Tuesday, August 30
I miss you
Seeing wonders through miles away
With long paths leading to a center
With you in the heart of it’s core
It’s worth walking the miles yonder
Monday, August 29
Sameera / the struggle of a single woman “VI"A continuation
It’s clearing:
In the next few days, Sameera became more of a teenager than a mature woman, Alberto was on her mind constantly and although they had exchanged their telephone numbers, she knew that he’d never call but she had hoped that he would and never stopped checking her phone. Her attitude at work had also changed; she became more distant, you’d see her most of the time behind her PC reading Astrology or listening to the tea boy reading her fortune in the remains of her Turkish coffee cup, at other times she’d be reading reports while her mind was with every word of the romantic songs played on her window media player. For sure; this was not the old Sameera, the self assured woman who always believed in her ability to control every situation. What was she doing, was she looking for some answers in Astrology, coffee cops or even a random song? She had no clue, and since summer was over, her work load lightened a bit and she had some free time in her hands, but she was overdoing it without realizing what she’s getting herself into; people do notice these things, and especially when you are in a high position, this calls for fresh, crisp gossip, but was she aware of that?At home, the situation was not any better, the cock fight between her parents never stopped, and although she had never interfered before, she had found herself in the middle of a fight astounding everybody with her recent, uncalled for behavior; they found her blabbing sentences like “love should be the answer to all your problems” and “just try to love each other will you?” and Fowziya was another story, she got sick and tiered of Sameera’s constant mention of Alberto, and although Fowziya tried hard to distract her friend’s mind but she found her going back to Alberto and squeezing him in every subject they talked about; every discussion ended with Alberto. And a debate like this was not unusual between them:
Fowziya:” we have this new guy in the office, he’s really cute and nice, he wears the whitest dishdasha, crisp with starch to a point that you could hear its whishing sound from the corridor when he passes, and the smell of Bokhoor that he wears since early morning, oh it’s orgasmic, and we have this married girl in the office who said that she actually would come when she hears the whishing sound of his dishdasha, can you believe that, I mean ok, you could get wet, but to actually come? Weird”
Sameera:” yeh, I can believe that, there are a lot of things that one can’t explain, like that day when Alberto and I had coffee in the Marina Mall, I wanted to eat him alive, and his smell, it was kind of…”
Fowziya; interrupting:” hey, why does it always have to go back to Alberto? I have heard that a million times girl, stop it, the guy is taken, TAKEN”
Sameera:” I know, but you don’t have to shove it in my face every time I talk about him”
Fowziya:” then don’t, you’re overdoing it”
Sameera:” am I really, sorry, but I can’t help it”
Fowziya:” you can and you will”
But that never ended any debate because Sameera always goes back to Alberto, if not with Fowziya, with Tahani.
Tahani was Sameera’s high school Lebanese friend who was born and raised in Kuwait but got married and moved to London where her husband worked and she eventually started her own career there, her marriage did not last for long though, but she never left UK. Both friends had kept in touch with e-mails and occasional phone calls and at times the three girls would meet abroad to spend a vacation. Tahani had different views on life than Fowziya, she did not believe in love and commitment, to her, life was to get the best of what you can, and the fact that Alberto had a girlfriend was not a cause for discarding a good relationship, yet she was aware that what Sameera was experiencing is a one sided issue, and she wasn’t sure of Alberto’s feelings towards her if the guy did not mention anything, yet she encouraged her friend to be blunt and make the first move and call, she was a practical person who did not like to waste time. And although Sameera did get the urge to call him many a times but she did not have the courage to do it and she never did, instead she’d only talk to her mobile and say;” pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase ring” and it never did.
Waleed; the Kuwaiti owner of the house where Sameera met Alberto for the first time, the same one that Fowziya was trying to hook up Sameera with, this guy got interested in Sameera and had sent her an official invitation to join him and his friends, including Fowziya, for a party in his house one weekend. And since Alberto was a close friend to Waleed, Sameera knew that she would see him there and was exhilarated, Fowziya on the other hand was not too keen about this and tried to convince her friend to stay home and watch some movies, she did not want to see her friend get hurt in a tangled relationship; by attending the party, she would give mixed signals to Waleed, yet, there was no hope with Alberto. But Sameera would not hear of it, and spent the rest of her free time shopping for “The Dress”.
Waleed’s party was extravagant that night; waiters with uniforms, a band and two DJ’s, a buffet from a renowned hotel spread along one side of his considerably large swimming pool that ended right to the beach and may be more than a hundred guests seated around the pool and in his living room that overlooked the pool with huge, high ceiling glass walls.
For the first time in a long time Sameera felt that she was not in Kuwait rather on some Caribbean island, but Alberto was nowhere to be found, she mingled around in an attempt to fetch him but to no avail until she decided to go sit by the beach with her friend Fowziya. While strolling down to the waters she spotted Alberto sitting with another bunch of guests whom she did not know, how would she approach him now? She did not know anyone of his companions and found it awkward to just budge in, so she decided to go close enough to be at his proximity so that he would make the first move. And although Fowziya knew about her friend’s scheme, she went along with her pretending that nothing was unnatural. And it worked; Alberto saw her and waved, but that was all what he did, nothing more, what was she expecting anyway?
The night got shorter and she had to go back home and Alberto never moved from his seat, and with a disappointed heart she dragged her feet to the bar for the last drink before heading home. And while waiting for the bar tender to fix her drink, she heard this familiar voice like a breeze in her ears whispering” good evening gorgeous”….. it was Alberto.
Her heart skipped a beat while she jerked around to face him.
Alberto:” you look beautiful tonight”
Sameera:” ah…. Well, thank you, so do you”
And a general conversation started between them in an attempt to know each other more, their likes and dislikes, but surprisingly; Alberto never mentioned his Russian fiancé, not even once.
To be continued
Saturday, August 27
Sameera / the struggle of a single woman “V"A continuation
It's hazy:
Around noon that day, Sameera got a message from Marwan: “sorry dear, I could not return your call, I received an upsetting oversees call, buzz me when you’re free”. This message somehow disturbed her and comforted her at the same time, she knew that Marwan’s family were facing financial problems at his homeland, and that Marwan was working double shifts to pay off their debts and that caused some sadness in his voice whenever he talked about his family. At the same time she was relieved to know that he was not with another girl as she had thought. At that moment she decided that it was time to pay him a visit, he was going through a bad time and he needed her. And as soon as she wrapped up her work for that day she gave him a call and set a date to meet up in his apartment that night for dinner and movies.
The candle lights that were scattered all over his apartment were the first thing that appealed to her and drifted her into a state of total relaxation as she sat on a sofa beside him, he looked so attractive that night; his blue eyes had taken a shade of gray that glistered like two huge sapphires amidst a lively, vibrant face. And against her expectations; he did not look upset at all, in fact, he looked exhilarated, but she could not decide whether their closeness was the reason behind his happiness, or he was just putting an act in an effort not to ruin their first real evening together.
The evening was a blast for both of them, or at least that’s what she thought. They played the movie and pretended that they were following the actions in the motion picture, while in fact each was busy with teasing the other either by a touch or a double meaning comment in an effort to shorten the distance between them and get over the first few awkward moments of who should make the first move; when each made a gesture, the other responded until they both fell on top of each other and created a scene while the motion picture complimented them with violent music beats and the dinner on their plates stayed untouched.
