Day 56 - Caceres - Central-Eastern Spain

Two and a half years ago, when I first decided to do this, I wrote a short piece explaining why I was doing it and what I meant by ´Avoiding Europe´. Some of you may have read it - it was on my website for a while - most of you probably haven't and should possibly consider yourselves lucky.

Anyway, as well as a bit of a rant about Australia and general musings as to what 'travelling' actually was, I wrote something along the lines of:

"Most people know Spain for beach holidays in the south and maybe the odd city break, but how many people go to Extremadura, one of the most beautiful places in the country?"

I don't know the answer to that - I'm not out here doing a survey - but I have been cycling through Extremadura for the last two days. And it is beautiful. Rolling hills, pristine countryside, pitted with huge granite boulders, stretching as far as you can see, bright orange lizards, snakes, rivers, lakes, eagles constantly within sight, circling in the sky above me...it's quite a place.

In contrast to that I'm feeling awful today and am having a day off in Caceres. You could say ´self inflicted´ but I blame the barman in the ´Berlin Bar´, a proper rocker´s paradise. The walls are adorned with pictures of a Guns and Roses tribute band and the barman has proper 80´s Stadium Rock hair that he swishes about dramatically while playing, unashamedly, a mean bit of air guitar. He also dishes out shots of vodka to his friends at the bar (and me, last night), giving out double measures but only having a single shot himself each time, ´because I´m working´, and uses half a bottle of Bacardi to make two Bacardi and cokes, in pint-sized glasses, hence how I feel today.