September, 18th, 2010

Trying to switch it up and not just give you long winded randomness from my life. I have been on the solo for a while now and starting to feel at ease with everything around me. If I haven't talk to you recently and you are reading this - I hope you are doing well and we talk soon :). Thought I would just post some snapshots I have taken over the course of my time here so far. Most of them are just taken when walking around the city.

Longest escalator I have been on.

Hallway of random building I walked into.

One of many churches.

Lots of time to cook!

Countryside Drives.

Graffiti art in progress.

Scented candles are my best friends against the interesting smells.

Sava at sunset.

Official taste test.

Learned the word for engineering project haha.

Engineering building at University of Belgrade

(I think it has some years on U of M...)

"Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshots from the photographs." MH

-Mich

September 12th, 2010

Nothing too exciting to update on, which is weird for me to think because it seems like I learn something new, feel completely incompetent, or see something way outside the 'Canadian' bubble everyday. Inspired with my new(ish) obsession with making sense of all these things on the internet, I give you in true Google search fashion some of my top 5's:

Top 5 Thing I instantly loved about the European lifestyle:
1. Fresh Bakeries and produce everywhere you go.
2. Cafes, beer drinking and difference in night life (not that I'm fully engaged in any of those but the possibilities seem endless :))
3. Intense sport culture.
4. Tons of things to film and take pictures of (now I just need some better equipment)
5. The laundry - the detergent smell is so differently fresh and they don't use dryers so everything is hung to dry, just the way I like it haha.

Top 5 Things I'm still adjusting to:
1. Milk that isn't kept in the fridge when bought, doesn't seem natural.
2. Sub-titles and some very interesting television.
3. How to speak translatable English - leave out words, use basic sentences, speak slowly …. oh and sarcasm is lost in translation - so basically I don't talk much … jk.
4. Having to do currency conversions between Dinars, Euros, US dollars, and Canadian dollars - as much as I'm a numbers person it can get very confusing when trying to make split-second decisions on purchases.
5. The traffic - the bus is insane busy all the time, driving is not for any one with heart problems and putting your body on the line to cross the street is the norm.

Top 5 TV Shows (bet you haven't heard of at least one of them, they are priceless in many ways haha ... my tv watching is has declined a lot):
1. Rita Rocks
2. Sam Who?
3. Cupid
4. Extreme Survival
5. Hallmark movies

Top 5 Mind-Blowing Scenes I Have witnessed:
1. The military practicing open range fire in a field by the side of the highway - no fence or barrier between the road and their targets. I'm truly Canadian in that hence and think it a very strange site to see guns outside of police's gun holsters.
2. Boys full out playing marco-polo in a huge fountain outside of the parliament buildings - no one seemed to care and they looked like they were having the times of their lives! (think that would fly in the Lincoln memorial? haha).
3. There is a very big wild dog population here, it's hard getting use to the fact that they can be seen dead on the side of the road - which we refer to as road kill ...
4. There have been many 'life changing' traffic experiences but the most outrageous has to be the crazy passes on two lane highways. People will go even if they know there is an on coming car. They fully expect them to move over so the road can be shared by all three cars side by side! (Oh and I can officially say I have been in a vehicle that was traveling at a comfortable speed of 200km/h to keep up with traffic - insane!)
5. Not outrageous but beauty that was hard to picture before.... The way older people work in the country side. I see them every morning riding on their tractors to the fields - women with the handkerchief over theirs heads walking hand in hand with friends. A man putting along with an cigarette hanging out of this month, with no hurry in his world. I mean we see these images on tv, movies or are told about them but it's a totally different experience to see it (thought it would be a little on the creepy to take pictures of them no matter how much I want to haha).

Anyways I could go on but that is just a little taste of some of changes and the new kind of busyness that is going on in my life. Talk soon.
"One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it." JA
Mich

September, 8th, 2010

Last night we were luckily enough to get tickets to the Serbia and Slovenia football game (yes that is the sport know as soccer for those of you not living in a country were 'american football' doesn't exist haha). We were hoping to get tickets to the up coming Euro league games for the Paritzans but they were sold out in 2 hours so I asked my 'sports event coordinator' at work to just get tickets to any European must see event - because when in Serbia! I seemed to film a lot more than take pictures this time around. The sounds turned out surprising not too bad so I think it gives you a pretty good ideas of what the atmosphere was like. I tried a story telling approach to the editing, its a little fast, so prepare your eyes for some speed reading haha. Enjoy!

