The next morning after getting burning coffee poured all over me by some miami girl (she had herself labeled from head to toe as most Americans do... And she didn't even help clean up me or the mess.. Dumb) we took a crazy train combo to Lichtenstein! During the two bus rides in and out of the country capital, Vaduz, we drove the lengthy way through the country not missing too much ground.. After 2.5 hours we can safely say we saw almost the entire country. Lichtenstein is very clean, quiant and expensive like Switzerland... But with a little German twist to it almost. We headed across town to drop off our bags in a locker so we could fully experience everything Vaduz had to offer.. We started off with the stamp museum, the main attraction in Lichtenstein, two rooms on the second floor of a building... There were lots of stamps in cool little pull out drawers, some paper weighers, a few pictures, and that was it. Expectations weren't too high to start with, so it was good. Then we passed the town hall, art museum and strolled along the one street of the 'old district' before taking on the 20 min hike up the mountain to go visit the prince and the royal fam who still live in the castle. We got to the top and checked out the view of all of Lichtenstein and waved hello to the prince.. Too bad he didn't wave back... So we found some nice apple trees and ate some delicious royal fruit.. Some of the best apples ever actually.. But don't worry we didnt like jump the castle wall or anything.. They were just on the side of the road.. We walked a little further to what looked like a secret escape door for the castle buried in the woods.. It was just a huge metal statue-ish thing of Mary. Eh. Back in town we each bought our crazy expensive postcard and stamp because that's just what you do, and then jumped on a bus to a train to landau before finally getting to Munich. O gosh what a day.. We went through 4 countries in one day, stopping to see them all expect Austria! Lindau was just a 40 min train changeover, but it was actually this adorable little port looking town on bandsee? Lake with gorgeous flowers and happy colored buildings. We had plenty of time to stroll the little town before we got to Munich, where we somehow found this amazing deal online for a room for €50.. yes it was one star and in the red light district, but I've already survived that so no big deal. We stroll up to our hotel, tired from our 4 country journey, and the guy looks at me like I'm an idiot. I was like what? I have the confirmation right here.. And he says yea... For oktober 26 not September. Ooo. Shit. Too much Oktoberfest on the mind I guess.. And def completely. Screwed on a place to sleep for the night. So mere and I turned on our pathetic puppy faces and worked every hotel we passed... Nothing under €100was really even comin up if we were lucky to find a single bed.. About an hour later we stumbled in to a hostel at the end of town and after sounding so completely pathetic (I offered the girl €20 for a chair in the common room of the hostel) Susann offered us a place in her flat. Wow! So we went from a stingy cheap room, to premium rates, to a free stay! But then o wait... Where was Andrew goin to sleep? We took him back to a place where. Mere got an emergency room for one person down to €55 and we offered to help pay for part of the room. So we downed some delicious kebaps and met Susann back at the hostel where she lived and worked.. Then she told us to take the metro to her place... Hmm ok she doesn't live in the hostel like every other worker ok... This is a new adventure! We walked instead since we knew munich pretty well by now; and steering through all the drunk people in liederhosen on the street was easier than on any public transportation.. We got to her cute little flat and chatted for a bit.. She had actually just joined couch surfing earlier that day, so although we weren't her first set of strangers, we were her unoffical first set!
The next morning we jumped on the €44 hostel beds before they were gone... By far the most I've ever had to pay for a hostel, but we knew we had a bed and somewhere to dump our stuff and could easily walk to Oktoberfest! O yay what a great time! Ha. It's crazy and something not to be missed in life.. Even if only for a day. We did a day, and a day was plenty... Most people there were there for 4 or 5 days... Crazy soon to be poor people! Mere got our first round of €8.60 beers that are actually €10 with the tip.. If you don't tip they all conspirisize against you and won't get you any more beer... And if they do come back you get twice as much foam. So we enjoyed the first round of our liter steins with some new kiwi friends across the way from the rugby dudes who let us cut in line to make sure we got a seat in the cool tent.. I can't remember the name of the tent off the top of my head but it was big, and near the front to the right. Oktoberfest goes on and on for ages kinda like fairgrounds with booths of food, big heart shaped gingerbread cookies, every type of brautwurst sausage you can imagine, games, rides... The whole works. We thought we'd for sure go out to enjoy the sunny day and all the stuff goin on after we were kicked from our seats at 3 to let more people in on the fun... But we were having too much fun walkin around, doin the offical Oktoberfest German jig.. I can still hear the tune in my head but I'm sure my version and the real one are quite different.. And just meeting people from everywhere.. Few americans, old Bavarian dudes that loved us even though we spoke no German and them no English whatsoever, and of course the English and Aussies too. We even found an Asian in liderhosen... One of the highlights.. I don't know why... I think it just looked so funny. O gosh. So we stayed in the tent way past the 3 hour mark and make friends with the new people at our old table and kept the party goin for a bit. It's so crazy and colorful and festive and hard to explain unless you've been there to see it..
