Travel

The photos in this blog are not mine. To find out more about them go to http://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/

I've discovered this insatiable drive in me for travelling....Not sure if I've always had it and never really paid much attention to it or it has rapidly developed within the past year or so. I want to take a year off and just travel. Go to Asia and Africa and South America and Australia and Europe....I even have this desire to go to Antarctica and I don't really like being cold!

This new BBC series that I started to watch has really intensified it. It's called "Human Planet" and some of you might have already seen it but I just discovered it. It is AMAZING! The places that the crew went to and the experiences that they had.....Unbelievable! http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00llpvp

I want to go and explore hidden places of the earth; learn about people and cultures and way of living; take pictures and just enjoy. Is it so much to ask for?!?!

Not really sure how I fit in the whole start-a-family-work-a-9-5-job-raise-kids routine......The more I explore the more determined I become to accomplish this dream of mine. And who would think that I'm such a person?!?! Roughly 2.5 years ago I was living comfortably in DC, with a secure job which was no career and had no potential but was stable; had a long-term relationship which was thought to materialize into a family sooner than later; friends who I didn't have much time to see but knew were there; a family that was extremely far away and some dreams of travels.

Fast forward to today and here I am now. During these 2.5 years I have built such strong relationships with my friends which I'm sure can withstand the test of time and distance; have stared travelling and meeting tons of new people; have discovered myself and as I continue to do so I get more amazed every day; have enjoyed time with my family which is extremely valuable and precious and have realized that life has so much to offer.

I have bought my tickets to India and Nepal and can't wait to go there! It's about 2 weeks before I go to Andalucia and everyone tells me I'm gonna love it. I'm planning 3 more trips as friends are coming to visit me and I'm going to visit them. Life has turned from exploring BCN to exploring the world......

2 weeks later

Mikey :)

I woke up this morning first from hundreds of drums -- some kind of either fest here or another demonstration....Then I heard the rain banging on my window. Not good for 2 reasons: I had clothes from last night outside to dry and was supposed to go to yet another food fest today. Gave up on both. It turns out that now the sun shining brightly -- my clothes are fine and the fest was postponed until next Sunday! :) Anyway I was trying to figure out how to fit 2-3 events today and have time for myself (including the blog) today.

There are too many things going on and I should be writing at least every 3 days or so but...The weeks are exhausting with the teaching and the weekends seem too busy for blogging. But don't give up on me yet! So what's been going on?

Well, my bro is in London. It's a little over a week now and he's managed to start ENG classes, find a place to live, get the work permit and meet some people. Not bad :). He has some help though which is important. I feel lonely in the apartment....Was so used to having him around, chatting, watching movies, eating cooked meals, quarreling from time to time...Now the place feels empty. It's good that I work the whole day and only come back late at night.

My bro the DJ :)

An omlet that e cooked for me :):):) 

We had an awesome goodbye party for him (combined with a b-day party too :) which continued well into the morning of a Sunday and left me with a headache for the most part of the day and an insatiable hunger! Drinking is getting tougher...

The boys pic

And the girls pic

There were baloons

And a cake :)

Last weekend was also extremely busy an packed. On Saturday I went for my first ever skiing in EU and it was a close-by resort in Catalunya. It's called La Molina and turned out to be better than I had expected. I was imagining something like Whitetail near DC but this was a huge resort and pretty high up in the mountains. Had to get up at 6am but it was worth it!

The only thing was that it was too warm! I've only skied in winter conditions (some pretty extreme; at least for me) and this was spring skiing. Well, it's good that the person I went with had a small backpack so we started unlayering after the first few runs. At one of the slopes I felt like I was water skiing to get to the lift -- the sun was shining and the snow was melting. But the slopes were great. A little difficult for me with the corn snow and I have to admit that I had not one fall but it was an awesome day!

2 enthusiastic skiers

A deserved beer in the end ;)

The next day I went to the wedding celebration of a colleague of mine who made it official and had invited guests to a lovely town outside of BCN. The train took about 50 mins and the tracks were running extremely close to the beach -- wonderful view of the sea. 

he house

The house was a friends' of his and it was out of the movies. A huge white mansion propped on the cliffs with an amazing terrace with a pool and a sea view that stopped your breath.  My colleague is Brazilian and the food was amazing! Some typical Brazilian dishes plus local delicious appetizers, lovely Brazilian music and interesting people made for an wonderful Sunday.

Happy couple :)

Yesterday was a day for some new friends (who are Americans -- I will never learn Spanish...) and it turned from brunch with cava to a wine place with a bottle of wine to an apartment visit with more wine...The day was gone quickly and after having drunk the whole day, decided to stay home for the night. 

Nice bottle of wine

Sitges Carnival

In the middle of it ;)

Today I talked to 2 friends who told me that they read the blog regularly and asked me what's up with it! Well, that really motivated me and reminded me that I haven't written in a while (which is becoming a practice). It is time.....

Sitges during the day

Sunset

Well, first of all congratulations to my dear friend who became a mom and has a wonderful baby boy!!!! :)  Wish I could be there...But will see you in July!!!!

Getting ready....

Waiting for the parade to start

Llast weekend was memorable! Sitges carnival!!!! :):):) Was great! Sitges is a lovely beach town which I visited last year (check out August or early Sept blogs). It looks like Nessebar or Sozopol (southern BG).

And the first ones come :)

The city hosts the biggest gay carnival and what fun it was!!!! People dressed up differently with colorful costumes; music and dancing; of course drinking and what not -- most of all FUN!!! I can only imagine what the carnival in Rio looks like if this small city had such an amazing event!

We went earlier to enjoy the gorgeous day. Walked around, had a sandwich on the beach, saw a little bit of the kids'parade. 

There were hundreds of people and everyone seemed to have a blast. The parade started around 9pm and continued after 1am. 

:) There were also kids watching the parade...

We were able to get prime "seats" and as you can imagine I took hundreds of pics. Literally. Too bad you can only see a few here but I think you are getting the idea of the atmosphere.

One of my favorite teams

The worst part was of course the Spanish disorganization. This is not the first time the carnival is held here. Which would lead most people to think that there will be good organization in terms of transportation from and back to BCN. Well....Not really. 

There are local trains which take you there in about 35 mins. The only info about coming back that we could find (and that was difficult) was that there would be buses every 40 mins or so the whole night. No info about trains. So after a great day/night we headed to the bus station around 3:30am. Once we got there we saw a huge line which was no big surprise. 

The big surprise was that when the first bus came we realized we will probably be able to get on the 4th bus if we are lucky. At this we were kinda freezing and tired so the prospect of waiting there for hours did not seem good. 

After

After an hour, having seen no other buses, we decided to send a few people to check on the trains which seemed to be running every 20 mins or so. They came back saying that people are waiting and the trains are running. We gambled and decided to lose our spot in the line and go to the train station. Well it turned out that the line was even bigger and we got separated while trying to figure out if we should wait or just go for a drink somewhere for an hour. My bro and I managed to get inside and it turned out that the line was moving very fast. 

The real problem was the amount of people on the platform waiting for the train. Once it came there was so much pushing and shoveling that I wonder how nobody got hurt. And the train was paaacked!!! Anyway, got to bed at 6am and had a wonderful time!!!!