im not going to mention Pt, and Fr. if you have any questions about portugal or paris feel free to write. Lisbon was our favorite town of the whole trip.


our spain portion began in Barcelaona after an overnight train from Paris. we took a cab from te station to our hotel. too early to check in so we went to a pizza/bakery cafe across the street from the hotel. we stayed in barcelona for 4 days at Hotel Atenas. of course the pool is smaller than it looked in the picture. but refreshing after the long days of walking in barcelonas sun. our first metro stop was at the Sagrada Familia. the "old cathedral" its been being built for the last 100 years or so. kinda sucks cuz the crains and **** will be in all the pictures.
we went to las ramblas almost every day. and catalunya plaza too. nice for shopping. the FNAC store has almost every cd you need.

walked down to the harbor/boardwalk. that was nice.

when going to Barcelona or any touristy city in europe, be VERY aware of pickpockets. do not look vulnerable. walk with confidence. pretend you know where youre going. there were several ocasions of pickpockets near us. one was a tale we heard a guy telling the American Express clerk where some men who were dressed "professonally" stopped him and his wife, told them there is alot of conterfeit money around and asked to see his wallet and stuff. he(idiot?) let them see it. long story short, they got his credit cards, and cash. BUMMER> but the closest was while we enjoying some fine spanish cuisine, Burger King(famous spanish burger joint) a theif try to grab a couples camera while they were going over their trip. out of no where, this gets up and starts kicking the thief in the face, chairs are flying, hes kicking, punching and yelling! the thief was cornered and pretending to be a human punching bag. now this is all at the table right behind me! my wife is like lets go! so were leaving and the theif is too, the guy walked over and gave a few more head kicks good bye 2 feet from me! that was a very exciting memory.
another time in barcelona we took a bus to a water park. Isl Fantasia. great break from all the hustle and bussle of barcelona, paris and lisbon. we get to the gate to pay, and my wallets gone.
my dumb ass left it on the bus! but all the important stuff was in my pockets. after the water park we get on the bus to head back, i ask the driver for the number of the bus lost and found cuz my wallets gone, he asks my name.(i asked why?) he pulls out my wallet with nothing missing! that was a great feeling. thanks to honest spainiards!

next stop valencia. we actually booked our hotel in valencia because we were attending a music festival in near by Bennicassim. it was only one night. after seein the town, we wish we would have stayed longer.

next stop , Madrid.

madrid was nice. the first city where we got lazy. we were kinda burnt out by this time. we stayed in the financial dsitrict. near the madrid football arena. we took the metro down town. took alot of pictures. really nice city.we took one of those 2 level bus tours. i reccomend them if youre only in town for a few days. we had 3 days.

there is an ice cream(helado) chain in europe called FARGGI. it is the best . we hunted down Farggi every city we went to.

whats the deal with people pissing everywhere in Spain? mom's having there lttle girls squating and pee-ing right on the sidewalk? no wiping? whatever.

so were on our train to seville, minutes before boarding there was another piss occasion, right on the termanal. someone has to clean that up(or walk in it).

an hour after getting to seville we walking along te riverside(kinda like a plce for couples to go and love each other) theres a man with no shirt, shooting up sitting on a bench.hes waving to my wife to come over there. he almost was killed that minute.

every monet after that was excellent. Seville was our favorite town in Spain by far. we stayed at Hostel Zahira in the shopping district. the city was really "cozy" . we loved it.
we ate at this tourist trap which had pictures on the menu so you could just order by pointing.
my wife order the chicken paella(a spanish rice dish you'll see everywhere). i ordered a small pizza.cheese and sausage only.
she ended up getting rice-a-roni with like 4 wing -dings. my pizza was a freezer burned bread with parmasian cheese and sliced hot dog. what a joke.

i advise travellers to eat where you see locals eating. avoid tourist traps.

next city was Porto portugal. which we loved. i highly reccomend staying in portugal.

if my reviews sound like im being neative, its cuz i am. there were many nice places we went to. many many nice thing to see. i personally like seeing the old architecture. which there is plenty of.

we spent a total of 3 weeks and it was one of the best trips weve ever took.

by the way we took 2 back packs and checked one bag. TAP air portugal lost the only bag we checked. they will pay!!!!!!!!

this message board was very helpful, thank you for all the help previous to our trip!

dan m

I, for one, would be interested in your stop in Lisbon, also one of my favorite cities. For example, how did you like MetroLisboa? Did you stop in Coimbra? How about Estoril or Cascais or Sintra? Belém?? Parque dos Naciaoes??

we were only in Lisbon for about 3 days, our first 2 and our last night.

we loved lisbon. everyone was very nice and helpful. the food was good too.

we did a lot of walking. and alot of Metro, though i dont recall any names except maybe resturauntos or some ****. the water front on the river is really nice. i think the only thing we didnt check out was the castle of all places! i wanted to go so bad but we just didnt.

You went to Benicassim? How was it? I couldn't make it and wanted to go.

Valencia is really nice and often passed over. And there are at least 30 other cities in Spain equally as nice also.

Well, gotta go outside to pee.

bennicassim. well, at no point am i bragging.

we only went for the friday line-up. cuz we(me and wife) LOVE the flaming lips.

i talked to their manager about getting us in free, since we'll be in spain and they probably woulndt have many friends there anyways.(im talking bout guest list folks)

he says hell try but europe festivals arent as organized as u.s. and he cant promise anything.

anyways we take our train to baennicassim. we walk through the town, and down along the side of the highway to get there. meanwhile this all in the middle of the desert.

HOT
i find the "will call" table area, and we give them our passports, i said "Nosotros List de Invitados de Flaming Lips" or some ****.
5 mins later he comes out with 2 laminates with our photos on them and **** (from our passport) what was the cool part about that was , ours said A artist on them. which bassically meant that we were in the Flaming Lips!

we could go anywhere, do anything backstage. there was free bar, massages, catering besides just hanging around with the Lips. none of us new how to speak spanish so we just bull****ted on and on.

i got to meet some of the other bands like Ash and the Posies we left after the Lips played cuz it was like 1am and the last train back to valencia was at like 9pm. we were ****ed needless to say.

after asking numerous cabs for the ride with no luck, we went into a cafe type joint to see if theyd call us a cab . long story short, all the workers were going back to valencia any ways so we could ride with them!
that was a nice adventure. i fell asleep. my wife was scared and ****.


the festival was nice. there was a built in pool backstage.

ash was good . flaming lips set was shortened due to a Power problem.

im going outside to pee(new habit)

Sheesh, Dan the Michigarian! Cool it with the language, eh? Thank god for the built-in censor function of this message board!

He speaks just like the Spanish with all the curses!

sorry if i offended anyone with the curses.

for the record i really didnt put any curses on anyone, but if you were cursed while readin my post, i will removed asap!