Beautiful Barcelona! June 3, 2011

After an amazing trip to Bilbao, Hampton and I decided to explore the fourth most visited city in Europe: Barcelona.
Our Sunday morning began with a 6:40am train with many drunk men heading home. It seemed that they took a train to Salamanca to celebrate the soccer game and were just heading home on the train. While walking to the station I ran into two friends of mine from class that were also heading home. Yes, this is Salamanca. The train men were terribly happy and loud and we just anted to sleep. They talked about us a good deal, assuming that we didn’t understand a word. Finally they reached their destination and we had peace for the rest of the ride. We only had one transfer so our trip was a total of 9 hours. We found our hostel, checked in and bought 2 day passes on the local bus tour and started exploring. Barcelona is amazing and beautiful and oh-so big!!!! We would never have made it anywhere without the bus tour.
On Monday we started the tour early and hopped of the bus to see the Sagrada Familia, a cathedral designed by Gaudi. That was my favorite, it was breathtaking on the inside. We waited in line for about 40 minutes and the weather was looking worse and worse. We bought our discounted student tickets to the cathedral and the Park Guell and it started raining right when we walked inside. By the time we came out it was clear again and grabbed lunch, hopped back on the bus and went to the park, also designed by Gaudi and the small museum there. This was also beautiful and incredibly intricate designs for a park. There were also many men selling souvenirs and it was fun to see all of the trinkets.
After the park the weather started to cool so we took the bus a ways and then walked back to our hostel to change. After that we went out walking around the area to explore and found a shopping mall and a cute outdoor restaurant where we had great white wine!
After a long day of sight seeing and pictures and sun we were ready to shower and go to bed. I was asleep by 11pm!
Our check out time the next morning was 10am so we ate breakfast at our hostel, checked out and waited in the lobby before walking to the train station to catch our noon train. We’ll reach Salamanca by 8pm tonight and have class in the morning!
Barcelona is incredibly beautiful and amazing and we didn’t get robbed (which is very common). Also, between the train ticket, two nights in a hostel, a bus tour, food, entrance to the Sagrada Familia and Park Guell, and souvenirs-we spent less than 200 euros!!!!!! We’re beast!

Finally Legal! May 25, 2011

Birthdays at Christina’s house ate nothing to snicker at. I’m not sure who was more excited, her or I. When I came out OD my room to go get breakfast she was in he living room getting ready for appointment. She immediately gave me a hug and a kiss and sang to me. Then she tells me to wait while she runs into her room and returns with a present. As is custom in Spain, I opened it right away. She said if I didn’t like it we could get something else. I found a plastic zipper bag with Marilyn Monroe on it. She asked if I knew who she was and if I liked her. Of course I do! She explained that she thought it would be good for toiletries while I travel. It is super! And when I left the following weekend for Bilbao I showed her that I was taking it and she was pleased as punch. It really is the perfect travel bag!
That night for dinner she bought hornazo, made two tortillas de patata, made crab on toast, homemade sangria, and we all ate together at the table with her special dishes. It was so much fun and everything was great! She even promised to teach us how to make the sangria.

Bilbao! May 25, 2011

This weekend Hampton, my friend from Maryland, and I went to Bilbao for the weekend. Bilbao is located in the North of Spain and is part of País Vasco. This part of Spain is mountainous and as a result was never conquered by the Moors or the Romans. Latin did not each this region, so the inhabitants are bilingual in Spanish and Vasco (a language without any known origin). I enjoyed seeing the street signs in both languages and comparing the two. This region is known for good pinchos or tapas of the region and Bilbao is famous for the Guggenheim Museum.
After a 6 hour train ride we found directions to our hostel at a local tourist information center and checked in. The men were very nice and the room was clean. We had a private room with a double bed and a nice view. The man at the reception desk gave us directions to the museum and we enjoyed a beautiful walk along the river on the way there. Bilbao is absolutely gorgeous! The Guggenheim was beyond expectation for me. The exhibits are unique and contemporary and each room holds a new surprise. The front desk equips you with an audio guide that helps you understand the purpose of each piece. One room contained televisions set on their own tables with different chairs in front of each one with interviews playing from Turkish citizens. Another exhibit contained the glass jars on a shelf with the organs of eight cows. And another was a tomato head man with removable body parts demonstrating the flexibility of our identity. Each display was completely unique! After the Guggenheim we went for pinchos which were delicious but quite expensive! And finally we went to bed.
On Sunday we woke up and went for breakfast. That was significantly cheaper and really good. We checked out of our hostel and spent the rest of the morning walking around the city before catching our train at 2pm. We went to a church museum and walked through gardens and by the river. I would definitely recommend this visit to others. It’s beautiful and everyone is friendly!