The visitation continued every night for a week until that Friday night when she found him in one of his swinging moods again; only that night the somber mood stayed longer. Up until that day she was very happy to be with him although at times he repeatedly told her about his family’s problems and that he needed money urgently and did not know how to solve his dilemma. She sympathized with him a lot but there was nothing she could do for him. And although he had never asked her help, but she felt ill at ease with him repeating the story; Part of her was not convinced that he was interested in her, rather in her money when she hardly had any to spare. Another part was telling her that he is just an unfortunate person who had to live a hard life, and he was only releasing his pressures by simply talking them out, may be he does not realize what impression he is creating on her!!!!
But that Friday night the clouds around her eyes began to slowly clear and her logical mind started analyzing after this conversation between them:
Marwan: “angel, you didn’t answer the question I asked the other night”
Sameera: “what did you ask sweetie?”
Marwan:” do you think I should get a loan from the bank?”
Sameera:” well I don’t know honey, can you repay it though? I know that you are already sending more than half of your salary to your family”
Marwan:” I know I can’t repay it and this is the problem, my dad is crippled and I can’t see my mom who had been a housewife all her life working at her age, I’ve got to do something”
Sameera:” ah… I’m sorry babe I don’t know what to say”
Marwan:” there must be a way”
And that was it, now she was sure that Marwan was beating around the bush for one thing and that made her feel miserable. Since she’ve known him, he had always been the type that dressed expensively and spent lavishly on trivial things, now how come he was always complaining and repeatedly involving her in his financial problems?
In her mind she knew that her relationship with Marwan was over; why can’t people be honest and love you for who you are without a hidden agenda?
In the next few days Sameera never answered Marwan’s constant calls, she was not trying to be rude, but at the same time she did not want to be taken advantage of, and although she longed at times to be with him, but the thought of him using her just switched that wonderful feeling to a hideous remorse.
Instead, she tried to brush all thoughts of love and relationships from her mind by burying herself in her work, she had resigned to the idea of living a single woman’s life for the rest of her life; marriage or even a relationship were not in her stars, she will never give in to a man, and what’s wrong with being single? In the end she could have her privacy that many couples would dream of. And just like a robot; she programmed her mind to accept her situation and live up her life, until that unexpected night.
About three months later, her friend Fowziya invited her to another friend’s house in an attempt to hook her up with him. And although Foziya knew what was on her friend's mind, she never quit her trials. So to Fowziya the host was single and available, he had his experiences with other gorgeous women and now he was ready to settle down, he did not care who the person he wanted to marry was as long as all his specifications were met in one; and his expectations were a bit low. He had proposed to Fowziya, but Fowziya did not feel that thing for him, so who is a better candidate than her beloved Sameera? Sameera on the other hand did not have the stomach to go into any relationship after her constant disappointment with men, but nevertheless, she had decided to go just for Fowziya’s sake.
Her lack of interest showed on her casual clothes and make-up free, yellowish face, but the minute she sat down on the living room sofa, her eyes were locked with his, he was not the host that Fowziya was trying to match her up with, he was an Italian guest whom she knew nothing about; a reserved, shy person that said almost nothing all night, but his eyes said a lot.
She practically felt something inside her move, she found that she was involuntarily attracted to this total stranger, and everyone had noticed that the feeling was mutual, Fowziya mentioned that to her later, and she had warned her that this person had a girlfriend he was about to marry, and the fact that he was alone that night was only because his girlfriend was away on a vacation.
Sameera was puzzled; she was not the naïve type and she never believed in love at first sight, but what had happened to her, why can’t she stop thinking about Alberto. It was like he was right in front of her all the time, whispering in her hair, and oh those talking eyes!!!
Two days later, while she was shopping with her little sister in Marina Mall, she ran into him, and they both stood in front of each other speechless, they did not even exchange a simple hello until a good time had passed, then he approached her and asked her to join him for a cop of coffee, to which she readily agreed.
While having coffee, he was the one who was talking and she just enjoyed listening to him, she could have sworn that if it wasn’t for her decent upbringing, she would have seduced him right then and there, what was wrong with her? And why did she feel so strongly about a person that she hardly knew anything about? Was it chemistry that everyone else talked about? Was he a lover in a previous life? Come on, she never believed in that stuff, why him? For sure he was not all that handsome, she had been with much better looking men, and the guy was so decent; he was talking about his girlfriend and his future plans, and she would never in her wildest dreams think of stepping into another woman’s shoes, but nevertheless; she felt his unsaid words, his eyes had said it all; he was into her as much as she was into him, or was she imagining things? And as he was dropping the girlfriend issue in each and every sentence, Sameera felt a surge of envy that she had never experienced before, how could she be jealous of some stranger? What was wrong with her? Or maybe his loyalty to his girlfriend was what grabbed her by the throat, not wonting to believe that such men had actually existed .
They exchanged their telephone numbers and every one went to his daily errands, but Sameera’s life was never the same again.
To be continued
Friday, August 26
I’ve Been Tagged Again
Sweet Peach had tagged me and I have the responsibility now to respond, so here it goes;
10 years ago:
- I was working and a head of an Engineering department but with time I became a workaholic
- I was in love and very much married
- I spent most of my time helping my kids with their homework
- I was active in charity works, and in health club management.
- I spent my recreation time in sports.
- I was a health freak and did not get close to smokers.
5 years ago:
- I was working and a head of another department, but very disappointed with work bureaucracy and my production declined.
- I was disappointed in my marriage and separated although we lived under the same roof (worst time of my life)
- I still spent a good time helping my kids with their homework
- I became one of the women activists, and although I tried to stay behind the scenes (never liked publicity) but was not always successful.
- I was booming in Thai boxing and my passion for yoga escalated and started to give classes in renowned health clubs.
- I was on the Macrobiotic diet and the whole family followed suit, it lasted three years, and I was the healthiest, most physically fit than any other time in my life although emotionally I was not and then I stopped the diet and started smoking heavily :(
- I joined Poetry.com and started publishing my poems online and for the first time going public.
1 year ago:
- I signed my retirement to be active around Christmas and flew to Spain
- I was single and for the first time loving it
- My kids started taking the responsibility of their own homework.
- I became politically disappointed and left that field.
- I stopped Thai boxing and started my freelancing in yoga.
- I started gaining weight, not a fat person, but not as fit as I used to be.
- I started my blog and met wonderful cyber friends; online that is.
Tomorrow:
Although I am a planner by nature, at times I prefer leaving things unplanned (more excitement)
5 snacks I enjoy:
Not in order of preference;
- Cheese
- Chips (only salted ones)
- Nuts (I’m nuts about nuts, but can’t always have them; very fattening)
- Veggies
- Did i mention cheese?
5 bands/artists that I know the lyrics to most of their songs:
Although I’m much more into chill out music now but these are the artists that I used to know most of their lyrics, but for lyrics I don’t usually go by the artist, rather by the song itself, nevertheless here is a list but they’re not in order of preference;
- Bee Gees
- Fleetwood Mac
- Sher
- Sean Paul.