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
frankfurt and switzerland
fter many hours of research on where exactly is a plausible journey for us to embark on over the next three weeks, I decided it was time for some fresh air and to actually see some of Frankfurt. I went for a wander around the lovely red light district before finding the river to walk along. It was so nice and sunny and people were laying in the grass along the waterside... Some people were out practicing their vocals when they shouldntve been, there was a grandma lounging in her beach chair rocking out to some old school classical jams on her boombox, and I took a few scenic pictures for a crossdresser who spoke German to Me and thought I understood.. By the way, have you noticed my improved capitalization skills and punctuation? My new iPhone is very dandy in helpin me out :) I strolled towards a church because my experiences have told me that that is where the town is usually happenin.. I did a pretty good job find the main shopping area as well as an old square with some German buildings and whatnot. I also stumbled upon some other must-sees in Frankfurt such as a little park and a large euro sign.. I was starting to feel like I could give guided tours of big cities on my first go without a map since ive been to so many at this point.. They all kinda do the same thing and place things in the same locations according to the main river that always runs through the middle of the big city. I found the lidl market.. The equivalent of Aldi or food for less.. And picked up some soup packets and oranges and other snacks for my food bag that I lug around everywhere.. Heaven forbid I walk around easily and not look like a complete hobo packrat! After some more people watching in another square I headed back to the hostel in a completely different way and more or less made my way all around Frankfurt in a few hours without a map, seeing almost everything! I'm so efficient these days! Haha. I hung out in the common room of the hostel and talked with some crazy Indian man who loved beer, and some other old dude who in my opinion shouldn't be staying in a hostel... I didn't even want to talk to him.. He just kept giving me his two cents about the world and I didn't really care. He also wanted to discuss cars because Frankfurt was hosting he worlds biggest car show atm (at the moment) but there was nothing to discuss since I only know how to drive one, and even then some people question my abilities..
The next morning I woke up so excited to meet mere and andrew at the train station! It took them a little longer to get in than I thought, but I was waiting forthem at the escalator and I think they were both relieved to see me too! We headed back to the hostel to take advantage of the free Internet and large table space to lay out a map and out books and crap and whatnot. In the process I managed to fling 4 euros into the air.. I hope some lucky bastard appreciates them.. I guess it's about time I leave somehing behind for someone else. After a few hours of routes and planning and being completely confused and overwhelmed, I convinced them that my previos days research and personal experience would provide the best route through Switzerland, then to Munich for Oktoberfest, then onto Salzburg and down to Croatia before heading back north through Vienna and onto Prague where we could catch the cheapest flight to Greece and see an island or hopefully 2 if were good before mere heads home.. So there you go. The plan for the next three weeks... So far so good.. Well see how it all unfolds :) we headed to the train station to try to figure out how to get to interlaken... The center of Switzerland where I've been told by So many to go.. Well the next train out of Frankfurt was headin straight there so we rushed sroj d trying to figure out how to use our eurail passes and the train man simply said, well just get on the train. This is your ticket! Sweet... So much for those reservation fees we were warned about.. About halfway into our journey we decided to make a pitt stop in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. we jumped off the train and started our stroll of the city, quite calm for a capital, quaint and adorable with red flowers hanging from every balcony of every building. You could just feel how clean the city was, and I was reenergized to pay attention to the little details I have been ignoring over the past week or two because it all felt the same, or I was over it, or whatever. I knew all the old buildings and stuff would be a new big deal for my friends, and I would haveta be patient with some things that they are much less experienced with letting them make some mistakes so they can learn too :) we sped walked Bern, finding anoher church- bleh... But Andrew was so impressed, a fountain with a painted Jesus and an apartment building that spat water at people.. We then headed to the river for a great view.. The river was so fresh and the cleaniest of any city water I am yet to see and we saw the sunsetting over this big old impotant looking building that was from the 1200s... There was a plaque on it, and you know it's important when there's A green dome on top! Ha and then we checked the clock and realized our hour of siteseeing went by waaay to fast and if we didn't want to wait another hour, we better book it back to the train station. Well we booked it.. Three Americans runnin through the streets of Bern with our big backpacks still on.. At least theirs aren't as big as mine.. But we get to the station and realize the time on my phone is completely wrong.. So we had ten mins to catch our breath before the train rolled in for interlaken... At least it wasn't the other way around?! We got to interlaken around 9 or so.. It's not too big so once we finally found a freakin map we headed down a street or two to the happy hostel inn... It's was definitely jammin in there with a band rockin out to some blues tunes til midnight... We were hungry and tired so we headed to the minimart down the street only to find the groceries were as outrageous as the 18 dollar pasta at the happy house.. So we resorted to begging the kitchen man for three cups of hot water that we used with my soup mixes.. Those came in handy quite quick! Then it was off to bed on our less than comfortable beds.. Springs in my back aren't my favorite, but I guess I've seen way worse so it worked.
