Louise

Port Aventura I'm a bit confused about how long we actually spent at Port Aventura and don't know what we did on each day, so I'll just lump it all in together. PA was definitely one of my favourite parks of the trip, I could have spent a week there and never gotten bored. I've spent as long as I can remember watching cheesy tv advertisements for the resort and when I started visiting Europe on my own in my teens always talked about going, but still didn't really expect the theming to be as amazing as it was. The areas are all beautifully done, we spent a good chunk of our first afternoon in the park just walking around (the place is freaking huge, by the way!) exploring. The food was good, the hotel was nice, bar was fun (though needed to be open later ), my only real complaint about the hotel was the internet access... I paid for 20 minutes one evening and it took 12 minutes to go to my email log-in screen and another 6 to log me in, leaving me with 4 minutes to read and respond to everything. Furius Baco evoked interesting responses from people, and it seemed to very much be a love/hate coaster. I for one loved it, and created my own "I despise it but want to ride it constantly" or "I love it but want to destroy it" camp. It seemingly kicked the crap out of a lot of people, but I found it highly aggressive rather than rough, which I like in a steel coaster. Odd though, because generally I feel pain and roughness more than most seem to. But whatever. I loved it. Never quite got a night ride, I kept just missing it closing, so I guess I have a good reason to go back! Dragon Khan was a lot of fun, and one of my most anticipated coasters of the trip. Your ride is DEFINITELY mostly dependent on what train you end up in though, the green(?) train was not a fun ride at all, yet I loved the ride in the others. My front row night-ride on Khan is a stand-out memory. The view going up the lift hill is incredible, I hadn't realised until then how close we were to the water. El Diablo... I really remember nothing about this ride other than the "million" lift hills. I love the section where you go up a lift hill, drop, go around a bend, and then go up another lift hill. So pointless, but so funny. Tami-Tami was actually a lot of fun, although that might just be because I rode it in Kyle's arms. This was the first coaster we rode in the park, figuring we'd save the great stuff for last, but it actually wound up being much fun! Didn't bother with a re-ride though I don't think, far too much other good stuff to do than return to a family coaster, fun or not. Tomahawk, the junior woodie, was also pretty decent. Give me that over Stampida any day of the week. A few people rode Stampida on the first day, though I didn't, and warned me it was pretty brutal. The morning of our Stampida ERT was the day after I'd found out that I'd graduated from uni back home, so I was just *slightly* hungover after consuming rather a lot of Sangria in celebration. That, combined with my low tolerance for restraint-related bashing meant that I only managed to ride three times (and it would have been two, I was co-erced into the third one) before collapsing on a bench. I'd agree with Robb's assessment in the PA thread that inside Stampida somewhere is a great woodie, but those trains... That was what killed me. Many of us sported matching "Stampida bruises" on the outsides of our legs for the rest of the trip. Mine didn't heal for two weeks! One of the most awesome attractions at the park (thanks Larry for reminding me of its existence) is Templo del Fuego. It's sort of the same basic idea (effects-wise) as Universal's Backdraft, only with an acted (and sometimes improvised) pre-show rather than a video one. I was told (but don't know if it's true or not) that it holds or held some kind of world record for manufactured fire being the closest to the audience. It's awesome, anyway, with a couple of surprising moments. Just watch out for the one cocky actor who uses the Spanish and French speaking audience members to make fun of the English. :: As far as flats and miscellaneous attractions go, Hurakan Condor has to be the first thing I mention. It's rare these days for pretty much anything to give me a *real* adrenaline hit, but I got off that thing shaking from the rush. Incredible view, incredible drop. I loved all three sides but I think the floorless standing was my favourite. And the ride-ops deserve kudos for creating the finger-waggling "nononononononono" which became part of our repertoire. The splashdown boat was GREAT, with two drops, the second of which has the potential to drench the boat going up the first lift if it's timed right. Saturating flume too, which we rode frequently to escape from the heat, and since we had awesome front-of-the-line passes. The park also had a bunch of "meh" flats which were all run pretty tamely, though Larry Chris and Robb managed to damn near snap my spine on the teacups, a rubbish simulator with the funniest safety video EVER (somebody needs to post that if anybody has it), and a damn decent show over the lake in the evenings. Not quite up there with Disney, but a fab show all the same. Definitely one of my favourite parks now. Oh, and the resort also has a waterpark. It's pretty nice, and the slides are decent, but it's not exactly huge, and really isn't anything too special. Definitely a nice enough place to spend a few hours in the afternoon though, I'm really glad we all went. Plus, we got a bonus striptease for FREE!!! I took VERY few pictures at this park, in fact I only took my camera out of the hotel room on the first day we arrived. I was having so much fun that I didn't bother taking pictures, so it didn't seem worth carrying the camera around. Apologies that out of the few pictures I'm posting, half of them are from the bar. Hector and I are happy to be at Port Aventura... And I'm happy to have my own Retarded Red Hat Club! The first lunch. Everybody else ate from this Italian place, I went and got a giant footlong chili cheese dog. The Panthers enjoyed meeting Woody('s girlfriend). This picture REALLY doesn't capture how wet we are. From the ankles down and from the knees up I was SOAKED, with only my mid-legs oddly dry. The awesome bar crew, who made it worth being exhausted every morning. Hi Ed! I find it funny how worried Robb looks by Chris's tongue... In fairness, it could have been ANYWHERE. Me and Jeff in the bar on celebration night. Kyle and I are hot... And I mean that in the literal sense. SYNCHRONISED POSING. Not only did I get a free striptease performed for me at the waterpark, but also back at the hotel... You whore.