- Light house family
5 things I'd do with $100,000,000:
Being a shopaholic woman, I know I can easily spend that on one day LOL.
Ok, let me think, hmmmmm, live in Spain, open a yoga center, help my kids and the rest could go to charity if I had anything left that is :)
5 locations I'd like to run away to:
- Ibiza
- Ibiza
- Ibiza
- Ibiza
-Ibiza, no doubt
5 bad habits I have:
- Spending
- Being an extremist
- Spacing out in a middle of a conversation
- Smoking
- Stubbornness at times
5 things I like doing:
Not in order of preference;
- Yoga
- Writing poetry
- Traveling
- spending quality time with family and friends
- Sex ; ok I’m being honest
5 thing I will never wear:
Can’t think of anything, I love experimenting with clothes, LOL
5 TV shows I like:
- Sex and the city
- Nip Tuck
- Friends
- CNN
- Elsan3oosi show
5 movies I like:
- Dangerous Beauty
- Piano
- Beautiful Mind
- Fatal Attraction
- The Gods Must Be Crazy
5 people I'd like to meet
My first love, just for the sake of curiosity
Can’t think of any other
5 biggest joys at the moment:
Being back with family and friends exceeds any other thing I can think of.
5 favorite toys:
I only have one toy and that’s a top secret, now don’t let your twisted minds wander you maniacs you; think innocent ;)
Satisfied now Peach?
Ok, I won’t burden others by tagging them, but you are welcome to consider that you are if you feel like it; so hop in and be my guest :)
Thursday, August 25
Summit of the Eyes
They finally faced each other
In a destined get together;
And the two pairs of eyes conversed
Eyes talk, you know
But oddly though;
They exchanged compassion
Not hate
Swapped ample pity
Not envy
Fate planned their eerie meeting
As it did their mutual longing
For him
Although I dreaded such encounter
Planned against it
But damn the stars when they intervene
Yes I saw her
Those were the eyes he kissed
And these were the lips he devoured
And that graceful body is where he resided in
Every part of her reeked with his scent
Yes, she was the one who ailed my being
The one who looted my paradise
And estranged my soul on a foreign shore;
Alone
Empty
And sore
But when the summit was over and done
I heard her pain amidst silent tones
And wondered if it wasn’t the other way around
Tuesday, August 23
More PicsFor the stories behind these pics, please refer to my privious posts
Rafting in Venta Del Moro; notice how narrow the tunnels are, this is our boat and we were bending down as the water drifted us under
Hey, beware, nothing escapes my camera ;)
Getting ready for rafting in Venta Del Moro
Peniscola, the dream land; a picture from the top of the castle
A free, open air concert in Moncofa
Monday, August 22
Let the Pictures TalkAs I have promised my blog buddies; I hereunder post the pictures I promised, not much comments would be added, and if you are interested to know the story behind these pictures, please refer to my diaries in Spain in the previous few entries starting from mid July, cyber kisses to all
Wine tasting of The Bodegas Carmelitano in banicassem, Spain
The natural swimming pools of Montanejos
The prince that built the natural swimming pools
for his mistresses in Montanajos (notice the name: El7amamat El3arabiyah)
Khaleejees have reached Ain
The beautiful white and blue/green houses of Ain, Spain
The Amarican style of celebrating in Ibiza
Sunset on Ibiza's Cafe Del Mar
The honeymooners in Cafe Del Mar, Ibiza
Boarding the ferry to Ibiza
Beauty queens of the Moncofa’s Maria Magdalena’s festivities
Too tiered with night life? Have a nap at the bar
Half of my tattoo, thanks for editing sweetheart :)
Ramonnnnnn; my gorgeous Valencian friend
Sunday, August 21
Home Sweet HomeThe best thing in a vacation is when you get back home, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Thursday, August 18
A friendship dayTuesday Aug. 16th, 2005
On this day we were supposed to go shopping, Buddha del Sol and then meet our friends for the last supper. But as usual our day started lazily and by the time we left the apartment it was late already, and since we did not know how to get to Buddha del Sol and as our friends have mentioned that it would take time to find it since it’s on the southern outskirts of Valencia, amid the fields of El Saler area, we decided to head towards Buddha del Sol directly and postpone shopping for another time.
Surprisingly we did not get lost except for a short distance in the fields and that was when we got very close to the location. The place opens for the sunset at eight PM and we were about ten minutes early, no one was in the vicinity except for two dogs which guarded the place; one huge black dog and another smaller champagne color. The minute we parked the car the black one stood on alert and the other started barking, I found myself uttering; I’m not getting out of the car, and Elegance echoed; neither am I, and out we drove towards the huge lake of Albufera taking pictures of the rice paddies and the boats, then back to Buddha del Sol where the dogs were gone.
The place was a joke; it was supposed to be a combination of Buddha Bar of Paris and Café del Mar of Ibiza, but it was none of the above. It looked like an old children’s park that was renovated to give the tranquil atmosphere for watching the sunset in the fields, then at night it would transform into a restaurant and a night club. The decoration was lousy; a mixture of oriental ala Middle Eastern with a children’s pool that did not belong and deprived the place from its specific character, and all you see of Buddha was his head. A water slide that did not go with the place at all was still there, all beds and hanging sheets (the one thousand night and one style) were old and dirty although the place was brand new, and although this place advertised for its cocktail varieties, it did not have any except for the light San Francisco that we ended up drinking, and the chill out music that was supposed to go on mellower as the sun goes down was hip hop and started mellowing after dark. And atop all that; the day was cloudy and the sun was shyly peeking through the clouds as if it was giving us an unwelcome gesture, but the lazy atmosphere in the fields was quite nice, and we had come all the way to this place, so we had better enjoy it. And we did; the minute we finished our first drink, we did not even wait for the waiter to bring our bill, we went to the cashier, paid him with the tip and hurriedly fled out to join our friends for dinner. Our friends told us that the restaurant in Buddha del Sol was supposed to be good and the night club is awesome, but who would in his right mind drive all the way into a no man land for that?... forget it
Now the dinner was another story; we were introduced to other people on a large table and the new guys we met were hilarious, we did not stop laughing all night; some would speak Spanish, some English and others Arabic and we all understood each other, we took some caricature style pictures making faces to the camera, they all kept making fun of me and my camera saying that I must be half Japanese. And when the dinner ended some of us cramped up in two cars to go to other places for a drink and some left for home after bedding us the last farewell.
The car ahead of us was driven by Ramon, yes Ramon I told you I’ll mention your name on my blog and wait till you see your picture posted ;)
Ramon is out of this world crazy character with his long hair gelled to the back, who looked like a typical Spanish Flamenco dancer, he was our guide who gave us a spin with his driving, he’d circle each roundabout two, three times causing others to cuss and shout at him, and since it was a Tuesday night, no place was open, so we ended up in Manel’s restaurant who was also with us in Ramon’s car and his restaurant was closed that day but he opened it up especially for us, we spent the rest of the night joking, belly dancing and taking shots of rum liquors of different brands and ages, and ahhhhhh… you should’ve seen Ramon belly dancing… LOL, too bad my battery died and I could not take more pictures, but Elegance took some shots with her mobile camera. The night ended with the dessert we brought from the winery we visited in Benicassim few days back; an awful tasting cherry marinated in alcohol, yuk.