The next morning we got up at a leisurely pace and headed for a hostel with a kitchen.. After we dropped off our bags we strolled to the train station, picking up some odd fruits along the way and enjoying the beautiful small gardens in everyones yards... So many beautiful flowers and perfectly pruned fruit trees. We took the train up to grindelwald where you could see the glaciers on the huge mountains. From there mere and I led the way to milchbach.. It sounded cool... And Andrew had his work cut out for him keepin up with the crazy girls who were shootin straight up the hill through the woods. It was beautiful scenery, with greenness everywhere, goats with huge cow bells (are they goat bells on a goat?) and pretty little houses and strange mushrooms.. The air was so clean and refreshing and luckily not too cold.. We were def breaking a sweat. We finally reaching milchbach after an hour and a half we had a little sit down at the "restaurant" at the summit, where the mean little lady refused us water unless we bought the 9 dollar bottle.. Yea right. We planned to Jack a pitcher off a table until we realized we had no cups.. Dumb. So we trekked on parched in a country where amazing spring water is flowing from the streets- literally. In town every block seems to have a fountain to fill up your bottle with, but not once your in the wilderness.. We trekked down a new path kinda sort on the way back.. We found a hotel where we could get some paper cups and feast on the bathroom faucet water... Def the best bathroom water I've ever had! Then we back-tracked a bit to hike these stairs up to a little house so high on the mountain.. I asked the lady how many steps, she looked confused and said 1000 so mere and I counted.. I got 907, someone carved 898, and mere messed up around 6 or 7 hundred and got like 676. So Basically there were still a lot of stairs but the were small and had nothin on the 1237 I hiked in Thailand. At the top we had a good view of the Swiss valley below, no yodellers to be heard, and a view of the blue ice grindelwald glacier.. We walked over a creepy suspension bridge and over a fence to do a little climbing to get a better view.. No worries there were ropes to guide us and I've got mad rock climbing skills :) it w as cool and the glacier still pretty small but I'm glad we hiked over. We headed back down the 800 whatever stairs and down the mountain through what seemed like a zoo... We saw cats, dogs, rabbits, alpacas, deer with real live antlers as mere pointed out and the standard goats, cows with bells and. Sheep! Even though it was getting late and kinda dark by the time we were back in interlaken, we decided we had to see at least one lake and took the last bus out to the lake where the view was not quite what we had hoped since the fog and eiere mist had set in but it was Still good. We picked up some five dollar pizza and called it a day!
The next morning I woke up so excited to meet mere and andrew at the train station! It took them a little longer to get in than I thought, but I was waiting forthem at the escalator and I think they were both relieved to see me too! We headed back to the hostel to take advantage of the free Internet and large table space to lay out a map and out books and crap and whatnot. In the process I managed to fling 4 euros into the air.. I hope some lucky bastard appreciates them.. I guess it's about time I leave somehing behind for someone else. After a few hours of routes and planning and being completely confused and overwhelmed, I convinced them that my previos days research and personal experience would provide the best route through Switzerland, then to Munich for Oktoberfest, then onto Salzburg and down to Croatia before heading back north through Vienna and onto Prague where we could catch the cheapest flight to Greece and see an island or hopefully 2 if were good before mere heads home.. So there you go. The plan for the next three weeks... So far so good.. Well see how it all unfolds :) we headed to the train station to try to figure out how to get to interlaken... The center of Switzerland where I've been told by So many to go.. Well the next train out of Frankfurt was headin straight there so we rushed sroj d trying to figure out how to use our eurail passes and the train man simply said, well just get on the train. This is your ticket! Sweet... So much for those reservation fees we were warned about.. About halfway into our journey we decided to make a pitt stop in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. we jumped off the train and started our stroll of the city, quite calm for a capital, quaint and adorable with red flowers hanging from every balcony of every building. You could just feel how clean the city was, and I was reenergized to pay attention to the little details I have been ignoring over the past week or two because it all felt the same, or I was over it, or whatever. I knew all the old buildings and stuff would be a new big deal for my friends, and I would haveta be patient with some things that they are much less experienced with letting them make some mistakes so they can learn too :) we sped walked Bern, finding anoher church- bleh... But Andrew was so impressed, a fountain with a painted Jesus and an apartment building that spat water at people.. We then headed to the river for a great view.. The river was so fresh and the cleaniest of any city water I am yet to see and we saw the sunsetting over this big old impotant looking building that was from the 1200s... There was a plaque on it, and you know it's important when there's A green dome on top! Ha and then we checked the clock and realized our hour of siteseeing went by waaay to fast and if we didn't want to wait another hour, we better book it back to the train station. Well we booked it.. Three Americans runnin through the streets of Bern with our big backpacks still on.. At least theirs aren't as big as mine.. But we get to the station and realize the time on my phone is completely wrong.. So we had ten mins to catch our breath before the train rolled in for interlaken... At least it wasn't the other way around?! We got to interlaken around 9 or so.. It's not too big so once we finally found a freakin map we headed down a street or two to the happy hostel inn... It's was definitely jammin in there with a band rockin out to some blues tunes til midnight... We were hungry and tired so we headed to the minimart down the street only to find the groceries were as outrageous as the 18 dollar pasta at the happy house.. So we resorted to begging the kitchen man for three cups of hot water that we used with my soup mixes.. Those came in handy quite quick! Then it was off to bed on our less than comfortable beds.. Springs in my back aren't my favorite, but I guess I've seen way worse so it worked.