Piers, thanks for that, that picture's great... though I look about twelve years old!! Eric, wait another week or so for my California update, I was there this summer! Kept it fairly quiet this time as it was a whirlwind visit and more about catching up with close friends, but I'll be back at some point in either 2008 or 2009 and look forward to meeting a bunch of new people! Hector, your pictures were fantastic, way better than mine, you NEED to do a trip report at some point! Just doing Port Aventura now... Thanks for all the comments guys!

And I'm jealous of your snow. Far too much rain and wind here and not much of anything else. I love snow. Oops, sorry Jon!! I remembered you and Kyle didn't ride because it was right after that that you guys fixed my bag for me (lol), I'll fix the credit now! Edit: Fixed the broken quote tag.

So my original plan was to post installments on alternate days, but it just dawned on me that if I do that, it will take me another two months to finish this. So we'll stick with daily for now. Spain Trip Day Two: Parque de Atracciones (I'm spelling that different every time, I think it's actually right this time) de Madrid, and Parque de Atracciones de Zaragoza. We spent the first half of the day back at PdA (that needed acronymising) Madrid, this time with the whole group, then in the late afternoon headed over to Zaragoza for the evening and dinner, staying at a hotel in the area before travelling towards Barcelona the following day for our stay at Port Aventura. Parque Madrid was another surprise for me, as were most of the parks. I'd read about and seen lots of pictures for Port Aventura and Parque Warner (most Brits will probably agree that Port Aventura tv advertising is almost saturating during summer), but most of the other Spain parks were unfamiliar to me, and for whatever reason my expectations weren't all that high, so a lot of them really impressed me. I despised G-Force at Drayton, so Abismo ERT wasn't exactly something I was looking forward to, but it had turned out on Day Zero that it's a kick-ass coaster!! I still think that while you're waiting for the back of the train to finish up the lift, a little *too* much blood rushes to your head as you're hanging upside down, but it wasn't uncomfortable in the way G-Force was, and the airtime hill was amazing! The restraints also didn't seem quite as painful as Drayton's, though I'm still not a fan. Robb, Kristie, myself, and a bunch of others ended up getting stuck lying on our backs on the thing, and mine and Kristie's restraints ended up bruising our hipbones, I'm guessing ours being more prominent than the men's made us easy victims, but God it hurt. That's a minor complain though really, the coaster was really awesome and will likely be a permanent fixture on my favourites list. I've ridden four of the Maurer Söhne spinning mice, each one beating the last. Tarantula was the third... So I guess it's my second favourite. As always, weight distribution had a hell of a lot to do with what kind of ride you got, but even when all was pretty even and we didn't spin a huge amount, the coaster was still a lot of fun. This has to be one of the coasters on the trip I re-rode the most, which is always a good sign, as I'm not big on re-rides and even during an hours' ERT will quite often move onto something else a little over halfway through. I warned you there'd be coasters where I just went "yeah, I don't remember". Tornado is one of them. I remember waiting in line for it, I remember where I sat, but I recall barely anything about the ride except that I felt it had a severe lack of supports and desperately needed more structure to it. [/sarcasm] I guess my lack of memory probably means I neither loved nor hated it. I only rode once, as far as I recall. Other stuff.... The Small World rip-off which portrays Americans as cheeseburger-eating Statues-of-Liberty, Brits as Beefeater-hat-wearing people in red phoneboxes, and French people as prostitutes. A Ghetto Jungle Cruise with REALLY politically-incorrect tribesmen, and British explorers shouting "You dirty bastard!" while trying to climb up trees.... And Desperado. Which I can't explain except to say that you are NOT meant to shoot at your number, and you may be turned into a donkey if you do badly. I've now ridden this ride in Spanish and in Japanese... Some day I'll get to an English one and figure out what the hell the awesome moustachioed guy is saying to me. Enough rambling, sorry! No doubt I'll ramble more when people jump in and remind me of things later! Pictures! Early on at Parque Madrid, Kristen was doing this incredibly cute smile that I tried to photograph, but I wasn't quick enough and ended up with this shot instead. Incredibly cute, but my GOD it's freakish how much she looks like Robb here! We were really early (I'm not complaining, way better early than late and we can always entertain ourselves), so I took a couple of arty shots while we were waiting for Tarantula to open for our ERT. I'm a big fan of reflections. The face is Kyle's, pictured in the glasses are myself, Jon, Chadlyr, Dave, Hector, Tomi and Ed. I enjoyed watching Ron and Kyle bond this day over similar hobbies. I always enjoyed watching Ron show off how flexible he is! Amazing. I still say he's a twelve year old Romanian girl masquerading as