WTF is the deal with the weather around Barcelona? We had the car's summer tires placed on to not wear down the winter ones on our upcoming Barcelona trip (this Friday!) but I see freezing temperatures and SNOW?!
What gives?
How fast will this weather will be gone?
Good Luck!
Right now northern Italy is under a snowstorm that, according to forecasts, will last until thursday morning.
The football pitch just outside my office window is blanketed, but the roads around here seem clean enough.
Tomorrow I'll keep you posted.
L.
All questions regarding meteorology should be directed to Dan Cook, not "SPANIARDS". KTHX :)
We've had 3 months of cold and snow now.
Quote from: The Brain on March 09, 2010, 12:40:56 PM
We've had 3 months of cold and snow now.
Must be fimbulwinter.
Or maybe that was three years long rather than three months. :hmm:
How odd, I didn't know Barcelona ever got snow.
Quote from: Tamas on March 09, 2010, 11:51:01 AM
WTF is the deal with the weather around Barcelona? We had the car's summer tires placed on to not wear down the winter ones on our upcoming Barcelona trip (this Friday!) but I see freezing temperatures and SNOW?!
What gives?
How fast will this weather will be gone?
Why aren't you flying or taking the train?
Quote from: crazy canuck on March 09, 2010, 05:03:59 PM
Quote from: Tamas on March 09, 2010, 11:51:01 AM
WTF is the deal with the weather around Barcelona? We had the car's summer tires placed on to not wear down the winter ones on our upcoming Barcelona trip (this Friday!) but I see freezing temperatures and SNOW?!
What gives?
How fast will this weather will be gone?
Why aren't you flying or taking the train?
Harder to smuggle gypsies in that way :p
Quote from: Tyr on March 09, 2010, 02:22:40 PM
How odd, I didn't know Barcelona ever got snow.
That far North you get snow.
It's a cold place. You should come further South for warmer weather.
Heck, in my city it only snowed twice in the last 80 years, and one of them only lasted about 20 minutes or so before it melted.
Quote from: Martim Silva on March 09, 2010, 05:36:37 PM
Heck, in my city it only snowed twice in the last 80 years, and one of them only lasted about 20 minutes or so before it melted.
thats what people in Edmonton say about the month of July.
Quote from: Martim Silva on March 09, 2010, 05:36:37 PM
Quote from: Tyr on March 09, 2010, 02:22:40 PM
How odd, I didn't know Barcelona ever got snow.
That far North you get snow.
It's a cold place. You should come further South for warmer weather.
Heck, in my city it only snowed twice in the last 80 years, and one of them only lasted about 20 minutes or so before it melted.
Cornwall is tropical enough for me.
Quote from: crazy canuck on March 09, 2010, 05:03:59 PM
Quote from: Tamas on March 09, 2010, 11:51:01 AM
WTF is the deal with the weather around Barcelona? We had the car's summer tires placed on to not wear down the winter ones on our upcoming Barcelona trip (this Friday!) but I see freezing temperatures and SNOW?!
What gives?
How fast will this weather will be gone?
Why aren't you flying or taking the train?
Because it is roughly the same cost for 4 people, and it is a much bigger adventure :)
Quote from: Tamas on March 09, 2010, 11:51:01 AM
WTF is the deal with the weather around Barcelona? We had the car's summer tires placed on to not wear down the winter ones on our upcoming Barcelona trip (this Friday!) but I see freezing temperatures and SNOW?!
What gives?
How fast will this weather will be gone?
It's very unusual to see snow in Barcelona, even more so in March (further, this one is the heaviest in at least 25-30 years, making it an extreme oddity). I would expect snow to be completely gone by Friday, but temperature will certainly be quite colder than usual.
By the way, many people don't really understand that Barcelona and Northern Spain in general is roughly in the same latitude that Massachusetts or Hokkaido (and Paris, London, Berlin, Copenhague... are so northern as Newfoundland, Kamchatka and the Yukon). Thanks to the Gulf Stream and the associated winds European winters are usually quite warmer. But sometimes the winds change and come from the East, from Siberia and the Arctic, and then we get some days of snow and freezing temperatures.