The next morning we got up at a leisurely pace and headed for a hostel with a kitchen.. After we dropped off our bags we strolled to the train station, picking up some odd fruits along the way and enjoying the beautiful small gardens in everyones yards... So many beautiful flowers and perfectly pruned fruit trees. We took the train up to grindelwald where you could see the glaciers on the huge mountains. From there mere and I led the way to milchbach.. It sounded cool... And Andrew had his work cut out for him keepin up with the crazy girls who were shootin straight up the hill through the woods. It was beautiful scenery, with greenness everywhere, goats with huge cow bells (are they goat bells on a goat?) and pretty little houses and strange mushrooms.. The air was so clean and refreshing and luckily not too cold.. We were def breaking a sweat. We finally reaching milchbach after an hour and a half we had a little sit down at the "restaurant" at the summit, where the mean little lady refused us water unless we bought the 9 dollar bottle.. Yea right. We planned to Jack a pitcher off a table until we realized we had no cups.. Dumb. So we trekked on parched in a country where amazing spring water is flowing from the streets- literally. In town every block seems to have a fountain to fill up your bottle with, but not once your in the wilderness.. We trekked down a new path kinda sort on the way back.. We found a hotel where we could get some paper cups and feast on the bathroom faucet water... Def the best bathroom water I've ever had! Then we back-tracked a bit to hike these stairs up to a little house so high on the mountain.. I asked the lady how many steps, she looked confused and said 1000 so mere and I counted.. I got 907, someone carved 898, and mere messed up around 6 or 7 hundred and got like 676. So Basically there were still a lot of stairs but the were small and had nothin on the 1237 I hiked in Thailand. At the top we had a good view of the Swiss valley below, no yodellers to be heard, and a view of the blue ice grindelwald glacier.. We walked over a creepy suspension bridge and over a fence to do a little climbing to get a better view.. No worries there were ropes to guide us and I've got mad rock climbing skills :) it w as cool and the glacier still pretty small but I'm glad we hiked over. We headed back down the 800 whatever stairs and down the mountain through what seemed like a zoo... We saw cats, dogs, rabbits, alpacas, deer with real live antlers as mere pointed out and the standard goats, cows with bells and. Sheep! Even though it was getting late and kinda dark by the time we were back in interlaken, we decided we had to see at least one lake and took the last bus out to the lake where the view was not quite what we had hoped since the fog and eiere mist had set in but it was Still good. We picked up some five dollar pizza and called it a day!
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
barcelona!!!
i arrived nice and early to the barcelona bus station where i only saw one crazy lady. the kooks make me feel sane and entertain me. theyre always sitting in the middle ofthe stations rambling about sometihng to their invisible friend at hte top of their lungs. maybe they are trying to talk to each other at the different bus stations across spain.. it was barely light at 630 in the morning.. kind of a reminder that summer is now offically over :( i took the metro to carla's stop (yep my friend i just met in lagos).. and since it was so early, i walked around for a bit.. it was sunday morning..apparently to live in barcelona you need to own a dog and walk it early then. there were still a few kids out from the night before.. but the city is pretty calm at that hour.. i sat in a little cafe and enjoyed the thickest chocolate (accent on the e.. i no longer have a spanish keyboard :/) ive ever had. .and a croissant con queso.. i sat and watched the world go by before i decided it was time to wake up carla! her apartment is cute, her roommates are so nice, and the couch was amazing.. better than so many hostel beds ive had and so nice to not be sleeping with 7 other people for 2 nights. carla took me on the semi-locals tour.. shes only lived there for 3 months but it was perfect.. chilled and at the spanish speed of well get to it.. eventually. we walked around for a bit checkin out the Gaudi buildings.. WOW! how cool are they!? so unique and just stuck in the middle of the hustle and bustle of barcelona.. we made it to teh beach to relax for a bit... well all afternoon..but theres really not too much i enjoy more.. so it was perfect. the beach is no lagos, but it was just what i needed! we headed back through the gothic district where Carla was going to take me to this local champangeria for a sandwich.. it was closed :( so we stopped in another spot and i had some typical Catalayn food.. some bread with tomato smeared on it.. just tastes like soggy bread.. and some tortilla.. which i found out in madrid is not like a mexican tortilla..but a loaf of potato basically. its pretty good though! while we were eating.. it started to rain! boo!!!! so much for walking home.. we stopped at the internet place on the way home..when i was writing most of hte last entry.. and it started POURING. and lightning and thunder included. so i waited it out a bit..nad it just kept getting worse... so i booked it back the 2 and half blocks in my rainbows nad little dress. DRENCHED. it was almost funny how hard it was raining out of nowhere. i was pooped and turned in early on my couch for hte night sleeping like a little baby!
