aqua fortis

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tuning in Momentarily

Sagrada Familia, BarcelonaJust wanted to say that I posted more photos at my Flickr page. I wanted to do a post with some random stories from the road, but after putting the photos up I am now too tired. So far, Spain has been a bit of an adventure for several reasons, not the least being my extreme stress at my rudimentary language skills, all of which seem to flee my brain when faced with an actual situation in which I need to use them. But my Spanish is better than my Italian (which mainly consists of critical memorized phrases) and so we're managing pretty well.

Barcelona is a big change from Venice, our last port of call. A very new city, comparatively, in the sense of having a lot of new growth and a vibrant nightlife; very clean and effective public transit; an easy-to-use Metro system; and a COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLE AND CRAZY train system. It seemed to make sense in theory, when looking at online schedules, but when faced with the actual chaos of the train station with its gazillion ticket windows, several different types of ticket machines for different types of trains, etc. etc., I just about had a breakdown trying to figure out what we were supposed to do. But we just rolled with it, and managed to obtain what we needed somehow.

More stories soon.

2 comments:

david elzey said...

i think you've already figured this out long ago, but "roll with it" is the survivors mantra for traveling abroad.

i still marvel at the 9 days i spent in paris knowing only six words of french. how did i eat? how did i find a place to stay? still mysteries, but all accomplished by rolling with it.

Sarah Stevenson said...

Being able to point at things you want REALLY helps. That, and knowing how to say "hello," "please," "thank you," and "sorry, I don't speak any (insert language here)" is surprisingly useful... :D