At five AM, when we started driving back to where our cars were parked, Ramon; our guide started his game again, taking us in circles, back to where we started, and out of the car he jumped, welcoming us to Manel’s restaurant again, and that was when we realized what he was doing, this time we did not shout at him, we only cracked up laughing.
This is really what I like about Spain; it’s people. They’re all easy going, fun type, and life loving people, and moreover; they’re CRAZZZZZZY. Two of the ones who were with us had jobs to attend at seven o’clock in the morning, but they did not care although they all held important and sensitive positions, they’d still make it on time the next morning, believe you me, and I don’t know how they do it, and this night was not an exception for some of them, I mean they did not do that only for us; some Spaniards take that as a ritual, having fun all night, then a couple of hours sleep, work, siesta, work and back to night life. Ohhhh.. That must be trying.
Hey guys, life is too short, so you might enjoy it while you can, I know I’m going to miss my Valencian friends, and yes Ramon I will miss you too :p
If one day I decided to leave my country for good, I know I will end up in Spain coz I’m sure that I’d never get bored with such a marvelous company, and as I have always believed; my place is where my friends are, too bad I’m too attached to my friends and family back home, I miss them terribly
Adios Moncofa
Wednesday Aug. 17th, 2005
What a day, we had lots to do, yet wanted to spend a lovely day in this beautiful village, instead we ended up shopping most of the day in Valencia, neither me nor Elegance like shopping and that’s why we procrastinated all this time. Today we were in a race to finish our shopping as quickly as possible so we could come back to the village and enjoy strolling along its beautiful beaches, and may be get lucky enough to sit by one of its beach bars and have a drink before packing and cleaning the apartment.
The shopping which we had planned to be of two hours duration at its max, took us four hours and a half, the Valencians love to take their time when they do a job, the job that takes half an hour to finish would take double that time with the Valencians. So it was a real miracle that we finished our shopping list in such comparatively short duration, we were practically running up and down the streets, but that, off course, deprived us of the time we needed to spend in the village.
So we only had a short time to say goodbye to Moncofa; we walked a short distance along the strip then sat on the cool sands of the beach and watched the almost full moon that would shy out at times veiling its heavenly face behind the clouds.
Tomorrow we are heading back to Madrid…….
Tuesday, August 16
As the Time Goes bySaturday, Aug.14th, 2005
A lazy day that ended unexpectedly
Not an active day, it started very casually, all we had in mind is to load the refrigerator before the coming long weekend; Sunday when all supermarkets are closed and same is true for Monday which is a Spanish holiday called “La Paloma”.
And as we were discussing what to do for our night program with our Valencian friends, nothing seemed interesting enough, but as we were talking about it we remembered a guy whom we met at the ferry going to Ibiza and he told us about the beach nightclubs located between Castellon and Benicassim, so we thought we’d try them out for a change.
The trip took us about twenty minutes and after getting lost on the way, we ended up in a beach bar near the tower of Saint Vicent, had a drink, then continued looking for the night clubs until we found them, and they were as awesome as the guy described them, we decided to stay one hour, at the most, in the clubs then go back home, but to our surprise we stayed there until six AM, if we had stayed longer till the sunrise we would have witnessed the morning party when people take off their clothes and dip in the waters, but we were too exhausted to do that, besides, we had driving back which we were worried about.
Sunday, Aug. 15th, 2005
Peniscola; a Spanish paradise indeed
We were supposed to wake up early and check Peniscola, a place which I have heard about a lot in the past and never got to visit. The thing is that everyone who advised us to visit had never mentioned what’s so special about this place; They’d all say go and see it for yourselves. So for us it was a discovery day, and we were planning to go and spend part of the day and leave the rest unplanned and come what may.
From the minute I entered the town, having a critic’s eye off course, I fell in love with it. Nature is all around, you see mountains, beaches and greeneries wherever you go in Europe, but the thing about Spain is that no place is like the other, the towns and villages could be fifteen minutes far from each other and may have the same nature yet they have a completely different atmosphere and landscape which marks as a landmark of that specific place, and that is truly amazing.
But, we did not get to go there as early as we had planned since we spent the night before out and hardly had anytime to sleep, Elegance was completely drained, but I was more energetic, I woke up, made a beans and oil dish (fasoliya bilzait; the Lebanese style) just in case we needed that, prepared all my things and was ready to go. When Elegance started to feel fresh again; I started feeling drained out of energy and slammed on the sofa, hesitating to go or not. So it was not until three pm when we lazily hit the road to Peniscola (which I like to call Pepsi Cola, btw), but I’m really glad we did.
The place was a pure paradise on earth; I have been to many places in Spain and Europe as a matter of fact, but like this place!!!! I have never seen.
It’s a mountain peninsula with steep cliffs on one part that feels like the mountain is cut into the sea, and flat with powdery sand beaches on another part, it is renowned for its castle which was built by the Arabs, and visiting the castle is another experience. All around the curvy rounds that leads to the top of the castle is restaurants; café’s and gift shops with their special artisan pottery that speaks of a real talent. And as you go up these roads you can see different parts of the city that feels like earth surrounding water in the most beautiful landscape articulated by nature and man. Well, I can’t say more about it, you have to see it for yourselves.
We spent the rest of the day there and we did not get back home until midnight.
Monday Aug. 15th, 2005
The sports day
After spending a magical day in Peniscola, we had a very good night sleep and woke up fresh and dandy, and got ready for drafting which we had planned with our Valencian friends. It took us about an hour and a half from Valencia to reach Venta del Moro where we purchased the tickets and another 40 minutes drive to River Tamayo where the rafting was supposed to take place, and since we had three hours till our activity starts, we pick-nicked in a shady area (kashta), sunbathed and dipped into the freezing cold river.
There were two tunnels through which water drifts from one side of the river to another, so we challenged each other to go by the small tunnel with less drifting water and swim against the current to the side, so some of us held hands and helped each other to where the drifting was at it’s max and then each was on his own, some others would wait at the tongue of the river to pull out the ones who could not make it. The game was really exhilarating, and we all took turns.
Then we got confident enough to try and do the same only this time we would go on the other side of the tunnel and drift through the small tunnel, then out and swim against the current where some of us stood to shoot pictures and pull us out.
Well for me it was a bad experience, because the minute I dipped into water, my foot got stuck between the rocks and as I tried to free it I lost balance, one of the guys asked me to swim to the side before the current takes me, and when I did, I found myself drifting towards a broken tree with sharp edges coming out of the water between the two tunnels, the current was so strong that I could not avoid the crash, but fortunately the guy swam close to me where there was less current and pulled me away just before the collision. And with the pull we both ended up drifting in the big tunnel which we were not supposed to go near since the current was enormous there and no one was waiting at the top to pull us out, every one with their cameras were at the end of the small tunnel. I swear to God I almost drowned in there, but luckily I swam against the current and made it through and Elegance managed to take tiny photos of only my hat above the water.
