I managed to buy a ticket from Passeig de Gracia to Tarragona without too much trouble, but did get a bit
worried when it seemed the train wasn’t making any stops and I thought we may
be going straight to Valencia.
Luckily it did stop in Tarragona
on the way.
I was looking forward to wandering around this ancient town full of
Roman ruins and was especially excited about the amphitheater, which is said to
be one of the best preserved amphitheaters in Europe,
and the Circ Roma, tunnels through which the chariots would race around
the city. It was pretty amazing sitting in the amphitheater thinking about how
people used to watch gladiators fight in that very spot so many years ago. Apparently
they still have mock fights on festival days.
On the way to the cathedral I
discovered there was some sort of festival being held, with red and yellow
flags decorating the streets and vendors dressed in medieval costumes setting
up their stalls. I found out the following day that it was the festival
celebrating the liberation of Valencia
from the Moors by the Christians.
After a long afternoon of walking I was ready to sit in the plaza near the old
Roman wall with a beer and some tapas of chirichollo sausages – my new favorite
tapas of small spicy sausages. Yum!
It was a nice change to treat myself to a hotel room (after
all, I have to keep reminding myself that I am no longer a student and don’t
HAVE to stay in overcrowded hostels all the time!) and I was glad to be able to
go back to a nice quiet room for a late afternoon nanna nap. I showered and
headed out again at 8pm hoping to see some action from the band I’d seen
setting up on La Rambla Vella, but apparently I was still way too early as most
things only seem to kick off after 11pm in Spain, which is a little too long to be hanging out alone on a street at night. Instead I bought some crackers and cheese and headed back for an early
night to catch up on some e-mails on the hotel wifi.
