Barcelona: Great Music and Sangria for All My Friends!

Barcelona is cool. Barcelona is really cool. Vibrant, filled with amazing buildings, overly friendly street vendors, beautiful beaches, crafty pickpocketers, and incredibly cheap deals of the Sangria variety (Don Simon, you da man). Phoebe's surprise early arrival in Barcelona meant that we enjoyed a couple of days exploring the city before the "main event" began. Something about Barcelona seems to make it grow on you every day you spend there. Just like listening to good music, every time you hear it you notice a new, funky side to it. 

Speaking of good music, the aforementioned "main event" was of course Primavera Sound Festival. We were joined by fellow gappies Ally and Emily, and stayed with Felix's very generous cousin Suzy and her boyfriend Raph, in a very intimately sized guest room. We gradually became nocturnal as the 4 day festival progressed; bed at 5am and breakfast at 4pm became the norm. Even with our confused body clocks, we managed to squeeze in some quality touristing - favourites include Park Guell, tapas and paella, the half-finished Sagrada Familia, the numerous parks and old narrow streets, and the mostly friendly kebab store at the Arc de Triomf. 

For a bunch of kiwis whose previous festival experiences included Big Day Out, Raggamuffin and Edgefest, Primavera was on a completely different scale. The crowds were mind-blowing, the venue dwarfed any arenas we have in NZ, and the line-up was pretty special. Despite this the crowd actually seemed to be significantly less aggressive than a kiwi crowd, and it proved to be pretty easy to get to the front for most acts. Alex, we hope your elbows aren't too bruised from crowd-bashing.

A cute father-son reunion in Barcelona the weekend before the messiness began. 

Maybe leave the map reading up to Felix?

Although this beach may look lovely, it's very difficult to relax here - between the mildly creepy masseuses touching your feet, the mojito and cerveza sellers constantly pestering you, and the curious coin hunters with their metal detectors, we had to take shifts closing our eyes.

A must-see on any visit to Barcelona. Gaudi's impressive Sagrada Familia. Construction began in 1882, and has stopped and started many times since then as it relies solely on public donation. We've vowed to return to see the finished product, in 20+ years.

The most amazing market we have ever seen. Felix had to hold Phoebe back from buying every single juice flavour, fruit cup, fresh coconut, crema catalana and empanada.

Soaking up the sun at Park Guell another of Gaudi's fantastic creations.

Going back to our roots, we couldn't resist the opportunity for a cheeky visit to the science museum. We even met an adorable yet awkward capybara. Google image it.

4 eager kiwis, ready to have their international music festival virginity taken.

Awww yeeh, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in action. Epic. Other standouts were Blur, Jesus & Mary Chain, Grizzly Bear, Phoenix, Tame Impala, Postal Service... and the Wu-Tang Clan, lol. Best dance moves go to Solange, Beyoncé's little sis.

Gettin' a bit sweaty in the mosh pit, but looking pretty happy about our prime location.

Another hard night on the Don Simon. This fuel kept us going til the early morning. At 1.12euro per litre, who could refuse?!

Phoebe and Alex. Heck, who knows what they're doing.

Next time: Southern France and some more mountains!

Chevannes: The Middle of nowhere France

Seeing Felix off at Geneva, I was full of excitement. My heart was filled with anticipation for the 4 weeks I would spend.... Galloping on horseback through the french countryside, retiring to a grand villa with plentiful cheeses and a fine Bourgognian wine, recuperating after a busy Winter.

Yes.. Well. These thoughts were quickly interrupted when the nightmare that was 4th form Geography returned to haunt me. Turns out Geneva isn't in France - although everyone speaks French, it's in Switzerland (google it). This meant that the lovely people at SNCF Geneva wouldn't let me pick up my train ticket. After dumping my bags and taking a sweaty 2 hour jogging tour around the city, they did in fact allow me to board the train.

Needless to say I was a little tired arriving in Nevers. But waiting for me was an amazing couch surfing host Laura! She introduced me to some of her awesome friends and they showed me around the city and we had a super cute picnic by the Loire River. Also she has a horse - instant friendship.

Me, Laura and Noé. I Nevers want to leave ;)

Totally impressed by Laura's fire dancing! She didn't even burn me.

Arriving at the elevage, I felt like a tiny cat in the ocean #harrowkitty. There were 50+ horses, 7 chickens, two cats (not including me) and a dog. All the horse gear, the names for everything, the riding style and of course the language was different. The first few days were actually terrible. My dreams from paragraph one were nowhere to be found. I spent that time getting yelled at in french (while understanding nada), re-doing things I'd already 'done' and planning the least awkward escape route possible.

