Masato's Southern Europe/Morocco Africa Adventure

[Masato]

After dragging the kids through the Art Gallery for a few hours, we thought we'd pay it back by giving in to one of their requests.

We kept seeing these tours going around with those stand-up roller things or whatever you call em.

Well we found a dude who was willing to let my kid try (he is way under the weight restriction, and gave us a really nice price. So we ordered 30 minutes with him, training time not included. He was super patient and kind while my kids (and wife, lol) learned to ride these things, after which he took us around the city.

He said it was his last tour of the day and he was having fun watching my kids booting around so he basically just chilled out and rode around with us for an extra 30-40 minutes. We tipped him at the end, but got I think more than an hour of riding. He took us to a few places where the kids could go faster and have fun just freeriding

they are pretty fuckin cool, lol - they are REALLY intuitive and once you get the feel for them they are really, really, easy to drive. My son who is only 7 and 'not heavy enough' was driving like a pro, doing no-handers and everything, lol

The kids LOVED it, and we scored serious points as parents for a while longer :)






This was apparently the first statue of a horse where less that 3 feet are touching the base. Most horse statues only have 1 leg up... but this King wanted to show up his old man, and hired Galileo and a bunch of others to build this thing. Not a great statue, but interesting nonetheless


These guys were EXCELLENT. I mean crazy mind-blowing good. They played a huge long song together, VERY fast and perfectly with each other. I think they were father and son

[Masato]

Madrid at Night

Madrid may be the 'jewel' everyone talks of... but in my opinion and for my tastes is it OVERDONE.

Downtown Madrid is like a gigantic fashion show. This must be the most well-dressed city on earth. Even the men ALL have matching outfits, right down to the color of their shiny clean running shoes, and everyone got their hair done like an hour ago :)

It rivals Rio for the amount of ridiculously good-looking people both men and women, but it all has a very pretentious and competitive air about it

- after a while everyone started to look like a peacock, lol

no place for a sloppy bum like me who don't give a fuck bout clothes

[Edge Guerrero]

Next Stop: MADRID, Spain

Everyone was telling us that Madrid was the jewel of Spain, some even said of Europe.

It does not take long to find why people say this.




The 1 time that I wished I had brought my Saku Mask, lol:

- Didn't knew Adam West played Spider-man.

[Masato]

City of TOLEDO, Spain

Toledo is where the story of Don Quixote is from.

Its an ancient medieval city who changed hands like 5 times via bloody battles over and over again. First Roman, then German, then Moor, then Jewish, then Catholic, etc etc

I immediately hated the fuckin place, as beautiful and interesting as it was. I could feel all the horror and bloodshed here, it was just a really nasty energy stuck in it. Perhaps this is only my own imagination though, as it is a destination for many homes and vacation houses of the rich and famous.





They still have traditional weapon-makers here to carry the tradition and sell to tourists... many shops with the wickedest selection of real swords that I've ever seen:







There is a University here. I would have investigated more, but were were on this tour that was WAY too rushed. We learned our lesson; next time rent a car with a GPS and go see these things on your own terms


more Toledo:








Moorish influence:
was weird to have 5 different colonial cultures all mixed up in the same small village. We saw synagogues too






Was happy to leave. Creepy place

[Masato]

will finish later, almost done

going for a walk

[Masato]

Train station in Madrid;

we were catching a train to Barcelona


:D


These trains do just shy of 300 kms/hr:



Spain from a train:


I didn't get any good pics, but some of the landscape was CLASSIC spaghetti western geography. Had fun imagining all the cowboy movies filmed here

[Masato]

I Left My Heart in BARCELONA


Seriously. Madrid can suck it.

Barcelona is the shit. Not the fashion-show that Madrid is, people here are casual and much more easy to relate with. REAL CLOTHES, lol

Plus the language is different (Catalin or whatever you say it)... which I could understand WAY easier. In Madrid I couldn't understand a fuckin word, which was frustrating. But somehow Catalin and Portuguese are so similar I could suddenly have broken conversations with cab drivers and order simple food etc.

I instantly felt right at home, like a serious rush of familiarity. I've been to lots of beautiful cities and never had this reaction. I loved it right away.

Even their obelisks had 6 sides, which was refreshing :D

[Masato]

OK here is the story of the hotel fuckup which worked in our favor;

When we get to Barcelona we give the hotel address to the cab driver, and he takes us to a Holiday Inn 30 MINUTES OUT OF the city. Taxis are expensive here, and we only have basically 1.5 days to explore. My wife and her dad and their brasilian travel agent had made a mistake somewhere not booking a hotel in the city.

So I go on their shitty-slow wifi and search for last minute cheap hotels in downtown Barcelona. At this point no one cares about the quality, we just want a place downtown that is comparable to what we would have to drop on taxis had we stayed here. (the hotel would refund us the 2nd night, we'd only lose 1 booking)

I find an APARTMENT suite for rent right downtown for $200 EU for 2 nights that has beds for everyone (me, wife, 2 kids, father-in-law). A prety good deal, but I'm expecting junk. I kind of like this though as I wanted the kids to experience a balance to some of the places we were spoiled with in Morocco.

Anyways, we go to the address and its a basic, old apartment building. We get the keys and go up the tiny elevator.

We open the door and its this fuckin AWESOME apartment on the 7th floor, with 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and balcony and rooftop patio overlooking the city.



view from the balcony:

[Masato]

OK here is the #1 highlight of the trip for me:

After all the hotel confusion, we get to the apartment rather late. We grab some food and eat on the rooftop.

As I've said, I went on this trip completely blind, not knowing anything about the places I was going. I knew nothing of Barcelona.

After dinner my father-in-law and wife are eager to go walking to see something.

I manage to smoke the Hashish I bough in Morocco with my new pipe, and get SUPER high. We go out, and its already dark. I am just happily following my father-in-law, who seems especially excited.

I think we are going to see some church, which doesn't particularly mean much anymore to me as we have already seen tons and they get sort of repetitive.

All of a sudden my father-in-law taps me on the shoulder and says 'Look', pointing up.

FAMILIA SAGRADA CHURCH, by Gaudi.... of which I had never even heard of.

Let me tell you I was almost blown right off my feet, I literally had to sit down. This was the most amazing monumental man-made piece of art I have ever seen. Not in any style I had ever seen before; this was something new, totally original, and absolutely colossal in scale.

I was overwhelmed.

These are pictures taken at night with a crappy $60 camera, and look rather creepy here. But I tell you I was brought to sincere joy at the sight of it


They say this is supposed to be a tree, but it looks much more to me like a big fat cannabis bud, lol

[Masato]

The next morning we saw it in the daylight, but we did not yet go inside - that would be later in the evening, of which I will finish the content of this thread.

This structure is HUGE. I have seen Notre Dame and others etc... this dwarfs everything



It is UN-finished... but all the blueprints and plans of the architect Gaudi exist, and IT IS BEING FINISHED according to his design, paid for by the Vatican, the government of Spain, and $$ from tourist ticket sales.
It is supposed to be complete 2026




We only had 1 day, and rain was threatening so we kept walking.

More cool architecture in Barcelona:





The architect of the Sagrada Familia also designed lots of other buildings all over Barcelone. Here are a few: