“Duit tak boleh beli pengalaman.”

– Dzamir “Grohl” Dzulkiply, on spending one’s hard-earned cash on travelling as opposed to anything else

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There you have it. What I thought was a simple exercise of putting up my thoughts online from my little travel diary was harder than I thought it would be. For one, I did have 1000+ photos to sift through for the blog entries and the photoblog(s). Not to mention that I had to photoshop the selected ones as well. Imagine if I was being paid to do this, I’d probably afford another trip to Europe.

The trip may have not changed my life, but it was definitely one of my best vacations I have ever had. I have to say had I done this in my student days (I go back to Malaysia all the time), it would have meant doing it on a shoestring budget. Nothing wrong with that, but when you have a lil’ bit more, you get to see / do / eat more. Then again, that goes without saying.

I have learnt a few things (apart from saying la quenta, por favor) on this trip, though. Even reinforced a few notions I’ve always held regarding friendships as well. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend to be a travel partner. So, here’s to ya, kiddo! Give me a buzz next time you wanna go to NYC / the Andes / Mars.

There were a few things on reflection that I hadn’t mentioned in my travelogs:
– The cat in the bar near Anuar’s dig drinks alcohol and is perpetually bladdered. Really.
– People make you think that quite a lot of the Spanish in bigger cities speak English. Don’t believe that. Use your phrasebook. Apart from showing the locals that you are trying, it also makes your travels more interesting.
– Whilst it was nuts to travel to Spain in the scorching July heat, the were fewer people about. Just look at your friends’ travel photos in places like Rome. Damn.
– “Spanish women are the poor men’s Italian women”. What a load of tosh! Viva España!
– Renfe is not synonymous with the word tren.
– Ninie got cat-called / wolf-whistled by passing Spanish men (especially those on construction sites and road works) in 4 out of 5 cities. Tweet-tweet-tweet (Madrid and Granada), *undecipherable* (probably meant Cik adik sorang je ke? – Sevilla) and Pon!Pon! (Córdoba). Probably the guys in Barcelona weren’t really into chicks.

I think this would sum it up nicely:

Pethethethethe, hethethethethe. Boutros boutros-ghali.