we flew into valencia via Vueling airlines, and after flying RyanAir to get to Paris and then to Seville, Vueling felt like a luxury flight, mainly because it was such a smooth landing. (RyanAir is known for their 'rocky' landings which can make you feel a bit uneasy as the plane shakes around). we were quickly greeted by Elissa as we made our way to the metro. it's so awesome how we became instant friends literally within one day (we met Elissa while on a tour in London) and that she was keen on letting us stay with her for the weekend in Spain. it seriously felt like we knew each other for much longer! she took us out on the town that night with several English friends. (it was almost as if we were back in England upon hearing their accents!). the Spanish party scene is so different from what I'm used to though.. typically you don't go to a club (discoteca) until 2am. So that's exactly what we did! and it's nice because there's no cover charge until 2:30am which gives you plenty of time to get there. The club had 2 levels, each playing the typical rap/hip-hop dancing music. I still can't get over how all the countries here in europe basically only listen to American music... whoever created MTV is definitely a mega-millionaire.
the next day we walked into town and had kabobs (this was kristen's first kabob experience). we sat outside and people-watched of course :) afterwards we heard drums being played so followed the beat and stumbled upon a huge crowd of mainly men dressed up in robes and playing a drumline. there were little boys also playing, probably around 4 years old, and they were too cute! we don't really know what it was for, but we guessed that maybe it had to do with the start of Holy Week for Easter. We then walked to the beach and the sun came out and it was just the right temperature for a siesta in the sand. we didn't even have towels or anything, but the beach was such a lovely mattress that we fell asleep instantly. we didn't wake up 'til 6pm! i'd say it was a successful spanish siesta! i dipped my toes in the mediterranean but it was entirely too cold to go in any further. at least i can say i've touched the mediterranean sea!
we then went back to elissa's piso and got ready for a traditional spanish dinner. again we ate outside, but not until around 11pm! there were about 15 of us, all students, and the people were from France, England, and Spain; and it was absolutely amazing listening to them talk because they all could speak at least 2 languages. I was listening to one of the girls talking in Spanish and all of a sudden she switched to English, and pretty soon she was speaking French! it was incredible. for our meal, i can't recall what the name of it was, but we ordered platters of various hams and cheeses and then platters of various seafood and you use them for toppings on bread. (what lots of europeans do is order big platters and then share whatever is on the table). and we had to have our sangria to accompany the spanish aura. we ate and talked for nearly two hours! then to end the dinner, the waiters served us shots. rather than mints, they have an herb liqueur that you take a shot of to wash your palate. yum!
we then all went to a club, again where entrance is free up until 2:30am, and to our delight there was a live band playing! They were from Holland and were pretty darn good! This time the club played indie/folk music so it was a neat atmosphere that allowed us to experience a different vibe from the night before. around 5am we made it back to elissa's.. so i can't say we stayed up 'til 8am which is what most spaniards do... but i'm satisfied with 5am. we actually found out that in order to stay for closing, you wouldn't leave until around 10am, whaaaat?! how wild.
well sunday morning was our time to pack up and say our goodbyes. after eating at a chinese buffet for lunch (whoever invented buffets is genius) we headed for the train station. and to anyone visiting spain, their trains are awesome! you get lots of leg room, the seats recline, and they even play a movie! I felt like i was back on an American airline! the views along the ride were breathtaking since it was all along the Mediterranean coast. there were giant cliffs and hills, and then i could spot people enjoying the sun on the beach, and people sailing. boy, how i've realized that i love the ocean/beach life!