a 30-something Californian guy. I include this photo only as an example of why I don't take coaster shots. Ever. I decided the flume had gotten me wet enough two days prior, and stood and watched the boys ride. Standing and watching them drag along in a tunnel and Hector get DRENCHED by a timed waterfall.... Funniest moment of my life so far, I swear. We all nearly wet ourselves laughing. I guess Ron didn't hear me shouting for attention! Perfecting the art of the stalker-shot. Kyle >>>>> anybody else. If you think Miles is having fun *now*, you should see him in a few minutes when he and Jon, umm.... "collide". This kids ride was like.... Well, don't ride it if you value your external genetalia. Serious pain, even for me. I still laughed at all the guys though. I think this was the moment that Jon lost a vital part of his body. *sings* Why don't you come to your senses.... AWESOME Frisbee!! Jon very kindly played photographer for me again, and caught a few great expressions on our faces! That's me, Ed and Dave in the green, red and blue respectively. As soon as Dave started laughing, I was off too. Much fun ride. Glad we did this instead of clapping on the top spin. Ah yes, the shooting dark ride that scared the crap out of me every single time. Dave here is showing that TPDave in fact stands for "Total Pimp", and not "Thorpe Park" as everybody previously thought. Aaaaaaaand onto Zaragoza. Thanks for your patience if you're still with me. Zaragoza have three coasters: random kiddie mine train (with slightly dubious restrain in the backseat!), a non-looping Pinfari where I stupidly bruised my hand and which was damn terrifying riding with "the Brits" after dark, and Ramses, which is bizarrely fun. All you do is swing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, like a pirate ship on tracks, and yet it's amazingly entertaining. I have a theory that it's all about the seating, rides where you sit face to face and can see other peoples' reactions always seem to end of being all kinds of fun. As well as all that, the park had a *fast* and pretty decent (but unthemed) rapids ride (and they let us put 12 people in a boat!), a fun house, a HYSTERICAL mirror maze (can't wait to see video footage from that), a not-too-scary-but-very-dark ghost train, and.... BOUNCY BOUNCY. (Bouncy Bouncy deserves its own paragraph.) The ride is actually named Quetzal, but to me, will forever be Bouncy Bouncy. I still have no idea what the actual model is, or who makes it, but that thing is still by far the most fun I've ever had on an attraction, and I doubt I've ever laughed so hard in my life. We rode another one in Korea but it was lame compared to the Zaragoza one. All I know is that something about the motion of that thing just cracks me up, and I couldn't stop laughing, especially the second time riding with Miles and Dave (Lawrence), whose laugh is so infectious that I literally cried on the ride. The only other thing that really needs mentioning is the AWESOME treatment we recieved from the park. A lot of us talked afterwards and said it's the parks that go out of their way for you that you remember, not necessarily the "best" parks, and that's definitely true of Zaragoza, so if anybody from the park happens to read this, THANK YOU!! We were warmly greeted, chatted to by the staff, we expected a quick snack buffet-style but were given a three-course banquet, plenty of wine, and beautiful table settings, and to top it all off they threw in some goodies for Robb and Elissa to give out in trivia contests and the like on the bus. They even went so far as to arrange a pizza for a vegetarian member of our group who couldn't eat the food they provided. Great people who definitely made that park one of the most memorable of the trip. The drive to Zaragoza. So much of Spain is like this, so arid and plain, yet strangely beautiful! Hector looks hot even when he's blurred. I love this picture. Miles and Ron both lipsynching along to their own iPods. I spent half the journey trying to read lips and figure out what they were listening to. I ADORE windfarms and was thrilled to see they were everywhere in Spain. The lovely tables they had set up for our meal. Hector and I improvised placecards with our nametags. Notice the monogrammed crockery, clearly the park knows what they're doing with this! Dave had REALLY demolished his meat. Panthers + wine = Recipe for success!! Mmmmmmmmmmm!!! I actually like this picture not because it's a good one of me but because Hector is stealing the freaking show as usual!!! Larry managed to polish off not one but *two* desserts! The mirror maze contained not only mirrored walls but also walls of clear glass.... Cue Dave, Robb, myself, and pretty much everybody else, walking into not only each other and our own reflections, but also clear panes. Hilarity ensues. Literally a millisecond after this picture was taken, Robb's face made a rather loud smashing noise against the glass. "Are you real?!?!" We're smug cos we made it out while the others were still lost inside. Credit to Chadlyr for getting Jon and I out in one piece!! Kyle and I are pussies. I think he was genuinely scared on this one, and I was more than a little creeped out. And I leave you with this it-would-be-brilliant-if-it-wasn't-so-blurry picture of Hector and Dave. Thanks for reading!

