Bienvenidos a Madrid!

So I am safe and sound in my hostel in Madrid. That´s not saying that it wasn´t a tough journey, but at least I´m finally here and I´m getting a chance to rest.
My journey started out at our apartment in Barcelona. I was the last one to leave, so naturally I was left with most of the cleaning. I also had to somehow figure out a way to get exactly 9 kilos in my carryon suitcase without leaving too much bulk for the other one so that I wouldn´t get as hefty as a fine this time around. I even pulled out our bathroom scale to get it justtt right.
After getting bored of watching the Flintstones in Spanish, I decided to head out around noon. I took both of my huge, heavy suitcases onto the metro and then to the bus stop for the Aerobus to pick me up to the airport. After 3 Aerobusses past by me without stopping, I overheard another man asking where to pick it up. I had been standing in the wrong place for about 30 minutes. Sooo glad I decided to give up those last 15 minutes of the Flintstones.
After walking with my 2 suitcases in tow to the next plaza, I waited for the bus. I was so excited to be first in line, until the bus door hit me when it opened. I can´t imagine anything more embarassing and dumb American-like than getting hit by a slowly moving autobus door.
I finally got to my terminal and waited in a looong line. When I got up to the front, the desk man informed me that not only is my bag 6 pounds heavier than I weighed, but my carryon was too large to be a carryon. I argued the point for a little while since I had taken that bag on as a carryon before, and I KNOW it fits. Nonetheless, I lost the fight and had to pay for 16 kilos of extra baggage. Luckily, Air Europa is 100000x better than ClickAir and doesn´t chare 10 euros per kilo. I was extremely relieved to hear 41 euros instead of 160.
The flight was probably the most pleasant part of my entire trip. Even though we took off about 45 minutes late, and my iPod died before it even lived, the whole flight itself was about 50 minutes so I could bare it.
I got off and decided to take the metro to my hostel. After 2 transfers, 3 elevators, 4 escalators, and about 5 flights of stares (just try to imagine me heaving my bags up a flight of stairs), I finally got to my stop. I swear if it wasn´t for a nice man at the top flight that offered to carry my bags, I swear I would have just given up and left them behind.
Of course, once I emerged, there was the ritual of walking in the wrong direction and turning around to get onto the right street. Then I walked a block past my hostel and had to go into a hotel and ask for directions. FINALLY I made it here. I love my hostel!! There are tonnsss of people all hanging out, watching TV, and cooking together. And a majority of them are American, so it´s nice to meet people from all over. Tonight I went to my fave restaurant MAOZ and lounged around watching TV with a bag of gummy bears. Soo relaxing.
Tomorrow I´m going to try to keep myself busy. I´m probably just gonna sleep in, walk around town, and maybe go back to the Reina Sofia Museum to see Picasso´s Guernica again. Ohhhh and tomorrow night my friend Kevin and I are going to a Real Madrid soccer game!!! It was the last thing on my list that I really wanted to do, and I´m stoked I get to fit it in!!
So I´m thinking I´ve definitely surpassed my 15 minute limit on the computers. Thus, I better get going (i.e. get going to sleep).
3 days until I´m home!!

Hasta pronto!!

Adios Barcelona!

Tonight is my last night in Barcelona. All of my bags are packed and I'm ready to head out to Madrid for a few days!!
Today was the perfect last day: I slept in, then Holly and I went to our favorite beach for the day. After showering and resting, Holly, Sarah, and I went to our favorite restaurant, MAOZ. I am going to miss it so much it was sooo good! I swear I went back to the veggie buffet like 18 times.
After our lovely dinner, we walked around Las Ramblas (the main drag of Barca) and looked at artistry stands and such. We got gelato (I splurged on 2 scoops) and then headed to the Magic Fountain. The Magic Fountain was built for the exhibition in 1929 and they have a light show every weekend during the summer. It was absolutely amazing! I took a video so hopefully you guys will see what I mean very soon!

Tomorrow my flight leaves at 3:45 so I'll have some time to get my stuff together before heading out. It's going to be a little interesting to manuever my 2 huge suitcases and a backpack through the metro, onto the aerobus, and then to the terminal. I guess I've manuevered my way through worse things, so hopefully it won't be that bad.

