Finally found a moment to sit down and relate the continuing adventures of my gastronomic tour of Europe. I last left you on the 21st of August in Vienna fighting with train reservations and generally enjoying myself. I´m happy to say that not much has changed in terms of the enjoying myself, and that the trains all worked out fine... but back to the rigid structure of chronological order...
The 22nd of July was a sad day with the loss of Tristan, who had to return to Prague to get a plane on to his continuing adventures. (As it turns out he misread the date on his ticket and ended up spending an extra day in Prague, which you can read about on his blog. In fact, for the time we spend together, I must admit that his blog is much more entertaining than mine... so maybe check it out if you´re bored, or need to procrastinate more! http://tristan.travellerspoint.com Just go back a bit to August!) Thankfully Tris only had to leave in the afternoon so in the morning we visited the Palace, laughed at Japanese tourists taking photos in power-shot stances (so tried it out ourselves)
and were amazed to hear of the feasts to which guests were treated - think upwards of 25 courses! Eventually when times were getting a bit bad, the emperor cut it down to only 15 courses... Also it was interesting to find out that Sisi, Austria´s favourite emporess, was actually an anorexic, ever-so-slightly suicidal fitness freak. (Think installing a gym in bedroom, and being strapped to a 
Strange... Anyway, after that, we escorted Tris to the train station. To console ourselves on our loss, Bec and I followed Tris´s instructions and had ice-cream. :) Then underwent a short dose of retail therapy (stationery, of course!) Still, there was an empty space with Tris gone, but Bec and I thought we might be able to fill it with food. We spotted a funky looking japanese restaurant, found out they had all-you-can-eat buffet plus freshly cooked noodles, and we were happy. 
We did pause, however, thinking that eating Japanese in Austria wasn´t really in the style of travelling, so we adopted an important part of Austrian culture which we had earlier learn about (namely having approximately 20 courses in a meal), and felt much better. Bec and I both had twenty dishes, forming two complete dinners each, ie entres, mains, deserts... entres, mains, deserts... It was good!
The next day, Bec and I visited Parliament and did a tour of the Opera House, which was really good! :) We then grabbed our bags and made our way to the train station for our mamoth 24 hour 6 train journey. Which we survived, and that was the main thing! We rejoiced at our night train NOT arriving late (we had precisely 12 minutes to make the next train) marvelled at passing scenery (between naps), laughed at two girls fixing their make up and telling (we assumed) their internet boyfriends that they weren´t looking their best because they were nervous. We drooled at food in Zurich after we realised that we had no Swiss Franks, stressed about train connections when trains were 5 minutes late (with 13 minutes to change trains or we were stuck in a border town with no place to stay) laughed at a rude french woman who saw Bec and me (both wearing our big packs) trying to explain to someone he was in our seat, saw that other people were stuck on the other side of us, (think playing chicken with people who feel like pack horses), and decided nonetheless that she would attempt to push past me. I said that I didn´t think she would make it, and she said ¨Je pense que oui!¨ ie, I think so! and pushed past me, only to get stuck behind Bec. I was rather tempted to stumble forward onto her, but restrained myself. At the end of the day, we got to Barcelona, found our hostel and rejoiced!
Barcelona is a strange, strange place! Full of crazy people, both locals and tourists! Though not quite as bad as the tourists in Prague, I realised nonetheless that I wasn´t really staying in Barcelona for the same reason as most of my roommates. Our hostel was in a great location, but the roommates, well they were entertaining! Lots of Aussies who liked getting drunk... to say the least! I think what really sums them up was the time one got home at 4:00 and the other at 5:30 (despite the supposed curfew from 4 till 6). Anyway, the second one woke the first one up and described the exploits of his night, the retelling of which included MUCH swearing, but not that much content. Basically he was angry that his ´mate´ left him behind and he ran everywhere, then men a crazy sunburnt Pom, they started trying to get a cab, ended up punching a passing car... It just went downhill from there. The highlight was when the two boys started arguing as to who had woken whom up, despite one boy still being in bed, and the other standing up fully clothed next to him.
