Spanish Flys

Well, here we are again, traveling overseas and boring you silly with our postings describing the experience. Today I type these lines from an apartment in Barcelona, Spain, a sprawling city on the seacoast with plenty of heat and humidity left over from the summertime. The flight over here was one of the more difficult ones we have experienced since neither Jayne nor I was able to sleep on the plane and only ended up at this place after being awake for more than twenty-four hours. However, once we settled in, took showers, and were able to get some groceries we were very comfortable and managed to catch up on our sleep. (Actually, Jayne is still sleeping as I compose this; I have always been an early riser.) Once we landed at the airport we had to solve the problem of how to call our host, and since pay telephones are almost as rare here as they are in the United States it was no small task to make contact. Two fellows selling "sim" chips for foreigners offered to sell us a used antique Nokia with a chip installed so we took them up on it. Unfortunately the thing is so old that it will be difficult to find a way to recharge it, so I am saving the power. We got a taxi to take us into town and the drive was smooth and fast, passing by what first appeared to be a complex reminiscent of a southwestern Indian pueblo. On closer examination it was a giant cemetery, with bodies stacked in crypts that covered an entire hillside. People have been living here a long time. Finding the apartment was easy, and the fellow came to let us in within a few minutes. This is not the sort of place I would care to spend a lot of time in, but for the next four days it is home and in a very funky neighborhood near the beach.

There does not appear to be any insect infestation, as was the case in our London flat, and for that we are grateful. The television works, but of course we cannot understand the programming although from the sound of the announcer the soccer games are incredibly exciting. We will report again after our trip to the Picasso Museum today.