hello,
the next day we decided to something a little different. my mate Marsh has a small video camera which he has been using to make a travelling movie. we came up with the idea of making a small video of us juggling the football around Barcelona. we would find a cool location, nice setting, good light, interesting angles and architecture and we would film a few seconds of one of us doing some nice juggling skills (keeping the ball of the ground by kicking/kneeing/chesting/heading etc.. the ball)then we would kick the ball of camera and the next scene would be the other person doing something similar with the ball coming into say camera left if the last person had kick edit camera right, so in editing it would look like we were passing the ball to each other across the city. we had fun doing it and it was great to practice with the camera. after that we went to one of the main squares and played football with the locals, this one guy i swear was marradona, looked just liked him and he kept touching the ball with his arm.
the next day we went in the rain to book a ticket out of the city, we were planning to go to San Sebastian, named after the saint who was famously depicted in many paintings as the man with like 20 arrows in his body (Clare you should remember this from our trip to Italy with stoney). but when we get to the station and after waiting like one hour to get to the desk we are told that there are no more trains today leaving Barcelona with any seats available. marsh is getting very annoyed, he decides he has to leave Barcelona now. we go to the other station and start asking for seats on a train to anywhere, we asked if we could go to Lisbon, no seats, Geneve, no seats, Andorra, Munich, Milan, Zurich, Valencia, Bordeaux no seats. the poor guy typing in all this information into the computer is almost freaking out, poor guy; he has two guys in front of him asking him a hundred questions, he has angry people coming up and asking to be next, everyone has been waiting for like an hour to get a shot at the front desk, including us. he is foaming at the mouth a little bit but he doesn't realise, his hands are going a million miles an hour and he is shaking a little bit. finaly he says there is one seat in first class to Paris. marsh buys it. i get a reservation on a train to Madrid, planning to arrive in the capitol by 12 at night. it was raining so we ran back to the hostel and we booked a night at the very popular Kabul hostel down the road. we then went and watched flamingo danging which was great. the next day we decide to go to the beach for a swim. the beach is packed, thousands of people all the way along it. lots of topless women and men in budgie smugglers, very European. although i only had my underwear to swim in and they had shrunk in the wash so i fit in really well. the water was really warm and there was some waves. it was a hot day and we spent a long time relaxing on the beach. it wasn't till that night that my skin turned from a light olive colour to a Orange, then red then finally a dark red with a shade of purple and blue coming into it. my thighs were the worst. it hurt allot. i thought the ozone layer was only bad in Australia. but today the redness has gone down and i doesn't hurt to rest my hand on my legs. marsh had been trying to convice me that i should go with him to Paris rather than Madrid, and it wasn't till right before my train that night that he made the match winning point. since my train pass expires (which means i only have to pay reservation fees) on the 15th and i get to Madrid on the 14th and i wouldn't be able to book a ticket till the 16th i would be stuck in Madrid which is alot more expensive getting back to London than say Paris. he was right, so we made a decision to go to Paris, on the 13 hour trip together. the only problem was of course i didn't have the ticket for this train. at 9pm we get to the train going to Paris. we get on and take a look around. we are in first class which contains carriages with only sleeper rooms, no seats. the hallway is so thin that only one person can fit down there at one time. there is a dinning cart and a bar cart. i know the train is full so i cant sit in an empty seat as someone will come for it soon enough. we go to the bar cart and get a sandwich and a glass of wine. i had to walk up and down the train for a while while they were checking tickets, they don't really ever ask someone on the move jsut those at the seats. i evade for 2 hours to be safe. at around12 marsh go's to bed as do most people, planning to have a nice big sleep before arriving, fresh, in Paris. i walk as far down the train as i can hoping to hit 2nd class and hoping that there is maybe a seat free, but i couldn't get out of first class as they don't let the two classes mingle, ha. so i spend the next 10 hours sitting on top of the toilet seat, too uncomfortable and bright to sleep, and occasionally getting up and walking up and down the carriages like a mad man, i tried sleeping in the hallway but it lasted only until one of the conductors asked me to return to my room. ten hours is a long time to spend in such confined spaces, i think i went a little crazy. at 9 in the morning we roll into Paris. i get to marshes room and he is just waking up, stretching with a smile on his face, sipping his complimentary drink and nibbling his croisant, then there is me, freezing, exhausted, confined and hungry. we go to the other station to get our connecting train to Brussels , i fall a sleep and wake up around 5 times on the train. marsh later told me i was waking up and saying really weird stuff. we get of in Brussels, Bulgaria. we don't stay long before we are on the train again to Amsterdam by way of Rotterdam. we arrive and it is raining as it does alot in Amsterdam, we go find a hostel, believe it or not the same bed i slept in last time i was here. we played alot of pool that day and that night me and marsh went undefeated in doubles. we met some Americans and walked around and went to a museum. last night was great, we met these Amsterdam locals that marsh had met in Prague. they had bikes and we would sit on the back, side saddle and they would hoon around the streets showing us how the dutch do Amsterdam, we saw some great improv music, great base player too. today we went on a hour long canal cruise which was great fun. got to see alot more beautiful buildings. soon i have to go and book my train to Paris, so i better go find an ATM.
cheers,
Jake.
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