pamplona

so as i mentioned before, hil, lbb and myself made it up from barcelona to pamplona on thursday night. this gave us the opportunity to scope out the town the night before the big opening ceremonies. good thing too, cause it allowed hil and i to practice jumpin over the barriers (just in case we happen to need that skill later on in the weekend), and i´m sure that practicin in a sun dress really emulated the correct environment.

anyway, we found a local pub to stop and have a few bites for dinner (it appears that we´re gonna be eatin a lot of sandwiches this weekend cause that´s pretty much the only thing restaurants are servin around here.



gettin in on thursday night also allowed us ample time to purchase our outfits / uniforms for the weekend. it was brought to my attention that everyone wears the exact same thing all weekend so the whole crowd looks identical. personally, i think this is an AWESOME idea if you´re in a big crowd lookin for someone else. at least you know what they´re wearing.
obviously i had to model it for the camera a bit.


and then we all modeled it and acted like bulls... cause that makes complete sense...

after gettin in our gear, we headed on out for the opening ceremonies. we had a general idea of where we wanted to be cause we did some recon last night. turns out we didn´t really need to do that. when we left the apartment friday morning, it kinda reminded us of a football saturday. droves of people wearin the same color headin in the same direction. pretty easy to find.


anyway, so once we got to the square, i think we all found out what ping pong balls feel like. we had no decision making ability or influence on where we went. we were all packed so tightly it was the most we could do to make enough room for our lungs to breathe. but with that said, WOW! what an amazin time. i´ve never seen anything like it in the world, and i highly doubt i´ll ever forget this experience. everyone joined together for the same reason, singin the same song and enjoyin themselves to the best of their ability.

after the mornin festival, we decided to walk the route just so we can get a feel for it. we ended up at the bull ring, but they wouldn´t let us in :(

we proceeded to grab some eats in the main square. and what´dya know, we had sandwiches with some kind of grilled filling. it was a theme for the weekend.
durin the fracass of just walkin around and checkin out the scene, we met up with a family friend of mine from back in the day who actually goes to school in pamplona. and you know i´m gettin old when i actually told her ¨the last time i saw you, you were THIS tall¨ - i´ll try never to do that again.
so come friday evenin, j.reis decided to stop messin around with flight delays and train rides and meet us up in pamplona (finally). we all took a nap after a long morning cause we knew we were gonna stay in town all night until the bulls ran at 8am. we had reserved seats in someone´s apartment who has a balcony that overlooks the run. great idea for anyone out there. if you´re gonna do this, get a balcony. well worth it for at least one morning.
but anyway, i digress... we headed out at 10pm for the main part of town.

one of the traditions of the friday kick-off (txupinazo) is to pour things from the balcony onto the cheering crowds beneath you. whether it be water, champagne, wine, ketchup, mustard, flour, etc.. while this is an extremely fun time, it tends to make your clothes a little less than white. so we decided to wash them before we went out for the long night. although we didn´t quite grasp the exact way to work the dryer, it didn´t stop us. in fact, it led to a new fashion trend. as hilary displays here, which goes with the theme ¨chase this¨.

but really, who wouldn´t want their picture with the lady that sold them their battery operated rainbow light sabre... lbb just HAD to have one... so we let her be the protector for the evening.





anywho, another tradition of this festival is to jump in random people´s photos and have them jump in yours. you may not always notice them until you review, and it may be a little childish... but when in rome...




here is our view of the bulls from our balcony. like i said HIGHLY worth any money you spend on it.

here is all of us on the balcony.








and more random people in our picture... nice and bright out..

for some reason there´s a spider web in the square by our apartment... j.reis and i our doin our own personal spiderman imitations... tobey macguire ain´t got NUTHIN on us...

Bizca Barca

so after finally receiving my luggage upon arriving to my second destination, i felt suitable to go a-touristing throughout the catalan capital. hil and i weren´t quite sure exactly where to go (who does homework on vacation), but we knew that headin to the main drag (la rambla) was the thing to do.

it was a pretty fun day from the get go. we saw some street performers, looked in some souvenier shops, stopped off at an open air grocery market (for some reason hil didn´t appreciate the lamb´s head or pig´s head in some of the butcher´s setup - i don´t know why), checked out the pet shops in the middle of the street (yeah, didn´t get that one either), and then cruised along the beach and onto the gondola ride overlooking the city. after that, we decided to go see the church that looks like somebody made it outta wet sand at the beach, you know the one where you let the mud drip between your fingers to make huge spires... all i can think of is that person musta been really, really big - and prolly usin wet concrete instead.

after accomplishing all that touristy stuff, we decided to retire to the hotel for a well earned siesta. before dinner, we decided to figure out our train ticket situation (very complicated for some odd reason) and after waiting 3 hours in line, we finally got my tickets that i had pre-ordered online... yea, it was about as fun as it sounds...

from there, we headed out to dinner... we had a nice sea oriented meal (after all, we ARE on the mediterranean). the highlight of the night was hil attempting to open her lobster claw and body to retrieve the tasty meat (she did a better job than i coulda)...

and for my next trick, we´re headed off to pamplona... LBB will be joining us en route on thursday and j.reis will meet up on friday (there may be a few guest appearances by arne, dan, sep and his wife) i figure i´ll introduce the cast before they make appearances. doin the bull dance, feelin the flow... just feelin it
apparently they play hopscotch in spain too
the city of barcelona (or is it ypsi, really, i can´t tell)
a little lunch on la rambla (yes, there was food too)pickin out a juice drink at the open air market
i spy, with my little eye...something that begins with...H
this is for all the italians who like watchin construction
the dinner out in barcelona
apparently there are a lot of pittsburgh steeler fans in barcelona

oh luggage, my luggage

so most of you know that i've now gone 5 days without my luggage from the states... without a lot of calling and endless waiting on the phone by Mom D, i doubt if i ever woulda seen my dear luggage again. but alas, after traveling for 10 hours today (see joe travel without luggage... AGAIN), i finally got my luggage after approximately 102 hours, 20min and 36 seconds of living on carry-on (plus a few items purchased in london shops).. i pretty much wore that darn sport coat (which, by the by, i love) all day every day...