Northern Italy Snow Bulletin:
As this morning, it's snowing on the vast majority of the Po Plain, i.e. all the highways you'll travel through to Spain; it's snowing in all the region from Trieste to Brescia, but it's expected to stop tomorrow (thursday) morning.
Don't know when you're going to pass through Italy, but right now vehicles are stopped by the police before entering the highways to control if they have snow tires/snow chains on board.
Time Friday the weather will change to sunny, and the emergency will cease.
Tonight in Modena it snowed more than 30 centimeters, my car was unrecognizable.
L.
We will go on Friday morning, moving to Italy through Slovenia.
I am undecided, wether I should pressure my dad to have his car's tires changed back to the winter ones... :hmm:
Quote from: Tamas on March 10, 2010, 04:33:36 AM
We will go on Friday morning, moving to Italy through Slovenia.
I am undecided, wether I should pressure my dad to have his car's tires changed back to the winter ones... :hmm:
This evening I'll return to Padua, I'll post the state of highways
L.
Thank you very much for these updates! :)
In the meantime, I talked to my father and convinced him to have the winter tyres refitted. Of course its money thrown out of the window, but I figure the temperature will not reach high enough to damage the winter tyres
Quote from: Tamas on March 10, 2010, 04:33:36 AM
We will go on Friday morning, moving to Italy through Slovenia.
I am undecided, wether I should pressure my dad to have his car's tires changed back to the winter ones... :hmm:
Lets see, driving through mountain passes when snow is forecast. :hmm:
Quote from: crazy canuck on March 10, 2010, 05:16:21 AM
Quote from: Tamas on March 10, 2010, 04:33:36 AM
We will go on Friday morning, moving to Italy through Slovenia.
I am undecided, wether I should pressure my dad to have his car's tires changed back to the winter ones... :hmm:
Lets see, driving through mountain passes when snow is forecast. :hmm:
:hmm:
:hmm:
L.
:hmm:
I happened to be in Barcelona on a work trip on monday and tuesday. Monday afternoon-evening was complete gridlock in the city, everything collapsed, road traffic, trains of all strips, etc. We had to search for a hotel room around the Sants train station under a snowstorm, as it was impossible for us to reach the city we were travelling to, and the visit we had scheduled for tuesday morning had to be cancelled because the roads were closed down. AFAIK the border between Spain and France is still closed down, as are the train lines. The province of Girona is the one that was hit the hardest, with lots of cities with no electricity.
At the moment, I'd say that the car trip you planned is pure unrefined madness.
Well, we will reach the Spanish-French border only on Saturday so it should be all clear by that time :)
Quote from: Tamas on March 10, 2010, 08:12:52 AM
Well, we will reach the Spanish-French border only on Saturday so it should be all clear by that time :)
Who knows...
I wouldn't worry, the Spaniards will have those problems sorted asap. "Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today" being something of an Iberian maxim :cool:
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on March 10, 2010, 08:22:56 AM
I wouldn't worry, the Spaniards will have those problems sorted asap. "Never put off till tomorrow what can be done today" being something of an Iberian maxim :cool:
:yeahright:
Apparently there are still 5000 trucks blocked in the La Junquera border between Spain and France, where are you planning to cross the border Tamas?
Quote from: The Larch on March 10, 2010, 08:42:06 AM
Apparently there are still 5000 trucks blocked in the La Junquera border between Spain and France, where are you planning to cross the border Tamas?
I am not sure yet! Will check what my GPS has to say about it once I am at home
Quote from: Tamas on March 10, 2010, 08:12:52 AM
Well, we will reach the Spanish-French border only on Saturday so it should be all clear by that time :)
Tamas, I would postpone if I were you. Going now would be a waste. Time lost in massive traffic jams and you will only enjoy the city proper.
Can't you make it after May?
Quote from: Martim Silva on March 10, 2010, 09:00:36 AM
Quote from: Tamas on March 10, 2010, 08:12:52 AM
Well, we will reach the Spanish-French border only on Saturday so it should be all clear by that time :)
Tamas, I would postpone if I were you. Going now would be a waste. Time lost in massive traffic jams and you will only enjoy the city proper.
