9-27-97

Yesterday I entered Spain. The first thing I did when I entered the first town just south of the boarder was buy a Spanish English dictionary. It took me like an hour and a half to find a store because although people knew what I wanted, they gave directions in Spanish; so I only knew the direction and basic distance. I probably would have done better just looking for a bookstore myself. I wish I had gone through Andorra, oh well.

Right after I left the town I saw three British boys who are also 23 years old. I knew they were British because they had Great Britain stickers on their helmets. I was excited to see other English speaking bike tourists and talked to them about their trip. Right after I met them we started climbing, and in about 10 minutes we came upon a car wreck. Two cars had a head on collision. No one was seriously hurt but the front of the cars looked totaled. I thought, wow maybe if I hadn’t seen these guys I would have been in the middle of this wreck. But they said I probably would have been ahead of it.

About ten minutes later was where they planned to camp out near a cemetery. They made a habit of camping near cemetaries because you can get water there. They were touring heavy. The way I went the first time I toured. They each had their own stoves and cooked their food which is definitely cheaper. They said they spent 30 quid each which is about 50 bucks for the last two weeks, which is impressive. But they stayed at relatives for a while in France. I asked to camp with them for the night and they kindly accepted. Their plans where to ride down Morocco and back up. Dave, Paul, and Mike were their names. Dave gave me his address. None of them had really ridden before and bought their bikes just for the trip. The campsite was picture perfect. I didn’t take a photo though because I thought my battery was dead, but the film was out. We camped just across the road from the cemetery in a smooth grassy area inside a wall and a small grove of trees. At the next town over I bought a bottle of Martini and shared it with them but they had almost nothing. For now on the only alcohol I want to buy is beer. All other kinds of alcohol make me feel hot an give me the sweats and no good buzz like with beer. I don't know why; maybe beer is better for an athelete because the body can get more use out of the Carbos in the beer. They got up this morning while it was still dark out, which caused me to get up a half hour later at about 7:30. There were giant slugs on my stuff this morning.

Those guys started about a half hour before me but I caught up to them quickly and we wished each other well. One of them said we might see each other in Morocco, seeing how they only go 90 km a day and I am going to Portugal first. The Pyrenees were steep but not hard because the altitude is so low here. I think I rode about 110 miles today. Cars are nice here; they give me a lot of room. I have seen more cyclists today than I have the whole time I have been in Europe, and like a dozen team bike cars have passed me. The tour of Spain is happening now, that would be neat if I happenstance on it.

The roads here have been nice and smooth, except parts in the Pyrenees where it got quite rough. Spain does't look like a first world country to me. The towns here, like Pamplona, are very "blah". The paint is chipped on the buildings which are all brown. There is no vegetation like grass and flowers in the cities, and all the buildings look the same. It makes for good bike touring though because much of the countryside is smooth and soft and the red color everywhere is pleasant.

The most striking feature I have noticed about Spain is how the towns all took like fortified white castles from afar. There is no gradual entrance into a town in Spain like in America. Here in Spain you are either in the city or not. As soon as you leave a town you are in camping territory, which makes it easy for me. It was bizarre when I rode through these places in the middle of the day and saw no one on the streets. As soon as the sun goes down thousands of people come out as if out of nowhere. Dave is reading the book about the guy who rode his bike from England to cape town in 1879. I read some of it last night. It got me thinking maybe I want to do it. These Brit's say it is ridiculously cheap in Morocco. Maybe I should at least go there. Stuff is cheaper here than America which is great. People seem nicer here than France, so far. People have the worst teeth in France. Judging from this meal I have, stuff is half the price than in England. The Cathedrals here are more elaborate than France.

9-28-97

I camped in a field next to the highway but was shielded from it by a wall of trees. It was a quarter mile from apartment buildings in three feet of grass. A good camp site.

As I left the joint I was in last night, the owner stopped me and wanted me to take one of his large water bottles with me, but I said I couldn't take it because didn’t have the room and he seemed disappointed. I should have taken the bottle and left him my golden one which leaks sometimes.