First European Football Experience from Michele Hynes on Vimeo.

"Forever is composed of nows." ED
Mich

September, 6th, 2010

This weekend I wanted to venture off to the town of Nis, which is about 2 hours south-east of Belgrade. I pitched my plans to Dad and he agree mildly enthusiastically - keep in mind he has been in Serbia three years and hasn't really seen much so making him be a 'tourist', isn't on the top of his propority list. We were home no longer than an hour on Friday night when he gets a phone call, knowing all too well what and who is on the other end of the line, I know whats coming. Sure enough after the 5 minute phone call he informs me that he is working in the morning. But to my luck he remembered the agreement of going to Nis and suggested that we both go into work and we can leave from there …. good enough for me (it took me much longer to agree to that than it did to type it). Saturday morning we get up early headed to work and it looked like it was going to be a great day weather wise so I wasn't to disgruntled about not getting to sleep in because apparently I haven't lost my teenage craving to sleep until noon whenever possible haha.
After working a little but knowing I couldn't really do a whole lot to help my dad complete his work I turn to web surfing. Now for anyone who is on a computer most of the time at work you know the frustration of not being able to access half of the websites you want because of the settings your employer has on the internet access. I know this is to prevent unprofessional use of the internet at work, but for the times you are not on the clock its a pain. But where there is a will to surf, the waves will come - this may involve news reading, 'map-questing', 'google-earthing' and weather checking but it passes the time. I continued to check out our Nis destination and everything seemed lined up for nice afternoon and evening - with the weather and events going on in the city.
Around noon we were on our way, windows down temperature getting warmer and the roads not too busy - I was pretty excited! Well not 30 minutes into the trip, all I see coming over the horizon, dark clouds. Ok no big deal, the weather is suppose to be nice it will pass. Well, as we get closer Dad and both come to conclusion that the clouds are not going anywhere fast. But we had made the two hour trek so we weren't turning around. I had my checklist of things to see so we were determined. Whether is was the rain, the lack of signs, or our mounting frustrating with both of those it took a while to find things. It ended up being an 'Afrain Lion Safari' version of european landmarks haha. We drove to one sight walked around took some pictures and got back in the car. I would read the information I had about each site in the car, prior to see it, that way we knew what we were looking at. Needless to say they don't have much information by the sights or people around to explain and unfortunately there isn't a lot of up keep of the sites either. Here is what we were able to find and my basic understanding of each:


1. Small town right outside of Nis - Niska Banja. Known for its hot mineral springs, first used by the romans. There was lots of spas - natural indoor swimming pools and outdoor springs. It was a rainy day so not many people were out walking but we walked through the parks a bit and you could see the clearly of the water and the different public washing stations that people use. Weird concept to understand until you see it, but I tried to get a picture of the steam that was coming of the one of the springs. And the view from the town outlook. Oh and there were signs that we later found out said that the water is radio active so it's really healthy in small does … yeah I'm sure your thinking the same thing I did haha.


2. This is Mediana, the remains of the birth place of Constantine the Great and where he lived off and on. This was one of the harder places to find. There was one sign that lead us to an field with a don't enter sign, so I did what must tourist do, 'pretend' not to know was going and we just went in. It is basically just a field of foundations of what is left - enough to make out what building it probably was but not a whole lot to see. There were piles of bricks you could tell they were sorting to possible build in the future. But took some pictures to say we did and continued on ….


3. One the many sites we had no idea what it was but wondered in. Our conclusion on this one, was a Serbian Orthodox private school for boys. As we walked further up this hill there was a brand new state of the art school facility, we quickly noticed it was not meant for tourist (gates, guards, etc.) so we walked back down. Where we noticed only groups of boys seemed to be entering the gate, having performed an religious gesture before entering, hence our conclusion.




4. Skull Tower (Céle Kula) is exactly what it sounds - and for me is another complex political story. But the short is, it was originally built by the Turks after 3,000 Serbain died in the first national uprising, to show thier defeat. It is now enclosed by a chapel and only a fraction of the skulls remain, as the Serbians took most of them for proper burials. It is now regarded as a representation of Serbian courage during the battle.







5. The Nis Fortress - regarded as one of the biggest and oldest existing Fortesses, there is tons of history behind it and dates back to being originally used by romans. You can see the various types of building which display different architecture. My Dad began to teach me how you can tell what time period they are from and what national possibility built them. This is where one of the festivals was suppose to be going on but the rain had put a hold on it. There was lots of remains of the fun they must have had the night before haha.