the next morning i was supposed to get up early and take care of more little things that always need to be taken care of.. like my phone and postcards ive been carrying around since belguim.. but somehow it never really gets taken care of, even when you devote an hour to it.. my package that is still lost between the states and thailand was apparently sent through some rando thai company that pretended to be a UPS company.. so the spanish UPS man told me many many times. dumb. i surrendered for the day.. maybe tomorrow or in the next country... and carla and i headed to the Park Guell.. Goudi's park... omgosh its so cool. this dude was on some type of crazy drugs.. but his buildings and architecture are so inspiring! and just cool. theres no real edges to anything..nad so many bright colored tiles and unique ways of building walls and whatnot. Carla had made us a little picnic for the park and introduced me to tinto de verano... basically red wine with yellow fanta was her discription.. its delicious..and went so well with our local tapa style picnic lunch of thin sliced ham, brie nad baguette! mmm. then we headed to goudi's church.. something de familia.. someone will probably hurt me for not knowing the full name! one side of the church shows the sad points of jesus' life.. all the figures carved into this huge crazy church have block bodies... and the other side shows the happy things.. nad the chruch looks like its about to melt down... but it also has these crazy bowls of bright fruit on the side..and tehres all types of reptiles and whatnot carved all over the sides.. o yea. and the church still isnt done..they basically been workin on it for like 100 years.. the new proposed finish date is around 2020.. but itll prolly get pushed back again! Carla knew so much info about gaudi and his work so it was awesome hearing it all.. she prolly knew way more than any of hte locals actually. we went back to the apartment again to get ready for a night out.. yes it was monday..but theres always somewhere to go in barcelona.. so got a few beers from the local shop and sat in a plaza to drink for a bit.. heaven forbid we head anywhere before 1 am! ha. we experienced another massive downpour but luckily it died down in time to head to apollo.. the monday night hot spot. we had a friend of a friend whos friend got us in.. guillermo.. aka ricky martin. he was colombian, but i swear he's ricky's protoge. he was havin the best night of his life dancing with the peruivian and american girl he told us many times.. haha. he pretty much thought we were fighting over him all night when we were more of rescuing eachother from his... ricky dancing. haha. it was definitely entertaining and the club was crazy! about 8 random spanish boys ran over and picked me up in the air for no reason.. and then disappeared.. maybe because i screamed a little! ricky rode the bus home with us.. and continued the show dancin all over the bus. o gosh. and as we walked the 7 or 8 blocks from where we got off the bus back to carlas.. we see our bus pass us on the street, realizing that we couldve stayed on it longer. o well. story of life. we did our standard spanish double cheek kisses and head off to bed.. thinking wed never see ricky again..
the next morning was a late one.. i had big plans of making it to the 9 am mass to see the inside of the gaudi church.. that was far too ambitious.. we had a little brekky and headed out around noon.. i wanted some last bit of beach sun i could count on.. and carla wanted to make sure i actually saw some of barcelona.. so we walked the half hour to the beach.. stopping on the main tourist drag wtih the craziest human statues, birds for sale, and everything else that entertains tourists.. the artistic side of barcelona supposedly. .some people def get creativity points. but i dont know about artistic.. we strolled through the markets as well filled with fruits, candy, mushrooms of every shape and size and some meat and everything else there is to eat. cool! we made it to the beach for a bit hoping to relax for an hour or so..but there was no sittin still after getting spit on by some looney crazy man who was flipping his hair in the wind, and running into ricky martin again! ha. he layed on our towel and chatted away with us instead of working selling presale club tickets on the beach. then it was time to head back so i could catch my bus for my flight.. we strolled through more of the gothic region and hit up the sandwich/champange place.. it was cool... apprently far from crowded...but youd never know that by looking at the 30 people crammed into a little side shop all drinking champange and eating tapas. i felt really spanish in there. it was cool. and cheap! then we walked back through the other side of barcelona.. seeing the cathedral that no one visits because of gaudi's stuff, and some more cool buildings stuck into little side streets.. made it back just in time to book it to the bus station and head to the airport..
arriving in frankfurt hahn was not exactly what i had hoped.. no couches to crash on like in the dublin airport.. but because it was basically a ryanair only airport..aka all the backpackers and cheapos.. well, you better believe that strolling through the terminal there was people curled up in their sleeping bags everywhere! ha it was almost like a little club.. i met some cool polish kids who i camped out with.. they had just hiked for over 30 days on teh camino de satiago.. and convinced me i should do the portugal route with them in two years. OK! they thought i was crazy traveling so many places.. i thought they were crazy walking for hitchhiking and then walking for 30 days. but we of course got along and talked all night..and they left me with all their food.. bread, cheese, and chocolate! thankss guys! and after they went to catch their flight around 5 am.. i found myself a little booth to sleep in for a while before catching the 2 hour bus to frankfurt.. thank you ryanair for claiming the frankfurt airport is near frankfurt. NOT. o what we crazy backpackers go through to save a few euro.
so now im in frankfurt... at my pretty nice hostel in the red light district.. doesnt seem to sketch yet! ha. im really excited for my completely new travel experineces to begin tomorrow when meredith and andrew arrive.. meredith and i have kinda been planning stuff, except not really.. its kinda our style...we have eurail passes for germany, switzerland, austria, check republic, slovenia, and croatia...and we eventually have to get to greece so im sure its going to be quite a whirlwind of traveling to get where we need to go! and andrew is a family friend that over-coiscidently ended up on the same flight as mere and is going to travel with us too.. should be interesting! we dont even know where were offically going tomorrow. but oktoberfest is a must stop within the next week! ha. well see where life takes us!!!!