¡adios, valencia!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
soaking up the sun in seville
we landed in seville where it was hot hot hot! the hostel we stayed in was really nice, and it even had a kitchen to cook your own meals. they know we're on a tight budget! and the upstairs had roof access where there were hammocks so we could take a siesta! as soon as we got settled in we met jayne, and she is SO SO tan. it was great to see a face I hadn't seen since the start of December. we made plans to meet up later which at first was a bit of a disaster since we couldn't find each other. but after running around downtown for an hour we finally ran into each other and it all ended great. we didn´t get back til 430am and jayne even had an exam the next morning! on our walk back to the hostel, we witnessed the "street sweepers" who hose down the streets every single night. apparently sometimes they mess around with the girls and spray them too, but thank goodness that didn't happen to us! the next morning we went to a museum that was dedicated to christopher columbus and it had his journals/maps from his trip from when he discovered the americas. he actually sailed out of seville's port which is why he has a museum dedicated to his findings. he's even buried in seville. later in the afternoon, after taking a siesta on our hostel's rooftop, we went on a walking tour around the city and learned tons of interesting facts--for example, seville's streets are very narrow with tall buildings/pisos (flats) lining the streets and this is to block the sunlight and cool the air that travels down the streets. they attempted to keep cool in a variety of ways. i guess this is necessary when it reaches 115 degrees daily in the summertime! that evening, we met up with jayne, rachel, and israel where we had giant mojitos and drank them in the streets which were packed. i felt like i was in new orleans for mardi gras! and you could hear the roar of voices a couple blocks away. we then went across the river (which is gorgeous) to triana where we found a glass of a beer with a shot for only a euro, not too bad! the following morning we met up with jayne and went to the palace of alcazar. it was beautiful and had tons of gardens and even a maze that was alice in wonderland style. kristen and i then went to seville's cathedral, which is the largest gothic cathedral in the world, and the 3rd largest cathedral in general. lots of gypsies stand outside carrying rosemary where they try to get tourists to take the herb and then the gypsies bless you and proceed to tell your fortune (the typical "you will live long life, happy, 1 baby 2 baby...") and of course ask for money in the end. kristen and i got bombarded but eventually shooed them away. afterwards we lounged in a park and enjoyed the warm, sunny weather before heading to the airport for our next adventure.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
je ne parle pas français
kris & i started our euro adventure in liverpool, england. after a delayed train causing us to miss our switch in preston, we eventually made it to liverpool. we went to ´the beatles story´which is a museum dedicated to the beatles, since liverpool is where they grew up, started the band, and became famous. it actually made me want to stay in england forever. if ever you get a chance, definitely check out the museum. it was by far one of my favorites. the commentary was funny and interesting and at times even gave me the chills. after learning the history of the beatles, we flew out of liverpool and headed to paris, the city of love!
since we flew in so late the airport was pretty dead, which was nice because i´ve heard it can get pretty hectic with lots of pickpocketers. kris and i found our hostel and went off to bed to rest up for our exploration the next day. we decided to do another free walking tour, and kris and i ended up walking from 9am to 10pm. we started off the day with bread and jam at the hostel for breakfast (the french love their loafs of bread..think italian restaurant style). we then followed the map to the meeting place for the start of our tour, and let me just say kris and i are getting to be quite the map readers! on the way we realized what a clean city paris is! for as big as it is, there was not a bit of trash, and all of the trees were perfectly trimmed, and the flowers were all in bloom. we also noticed the cutest boutiques, shop after shop. their window displays and all of the clothes were so cute..too bad it´s so pricey! anyway, back to the tour...our tour guide was from scotland and she did an awesome job. of all the free tours, paris was by far my favorite. we saw buildings such as the Louvre, the arch, the Eiffel tower, and bridges while learning the history of Paris. It´s such a lovefest that there is a bridge dedicated to lovers who put a lock on the fence rail and then toss the key into the river, locking their love forever. there are hundreds upon hundreds of such locks, some engraved, some just written in marker with names and dates, of all shapes and sizes. another bridge we saw was the first stone bridge built in Paris. the king at the time was humiliated by friends because they didn´t think the stone bridge would stand and instead they thought it would collapse just like how all the wooden bridges rotted away. well, after he had it built, he hosted a party to celebrate the completion of the bridge. he invited tons of guests, many of whom were the ones who thought a stone bridge was a pathetic idea. he served wine and champagne which apparently isn´t a good combo. they got plastered and the king had an artist sketch a picture of them all after they were ´well pissed´ (english term for really, really drunk). he then had a sculptor sculpt out the heads of all of these faces, and he had them placed on the side of the bridge, in revenge to humiliate them. there is not a single duplicate of a face, and some even look goblin-like. a bitter revenge? i think so, since the whole world can now view them!
we ended the tour at a restaurant that had outside seating (literally every single place has outside seating with the chairs all facing the sidewalk/street so that you can people watch, how brill!). we had a view of the eiffel tower while we ate croque monsieur, a typical french sandwich, and sipped on some lovely white wine. the sandwich is like a toasted hot ham and cheese but it also has cheese toasted on top as well. i´m definitely going to start doing that at home! a grilled cheese with a twist...
