Off to the Holy Land

Spain has been fun, tomorrow morning I´m off to Israel!

I can´t tell you how bad I´m jonesing for some karaoke. Hopefully I can find a place in Tel Aviv.

My Equipment List

A lot of people have asked me what I brought with me on this trip. Here is the complete list of what I left Atlanta with:

• Internal frame backpack
• lightweight organic cotton short sleeve shirt
• synthetic longsleeve shirt
• lightweight cotton longsleeve shirt
  
• lightweight cotton quarter-length sleeve shirt
• synthetic shorts
• two pairs synthetic pants
• Timberland leather shoes
• Aasics sneakers
• Israeli sweater
  
• 3 pairs boxer shorts
• 3 pairs cotton socks
• 3 pairs wool socks
• 2 pairs sock liners
• Otto Nemenz baseball cap
• poncho
• gray bandana
  
• 2 3oz bottle Doc Bronner´s soap
• 3oz bottle of moisterizing lotion
  
• 2 3oz bottle Banana Boat sunscreen
• 2 3oz bottles bug repellant (with DEET)
• 3oz hand sanitizer
  
• pack towel
• first aid kit
• sleeping bag
• sleep sack
• knife
• fingernail clippers
• Yashica Electro 35mm camera
• combination compass/whistle
  
• headlamp
• multitool
• metal canteen
• iodine tablets
  
• cable + combination lock
• 2 small padlocks
  
• documents and money: passport, GA driver´s license, international driver´s license, credit card, debit card, $1000 traveler´s cheques, $200 cash
• leatherbound journal
• notebook
• 3 pens
• books: Southeast Asia travel guide, Israel/Palestine travel guide, Hebrew phrasebook, Tree of Smoke
• toiletries: deodorant, toothpaste, tooth brush, 3 Gilette Mach 3 razor heads
  

Things I brought with the intent of sending home with Ben on September 8th:

• Crumpler shoulder bag
• Nikon D5000 camera with charger
  

That´s everything! Since arriving I have accumulated a digital watch, a can of baby powder, and assorted soaps from various places.

Tomatina!

Yesterday was Tomatina, a freaking MASSIVE tomato foodfight that goes down in Buñol annually. Not willing to miss such an event while so close by, Ben, Nicole and I fought our way in there. Thousands and thousands of people crammed into this small town, the action went down in the main square and the streets leading off of it. The local residents had lined all the buildings with huge plastic tarps, and were on the roofs with hoses and buckets of water soaking everyone below. There was a long time to wait until they drove the six or seven trucks of tomatoes through the streets, during which the main activity was to rip other people´s shirts off and play wet t-shirt dodgeball. As soon as a small gang of shirtless guys began tearing off shirts I took mine off, stuffed it in my pocket and joined them. Wet t-shirts hurt when they´re tied up in knots, soaking in water, and pegged at your face. The stakes were high.

In the main square is a greased pole with a ham at the top that people are meant to try to get. Many tried, I don´t think anyone succeeded.

Then the trucks came through one by one and dumped over 150 metric tons of tomatoes on everybody. SO MANY TOMATOES. The streets were calf deep in tomatoes in places. The atmosphere was like a big jolly mosh pit, people were looking out for each other in a situation where it would have been reeeaaaaallly easy to fall below and get trampled.

On the way out of town the locals took great pleasure in hosing down the tomato fighters. The old men especially enjoyed hosing off bikini clad hotties. They did a decent job of getting us clean, but tomato had found its way into every crevice. I´m not sure my shoes will ever not smell like tomatoes. I also have some mysterious red dots (along with a number of semi-explainable bruises and scrapes) on me that are hopefully not a terrible skin disease.

Getting into Barcelona tomorrow, any tips?

Feeling Better, Sleeping In a Cave

My fever´s gone! Yay! Still have a rough throat, but it seems like the worst of my illness is over.

Spent the afternoon at the very impressive Alhambra (as seen in the pic of the last post). Drove out of Granada on some really awesome mountain road through the Sierra Nevadas and ended up in the town of Guadix, where over half of the population lives in caves. And so tonight, my friends, I sleep in a cave.

Down and Out in Grenada

In Grenada now, seems like a great town. But I wouldn´t know ´cause I´m sick as a dog! Fever, phlegm, yah yah yah. Starting to feel a bit better, yesterday morning I wouldn´t have been able to form sentences. Thinking it´s a reaction to the vaccines I got right before I left. That´s better than the alternative. Como se dice ¨swine flu¨ en espanol?

Ben is my acting nurse, taking good care of me. His most given piece of advice is to take a cold shower.

Driving through the Spanish countryside is really nice, the landscape is dotted with little castle towns. Getting into the bigger towns that we´re visiting can be a bit stressful, though--skinny streets, a lot of restrictions on turning and such. The drivers are good though, so that helps.

Tomorrow morning we´re going to check out the Alhambra, the main attraction in Grenada. Hope I´m feeling up for it when the time comes.

Museums and Possible Sunburns

Spent the morning at the Renia Sofia museum. Really great stuff, lots of Picassos and Dalis and tons of great work I´d never heard of. Devoured every floor of the place like it was mana from heaven.

Walked around a bunch after that in the hot hot hot Spanish sun, just checking out parks and buildings of interest. Probably thoroughly burned, even though I applied sunscreen halfway through our walk. We´ll see soon enough.

Ben and I reserved a car for tomorrow. His friend Nicole is getting into Madrid at 1¨00 and then we´re off into the countryside. Looking forward to some natural beauty!!!

I Forgot What a Snorlax Ben Was

I have earplugs, but our roommates in the hostel were tossing and turning all night...

What To Do In Madrid?

Has anyone ever been to Madrid before? Anything I should definitely do before I leave?

Albert Has a Travel Blog

Hey! I have a travel blog! You can check here periodically if you care what I´m up to. Also, if you haven´t yet emailed me your mailing address you should do that to so I can send you a postcard from somewhere.

Ben and I were flying on Buddy Passes very generously arranged by Ruth and Jack, my sister-in-law´s mother and stepfather. Since business class had some free space they sat us up there. We were very pampered--champagne before takeoff, white tablecloth dinner, seats that reclined into beds... A very unfitting beginning for a trip that will eventually find me in some pretty dingy digs. Ben and I loved it, discussed what we should tell any inquiring chicas our professions were. I think we decided we´d be space pilots. No chicas inquired.

In Madrid now, Ben is upstairs in the hostel napping after a self-lead walking tour. We´ll be here for two nights, at which point Ben´s friend Nicole is joining us and we´ll make our way down to Lagos.

The big tomato food fight is happening while we´re in Spain, we´re going to try to get to that.

Wanna make bets on how long I´m gonna keep this blogging up?