London and James' visit!

This is my 3rd blog post today and I'm finally caught up! I need to start taking my blogging responsibilities more seriously. 


So on Tuesday of this week my boyfriend James flew to Madrid to see me! I was so excited to see him the night before I could hardly sleep. Unfortunately for him, his original flight that was getting in at 6:45 AM didn't work out so he got one that landed at 10:15 AM. At least I got to sleep in a bit! As I waited for him to walk out of the airport I was on the verge of tears and my hopes kept rising and falling as James look-a-likes walked by. When I finally saw him I couldn't talk because I knew I would've started bawling! 


We got him checked in and settled into his hotel room at the Westin Palace Madrid, which was one of the nicest hotels I've ever seen, second only to the St. Regis in New York. Of course James stayed there with a discount. Since I'm kind of bad at planning I didn't have a full list of activities to do while he was here, so we walked down to Puerta del Sol and walked into Retiro Park and enjoying each other's company. I had class from 530-830pm that night, and James just slept in the room the whole time. That wasn't too much of a challenge seeing as he was pretty jetlagged and exhausted! Then we went out for drinks with some friends so everybody could get to know each other.


 The next morning I had class from 9am-12pm so again he got some rest while I got down to business. I didn't have class again until 530 that day so we walked along the downtown/Gran Via area, window shopping and admiring all the soccer (sorry--football) jerseys for sale. I also took James to Vicente Calderon Stadium, home of Athletico Madrid, where we went into the Stadium Museum that was filled with huge trophies and old jerseys and footballs. 


Then we met up with my friend Kristely and grabbed sushi followed by VIPS-the American food place that has great desserts! The next morning we had a very early flight to catch to London! I've wanted to go to London pretty much ever since I started reading the Harry Potter books and since James was born there, I knew I wanted to wait for him to come with me. 


Now, we flew on the cheap-o airline Ryanair. By cheap-o I don't mean airtran or jetblue. I mean there are no assigned seats so people literally sprint as soon as the doors open to try and get a "good seat," which doesn't exist on this flight since they cram the seats together so tightly there's no legroom, and the seats don't recline. Also, when they say 1 carry on item, they mean ONE.ITEM. You have to fit your purse and everything into a bag with small dimensions that must weight less than 10 kg. My bag was about 2 centimeters too large so I had to spend 35 euro to check it. That was fun. Up until this point I've been flying regular airlines so I just wasn't prepared for all of this! You also HAVE to check in online unless you want a 40 euro fee for not doing so. I'm just glad I won't be flying ryanair again!


Once we landed in London Gatwick airport James and I got separated for a few minutes since we went through different customs lines (he being a EU citizen), which was really scary since my phone didn't work in the UK and he didn't have one! Finally we found each other and hopped on our hour and fifteen minute bus ride from the airport to central London. I'm not saying Thursday was a waste of a day, but we pretty much slept the whole time. The whole journey was just exhausting. We met up with my friend Jasmine who is studying there and she took us to a Pub where Johnny Depp and Hugh Grant are rumored to frequent. The cider in London is quite good-it tastes like sparkling cider! 


Then we went out with a few of my BLS friends who are studying in London. We wanted to do a pub crawl but then just started doing our own thing, bar hopping around and trying the different Ales they have in London. They weren't as good as the home brewed ale in Prague though! We ended up at a karaoke bar where we saw an old man dressed up as Elvis. And when someone started singing Sweet Caroline we went crazy, even though I don't like the RedSox. It was more about there being a connection to Boston. 


The next day we went on the London free tour. I've done them in Madrid and Prague and will continue to go on the free walking tours in every European city I go to. Not only are they FREE, but walking is good exercise and better for the environment that riding around an obnoxious two story bus!


We went all around the Royal district, seeing Buckingham Palace, some building from Henry VIII's era, Trafalgar Square, London Eye (the ferris wheel), Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, you name it. I could post the really crappy pictures I took but you're better off googling them since almost none of my London pictures have people in them! Sorry about that.

Buckingham Palace-the flag is up, meaning the Queen is home!

Trafalgar Square

After the 2.5 hour walking tour we were starving so we grabbed lunch with a group of fellow travelers we met on the tour, and then we went to King's Cross Station so I could find Platform 9 3/4 and board the Hogwarts Express. It was there!