the next morning i was supposed to get up early and take care of more little things that always need to be taken care of.. like my phone and postcards ive been carrying around since belguim.. but somehow it never really gets taken care of, even when you devote an hour to it.. my package that is still lost between the states and thailand was apparently sent through some rando thai company that pretended to be a UPS company.. so the spanish UPS man told me many many times. dumb. i surrendered for the day.. maybe tomorrow or in the next country... and carla and i headed to the Park Guell.. Goudi's park... omgosh its so cool. this dude was on some type of crazy drugs.. but his buildings and architecture are so inspiring! and just cool. theres no real edges to anything..nad so many bright colored tiles and unique ways of building walls and whatnot. Carla had made us a little picnic for the park and introduced me to tinto de verano... basically red wine with yellow fanta was her discription.. its delicious..and went so well with our local tapa style picnic lunch of thin sliced ham, brie nad baguette! mmm. then we headed to goudi's church.. something de familia.. someone will probably hurt me for not knowing the full name! one side of the church shows the sad points of jesus' life.. all the figures carved into this huge crazy church have block bodies... and the other side shows the happy things.. nad the chruch looks like its about to melt down... but it also has these crazy bowls of bright fruit on the side..and tehres all types of reptiles and whatnot carved all over the sides.. o yea. and the church still isnt done..they basically been workin on it for like 100 years.. the new proposed finish date is around 2020.. but itll prolly get pushed back again! Carla knew so much info about gaudi and his work so it was awesome hearing it all.. she prolly knew way more than any of hte locals actually. we went back to the apartment again to get ready for a night out.. yes it was monday..but theres always somewhere to go in barcelona.. so got a few beers from the local shop and sat in a plaza to drink for a bit.. heaven forbid we head anywhere before 1 am! ha. we experienced another massive downpour but luckily it died down in time to head to apollo.. the monday night hot spot. we had a friend of a friend whos friend got us in.. guillermo.. aka ricky martin. he was colombian, but i swear he's ricky's protoge. he was havin the best night of his life dancing with the peruivian and american girl he told us many times.. haha. he pretty much thought we were fighting over him all night when we were more of rescuing eachother from his... ricky dancing. haha. it was definitely entertaining and the club was crazy! about 8 random spanish boys ran over and picked me up in the air for no reason.. and then disappeared.. maybe because i screamed a little! ricky rode the bus home with us.. and continued the show dancin all over the bus. o gosh. and as we walked the 7 or 8 blocks from where we got off the bus back to carlas.. we see our bus pass us on the street, realizing that we couldve stayed on it longer. o well. story of life. we did our standard spanish double cheek kisses and head off to bed.. thinking wed never see ricky again..
the next morning was a late one.. i had big plans of making it to the 9 am mass to see the inside of the gaudi church.. that was far too ambitious.. we had a little brekky and headed out around noon.. i wanted some last bit of beach sun i could count on.. and carla wanted to make sure i actually saw some of barcelona.. so we walked the half hour to the beach.. stopping on the main tourist drag wtih the craziest human statues, birds for sale, and everything else that entertains tourists.. the artistic side of barcelona supposedly. .some people def get creativity points. but i dont know about artistic.. we strolled through the markets as well filled with fruits, candy, mushrooms of every shape and size and some meat and everything else there is to eat. cool! we made it to the beach for a bit hoping to relax for an hour or so..but there was no sittin still after getting spit on by some looney crazy man who was flipping his hair in the wind, and running into ricky martin again! ha. he layed on our towel and chatted away with us instead of working selling presale club tickets on the beach. then it was time to head back so i could catch my bus for my flight.. we strolled through more of the gothic region and hit up the sandwich/champange place.. it was cool... apprently far from crowded...but youd never know that by looking at the 30 people crammed into a little side shop all drinking champange and eating tapas. i felt really spanish in there. it was cool. and cheap! then we walked back through the other side of barcelona.. seeing the cathedral that no one visits because of gaudi's stuff, and some more cool buildings stuck into little side streets.. made it back just in time to book it to the bus station and head to the airport..
arriving in frankfurt hahn was not exactly what i had hoped.. no couches to crash on like in the dublin airport.. but because it was basically a ryanair only airport..aka all the backpackers and cheapos.. well, you better believe that strolling through the terminal there was people curled up in their sleeping bags everywhere! ha it was almost like a little club.. i met some cool polish kids who i camped out with.. they had just hiked for over 30 days on teh camino de satiago.. and convinced me i should do the portugal route with them in two years. OK! they thought i was crazy traveling so many places.. i thought they were crazy walking for hitchhiking and then walking for 30 days. but we of course got along and talked all night..and they left me with all their food.. bread, cheese, and chocolate! thankss guys! and after they went to catch their flight around 5 am.. i found myself a little booth to sleep in for a while before catching the 2 hour bus to frankfurt.. thank you ryanair for claiming the frankfurt airport is near frankfurt. NOT. o what we crazy backpackers go through to save a few euro.