Can't you make it after May?
We are going to the FC Barcelona game this Sunday :P Seeing some of the city, and the scenery along the way, would just be a bonus
Highways in Northern Italy are clear of snow: you can blaze through Italy destroying the winter tires :P
L.
Quote from: Pedrito on March 10, 2010, 05:48:29 PM
Highways in Northern Italy are clear of snow: you can blaze through Italy destroying the winter tires :P
L.
Thank god someone finally spelled tires right. :D
Tamas: suffers attrition and loses 2 SP's.
It got up to 77 F here today. Drove home with my windows down and sunroof open. :cool:
Quote from: Caliga on March 10, 2010, 08:33:04 PM
It got up to 77 F here today. Drove home with my windows down and sunroof open. :cool:
Yeah it was warm here today as well. Mid 70's. Then there was a lightning storm.
Quote from: Caliga on March 10, 2010, 08:33:04 PM
It got up to 77 F here today. Drove home with my windows down and sunroof open. :cool:
It's 95 and humid here. :yuk:
Nice to know, Pedrito :D
The snow reached Hungary last night and it is still falling :mad: I mean WTF its mid-March FFS.
Weather forecasts for Barcelona
http://eltiempo.elpais.com/espana/barcelona/barcelona/938
And Gerona, closer to the French border
http://eltiempo.elpais.com/espana/girona/girona/2577
Quote from: Alatriste on March 10, 2010, 03:40:21 AM
By the way, many people don't really understand that Barcelona and Northern Spain in general is roughly in the same latitude that Massachusetts or Hokkaido (and Paris, London, Berlin, Copenhague... are so northern as Newfoundland, Kamchatka and the Yukon). Thanks to the Gulf Stream and the associated winds European winters are usually quite warmer. But sometimes the winds change and come from the East, from Siberia and the Arctic, and then we get some days of snow and freezing temperatures.
Barcelona = 41 degrees latitude.
Whitehose = 61 degrees latitude
I understand your point about the gulf stream, but you badly over-state it.
Quote from: Alatriste on March 11, 2010, 02:46:43 AM
Weather forecasts for Barcelona
http://eltiempo.elpais.com/espana/barcelona/barcelona/938
And Gerona, closer to the French border
http://eltiempo.elpais.com/espana/girona/girona/2577
Thanks. :)
Does not look that bad, compared to the winter hell of few days ago.
GPS wants to take us on the motorway/highway labelled "AP-7" (AP on the French side). Is that approved?
Quote from: Tamas on March 11, 2010, 05:01:48 AM
GPS wants to take us on the motorway/highway labelled "AP-7" (AP on the French side). Is that approved?
That's the La Junquera pass that I talked about earlier. I'll check if it's still jammed.
Quote from: The Larch on March 11, 2010, 05:10:23 AM
Quote from: Tamas on March 11, 2010, 05:01:48 AM
GPS wants to take us on the motorway/highway labelled "AP-7" (AP on the French side). Is that approved?
That's the La Junquera pass that I talked about earlier. I'll check if it's still jammed.
:thumbsup:
Quote from: Barrister on March 11, 2010, 03:10:57 AM
Quote from: Alatriste on March 10, 2010, 03:40:21 AM
By the way, many people don't really understand that Barcelona and Northern Spain in general is roughly in the same latitude that Massachusetts or Hokkaido (and Paris, London, Berlin, Copenhague... are so northern as Newfoundland, Kamchatka and the Yukon). Thanks to the Gulf Stream and the associated winds European winters are usually quite warmer. But sometimes the winds change and come from the East, from Siberia and the Arctic, and then we get some days of snow and freezing temperatures.
Barcelona = 41 degrees latitude.
Whitehose = 61 degrees latitude
I understand your point about the gulf stream, but you badly over-state it.
Perhaps, but I didn't compare Barcelona's latitude with Yukon's... what I said was "Barcelona and Northern Spain in general is roughly in the same latitude that Massachusetts or Hokkaido"
Well, Barcelona is at 41º 23', Vigo 42º 15', Bilbao 43º 15'... while Boston is at 42º 19' and Sapporo at 43º 05'.