Luckily things improved. I've been here 4 weeks now and have ridden some amazing horses, met some great french country folk, cleaned many-a-stable, been road-tripping horse style and even assisted in the horse mating process.. Which is not done in the artificial insemination kind of way, oh no. I did think about taking pictures for you.. But they probably would have asked me to leave. But yes, it was impressive (and scary).

On the road! Winding through the farmlands of Bourgogne.

Pissenlits. It's so cute when the horses eat these 'cos the yellow rubs off on their noses!

Mmmm pissenlits

Dolby! The coolest dog ever.

Where's kitty!!

 So. hard. to take. a good. photo.

KITTY!!

 

 Bébé horse Fahryz :)

Breakfast time chez nous.

I have had such an amazing time here. Marie and Marcel have been fantastic; teaching me so much about horses, french and life in the country. I can't thank them enough! They didn't even get too offended when I said I loved to eat horse products. The words chèvre (goat) and cheval (horse) are a little to similar :s. I can now say that I am fluent in animal-level French and I'm ready for the next adventure to begin!!

Next time: Way less animal pictures (Félix limits the number) and Barcelona! Weeoooh

Tarifa: Life in the campo.

What´s this? A solo post by Félix? I am on phoebeandfelix´s blog, am I not? Do not worry, it´s only temporary. You probably won´t even notice.

For the past 3 weeks I´ve been living just outside of Tarifa, the land of sun, wind, and hashish. The deal was pretty sweet; I do a few hours of work for the family I´m staying with per day (painting, mowing lawns, killing rats etc) and in return they give me a place to sleep and feed me. I was juggled between two awesome neighbouring families who live about 20 minutes out of Tarifa, in the infamous ¨campo¨ (campo = the country, ie. not the city). While it was pretty isolated, it was extremely beautiful, and nice to have a bit of space. Ok, a lot of space. During my time in the campo I learnt and adopted the mantra ¨mañana, mañana¨, like everyone else in Spain. Basically this entailed putting off everything until tomorrow, and having siestas all the time. Unsurprisingly, I didn´t get a lot done, and I recommend you don´t adopt this way of life, particularly if you´re studying. Seriously though, I can´t thank Marion, Susi and their families enough for letting me into their homes, showing me round Tarifa, and letting me eat their food. Muchísimas gracias!

I did also manage to spend a few nights in Tarifa itself, which was rockin´. For those who don´t know where Tarifa is, here´s a quick geography lesson (c´mon, it´s actually pretty interesting): It is in Andalucía, on the southern coast of Spain. It´s the southernmost point of Europe, the closest European point to Africa (only 14km across to Tangier in Morocco!), and it separates the Atlantic from the Mediterranean. The town is pretty nice, particularly the old part which is heavily Moroccan themed from when the Moroccans hung out there back in the day (like, 600 years years ago). It´s impossible to talk about Tarifa without mentioning the wind sports - due to its location it gets bucketloads of wind, making it a haven for kitesurfers and windsurfers. One of the big regrets is not having the resources/money to learn how to kitesurf, ´cos ay caramba it looks fun! All the cool kids are doing it.

Marion's Casa: Amazing views, awesome company from her sons Monty and Robin, and an abundance of rats needing to be killed.

Susi's Casa: Great banter with Pete the ex-British Marine, a lot of chickens, and the adorable twins Luna and Sol.

The view of Tarifa from where I was staying, Morocco in the background.

A typical Spanish worker taking time out of his busy schedule to pose for the camera.

Keeping an eye on the Strait of Gibraltar from the top of the hill, ensuring no illicit smuggling is going on. There were some fairly impressive cliffs about, with plenty of rock climbing opportunities. If only I had the right equipment...

Lots of wind + lots of sand = big sand dunes! 

Lots of wind + lots of crazy folk = kitesurfing!

Taking a quick dip in the Atlantic.

The southernmost point of Europe. Standing there gave me an immense sense of geographical satisfaction.

 Dayum, that Atlantic Ocean sure knows how to summon a storm!

Plaza Santa Maria in the old part of Tarifa.

A rare windless day in Tarifa. Look how close Africa is! If I knew how to swim, a day trip to Morocco would have been a piece of pie.

Roman ruins! Everyone loves Roman ruins. It's frustrating when you have to pay to see stuff like this, luckily this place was free for people who could crawl under the fence.

And, because sunsets from the edge of Europe are beautiful and no two of them were the same....

Next time: Hanging out in and around Barcelona for a couple of weeks before meeting up again with Phoebe!