6. A army depot camp (Red Cross Camp) used by the German in WWII to hold people before they were sent for torture, execution or death camps. Bubanj Monument, the three giant fiest and wall, for the 10,000 Serbians that died in WWII. The river front monument for the 1999 NATO bombing victims.This list just keeps going … war is still so fresh to this city that is hard for someone like me to understand it and put into perspective but a visual of the effects that war has is always a powerful thing. It is unfortunate because this city is so rich in history and there is tons more to offer than just war memorial. But for now it is rebuilding nicely and is becoming an enjoyable tourist spot.

Sad to say for us we just hit some bad weather and were unable to enjoy their numerous markets, walking streets and the on-going festival of Nisomnia. So my perception may not tell the whole story, but I'm glad we went and saw what we could and if we get a chance to go back we will definitely be able to find things a lot more quickly :).



On the way home, about half way between Nis and Belgrade the sun was setting beautifully and it turned out they had great weather in Belgrade all day .... go figure.

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal." MK
Mich

Wednesday, September 1st

I feel like an update is overdue yet I don't have a whole lot to update on. I spent this past weekend like a regular weekend you would have with or without a European empire outside your door haha.

Friday we went out for dinner with a family from work - it was an 'international' restaurant, which means they just group the food by countries for you. I have been very adamant about trying Serbian food so I didn't even seriously consider other countries' choices haha. I had been working in the plant all day and it was around 35 outside so I was still in the process of trying to cool my body down to just a mild sweat instead of the pouring that had occurred all day. So I knew I wasn't going to eat much and I probably couldn't handle anything that would challenge my gag reflex. The resulting choice: Serbian boiled chicken and vegetables. Well the Serbian part was the portion size - a mixing bowl served over a hot flame, otherwise it was just a different version of Mom's chicken stew. I was mildly disappointed with my lack of an 'adventurous' choice but in reality the 'comfort' food was a nice change for a night and probably all I could handle. All in all a good night and another successful restaurant choice - there is no lack of options thats for-sure.

Sunday we just hung out and walked around Belgrade. One of great past-times that I haven't quite mastered is the 4-hour- café-sit. Most of the time when we go out to eat we are typically the only ones in the place actually eating. Meanwhile everyone will be drinking coffee or beer and/or smoking cigarettes - I mean each their own, but it may take me a while to enjoy such a past time - I'll sick to eating for now haha. It's weird to think that hour long walks through the streets of a city lined with cafes, single buildings more rich in history than my entire country and family customs so foreign to me, is starting to feel normal.

Meanwhile work is starting to fall into routine, which is a welcome feeling. About this time for the past 18 years I would be gearing up for the daily regime of school and activities, so it's nice to have a little bit of that feel towards my day. Don't get me wrong I'm loving the fact that I can come home and don't have to study or go to the next activity on the colour coded calendar but we are creatures of habit and it's nice to know somethings can always feel be the same.

The actual work I'm doing is mostly on the project management side - so just learning all the little details that need to be done for big scale engineering projects (price tags are in the million range). Small tasks and forgotten formalities are my calling at the moment haha, which on the bright-side is an easy way to not feel over whelmed by the fact I don't know half of what is going on, it's a pretty good learning environment and I feel I get to contribute. That vaguely sounds like the role the younger sibling gets that doesn't really mean anything …hmmm …haha … I do the little stuff that the important guys don't really like doing - so everyone is happy really. And apparently because I'm from generation Y, means I don't respect my elders well enough, I'm too sarcastic and not respectful. Meanwhile they seem to get a good laugh out of it … I can't help that it's way too easy to poke fun at some of the things that are said 'by-accident' because of the language differences. I'm the only female in the office, there is one Serbian guy who is just starting to learn english, one Serbian guy who went to university so knows his english from an academic perspective, another Serbian who lived in Canada for 10 years but is originally from Czech Republic, an Italian-Serbian who has just learned english through necessity of the industry and my Dad who has learned all of 15 words of Serbian over the past 3 years … need I say more. I'm not knocking my Dad in anyway he has made it work. My goal of learning a word a day is often a challenge in the fact that I can't even physically make the sounds with my mouth, resulting in a 'hooked-on-phonics' lesson, which usually results in me laughing yet again. Conclusion, I would bet that these guys think I'm crazy or on drugs haha.