OMG the girl in pink with the entire camel HOOF. And Ed and I not being allowed on the chairswings because we were "too wet" and presumably might fall out. Hysterical. I'm gonna end up with like 400 posts in this thread where I'm just responding with things that your responses have reminded me of! Ed, that map is soooo funny. I've always said that my sense of direction is not so much poor as it is nonexistent, but in this case I really do feel like we were a victim of the circumstances, who would've thought that Chamartin train station and Chamartin metro station would be soooooo far apart! The website stated "nearest station" and didn't elaborate, and I just made the mistake of assuming Metro. Lugging those cases around the ghettos of Madrid for two hours.... LOL.

^ Dude, yes!! This is why I need to not leave it so long to do future reports, I forget these things! I won't even touch upon the lunch thing, I actually seemed to be the only person who didn't mind the food, but that menu was damn confusing, and some of the hygiene practices left a LOT to be desired. So bonus number one of the day: Dave arrived bearing gifts of Oreos (which are available over here but are stupidly priced), which I did really well not to open until I got home, whereupon they lasted about a day and a half... And it was a decent-sized box too! And also an awesome CD by a band called Freak Kitchen, who I urge you to listen to, even if you're like me and are usually scared by the sort of music Dave listens to! He'd introduced me to one track which I loved, and the whole album he gave me is all kinds of awesome, though Look Bored is still my favourite, with Walls Of Stupidity coming a close second just because of the message it sends. I think those lyrics sum up both Dave and my own's feelings towards daily life in general. And a major thing I didn't mention: We didn't technically have any ERT booked at Isla Magica, though I believe they had scheduled to bring us into the park early so we didn't have to wait in line for Jaguar. Anyway, bonus ERT is always awesome, and they did take us straight into their 3D movie theatre, which was a double-feature, one of which was a really creepy and all-kinds-of-awesome movie about a cat in a haunted house (I think it was that one anyway, I must have seen 30 of these movies this year), and the second of which was that crappy environmental one that I think I've now seen in four different countries. They also led us over to their pirates shooting dark ride, which was cool too, even though I'm not a fan of that type of ride at all. Should probably edit all this into my last post, but oh well, I'm lazy. My point is, Isla Magica's generosity rules. And so does Dave's.