After stretching my very tight hamstrings and eating breakfast, I left at 12:00. I climbed all day to timberline, and after the descent from the pass I caught a headwind. I noticed while climbing that I was on the verge of sickness, and my ass was very sore in an overworked way; so I stopped at five. I got up at like 8:30 this morning after nice dreams which I can't remember and sowed up my bike shorts and one piece suite; the super suite.

I went to the center of the city to a place that says bar-restaurant. But all they had for food is potato pie, probably because it is Sunday.

Concerning the cars here, there are a lot of Citrons, which I have never heard of before, and Renaults, which I have only seen one brand of in the 80's; the Le car, or Lee Car as I called it them. There are a lot of Ford vans and quite a few Ford cars. Mercedes, Audis, and BMWs are plentiful, and the majority in this city Soria that I am now in.

Right now, I am feeling my routine getting a little old, but I can't foresee anything changing it, neither do I want to change it. I was thinking about eventually writing about some things, like what the outline of education should be, and my philosophy about religion and philosophy. I will have plenty of time to write about that when I run out of stuff to read. I was thinking about how I would like to do Africa. I have a firm belief that it isn’t in my Karma to have anything seriously bad happen to me, and other people have done it and I am good at playing things safe; so I am heading that way as of now.

I saw another 50 or so bikers as I left Logrono Today, but none since then. The pass I did today was way bigger than the one I did yesterday. I bet it is one of the 5 biggest in Spain. I like Spain more than France. The part of France that I saw is like Kansas, and all of Spain is like it was today; like Colorado with less trees. The people seem mellower here than in France, but more run down or beat in or something. They are definitely not as lively as in America, or Colorado anyway. The roads are very wide and smooth here, and quite empty. The roads are less populated than Colorado, which gives me the impression as I ride that I'm in an abandoned country. It feels like there are less people here than there should be. The towns here are much different than America. There are almost no houses, only brown condominiums. Because of the lack of houses and the very narrow streets, the towns are much smaller. The oldness of this country is definitely definite if you know what I mean. People on bikes smile, but normal people on the streets don’t, not even with their eyes, and the waiters and waitresses aren’t polite like they are in America. I remember cousin Karen talking about how they don’t have tipping in Europe so the waiters aren’t as polite. I definitely notice the lack of politeness in the waiters. When it gets dark I will roam around a little and then go inside somewhere. I will read the bible now.

One abstract thought I had was in Europe people of same the age don’t identify with each other as much as America.

9-30-97

Yesterday I rode 140 some odd miles and felt great. I road a lot of the way on smaller roads. It was a hilly day, but the roads were very smooth. It also seems as though the wind goes from east to west, so I cruised, especially on the highways. I like riding the highways; sure there is a lot of noise from traffic but the road is smooth and there is a big shoulder and no lights to ever stop at, and they go through rather than over the hills.

Last night I stayed at a youth Hostel in Madrid. I called the number for the youth hostel mom gave me, which I guess is the national number, and he gave me two numbers for Madrid. The person at the first place I called didn’t speak English, and the second place I called spoke minimal, but there was a Canadian boy at the place I was making the call who gave me directions. It took me a little while to find it, and while I was riding through the park I saw what looked like a silhouette of a woman dressed in underwear. I turned around to see she was a prostitute just standing there. Then I saw two more fat prostitutes. The next morning I saw another fat one. These women were so dark and dull looking I wouldn’t fuck them if you paid me a hundred bucks. After riding past the eerie prostitute sector I went by the zoo, but didn’t go in because it was 12 bucks.

This was the first youth hostel I have ever been to; it was neat. For seven bucks I got a shower, bed and breakfast consisting of a ham sandwich, pastry, and a hot coco latte. But it is kind of hard to sleep because it is like a freshman dorm room with all the kids staying up late. when I shacked there was a group of about 15 Spaniards yelling songs with one playing a guitar. I assumed the songs were made up because they were laughing. I thought to myself, "Now you would never see this in America". Is it we are too cool and smart to concern ourselves with such measly things as singing together? Or too stuck up, lazy and paranoid to express ourselves in such an archaic and simple way? Whichever way you cut it, I wish I knew some songs to sing with a bunch of buddies and a guitar.