The rafting though was another experience; some of us including me have never tried it before so we took the beginner’s trip. Our group consisted of three boats journeying through the drifts together, and each boat had it’s guide. The Spanish people are really crazy, it was not only rafting that we did; the guides would pretentiously collide us with rocks asking us to raw quickly with the current where we ended up hitting what ever object was on our way, at the beginning we did not know what we were doing, but after few collisions and us flying into air and into the waters, we realized that the guy was doing this on purpose. We started hitting him with our oars, throwing him into the water; the collision was not only with rocks, we did that with other boats as well.
In one incident the guide of another boat pulled Elegance to his boat then threw her into the water she held on to the side of the boat and drifted with it far from our boat. Our guide started cussing him and telling us that he is the rescuer who is going to save our queen. He swam to the other boat that was close to the boat that Elegance was holding to and held her life jacket trying to pull her up, the other guide would not hear of it, so he pulled her legs towards him, the scene was so funny, Elegance looked like a sardine in and out of the water between the two boats and her face exploded with anger, I wished I had a camera with me, but with this tripping of the boats in most of our journey, I don’t think my camera would have survived.
As we were putting our gears on, a guy took off his clothes completely and was naked to the public, and would you think that would escape my camera? ;)
Friday, August 12
It’s Best to be Left UnplannedAn Energizing Day
Wednesday Aug. 10th
We had a wake up call from our Valencian friends who said that they were on their way to our village; we had a plan to spend the day in Montanejos; a place amid the mountains known for its vast natural swimming pools. The history of these pools goes back to an Arabian prince named Abu Ceit who excavated the mountains to build a swimming pool for his mistresses. The water coming from these mountains pass through rocks rich with minerals that makes it an ideal treatment for different malfunctions such as improving the digestive system, the kidneys and nourishing as well as treating skin problems. These swimming pools, which are also known as El7amamat El3arabiyah, flow into Mamoun River (also called River Mijares). It is also believed that when the Crusades fought the Arabs in this region, the prince preferred converting to Christianity than leaving his properties, and his mistresses I assume :p
So we all packed ourselves for a pick-nick atop the mountains, loaded both cars with water melons and honey due melons which this village is famous for, and added to that other fruits, nuts, and sandwiches just in case there is no nearby restaurants. The trip was about 40 minutes drive from our village in a very curvy road but nevertheless it was worth the hassle for the place was a true heaven.
We learned from the local tourist office that the main swimming pool has a resort where people around the world visit for medical reasons, and there are special body treatments using the natural ingredients of the pools if one wants to pamper himself, but it’s only done by appointment, so that appointment was on our list for another date. The main resort which we could not use was the swimming pool in which the prince’s mistresses bathed. ya bakhathom. But we did get to use the thermal waters of the other pools and my friend Elegance swam from the pool into caves where the water temperature stays at 25 degrees centigrade through all seasons, but unfortunately, I could not go that far because of my tattoo, for I still have one week before I could completely dip in water.
As we were heading towards the thermal waters, we noticed an opening in the heart of the mountain where water was bursting out with high pressure as if it was controlled by a pressure pump, the sight was astonishingly amazing.
When we got back to our village we strolled down the beach for a while, and I spotted a couple of love birds against the sinking sun, in a karma Sutra position, and do you think that this scene would escape my camera? Nooooooooooo
So I immediately grabbed my camera only to find my friend fleeing away and saying: “I don’t know you”, but with my persuasive tactics I talked her into pretending to pose for my camera while I did the shooting and she did, this picture turned out absolutely beautiful, and I made sure that the faces would not show for obvious reasons :p
The weather got cooler as the sun disappeared and humidity was so high that our bodies felt sticky with dirt accumulated from the day’s activities, so I told my friend Elegance as I was rubbing the black dirt shreds off my shoulders:” a hot bath sounds like heaven before retiring to bed” but to our surprise when we got home we had no water!!!
Elegance got furious and she ran downstairs to check and came back to me with a grave face announcing the bad news that the water company came earlier today and switched of the water valves from whoever did not pay. And since Elegance had authorized the real state agency to take care of all the formalities, she was burning with anger when she learned from the neighbors that the lady who was taking care of her property did not do her job properly and moreover she was on vacation and no where to be reached.
That called for another cold shower in the open :(
So we wore our bathing suits again and went down stairs with our shampoos, creams and gels, as well as towels and two buckets to fill it with water from the douches of the swimming pool downstairs. The water was freezing cold and we were shivering and cussing the agency lady all the time praying that she would have a disastrous vacation.
An Alcoholic day
Thursday Aug.11th, 2005
Today was a non stop drinking day; we woke up early craving fried eggs and since we still did not have water we decided to go have it in one of the café’s on the beach. Elegance was doing the ordering as usual but I noticed that the talking took a long time and Elegance left me on the table and went inside where she talked to another guy who looked like the cook and then she came back giggling, I asked her what was that all about, she said that believe it or not these guys were puzzled when I asked then for fried eggs, apparently they have never heard of fried eggs, they were more familiar with omelets and she had to teach the cook how to fry eggs, LOL
We had our eggs and it was good, then we went to the water company and solved the problem before heading to the town of Benicassim where we lunched on bear and artichoke sandwiches which Elegance experimented on me as her first cooking trial; it was delicious except for the leafs that kept sticking to our teeth with every bite and we had to pull them out. Then we headed to the early 18th century “The Bodegas Carmelitano’ winery; one of the most significant locations on the “Coata de Azhar” where we had a tour of liquor processing in 5 rooms and ended in the 6th which was a wine-cellar where the wine testing ceremony took place. The rooms looked like caves entering from one to another. And although we hardly filled our tiny glasses, by the time I finished the shots my head was spinning. We then went strolling on the beach of “the Tower of Saint Vicent” to photograph the tower and the town’s renowned historical houses, and except for the house that was completely covered with trees and greeneries that you could hardly see the building, the rest were not a big deal, when we got tired we rested in a nice coffee bar beach restaurant.
In the bar there was this huge Africana sitting on the bar with her different shades of green national outfit that blended nicely with the maroon decoration of the place and the tall palm trees around, the lady was dozing on her high chair and I took advantage of her sleep and shot a photograph, and to my horror, the nosy waitress saw me do that and she went to her, woke her up and told on me. My heart skipped a beat; I was expecting that at anytime the lady would come to me and break the camera over my head, just like what they do to the paparazzi LOL. Instead the sweet lady looked at me and gave me an angelic, approving smile, oooooffff…… that was a relief.
In the bar we had Jamaican coffee which consists of Tio Pepe licqour, coffee and cream and sweetened our tooth with Tiramisu soaked in Rum and headed back home completely buzzed, we showered (thanks God the water was back) and then hit the road again to Valencia.
