My Big Adventure Across Europe

So I know I haven't updated in a while, but I've been pretty busy traveling. At the moment, I'm on a 7 hour ferry from Santorini, back to Athens, and ran out of books to read. Therefore, I figured I'd update. The last trip I updated on was Morocco, which was the adventure of  lifetime, to say the least. However, I've seen a lot since then. After Morocco was finals, which although pretty sucky, were not nearly as bad as they would've been in the US. I passed all my classes (yay!) and then started my adventure with Katie. First stop, Ireland.  So we started off by flying into Belfast, which is in Northern Ireland. We thought maybe we could rent a car to drive down to Dublin, but of course, neither of us knew that Ireland is split in 2, and we'd have to pay a crossing international borders fee to do it. Good thing we asked. Belfast was nice, but kind of boring. We wandered around, saw some churches and pretty things, but overall, it wasn't one of my favorite places. Apparently though, it's an up and coming place. We walked to the Titanic shipyards, which were just big construction sights with little signs you could read, and to a market, which was pretty cool. My favorite was the botanical gardens, where I spent hours taking pictures and reading. That was nice.  Afterwards, we took a bus to Dublin. That place I really enjoyed.  It's a small enough city where you can get everywhere walking, and the people are great. We spent our first day there doing the sights, including going to the Guiness Factory. It was fun and interactive, and you end up getting a glass of the stuff at the end (I think it tasted like coffee breath, but that's just me... everyone just responded with "Yeah, it's an aquired taste). Then that night, because it was a Saturday night, we went to the Temple Bar area. It's a pretty touristy bar area, so everything is really expensive, and I don't think locals actually go there, but we had fun. We met some guys from England who bought us drinks and were hilarious. Then we moved onto another bar, where I practiced my Spanish with some Rugby players from Santander. We ended the night with the best loaded french fries of my life. The next day, we decided to do a tour of the countryside, which was full of old people, but we really enjoyed. Our bus driver/tour guide was great and sung songs throughout the ride, while providing us with those really corny jokes about the differenced between men and women. We ended up at these big Gardens, that were great for taking pictures and wandering through. That took up most of the day, and then we took a nap. We thought we'd tour a bar crawl that night, but we ended up being the only ones that went, plus our guide. He ended up going with us to 2 bars, and just hanging out. Not exactly the most successful bar crawl, but it was fun nonetheless.  Next stop, Lisbon, Portugal.  Portugal was really pretty, but we weren't actually there that long. The hostel was absolutely great. It was small, on one floor, clean, and didn't have many people staying there. It felt like an apartment. We spent the first day there doing more touristy stuff, the churches and the castle. The whole city is on a giant hill, so we spent most our time going uphill trying to find things. It was all pretty stuff, but you can only see so many churches in your life, before you lose interest.  We went out to a nice dinner and I got to watch a movie alone in the living room, curled up on the couch. The second day we were there (22nd), we decided to go to the beach. We took a train for about an hour to a nearby beach city, and spent the day laying and reading (the water was too cold). It was nice and relaxing after all the moving around we'd been doing. We spent the night in the hostel and cooked ourselves a healthy dinner for once.x The 23rd was Dia de San Jordi, so we flew back to Barcelona. 

Spring Break

So this past week was probably the most interesting week of my life.. Spring Break. It was the first Spring Break that I've actually gone anywhere so I don't actually have anything to compare it to, but it was pretty awesome.

The week started on Wednesday night, although classes weren't officially over until Thursday. We went to see La Bella y La Bestia on Barcelona's version of Broadway. It was great, even though I missed all the jokes Lumiere made in Spanish with a French accent.

On Thursday, me and Hannah met at the crack of dawn near the Arc to catch a taxi to the airport. When we got there, the airline I had to check into wasn't even open yet. I had a flight with Toni, who's in my ISA program so when we all got to Sevilla, we all stuck together. We were all pretty exhausted and kept getting lost, so we ended up sitting outside at a cafe for about 4 hours. When Katie finally met up with us and we all half delirious from exhaustion, we went on a search for our hostel. We took a nap and then headed out. We were looking for someplace to eat, but all we found was a buffet place. We ate there and by 8 we were laughing hysterically because we were all so tired.

