no hablo español

In the down time between chapters of my book and the occasional cooling dip on San Sebastian beaches, I decided to bring ‘me’ time to an end and dash from Spain’s North West Coast to the Mediterranean in the East. An overnight train later, it was hello Barcelona, for a brief stay before I heading back to Madrid, where I planned to round out my European tour.

I think that Spain bounces to a slightly different beat... The warm weather seems to have infected the population, inducing fun times and great local neighborhood vibes. Each day as dusk nears, local crew flock to the streets, plazas and public spaces to claim the streets as they catch up with friends and neighbours. Kids play, and the siren sounds for the nightly soccer scrimmage. Far from the destination, this marks the beginning of the night, an it's ritual like this that's proven enough to rouse a daily siestas out of insomniacs!

A couple of days in Barcelona was enough to discover the vibrant Las Ramblas, some pretty cool beaches, stunning Gaudi architecture (straight out of a Dr Seus book), and take advantage of balmy night beer drinking weather. My fondest memory of Madrid is another cliché day of the Royal Palace and a bullfight (after much moral debate curiosity got the better of me), followed by delish tapas and cervesa.

Madrid marks the end of the European chapter of my trip. So many amazing cities, adventures and experiences… and even more to come back and explore next time … It was brilliant, and a guy could get pretty bummed to be leaving, if of course his next stop wasn’t Toronto to catch up with Andy and Krista... and only one week from Amy arriving in NY!!!!!!