my absolute favorite part of paris was of course the eiffel tower. we were advised to go at dusk to get the best of both worlds and see the tower right before the sun completely sets as well as when it´s silhouetted against the black sky. to my suprise there was no line to climb the 669 steps to the 2nd floor, so up we went! the views were spectacular, and as we climbed, the skies became dark and we were greeted with a lighted tower that sparkles every hour on the hour for 10 minutes. the sights were great, but did you know the empire state building is taller? once we descended all 669 steps, we gazed once again and waited for the tower to start its glittering. we felt like we were waiting for fireworks on the 4th of july. Once the time approached, the sight was beyond beautiful. i couldn´t take my eyes away from the tower. no wonder an american woman literally fell in love with it, got married to it and even got married on it (well i guess how else would you marry someone (or should i say some ´thing´) without ´it´ being there?) that´s a true story too, look it up!
since we flew in so late the airport was pretty dead, which was nice because i´ve heard it can get pretty hectic with lots of pickpocketers. kris and i found our hostel and went off to bed to rest up for our exploration the next day. we decided to do another free walking tour, and kris and i ended up walking from 9am to 10pm. we started off the day with bread and jam at the hostel for breakfast (the french love their loafs of bread..think italian restaurant style). we then followed the map to the meeting place for the start of our tour, and let me just say kris and i are getting to be quite the map readers! on the way we realized what a clean city paris is! for as big as it is, there was not a bit of trash, and all of the trees were perfectly trimmed, and the flowers were all in bloom. we also noticed the cutest boutiques, shop after shop. their window displays and all of the clothes were so cute..too bad it´s so pricey! anyway, back to the tour...our tour guide was from scotland and she did an awesome job. of all the free tours, paris was by far my favorite. we saw buildings such as the Louvre, the arch, the Eiffel tower, and bridges while learning the history of Paris. It´s such a lovefest that there is a bridge dedicated to lovers who put a lock on the fence rail and then toss the key into the river, locking their love forever. there are hundreds upon hundreds of such locks, some engraved, some just written in marker with names and dates, of all shapes and sizes. another bridge we saw was the first stone bridge built in Paris. the king at the time was humiliated by friends because they didn´t think the stone bridge would stand and instead they thought it would collapse just like how all the wooden bridges rotted away. well, after he had it built, he hosted a party to celebrate the completion of the bridge. he invited tons of guests, many of whom were the ones who thought a stone bridge was a pathetic idea. he served wine and champagne which apparently isn´t a good combo. they got plastered and the king had an artist sketch a picture of them all after they were ´well pissed´ (english term for really, really drunk). he then had a sculptor sculpt out the heads of all of these faces, and he had them placed on the side of the bridge, in revenge to humiliate them. there is not a single duplicate of a face, and some even look goblin-like. a bitter revenge? i think so, since the whole world can now view them!
we ended the tour at a restaurant that had outside seating (literally every single place has outside seating with the chairs all facing the sidewalk/street so that you can people watch, how brill!). we had a view of the eiffel tower while we ate croque monsieur, a typical french sandwich, and sipped on some lovely white wine. the sandwich is like a toasted hot ham and cheese but it also has cheese toasted on top as well. i´m definitely going to start doing that at home! a grilled cheese with a twist...
my absolute favorite part of paris was of course the eiffel tower. we were advised to go at dusk to get the best of both worlds and see the tower right before the sun completely sets as well as when it´s silhouetted against the black sky. to my suprise there was no line to climb the 669 steps to the 2nd floor, so up we went! the views were spectacular, and as we climbed, the skies became dark and we were greeted with a lighted tower that sparkles every hour on the hour for 10 minutes. the sights were great, but did you know the empire state building is taller? once we descended all 669 steps, we gazed once again and waited for the tower to start its glittering. we felt like we were waiting for fireworks on the 4th of july. Once the time approached, the sight was beyond beautiful. i couldn´t take my eyes away from the tower. no wonder an american woman literally fell in love with it, got married to it and even got married on it (well i guess how else would you marry someone (or should i say some ´thing´) without ´it´ being there?) that´s a true story too, look it up!
lazy days in lancaster
well the jogging/walking every day did not exactly work out. but hey, i´ll be walking so much once my euro trip starts, so no big deal! instead, i attempted to study while literally getting a bit burnt. who would´ve thought, tanning in england in april? it actually reached 70 for two days, which was amazing. apparently that´s about as hot as it gets here in northern england in the summertime. i´m glad i have much warmer weather at the beach :)
during our 2 weeks of boredom, kristen & i became good friends with the guys who were also left in lancaster. one night kristen and i decided we should show them some american drinking games (you know, beer pong, flip cup, chandelier, screw the dealer, kings, and up the river down the river). they definitely had a great time, and we became best friends with a new guy, cal, who lives on the top floor of our complex. he also has the most amazing movie collection ever--shelf after shelf of dvds, so of course we managed to watch several films and borrow more than just a few. cal also loves to go down to the pond to feed the ducks so we did that a couple times too. the baby ducklings were adorabe, and the nests that the other birds/swans sat on were HUGE. they were like dinosaur size.
