Sitges, Spain

A thirty minute trip south by train took us to the beaches at Sitges (prounounced sit-chez). I should be a little more accurate, though; we spent thirty minutes at the train station trying to figure out which train we should take and another thirty minutes actually travelling in the train. This confusion has been a constant experience with train travel during our trip, as the local train schedule is very complex and poorly explained. I'm convinced that to understand the trains here requires some sort of numerical mysticism akin to cabala. Here's why: There are 7 train lines heading in two directions for a total 14 possible trains. These trains leave every 3 minutes from one of 6 platforms which have no correspondence whatsoever as far as I can tell to the line number, and the trains are marked by their final destination. Thus, navigating by rail would seem fairly simple; if you are lucky enough to be standing on the correct platform and see a train marked with the final destination of the line your stop is on, you are good to go. But, unfortunately, there's a rub! At least three of the train lines have the same final destination, which means that two completely different trains will be marked exactly the same way and come into the same platform. As a result, we once realized four stops too late that we were heading to the airport when we thought we were heading to the mountains. Rashmi and I have abandoned any attempts to devine the mysteries of Spanish rail transit and instead have resigned ourselves to asking a train attendant where we should stand and when we should step on the train -- essentially a leap of faith on our parts.
Sitges is a quaint beach town. I use the word "quaint" in its complimentary sense because the town is a small but bustling and picturesque resort. The streets are narrow alleys much like in Barcelona's Gothic quarter, only filled with rows of boutiques and bistros. Rashmi has already informed me that we'll heading back here soon to go shopping. The beaches are some of the most packed beaches I've ever seen -- and distracting (I won't elaborate this point, but use your imaginations). Rashmi and I spent most of our time on the beach, and as a result I've acquired a bright red tint. Rashmi, on the other hand, is very brown except for the white outline of her sunglasses left on her face.

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Note -- Some of the comments that have shown up after some of these post are spam (i.e., people using the comments to try to generate publicity for their websites). I'd avoid clicking on the links in any of the comments unless you know the person who left the comment.