so now im in frankfurt... at my pretty nice hostel in the red light district.. doesnt seem to sketch yet! ha. im really excited for my completely new travel experineces to begin tomorrow when meredith and andrew arrive.. meredith and i have kinda been planning stuff, except not really.. its kinda our style...we have eurail passes for germany, switzerland, austria, check republic, slovenia, and croatia...and we eventually have to get to greece so im sure its going to be quite a whirlwind of traveling to get where we need to go! and andrew is a family friend that over-coiscidently ended up on the same flight as mere and is going to travel with us too.. should be interesting! we dont even know where were offically going tomorrow. but oktoberfest is a must stop within the next week! ha. well see where life takes us!!!!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
más portugal y españa
as i left the hostel the other morning. i met marek.. a sweet candaian boy who asked if i wanted to go to the beach with him.. ok y not! my books and personal notes can wait a bit longer... so we met up with some more of his friends, carla another canadian/peruvian girl and an aussie girl as well from his old hostel and headed to the beach.. the beach was so beautiful and the sun in full force by the time we finally got there.. we stopped at the corner shop for some foods.. i picked up some pastries and fresh fruit and gobbled them up all too quick.. we sunbaked and fried until we were red.. and then carla suggested we head further down the coast where she went the day before.. so we trekked over.. following a local and found the most amazing beach ever! its like the great ocean road of australia meets the beaches of thailand..without the humidity. so beautiful. and a bit crowded. id hate to see it in the high season. but it was just so wonderful.. we swam around a few cliffs and i climbed up this rock, down a cave and out into the ocean and aroudn teh cliffs back to the beach. how cool. i like to believe i was the first to discover it.. much like everyone else.. but the worn out rope i used to climb suggests theres been many travelers down the same path before. we ejoyed the sun some more and then headed to another little market to make a group dinner. delicious pasta.. as opposed to my standard plain pasta that only has sauce on special occasions! we hung out on the hostel terrace, a nice little patio on the roof with the other crazy aussies and just relaxed. it was so nice. so great. so, just amazing! we went out that night with our monkey dollars (from the monkey house hostel) and had a good night out.. running into some crazy aussie smufs painted blue..and thus so was over half the town, and shared a fish bowl of jungle juice with some old dudes from extra long straws.. like 2 meters. i even rescued a boy off the street and drug him with the help of another guy into a hostel. good night! and just another standard day in lagos..
the next morning i got up too early.. went for a walk down to the grocery store at the other end of town (10 min) and bought an expensive mango and some milk to and chocolate vitamin powder to supplement my diet! ha. no worries.. im getting allt he vitamins i need now :) then as i was finishing, carla and marek came out to the patio with a bowl of pancake mix they stole from carlas hostel! bingo! so delicious! so i had a double breakfast, packed some leftover pasta for lunch and we headed to the beach again. yay! we went down teh coast a bit further.. trekking along the cliffs enjoying the amazing views and sauntering slowly due to the heat and the lack of motivation to move any quicker. eventually we spotted the beach after a little help from this local lady who told us all the beaches are just the same.. glad we didnt listen to her.. this one was even better! more crystal clear deep blue-teal water and yellow cliffs.. some out in a circle in teh middle of the ocean.. clearly a spot we had to swim to! we took in a little sun before swimming out.. o it was soo cool be surrounded by the cliffs on all sides. there were little coves to swim into where if you went through, you might find a beach or just a dead end.. you couldnt tell til you went! all was good... but it wouldnt be complete without an injury to remember it by.. the shadows in teh water made it hard to judge teh depth adn i wacked my foot on a rock. oops. so that gushed a bit for a while..just another ashley move. we enjoyed the scenery and the sun for a bit more.. then some of carlas friends came down to the beach and told us how to get back on the main road so we could do it in 15 mins instead of an hour.. o well. our adventure was beautiful. o i want to go back right now.. its freaking raining!!why did i leave portugal!?! we had a low key night.. joined a group to a cheap restaurant for a 4 euro meal.. i tried to be as portugese as possible with my seasoned prawns.. i spent so much time pulling heads and feet off.. and everyone else had these huge portions of real food. o well. i htink mine tasted better!
the next morning i got up nice and early and went for my second run in three months! it felt good..i ran to the end of the earth.. well.. thats where i was headed. it was a big discussion about how far it was to sangres.. the "end of the earth" back in the columbus days. i ran out to this point where there was a light house..and i could see where the end of hte earth was.. but im glad i didnt try to run there.. i might still be there.. o wait, that would be a good thing! it was prolly a 45 miles.. whoever suggested that was most right.. not a 45 min bus ride, bike ride, or walk.. next time! i had to get back to pack up to head back to lisbon to catch my overnight bus back to madrid.. yes horrible planning. i already know that. it all happened in those tired desperate days of madrid where i wasnt thinking clearly.. and now i haveta live with that. o well.. after i took the bus to lisbon and met my african/portugese boyfriend on the bus.. our conversation was o so throuogh.. ican see why he asked me out. haha. i caught the first train to sintra just outside the city. sintra is just another reason im now in love with portugal.. i met maria on teh train, she was a local med student and explained a lot to me about the portugese ppl adn whatnot.. and she gave me tips on what to eat and see in sintra.. not that its a huge town with so many things to see.. but it was good to have a direction! i first took the famous pastry suggestion at a little pasteleria.. it was alright. i wish i knew waht it was called right now. i have it written down cuz i couldnt remembre the name for hte life of me.. apparently all the english go there to get this one pastry. it was flaky and sugary on the outside, with some creamy custardy stuff cooked inside. really not bad at all..but ive been having a few delicious pasteries already.. so then i hiked to the peña castle.. passing by stephanie who i met in lagos along the way, no big deal... just another backpacker occurance.. i was hiking up the cobblestone path in these sandals i dont normally wear too much, but it was nice because they dont touch my boo boo on my foot..bad decision. they killed all teh way up and down. but the hike was soo well worth it! (OMG the roof is going to crash in in this littel internet cafe right now.) walking the walls of the castle is seriously like being in a fairy tale.. the walls are bright yellow and red, and there are colorful tiles everywhere. the view is just as magical with tropical plants that were imported from australia back in the 1800s. i saw a statue in the distance, and since i techinically paid to see the gardens as well.. well you better believe i walked all teh gardens! haha. i was the only one out there.. taking about an hour to wonder the queens throne and stroll by the little creek and up a hill to a big fat cross which wouldve been an amazing shot with my camera that i still miss so dearly! but i took a mental picture, and hopefully one with my crappy half working little camera! ok time to get back! i stopped in another pastry shop.. and had a little custard pie deal.. mmm my favorite now! i wonder why im still gaining weight even though i dont eat much.. devoured it on the walk back to the train station, and didnt think twice as i gave a french couple directions to the castle in french. haha. everyone approaches me in every language but english i swear. its fun when i can actually respond though! so the train to the overnight bus... great. free accomadation is how i see it. o yes. me and the bus man got in a bit of a bicker.. he wanted me to put my bag under the bus. i was like no way buddy.. ive already lost my camera, im holding onto this with dear life. eventually he won if i wanted on, so i took my time taking out my wallet, passport, and basically all my valuables..aka everything in the dumb bag so that i could board with my buldging pockets and the dumb bag was under the bus.