Stuff I will explain later...

• Hookah
• Streaking
• Midnight Full Moon Cleansing Ritual
• Learning to Dance and Play the drums
• Watching the Sunrise
• Climbing Massive Sand Dune
• Henna
• Dirty Bathrooms
• Peeing in the Desert
• Peeing with the Monkeys
• rolling down the sand dunes
• Spandex Mafia
• Riding Camels
• Feeding the poor children
• Gangster Baby
• Fossil Dealers
• Haimas
• Hannah got electrocuted
• Dancing
  
• Oasis de Ziz
• People getting sick
• Spectacular with Drum Man and Toni getting married
• Rug Buying and Inspirational Speech
  
• Scarf Weaving
• Pottery Man
• Mint Tea
• Weird Hotel Club
• The Medina in Meknes and Fes
  
• Snorting Stuff with the Medicine Man
• Tannnery with Mint Protection
• Natural Makeup
• Haggling
• Mean Face
• Creepy Roommates and Monotone
• People getting sick
• J Poms
• Weird ISA Morocco Director
• Ken
• Kike Sevilla
• Bitchy Cuban Princess
• The Party Bus
• Jewels Vern aka 30
• People disappearing with Morocco Men aka Jewels and Molly
• Drinking Wine for Katies Birthday
• Arab Walmart
• Random Guy trying to talk to us
• Reading more books
• Dramamine and Passing out for days at a time
• Turban
• Berber Skiiing
• Rugs a second time
• Hannah's Boyfriend

Sevilla

• KKK References - "lynching later"
  
• Our Favorite Waiter
• sitting and watching parades for 6 hours
• taking turns
  
• random ampatheatre

Birthday Week: March 12th-18th with Tata and Denise

Thurs, 3/12: Dinner at Favorite Restaurant

Tata and Denis arrived on Thursday. After my class ended at 5, I walked over to their apartment to meet up with them. I took them to the port and wandered a bit with them. Then we went to the restaurant that Me and Jen had found while she was here. That restaurant soon became our favvorite.

Fri, 3/13: Montserrat

On Friday, Tata and I took the train to Montserrat, the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. We had the intention of hiking them, but the trails proved a bit too terrifying for Tata's fear of heights. We took tons of pictures and then the cable car up the top of the mountains, where I took a trail by myself and found my way to the tip of a moutain peak. It was an amazing experience. up with Denise for dinner and found a restaurant somewhat near where they were staying and then met up with Hannah and Katie for Sangria at Oveja Negra. The Hannah, Katie and I went to Roxy for a while.

Sat, 3/14: Parc del Laberint d'Horta & Tibidabo

On Saturday, we had quite a productive day. We started off the day at the Park of the Layberinth in Barcelona. It was some random thing that we saw in other people's facebook pictures, and therefore decided to explore for ourselves. It was pretty cool. The park was beautiful, perfect for picnics and hiking, and ending with a huge maze that looks a lot easier to get around than it is. We weren't lost in it for that long, but it was confusing. We took some really nice pictures too.


Afterwards, we headed to Tibidabo, which is the mountain in Barcelona, and also the home to a carnival like place. We didn't go into the amusement park, but we did see the church outside of it and go to the top of that. The view from the top of the city was really nice, and took 3 modes of transportation to get to.

Sun, 3/15: La Rambla, Boqueria, Erotica Museum & Playa

On Sunday was more of a day to relax. I met Tata and Denise at their apartment and then we walked over the Rambla so that they could see it. I took them to the Boqueria and we bought a bunch of fruit and some juices. Then we went to the erotica museum because it was right there. That was a lot of fun. I got to watch porn that was made for the king back in the day. It was like watching a car wreck, it was so bad, but you couldn't help watching it. I also saw quite some disturbing things, but it was fun anyway. Then we went to relax on the beach for a little bit and read. I took a nap in the sun and woke up next to a topless woman, but whatever. It's kinda the norm here. Hannah and Katie met up with us after their horseback riding adventure. When it started to get chilly, Tata and Denise took a cab back to their apartment and we went to go get Churros and Chocolate, which was the best idea ever. Then I went back to my apartment, where I finished up my homework and stuff like that.