another night one of the chinese boys on our hall cooked us a hot pot, which is when there´s a large pot and it has spices and chilli and beans in this piping hot liquid broth. you then throw in a bunch of random food, and it cooks in the heated pot in the center of the table. we were eating beef (which looked like strips of bacon), lamb, lettuce, japanese noodles, fish eggs, fish sausages, mushrooms... and it was so good! there were 13 or 14 of us and we would all rotate seats after about 20 minutes. and the boy said typically the chinese eat for 5 hours; we only ate for 2, but there was still food left! i learned how to play poker (or maybe it was texas hold ém?) with all of the boys after the dinner. sad to say i didn´t win, no surprise there!
the day before kristen and i left for our euro trip, dom (a boy on our floor) wanted to have a proper barbeque, american style, you know burgers and what not. well, it turned out to be an all day attempt! the boys went into town to buy the burgers (and we´re in england so of course we needed to have sausages as well), and kristen and i went down to the pond where the grills are located, to snag a table. we thought we were all set, until realizing you need a key to use 1 of the 4 grills. 1 was in use, the other 3 were vacant, but we found out that 2 were broken and the other key was already taken for the day and it hadn´t been returned in order for us to use it. our only other option was to wait for the one in use, which was being occupied by chinese students, and if they take 5 hours to eat, we weren´t going to start cooking til after sunset. so we all moved everything back inside, and after the failure of the first kitchen, the second kitchen had working grills and we ate outside in the courtyard...so it turned out to be a modified bbq. oh, one thing, they don´t know how to have proper burgers. they think a burger and a bun will suffice. no no, if only they knew of the bacon cheeseburger with lettuce tomato and pickles!
during our 2 weeks of boredom, kristen & i became good friends with the guys who were also left in lancaster. one night kristen and i decided we should show them some american drinking games (you know, beer pong, flip cup, chandelier, screw the dealer, kings, and up the river down the river). they definitely had a great time, and we became best friends with a new guy, cal, who lives on the top floor of our complex. he also has the most amazing movie collection ever--shelf after shelf of dvds, so of course we managed to watch several films and borrow more than just a few. cal also loves to go down to the pond to feed the ducks so we did that a couple times too. the baby ducklings were adorabe, and the nests that the other birds/swans sat on were HUGE. they were like dinosaur size.
another night one of the chinese boys on our hall cooked us a hot pot, which is when there´s a large pot and it has spices and chilli and beans in this piping hot liquid broth. you then throw in a bunch of random food, and it cooks in the heated pot in the center of the table. we were eating beef (which looked like strips of bacon), lamb, lettuce, japanese noodles, fish eggs, fish sausages, mushrooms... and it was so good! there were 13 or 14 of us and we would all rotate seats after about 20 minutes. and the boy said typically the chinese eat for 5 hours; we only ate for 2, but there was still food left! i learned how to play poker (or maybe it was texas hold ém?) with all of the boys after the dinner. sad to say i didn´t win, no surprise there!
the day before kristen and i left for our euro trip, dom (a boy on our floor) wanted to have a proper barbeque, american style, you know burgers and what not. well, it turned out to be an all day attempt! the boys went into town to buy the burgers (and we´re in england so of course we needed to have sausages as well), and kristen and i went down to the pond where the grills are located, to snag a table. we thought we were all set, until realizing you need a key to use 1 of the 4 grills. 1 was in use, the other 3 were vacant, but we found out that 2 were broken and the other key was already taken for the day and it hadn´t been returned in order for us to use it. our only other option was to wait for the one in use, which was being occupied by chinese students, and if they take 5 hours to eat, we weren´t going to start cooking til after sunset. so we all moved everything back inside, and after the failure of the first kitchen, the second kitchen had working grills and we ate outside in the courtyard...so it turned out to be a modified bbq. oh, one thing, they don´t know how to have proper burgers. they think a burger and a bun will suffice. no no, if only they knew of the bacon cheeseburger with lettuce tomato and pickles!
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