Greetings, Earthlings. I have landed in Barcelona. The week in Estonia was fantastic. There is much to tell. But I prefer to do so in the morning, after a good sleep and cup(s) of coffee. Right now I’m a little woozy from a day of travel.

Even if you’re not jumping across the Atlantic, the time changes and hours of boredom interspersed with frantic, anxious activity (get through security, find that gate, find overhead bin space, find your connecting gate, etc) involved in jumping from country to country are wearing. So I have little thinking capacity at the moment.

But here are a few random thoughts to share.

How can you tell the size of a European city? Check out the number of taxis lined up to pick up travelers and get them to their in-town accommodations. I’ve never seen such a large queue except in London. And technically that wasn’t “Europe”, so I’m not sure if it counts. But I think it should. (See? Loopy from travel…)

Barcelona is HUGE. I really had no idea what to expect having done little preparation for my visit here. We drove for 40 minutes from the airport to the heart of the city. Everywhere I looked there were wide streets with Christmas lights strung across them, shops and restaurants open, huge numbers of people strolling the streets — at 9 pm on a Wednesday night! It’s warm here, warmer than daytime temps in Estonia. Traffic was two or three lanes wide into the middle of town. Motorcycles and scooters threaded between the cars at every opportunity. Plus bikes and more scooters on the side of the road. Plus pedestrians. Plus every kind of restaurant and pharmacia and market and retail store you could imagine. It’s odd to see the Spanish and understand it (at least in the reading). The spoken language I heard throughout the airport is definitely Spanish, but so soft and lilting, I’m surprised when I recognize words.

Things this tired traveler loves to find in her hotel room:

I do also want to say that there are more people living in Barcelona (1.6 million) than in all of Estonia (1.3 million). So I think I’m going to have a severe case of culture shock when I head out the door in the morning. Destination? The Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Antonio Gaudi. Never my favorite of his buildings but one which must be experienced while here. Meanwhile, the Cathedral of Barcelona is around the corner and I can hear its chime every quarter hour. I also hear buses, cars and people from street level, six floors below me.

Tomorrow I will tell you more about Estonia, including what I’ve learned is the general attitude about life “in Soviet times”, how ubiquitous and useful a cranberry can be and how I learned to knit with needles the size of toothpicks (but longer and made of metal).