Mon, 3/16: Chupitos

Monday I had class all day, so Tata and Denise went off to do their own thing. They went to see
some churches and things along that line. We met up for dinner at our favorite restaurant once again and then grabbed a cab to Chupitos. Hannah and Katie met up with us. We ended up doing at least 8 shots a piece, and Tata made friends with the bartender. They even sung to me at midnight for my birthday and I got to blow out a candle. We did the finding nemo, Creme de la Creme, Boyscout, diablo, harry potter, Pop Rocks, Willy Wonka, and some more that I don't remember the name of. It was a lot of fun.

Tues, 3/17: Cuban Food and Irish Pub

Tuesday was my birthday, so I pretty much got to do whatever I wanted (I love that rule). I went to Spanish class, and then met up with Hannah and Katie in the library. For my birthday they gave me a really cute poem, my first legal beer, a Beauty and the Beast Pen, Cups for Beer, and a Chocolate Crossoint. It was one of my favorite gifts of all time. Then we went to the park to lay and read until Tata and Denise came and found us. Then we headed off to get my hair cut. For some reason, that is what I really wanted to do on my birthday, as well as take a nap and buy a birthday outfit. The haircut took longer than expected so the nap got cut out of my schedule but I did end up getting 3 dresses. Then we all met up to go out for Cuban food, something I had been craving for far too long. It was amazing and Katie and Hannah really liked their first Cuban food experience too. By the time we left, we decided that we were all pregnant with Cuban Food Babies. We all picked off each other's plates and ate tons of apetizers and desserts. It was really a great birthday dinner. Then we headed to an Irish pub, since it was St. Patrick's Day and all. I got to drink cider and just have a fun time. We ended the night pretty early, so I guess it wasn't the typical 21st birthday (I remember all of it), but it was a great one, especially considering I couldn't be home with my family.

Wed, 3/18: Dinner

Wednesday I had class again, so Tata and Denise did the rest of their tourist-y stuff. We met up for dinner at the restaurant for one last time. After dinner we walked to the gothic area because they wanted to do some last minute shopping, but their was a huge protest going on, so everything was closed. We grabbed a cab to my apartment and I finished packing my suitcase for them to take home. Then we said our goodbyes and I walked to school to use the internet, since we long the wireless in our house.

The City of Love

<3Paris: The City of Love <3
March 5th to 7th with Jen and Katie in Paris

Notes on Paris:

• Crêpes with Nutella are God's gift to Earth
• When you skip to the Eiffel Tower, tired is an understatement
• Bus Tours and audio guides are awesome
• When your with Jen, you'll meet someone you know
• The Eiffel tower glitters!
• When all else fails, use hand gestures
• Use the bathroom before you go through security at the airport, and be prepared to get felt up
• Paris is as full of sex images as everyone says
  

So we arrived on Thursday night, later than expected, after probably the worse flight ever. We flew easyjet (yes it's an actually airline, not just a website) and there were about 30 smelly French pre-teens on the plane with us who proceeded to yell and talk at super volume the entire time. When we finally arrived at the hostel, it was closed, with a note on the outside and a map of a hotel that we had to go to to pick up our key. When we got there, the man pretended not to understand English or know what the hell we were talking about. When we all looked like we were about to cry, he started laughing and handed over our key. There was apparently an overbooking or mistake, so we got a room for 5 to ourselves, with a bathroom.


On Friday for breakfast, they gave us each half of a bagette, nutella, butter, and jam. It was probably one of my favorite breakfasts ever. They also gave us coffee, which I was extremely thankful for. We started off our day at Notre Dame, which was extremely beautiful of course.

Then we grabbed the tour bus. We passed a lot of beautiful things, but we got off the bus at all the major things. We got off at the Arc de Triumph because we were pretty much numb. We grabbed some coffee to defrost, and then headed back to the bus. We stayed on it until the Eiffel Tower, which of course is when we got off to take the million and one retarded pictures in front of it. That was a lot of fun, other than me being really stressed about my housing situation.