Don't mind my layers. It was freezing/raining in London, as usual.

We had a night tour of London called the Grim Reaper Tour. It was also 2.5 hours, also a walking tour. It was exactly what I wanted to do though because it took you through the dark and grimy past of London, from the trail of Jack the Ripper, to tales of awful conditions in the Industrial Revolution, to the Tower of London, public execution sights, and tales of the London Fire and Plague. It took me back in time and was really eerie and fun at night! 

Tower of London! Ann Boleyn
 was executed up in there.

This is Tower Bridge, NOT London Bridge! When Fergie started dancing there in her London Bridge music video, she lost mad respect.

After we were done with our touring for the day we went to a theater to see a Ghost Story show. It was really scary! I thought I was going to have to leave the theater but I was just fine. 

The next day we got up early to go to the more "real" parts of London where James used to grow up. I got to ride on the top of one of the buses! I enjoyed that. I met some childhood friends of James' and we enjoyed their company so much we went a pub crawl that night with them, and my BLS friend. It was no where near as fun as the Prague one, maybe because everyone was speaking English?  But I was with fun people so the night was fun for me. 

The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn-6AM so I could get to my Gatwick bus by 650. I made it there on time, the bus even arrived early, and my flight was delayed about 45 minutes. Better to be safe than sorry! This time I flew on EasyJet which was still a discount airline but not as bad as Ryanair. At least there was legroom, although you still did have to battle your way through the crowds to find a seat.

In other news: I have fallen ill with a fever somewhere along the way of all of this (sleep deprivation? Cold rain?) and now I need to try and get better in time for my next adventure: Barcelona with my Mom's brother and sister! 

Sending everyone love :)

A very. public. restroom.

Notice something different?! 

BARCELONA

As some of you may know, Barcelona somewhere I've been dying to go to for pretty much my whole life, since my Uncle Dave lives there and I've been hearing tales of its beauty for decades now. But of course the weekend I flew there my uncle was out of town! He still arranged for his friend to pick me up from the airport and drive us around the highest point in Barcelona, as well as arranging an awesome flat in Barcelona for us to stay at for dirt cheap!


I flew in late on Wednesday night, so my real adventures didn't start until Thursday. I was heartbroken to find that it was pouring raining all day. I was so annoyed with fighting the rain all day that it didn't really seem like I was in Barcelona. To stay out of the rain we went into the Picasso Museum first. This museum was interesting because it showed Picasso's work chronologically and one could see his progression as an artist. However, there weren't any well-known paintings and it was pretty small so we headed off to bigger and better things. The Chocolate Museum! A bar of chocolate was included with entry so that alone was worth it. On display were the steps of making and cultivating chocolate, as well as a lot of cool chocolate sculptures! 

Gaudi's lizard made in Chocolate!

The real lizard in Guell Park!

 After the museums and grabbing some lunch, we just walked around Barcelona. I'm usually all for that but it was raining pretty badly! We did see one interesting sight along the way: a Dunkin' Coffee sign! They have these in Madrid too but I finally got around to taking a photo of it. I didn't try any, but I just think it's funny how they changed the name slightly. Anyway, we went to a famous market that was colorful with all the fruits, candies, and meats for sale there.


After a siesta we went out to this amazing authentic hole in the wall Spanish restaurant. Jasmine and I headed back to the hotel room to get ready to go out before Alex arrived! As it turns out, Alex's phone didn't work so she was waiting outside for about half an hour before she could call from a phone next door to tell us she was there! We were like the 6th floor so there was no way we would have heard her at the door! Once we got settled we headed out to club Opium on the waterfront. We got in for free and enjoyed this snazzy beach-side club for a few hours before heading back to our flat. We had a room to ourselves that was basically three twin beds all squeezed next to each other. Worked for us!

 The next morning we awoke to beautiful weather and headed to Guell Park-designed by the architect Gaudi who has designed several unique buildlings in Barcelona. It was breathtaking! Almost everything is covered in mosaics. 

Guell Park-see what I mean about mosaics?

More of Guell Park

Guell Park!

Inside the caves where they did an America's Next Top Model episode!