I heart Mom D

the rain in spain falls mainly in wimbledon

so hil (oh, hilary is one of my coworkers who's doing part of this trip with me) and i decided that since we're in london during wimbledon (and one of us was actually stayin at a friend's place in the city OF wimbledon), we decided to head on over to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, AELTC, for an afternoon of culture... it started with a tourist fan favorite of fish and chips at a local pub called fox & dog (after attempting to eat at a place called "jo schmo" and then headed on off to the AELTC. first of all, the place is annoyingly large to walk around to find the "non-ticket holders entrance". but after navigatin our way through the town streets we found the Queue... as is every day in enlgand, this day was very overcast with intermittent rain - so they gave us little stickers that said "i queued in the rain". HA! those brits think of everything. anyway, we made our way through the queue while it was overcast and a little drizzly, but once we decided to actually purchase our tickets Mother Nature had other things in mind. it was raining elephants & castles for the next 30 minutes. after waiting through this torrent, we made our way to court 3 (the highest numbered court our tickets allowed us to view) and sat down. over the course of the next 90 minutes, we saw the grounds crew assemble and disassemble the court 4 times (without once seeing the intended participants of the match).

so finally, they came out and began playing. i decided to take the opportunity of their warmup to take all of my pics cause i wasn't sure quite how much longer they would be out there. and i tested a new feature on my camera, apparently i can take continuous photos for a while (as evidenced by these three pics here)...

ok, so i know you're all anxiously awaiting my take on this traditionalistic event. personally, the only thing i took away from watchin the match is that the ball kids are the funniest thing ever to watch. i don't know how much they actually show of them on tv, but these kids are genuinely amusing. the unintentional comedy scale is OFF THE CHARTS. first of all, they always stand at attention when not doing anything, they're gophers for the players between games, they hold the ball straight above their heads when they're presenting it to the player (and they have the ultimate death grip on the ball whilst they do this) and, of course, the first few steps of the net kids are AWESOME. especially since they all have that awkward teenage look.

the london bridge

...is apparently NOT falling down, no matter how many times you sing that song. in fact, it's pretty solid at the moment - and yes, i checked this out personally.

sorry for takin so long to update this thing, apparently finding places in london where i can download my pics isn't as easy as i thought. although, admittedly, my mind has been elsewhere... most of you may not know, but my plan was to fly over to brussels and then take a train to a nearby airport (yes a different one than where nwa lands, but it was good deal cheaper) and jump on a plane to london in the afternoon. gettin me in the land of beafeaters and beer by dinner time.

so my journey began with what appeared to be a good deal. nwa overbooked my flight to brussels and was handing out $750 travel vouchers to anyone who could bump their schedule a bit. i went up there and had them fly me directly to london instead (for those of you keeping score at home, that's $750 extra, non-stop flight to actual destination and arriving a solid 10 hours early - note to novice travelers: take the money, ALWAYS take the money). what's easier than that? but this trip couldn't begin with everything goin my way, of course not, it wouldn't make sense. after waiting for a solid 30min at the luggage carousel i realized that my bag didn't make the flight. i submitted a claim asking them to drop it off at the hotel when it arrived. fast forward to monday and i still don't have my luggage. don't worry, they let me buy some clothes on them, so i got that goin for me... which is nice.

see joe travel. see joe travel without luggage.

so one of the first things i noticed on this dyslexic island community is that they drive on the wrong side, now i knew this going in but it's still strange to see. it's also weird to cross the street, i was always taught to look left, then right, then left again when crossing busy streets. you gotta do it the other way over here, not a big deal but a little unnerving when you do it the wrong way and almost get run over.

so i've found my way in and about london without getting lost, apparently JoePS works in london too (for those of you scoring at home, that's the contiguous 48 states (except ski slopes in lake tahoe), mexico, sao paolo and now london). i'm stayin in a nice area just a big north of the river and all the attractions. they've got some pretty decent shops and a LOT of touristy junk out here. you know, for a country that lent it's name to our language, surprisingly not that many people on the street speak it. i'd venture to guess that less than 50% of the coversations i hear as i pass people on the street are not english. i guess that kinda also might correlate with the fact that my hotel is the london headquarters for contiki tours (fyi: it's a travel coordinating company that takes a bunch of lone travelers and makes it a group). which is apparently quite popular with continental euros and americans who've just graduated (both college and high school).

beisdes all that, it's been raining quite a lot here - SHOCKER. i'll keep you posted in the next city. oh, a few housekeeping notes: i've decided to add to my running themes subplot on the side. i'm almost certain that in every country i've ever been to i've had pizza. my aim for this trip is to have a pizza at every stop. shouldn't be too hard. the other new one is that i'm goin to have a taste of a local brew in every country (it'd be too hard to find one for each city).