//...

i´m here in seville (esp= sev-ee-ya) and it´s 21* outside. it´s ridiculously warm. i actually keep forgetting that it´s december. so, i´ve been doing some major plannage for my next big trip... next summer, cross canada tour, holla!! that´s the plan. eat nothing but tim hortons, gain 50 lbs and rock it to the country stations across the praries. but that´s beside the point. the point is that i´m in spain right now and i´m 4* from breaking a sweat.

so. yesterday kelly and i are walking along the river. it´s pretty and warm and we´re all ¨ooh, ahh...¨ and then i see this shirtless guy juggling. so, naturally, i´m intrieged. so i saunter on up and i realize that this shirtless juggler is none other than JAMES DEAN! ladies and gentlemen, i´m completley serious when i say that James Dean is alive and well, and currently taking up residence in Seville, Spain.

but all in all, nothing new has happened. we´re just hanging out, relaxing and making the most of it. although i´m currently dreading going back up north. it´s too cold!!! but i´m going to go catch up on news from the old country.

take care and have a happ new year!
a.

//hostel etiquette

for all of you have no idea how not to be a jack wad in a hostel, this is for you.

1) when arriving at 1am to a room filled with sound asleep occupants, DO NOT TURN ON THE LIGHTS!!!!! also, don't thrash, speak in loud unitelligable voices, slam lockers or rustle bags. also, don't make that much wracket only to go out and party until 5am! if you come in that late, either stay in and be quite, or don't come in at all.

2) when quite time is at 11pm and your blaring ukrainian polka at 11.30, there's a problem. especially when the walls are made of paper (janine, they're thinner than the wall that we used to share!!) oh, and while we're on the subject of late night debauchery... try and keep the kitchen madness to a minimum while people are trying to sleep in the bedroom nextdoor. use your indoor voices.

3) if watching a movie in a common room, pick a good one. yeah, this means that spanglish shouldn't be played! but if you are going to play a crap movie like that, don't get named Inappropriate-Laugh-Guy by laughing out loud at all the wrong places!

4) once named Inappropriate-Laugh-Guy, don't turn out to be a really nice, cute and clever halifaxian. that's just cruel.

5) don't leave your shit everywhere. keep it in a pile near your bed. that's all i ask.

6) for godsake don't do the back of the throat, nasal clear in a public washroom. some people's gag reflexes are not strong enough to withstand that kind of disgust.

7) if you have a cold that keeps you coughing, sniffling and moaning all night, save us all the headache and get a private room. that, or drug yourself to coma with buckleys and nyquil.

//tacos, art viewing and a north american rendez vous.

¡hola!

today was our last full day in valencia. tomorrow we're off on an 11 hour coach ride to seville. tonight's been good though. kelly and i decided to make our cravings a reality by making tacos for supper. we went all out and it was glorious, with the exception of one glaring error. the meat was... well, not beef. or pork. or any other identifiable substance for that matter. now, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't entirely normal either. rabbit, maybe? we've also ruled out ostrich thanks to the keen eye of a fellow canadian from halifax. we started cooking and settled in to eat with a nice couple from oregon. we had a good time reminicing about the tulamuck cheese factory and i was pleased to hear that they were equally dissapointed at the lack of texas cheese hats. (and maimes, their reaction to the tsunami signs was the same. big wave = run north!)

valencia was finally open today. things have been locked down the past couple of days because of christmas, and rather than impose holiday hours, they just clean shut down. we managed to find several supermarkets and things open (thus the copious amounts of food) and it finally looked like people live here.

so, seville tomorrow, but to be honest, it kind of just feels like we're killing time before heading to paris. i think it's just becuase i'm really excited to get to france and see everyone and ring in the new year europe style... but i'm kind of over spain. then again, i'm sure i'll miss it when i'm gone. always do... what i wont miss thought, is some people's total lack of english. (granted my spanish isn't top notch...) we went to the bus station today, and four people, including the information booth woman, didn't speak a lick of english. so, we had to come back to the hostel and get one of the staff to write it down for us. it was kind of funny though. we went up to the window, and i was like, "hola... -hand paper to ticket lady-" she smiled with the obvious understanding that we had no idea what to say, and then it was a friendly game of charrades from there on. gooooood times.

but i'm about to go and learn how to make paella on the rooftop terrace, so....

adios chicos y chicas.