The cities I compared with Yukon, Newfoundland and Kamchatka were Paris, London, Berlin and Copenhague.
Petropavlovsk (Kamchatka): 53º 01'
Saint Johns (Newfoundland): 47º 33'
Paris: 48º 48'
London: 51º 32'
Berlin: 52º 30'
Copenhagen: 55º 40'
All four are closer to the North Pole than Saint Johns, and Copenhagen is almost 2,5 degrees more northern than Petropavlovsk. I will freely admit, however, that Yukon was going literally too far (north), Alberta, Saskatchewan and even Labrador would have been better examples.
Quote from: Tamas on March 11, 2010, 05:19:13 AM
Quote from: The Larch on March 11, 2010, 05:10:23 AM
Quote from: Tamas on March 11, 2010, 05:01:48 AM
GPS wants to take us on the motorway/highway labelled "AP-7" (AP on the French side). Is that approved?
That's the La Junquera pass that I talked about earlier. I'll check if it's still jammed.
:thumbsup:
Apparently it's already open, but sections of the AP7 are closed for mainteinance.
Quote from: The Larch on March 11, 2010, 06:36:08 AM
Quote from: Tamas on March 11, 2010, 05:19:13 AM
Quote from: The Larch on March 11, 2010, 05:10:23 AM
Quote from: Tamas on March 11, 2010, 05:01:48 AM
GPS wants to take us on the motorway/highway labelled "AP-7" (AP on the French side). Is that approved?
That's the La Junquera pass that I talked about earlier. I'll check if it's still jammed.
:thumbsup:
Apparently it's already open, but sections of the AP7 are closed for mainteinance.
Thank you!
We will leave early morning tomorrow. We will have a laptop with us and supposedly there will be wi-fi in the hotel so I might be able to give an update Saturday.
Quote from: Alatriste on March 11, 2010, 05:39:15 AM
Perhaps, but I didn't compare Barcelona's latitude with Yukon's... what I said was "Barcelona and Northern Spain in general is roughly in the same latitude that Massachusetts or Hokkaido"
Well, Barcelona is at 41º 23', Vigo 42º 15', Bilbao 43º 15'... while Boston is at 42º 19' and Sapporo at 43º 05'.
The cities I compared with Yukon, Newfoundland and Kamchatka were Paris, London, Berlin and Copenhague.
Petropavlovsk (Kamchatka): 53º 01'
Saint Johns (Newfoundland): 47º 33'
Paris: 48º 48'
London: 51º 32'
Berlin: 52º 30'
Copenhagen: 55º 40'
All four are closer to the North Pole than Saint Johns, and Copenhagen is almost 2,5 degrees more northern than Petropavlovsk. I will freely admit, however, that Yukon was going literally too far (north), Alberta, Saskatchewan and even Labrador would have been better examples.
Ah yes - I didn't fully catch what you were comparing to what.
:nitpick:
The capital of Newfoundland is St. Johns - by custom the first part is abbreviated. There is a city in New Brunswick that is called Saint John. :Canuck:
Whitehorse is about the same latitude as Oslo, Stockholm or St. Petersburg.
Hope you have a fun drive Tamas, try not to get killed :D
Hungarian driver in snowy Spain=red asphalt.
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on March 12, 2010, 02:28:43 AM
Whitehorse is about the same latitude as Oslo, Stockholm or St. Petersburg.
And lower than Anchorage. BB needs to be reminded of this constantly. :P
Indeed the dirty southerner should be reminded of it constantly.
Quote from: Tonitrus on March 12, 2010, 04:16:16 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on March 12, 2010, 02:28:43 AM
Whitehorse is about the same latitude as Oslo, Stockholm or St. Petersburg.
And lower than Anchorage. BB needs to be reminded of this constantly. :P
It's also like a thousand kilometers from the sea, which makes a huge difference temperature wise.
Have arrived to hotel. Fuckers, the "private parking" is a general paying parking garage. We had to leave the car keys there and we forgot to bring the spares so they better not lose it! :mad: And its like 200 meters away! And the guys in the garage did not speak english save for the fuel-handling guy who knew a few words
Traffic in Barcelona is pure hell, Budapest is a mellow place of hippy drivers compared to it. But otherwise it was big fun to watch all the different scenery along the way, and drive 160km/h.