I feel like I have entered the good form zone where I can ride everyday without burning out and having to eat too much. It is 7:00 now and I have only spent about 5 bucks today. I sure hope I remember to work out tonight at bed time. My sleeping bag sure needed airing out last night and it is still wet. I am covering good miles, and it looks like Morocco’s coming up pretty soon, how exciting. Africa, where the cheap living, poisonous snakes, wild dogs, lions, monkeys, and primitive people dwell; that is were the adventure starts.

I will probably hang out in Gibraltar for a week to wait for mom to mail me my stuff. I'll call her tonight. I sure hope I remember to ask for a compass, for that is what I need most. When I breezed into this town Navalmoral at 4:45 after 118 miles, the first thing I did was stretch for about a half hour. Then I changed and looked for a restaurant, but all the places here are bars and the only food they have are measly portions of what not. I finally found a place to eat but they didn’t open until 7:00, but here I am now eating my yummy meal.

There aren’t many radio stations here, and most of them are talk stations. They listen to a lot of American music here also just like in all the other countries I've been to.

10-1-97

Well its October and I rode 195 miles today. I was on the phone with my mom a long time last night. She wanted me to do the normal European tour thing and stay in hostels this winter. I explained to her that it would be cold to stay in Europe for the winter and I wanted to be warm, so she said I should rent a room for the winter in southern Spain. She doesn’t seem to realize my goals, which are to travel on my bike to new places where it is warm instread of stay in the same place. It is warm here in Barbados Spain, just a couple miles from Portugal, where I will ride south for a couple days and then back to Spain on my way to Gibraltar where I will hang out for about a week. I'm kind of fascinated with Gibralter.

I am doing something different tonight, usually I go to a restaurant or a bar and read and write until eleven, but tonight because it is warm and I already got food at the grocery store I am just sitting on park benches next to the big road leading out of the town center. There is good lighting and there is a gas station here I can buy coke (with caffeine) or munchies or candy. I had a 40 ounce bottle of beer and have a nice buzz now. This is my first time drinking since I had the Brandy with the English guys, and my third time drinking in Europe. Alcohol is cheap at the grocery stores here which is great.

I am looking forward to Granada. Mom says the Moors made a nice place in the mountains there. It will be nice to stop and hang at the beach in Gibralter for a few days.

The neighborhoods here are weird. They are all concrete buildings separated by narrow roads and little dogs everywhere. I like Spanish people. They don’t seem to care if you use their restrooms without buying anything, and they let you fill your water bottles up without demanding anything in return. They give me these nice "hi" honks to let me know they are there, and the waitress didn't charge me for a $1.30 coffee last night which would never happen in France. The tellers are helpful and speak English also. The people don’t smile as much as in America, but they stare at me more, and they seem to be slightly kinder than in France.

These two days on the highway have been nice and peaceful. I covered almost 300 miles. I was thinking a little today about how I wish I had my road bike, but I think I will be glad I have the mountain bike after Africa. It is a lot less sketchy with flat tires with the mountain bike because the tires are thicker and ward off surprise rocks more. I wonder if I will need a coffee tonight. This is the first night I am not having one; I bet I will need it though. I hope I don’t.

I had a nice camp sight last night; under a big tree on flat ground away from every thing. The best campsites are the ones away from everything, that aren’t too loud from cars, have smooth, soft sleeping space, and I can hang out at for a while in the morning.

I drafted off a tractor with a big trailer for 10 miles today at 27 miles an hour, which was nice because I didn’t have to pedal much at all. There is a castle in this town also and I took a picture of it, picture # 28 I think. I have the munchies so I will get something yummy at the gas station and then read the bible.

After Portugal

10-4-97

I went slightly out of town last night and camped on the side of the highway near the merge road. They shone their lights at me which sketched me because I thought they might see me. There were mosquitoes too. They were small and their sting was horrible so I slept in my bevy with the sweeter cover on and they miraculously found all the places where my skin touched the protective mesh. I had insomnia and noticed how sticky I am, but I got rest. It seems that I get just as much rest when I have insomnia as when I don’t because I keep still and don’t fidget.