Although I had my digital Sony camera for a year now, I never read the manual. I preferred playing with it in a trial and error fashion, the discovery of new features are much more exciting to me this way. So on our way to Valencia I discovered a program in the camera that can capture the beautiful color contrast especially with light and shade effects. And since the sun was going down at the time and the sky had this awesome multi color panoramic view, I tried and took a few shots and was exhilarated by my new discovery, all pictures would be posted on flickers later on BTW, my friend Elegance is encouraging me to take some photography courses to learn the proper techniques because she thinks I’m talented, it was only few years back when another friend encouraged me to write poetry and now Elegance is pushing me to take up photography, and who knows I might do that one day, wanaaaasssaaah
In Valencia, our friends took us to a nice restaurant for dinner and wine and then we went out clubbing all night till the little hours of the morning and I can’t remember how many classes I had because our Valencian friends were very generous with us, and before finishing the glass in my hand they’d slip another in my other hand. Thank God Elegance was doing the driving and she was in control.
On our way out of the first bar someone grabbed my ass pinching it in a sudden jerking motion, I jerked back expecting to see a guy, instead, I found this lady who looked like a man wearing a white dress right behind me, she pretended as if it wasn’t her and continued talking to another lady on her way out, my Valencian friends who were all around me when this happened cracked up laughing and told me that I had asked for it by showing my tattoo off, why does this always happen to me? Why meeeeee?
Elegance had to control her drink off course; she was driving and sometimes we ran into check points, but when we were at the safety of our home at about five AM, she suggested with glittering eyes and a mischievous gesture to end the day with a shot of Magic’s; a spirit made of blueberry, the one we bought from the winery, wi ana ma sadagt khabar, ihya kharba, kharba, and as they say in Arabic: wa khitamoho misk” the minute I finished the shot I dropped like a dead meat.
Wednesday, August 10
Adventurous DayTuesday 9th of Aug,
It’s one AM, and I’m sitting on the balcony with teenage Spaniards gathering as usual on the doorsteps of one of the neighbors holding water bottles filled with alcohol, and this has been their ritual ever since I got here. And since the neighborhood gets really quite at this hour, you can hear their voices magnified three folds but surprisingly no one ever complained or even tried to hush them down, Valencian’s are known for their cool tempers, but to this extend? I mean, we have older people and kids that retire early in this neighborhood; don’t they get bothered with the noise? And remember that it’s not like having air-conditioning here, and all windows and balconies are wide open to natural air.
Their gathering starts around one and ends around four in the morning every day of the week except for the weekends when you usually find them in one of the four beach night clubs of the village. How could the neighbors get to sleep? Beats me !!!
I just woke up from a nightmare; I dreamt that for some reason I found myself wearing only a T-shirt (the same one I had on when I hit the sack) and holding two small flags; one Spanish and another British and was lost in the streets of Tehran, I was struggling to find whoever can guide me to the Kuwaiti Embassy so I can go back to my country, but unfortunately everywhere I looked I saw Mullas with long beards and I had to hide myself since I had nothing to cover me up in this highly reserved areas, I finally found a decent guy who sounded pro western and after bribing him with my flags he sneaked me in an official building and asked me to hide behind a door till he could manage my escape. I waited for a while, then peaking through the door cracks I saw the guards detaining the guy who tried to help me and I knew that my turn would come soon so I had to find my own way out; first from this huge, massive building which was full of the Islamic guards and then from this country.
To my relief I found a group of western officials accompanied by their own show girls with their demonstration clothes on; more or less the Moulin Rouge style, which hardly covered anything (imagine in Tehran LOL), they were passing the gates that lead out of the building, so I sneaked myself out with the girls, and although I had both flags still with me, no one questioned me and I passed safely out. And believe it or not even in a dream I regretted not having my camera with me to take pictures of the girls passing through the Islamic guards LOL.
Outside of the building was another story; I was running and hiding and all I could see around me were Mullas with disapproving faces whenever their eyes spotted me, and as I was running I kept telling myself that this is only a dream and I only have to open my eyes to the safety and comfort of my own room in Kuwait, and after several failed attempts I finally succeeded to open my eyes, and the first thing I saw was what it looked like a strange room and the same T-shirt on me, my heart sank for a split of a second but then the room started getting it’s familiarity back; it was my room in Spain, so I breathed deeply to that realization but chickened out when I thought of going back to sleep.
.
Hmmmm, the teenagers left their gathering tonight, it looks like one of the neighbors had finally talked to them, what a relief; they were so noisy although they were just chatting, but when the Spaniards talk they seem as if they all talk at the same time and no one listens.
Last night we visited our Valencian friends in their house located close to the center of the city, where we had BBQ and wine in their nice garden, we also met others there and made a plan to go as a group to Buddha del Sol later on, but the BBQ lasted till the wee hours of the morning and our conversation got heated up, not to mention that we had about half an hour driving back home to take care of, so we decided to postpone it to another time.
Our friends advised us to go check out a close by village of Ain; they said that it’s a small village with little white houses and blue painted windows amid a natural reserve in the mountains which inhibited only 300 people, it only had one Bar that served as a restaurant during the weekdays and as a pub during the weekends where all the locals would usually gather.
So when we woke up the next morning Ain was the first to check on our planning list, the village was not too far from where we live; about 20 minutes drive, but the circling of the mountain made the trip much longer, my friend Elegance got so excited especially when she discovered that our rented car’s title was Elegance which she interpreted as a sign, and thinking she was driving a cart in The Entertainment City of Kuwait, she snaked through the roads with a speed that nauseated me, but since I did not want to show my weakness to heights, and wanting to overcome my phobia at the same time, I said nothing and let her have her joy.
In the middle of our trip up we saw a sign directing to the peak of the Spadian Mountain so we decided to change course and check it out; it was a mistake though, the road up was not paved and was wide enough for a tiny car to pass although it was supposed to be a two way road and it hardly had any emergency lanes; the land would steep down at one side of the road which was my side :(
Half way up, about a half hour drive, I got tense and asked her to make a turn back down, but finding enough space to make a u-turn was another problem; we had to drive some miles up to find that space and return, and woooooooh, Ghaaaaaaali, was that an adventure.
We did finally reach Ain and found it as beautiful and unique as our friends had described, but to our surprise we found the name “El bin Ali” hung on the door of one of the houses, and as I know that this is a Kuwaiti/Bahraini known family, which means that we were not the first from this area that discovered this tiny place :p
And on our way back we took another road leading to Segorbe where we discovered a heavenly resting area on a strip of a running river and surrounded by mountains in almost all directions, so we took out our yoga mats and meditated for half an hour on the concrete benches facing the river with fifty faucets of running mountain waters behind us before heading towards Navaja, but while driving down the mountains I started to have a headache that I think was caused by the height’s low pressure, especially that I have not completely recovered from my flue, and there was another reason for cutting our plans short: it started to rain, so we decided not to stay long in Navaja and missed it’s landmark; the water falls, and we headed back home where we had dinner and I slept right after and woke up with the nightmare I mentioned earlier.
The good news though is that the skin where I had my tattoo done is pealing off, which means it’s healing and in about a week’s time I can go dip the sea again showing it off this time :p
Tuesday, August 9
My, my, my beautiful SundaySundays Aug 7th, 2005
I woke up this morning with a congested throat and a clogged chest, Elegance’s condition was worse than mine, and since it’s Sunday and, except for restaurants and coffee shops, all other places were closed, we had decided to take it easy and relax on chill-out music around the apartment all day. But as it got closer to noon time, the weather gots really warm and there was no draft although we had all the windows open. This called for an immediate change of plans, so we took out all the tourist’s attraction booklets we got previously from a traveling agency and checked out the outdoor areas in the nearby villages where not much physical activities were needed. At the same time we thought we’d ask around and may be get lucky to find farm houses that sell natural honey to help cure our flue, since we have heard that there are plenty of those in mountain areas of Spain.