I am stealing someone's wi-fi BTW. I received a login and pass for the hotel's wi-fi but I cant set it up: the wi-fi itself appears to be unprotected and it gives an IP without any authentication but I cant enter the login/pass anywher (or rather, dunno where to do it). If I selet any kind of login method where a login/pass is needed, it refuses to connect.
Usually for hotels, you can connect unauthenticated and then they redirect you to a login page on first browse.
Quote from: Tamas on March 13, 2010, 05:20:52 PM
Have arrived to hotel. Fuckers, the "private parking" is a general paying parking garage.
Not that strange, they must have some parking spots assigned or something.
QuoteWe had to leave the car keys there and we forgot to bring the spares so they better not lose it! :mad:
Well, they shouldn't, it's their job after all.
QuoteAnd its like 200 meters away!
Oh, the horror...
QuoteAnd the guys in the garage did not speak english save for the fuel-handling guy who knew a few words
Why should they? They're only running a garage.
QuoteTraffic in Barcelona is pure hell, Budapest is a mellow place of hippy drivers compared to it.
Heh, for what I remember traffic in Barcelona was pretty mild. :lol: Better not drive in Southern Italy then. Or in my hometown. :ph34r:
QuoteBut otherwise it was big fun to watch all the different scenery along the way, and drive 160km/h.
How was the border crossing? Did you have trouble with the mountain roads after the snowstorm? Also, count yourself lucky that you didn't get a hefty fine, getting caught doing 160 km/h is no laughing matter.
QuoteI am stealing someone's wi-fi BTW. I received a login and pass for the hotel's wi-fi but I cant set it up: the wi-fi itself appears to be unprotected and it gives an IP without any authentication but I cant enter the login/pass anywher (or rather, dunno where to do it). If I selet any kind of login method where a login/pass is needed, it refuses to connect.
What ulmont said.
How was the game? Did you enjoy it? When are you going back?
Completely unrelated to anything to do with Tamas' trip, a question I've always wanted to ask the Spaniards: in which CK province is Madrid located?
Is that a serious question?!
Yeah.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on March 15, 2010, 06:26:27 AM
Completely unrelated to anything to do with Tamas' trip, a question I've always wanted to ask the Spaniards: in which CK province is Madrid located?
No idea, I never played the game. Which are the provinces in the area? Can you put a screenshot? In any situation, Madrid was an irrelevant town during CK's timeframe.
Would it have been in the provinces of Burgos or perhaps Valladolid? I found screenshots of CK Spain but they are all zoomed way the fuck out.
Quote from: Jaron on March 15, 2010, 07:27:57 AM
Would it have been in the provinces of Burgos or perhaps Valladolid? I found screenshots of CK Spain but they are all zoomed way the fuck out.
Those two would be too far away. Is there an Alcalá de Henares province?
Ok, I managed to find a picture and Salamanca would be my choice.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv701%2FGothmogDeMorgul%2Fcapital1.jpg&hash=f41d5655f0283afef6dde5d4196cc8ad41ffb6bd)
I'm assuming that the river is the Tajo. If it's the Duero, then it'd be in Toledo. Anyway, it's a shitty map.
Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 12, 2010, 09:35:18 AM
Quote from: Tonitrus on March 12, 2010, 04:16:16 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on March 12, 2010, 02:28:43 AM
Whitehorse is about the same latitude as Oslo, Stockholm or St. Petersburg.
And lower than Anchorage. BB needs to be reminded of this constantly. :P
It's also like a thousand kilometers from the sea, which makes a huge difference temperature wise.
I can be at the sea in about an hour an a half. :huh: Probably only 100 kms as the crow flies.
Quote from: Barrister on March 15, 2010, 10:51:57 AM
Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 12, 2010, 09:35:18 AM
Quote from: Tonitrus on March 12, 2010, 04:16:16 AM
Quote from: Richard Hakluyt on March 12, 2010, 02:28:43 AM
Whitehorse is about the same latitude as Oslo, Stockholm or St. Petersburg.