I didn't take any extra time leaving this morning because of the mosquitoes and only rode 60 miles to the next city Mazerita because I wasn’t riding well. I had Cheetos, a nasty pastry and sugar bread for breakfast that made me feel heavy, week, malnourished and sick to the stomach. I feel fine here at McDonalds and am thinking about riding all night long after this place closes at eleven, seeing how it would be nice to sleep on the beach in the day time. I am probably 110-120 miles from Gibraltar. I have highways most of the way there, which will make night riding easy because the shoulder is big.

10-5-97

I wish I rode last night because I barely got any sleep. My sticky face was bothering me. It was sticky because none of the bathrooms the last few days had soap in the sinks. When I get to Gibraltar tomorrow I will buy soap, file my rack down so it will tighten better, put in another tube and buy more patches and film. I want to watch a movie tomorrow, a matinee, and hang out on the beach. It is interesting that the day I thought about riding through the night was the night of my worst insomnia. I think I had insomnia because my mind was so fired up from the reading I did that night, which was the best reading session I have had so far. I got two Big Mac meals and ice creams and then two more big Macs. I am a McDonalds addict.

There was a lot of climbing for the last 200 or so miles. Today was very steep and through some beautiful country. It looks like Africa, with the contorted trees, abundant vegetation, and the many rock cliffs and protrusions. I should have taken a picture. I feel sleepy tired now. I hope I sleep well, you would think I will since I will have ridden like 130 miles today.

I could feel my body hitting the wall today. It could have something to do with the lack of sleep I had last night, which is interesting. It got me wondering about how important it is to get 8 hours of sleep a day. I have been averaging probably 7 hours a day, and I feel like that is enough. I am not tired in the morning when I get up at 8:00 AM. I want to ride my road bike across Scandinavia in the summer time, where the days are 23 hours long. That would be a trip, maybe I won’t even need a sleeping bag. Last night as I was just about to leave McDonalds a torrential downpour happened that lasted for about 45 minutes, but last night was dry except for about a half hour of sprinkles early this morning. Riding today I was rained on by nice warm rain for about a half hour, which is the first time I have been rained on so far on this month long trip. I have had very good luck with the rain. I won’t let sleepiness make me stop reading and writing. It is just my mind trying to turn off the reading and writting by getting sleepy. If I really needed the sleep I wouldn’t be having insomnia. I had some nice dreams last night, but I can't remember them.

I am psyched to hang out and not ride at all. The least I have ridden in a day on this trip has been 17 miles, and I haven't had any rest days. I might ride that much tomorrow.

Europeans conserve a lot more then Americans. It seems as though none of the rest rooms have both toilet paper and soap, and about half of them have lights on timers. About half of the automobiles are tiny economy cars; and when I say tiny, I mean smaller than the smallest car you have ever seen in the USA. like in France, a lot of them honk as they pass; definitely a lot more than USA. Cycling is much bigger here than in the USA. I saw a handful of cyclists today. When I ask directions they always give them twice, first they tell me where to go, and then I say Gracias and then they tell me again with elaborate hand gestures repeating most of the words. A lot of the time people who serve me speak to me in English after all I say is "hola" I must have a very distinct American accent.

I jotted a lot of good things out of the Bible last night which coincide directly with a lot of important philosophies. It made me want to become a preacher man, seriously. But I would be theatrical about it, just like a lot of the real preacher men. I want to mix my speeches with my hip hop music with help from Mike and video it; that would be really cool. I could perform in coffee shops and what not. One of my life goals is definitely to be a public speaker beyond the classroom, in one fashion or another.

I heard that Joni Mitchell song today faintly in the restaurant when she says something like: ''All and all you seem to do wrong, you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone" in what sounds like a Scottish accent. I want that song. When I thought that I thought: "I want to make songs me and others want to hear".

There are a lot of young women here, and young men too for that matter, what’s up? l can already tell this place is very touristy. There are lots of buses and white people in expensive cars. There is a car I noticed out here that is a Nissan that looks like a cross between a pathfinder and a hummer. I wonder why that model isn’t in the USA. Sometimes I feel like Europe is a couple years ahead of the USA in car technology.