After all that, we went back to the hostel so that I could charge my camera (it died) and eat lunch. Apparently Spain is the only place in Europe that eats so late, so we ended up missing lunch pretty much everywhere. We ended up eating a chinese resaurant, but it was really good food. Then we went to find an internet cafe before we went to the Louvre.

Crepes with Nutella.. hole in the wall outside the Internet Cafe


Trying to Survive the Cold by wrapping up in our scarves


The Louvre.. Love at First Sight

The Louvre is apparently free on Friday nights to youths under 26, so we instead spent our money on an audioguide, which was really high tech and by far, the best audio guide I've ever used. It showed you pictures of the artwork while it talked, and images of the corners you had to turn to get to different places. We took the Master's tour, which showed us the 3 most famous works of the museum: The Mona Lisa, The Venus de Milo, and the Victory of Samothrace. The tour is supposed to take an hour and a half, but of course took us longer because we kept getting lost. Afterwards, we just wandered, and when we came upon a painting with an audioguide number, we'd sit and listen to it. We were in the museum from 6pm-10pm and pretty much dilusional by the time we got out of there, since we'd been moving since 9am, and we still weren't done yet.

Once we were exhausted, we started imitating statues.

The Eiffel Tower glitters every hour for 10 minutes. We caught the end of it around 10, but decided we needed to get a closer look. We therefore thought it'd be a good idea to walk there. We made it about 5 minutes before the 11pm showing with some serious skipping involved. However, it was probably the most magical thing I've ever seen. However, it made me want to be kissing a boy.

If only this picture could really capture the beauty of it

Saturday, we didn't really do anything specific. We went sovenier shopping and wandering. We went into a lot of stores, drank coffee, ate cheese crepes, sent postcards, and then went back to the airport for the end of another great trip.

Saturday Calf Stretching

Time in Barcelona

March 3rd to 5th with Jen in Barcelona

We arrived at our hostel on Monday night. We stayed at the Albareda Youth Hostel, which was the nicest hostel I've stayed in yet. We were staying in a room of 4, so the first night, there were 2 boys sleeping in the room with us. When we got there, we checked out emails, because of course we were both going through withdrawl and then went to bed.

On Tuesday, I had class. Jen came with me to school and then I sent her off to the chocolate museum, which is close by, and then we were going to have lunch together. Of course, I didn't know that the museum was closed Tuesdays, so she ended up walking around for an hour and a half, waiting for me to get out of class. We then went to lunch at a "pizzeria" nearby and had delicious asparagus soup as well as a bunch of other stuff. We fell in love with fixed menus. Then we walked down to the beach, which is when Jen decided that she really understood why I never wanted to leave. After that, we had chocolate croissants, which of course, Jen loved. We also had some cafe con leche and made up a list of observations we had made about Barcelona thus far. I have to find it though. Then I had class again, so I gave Jen directions to the Sagrada Familia. She never found it, because she got off at the wrong place, and couldn't remember the name. She figured that asking for the "casa de jesus" wouldn't be very helpful. I had a final the next day, so we picked up gyro-like things near the school and spent the night in the library so that I could study.

On Wednesday, Jen went off on her own. She took the tourist bus so that she could see everything. After my class, we met back at the hostel hostel and went out to eat some more food. We went to Chupitos that night too, and had a bunch of shots I've never had before, including the pop rocks shot (you hold the shot in your mouth with poprocks and jump around) and the Chupitaz0 (Where you smoke the excess shot). It was a lot of fun, especially when we made asses of ourselves trying to get home on the bus because we couldn't figure out where and how to get on and off.

On Thursday, I had a presenation to give for my Spanish class. It was a walking tour of the different areas of Barcelona, so Jen tagged along to see some more stuff, and I did my best to translate. Then we went out to lunch and found the restaurant that is now my favorite (as well as Tata and Denise's favorite) and Jen tried Paella for the first time. It was hands down the best paella I've had in Barcelona, other than the home cooked one that my host mom made. Then I went to my other class and Jen went souvenier shopping. Afterwards, we met up to go pick up our backs at my apartment, since we had already checked out, and then headed to the airport to go to Paris.