And lower than Anchorage. BB needs to be reminded of this constantly. :P
It's also like a thousand kilometers from the sea, which makes a huge difference temperature wise.
I can be at the sea in about an hour an a half. :huh: Probably only 100 kms as the crow flies.
It doesn't count as "sea" if you can walk across it half the year. :P
Larch, we had no problems whatsoever, apart from some water (melted snow) here and there.
I was photographed once by an automatic device, I think that was back in france, doing 145km/h, frankly I dont think they will come after me for that lousy 10% speeding.
It was awesome to see Messi's hat-trick live, and near to us, too. I also liked the city, but to be honest, only as a nice and unusual (for us) place. I am not sure I would like to settle here. Altough, Spanish chicks are HOTT
Me and my dad are back to our hotel rooms and will stay here until dinner, then off back home next morning. We need the rest because we will attempt to do the 19 hours trip in one sitting. I do have a reservation at an Italian bed&breakfast place but I am planning to cancel it if we are not too tired when near it. Doing 160km/h in big traffic is tyring of course but loitering in the outer lane around 120km/h should be fine for the two of us.
Quote from: The Larch on March 15, 2010, 07:51:05 AM
I'm assuming that the river is the Tajo. If it's the Duero, then it'd be in Toledo. Anyway, it's a shitty map.
I don't know about the Spanish side, but for the Portuguese part it should be neither Tejo nor Douro. :D
Quote from: Caliga on March 10, 2010, 08:33:04 PM
It got up to 77 F here today. Drove home with my windows down and sunroof open. :cool:
So? It is March.
Quote from: Valmy on March 15, 2010, 02:37:46 PM
Quote from: Caliga on March 10, 2010, 08:33:04 PM
It got up to 77 F here today. Drove home with my windows down and sunroof open. :cool:
So? It is March.
Cal wants you to think he lives in a weather paradise.
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 15, 2010, 03:30:20 PM
Quote from: Valmy on March 15, 2010, 02:37:46 PM
Quote from: Caliga on March 10, 2010, 08:33:04 PM
It got up to 77 F here today. Drove home with my windows down and sunroof open. :cool:
So? It is March.
Cal wants you to think he lives in a weather paradise.
It clearly isn't.
77F? Much too hot. :yuk:
Quote from: The Larch on March 15, 2010, 07:51:05 AM
Ok, I managed to find a picture and Salamanca would be my choice.
(https://languish.org/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv701%2FGothmogDeMorgul%2Fcapital1.jpg&hash=f41d5655f0283afef6dde5d4196cc8ad41ffb6bd)
I'm assuming that the river is the Tajo. If it's the Duero, then it'd be in Toledo. Anyway, it's a shitty map.
It is the Tajo.
For some reason Paradox decided they werent going to model important rivers in Europe unless they were Swedish. You can probably find the creek behind Johan's childhood home on the map. :rolleyes:
Quote from: clandestino on March 15, 2010, 01:53:30 PM
Quote from: The Larch on March 15, 2010, 07:51:05 AM
I'm assuming that the river is the Tajo. If it's the Duero, then it'd be in Toledo. Anyway, it's a shitty map.
I don't know about the Spanish side, but for the Portuguese part it should be neither Tejo nor Douro. :D
It's a Paradox map, you can't really expect geographical accuracy from them. ;)
I would say Madrid is in western "Salamanca" (but real Salamanca is in "Zamora"), perhaps between "Salamanca" and "Valladolid". Anyway during the Late Middle Age Madrid was a relatively important trading town thanks to its strategic location, but far smaller than Toledo, Burgos, Seville, Cordoba or Valladolid.
In a certain sense Madrid is like Brasilia or New Delhi, an artificial city, built in a place chosen because it was in a very convenient place, in the center of the peninsula, on a big plain with ample supplies of water, and half way between Toledo and Valladolid, the two main administrative centers of the kingdom.
not that anyone cares when there is the all-important topic of Madrid's location in CK, but we have arrived back home safely.
Yesterday morning after check-out we went to the monastery of Montserrat and the amazing rocks and view around it, then proceeded to drive home without stopping for sleep. When I drove, my father (tried to) sleep and vice versa. Needless to say I am somewhat tired.