After Morocco

When I came back to Morocco I packed up my bike and sent it back to the states for a hundred bucks. I stayed in a youth hostel and had nothing but negative things to say about Morocco. The other travelers I saw there didn't like it either. This was the second youth hostel I had ever been to after the one in Madrid. After I sent my bike back I took a bus to Granada where the Moors had their base in the form of a beautiful castle on the top of a hillside full of tiled artwork. The Moors were a dark skinned race who lived in Spain until they were wiped out in 1492 by the Catholic King of Spain, Fernando.

When I got there I went to the third youth hostel I had ever been to and got a nice looking room in a new large hostel. I felt like I was in a college dorm. My roommate was never there so I felt like I had my own hotel room. The window shades were strikingly tightly put together so that when they are shut they cut out all of the light. Being in Granada gave me a powerful culture shock as I noticed to a fuller extent how they all take the siesta here. The siesta is a bizarre tradition of everybody closing up shop and going to sleep for a couple hours in the middle of the day. As an American it is very strange to see for a couple of hours in the middle of the day the whole city is like a ghost town, which like I said at the beginning of the sentence is strange for an American. I guess they make up for it afterwards as they keep their doors open later than in the States.

I suffered some discrimination in the tourist town of Granada. I bought a CD player in a store and when I walked out I noticed that the guy overcharged me by about ten bucks. When I went back in and told him he told me to wait. I waited about a half hour as he stood around helping other people until I got his attention enough times that he gave me four double AA batteries instead of the ten bucks. I thought about complaining, but I didn't speak any Spanish so I decided to let it go. I guess there's a first time for everything. Then a couple weeks later the CD player broke, so I lost about 120 bucks on that deal.

I took a tour of the Moor castle with a German guy. It was beautiful with all the frescoes, mosaics, fountains, and courtyards up there on the hillside. The town of Granada is beautiful also, situated at the base of large mountains and having an ancient feel to it with all the old castle like buildings and narrow roads. It was also clearly a college town. That night I went out to the bars with some kids from the hostel and got a good taste of the Spanish nightlife which was amazing. The narrow ally-like roads converted into a gigantic virtual outdoor bar with people serving beers right outside. We went to a packed bar and had a beer and then went to another bar and had a beer and so on and so forth. We visited a lot of bars and meet quite a few of young English tourists. We hooked up with some Spanish girls who where going to a disco, but it was six in the morning. I remember walking up to the disco and seeing tons of people going into and coming out of it and a girl puking with her friends looking on. This was wild for me to see that a party was going so strong at six in the morning. This was too late for me and the German guy, and besides I didn't want to spring for the money to get into the place so I went back and made use of those bomber shades in my room. I stayed there one more night and saw a movie with a German girl and another girl.

The next day I went to Valencia. I walked across the huge dry river bed which had large brick walls built up on the banks. It was very interesting because instead of being a normal river with water it was dry and had a well manicured park inside it with trimmed trees and walking paths. I figured that it must have been a large river one day but they have since drained it or something. I had my Lonely Planet map out and was looking for a hostel and asked an old Spanish man if the hostel I was looking for existed or if there was another one and he looked at my map and led me in the exact opposite direction from where I pointed to where I wanted to go on the map. I figured he was either senile or deliberately trying to lead me in the wrong direction. The strange thing about it was that this was about the third time a Spanish person had sent me in the opposite direction. I took a bus around the city just to have a look and then waited for the train to Barcelona in a huge beautiful silo with a garden in it.

When I got to Barcelona I went strait to the huge youth hostel which had a beer vending machine in the hang out area. I think its cool that if you want to party with other travelers you don't even have to leave the hostel! I shared my room with some american guys who I went out with that night. The hostel was on the central pedestrian mall which was always full of all kinds of aggressive street performers who chase you for money. It was a cool scene though.

I took a tour bus ride around the city and saw Dali's old house at the base of the hill, the botanical garden and the large spired church that was started like a hundred years ago and won't be finished for like 30 more years. The architecture of this church was right out of a child's fairytale. It has four spires that have spiraling staircases inside of them that go all the way to the top. There is another famous church there near the Picasso museum which I went to. The location of the museum was more interesting for me though because it was amongst huge gothic buildings. Overall the most interesting thing about Spain was the creative artwork they have there. A lot of their buildings have flowing features with spires, arches and other variations of castle like stone gothic looking creations.

Spanish village

Train station

What I think about Spain