But on a serious note, they have been very welcoming to me in the office and not made me feel like a hassle or than I'm an inconvenience. I am hoping with time the traditional female treatment (nor good or bad) changes a bit towards me on a professional level. After spending a few day in the steel plant I have come to the conclusion that I will always get stared at and looked at with the expression of "is this girl on a field trip for school?" from most of the workers, but I hope to change the guys' I work with perspectives that I'm not completely useless in the field and can help when needed. So I'm trying to find the balance between knowing when to step up and offer my help and to know my place when I know nothing about the situation haha.

Anyways that was a long-winded update. I have some pictures of me in my safety gear for everyone to laugh at. Talk soon.

"If you can speak three languages you're trilingual. If you can speak two languages you're bilingual. If you can speak only one language you're an American" AO

- Truthful thought of most Europeans ... can you blame them? haha

Mich

Sunday, August 22nd

A typical weekend for my Dad while working over here has been: work on Saturday from 6am to 2pm, relax in the afternoon than go out for dinner somewhere, Sunday sleep in a bit do some work from home and any personal work he can get done and than relax for the rest of the day. Well I'm sure I will appreciate this once I have worked a 70 hour work week but until then I'm raining on his parade haha. So the tentative compromise that I thought I would make with him, which I decided better left to just trying rather discussing it, was to do something 'touristy' every weekend. We will see how that goes …
So yesterday we decided that we need to go check the Belgrade Beer Fest that we had been hearing about at work all week. We decided it would be a lot easier to just walk down to the park from the apartment, which took about 30mins. My history lesson continued and I'm begging to put together a bigger picture of the city and what it's all about. I decide to try my luck with filming the event along with my usual picture taking. Well lets just say my previous filming experiences have all been pretty planned out so this didn't turn out in the 'best quality'. It doesn't help that filming on a digital camera isn't great but thats no excuse for my unsteady hand. Oh well! :). I hope you enjoy and can really get a feel for the amount of people that were actually there - thousands!!!!

Beer Fest 2010 - Belgrade from Michele Hynes on Vimeo.

"Nothing makes you more tolerant of a neighbor's noisy party than being there" FJ
Mich

Friday August 20th

Well I officially finished my first week of work. My initially thought process when first entertaining the idea of doing a co-op term over seas was I really wanted to find something totally different, on my own, get to travel to a different part of the world and where I could really get a feel for what engineering is all about. In a city where I could maybe play basketball along with that sounded like the ideal and maybe a bit unrealistic but nonetheless ambitious haha. Other than that anything was game… Well I'm doing something different, I'm in the field - not my specific field exactly, I'm getting a good chance to learn about engineering, and I'm definitely in a different part of the world.
I'm quickly learning that it's really hard to do anything without knowing someone, or know someone who speaks English haha. Aka the saying "its not what you know, it's who you know" is all too relevant at the moment. But to be perfectly honest what can't it be both? What and who you know together can make for a good combo and I have definitely learned over the past few years that you can't always have one without the other. Well that's my take on it and its working for me. I didn't want the latter (who you know) to over rule my experience here but it is what it is. Yes I'm working with my Dad for a Canadian Engineering Consulting firm at an American Steel Plant (USS) in Smedervoo Serbia, but it has already been way more than I expected. So yes I did end up using my Dad's situation for a placement, but is that such a bad thing? I think I would be stupid not to - I don't think I could have found a better situation given my lack of experience in travel and in work and my wavering decision to do this. So I took advantage of the situation and I'm going to make the most of it.
In the first week I have already had to pull out some stuff that I thankfully already learned in school to help me get some of the work done. Although the tasks I'm doing are tedious and at times mundane, I quickly realized that all levels of engineering have these types of tasks to complete at some point and it's part of the project process. Luckily I finished workplace and gas safety training so now I'm just waiting for my safety equipment so I can mix up the work day with some jobs in the plant - which I'm pretty excited about. But for now I put in a solid week of AutoCad drawing cataloguing for the upcoming project we are working on. Not only did I have to enter every one of the 1395 drawing's details into an excel spread sheet, I got to translate them into English from Serbian! Let me tell you I was pumped when I finished the last one - definitely did a little dance and fist pumping in my head, while I calmly walked over and ask for my next task haha. My reward was getting to help with a drawing in progress for the project - screen shot below.

(Lets play 'I Spy': find the 6 small boxes that are very faint and you win!)


