilled out man in the universe. Its very very good... Madrid next - we should sort out the accomodation tomorrow (besides visiting the theme park) - will update again later this week hopefully, and figure out how to get some of our photos on here to make you all jealous.
Cheers!
L&M
Its Thursday
and there's still loads to do. I am calm. At work, going to see Neil tonight since him and Debbie are off to Australia for a year in September, so I won't see them again for ages, unless I can get across there somehow next year! Night out in glorious Dunfermline awaits....I'd expect that the next post on this site will be from Spain, since I seem to have planned every available second up until we get on the plane with a thousand activities.... still got to sort out the euro train pass thingummy, I'll go do that now...
edit...somebody at work just told me Alicante is like a Spanish Blackpool. yay.
Plan...
Going to try and use this to keep a record of whats happening, so everybody knows where we are, and we know where we're supposed to be....
Here's the plan as it currently stands:
Alicante, Madrid, Barcelona, Nice, Italy! - Florence, Rome, Venice..... then Prague, maybe Vienna, then to Krakow, possibly Poznan, then to Berlin, Munich and Paris.
After Paris we come back and get some sleep in a proper bed.
Going to try and update this as we go via internet cafes, might even manage to stick some pictures up as we go....
It all starts on Sunday 14th August with the flight from Newcastle to Alicante... better go and find out how to get to Newcastle Airport now.....
Flight out is at
13:40, check in opens at
11:40, so.....there are no trains from Markinch that get to Edinburgh early enough for us to change..so we'll have to get a lift and then catch a Newcastle train from there. There's one at 9:50. Then on to the metro to the airport.
(
Metro Timetable )
Check in and fly off....
Alicante
Here's the hotel. Basic, but we'll be on the beach most of the time anyway.... and at this
water park hopefully.
