h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hence am writing again, even tho not much has happened... Oh, except that I have a big rant about getting money.

Have spent the last few days in Valencia, with one night in a small town called Sagunto, which featured a Roman/medieval fortress and amphitheatre and a nice beach, plus the usual cathedral, bars, plazas and winding streets (densely populated with mopeds...). More chicken and rabbit paella as well

Agnes went back to London on wednesday and since then I´ve stayed in valencia trying unsuccessfully to get the local American Express agent to cash my travellers cheques. After the 3rd time she told me to come back later because they had no cash I asked her when the last time was that they cashed a cheque and got a non-committal but less than positive response, if they ever had cash (same response) and if there was any chance of me getting them to cash a cheque (ditto, with an apology). So I departed, quite pissed off, a bit stressed, and down to my last 5 euros, becuse my key card was not working and my credit card has no PIN. I could have changed a cheque at the bank if I´d gone earlier in the day, but they charge 7% commission which works out to nearly a quarter of my daily budget...

This morning I set out determinedly with card, US dollars and travellers cheques in hand, and discovered that my key card is working again... I don´t know if this was affected by my call to the bank the other day, or if it is merely a whim of the universe which has become bored with stressing me out of my tiny mind!

It did lead me to a new stress reducing pasttime (in addition to my previous favourite of making lists) - writing a dichotomous key of my decision making process and options. This was very helpful, because I realised that none of the pathways ended with starving in a gutter. So last night I spent my last euros on beer, and went out dancing til 4am with a bunch of people from the hostel

Today I´m heading for Alicante where I hope to find a school and settle for 2 weeks to learn Spanish.

Love to you all

ah dancing until four in the morning - is there nothing that it can't cure?
(..and how i miss it so )

hehe. well good to see you still alive despite the money woes. i myself have had to solve the the problem of pretty much loosing the equaivalent of your daily allowance most days by buying that much neeed new wallet. (yes - the cow wallet is gone, long live the cow wallet). anyways, sounds as if there is plenty to see and experience even with minimal cash flow

Enjoy spain, good luck with learning the language! I guess the you'll know your getting the hang of it when those dichotomous keys spew out in spanish!

rod the killer!

(dichotomous keys?!? - man, that's just mental..)