You see those tiny insignificant red boxes that you can hardly make out, within all the important stuff around it I didn't do, I did those boxes! Drawing one complete! hahaha - pathetic I know but when you see 1395 complicated drawings that you think you will never be able to do and start to panic because as usual "school taught us nothing about the real world" this was very rewarding :).
While trying to wrap my head around the fact that I now have a 9-5 job (here it's more like 6am to 5pm) I get to enjoy a nice relaxing weekend. Hopefully get into some fun!
Until next time ….

"Learning is not a spectator sport" DB
Mich

Sunday August 15th

I'm starting to get use to having no idea what is going on around me from a verbal perspective. I didn't realize how much I paid attention to what others where saying even if it didn't involve me. I know some of you might think this is eavesdropping, but when you are listening to understand people, place or situations around you or learning something you may not have other wise known I call it information gathering haha - that may be a stretch I know... So the result of not having the luxury of comprehension results in 100% people watching which, lets be honest, everyone does anyways but now we don't know what they are saying so we can make up even more far fetched assumptions about people. Which Dad and I often do and ends in a ridiculous story that we have a good laugh at. But I digress haha …
I'm becoming more comfortable about my surrounding and how things are different here. My second day here I had to go to the police station to register my passport for a temporary resident card, which I would have never known to get. Having Dad around to show me the ropes the easy way is a little better than find these things out the hard way haha. This was my first task on the solo but like Ty and I have said since day one about my Dad working over here - he knows people who know people. So I get a knock on my door, knowing to expect someone but not knowing what to expect. After taking 5 minutes to open the door, because I apparently can't figure out a door with 5 dead-bolts which you can turn to three different positions, I'm greeted by a Serbian gentleman telling me, in broken english, someone is here for me. So I quickly grab my purse, where I had strategically placed things (keys, Dad's cell number, my address, etc) in case of 'emergency' and head down stairs. Where I meet an other guy, who's english is better, and he tells me he is here to take me to the police station so I figured my Dad probably knew this guy. We walk outside to his car, an automatic Mercedes with black tinned windows, which you don't see around this tight streets to frequently - you can imagine the different scenarios that are going through my head at this point (cough cough … Mofia …. haha). He opens the door for me, which I don't think I will ever get use to, it is forever in my head that only forgein men in American movies do this gesture haha. Getting use to the 'difference' in driving we made our way through busy streets to the station. Needless to say this guys knew what he was going. All it took was me handing over my passport (slightly holding my breath) and 10 minutes later I was back home and a register resident of Serbia for 90 days. I ended the ordeal with a good old fashion american hand shake, which I have learned it my link to saying thank you without actually have to say it, although my pronunciation of 'Hvala' . Later I recount how things went with my Dad when he informs me he had no idea who the guys was that took me but we don't have to worry about it now cause I got home safe (ear muffs mom) haha.
Well that was a long winded example about all the fun and interesting situations that I'm just beginning to experience and over analyze - hope I painted a good enough picture for you to enjoy :).
This afternoon we spent the day going down town to the shops and visited the old fort. Kalemegdan is the castle located where the Danube and Sava meet on the coast of Belgrade. My history lessons are continuing and my cluelessness to history is coming along nicely. Its starting to sink in now that when someone says something is from the 13th century is not a mind blowing concept in Europe like I think it is. Anyways here are some pictures and hope to update you again soon. …



"Imagination is stronger than knowledge. Myth more potent than history. Dreams more powerful than facts. Hope always triumphs over experience. Laughter is the cure for grief." RF
Mich

Thursday August 12th

"Sorry to say but I can't stay …" Today was departure day from Barcelona for everyone. Dad and I were off to Serbia while the rest of the crew was on route back to Canada. Didn't have much repacking to do so I was able to get a good sleep in before the trip. The flight to Serbia only took 2 hours so it was basically the equivalent of my usually flight from Winnipeg to Hamilton which covers only two Provinces in Canada. Througout this flight I passed through a couple of countries, a couple of parts of the Mediterranean - which is still a hard concept for me to put into context some times haha. But we arrived in Belgrade without too many delays. I don't think I have ever seen seat aisles on an airplane so narrow but luckily my five-feet-something worked to my average this time. My dad has no idea what I'm talking about as he is a 'business class flyer' - overrated I'm telling you. Having a free drink is not even that great of a deal because it guarantees you trip to the washroom, which can be an even bigger of a hassle on a foreign plane with funny looking toilets and no English signs haha ... mildly kidding ... it really was a fine flight.
I don't think I had prepared myself enough to know what surroundings I was landing in so my optionated canvas was blank with only Canadian comparison. Did I mention I don't remember anything from European history class??
Well it was interesting from the moment I was out of the airport, so many different sights and expected norms gone! I can't even give options or perspectives because 30mins in I knew it was going to take a while to rap my head around everything. So for now I'm on the other side of the 'immigration' experience, the one who can't explain myself to get what I need in stores and the one who will probably put my foot in my mouth many times to learn different parts of the culture. But I'm excited to observe and 'learn' ... I'm finally getting a sense of what people mean when they say 'travelling helps you grow as person'. I'm definitely not anywhere near there but that feeling of uncomfortable-situations-ahead has settled in so I'm in for an experience ...