All in all, I'm sad I'm leaving Barcelona. I've had a great time seeing the 2 cities and I've met a lot of great people along the way. I'll write more once I get to my hostel in Madrid tomorrow!!

Hasta luego!

Salgo Barcelona en sabado

So this is my last week in Spain. I leave Barcelona on Saturday and I go directly to Madrid until Tuesday, when I fly back to the U.S. Now that time is winding down, my friends and I have frantically running around trying to do and see everything before we leave.
Monday was a beach day - we stayed there allll day and then went to the huge market for the last time. We had our favorite Monday night dinner at Maoz, an all vegetarian, all cheap, and all delicious restaurant. It has a hugeee buffet of different types of vegetables that you can put in a pita with falafel. And the best part is, you can go back as many times as you want!!
That night we decided to go to one of our favorite bars, L'Ovella Negra (The Black Sheep). It's an off-the-beaten-path kinda place and it's always packed. The ambience is very rustic yet fun. They have the bestttt Sangria there for the best price, so Sarah, Holly and I had to go. We ended up meeting some guys from Holland who spoke perfect English, in addition to French, Dutch, and more. When they asked me what languages I speak, I couldn't help but laugh.
They were fun guys so we ended up staying there until closing and then went to bed for class the next day.
Yesterday Sarah, Holly, and I went to Parc Guell, which is designed by Gaudi, the same person that designed Sagrada Familia. It was absolutely amazing! I love his architecture because it's different and completely unique, but it's not weird or disturbing. If you have some time, I definitely recommend that you look it up. Apparently it was originally supposed to be an entire neighborhood, but it never got that far. I would kill to live in a place that beautiful!!
Today I had a presentation in Spanish about my favorite place in Barcelona, and of course I did it on my favorite beach, Platja de la Nova Mar Bella. I don't think my professor was surprised at all, considering I always talk about "la playa" in Spanish class.
Today, Holly and I went to one of the oldest markets in Europe. They had everything you could ever imagine - tools, video games, clothes, shoes, pet cages, drapery, everything!! It was fun to see, but it's not really anything I'd want to bring home with me. Also, I'm not sure if everything sold there is legal, because I got yelled at by a man when I took a picture of his stand. Don't worry, I have learned to not respond when people yell at me in fear of another hand to the face.
Tonight my roommates and I are going to a park where they play live jazz music. We have our final tomorrow so we're keeping it pretty low key.

That's all for now! Talk to you soon!!

Vamos a continuar

Read the last post first...this is just the end of my weekend in Madrid.

So the first night (after our FREE dinner) my friends and I tried to go to a bar with live jazz. The cover was a little too steep for us, so after much thought, we settled on the first place we saw to get some drinks. Oddly enough, this ended up being an ice cream store. Needless to say, the drinks were less drink-like and more slushy-like. I´m almost glad I didn´t feel well so I didn´t waste my money on them.

After that we went to a Middle Eastern restaurant/bar. My friends ordered a giant tube of Sangria (it had 5 liters!!). They got to the point where they couldn´t even finish it. I´ve never seen anything like it before!!

The next day we had a walking/bus tours of the city. I loved it!! Madrid is absolutely gorgeous. Among the many highlights was a man trying to get a taxi with a black eye and blood all over the front and back of his shirt. I definitelyyy kept my distance...

We also went to the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art which was veryyy strange. I´m not a huge fan of modern art, so many of the pieces were almost laughable to me. This was one of our favorites:

I also got the chance to see Picasso´s Guernica, which was amazing! It was huge and very awe-inspiring. If you don´t know what it is, you should definitely google it.

That night we decided to go all out and go to this club that everybody was talking about called Kapital. It was SEVEN stories and had different music and ambience on every story. The first floor was my favorite - it had go-go dancers dressed as sailors and intense dance music. It got so hot that every 10 minutes or so there was a hugeee burst of cold air over the entire dance floor. Before we knew it, it was 6:30 in the morning and the club was closing!! I didn´t know I could ever stay up that late dancing, but I guess time really does fly when you´re having fun. My friends and I ended up walking home while the sun was rising.