So Day Zero was spent getting up at a reasonable time and then hanging around in the lobby meeting everybody arriving, including Jon and Kyle, who I had known online forever and who annoyingly were late. Having finally met most of the group, I headed up to the pool with Jon and Kyle for a bit, then a few of us wandered down the street to "Spanish WalMart" to pick up some bits and pieces... Mostly for Jon as he had no luggage. Late afternoon about 25 of us headed over to Parque de Attracciones, which was MUCH fun and involved us "breaking" the first coaster of the trip. I took almost no pictures at the park this day so I won't bother doing my review right now, I'll save it for Day Two when we actually returned for a longer period... And I probably still didn't take many pictures. Anyway, enough rambling. Having gotten used to seeing Robb every six weeks or so for a while when he was in the UK working, it was weird having not seen him for four months! Hence why I'm smiling. Either that or else it's because I was helping collect money from people, and I'm always happy when people give me cash. Condor. Not sure why the horrific face, I was probably being groped. Dave, Carl, Jay and Elz on "El It's A Small Worldo". Biggest rip-off ever. Well, apart from Korean Indy, but that's for later. Chris and I. "Awwww" at our reunion! I have no recollection of what we did that evening, probably just chilled in the nice hotel bar for a while, as we had an EARLY start the next day... Day One - Isla Magica I had already been surprised by the high standard set at Parque de Attracciones the previous day, but Isla Magica kinda exceeded it. Only two coasters (is that really right?? I was sure there were at least three, but rcdb only has the two current and one under construction listed...), but a decent selection of other rides, none of which were *amazing*, but most had their own value, and the park was really quite beautiful. The Spanish really do like their landscaping, and the fountains and lake and theming were really quite impressive. They even had a piece of the Berlin Wall! Jaguar was an SLC... meh... With a BONUS HELIX!! Such an exciting addition... that nobody really cared about. No matter how much I try and turtle myself I always get the shit kicked out of me on SLCs, so I had the minor bruising, but it wasn't too brutal. Not special enough to warrant a re-ride. The park also had a random family coaster with was fun enough, but did NOT warrant the 45+ minutes we waited for it, though we did have a laugh in the line, as we were all in that getting-to-know-you stage and chatting. This was the day that the now-famous "Panthers" really formed, a group which I'm proud to be an honourary member of! As for the other rides, the park had a Maurer Sohne drop tower (proud that I know the manufacturer, anybody?!) which ran a different programme every hour, ranging from an observation mode (LOL to any of us who got stuck with that one unknowingly) to what I think they called a "Double Yoyo". We rode twice, once on medium and once on high programme, and it was actually pretty fun. The building you drop into is hexagonal and damn close to your feet, they have a "nobody over 6'3" in the end seats" rule for a reason on that thing. The splashdown boat was a good one and much welcomed on that day as it was another really hot one, got us nice and soaked in the morning (thank you Miles for being bag lady!), and there was a nice speedy Disk-o which thankfully didn't make Jon sick. Halfway through the afternoon, Kyle, Ed and myself decided to go and play in the fountains, resulting in all three of us getting soaked to the skin. I mean, DRENCHED. Felt great at the time but Ed and I were regretting it when our arses were still wet four hours later at the train station. The only other thing springing to mind as worth writing about was the Flintstones/Indy/messed up obstacle-passing ride, which really has to be seen to be believed. I have no idea how to define it except to describe it as an outdoor dark ride with indoor sections, and the idea is that your car (which looks like a Flintstones car) has to pass through/by ten obstacles in order to get to... heaven/the buffet/insert answer of your choice here. The ride only opened late in the afternoon and we were leaving before closing, so there were a bunch of us sitting waiting for it to open, and it did not disappoint, becoming one of the WTF rides of the trip, despite me only being able to count 7 obstacles and being completely confused as to what the other 3 were, unless sets of doors counted. Pictures! Chris and I are NOT happy to be on a bus on the way to the train station at 5 in the morning... Though at least we actually MADE the bus on time... *cough*Steve Rob Trev*cough* At Madrid train station waiting for our AVE train to Seville. Poor hippo has no idea of the molestation that awaits him on the train (see Kyle's trip report). Me, Kyle, Jon and Miles on the train. Seriously, Jon's face cracks me up EVERY time I see this. He looks like he's about to cry, and it's just hysterical to me. I need to have it blown up and put on a T-shirt. I swear the Panthers were drawn together by a common fudged-up sense of humour. Lovely Miles made four attempts at this photo with my camera before any of us paid any attention. Thanks Miles! Kristie seems to be having fun! And so am I, I think! On the weird Flintstones ride. I guess this was the Day of Horrible Unphotogenicness!! And I leave you with this atrocity of photography, which was me trying to take a nice picture of a bridge, without realising that a) it was way out of focus, and b) there were sodding stickers on the glass.

(Chuckling) Ok ok, I get it. Thanks. LOU, great pics and forgive me. LOL, Wes already covered it but no need for forgiveness, you weren't the target. Thanks for all the positive comments guys, I much appreciate the love seeing as this is (shockingly, considering I've been around well over two years) my first trip report! Part II to follow, I have an hour to kill before sleeping.

Bahahaha!! He does indeed, and he might possibly kill me when his turtle underwear is posted in this trip report...

I sincerely believe that should hell exist, and should I ever end up there, having survived in Japanese and Korean heat and humidity for more three+ weeks, I will find it rather comfortable. ETA: ^ You're speaking to a girl who has driven through West Hollywood in a convertible Jeep listening to a Cher CD! LOL!!!

