spain: tarragona

tarragona is a UNESCO listed heritage city, about an hour from barcelona, south along the coast...a perfect day trip, since i was using barcelona as my base...my original plan was to see tarragona and a town called sitges in one day, but i ended up spending more time in tarragona than planned, and the public transport options between the two weren't very amenable to my plan...oh well...
the train dropped me off in tarragona, and i made my way up a hill and found the information office...they gave me a city map, an information brochure about the city, and ticket prices for the sights that make up the UNESCO listing...

to keep statistics, the info people asked me where i'm from...i told them i didn't know how to answer the question, as my citizenship is american, but i now live in ukraine...i dont know which box they checked for me...
i used the map to make my way to the closest sight, and bought an entrance ticket that allowed me access to all the sights in town for a simple 11 euro...awesome price, and it made everything convenient, especially since the ticket was good for two days...

my first sight was the former roman forum...there wasn't much left of this one, it was a bit hard to imagine how it used to be...it was during this stop that i started to realize it was going to be a hot day filled with sun sun sun...
along the streets to my next walk, i found a market building, the outside of which was covered with graffiti/paintings of the vendors inside...very cool looking...
i walked to the former city walls, when the city was roman...with my ticket i was able to walk nearly all the way around...some of the walls have been rebuilt, but not everything...it's a peaceful walk, or at least it is when there aren't too many other people around...

as i got to the end of the wall section i explored, i found a gate giving me entrance to the old city...i followed a few signs and eventually found the cathedral...there is only a small platz in front of the cathedral, no good way for me to get a photo of the whole front...the main entrance has statues of saints (i think) above it...very impressive...
the inside of the church is pretty big, with a main worship area in the middle...as i walked in, i realized mass was happening, but the church wasn't at all closed off...thankfully, all the visitors i could see were being respectful, and not walking down the middle aisle...

the sides of the church were all made into smaller chapels...some of the chapels had gates in front, some weren't blocked off at all...i don't know what the reasons were...
postcards in tarragona were expensive, i was excited when i found some for 'only' 40cents euro...i had to buy more drinking water, as i'd already drunk the 1.5L contained i'd brought with me...
my next sight was the old circ, which was also a history museum...i found it rather confusing to figure out where to go to see everything...there was an area that allowed me to look out over the whole city, both the beach/water side, and the old city side...very nice...

i ended up exiting and walking around to another entrance to see another area, which had underground tunnels...
my last sight was the roman amphitheatre...by this point i was really feeling the heat/sun, despite drinking a lot of water and eating a few snacks...since the amphitheatre is made of stone, it soaked up the heat then reflected it back at visitors...i loved walking around, though i was feeling rather faint...visitors can walk around the rows of seats, part of the ground in the middle, and look out over the outer walls to the beach!

after the amphitheatre, i found a cafe with a daily menu option for cheap...only 10 euro, and i got to have pasta, grilled chicken and veggies, a roll, a dessert, and water...good food :)
while i was eating i realized i had heat rash all over my legs...not fun...even after eating, i was still feeling faint, ugh...the feeling didn't go away until i woke up the next morning...
the train back to barcelona was easy:)