 Next we headed to La Rosa Negra-a Mexican restaurant in Spain. It was great food and a great atmosphere with bright flip flops and dolls all over the walls. Next my uncle's friend Tony picked us up in his green Mystery Machine van as I like to call it, and drove us up to the highest point in Barcelona. We got there just at sunset. 

Overlooking Barcelona at sunset

No explanation needed.

colorful candy for sale at the market!

 That evening after seeing the park and views of Barcelona we went to a Flamenco show. I had already seen one flamenco show in Madrid and another in Sevilla, so I felt that I had gotten the gist of it so I wasn't too thrilled at the idea of going for a third time, but it was only 8 euro meaning that my program would pay me back 7 euro as part of our cultural reimbursement program, so I figured-why not. It turned out to be the best flamenco show yet! It gave me a deeper appreciation of the dance form and music. Then we went out to eat in the same squre where the Flamenco show was and headed out for a few drinks before finally heading to another beach front club-Shoko. 

Sagrada Familia!

Then it was up bright and early because Alex and I wanted to see the Sagrada Familia, a church designed by Gaudi. Unfortunately the lines were literally around the block so we just admired it from the outside and shopped around. One good thing that came from this was a really unique painting I bought from a street vendor in the area! Then Alex and I headed to Casteldefells which is where my uncle lives, and we met up with my aunt and cousin for lunch. On the way there we discovered how easy it was to take the commuter rail in Barcelona. 


Once got back, after the usual siesta we went out to dinner with the same group of friends as the night before. We ended up gonig back to the restaurant that Jasmine and I went to on our first night just because we knew it was good! We went full out, ordering croquetas (think jalepeno poppers filled with ham, but better), pitchers of sangria, salmon salad, patatas bravas (basically french fries with thousand island dipping sauce), and these things:

A regional delicacy that's  really hard to eat.

That evening we met up with a family friend of my uncle's who was 20 years old. They took us down to the port area where we danced the night away and I got to practice my Spanish on real Spaniards! It was a great time and we headed home at the modest hour of 5:30 am.


My flight was around 4pm the next day and Alex's was that evening, so we sort of rolled out of bed and headed to the airport. We took public transportation there, saving us a ton of money. Alex had to check in online for her flight when she realized she accidentally booked it for 630am, not 630pm! I hate military time here so much. Honestly this could happen to me too, and I can't believe she was able to have such a level head about it all, I would've freaked out!


Another interesting fact aside from the military time is that they speak Catalan in Barcelona, which is NOT Spanish. It's still a romance language as it's a combination of Spanish and French (I think). Everyone spoke Castellano though (the form that you and I know as "Spanish"), so I was able to get along well enough.


There were a lot of things I didn't see in Barcelona, but it's all good because I already have two other flights booked to return again. Until next time Barcelona!


PS here's Alex's blog and Jasmine's blog if you want a different perspective on how the weekend went!

Aranjuez and Sevilla La Maravilla!

Here I'll recount two adventures from a couple weekends ago. Sorry It's been a while since I last updated-I'll try not to let a huge lapse like that happen again but I've been too busy enjoying life to stop and write it all down!


The weekend of February 4th was one of the only weekends I was going to have in Madrid and naturally I went on a mini-day trip. I had gone out to dinner with some new friends on the Friday night. They said they were meeting at 1pm to go to Aranjuez the next day, and though I had no clue what it was, I decided to be spontaneous and Saturday morning I made my way there. We took a commuter rail train to Aranjuez, which is just outside of Madrid and the home to what was a vacation home for the Spanish Royal Family. It reminded me a lot of the Royal Palace in Madrid. I took a few photos, but they couldn't do the place justice so I just had to buy some postcards! (I'll show you guys when I get back.)

Gardens at Aranjuez. Couldn't take photos on the inside of the palace-grrr!

 That evening after returning from Aranjuez me and some friends had a night out in Chueca! It's a really cool neighborhood in Madrid that has some of the cheapest and best Mojitos I've had over here! First we started off at a traditional Spanish restaurant (the 1st I've actually been to in Spain!) and for starters I had venison stew--Dad it wasn't as good as your venison though! And I topped it off with this, Crema de Catalana. 

So yummy! Think an orange creamcicle without the stick.