All in all, it was a greatttt weekend!! I am so excited to go back to Madrid this weekend and hit up all the touristy places that I missed out on. (Especially a churros and chocolate place and the Sorolla exhibit at the Prado Museum).

This week is my last week in Barcelona. I am trying to live it up as much as possible!! I´ll let you know how it goes....

P.S. My roommate is getting a bunny today!! She´s taking it back home with her but she wanted to have it a few days before flying it home. I had to severely hold myself back from buying one myself.

Lo siento para la pausa larga

Heyyy everybody. Sorry for the delay in writing - I guess I just got a little lazy as of late. I will do my best to update you on the last week...

Last weekend my friends and I went to Pamplona for Running of the Bulls. It was absolutely ridiculous!! We got there around 8 PM and stayed up all night until the bull running the next morning at 8. Everybody (including us) was dressed in white from head to toe with a red bandana and a red sash around the waist. There were so many people I can't even describe it to you. Many of my friends likened it to Mardi Gras, if that gives you any idea. We walked in parades, watched fireworks, and slept in a field for an hour or two. I didn't know until a few days ago, but apparently while I was sleeping, some guy came up and cuddled next to my face. Luckily those of us sleeping had our other friends around to "keep watch" to make sure we didn't get anything stolen or get ourselves stolen.
That morning was the running of the bulls. We waited by the fence (they put up a giant wooden fence every morning where the bulls run) starting at 6 AM to get a spot. I swear those were the most painful 2 hours of my life. Just imagine trying to get some sleep while sitting on a narrow rung of a wooden fence!! Needless to say, it was pretty uncomfortable.
As I was sitting there, an American couple offered for me to take the man's spot while he was running with the bulls. I was so excited to get a seat on the fence so I could see everything!! Balancing on that fence for a half an hour, however, wasn't that much fun. 15 minutes before the bulls ran, I started to feel very sick and my feet started to fall asleep because of the position of my body. I had to get down because I felt sick, and a man took my spot! I yelled at him in English and Spanish but of course he either 1) Didn't understand me (unlikely) or 2) Didn't care. Needless to say I was in a pretty foul mood when I didn't even get the chance to see the bulls go by. I watched the video afterwards, however, and it was prettyyy brutal. My day was one of the worst days of all with 4 people gored by the bulls, 2 of them seriously. This year was the first in 10 years where somebody actually died (don't worry - it wasn't the day I was there.)
Here is a video of the Sunday running in case you're interested. Don't watch the last minute or so if you can't handle gore (like myself).

Picture of the ladies from Running of the Bulls:

Other than Pamplona, this past week was pretty tame. Until I went to Madrid with my program, of course. We had to take a 9 hour bus ride to get there (which, I must say, was 100 times better than the 6 hour bus ride to Pamplona). Unlucky for me, I got some sort of 24 hour flu or food poisoning right before I left. And honestly, there is nothing worse than a 9 hour bus ride while you're puking into a plastic bag. Luckily I only had one spell like that, but the rest of the ride was pretty miserable (and not to mention embarassing). When we got to Madrid I slept the rest of the day and was fine to go out (although not drink or eat anything too crazy) with my friends.

I have class so I'll update the rest when I get a chance!!

Domingo en Milan

Sorry everybody for such a delay in my writing! I've had quiteee the weekend (which I will talk about later), but for now I will finish up my Milan story.

On Sunday, Holly and I decided to go on an all-day excursion which included a boat ride, a tour of the city, a bike ride, and lunch. It lasted from 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM.

When we first got there, we realized that we were probably the only non-Italian people. Our boat drivers spoke English so we felt a little bit better about it - until they asked us to blow off the entire tour to have lunch with them. Needless to say the answer was NO.

Everything else was fine until we got to the guided tour. Imagine Holly and I standing the back of a tour group in front of a church, listening to a tour in Italian and pretending we knew what she talked about. We even went so far to turn around and look at something she pointed at to pretend we understood. (All the while our boat captains were staring at us from the side waiting for us to leave the tour. Not gonna happen).