Day 11- Safe in Salamanca April 27, 2011

We had train tickets leaving from Hendaye to Salamanca on Monday so the next day we made our way to Hendaye.  Before leaving Pau, we noticed one of the older men that we had met the night before hanging outside the train station.  After our first train we changed trains in Dax where we saw that man drinking coffee in the Dax station and he waved hello to us when we saw him.  From Dax we went to Hendaye and in a, what we thought was futile, attempt to catch a Sunday train we got on a train to Irun.  From Irun a train ran to Salamanca.  If we could not catch that train we would be homeless for a night again.  When we boarded the train to Irun, our stalker walked through our car and said hello again.  That’s when we decided that we needed to lose him and get back to Salamanca ASAP.  Being homeless for a night is one thing but being homeless for a night with a man following you is another thing entirely.  We could not get on the train for Salamanca but we found out that there was a bus and we immediately bought tickets.  Finally, finally, finally, we made it back to Salamanca at midnight and went to school the next morning.  Our trip was wonderful and I really loved everything but I really love Salamanca and I am very happy to live here so I am glad to be back.

Day 10- Homeless for a night April 27, 2011

Yesterday was interesting and last night was a night that I will never forget. It was meant to be a day of trains working our way towards Spain until one of our trains ran late and caused us to miss our connection and last us stranded twice and finally we made it to Pau at midnight. We jumped on a train labeled Lourdes/Pau but when we got to Lourdes they said it was the end of the line and we had to get off. Terribly confused and frantic we looked for incoming trains that we could hop on. That’s when a man and woman that worked on the train came running towards us asking where we were going. We said Pau and they told us that we had to jump on a bus to get there the rest of the way. They pointed it out and we ran to get on. 30 seconds after boarding the bus pulled away.
It dropped us off in front of the train station, which was closed, at 12:30am. Not having anywhere to go we wandered around town. Looking back, we were idiots and probably should have died that night but we didn’t have a choice. We were homeless. As we were walking things started to get weird.  First, we walked past at least 50 cars parked on the side of the road but there was no place that the people that owned the cars could have been -no businesses, no bars, no apartments, no houses.  Then a car drives by blaring “Message in a Bottle” by The Police.  Immediately afterward we found a small bar and went in so we could sit somewhere warm.  Well, ordering was funny because of the language barrier and we looked like freaks with backpacks in the middle of the night and we were at least 10 years younger than everyone else there.  There was a TV set on the “pub channel” and we saw music videos: “ABC” by Jackson Five when Michael Jackson was a young boy, Asian women with fans in traditional dress, and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” also by The Police.  We played a card game called spoons and one man brought a poker set over to us as a joke, so, we made of a weird game called “Kitty Pau” that uses dice, cards, and poker chips.   The bar closed at about 2am and we had to walk more.  We were stopped by 2 men because we looked lost and a woman on a bike that offered to let us stay at her house and 1 guy and 2 girls that were very drunk and wanted us to go to the club with them.  At 4am we returned to the train station and waited for it to open at 5 am.  It was freezing.  I had a short sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt, a jacket, a coat, and a scarf and I was still cold.  The train station wasn’t any warmer but I did fall asleep on the bench and woke up with a homeless man sitting next to me.

Day 9- Back to France April 27, 2011

This morning we had to wake up at 6am in order to make it to the station in time. While the girls and I packed our bags Ali made coffee and set the table for us. She is an angel! We had a filling breakfast with coffee and she even went to the station for us even though it was so early and she doesn’t even work today. On our way to the station I passed a man holding a flat price of paper with a white substance on it while he used another flat paper to arrange the substance into a neat line….You can’t just do stuff like that! Anyway, we got on our train and there was no room. We ended up squeezing in and we were lucky because there was enough room for us to sit in the aisle. After about 20 minutes the train stopped, the loud speaker came on and said something in French. People groaned and everyone started grabbing their stuff and getting up. The three of started looking around frantically and asking what was happening. Someone explained that we were changing trains. We jumped off and ran across the platform to another train and hopped on. In our journey we met a guy from New Zealand that is Eurotripping with a pass for 3 months! He has already taken a trip around the US in a car too so he is into traveling. And after he finishes his trip he’ll go back to work in New Zealand where he is a dairy farmer.
Finally at about 1:30pm we arrived at Avignon, France where we checked into our hotel and went exploring. The city is beautiful and we had a great time in the square. For dinner we found a French restaurant and ordered 3 course meals that were so so so so delicious. Around 11pm we made it back to the hotel and slept like rocks.