 After dinner we bar hopped around, each place unique with something new to offer. I try to say I don't want to go to the same bar or restaurant twice but Chueca was so awesome I can't wait to go back there!

My friend Tori and I in the Chueca bar with the good Mojitos. Flashing lights everywhere!

That Sunday my friend Tori and I went to the Museo del Traje--the fashion museum! It so cool and the museum was completely dark because they had very valuable and old clothing articles that would be damanged by light, and as a result we couldn't take pictures so you'll have to use your imaginations. They had clothes back from around the 16th century up until today! Everything from corsets to some of today's poshest names in fashion. Something interesting I learned: once women started taking trolleys and public transportation places the size of their petticoats and dresses became smaller so they could actually sit down on the trains! See, you do learn interesting things at the Fashion Museum. It's definitely a hidden museum of Madrid. 


The next weekend, February 11th and 12th was second of four weekend trips that my Program plans out for us. They're really fun since the whole group is together and the price of everything is included in our tuition so why not go?!


We took the AVE, Spain's high velocity train, to Sevilla at 9:30 am on Friday morning. Once we got to the hotel I roomed with my friend from BLS Kristely who is in the program with me. Then we had free time to walk around Sevilla and have some lunch, seeing many beautiful sights along the way.

On the AVE so excited to have a seat with a window and a fold out table!

Sevilla in a nutshell: horses and orange trees

 They say Sevilla is known for its smell of citrus since there are orange trees everywhere. But to me it smelt like horse manure since horses were also everywhere. 

Inside the Cathedral

 Anyway, after our free time we went inside the Seville Cathedral that has the Giralda-a huge tower. On the inside it was beautiful and we got to walk up to the top of the tower, which was ramps and not stairs-what a relief! We saw some beautiful views of the city from up there. Afterwords we walked around the Santa Cruz neighborhood and went into the Royal Alcazares, which was used as a Royal Palace back in the day around Ferdinand and Isabella-maybe you've heard of them? I think I was in the very room in which Christopher Columbus filled them in about the new world!

It felt like I was in the South American jungle more than Spain!

Royal Alcazares

Me in the courtyard! Looks like Agrabah

The entire inside was this detailed if not more. I couldn't capture its true beauty but I tried!

Once again it felt like we were in the old world!

Delicious tapas! I already forgot what it was...

 After visiting the Royal Alcazares we went to a Flamenco show, which was my second one. This one had a completely different feel to it, and it seemed to be more traditional. The woman had a dress with a super long trail in the back that she flipped all around and pretty much wrapped herself up in. It was quite the sight! After Flamenco we had the night to ourselves so we grabbed a bite to eat-I had bull's tail, but this time it wasn't as good as the bull's tale dipped in chocolate I tried. After dinner we headed to this club called Abril. 

is that a spaceship?! No, it's Abril on the inside. 

 The following morning we had breakfst in the hotel. It was rather early and since most of us were up late the night before a lot of people chose to skip it. BAD DECISION. It was literally the best free breakfast spread I've ever had in a hotel. I also got the idea to pack a sandwich for later and bring it with me so I could pocket the 12 euro they gave us for lunch! The idea caught on pretty quick and almost everyone was sneaking out with their pre-made sandwiches. 

Flamenco Dresses for Sale

 We headed to the Museum of Fine Arts in Sevilla which was beautiful inside and out. Afterwards we headed to the picturesque Guadalquivir River where we had about four and a half hours of free time to explore Sevilla on our own. Some friends and I had our lunch in the Maria Louisa Park which was just breathtaking. They had an area where you could rent a boat and row around amidst gorgeous scenery. After the park we headed back to the river to lay out and enjoy the sun because the weather was gorgeous. 

The River

We boarded the AVE back to Madrid and I was so exhausted from the trip that I immediately went home and passed out after eating at VIPS which is basically an American food restaurant. They have great milkshakes! 


Sevilla was gorgeous and brought me that genuine Spain feeling that sometimes is lost when staying in a big city like Madrid. I hope to be back there one day!

