Day Three: Sevilla

We left Barcelona bright and early and flew down to Sevilla where warmer weather was rumored to await us. But since cold weather haunts me wherever I go, Sevilla was much chillier than expected. It looks like it will warm up when we leave.

The bus ride into Sevilla was very frightening. Our worst projects put their apartment complexes to shame. They're what I imagined only to exist in eastern Europe. The ugliest part of a city I've ever seen. Then we entered the historic district, and it was exactly how I imagined Spain would be.

Our hostel is very cute with lots of outdoor space and the staff is super nice. We went exploring and had lunch first (again nothing to write home about), then came home and got ready to see a flamenco show.

The flamenco show had very pretty dresses but was a little boring otherwise. Cat and I make a good pair because we both expect much more from everything we see and do.

Then we went in search of food and nightlife and couldn't find it. We went back to the hostel and were told our only option was a 2am grocery store. So we walked all the way there and got a pizza. Then we walked all the way back to make the pizza and found our common area was off limits after 12. We had a sleeping roommate so couldn't eat in the room. We were forced to eat Pringles and candy bars on the curb outside. Every time a car came by we had to jump up and back. Then it got worse - we spied a band of drunk German boys coming down the street. 'Oh no! They'll harass us' we thought. But it was even worse than that. They walked by without a second glance. What's wrong with them that they don't feel the need to harass beautiful girls. I miss New York!


Trying to go to bed and end this sad night, Cat refused to let me sleep. First she practiced her fancy flamenco footwork in bed until I begged her to stop. Then she started peeking down the crack between the bed and the wall, lighting me up with her phone. I put my head under my blanket and fell asleep.

- Megan Leigh


I was straightening my sheets!! I may have tapped my feet a few times, I swear it wasn't intentional- just inspired!

- Cat

Day Two: Barcelona

Today we allowed ourselves to sleep in late until 12. Refreshed we headed out to Park Guell, designed by Gaudi. To get there we took the subway - our first Spain subway experience. What a difference from New York! It didn't smell like human excrement, they arrived in a very timely manner and the ride was very smooth. I probably didn't need to hold on to the pole, but I did. Just in case.

After the train, we got quite lost. My new sandals ripped up my feet terribly. When we got home I banished them in anger to the bottom of my backpack. The park was nice, but there's not much to say about it.

After that we headed out to La Rambla again. I'm in search of these stupid hippie pants they have everywhere. I didn't find the right pair, but I did buy another pair of stupid hippie pants that I'll never wear. We also found a chocolate muffin (yum) and bunyols?, little sugar donuts that ended up having an anise flavor (ewww).

Then on to Sinatra's, a New York themed restaurant (very sad of us). We ordered sangria and a number of mediocre tapas. I was adventurous and got a crispy duck roll. It was one of the better dishes.

And to end our night we headed back to the main street to drink more sangria and people watch. Our favorite to watch was a promoter guy who didn't just glance at girls' butts, but turned his head sideways to get a really good view. Cat said, "He's checking out dogs too. He has no shame."

- Megan Leigh

Its true, no shame at all. You should have seen him. The park was neat, but after seeing the City Museum, it's hard to compete. True it's much older, and the grand plan was to make it a private lil town of beauty, but only two houses ended up being built, so the museum wins. Who knew St Louis could win a competition against Barcelona!

- Cat

Day One: Barcelona

Our adventure started out at JFK a.k.a The Saddest Airport in America. Instead of fixing the leaks in the ceiling they put tarps underneath to catch the water and connected hoses for draining, giving the airport a baby alien feeding chamber feel. (Although the end destination for the roof water was not posted for the curious visitor, I am fairly certain it got recycled into the water fountains. I did not drink the water.) Instead of fixing the air conditioning they opened a few doors. There were birds nesting and begging for food. The fast food joints were undermanned, turning them into sad, slow food. Burger King made me order 10 chicken tenders when I only wanted 6. They said to do otherwise was impossible. Because I hear starving kids in Africa appreciate our gluttony I downed every last one of them. I hope I don't get Sevened for it - this particular incident was no fault of mine. Then we sat on the runway for hours just as you would expect in New York. But eventually we took off and made it to Barcelona.