Day 8- Panic and Pot April 27, 2011

We arrived at Munich this morning at 6:30am and said goodbye to our friends at the station. We returned to Munich because it connects to good cities. We bought ticket’s for Switzerland and then panicked when we discovered that all of the direct trains are full this weekend and so are any fast trains. Getting back too Salamanca is going to be nothing short of a miracle…however, not to worry because we took a train through Switzerland and saw pre-alps and the Alps from a distance and the country side. It is gorgeous. I would love to hike through here to see more. This morning we panicked about where we would sleep because it is too late to book a hostel and we’ll be stuck in the train station from 8:15pm to 7:30am. That’s when our friend from Switzerland, Alíenor wrote on Jillian’s wall that she lives in Geneve, where we will be, and we can stay with her. While we were on the train the girls and I were admiring the man across the aisle from us. He had long messy hair, a navy and white sailor striped cardigan with big buttons that were only buttoned halfway and searsucker shorts…. THEN we look over and see him pull a ziplock bag out of his man purse and begin to count, smell and inspect his marijuana trees!!!!!!! I’m sure that it was pot because we could smell it in our seat. We didn’t know what to do. Who just pulls out their drugs and checks them out on the train? Is that normal? Is that ok?
When we reached the train station Alíenor was waiting for us at the platform and then she walked to her dad who was waiting with the car. We lucked out! I didn’t know that houses like that exist in real life! Her front gate opens up to a small walkway and her house is set in foliage and gardens. It is a four story house, very tall and skinny. Her family was super friendly and her brother gave up his room for the night because we needed the space. Ali walked us up and I almost cried when we walked in the room and there were three mattresses made up for us on the floor. After showering very quickly we went out to see the town. First Ali showed us the train station and i’m so thankful that we didn’t have to sleep there! We saw museums (but didn’t go in), the old town, the shops and the parks. We got the grand tour! Also, one of the parks had large chess sets. The asphalt was painted as the board and the chess prices were a little larger that bowling pins. There were probably 7 sets and then 4 ping pong tables just for anyone. When we went back to the house I fell asleep instantly. It was great! It was so beautiful and we had someone to show us around and take care of us!

Day 7- Flying by the seat of my pants April 27, 2011

We woke up this morning and ate yogurt and granola, which we had purchased at the grocery store the night before, and coffee from the hostel. We don’t plans for the rest of the trip…not solid plans at least. So we went to the train station to find more train reservations. When we got to the train station we realized that we hadn’t seen the leaning tower of Pisa….so we jumped on a train heading to Pisa. After seeing the tower and eating gelato, we decided to head to Florence where we reserved seats for the train to Venice and walked around the city a bit and ate McDonald’s. It is so much better in Europe!
Venice is amazing. All cities look pretty in movies. For instance, Rome looks beautiful in movies and I think it is beautiful but the movie version is better. Venice exceeds expectations. I will return!!!!! We stuffed our faces at a cute restaurant and shared spaghetti with meat sauce, artichoke pizza, shrimp and zucchini pasta, and two liters of white wine. It was amazing and after all of the wine we even asked the waiter to pose for a picture with us. We went to our train that left at midnight and found that we were sharing a compartment with three students from Munich. I’m sure that we made a very lasting impression…we raved about how much we loved Munich and talked about school and got them to teach us some simple phrases in German. They were super nice and one of the girls that looked like the Cheshire cat gave me Kleenex and gave Morgan water. In fact she told me “I can borrow you some tissue.” !!!!!! I love living in Europe; the people are so cute! We also told them about our previous visit from the German police and they said they would never do that unless they suspected something. Apparently we are suspicious…

Day 6- Cinque Terre April 21, 2011

Finally at 7am we were able to check in to our hostel and eat a great breakfast. There was no rest for the weary because we had hiking to do. Cinque Terre is a group of five towns in the side of a mountain that are connected by hiking trails and a train. At 9am we met up with our friends from the night before, Molly and Stephanie. Together we hiked 3 hours to the next town and had pizza and gelato for lunch. After lunch we found some rocks by the ocean and dipped our feet in icy water. Here we split forces and Morgan, Jillian, and I hopped on a train to explore the rest of Cinque Terre. We accidentally jumped on a high speed train that passed our stop and we panicked for a few minutes about not knowing where we were headed, etc. However, it stopped at another town in Cinque Terre that had a sandy beach. European beaches are…interesting. I saw men in speedos, a naked toddler peeing in the surf and the ultimate- topless, thong wearing grandma. Honestly, she was at least in her mid-sixties. BUT, it was tons of fun and we had a delicious dinner overlooking the water and more gelato. Finally, we went back to the hostel and slept all night long. It was a great day!

Day 5 3/4- Sunrise April 21, 2011

My night did not get any better. I don’t speak Italian but I can understand enough words and body language to know that the people in our compartment talked about us and made fun of us a lot. I was squished against a man on my right and I know they were making comments about that…fortunately he just slept…in a tank top…I needed to use the bathroom so I got up and realized that the hallway was full of people. At least 15 people in a 5 yard stretch of hallway. I had to ask them all to move and then when I got to the bathroom area I encountered 5 guys on the floor. One got up and helped me get all of the others out of the way and he knocked on the bathroom door to get their sixth friend out who looked terribly sick. I slept 5 minutes. Finally at 4am we got off at a stop near our destination. Here we met 2 girls from Michigan and Illinois that are studying in Manchester and currently Eurotripping. We were actually looking for the same place. We jumped another train together (a much better experience) and are now sitting outside a small train station in Manarola waiting for things to open. It is 6:30. Only 30 minutes to go!