Bus Station Party

Pictures: ( they are backwards in order- Marina at Alicante, Javier and Edith, The boat with a dragon on the sides, a courtyard at Ken's casa, and the 'sails' I was working on.

Living in the moment... no point in trying to hold on to anything!

Yesterday morning Ken asked if I had decided whether to stay on for a month of 'training', which requires some kind of contract. I had already decided to leave on Monday morning, but had a feeling that as soon as I told him he would have some kind of reaction.

I was right- it took him a few hours, during which Jer and I helped him work on his beached boat in Denia's harbor. We scraped the dragon sculpture on the sides of his boat to get it ready for re-painting. (The boat had broken loose in a December storm and the sides were bashed against the rocks.) The boat is a strange creation that he built with fiberglass or resin, designed for eco-tourism.

All morning we were getting lectures about how the multinationals had ruined the planet. Ken's lecture's are arranged around a set of questions, which I unfortunately often fail to know how to answer. Like, if your baby is crawlin on the dirt floor, what do you do w' it? I said pick it up? which was wrong, apparently, and I missed the connection between that and the multinationals. Ken was losing patience with me, but i had lost patience with him days before. Every sentence in his linguistic pattern ends in a question that pretty much demands acquiescence. isn'i'? wasn'i'? didn'I? With his south Kent accent, or whatever it is. I usually responded with a question of my own, which apparently was mucking up the flow of his delivery.

Anyway, after a morning of scraping, waiting for the paint to be prepared, Ken offered to make tea, but then realized he was out of propane. We then set about to vacuum the sand off the sculpture, but he discovered he was out of gas for the generator. So then he got huffy and said we were leaving. It was a quiet ride back to the house- and as we were getting out of the car, he said, "Right then, you (looking at me) will go pack yer stuff and be off. And you too (Jer), since you are not enthusiastic about the program. Off w' ye, now." He walked off to his dark little rooms in the bottom of the casa.

We looked at each other. "Where did that come from?" Jer asked me.

"Heck if I know." Other guests- Javiar and Edith, were there working on getting a van ready for traveling. They just shook their heads; they were used to his sudden outburts and said he didn't mean it.

I quickly decided to go anyway. Jer did too, so we got on the internet and found bus schedules and made plans. I had a place set up for Monday- and thought that two days on my own sounded good. I found a little hotel in Alicante, a few hours down the coast. Jer found a helpx spot north of Barcelona. We decided it felt great to be leaving. So it was to be a 'bus station party'- Jer's words, and Javier and Edith would give us a ride. They thought it would be funny when Ken found out we actually did leave.

The bus ride is a favorite time for me- a free feeling, an in between place. Spain's bus system is especially convenient, the buses are nice and on time, and not very expensive. So far it has cost me less than 30 euros total to get from Barcelona to Alicante.

I watched the coast roll past on my left,- and more open farm land, small terraced orchards and vinyards, old stone houses in the hill sides on my right.

Then there are more piles of high rises and condos near a city like Benidorm, with Spanish McMansions spreading out over the hills.

I am now enjoying a private room in Hotel San Remo. I walked around a bit last night and plan to see more today. like the Castle Santa Barbara- a ninth century building on a hill nearby.

Tomorrow I take the bus again, for a place called Valor, to do some painting and gardening. These people have great recommendations on their helpx site, so I expect better treatment! I also have a house-sitting job near the coast for the next week. (Both Helpx). So, more soon. I plan to write about the other people out here on the helpx trail- most of them just out of school.

Pedreguer

I have enjoyed a few days of relative cakm, a chance to settle in a bit and sleep more. The good things about this particular helpx place is that there is internet whenever we want, the place is pretty and backs up against a nature park. Pedreguer is across the highway, a relatively small and quiet town but with stores.

The pictures are from the sculpting project- including a sea horse in the early pieces-of-toilet-and-sink stage. The coast view is in javea, just to the south, on an unusually hig surf day for the Mediterranean.

The down side is working with a fellow who keeps changing his plans and is not very organized, who likes to complain and blames the 'woofers' for anything and everything. He is interesting for a while, but soon his ranting about 'the multinationals' starts to get old. Maybe he is right- what do I know, but some of his assertions have detracted form his credibility somewhat. Like that American prisons use electric dog collars on the prisoners to keep them under control. (?) And that the Red Cross is a profitable foundation for the Rockefellers? ??

Pedreguer is a small, cordial but not welcoming, town on a hillside. It has a few grocery and pharmacy type stores, some bars, and of course everyone naps until 5 in the afternoon, which you realize if you are foolish enough to walk over at four to buy something.

Just lately I have personally prepared and painted six sheet metal 'sails' for wind generators, and helped the boys pick up piles of weeds that they have hacked out of the walkways.

My cell phone doesn't work here, I got another that should, but it is limited in usability as well- can call the US between 8 pm and 8 am- but usually too tired to talk at that time. Overall the whole cell phone situation here in the EU is difficult. One needs a different chip, if not phone, for each country. And only a few companies have decent coverage. The plans are complicated, and anything not specifically on the plan can be 4 euros a minute.

All that aside, I am thinking about heading south, towards Granada- I have one place in Andalucia, I just need to decide when I am ready to move on. It shall be soon!!

Sunset in the Morning

Most of my flight(s) from SLC to Barcelona were unremarkable, but in the morning as we approached Spain, the sunrise really looked like a typical colorful sunset in Utah- and it occured to me that this is because of all the ash still in the atmosphere from the volcano! Very pretty, in a way.

John met me when I got off the bus in Paza Catalunya, and helped me find the hostel (no easy task on this silly little streets) and haul my bags up three flights of old marble stairs. After a shower, I went out with him to see some of the local sights and get lunch. I also got a chip for my Nokia, so I now have a local phone number- and calls to the US are pretty darn cheap, no idea why that is.

I am between naps at the hostel, having explored some basic parts of Barcelona on the back of a tiny Chinese made motorcycle. John chose it to fit in a closet in his motorhome. I quickly decided to just trust, and not get uptight about the aggressive driving style, which is apparently necessary and expected. The motor bike saves a lot of walking.

We did walk the Ramblas, a wide avenue with lots of trees, here in old Barcelona. Lots of activity, like buscars and living statues and- especially since today is (was) a semifinals futbol (?) game between Barcelona and an Italian team, roving gangs of yelling, chanting fans wearing the team colors comprised more than half the population on the streets.

After walking around the famous unfinished Familia Sagrada church (part of the facade can be seen in the above picture), I had to get back and sleep. Tomorrow- or today, actually, I will see more, and upload my own photographs to send more. I was given a complimentary sangria by the young Pakistani host here at the hostel, while I watched the futball(?) soccer match with him in the cucina (kitchcen) . Barcelona lost by one point. So now it is time to try to sleep again.