We made it from the airport to the hostel without incident and haven't been pickpocketed yet. Eavesdropping on a plane conversation we were convinced it would happen in a matter of minutes. We have plenty of time left so I won't brag of our good fortune just yet.

Since we were too early for Check-In at the hostel we walked around. We walked down Las Ramblas, which every guidebook recommended. It ended up being a street of tourist stores and stands. Lame. Then we headed over to the Barri Gotic, which was much better. Lots of old buildings and churches. There's also a Roman temple that has alluded us so far.

After going back to the hostel and taking a little nap we went to get some dinner and sangria. The dinner was pathetic. We are beginning to think Spanish food is just not so great. BUT the sangria was quite tasty.

- Megan Leigh

And now I lay me down to sleep... Can't remember the rest. Just too tired and delirious to figure it out, much less go out with our hostel-mates at 12:30am. One of these nights we'll pretend to be young again, one of these nights...

Cat

Read More: A Voyage Long and Strange

A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz is a random read I picked up months ago at the library. I thought it looked interesting, but I had so many other things to read first... so I kept renewing it again and again. Finally, I got the chance to read it a few weeks ago, and I'm so glad I did!

On a trip to see Plymouth Rock, Horwitz got interested in what happened before the Pilgrims arrived. Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in 1492... but long before he was born, the Vikings were exploring the New Foundland area.  And between 1492 and the time when the Mayflower arrived, more than a century had elapsed. Columbus had planted the seeds for European settlements in Hispaniola. Spanish marauders had traipsed all over South America, and the American South, leaving untold numbers of dead Native Americans in their wake. All of this I knew, I guess. But there was lots I didn't know. Did you know that there was a French settlement in Florida that pre-dated Saint Augustine? Guess what happened to them? They were wiped out by the Spaniards who landed next door and set up their own colony! Did you know there is a big controversy over where the bones of Columbus are? Given all the bickering in the southwestern states about English being the "official" language, isn't it funny that Spanish was spoken there long before English?

Part history, part travelogue, this book was a lot of fun to read. It's full of colorful characters, and it's fun to learn about lots of your country's history that you never knew! It made me want to go and visit a lot of places I previously didn't have much interest in, to see where all these historical events unfolded. It's so hard to imagine Spanish conquistadors struggling through the tropical heat of the south in all of their armor. We had so much fun visiting Roanoke Island a few years ago. When Ben and I are old and driving our RV around the country, I will definitely put early-European-in-American points of interest on our itinerary.

-Kristin

Read More: Death Comes to Pemberley

I read about Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James in the newspaper (where it got a pretty glowing review), and instantly I knew I had to read it. Then I told Megan about it, and she was equally excited.

Here's the deal: It's supposed to be a sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. And, as if that isn't enough, it's also a murder mystery! I guess James is a well-known mystery writer. Let the fun begin!

So I signed up for the library's waitlist, and I was probably #1,037. But eventually my turn came, and I dived into the book with great relish. How could I go wrong with a book like this? But in the end, I'm afraid I was sorely disappointed. I got through it, but it was not a pleasure. First, James writes nothing like Austen. I was expecting an homage that copied Austen's breezy, graceful style. James's words are like leaden weights. Second, the characters seem barely recognizable. The names and situations are taken from the original book, sure. But in this sequel, the characters you love seem to have no internal lives. It's as if between Pride and Prejudice and Death Comes to Pemberley a great plague broke out in the English countryside and killed the spark of life in each resident. If the creators of Thomas the Train were to write a murder mystery, I imagine it would be something akin to this. Finally, the murder mystery itself was not particularly compelling.

Poor PD James. From the ratings on Amazon.com, it looks like pretty much everybody was disappointed in this book. The mystery lovers felt it was a crappy mystery, and the Austen lovers were bitter about how un-Austen-like the prose and characters were. To be fair, I think expectations were so high it was probably really hard to make readers happy. But I bet she sold a lot of books, so that probably makes her happy!