We also had fun the next morning when some German boys came in at about 7:30, still very drunk, one went to bed, the other had a shower, then Bec and I got up because we were headed to a nearby monastery at Montserrat (definitely worth a visit if you ever find yourself in Barcelona! Just for the view and surroundings - think giant termite hills!) Anyway, the German boy Johanas had just got out of the shower and started talking to me. When he found out we were going sightseeing, he decided to come with us, had another shower (he had already forgotten he´d just had one!) and dragged his friend (who was very under the weather) out of bed. They then proceeded to ask everyone we passed what the way to Montserrat was, in multiple languages, multiple times. Eventually some old grannies took pity on us and basically took us to the train! :) The boys fell asleep on that train pretty quickly, but unfortunately we were separated soon after as Bec and I had decided to take a cable car up, but the boys had unintentionally opted for the train. Despite that, Bec and I still had an awesome day!
Well that covers the crazy tourists, but also the crazy locals. I´m running out of time so I´ll make it short. Anywhere that, in pet shop stalls on the street, sells baby crocodiles is MAD. Baby crocodiles, 150€. Yes, real, live, crocs. Why not! It´s not like they´re going to grow or anything!!!
We also met up with Shannon
which was great fun! Went to Gaudi´s la Sagrada Familia, which was actually much nicer than I expected! Really nice inside! I now look on Gaudi as a sort of God-obsessed, slightly grotesque Hundertwasser. We then went back to Shannon´s hotel, rejoiced at tea!!! and were taken out to dinner by Shannon´s Mum! (Thanks again!)Then it was off to Valencia! Again, with maddness on the trains,
but we got here eventually. Found our hostel quite easily, and thankfully approached it from the right way (see the pix as to what is behind). Spent the first day in Valencia awaiting Ada´s arrival and, in true Gastronomic tour style, gorging ourselves. The hostel is really close to the markets so we stocked up on HEAPS of fruit and really REALLY good salami, proscutto.... *mmm* Bec and I also splurged on two slices of special 99€/kg proscutto (henceforth known as ´expensive pig´) - came out at about 2.50€ and it was sooo worth it! hehehe
The next day, - today - was the Tomatina. Not quite sure how to describe it. The world´s biggest food fight, supposedly. Think tomatos everywhere! The smell was horrendous! The worst bit was getting hit in the face with tomatos. The best bit was all the locals standing on their balconies with hoses, buckets, pots and pans, or anything that could convey water from their taps onto us! It was greatly appreciated! Really hot! We were really lucky and got the train home almost straight after, even though they were turning away people who were much cleaner than us! (the line for the showers was so amazingly long i didn´t even want to attempt it!) We returned to Valencia (about an hour away) at about 2 to eat and finally get to shower off at 4:30 when our hostel re-opened.. (yes, EVERYBODY has a siesta here!)...
Tomorrow is Bec and my last day here in valencia and, well, I can´t say that im really that sorry to be leaving it behind. It´s nice enough, the people are all friendly, but it´s just not the place for me. Too hot, I can´t understand the whole siesta thing... yeah... I CAN say that I´m very happy for this to be the last hostel for a little while... The hostel itself isnt that bad, the roommates are quite nice (at least the drugged-up french boy says interesting things in his sleep! Unfortunately in french a little bit too quickly for me to follow everything...) but the location isn´t quite ideal. On the first night, bec and I went out to dinner with a group of french pple from the hostel, (well mostly french speaking, also a brit and an aussie) but we were escorted home coz they were a bit concerned about us walking there alone...i thought they were just putting it on but..... evidently not... no seriously hobos and drug dealers and hookers everywhere... the view out our window is amazing - it's like we're in a war zone. Opposite us is a dilapidated, abandoned housing estate of some sort which is missing a few walls... sort of now a gravel pit, but with broken bottles instead of gravel. We went to sleep to the sound of not-so distant explosions... Not quite sure what was exploding and we didn't really want to find out!
Despite all that, I´m having heaps of fun! Even the horrible experiences will make good stories to tell the grandkids!
Well now I´m off to eat dinner with the gang! Next stop Paris! (Again!)