And so we chose the place that we wanted to visit, checked the map, with Elegance being the driver and me the copilot responsible for the road map and direction, we hit the road and in about twenty minutes we reached San Jose Caves located in the town of La Vall d’Uixo.
In the town we made a 40 minute boat trip, actually it was more like a gondola trip to the center of the earth; an underground longest navigable river in Europe which is believed to be more that 15,000 years old and was inhibited by man at a time in history. The temperature of the caves stays at the constant 20 degrees throughout the year, we started a 5 kilometer trip on boats navigating through the caves and another 250 meters on foot to witness a dry gallery of the caves, and we also learned that there is a stretch of 1,932 meters that is not open to the public. And that despite the speleologists, neither the origin nor the end of the cave have been discovered.
We boarded the gondolas and our guide rowed us inside caves that narrowed so much at parts to a point that we had to stoop all the way down and widened to large halls of vaults with the breath taking, numerous shapes that have been sculpted by whirlpools over millions of years to tell the history of it’s evolution and it’s natural procession. The caves were equipped with a mellow relaxing music system and artificial lighting which were the only source of lighting that enhanced the majesty of the place; I even meditated at some parts, but what pissed me off is that we were not allowed to take pictures and there were some scenes that I really wanted to photograph but I couldn’t despite my sneaky efforts to outsmart the guide. I even wished I could shoot a video clip to meditate on when I return back home, but…. Tough luck
After leaving the caves we strolled down a pathway in the surrounding area of Sierrra de Espadan Nature Reserve that zigzagged and circled around the valley crossing dried rivers through the wonders of wild nature at parts and well groomed greeneries at other parts, we walked more than an hour in a completely relaxing atmosphere with my MP3 receiver in one ear playing Café Del Mar music and the other ear exposed to the sound of creatures of nature around.
When we finished our walk we asked some locals about a farm house selling honey. And to our surprise we discovered that there was one place, close to the center of the village that were renowned for generations for the quality of it’s different types of honey, each used for certain medication purpose, but the problem was that no one knew the street address of the house, but all villagers have known them for years and they have had customers from all over the globe, the locals had warned us that the address was not easy to find, but nevertheless they did describe it’s approximate whereabouts.
So we decided to give it a try anyway. And after some time spent in asking others in town center we finally found the place.
The trip was worthwhile because as soon as I took one spoonful of honey I immediately felt my chest clearing, I even got a jar of honey for my dad’s asthma, and another jar for relaxing my mom’s hard temper.
When we came back to the apartment, the weather was much cooler so we went out for a bite and again strolled along the beach, checking out the nice architectural chalets along the strip of the beach with coffee shops each playing their type of music pleasant to the ears of the wayfarers. I also got this sudden urge of photographic experimentation which started to irritate Elegance with my constant click-clicking at ever moving and rigid figure around.
Why do I keep comparing this to the long dull Fridays of Kuwait?
Sunday, August 7
Back to ValenciaAug 4th, 2005
Boarding the ferry back to Valencia, I think we had enough of Ibiza, last night I could not sleep at all, after having a couple of cervezas to put me to sleep, and that was in the morning after my last post btw, I woke up after less than half an hour sleep with slamming doors and loud noises out on the hotel corridor, it was our neighbors who were coming back from their clubbing out all night, and the noise from outside was not more comforting either, so there I go with all failed efforts to get some rest. But why am I complaining, I should know by now that rest is the only thing you don’t get in Ibiza. I guess now I’m ready for the stillness of Moncofa.
And when my sleeping habit changes I become a bat, no, worse than that, I just continue with a restless body and wide awake eyes and the worst mood you’d ever imagine me, the cool person, in. No, I assure you that you wouldn’t want to know this side of my personality, and I guess that’s what’s happening to me now, so I decided to have a couple of beers to calm my agitation since the pain killers did not do their job and I’m still suffering, it’s not much pain really, it’s the discomfort I get from the plastic wrapping around my waist that makes me feel like a roasted chicken, but hey, the bar tender in the ferry seemed to like me that he started a conversation and offered me the second beer for free, actually he’s not a bad looking guy at all, and his English is not bad either, but if only he could see beyond my T-shirt LOL.
I’m really exhausted, ya nas, abiiiiiiiiii anaaaaaaaaaaaam.
I came back to my place hoping to get some sleep and instead I got a bloated belly and an activated kidney, and here I am writing my diary and taking a break only to visit the bathroom. And as if I needed that, my friend started the count down, she just mentioned to me that we only got two more weeks left and then back to the heat and gloom of Kuwait; shut the f*&k up.
Only in Ibiza
Don’t know why, but in spite of all this, I started thinking of my first visit to El Divino, sitting on the VIP terrace that feels like a deck of a yacht amid the sea, enjoying the sea breeze watching Miss MoneyPenny on large screens that were playing live inside, that night I was so taken by the atmosphere that I did not notice the crowd that got bigger by the minute until I had to go to the bathroom.
It was on my way to the restrooms when I realized that there was a wave of crowd going in and another going out, and as I passed with the flow, I felt some deliberate touches on my shoulders and hair but I totally ignored them until I got beyond the terrace door where there were about three steps up that I did not see from the crowd, in my haste, I tripped over the first step and landed palms down on the third, it was then when I felt a hot slap on my butt, and heard a roar of laughter, and since my head was still down, I spotted the guy who did this.
Now that made me furious and I had to get back at him, so I rowed my way through the crowd back to where he was pretending unsuccessfully to be chatting with a bunch who could not hide their bewilderment of me coming back for revenge and showed their excitements for the coming battle.
I patted his shoulder, and when he jerked to face me I pointed an index at him gesturing that I knew he did that and asked him with a sign language to stoop, and he carelessly did with a wide smile on his face only to get the most powerful slap on his butt that made him painfully scream, honestly, I did not think that I was capable of doing that and the slap did not only redden his but it also swelled my palm. I turned around without looking at his face or his friends’ who cracked up laughing; it was a technique I used to veil my hurt from the sour palm that the act had caused. But, in about a split of a second I felt a harder slap on my right butt cheek, hmmmmmmm, shasawi feeh al7een, I decided to pass on that and continued my way to the bathroom because apparently the guy liked his silly game and I figured that it would go on all night where I neither had energy to slap back with an already sore palm nor my ass could take more slapping, I could have used some techniques I learn in TaiBoxing classes I attended in the past, but my decoltee, short dress was not very practical.
Back to Moncofa 5/8/2005
It’s Friday night, the night for beach clubbing in this village, and although we were so exhausted from the wild night life of Ibiza, we missed the less glamorous, casual outdoors clubbing, so a bit of Salsa here and Merengue there was a nice comeback. And since this village is so small and almost everyone knows each other, in these places we looked like aliens since tourists usually attend the more posh places of Valencia; girls would search us head to toe, and guys were a different story; Why is it that the ones you really like are usually the bummers and the losers who would ogle you from a distant but never make a move? and the ones that you don’t find yourself attracted to gather around you like mosquitoes?
