Travelling Alone Again
Trip Start
Feb 10, 2008
1
5
29
Trip End
Aug 06, 2008
Playa del Carmen,
Mexico
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
We were due to leave Valladolid last Thursday at 13:00, but just before the checkout I noticed that the TV in our room was showing the Spurs vs Slavia Prague game live, starting in half an hour. So I managed to arrange a deal with the hotel that involved me staying until to 4 to watch the game, in exchange for a few Pesos. I kind of regretted this after watching a fairly boring 1-1 draw with Spanish commentary, but made my way to Merida anyway. Eventually I managed to find the other guys, who had booked a spacious room in a dump of a hotel. The first night I just read my book in the local park, whilst the others stayed close to the toilet in the hotel room (Geoff had had a close call on the bus earlier.....)
Unfortunately the room only had four beds, and so the first night we had to draw cards to see who would have to share. We had already done this in the last hotel, and after getting a measly 4 I had had to share with Ulrik the Dane. I wasnīt too bothered as the bed was massive and the room was air conditioned, so it wasnīt a big deal. But this time the bed was barely big enough for two, and there was no air conditioning, so I was keen to have a bed to myself (Iīm sure anyone who went to Spain, Bird in particular, can sympathise). However, to continue my streak of card-related bad luck, I once again drew a 4, and once again had to share with Ulrik.
Merida Central Park
To make things worse he was beginning to come out of his shell a little, and we had discovered that his favourite phrases were "I just wana rock out with my c*ck out", and "I just wanna dip my balls in mashed potato and thrash them around"..... Scandinavians eh..... Anyway as far as I can remember nothing untoward happened in our 3 nights of bedsharing, and if it did then I have repressed the memories to the deepest depths of my subconscious and have no desire to search for them.We stayed in Merida until Monday, as we were there for this all-weekend fiesta that comes highly reccommended in the guidebook. The fiesta itself was a massive dissapointment (unless you have an irrational love for old people dancing and paying over the odds for crappy souvenirs), but we actually had a really good weekend.
Saturday was probably my favourite day of the trip - four of us decided to head to this real Mexican looking bar for a beer after lunch, and we didnīt stumble out till about 5 hours and a beer or 6 later. It was probably the kind of place you would do anything to avoid back home - full of old drunks, filthy toilets, about 67 brain cells between all the locals present etc - but in Mexico it was amazing. We were treated like Kings or celebrities - we must have shook about 60 hands, most of them about 5 times each - and we ended up speaking to loads of the locals. Special mentions have to go out to the guy who wandered over, shook all of our hands, downed Richieīs beer in one without asking, and promptly got chucked out; the old woman who no-one could understand and who may well have wet herself just before we left; the old gent whose fingers bent backwards at a freakish 90 degree angle and who kept banging our table for no apparent reason; the fat wench who seemed to be constantly crying, and who took a liking to Ulrikīs shaved head and his body in general; the list could go on.
That night we met some Mexican dude who took us to a nearby club.
Old Cathedral in Merida
It was actually pretty cool - the usual mix of dancing and drinking etc - but with the twist that every 10 minutes a gay looking boyband would hit the stage and thrust their hips around to the vocal delight of all the screaming girls (and secretly to the less vocal delight of yours truly.....donīt tell anyone). Despite this persistently annoying interlude we had fun.Our group of 5 was reduced to 4 when Kane left for Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon, and my personal group was reduced to 1 when the other 3 headed off west to Palenque and I returned to Playa Del Carmen to do some more partying and diving.
Although I had fun with the other guys, I am lookin forward to travelling on my own again as I will meet more people and speak Spanish more frequently. This proved to be the case last night, when, as soon as I arrived at the hostel, I went up to the roofterrace and met a load of people from Mexico, Argentina, Sweden, Switzerland and England. We went out to a bar and I spent most of the night talking to Agostina, an Argentinian graphic designer. I must confess that at times I was just nodding and smiling and hoping for the best, but when I concentrated I felt I could hold a decent converstion in Spanish with her.
So to today, which I have spent being followed around by one of the guys from last night, despite my trying to shake him. Even when I left him sleeping on the beach he managed to find me at this internet cafe, and I have a feeling he has no money and I am going to end up paying.....
Our Beautiful Room
Still he did give me a rum and coke last night, so fair is fair. I think tomorrow I am going to head to Cozumel to do my 4 day diving course, which I am really looking forward to. Itīs been really cloudy today, and as Playa Del Carmen is basically just about the beaches there isnīt all that much to do. Speaking of which, in reference to the title of this blog, I am pretty much exactly the same colour as when I left, apart from a slightly pinker nose and one less layer of skin on my back. Some of you may also be interested / disturbed to hear that I am yet to have shaved my little "beard", which grows more ginger and pube-like by the day. Itīs weird; even though I know I should shave it off, and that I will look better without it, and that people wll probably point and laugh at me less, I canīt bring myself to do it.
As I have nothing else really to do this afternoon, and as I want to avoid speaking to my faithful Mexican sidekick for as long as possible, here are the top 5 things that I do miss and definitely do not miss (in no particular order):
Do Miss:
1) Friends and family, of course.
2) Any sort of privacy and personal space.
3) My bed, or any comfy bed for that matter.
4) Food: Variation in, and quality of (cereal especially!!)
5) Toilets with seats and / or toilet paper
Do Not Miss:
1) Work :)
2) Cold
3) English people in general
4) Bar 31
5) Everything else
As usual I could go on for much longer, but it tires me. It is also very annoying when you sit here typing for what feels like 40 days and 40 nights, only to go back and read it all in what feels like 40 seconds.
Hope everyone is well
x
P.S. I have uploaded some photos to one of the old entries if anyone is interested; I am trying to upload more but it is so slow, and it keeps on crashing, and Iīm very hot, and itīs annoying me.
