To wrap that up

Didn't get to post too often in Spain, as it turned out. I'll talk about everything now and then create a post full of pictures later on, okay? Please let me know if you want more details on any certain part of my trip, I know I haven't been getting into all kinds of specifics on here.

Let's see, I left off in Sevilla, having summed up the rest of the cities. Next came a day in Granada. As I discovered, a day in Granada is not enough time. It is an absolutely fascinating little city, with essentially three different cultures: Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim. The moorish streets and mosques, the Arab-style architecture, winding streets, and white walls of the area of the Muslim quarters called Albacein was the area I explored. First of all, it was extremely mind-blowing for me to be so close to the Arab nations (it's southern Spain), and also to be so exposed to it, since I never have really been exposed to Islam before. After being in Greece, where they are so involved and knowledgeable of the current situation in the Arab nations, I have been thinking that I would like to do a Middle East trip sometime. Years from now. I want to head back up to northern Greece and spend more time there, and I want to see Turkey really badly, and I want to see Egypt. And I want to return to Granada while I'm at it because I missed out on seeing the fantastic Muslim castle called the Alhambra (evidently purchasing tickets for that needs to be done either a day in advance or at 5:00 AM). I had a very good time in Granada looking at the mountain views, eating free tapas (after backpacking and taking care of myself for almost two weeks, and now I get free food!), and mostly simply walking up and down the moorish streets. Overall, it was just a great place to ponder how many cultures there are in the world. I tried looking for the Jewish quarters, but I think I looked in the wrong place. This is another reason I want to return to Granada one day.

After this I had to take a night train, which I was worried about, obviously. But other than the fact that I had to get up at 4:30 AM to get off in Valencia, it went totally fine. It was sort of like spending the night in an airplane bathroom, but hey, I was just happy to not be sitting in a chair all night. I shared a cabin with this hilarious old lady, and actually slept pretty well. Thanks Tracy for the extra-drowsy Dramamine!

I had been looking forward to Valencia partly because it's on the beach, so it seemed like a good way to end everything, and partly because of the arts and science center. It houses an aquarium which is supposed to be world-reknown, so you know. After having visited Monterey a million times. I'll be honest, I really tried to get my money's worth of the place, but I thought it was kind of lame. I'm sorry! The aquarium was fun, and there was a big long tunnel you can walk in where all the fish swim above you, so long you can't see the end of it, and the sea horses looked like some kind of futuristic science experiment. But for being world-reknown, I expected better. Fifty points for Monterey. And the science center, well, it was cool, because it's hands-on and makes you feel like a little kid again, but I think because it's geared towards kids maybe that's why I felt like it was kind of lame. Oh well. At least I can say that I went.

No, here's what I want to say about Valencia. This deserves an entry all to itself, so prepare yourself. I'm about to tell you something about Valencia that is probably meant to be kept secret, and I've been really bad at keeping it secret.

I first heard that the legendary Holy Grail itself was in the cathedral in Valencia while I was in Sevilla, and I kept that in the back of my mind when I arrived there, not that I was on such a mission at any point in my life...but if anything, it at least sounded cool :). I found the cathedral and first went into the tourist shops to look through their numerous books on Valencia. They all merely mentioned the Holy Grail, not trying to promote that it was there (probably out of respect for it), and they even admitted that Valencia doesn't know for sure if it IS the Holy Grail. I went in the cathedral and looked around for any hint of it, seeing all the smaller rooms along the sides of the cathedral, I don't know the name in English, but you know what I'm talking about...there's the big central worship area and then along the walls of the cathedral are smaller places just as decorative. One of them had a ceremony going on, and I saw A grail, but it wasn't THE Grail. I walked out wondering if I was even in the right cathedral, and read the posters on the walls showing the opening hours, worship hours, etc...and at the very bottom in small print: "Catedral Del Santo Grial."

Upon looking through more tourist books, I found out I had been right about that smaller place of worship with the other grail I saw. They keep it hidden in there, and take it out for worship very occasionally. I ended up going into that cathedral three or four times, but I didn't see the Holy Grail.

And you know what? I don't even know if it IS the Holy Grail, and no, I didn't see it...but this is what I think: I went to Spain because I loved Barcelona and wanted to remind myself that I am a strong person who can take care of the past, then I decided that hey, I'll be in Spain, I'll go all over it, so I did, had lots of adventures, ran around, met new people and an old friend, got a little tipsy once, climbed through a dark tunnel in freezing cold water once, slept on a night train, spoke another language, had some culture shock, had some trippy moments, and then at the very end, I found the Holy Grail.

Seriously, my life is complete now. When I walked back into Robert's apartment knowing I had done it, I wanted to celebrate, I was so happy. It was one of those moments where I felt truly happy with myself. The next day was even better. I spent half of it massaging my feet on a white sand beach, and the other half in Barcelona, the city of my dreams, with another one of the study abroad students from Greece who happened to be there with his friend from home. We caught up, ate a great meal to go out with a bang, and sat on a rooftop with a far-off view of the Sagrada Familia having probably the best philosophical conversation I've ever had in my life. It was all just perfect.

When I got back to the Athens airport the metro was on strike. I felt like that was sort of a bitter welcome home. And I actually went back to school today, which I hated. After doing that incredible trip, I don't want to get back into the swing of things, I just want to do nothing! My feet are absolutely killing me. My shoulders hurt from carrying the backpack. My calves hurt, which I didn't even notice until today because my feet had been hogging all the pain I should have been feeling in my calves. I'm sunburned, my clothes are all wrinkly, I still need to buy groceries, I am exhausted beyond belief. I google-mapped all of my walking in each city, and found out that I walked 102.2 kilometers, which is 63.5 miles, which is the equivalent of walking from Pleasant Hill to Sacramento, or Flagstaff to Prescott, or Athens to Argos, or Barcelona to almost Andorra. I have a lot of weekend plans coming up this month, and I want to relax as much as humanly possible for a college kid and I don't want to wear shoes ever again. But mentally, I am SO content, and emotionally, I am unstoppable. The trip went so fast and was such a crazy idea, but it was just as wonderful as I'd imagined it to be and am so so so so happy that I did it.