-Kristin

Read More: Look Me in the Eye

Update:

This was a good read, whether you're interested in Asperger's or not. It's amazing that he and his brother were able to have such good senses of humor after their tough childhoods. I liked all of his practical jokes. And I like that he calls his lies 'tricks'. Growing up with him must be a lot like growing up with dad, in that respect. Never knowing whether what you're being told is a truth or a 'trick'.

It made me a little sad that when he got older and acquired better social skills he lost his savant like ability to design circuits and the like. Better for him I guess, but why can't he have both!?

- Megan Leigh

I have been wanting to read Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by John Elder Robison for a long time. Megan and I have been on a quest to learn more about Asperger's, but a lot of the books about this disorder are so boring, and I'm not sure a lot of what they say is particularly helpful or true. So it was interesting to read the biography of a person who actually has Asperger's.

Robison talks about how difficult his early life was because of Asperger's. Honestly, given his home life, his life would have been difficult no matter what--as his younger brother Augusten Borroughs described in his memoir, Running with Scissors. But the Asperger's almost certainly made it a lot harder! He grew up with this disorder during a time when it wasn't widely recognized, and it was decades away from being added to the DSM, the bible for psychiatric disorders. In fact, he didn't realize that this disorder described all of the problems he'd been suffering with--as well as his amazing strengths--until he was 40, and a psychiatrist friend pointed it out!

Luckily, Robison was a very smart kid. He was able to figure out most of the social rules people follow on his own. And although he never made it through high school, he was able to make friends, get married and have a son, and figure out how his talents could be put to great use. He ended up making crazy special effects for KISS, designing electronic games for Milton Bradley (like my beloved Speak & Spell), and running a very successful fancy car-repair business. Also, you can tell that Robison has a pretty good sense of humor throughout. This wasn't one of those earnest, difficult to read memoirs about overcoming adversity.

This book was pretty inspiring! I decided to try and expose my little Aspie to engineering fun. I am signing him up for robot summer camp! This book also inspired me to try and buy a Speak & Spell on ebay. But I lost the auction. Booo. It is interesting to note that after reading this book, I am pretty sure that Robison would have told the authors of many of the Asperger's books we've read to go to hell. Hmmm.

-Kristin

One New Thing: Jin Ramen

For Funday Monday Kristin and I traveled down a stop to Jin Ramen, the new ramen noodle joint. I've never noticed it before since I'm usually very (very) focused on the chocolatería next door. So the plan was ramen then chocolate. Not one, but two new things. This was going to be a day to remember!

We pushed our way through the wind, tears streaming down our face - caused partly because of the stinging wind and partly because we were just so sad about the stinging wind. But it was worth it. Not only was Jin Ramen very cute inside, but the noodles were also delicious. Cat talks about her love for ramen til she's blue in the face, so I was very curious what it would be like, having only eaten the 'cup o' noodles' version. We both got the Tonkotsu Ramen, the richest, creamiest ramen available. I was scared, imagining fettuccine like ramen - yuck? (Now that I think of it, can you go wrong with fettuccine style anything??) But this was still what you'd imagine ramen to be. Very tasty. I battled the bowl with chopsticks and I won! I thought it was going to be a miserable failure, but my skills were amazing!

Walking past the chocolate store we looked in the window and were sorely disappointed. The display case was depleted to the point where you should ask 'Why bother being open?'. Not only were the offerings meager, but they didn't seem to be chocolatey! What the what??? So only one new thing - Damn you chocolate store!

- Megan Leigh

Look at that squinty Recupero eye I have! Darn squinty eyes.

But yes, I agree with Meg, the Ramen restaurant was very good. I would like to go back and try each of the four types of broth. Also, I thought the waiters and staff were super nice, which is always a plus. The pork in the Ramen was one of the best parts. I have never had pork like that. It was rich and smoky, hard to describe. Megan chickened out and wouldn't eat it though.

-Kristin