Updates so far!! Arrival in Spain! Spain Trip - Day Zero and Isla Magica Spain Trip - Parque de Atracciones Madrid & Zaragoza Spain Trip - Port Aventura Spain Trip - Tibidabo (text only, no pictures!!) Spain Trip - Benidorm (pics), and Terra Mitica (no pics) Spain Trip - Parque Warner and the Last Night in Spain My Few Mini-Europe Trip Pics, followed by Guess That Crotch!! Mega August/September Trip - Arrival in Chicago, and SFGAm! Mega August/September Trip - A Day in Chicago - 4 Million Tourist Snaps Mega August/September Trip - Indiana Beach Mega August/September Trip - First Day in California Mega August/September Trip - Antelope Valley Fair, and party Mega August/September Trip - SFMM and Universal Hollywood Mega August/September Trip - Disneyland Resort and Knott's Berry Farm Mega August/September Trip - Sightseeing in Hollywood Japan Trip - Arrival/LaQua/Yomiuriland Japan Trip - Space World, Uminonakamichi Seaside Park, and Yakatori in Fukuoka! Japan Trip - Harmonyland, Wonder Rakutenchi, and Kijima! Japan Trip - Mitsui Greenland! Japan Trip - Central Park/Tegarayama Yuen (pfft!)/Kurashiki Tivoli! Japan Trip - Universal Osaka! Japan Trip - Parque España and a night in Nagoya! Japan Trip - Nagashima Spaland, Lagunasia, Hamanako Pal Pal, random Nagoya stuff! Japan Trip - Day One of TDR - DisneySea!! Japan Trip - Day Two of TDR - Disneyland!! Japan Trip - Day Three of TDR, plus Joypolis!! Japan Trip - Final Day at Tokyo Disney Resort!! Japan Trip - Fuji-Q!! Japan Trip - Sea Paradise/Cosmoworld, and the last morning! South Korea - Arrival, and Tongdo Fantasialand South Korea - Gyeongju World! South Korea - Woobang Towerland and Kumdori Land! South Korea - Everland, Lotteworld, Seoul Land, and others! One last day at DLR... Arrival in Madrid, pre-Spain Trip!! So the end of 2007 approaches, and upon reflection, I had a pretty awesome year. There was definitely some bad mixed in with the good, but as far as the travelling went, it was pretty much all awesome. So I decided to attempt a monster trip-report reflecting this. A few disclaimers: Firstly, I take no geekshots. If you're looking for pictures of trains and wheels and brake-runs... Get out of my thread. I take all people pictures, and that's what this will be, along with Kyle/Chuck-style reviews. Second disclaimer, my memory is terrible, unless I really really love something, or it's fucked up enough to stand out, you may well read "yeah, I have no clue what I thought about this coaster". Thirdly, my photography inclination is pretty erratic, some days I take a hundred photos, other times my camera may not leave my hotel room for three days. With all that said... On with the pictures! I started my year with a few random park visits with Robb, which he very kindly documented so I don't have to.... See below: Much fun behind the scenes of Infusion at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.... I still haven't ridden this damn thing! A quick trip over to Camelot Visiting Southport Pleasureland post-demolition.... So sad it almost made me cry! Blackpool with Robb and Yeti Ball! So all of that (along with two Alton visits, from which I have one single picture), was the beginning of my year! Fast-forwarding a few months, we're now in June, and Ed (Ed) and I head off to East Midlands airport (because you can't fly to Madrid from Manchester) for a day's sightseeing in Spain before the rest of the crew arrive. Our plane arrives, and we have to sit and look at it for forty minutes before they'll actually let us get on it. But it's okay, we have a camera, and poseur-tendencies... Even if it is 5am. *yawn* And we have supplies! After a pretty uneventful flight, and then two hours trying to find our hotel, which was in a dodgy part of town nobody had ever heard of, we eventually made it (late, sorry guys!) to meet up with John (CreativeForce) and his wife Rebecca, who were organised enough to have an architectural walking tour printed out of a book for us to explore with! I have no idea what most of these buildings are, but they're all in the Old section of Madrid, which is a beautiful area, one of my favourite European cities now. I imagine this is the door to Room uno-cero-uno or something. I love it when cities do this, cover up construction with a projection of what the finished building will look like. Silly in a way, but far preferable to taking pictures of scaffolding! I fell in love with this building and wanted