Welcome home!
Quote from: Tamas on March 15, 2010, 11:34:22 AM
I was photographed once by an automatic device, I think that was back in france, doing 145km/h, frankly I dont think they will come after me for that lousy 10% speeding.
Blame Sarkozy for the
radars! :lol:
Quote from: Tamas on March 17, 2010, 05:20:49 AM
not that anyone cares when there is the all-important topic of Madrid's location in CK, but we have arrived back home safely.
Yesterday morning after check-out we went to the monastery of Montserrat and the amazing rocks and view around it, then proceeded to drive home without stopping for sleep. When I drove, my father (tried to) sleep and vice versa. Needless to say I am somewhat tired.
It's OK, there is no hurry, relax, take a shower and get some Zs. But don't forget to present your report!
LOL. Is it normal in the gypsy culture to go by car from Hungary to Spain to watch a football game?
They really aren't like the civilized people, it seems. :(
Well...
Barcelona is a nice city to visit, but for some reason I did not get the "I would like to live here" vibe, not sure why. But enjoyed my stay there very much.
Spanish people (or catalonians, at least) don't really eat chicken and pork, do they? Lack of understanding of what was offered in restaurant was quite a limiting factor in trying the local cuisine but there was no offering worth mentioning which was not either beef, or rabbit, or seafood. So I was living on beef and pizzas.
Spanish girls are HOTT.
Predictably, it was very surreal to watch FC Barcelona live. All the very familiar faces seen actually a few meters from you and not on a TV screen. Heck, I even recognized one of the stuff near us because he was regularly shown on TV during corners. :D
On our way there, we stopped in a small mountain town in Liguria. Not only I did not comprehend the difficulty of finding the bed and breakfast place on the extremely narrow streets (I guess there was a reason why we had the only SUV there), once we arrived came the realization: the old couple, our hosts, fooled me by having their reply e-mail written by their neighbor. Because they did not speak a single word of english. But at least they knew how to save money by turning off the heating in our cellar room during the night, and giving us a dry meat-free breakfast.
By far, Italians has the best motorway toll system by the way. Near the French-Italian border we had to stop regularly to throw coins in big baskets on the french roads. Not to mention the lottery-like inclusion or exclusion of cash-accepting booths. Luckily I had my company Amex card with me so that took care of that problem. Altough on our way back, during the evening in Italy, my dad decided it was wise to overtake an annoying truck right before the toll booths and ended up charging into a place where you could only proceed with some kind of pre-paid subscription card thingie. "Luckily" we had police nearby who had the gate opened, then one of them showed (not speaking Teh Language) his ill feelings toward my father's maneuver (badly hiding his amusement over the fact of dealing with foreign-speaking people who are clueless about local customs). We exited the motorway at the first possible moment, got local assistance and thus re-entered it, this time legally.
Let's see, what else... southern france is windy as fuck. The coast around Monaco and such was very nice.
It was great to travel through 4 different countries, dealing with locals along the way, seeing a beautiful city, a good game of football, and managing to not kill ourselves when we did a 20 hours drive in one sitting.
Quote from: Martinus on March 19, 2010, 04:10:34 AM
LOL. Is it normal in the gypsy culture to go by car from Hungary to Spain to watch a football game?
They really aren't like the civilized people, it seems. :(
I understand you have no concept of this because you travel from one downtown to the next, but the travel itself was as much part of the experience as the game.
Not everyone travels just to drink the exact same cocktails he drinks at home, you know.
Your wagon is fast. :)
Quote from: Ed Anger on March 19, 2010, 09:14:31 AM
Your wagon is fast. :)
It was faster on the way home, because they exchanged the beet during the journey for food, gasoline and shelter.
:lol: Bastards
Quote from: Martinus on March 19, 2010, 04:10:34 AMLOL. Is it normal in the gypsy culture to go by car from Hungary to Spain to watch a football game?
Weren't you one of those people that don't even have a driver's license?
EDIT: Some of the best trips I made in my life were roadtrips. Not having a car makes a lot of interesting spots unreachable.