a vacation from a vacation

apologies for the lack of postings, i have been away from my computer for the past few weeks.

my little holiday from my holiday began in barcelona. i arrived there in the evening and met my friend jim who had flown out to travel europe with me. while at dinner, we noticed an oddly large amount of fireworks going off around us. we thought at first it was just kids playing or celebrating something the world cup, but the poppings increased until we finally asked our waiter. he explained to us that we had arrived on the night of the celebration for the patron saint of fire, and that this was 'typico.' (it is also known, aptly, as the night in barcelona when no one sleeps.) we wandered through the city streets enjoying many many strange displays of affection for fire (including a huge hedonistic fire dance performed in a church courtyard at midnight. 'es typico.') and wound up on the beach listening to the city crackle and hiss well into the night.

barcelona continued to be amazing. we spent our time sauntering around gaudi's city totally stunned by his beautiful and crazy architecture, stuffing our faces with fruit and horchatas from the local markets, and winding up on the beach most every night. we spent a day in singes, a quaint little mediterranean beach town south of the city that has become a haven for gorgeous gay couples, sunning ourselves and swimming in the clear blue water (and eating a lot of cheese since i only remembered how to say 'half' kilo in spanish). it was absolutely lovely.

next, came paris. from our little room on the rue mouffetard (such a good word) we ventured to explore this truly gorgeous city. (did you know they light up the eiffel tower at night so it glitters? i was sold.) we played in the art at the pompidou center. we got severe whiplash on bumper cars in front of the louvre when the local punk kids decided to come after us. we ate an obscene number of crepes from the vendor down the street who rapidly grew to recognize us. we watched a mass of people dancing fully clothed in a fountain to the symphony of drums and carhorns to celebrate the world cup. we watched hundreds of people dancing to spontaneous live orchestral music (as well as an itunes list of traditional turkish songs) on a weeknight along the seine. our daytrip from paris was to giverny, where we got stranded after visiting monet's garden and missing our bus, and consoled ourselves with feeding ducks while consuming our umpteenth bottle of (excellent) french wine.

then, berlin. my father and his wife met us there and served as excellent (and much needed) tour guides. we made the rounds of museums and saw the remnants of the wall. we explored my father's favorite antic map store. we talked about life in communist europe. we stood amongst 1.3 million fans to watch a soccer game with little flags painted on our faces. we lounged in beer gardens. we stayed in a hostel named after a spaceship. (the heart of gold. each room comes with a free towel.) we took advantage of the executive lounge at the hilton and its excellent buffet and view. we got drenched in a thunderstorm. we saw the church where bach composed as choirmaster. we went 165 miles per hour on the autobahn. we speculated about extracting memories from mummies. we played in the teddybear's picnic of the berlin bears.

and finally, we returned for a quiet(er) weekend in bremerhaven. after a few bikes rides, fresh pastries, and world cup games, as well as a good session of sepia poop-scooping, i set jim on his plane home last night.

all in all, totally spectacular. totally whirlwind. really more than i think i can process right now.

thank god we took about 8,000 pictures. (which are forthcoming.)

i love traveling. isn't it always wonderfully nothing at all like what you expected?