"Hey, it´s the hottest time of the day...¿why don´t we go climb something big?"

Since we got our bus passes working (although every time we buy a ticket there still seems to be a lot of problems..) we were able to hop on a bus to Valencia. We picked Valencia as a place to break up our trip between Barcelona and Granada and were surprised to find how much we enojyed it. We walked from the bus station to the old town through a beautiful park that wraps around part of the old town. We entered the old town through old city gates, which for some reason we decided to climb in the blazing heat. Luckily the view was worth the effort! Our 11 hours in Valencia were spent wandering around the old town and checking out the market..oh, we also ventured into the new part of the city looking for a phone card or computer where Tiina could pay her tuition deposit. Of course this was during siesta when EVERYTHING is closed (for at least 3 hours). We then treated ourselves to a glass of horchata (a cold drink made from tiger nuts) and sat back to watch a huge pillow fight in one of the main squares and prepare for our overnight bus to Granada.
After a very long, uncomfortable night (where Tiina slept for 8 hours, and Maarika...well, a little less...) we finally made it to Granada. While waiting for our room we lounged on a cafe patio. Maarika couldn´t really muster up the energy for anything until she had a siesta, not to mention everything was closed because it was a Sunday. However, we still managed to pass the day away by exploring the pretty city. This included hiking up some very steep streets during the hottest part of the day to check out the old Moorish quarter, Albaicin. We were rewarded with a magnificent view of the Alhambra - the Moorish palaces and fortresses overlooking Granada.
The next day, we found ourselves on the other side of the valley, looking back at where we had walked the day before. We toured the Alhmabra, with it´s beautifully detailed tile- and woodwork. The buildings were really impressive, especially considering a lot of it was built before Canada was discovered by Europeans.

Barcelona: Where mullets are more common than stree signs

Spain Spain Spain!! So very last minute, but while finishing my trip in New Zealand and finding out that yes, I would indeed be going to Estonia this summer, I quickly contacted Maarika (sister) and asked if I could join her on her adventures through Spain. To my excitement she said yes!!

Now to the present...
We have been travelling in Spain for about 4 days now, but it already seems like we´ve been here for so much longer! We have probably walked enough to make it to Joekaaru..(or at least it feels that way) and have seen some spectacular sights and some not so fantastic...(like when I saw an elderly man casually riding his bicycle towards us in the nude on the boardwalks of Barcelona).
Maarika and I both have blog sights (http://maarikastravels.blogspot.com/), so we will be co-writing out blog entries. As of now, they will be more or less the same.

Arriving in Barcelona, I (Maarika) wandered around the Gothic quarter (old town)
by our hostel for a while. I spent an hour looking for a supermarket,
before I found one in the basement of the department store in front of which the airport bus had dropped me off originally.
Why was Maarika lost? Because streets are really poorly marked in Barcelona (and so far the rest of Spain too, but we´re getting used toit). Also, in the Gothic Quarter, there is no grid system, at all.. soyou think you´re going one direction but you´re going in totally theopposite. Anyway, we eventually made our way to the bus station where we spent an hour trying to get bus passes. This was very hard because the forms were in Spanish, which we do not speak, and no one spoke English. Of course, we had forgotten our dictionary (and map). Anyway,it eventually worked out (although we had to return the next morningto fix our passes).
On Friday, we saw the Arc Triomph and Eixample, the area with lots of modernista architecture, such as the famous Gaudi buildings. There were so many tourists! Also, a lot of things were under construction, for example, the Sagrada Familia cathedral. But it was still neat! We also wandered around the Gothic Quarter and Las Ramblas, then down tothe port where we walked along the boardwalk. Tiina told Maarika she saw a man riding a bike naked, which Maarika did not believe until she turned around and saw him herself (but only the back). Tiina often sees unusual things that Maarika has a hard time believing. (We also saw tons of mullets.Apparently, they´re really cool...?) Tiina was in charge of navigating on Friday, and we didn´t get nearly as lost. Ironically, Maarika is usually the navigator while, for the most part, Tiina lacks all sense of direction (no worries, Maarika wrote this..but I totally agree!!).

(Pictures will be added soon, when we have a more reliable internet connection.)