to live there. This church was beautiful, hard to photograph though as I couldn't get far away enough to fit what I wanted to in the frame. After an hour or two of exploring in the heat (it was DAMN hot), the four of us settled in Plaza Mayor for a while with a few bottles of Coke and beer, soaking up the atmosphere. The Plaza is amazing, beautiful in and of itself, and surrounded by cool little shops (AMERICAN VIRGIN COMIC BOOK) and cafes, and there are artists and street musicians everywhere. And crazy dogs. Views of the Plaza... After a few drinks and a bit more wandering, we left John and Rebecca to their dinner (but sadly not show-seeing) plans, and headed back to our hotel, hoping to get off the Metro before dark, as it was quite a walk from the station, all down alleyways!! I'll take this opportunity to praise the Metro system, which is totally awesome. Now I've travelled by Shinkansen and the other Japanese train systems, I have to say the Spanish one pales in comparison, but it's extremely cool and convenient nonetheless, much better than anything we have. All in all it was a fun and chilled-out arrival (excepting us getting lost..... Ed and I should NOT travel alone together, by the way), which we needed for the insanity that would ensue beginning the following day... So Robb, Elissa, KidTums, Chris, Rich, Mel, Larry, and probably half a dozen others (it's been too long) were due to arrive at the trip starting point around 1pm the following day. Ed and I slept in, and awoke around 10 (allowing time to make it to that part of Madrid) to a text message from Robb saying they were delayed... We decided to make our way over to the Novotel anyway, dump our luggage and sit in the bar. Another text comes through, they're JUST boarding in New Jersey. Oops. After waiting around the hotel for a while we decided to do some wandering around the area where the hotel was, just see where we ended up. The hotel was right near a roundabout, from which you could walk in four directions, so basically we just walked a while in each direction to see what we came to! This cool-looking sculpture was in the parking lot of what ended up being a pretty nice park with a great view! Now what was that park called..... Oh that's right! This was about five seconds before the wind changed and that waterfall soaked me. Every time I see this picture I have to wonder if I have ever seen anything more gay. I think it was just about surpassed while I was in California though! Random view of the area. That copper shiny building on the right has a hedgehog on it, I never did know why but thought that fact was gloriously random. Lots of random sculptures, buildings, bridges, and fountains in this place. All felt sort of unfinished though, a little odd. I LOVED all the people in business-clothes sprawled out sleeping on the grass all over the park, a good siesta place near their offices, I assume. You could see pretty far across the city! I'm in Madrid. 'Sup. BUST. No idea who he was, but I call him Johnny. Going in a different direction now (one where there ended up being nothing and we turned around), I took this just to prove it was hot. Compared to the rest of my summer, this actually wasn't hot at all, but at the time, it seemed it. So there. Everything is always so landscaped in Spain! And I see McDonald's in the distance!! That place was handy to have around on nights when we got back to the hotel late and were lazy and hungry. Walking alongside the railroad tracks, we decided we were literally on the wrong side of them. But hey, the graffiti was even kinda arty looking and neat, so it's all good! The tracks are down to the left there. Pretty place, and quite peaceful, but I imagine I wouldn't want to be in that area alone after dark. The path shown above eventually leads to this street, again, very pretty, but still covered with graffiti and stuff. Landscaping is typically beautiful though, it being Spain and all. Funky sculpture. I love the bench next to it so you can just.... sit.... and stare.... VOGUE. (See us posing?) So that was our first day and a half in Madrid! Sorry that was such a long walk with all culture and no coasters. After we got back to the hotel, the poor Alveys and co. eventually made it after a 102 hour hellish journey, we all went for dinner, had a few drinks, then crashed, ready for Day Zero, meeting all the new faces, and Parque de Attracciones the following afternoon!