Prague: A Bohemian Rhapsody

This past weekend I experienced my first weekend trip that I completely planned myself! I decided to meet some friends who are studying abroad in London in Prague. Of course I had to get myself to the airport for my flight at 10:30 AM on Thursday morning, and it was relatively easy. Once I arrived to the airport in Prague I had to kill about 3 hours until my friends' flight was arriving, so I decided to get lunch in one of those airport restaurants. The first thing about Prague that took getting used to was the different currency. $1= 17 Czech korunas. For some reason though, in my mind I had the conversion set at $1=50 korunas. So when I look at the menu and see how "cheap" everything was, I start to wave the waiter over to bring me some sparkling water, some wine, and what the hell-I even topped off my meal with some delicious Bohemian honey cake. When the bill came, and it listed the conversion to dollars, I was shocked to see that I just spent $40 on lunch! It was an excellent meal at least.

When I meet my friends Jasmine and Erin in the airport we were hesitant to take public transportation so we split a cab to our hostel. This was my first ever experience in a hostel and I was fully expecting the worst-and so were my friends. When we walked into our room and discovered it was basically a palace, we were ECSTATIC beyond belief!

This doesn't even show the other couch and beds, or the foyer or marble bathroom. We were STOKED.

That night we walked over the charming Charles Bridge (adorned with statues and built in the 14th century) to grab a bite to eat. The restaurant we were in was exactly what I had hoped for. It had this old feel to it, and we soon found out that it has been around since 1499! That's even older than Boston Latin.  There were quaint men playing the accordion and at the wave of a hand we had a round of delicious home-brewed beers delivered to our table. I then had Goulash for dinner which great and the beer was the tastiest I've ever tried. It'll be hard to go back to Bud Light after that!

Charles Bridge

The people sitting next to us, after finding out that we were American, commissioned the accordion player to play some "American" music. Here I was expecting maybe a Journey song, but instead he played such hits as "When the Saints go Marching In," "Home on the Range," and "Glory Glory Hallelujah." 

The next day we went out to lunch and I had Chicken Schnitzel and a delicious cappuccino. went on a free tour of Prague which was 3 hours long. I was glad to say that I was able to get some history in there and learned a bunch of interesting facts and explored parts of the city like the Jewish Quarter that I otherwise would have never known existed. By the end of this tour and learning about the occupations, etc. that the Czechs had been through, I knew I was in love with the city. We saw the oldest running synagogue in Europe and a concert hall that Mozart himself played in. Here are some other cool things we saw on the tour:

Is this Disneyland? Nope, it's Prague.

600 year old astrological clock. The Czechs were so proud of this creation that they murdered the creator so that he wouldn't sell the secret anywhere else.

Can you find the medieval bicep that is slapping a prostitute? 

Cubism in building form. There are only 6 in the world and they're all in Prague!

That night we went out to dinner at a cheap local place where we all ordered literally the same thing: Goulash and beer. That evening we were heading into town to explore when we asked a local on the street where a club was-he told us not to go there and instead pointed us in the direction of an awesome Jazz Bar. This is one example of how well Czech people speak English (although claiming initially that they only speak "a little bit") and why I think they are the nicest people in Europe. The Jazz Bar was perfectly Bohemian in my eyes, from the writing all over the walls and ceilings to the candles that were the only source of light in the bar. My girlfriends and I grabbed a table and just soaked it all in. 

at the Jazz Bar

The next day we walked up to the pinnacle of Prague and went all the way to the top of St. Vitus cathedral. We had a great view of the city from up there! After that we wandered around looking for the John Lennon wall, and it was well worth it once we found it. That night we went on the famous Prague Pub Crawl which was the most fun I've had since I've been in Europe. The next morning we had to check out and we were so exhausted that we literally sat in a Bohemian Bagel shop for hours killing time until we had to leave for the airport. We took the public transportation to the airport was actually incredibly easy even though all the signs were weird Czech words. I was lucky enough to have a whole row of seats to myself on the plane but I still couldn't sleep for some reason! 

Rooftops of Praha

St. Vitus Cathedral

St. Vitus Cathedral on the inside

John Lennon Wall!  photo credit: Erin Chack

Our final destination of the Pub Crawl. The floor changed colors and I felt like I was in Saturday Night Fever

Crazy lasers!

This was the theme for one of the floors in the club, no joke.

Prague's antiquity and interesting mix of Russian and German culture totally won me over and I can only hope that my other eurotrips will be half as fun!