Finally, after laughing quietly in the back of the tour about how awful it's turned out, Holly went up to our tour guide to ask if she spoke English. THANKFULLY she did, and she would explain everything to us in English after explaining it in Italian. She was so sweet and she said it was a treat for her to have us on the tour since it is usually filled with old people.

After the tour, we got our bikes and headed into the countryside. It was so much fun! We would bike for while, then stop for a little tour, and so on. After 2 hours or so, we ended up at this realllyyy nice restaurant for lunch. It was a 5 course Italian meal! It was a little difficult to explain our vegetarianism, but we finally got the point across. Afterwards we biked back to the boat and sailed home.

Holly and I biking through Milan!

That night we went out for some appertivos again - delicious as usual. Holly and I got some authentic Italian gelato (soooo good!), walked around by the river, and went home so we could sleep before our 9 AM flight. We never did end up paying for our hostel room.

This past week has been a blur. Monday night we had a jazz catamaran cruise on the mediterranean, tuesday night we watched a Casteller's training session which is essentially a human tower. We went just to watch them practice, and it's ridiculous how high they can make the towers.

A Casteller's tower - the people at the top are kids about 8 or 9 years old.

Thursday we had our first midterm in my Spanish class. It was pretty tricky but I think it went alright. We also went to a perfume museum which was pretty basic but it had some cool stuff like a bottle designed by Salvador Dali and the perfume case of Marie Antoinette. This week we're planning to go to the Picasso Museum and (hopefully) inside the Sagrada Familia.
This weekend in and of itself was so eventful that I must save it for a later post. I'll write about it quickly I promise!!

Hasta luego!

Milan es un ciudad muy extrano

So I have returned from my whirlwind trip to Milan. I really don´t think this blog will do it justice, but I will try.

Saturday: We woke up at 4 AM (before my other roommate even got home) to catch a taxi to the airport. We didn´t have any baggage to check or anything, so it made the whole process sooo much easier. After a plane ride, a train ride, and a metro, we emerged into...a parking lot. (Uhhh my first view of Milan is a parking lot??) We stopped at a fruit store for directions, and quickly learned that you are not allowed to touch the fruit you are purchasing in Italy (apparently they have to pick it up for you). We somehow got directions to our hostel even though neither Holly nor I speak a word of Italian. We finally got to our hostel on the 4th floor and were greeted by a 20 something Italian man that was still drunk from the night before (or so he told us). We couldn´t check in yet, so he invited us to drink cappuccino downstairs..which we got for free. You will come to see that ¨Fo´ Free¨ will be the motto of this trip
We hopped on the metro and went to see some sites. We saw the castle (no idea of its significance) and the big cathedral (didn´t feel like changing so we could go inside). We walked around the main shopping area where alll of the designer shops are. Sooo many of the main labels are from Milan: Prada, Gucci, Armani, and Versace. We went inside, looked at 1000€ purses and shoes, and had a great time. After a nice lunch (gnocci in pesto sauce) and a little more (window) shopping and walking around, we went back to our hostel.
Holly and I booked a 10 person co-ed dorm since it was the cheapest option. When we were taken to our room, we were put in a 2 person, queen bed room with its own shower. FO´ FREE. We didn´t pay for the upgrade, and we didn´t even end up paying for the hostel room at all. We stood there laughing for a full minute because we were sooo confused by the whole situation.
We went downstairs and asked to rent towels and use their computer. He gave us the towels (FO´ FREE) and let us use his laptop to go online. He even offered to cook us dinner that night.
Instead, we decided to check out some ¨appertivos¨. In Italy, if you order a drink, you get to use the buffet FO´ FREE. We went to a cute place called Le Bicciclette and quickly made friends with the bartender. After 2 specialty drinks and 2 shots FO´ FREE we decided to head home. (Totally forgot to mention that there was an Italian motorcycle race on TV...at LAGUNA SECA!! Apparently everybody knows about Laguna Seca in Italy...)
Sunday: I´ll finish later because it´s time for class!!