That place also had several Whack-A-[insert animal name here] game. We renamed it Animal Abuse Rakutenchi. It was definitely a common theme!

In case I never do my own trip report.... *HIJACK!!* Behold the mighty Godzilla! GARGANTUAN! Surprisingly not scared... Oh. Boys with the monster... which is a third of their size.

^ I sold him a Rum & Raisin and Rhubarb Crumble ice cream a few months back. Just thought I'd share that. Thanks for the model name, I was curious.

I didn't SEE sour cream & onion, but then I didn't look at the Japanese maps (just picked them up as souvenirs), so I could have missed a few. There were six of us who explored Disney together, and I believe we had ten different flavours over the four days, each of us would buy one in turn and then share them out... Let's see if I can remember them all... 1. Chocolate (slightly disappointing, we had to fight over the darker bits with the most chocolate dust) 2. Strawberry (yummy but VERY sweet) 3. Curry (sooooo good) 4. Caramel (this was the most common I think, there were several stores for this) 5. Cappuccino (I would not have remembered this one if Bill didn't mention it) 6. Coconut (one of my favourites) 7. Sea Salt (I think? Or did I imagine this one?) 8. One that was over by Pooh that we ate whilst sheltering from the rain on the morning of Day Two... I want to say it was Honey flavoured, but I think that might just be association with Pooh... Guys? 9. Black pepper... Oh my GOD this was amazing! That's it. I forget the other one. Grrr!! I was sad that they didn't have Apple popcorn while we were there, I had seen that in Robb and Elissa's video and was looking forward to it. The food at TDR was amazing, I could probably name you everything we ate the whole four days. Damn good meals.

The Godzilla trek is like... one of my favourites memories. Ever. So funny. Chris is like "Oh my God I see it!!!!" and we're all going "Where, where?!?!" looking up into the sky.... "Oh. There." Freaking hysterical. Other random thoughts: I do NOT remember you taking that picture of me on the train! Was I actually asleep that time, or just resting my eyes?! So many pictures have been taken of me sleeping this summer, it frightens me! Mark, your avatar is all kinds of awesome, just for the associations. To whomever was asking about the "best flat ride ever" at Hamanako Pal Pal, I think Robb or somebody described it as "Paratrooper meets Enterprise", which is pretty accurate. I don't know what model it is, but I know it's manufactured by Togo, and I think Expoland might have one too from what I hear. Bob, thanks for finishing the report, was great to see all your pictures! I've actually tried twice this week to motivate myself to post some photos but I just can't do it, I'm way too lazy. I have much respect for somebody actually finishing one of these things! I can't say enough how many good memories I have from this trip.

I didn't think you could really *miss* someplace... unless you live there or something. Like, you can miss home, but you can't really miss someplace you went for a few days on a trip. You can want to go back, but you can't REALLY miss it. But I so miss Japan. Specifically TDR. Off to cry myself to sleep now. (Thanks for the update, Robb!)

^ People annoy me too, and I think most of us here agree that the whole "parks aren't safe, if you go to a park you will DIE" media and attitudes are more than slightly hyperbolic and ridiculous, but in the case of that girl's father, I kinda somewhat forgive his attitude. I mean, it's somewhat annoying for us that he would talk to the press about it, because it gives them something to run with and turn into a huge unnecessar safety debate, but I know people who've lost loved ones in building site accidents who cross the street to stay away from construction, people who've been seriously injured in bar brawls who will no longer go to clubs of bars... Do their experiences mean that all construction sites or bars are unsafe? Of course not. But our experiences and those of those close to us shape our opinions and fears. So in his case... I make an exception. I don't really know what my point is. I'll admit that I didn't read this whole story, too long for my tired eyes right now. But from what I did read... Much of it seems to make it sound like the park industry has somehow wheedled its way out of inspections and safety laws. Typical media panic. There have been countless stories like this before and will be many more to come. Doesn't seem to affect the industry too much. People annoy me. The media annoys me more.

Chuck, you have reached whole new levels of awesomeness. You have a Betty Boop ornament!! OMG!!! You rock. Thanks for sharing, I love it!!

Oh my goodness, the last time I saw Kristen was what, September 24th or something?? How can she possibly have changed so fast since then?!?! Don't get me wrong, I'm more than aware of how quickly they change and grow, but wow!! She looks absolutely adorable Elissa, what a lovely update!! The picture where Santa and Kristen are looking at each other across the mirror is my absolutely favourite, it looks like one of those arty photos from a baby magazine or something!!

BUMP!! The Hoffman Guy is such a tease!! If you want to be a proper respected TPR member (:'>) then you need to finish the report, Bob! Miss you!

Chuck, this trip report is AWESOME!!! I saw the beginning, and I've seen the last four updates but I need to go back and read all the in between bits, I'm loving it. Great pictures, hilarious captions, nice format... Really enjoyable. The TDR pics are making me miss Disney, Japan, and you guys, SO much!!! I need to leave it a few months before I start my trip report if I end up doing one, this one will put me to shame.

Brent's posts are far better than either mine or yours, and we're in our twenties and moderators, for God's sake.

We got trapped in a corner near Bullfight Coaster while the parade was going on, so we watched, and I danced and waved, and then one of the soldier type guys on a float (one of the dudes with a sword and a shield) looked me right up and down, nodded and winked, and proceeded to watch me the whole way down the street. The only time in my life an actor in a parade has ever undressed me with his eyes. I hold this memory dearly.

Best icehouse of the trip! Richard and I stayed in there for a good ten or fifteen minutes. WTF was with the sunflowers?!