//las ramblas: postcards, parakeets, petunias, oh my!

barcelona... what can i say. this is possibly the only city in the world that has outdoor pet stores. by pet stores i mean 10 or so kiosks overflowing with different kinds of birds, hamsters and gerbils, bunnies and guinea pigs, turtles and tortoises, crocodiles (yeah, no joke!!), and what I think was some kind of baby chipmunk... they also have your standard goldfish and pet supplies. on las ramblas there are also 20 or so varying inner harbour esque performers. cracked out japanese break dancers, painters and sketch artists and freeze frame guys including, but not limited to, a transfestite ocean maiden, edward scissor hands, an all blue guitar player (who can't play the guitar) and che guevara himself. and spattered throughout this mile long gongshow are souviner shops selling postcards of beautiful barcelona and the more disturbing collection of overweight naked "senioritas" and topless women eating bananas.

we said goodbye to our american roomates today. LA (our non- da vinci code reading detroitian) and kilamuck (with five clasps to every bra). we had some pretty good times with them, and are currently hoping that our new roomies wont mind my sleep talking for the night. we leave tomorrow for valencia via bus, so things could get interesting.

i'm learning things about spain too that i previously thought were sterotypes.
1) the guys here are much more forward than they are back home. exampled by...
a) a table full of guys at a restaurant last night trying to take pictures of kelly and callingus over with their ultra seductive hissing sounds.
b) simon hollering us down at the pier and pledging his love for canada, and then later finding us on the street and doing the whole hand kiss thing that canadian guys just cant pull off.
c) the random guy on the street who saw us at kfc, looked at me and with a nod and a twinkle in his eye said, "hola". (wow, they're smooth... haha)
2) the spaniards will eat peppers with everything, including french fries.
3) the turks have taken over europe with the kebab (or more specifically, the donner).

but i can honestly say that even if i had seen nothing other than the madness that is las ramblas, i would have had an entirely worth it visit to barcelona. oh, and today was a staggering 13* outside. No jacket required! although, i'm realizing now that i maybe should have worn a coat anyway considering that i've got a wee bit of a cold coming on. thank you edinburgh. but i should run... mainly because i want to get back to the hostel where i can finish reading the da vinci code. i'm ridiculously obsessed with this book. i need to read angels & demons, too. i'm also kind of obsessed with trying to figure out the code that dan brown included in the book... i have this list that i'm making and slowly going insane trying to figure it out.

merry christmas too all, have a fantastic new year and see you in 2007!

// the beauty of hauling your ass halfway up a mountain is that...

... the three mile walk home doesn't seem so bad...
we left subzero edinburgh yesterday for the balmy 10* of Barcelona, Spain. Seriously, it's like a tropical vacation compared to scotland. But I really did love that city. I hope i can make it back sometime in the summer months. I might only need one pair of gloves then! whoooohooo. (no, seriously, that's not even a joke...)

The hostel that we're in now is really nice. It's huge, but the rooms are all 4 bed dorms which is really nice. It's actually kind of pimped. It's got a gym, a fancy shmancy laundry room, kitchen for real cooking and a big ass common room where they constantly show cartoons.

We're heading off to the beach right now, but it's not quite as glorious as you're thinking. If the air is 10*, the water is not. Also, there were some wicked ripcurls and "I'll suck you under good" wave action as we landed yesterday. It's more of a "let's run to the beach and just bask in the glory of it seeing as we're miles away from any large body of ocean in england." i'm going through crazy water withdrawl in winchester.

remind me to never take the ocean for granted again.

mince pies and mulled wine,
amanda.

//edinburgh: gaelic for hypothermia.

so, it's literally freezing here, and katrin stole my jacket so it's even worse. kelly and i went skating on an outdoor rink and realized that rental skates suck. Yeah, we're blaming it on the skates.

we're in edinburgh right now, and i'm so cold and wet that it's not even funny. we're heading to spain on thursday, but that's not looking too promising either at the moment. it's only about 5* warmer, but at this point, any heat is enough. but, just after we thaw out, we're heading back to continental europe (aka paris) where we're expecting snow and frozen off appendages. yay!

wow, can't even think straight. my feet are sooooo cold. i'm currently ignoring the fact that it's christmas. it's really not a big thing here (no decorations or anythign like that around really) so it's not hard to pretend that it's still november. i'm psyched about new years. it'll be a gongshow. champagne, baguettes and brie. that's all i'm consuming for three days. no exceptions.

we went to loch ness yesterday on a day trip. it was amazing. but that trip has also confermed in my mind that nessie is real. that is one big ass lake. you couldn't find her if you wanted. we went as north as inverness (inver = gaelic for mouth of the river... so, inverness = mouth of the river ness! oh the things you learn). i didn't actually see her, not for lack of trying, but she's totally in there. we also saw the ruins of the castle Quahart. it was amazing. i love this country. edinburgh is absolutly amazing. and it has a little winter carnival on right now so we all went on a bunch of rides and had a really good time. but i have all of 45 seconds left before my computer shuts down on me, so...

love to all my victorianites back home. merry christmas and have a wicked new year.
family: i love you and think of me when you're opening the prezzies.

<3 a