This Past Weekend

This past weekend was pretty uneventful. On Friday, we decided to enjoy the last of the really hot weather for a while by going to Sitges. We left really early on Friday morning and spent the day lounging on the beach reading. I got sunburned. We went back home the same day and then went shopping. That night we went to a club, but I left early (3am) because I wasn’t really into the music.

Saturday, I didn’t really do anything all day. I slept till one, ate dinner with the family at 3ish, napped, watched a movie, and went to drink coffee with Hannah and Katie at night.

Today I felt crappy so I was in bed all day. I watched Maid in Manhattan in Spanish and then fell asleep for like 3 hours, so now I’m wide awake with nothing to do but try to update my blog a bit. I also went to the park for a little while.

Trying to Catch Up.. London

London with Matt and Jen Feb 28th to March 2nd

On Saturday, I went to pick up Jen at the airport, bright and early. She lost her luggage so I ended up waiting around for quite a while, and then we went off to breakfast. We then walked to my apartment to get my staff to travel, and headed back to the airport to go to London.
Of course, our plane was delayed and we were both exhausted, but it was so nice to have her there. The flight before ours was cancelled and therefore, the two flights were combined, so it was a mad rush to get on the plane, since there were no longer assigned seats. The flight was fine. We met Matt at the airport, after going through customs, which was pretty much an interrogation. It was so nice to be with such good friends in a country that actually spoke English.

We didn’t really have any trouble finding out hostel, other than the fact that it was pretty far from the airport. We stayed in Shepard Bush and our hostel was attached to a bar, which was just recently redone, so it was really nice. We stayed in a room for four, and the first night, the other woman in the room didn’t even sleep there, so it was pretty enjoyable. The first night, since it started so late, we decided to just stay in the immediate area. We went to the mall that was right by our hostel so that Jen could get some clothes and essentials, since she didn’t have anything with her. We were going to eat at the bar, but the kitchen had closed by the time we got down there. We decided to just walk around. We immediately ruled out Spanish or Italian, so we ended up at a Moroccan restaurant. The food was amazing, or as Jen would call it, a “food bliss”. By the time we were done, we decided to go to bed so that we could get an early start the next day.

On Sunday morning, we decided to get up at 7:00ish so that we could shower, eat breakfast and take the tube for the half an hour it takes to get the center of London. Matt woke us up at 6 because he turned his watch the wrong way when trying to account for the time difference, so we pretty much hit snooze about 30 times before we actually got up. Breakfast was included and I realized just how much American coffee tastes like water, since I’m so used to drinking Café con Leche. Afterwards, we headed into central London. We decided to take the tour bus so that we could see everything. It was a great idea. Since we spoke English, we were able to take the live tour and it was really interesting. We got off the bus at the tower of London and took that tour too. The tour was awesome. The tour guide was really funny and informative, and we got to see and learn a lot. After the tour we saw the crown jewels too. After that, we got back on the tour bus and went for lunch. We had fish and chips, while I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do about my money situation (my ATM card wasn’t working). I ended up borrowing money from Jen and then paying her back later. I think we pretty much saw everything work seeing and walked around a bit. I was kind of disappointed by Buckingham Palace though. I just pictured something completely different.

That night, we had decided to go out. That is, until we realized it was Sunday and everything closes early. We went out and had Tai food at a buffet really close by. Then we had cider at the bar, which is my new favorite beer-like drink. It’s like alcoholic apple juice. Matt made friends with our roommate because she was really into history and politics and me and Jen disappeared to have girl talk.

On Monday, since we didn’t have as much time, we decided to wander a bit and see the Churchhill museum, because Matt really wanted to. I insisted on the audio guide so that I wouldn’t get too bored, and ended up really liking it. We then took tons of pictures of random stuff and headed back to the airport, because Matt’s really anal about time. We were really early but we had tea, which I really wanted to do in London and shopped a little. I also had a bagel, which was actually a really highlight. Our flight was late, but it was nice to be with Jen.