españa

so we get to spain on july 12, most of us anyway. im the last one to arrive at the airport in madrid so when i walk out of the door after claiming my ruta backpack and feeling at least as excited as a year ago on june 18, anne, laurie, richard, jakob, pedro, and deborah are all there waiting for me. it was so good to see them again though id seen all of them at some reunion or another after the ruta already. anyway it was nine pm and we took the metro to plaza españa

and checked in at the hostel. a really nice hostel with lots of interesting people whom we got to know later on. laurie gave us alll an i-love-ny t-shirt, except a brooklyn one for me seeing as id already got one, and we went out for tapas.

the next day we spend in madrid, going to the railway station and having loads of trouble with train tickets and lost passports and whatnot, but we did some cultural sightseeing and went to the reina sofia art museum. had lunch in a park and a siesta afterwards, after which i went shopping with anne. at night we went out with people from the hostel. or actually it might've been the night after, but anyway it was nice.
so then the day after that we took a train to toledo


which was just as beautiful as it was last year.
we got interviewed by carlos pecker and i must have looked terrific on tv, wearing pedro's forro polar in +47 degrees of heat. anyway jose turned up at some point and we all went to a cafe where we saw lots of spanish ruteros from last year

the embarrassing thing is that i remembered most of them but had probably never talked to any of them and couldnt remember any names, luckily i didnt have to. me and anne then went round the city looking for this year's ruteros, and finally found them, including aini

she was doing well and it was nice to see her, i went round the city with her group and people looked at me weird. finnish must sound funny to foreigners. the ruteros had lunch at the square, much in the same way as we used to

met loads of new people which was fun, and eventually went for pizza with all of these people

and then round to the el greco museum with anne and laurie and the new swedish guy whose name i cannot remember unfortunately, but he was very nice and very unlike jakob.
we had to leave in somewhat of a rush and without pedro who didnt show up, good thing he caught up with us soon afterwards. just got to the train station on time and went back to madrid with mercedes and raquel (gr 10 RQ 04).
next stop was granada. the train left at 8am and we got to granada at 2pm. alvaro from last year met us at the train station and we took a bus up to la alhambra by which our hostel was. and the hostel is definitely something i would not recommend to anyone, but it was an adventure i suppose. mariu from my group came to meet us in granada in the afternoon, she was the first spanish girl from my group i saw and as she is the nicest and sweetest person there is, we had a very nice time.

the next morning me and anne decided to be good tourists and take a tour bus round the town which proved to be a very good idea. the rest decided to be lazy and stay by the pool in the hostel. we went out at night

all dressed up for the occasion, or at least jakob was

had a good time, i walked back with jakob ealier than the rest and got about four hours of sleep altogether. the next morning was spent by the pool, after which i went to la alhambra with laurie and pedro. it is most likely the most beautiful place there is so im more than happy i was willing to pay the 10e to get in








took about 150 pictures that day.
so the next thing we did was to decide not to stay in granada for the third night but instead take a train to sevilla and sleep at jose's house. watched some of the ruta episodes and had a good time, slept uncomfortably but cheaply on the floor. the next morning i went to the train station with anne who took an early train to cordoba and i got tickets for a train to madrid in the evening. walked back to jose's but as no one was up yet, went out on my own and walked around, getting lost several times as i had no map, and ending up about 4km from the center eventually. it was all very pretty though so i didnt mind.


finally i was joined by the rest, went round in the center a bit more and climbed up the giralda, nice view from the top.

took a train on my own to madrid in the evening, arriving there at around nine pm. the rest still stayed in sevilla and i was to meet them in madrid in a couple of days. the night train for a coruña left at ten and i arrived early in the morning. the best part of the whole trip was probably being in coruña with cris and her family- so good to stay in not a hostel and actually not having to worry about organizing everything and not having to hurry people up and basically not having to stress out about anything. and it was so good to see cris and ana!


all in all i had a wonderful time in coruña, did loads of shopping and saw the city and met some of cris's friends. her family is the nicest there is. cris and i took a train to santiago one day, got lost but had a good time.


coruña was more agreeable than the rest of spain in many ways- first of all i could not have hoped for better hosts, and the town was very pretty with temperatures that were more like +25 degrees than +45 degrees.





cris was working for zara

i stayed an extra day in coruña and decided to meet up with everyone in barcelona instead of madrid, which meant not seeing deborah before she left nor seeing bex when she came, but i talked to both of them on the phone at least. the train ride from coruña to barcelona took a mere 17 hours, so when roser met me at the station in sants i was very grateful to be able to go over to her house and take a shower and have lunch with her family before they left for bolivia.

her family was wonderful, im hoping they'll all come over to finland next year and stay with me, they said they might.

went back to the train station to meet the rest

and got the tickets for madrid for me and jakob and richard. loads of confusion with hostels and trains and everything, barcelona was a bit of a mess all in all, but very nice anyway. the hostel was nice and right in the center. and i finally got to see bex!

juanma was there as well and he was an excellent guide for us for the next couple of days. did some sightseeing in the evening

richard had a small accident here i think

climbed up the columbus monument, pretty view. also went to the harbour and saw some sailors

supermarket dinner that night i think, and the next morning met up with everyone at plaza cataluña,

with lots of confusion about hostels again and eventually all of us ended up going together except anne and carolin and pedro. saw loads of gaudí stuff



sagrada familia was amazing, bex and me agreed to come back and see it once its done, so in about 2042, or 2082, who knows. but we'll probably be taking to elevator that time, not the stairs.

went to parque güell, more gaudí stuff


in the evening went to see a pretty fountain show in the center



and later went out. the morning after we got up and went to the beach

and out for a drink in the evening before we had to go to the train station.

please notice jakob's face in this one

anne and caro stayed one more day in barcelona, bex and pedro and laurie were off to san sebastian and me and jakob and richard went back to madrid.

hardly slept a wink that night, richard chair was somewhat squeaky and jakob (no offence) had not showered for a couple of days.

interesting time i had with the two of them in madrid that day- public holiday, everything was closed, so we ended up going round the center a bit and then going to the hostel and sleeping before meeting up with selene in the evening. it was good to see her again as well, had a really nice time, went to eat and then over to her house in the evening. her mom was very nice and they have a cute apartment right in the center of madrid. richard and jakob obviously could not stop drooling all over selene the whole time we were with her and after

went out for late dinner and got back late to the hostel

i left for the airport early the next morning as my flight left at 10am already. apparently richard and jakob did manage to catch their flights on time as well.
i miss everyone loads already, had a great time, just wish it had lasted a bit longer and more people could have been there. finland next year then, yeah?