I flew to Barcelona on Saturday, July 15th. Mikko and Sini had already travelled there a week before and checked out all necessary tourist attractions. So we spent the Saturday partying, and the Sunday on beach. Sini's flight back home was on Monday morning so we took her to the airport, rented a shitty 1.1 car and drove to the mountains. Already on the way we were stunned by the views and really looking forward to get to the mountains.

We started our trek from Torla. We were supposed to hike for 4 to 5 days, but on the second day got a little lost so we had to go back for some kilometers. For reasons that are too boring to be explained, we continued back to start so in the end we hiked only three days. Although I was pissed off of not completing the whole route, I am happy for the three days as the experience and the views were great!

The weather was very good for the first 1.5 days, not too hot although the sun shone all the time. After that we got a thunderstorm and it rained a lot in the evening, in the night and on the following day.

A good thing of not completing the trekking route was that we had time to do some extra stuff. In the evening when we got back from the hike, we went to eat some pizza and came up with an idea of visiting Nice. So we packed the car in the morning and drove for the whole day. Spent two days in Nice and visited Monaco too.

Although we knew there would be road tolls, we were not expecting to pay some 40 euros of them to get to Nice.. just a warning if you're planning of driving in France. Oh yes, someone please tell me why do the French keep their car windows open in speeds of 120km/h?

After Riviera on Saturday, we had to get closer to Barcelona because Mikko's flight was on Sunday morning. So we drove back to Spain, to a city called Torre del Mar and got a room from a pensionate. They charged extra 10 euros for the remote controller of the air-conditioning.. capitalists.

I took Mikko to the airport on July 23rd and continued my vacation by myself. When we got back from Riviera, we drove a small coastal road from France to Spain and the views and places there were so nice that I drove back to north and spent the next two days in a small beach village called Port de la Selva. That's a quiet city, a lot of families and not much nightlife. And a good beach, of course.

After that I went to Lloret de Mar for two days. Lloret de Mar was a noisy party city, all about (young) tourists having fun on the beach and in the nightclubs. Wouldn't call this my dream holiday destination, although I did have some fun there. And I'm not the only one. When I told one Spanish girl in Barcelona that I had visited Lloret de Mar, she looked like I had told someone had died: "Oh no.. that's terrible.. terrible.."

I then drove to Barcelona and I was supposed to spend only one night there. But when I got to the airport on Friday, there was a strike and all flights had been cancelled. So, after 5 hours of standing in lines I got my flights rescheduled for Sunday and went back to the city to party a little more.