"Live consciously, continuously and with out fear of the unknown"
Mich

Wednesday August 11th

Having arrived towards the end of the my Aunt, Uncle, and parent's trip to Barcelona, they were pretty tired and ready for a relatively uneventful day. So we decided to go for a nice short shopping trip in downtown Barcelona. We all had a few souvenir and must have item to pick up so we knew we couldn't get sucked in to do too many things. Well let me tell you, I was tempted to want to do so many things but I understood - the feeling of going back home from vacation tired can be very draining. But after walking around, stopping at the stores we intended to and seeing the usual interesting-people-watching-scenes I found myself back in the car as planned.


We came back to the house for a famous Monsterat lasagna lunch and fruit. After which everyone had the feeling for a much needed siesta. This is where I caught up on my sleep I think, mine lasted a good 2 hours! Than I woke up to a full household of people. They had planned a drive up to some of the close by mountains to see the view. Meanwhile I went and played some basketball. Losing track of time, after 2 hours of playing the call to come home because we were heading to Barcelona for dinner was received. Got home, showered and dressed all within 10 minutes to enjoy a great night out. The restaurant was beautiful (fun fact: the restaurant was the one from the movie "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"), the food was great and the company even better!

We finished off the night with a visit to the eldest brother Carlos' house in north Barcelona, to see his new digs and the painting he did for the baby's room haha. It was a very cool place, the perfect size and use of space, which they had done a great job of making into a home. You don't find anything like that in Canada that's for sure haha. Said our goodbyes :( and headed home.



Another late night well spent. I was ready for bed after some initial packing but couldn't seem to fall asleep when I started to think about how lucky I was to have had the pass couple of day turn out the way they did. Pretty cool …

"When the doors of opportunity swing open, we must make sure that we are not too afraid or indifferent to walk through them." JJ
Mich

Tuesday August 10th

Another great breakfast to start the day and than we were in for a beach tour. We headed to the north east coast of Costa Brava where the family usually vacationed to when the boys were younger so it was fun to hear some of the stories. It took about 2 hours to get there, I tried to stay awake to see some of the scenery but it was mostly highway, which meant instant napping for me :). The first stop was to the top of a mount St.Sebastian, were the introduction to the great views began. This is where one of the most important light houses is located and below is surrounded by one of the busiest beaches.



Next we head to the town of Tamarin for some lunch on the beach front and a walk along the beach path - again it was insanely busy.



Than our snorkelling and exploring destination was just around the cove, where we set up on rock face and explored the water below. The water was a refreshing temperature and there were plenty of fish to see. Not to mention that swimming in the ocean always reminds me of how big the world actually is - when you look out and all you can see is water and the thought of the next content being so many swimming months away is always surreal to me haha. But we all enjoyed the day and no one got sun burnt. Being able to tell we were tourist from a cold country was too easy for the brown-sun-tanned Europeans :).



After leaving the beach we headed to the top of another mountain where the very cool hotel of Parador Hotel Aigublava was located. We walked around a bit more as the temperature was starting to cool down and the lightning on the coast made for some great pictures of the scenery!



Than for our final stop we ended up in Pals, which is a medieval village where the coast line can be seen from afar. This is the typical town that you would see in a movie with a medieval setting. Cobble stone streets, old farming land, gothic church, archways in the street, flowers that looked wild but well kept and endless scenic view from different viewpoints to make you think its the perfect spot between sea and land (wow that sounds like a travel adversitment haha).






We headed home, which definitely involved a nap in the car, and we were all ready for some much needed sleep. Had a snack of fruit - I swear they inject it with sugar and growth hormones, which makes every possible fruit delicious. Even fruit that I don't like look appetizing and I must try and ones that we don't have at home are that much more tempting to try haha. Off to bed ready to sleep for hours ….

“The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea.” ID
Mich