Speaking of mosquitoes; those creatures have something special for me, ever since I came here they have stayed in my company, although I have tried every trick on the book to drive them away, they never go close to Elegance although we are always together, why me!!! And the damn devils choose to kiss you in the weirdest places.
6/7/2005
A Valencian friend came to visit with her two adorable daughters, her sister and her mother, the day was really relaxing and we spent it mostly on the beach, and although our visitors have lived most of their lives in and around this area, they have never been to this place which technology had not destroyed yet and it kept it’s old Spanish village style. The girls 5 and 4 years old were an excitment for me, it has been a while since I’ve been around children that age, they were following me around with their curious eyes and angelic smiles checking out every move I made,
At night, their mother and aunt made a considerable effort to put them in bed, they sensed that we were up to something and they did not want to miss the fun, so after making sure that they were both sound asleep we had a girl’s night out where we went to a Cuban bar which is renowned for it’s best Mojitos in Valencia and then we went to a trendy Valencian pub where we spent the rest of the night but unfortunately I came back home with the most detested company you’d like to have on a vacation; the flue. Yes, Elegance transmitted her germs to me and that predicted bedding for the coming three days, that’s if I was lucky enough to recover by then.
Thursday, August 4
Nothing Goes as PlannedWe were supposed to go to Privilege last night, instead we ended up in Space; a huge night club consisting of two big dancing halls and no VIP section which means nowhere to sit, we stayed there until the break of the day and waked to the nearby Bora Bora beach early morning. The sand was so cool to our feet and the scenery was so relaxing after the constant dom dom sound of drums and the suffocating smoke in Space, the night club was not a big deal after Pacha and El Divino, it was packed with teenagers and druggists, but since we were already there and have paid dearly for the entrance we decided to have fun regardless of what, and so we did.
So the remainder of the day’s plan was to get some rest, do the tattoo, go to El Divino and bid a farewell to the owner ( our host) and then go to Pacha for all the activities was supposed to be taking place there.
We did get some rest for sure and I did the tattoo (Finally after over a year of hesitation) but nothing else went as planned.
After three hours of sitting under the artist’s needle, I was so hurt and exhausted and to my surprise I found my friend suffering from a bad case of flew, it must have been the sudden change of weather. We had a bite at a nearby restaurant with ahhhs and eeehs from me and achoos from my roommate; it surely was not a good night to go out since the weather also was cold due to the escalating wind shield factor. So we came back to the hotel after having a bottle of rose wine and dropped dead.
Now it’s almost four o’clock in the morning, my roommate is sound asleep but I’m wide awake with pain and as the saying goes; illi yabi elna7 ma yegool a7 ( did I say that right?), but mind you; as a friend said to me earlier today: “ it’s a fucking awch”.
Tomorrow we are checking out and heading back to Moncofa; the peaceful village. So privilege and amnesia have to wait for another visit, I guess i7na mo waih Ibiza after all LOL.
the Donhas mentioned something about MTC Vodafone on his post yesterday and he thought it was funny, well since I came here I have had enough problems with my GPRS that I have continuous phone calls to them almost every day, and on each phone call a supposedly technical person answers back with his expertise to guide me fix the problem, I’m sure I’m going to have a heart attack after receiving my next bill, and it won’t be so funny. They have told me that GPRS is covered all around Spain, well guys, they lied. I know for sure now that the services are not covered in Valencia even though they still stubbornly keep insisting that it does. But the funny part is that each technician I talked to asks me to put my mobile off (after almost ten minutes of directing me to reprogram the mobile) and after two minutes put it back on and “it would definately work), which it never does, and after my thank you they always say: “ khidma thaniya ya e6ayba?” which means (for non Arab friends); any other service you require?, heck!!!! Just get the damn thing working and I would really be grateful.
Anyway I guess I would have to give up and instead use one of the Lucatorio places for keeping up, did I mention that blogging is addictive?
So guys this is a real adios for now. Until next time be good and do everything your little heart desires, even if it was a tattoo.
awwwwwwwwwch
Tuesday, August 2
Café Del MarSo, we could not say goodbye to Ibiza after all, we have decided to extend our visit three more days, after watching the sun set in café Del Mare we had a quench in the stomach every time we thought of leaving. I’ve heard so much about watching sunset on CDM where the music gets mellower as the sun makes it’s dip into the sea, and when it finally disappears people would applause, but I have never in my wildest imagination have seen this load of people all sitting and facing the sun and waiting for the final count down, it was packed and no where to place a foot. And the scenery was heavenly.
Although we had arrived way before sunset; there was no place to sit, but a young couple offered us two seats on their table and we have learned that they were on there second day of their honeymoon, not only that but the lady mentioned that she received the proposal on the same day that they got married and flew to Ibiza all in one day. I took some pictures and video clips of the place as well as of the lovely honeymooners (she’s from Australia and he’s an Italian living in Geneva) and I will publish them later.
Ah and one more thing; we had Sex on the Beach, and for your information that is the name of a drink, so don’t let your twisted minds wander LOL, and it was great, I mean the drink, but I bet the other stuff would have been out of this world ;)
After leaving CDM we realized that our car was towed by the police for parking on a yellow designated side of the street, it was not my fault because I warned my roommate but after circling the place several times, not finding a space, my friend said that in Ibiza everything goes, well I guess she was wrong about that. And since we were hungry and did not have a bite all day, we decided to take it easy and get something to eat and then think about the car. Getting the car back was never easier; we took a cab that took us to the local police and paid a fine of about 40 Euros and got acquainted with the gorgeous police who gave us some tips on site seeing and we were off back to the hotel for some rest before our night program, but to our surprise we did not wake up until next morning.
So after our breakfast we went to Bora Bora beach where the place was packed with the ones who came from clubbing in Space; usually clubbing starts there around 8am and noontime all the tons head to Bora Bora and slam motionless on the beach, hell I don’t know how they do it, any way the place was nice and the music was awesome, so we stayed there all day and then headed again towards CDM, but to our disappointment, it was cloudy and not as good as the day before, so we left for dinner at a friend’s house (the owner of El Divino); a huge house on the top of the mountain, the scenery was breathtaking, and our host was very generous.
Then we left for the tattoo place to check exactly what I wanted done, the artist Tai was highly recommended by the locals; and that’s her name not her nationality LOL, anyway I fixed an appointment for Wednesday.
As we left the tattoo place the weather suddenly changed; it got windy and cold, and we started shivering with our summer clothes, so like everyone else on the streets we started running to our car and back to the hotel. And since we did not get any warm clothes with us to Ibiza we called the night off and watched CNN instead of attending manumission in privilege.
This morning doesn’t look as bad, so hopefully we’ll do some gift shopping and get to Privilege late at night; crossing my fingers.
Name::AyyA
From::Kuwait
I AM WHO I AM AS I ARRIVE AT YOUR DOOR WHETHER I COME OR I GO IS NOT UP TO ME FOR I HAVE LOST SIGHT OF ALL DESIRE "Walled Garden of Truth",Hakim Sanai
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