Day 1 - getting there and now we are here in Spain

We are sitting around Jo Ellen and Don's room in a little hotel in downtown Barcalona looking like zombies as we struggle to stay awake till 8pm, that magical hour that means we've beaten jet lag - hah!

We had a long trip (really quite short compared to my trip to NZ). Not much sleep - it is so hard to sleep on a plane, and Carm couldn't get comfortable in the asile seat. Still, were were on our way and the miles were rushing by.

My brain is numb so I'm not making much sense… lack of sleep and a giant, and I mean giant sangria later (it might even have been a litre all to myself, I've seriously not seen glasses that big). After we got checked into the hotel and refreshed ourselves with showers, we went on a lovely walk down Las Ramblas. There were tons of people (watch for pickpockets). After a while our stomachs called for a break so we stopped at a place (incrugiantley called the Pita something or other). We had some tapas to go along with our giant drinks.

We walked around some more, stopping at Palau Guell Antoni Gaudi, one of his first architecterual endeavours. It was pretty neat with wonderful details. Tomorrow we go to Sagrada de Familia - I'm super excited about it.

Can't wait for tomorrow. I'll post photos then. I'm not near my camera and don't really have the energy to stick any in now.

Can't belive we are in Europe. Carm's pretty excited, as you might imagine, and has already found lots of people to speak Italian to and is practically impossible ;-)

can I calm down?

We've had our 'last sleep' before we leave on our trip. Everything is packed and ready to go except tablets and chargers. With everything done I have nothing to keep me busy and nothing to keep me from fretting. I find myself pacing around the house like a tiger in the zoo which is certainly alerting the dogs that something is up.

Pat, the house/pet sitter, came yesterday to let the dogs get used to her again. Spike was anxious at first - he's too smart for his own good - but has settled down. He's the one I worry about the most… (not playing favorites or anything). Grace surprised us all by laying an egg last night. She fiercely protected it (think velociraptor), but this morning went up to her perch for a cheesie so I was able to whisk it away. I hope she doesn't lay another one while we are gone as she'll be less likely to let Pat into her cage. I've left Pat armed with a squirt bottle and a heavy leather glove just in case.

We are flying Air Canada Rouge for the long leg of the trip. They are the discount arm of AC and as such has no onboard entertainment system. We need to bring our tablets to connect to their wifi where we supposedly can stream content. The online reviews were variable. I've loaded up my tablet with movies (Les Mis & Up) and a bunch of episodes of 'Modern Family' just in case their system doesn't work. I do like the old style entertainment center and often enjoy the screen that shows the progress of the plane.

I can't believe that by this time tomorrow we'll be in Barcelona taking in the sights!!! It is getting harder to sit still.

technohassle

I've been wrangling various bits of technology when I haven't been doing trip prep. I downloaded my camera software onto the new wablet but when I tried to connect my camera and transfer the files everything burst into fire (figuratively of course). First, I couldn't see the photos from the camera. I puzzled and looked and then out of the corner of my eye noticed the memory card that I had taken out. Dooh.

Got the memory card in with great hope only to find it was a big case of 'you can't get here from there'. Arg. The pictures downloaded okay, but I hadn't properly setup the rename of the directories, so all my NZ photos are in one giant folder without dates on the files. Bother. Tried to carry on regardless to no avail. Camera photo editing software would not see my photos even though I could see them in Windows Explorer. Bother. Font in the app is so tiny that I can barely see it, let alone stick my finger on it. Bother. Will have to download from camera using camera software then edit the files using an ancient version of Irfanview. Clunky. But I suppose no worse than what I had to do in my tablet. So that's okay.

Suitcases and carryons are laid out in a grid on the spare bed leaving no part of the bed uncovered. I think I've got everything but my brain has been so muddled lately that I'm not really sure of anything at all. Do know that my camera battery is charged and packed, along with the charger. Pills are packed. There are at least some clothes packed. Everything else we could somehow manage without.

Yesterday Carm chipped a tooth. Lucky for him the dentist slipped him into the schedule today so Carm is all fixed up. Whew. Talk about timing. Which of course makes me crazy thinking about all the things that can go wrong between now and the end of our trip. I haven't felt this anxious for a few months so should try meditating or something.

My feet are freezing and a really ugly colour of mottled blue cause I did a self-pedicure today and am supposed to let the nail polish cure for several hours before socks. Of course today is cold and rainy.

It is POSSIBLE that today is 'Green Day'. I haven't been off the property for a few days so only have the trees around the house to go by and they are definitely green. With this rain, the grass is so verdantly green it looks fake. A good fake, one that causes my heart to leap in my chest with hope for sunnier days.

In 2013, on this day, we were camping in our new to us camper (the villetta). The weather was fantastic and we were nearly euphoric with thoughts of our upcoming trip to Alberta.

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.”
~Joyce Kilmer