madrid at 6:30 am was special.. more drunk ppl than sober were out.. and more people were making out than walking around. aye yaye. caught my NEXT bus up to san sebastian where i hoped to lay on teh next beautiful beach for 2 more days! o wait. it was raining... why did i leave portugal again? so 5 hours later, i get there and trek 30 mins in the rain to my hostel.. apparently theres a huge film festival going on.. and brad pitt was there.. i didtn see him, but i wish he wasnt there so my hostel was cheaper! lots and lots of people.. made for a good night out hopin between little bars in the old section of town.. quite cute and full of stinky cigarettes.. my clothes have never smelt so bad. i made some new austrian friends, as well as some from paris, and as always teh next aussie handful. we had a lot of fun dancing and chatting and whatever it is you do til 4 am.. before we went out.. i decided to do something with my day even in the rain and hiked up to "the jesus on teh hill" it was cool and had some good views of the little beach bays of san sebastian.. and the fort or whatever on teh top was pretty cool.. and not so bad of a hike even though i was soo sore from my run the day before haha. i also popped into a bar for some world famous tapas.. and somewhere in translation i thought thez were 60 cents each.. which was a crazy deal, but they were really €1.60. good thing i only had two. they were definitely delicious.. a shrimp on top of this crabmeat mayonaise on a slice of baguette, and the other one was some sausage stuffed in bellpepper with bacon and some cheese to top off the heart attack! mmm. i picked up some bread from the panderia and veggies from the lil fruit shop on the corner.. where i was on top of my game.. he tried to gyp me 4 euros.. poo head. i wonder how many other times ive been ripped off and just went on with my life like a stupid tourist. i bet a few. im getting quicker... and better at quick math to keep these cheating europeans in line!
then the next morning we were all leaving, except one of the austrian boys was missing.. so we waited around with his friend alex, pondering where he went. i couldnt sit around anymore... so i went to go take care of photocopies and my dumb portugese phone that was out of credit in one day.. and to solve the mystery of andy the missing austrian.. iwent the police station.. la estacion de policIA no policia. omgosh. how a little pronunciaiotn makes a difference! well they suggested i go back to the urgent care next to our hostel and the guy said he had been tehre all night with this girl, but he left an hour ago.. so i figured o great. well at least hes ok and prolly back int eh hostel. in the meantime i lollied around and went to beach in the rain.. cuz it was there. i had to! and shopped around for some warmer clothes under €5..by the time i got back to the hostel, i asked if andy had come by.. but he hadnt.. and apparently the guy lied to me about him being in the waiting room.. or he was confused.. or there was someone who had the same features and clothes on in there too... we will never know! around 7 pm he showed up right before i had to leave.. apparently he was stuck in a town 30 mins away.. wow. i think ive about seen it all now. or so id like to think.. caught my next bus to the middle of nowhere espana for my bus transfer at 11pm.. its so sketch..and i was scared by bus wouldnt show up. theres nothing labeled or anything to confirm you are the right place let alone the right city except the bus drivers word. but what do you know.. it rolled up just 5 mins after its expected arrival. i climbed on for my nights sleep... well, whatever sleep you can get with 2 crazy girls screaming in the back of hte bus alnight long.. no one in spain sleeps i swear.
the next morning i got up too early.. went for a walk down to the grocery store at the other end of town (10 min) and bought an expensive mango and some milk to and chocolate vitamin powder to supplement my diet! ha. no worries.. im getting allt he vitamins i need now :) then as i was finishing, carla and marek came out to the patio with a bowl of pancake mix they stole from carlas hostel! bingo! so delicious! so i had a double breakfast, packed some leftover pasta for lunch and we headed to the beach again. yay! we went down teh coast a bit further.. trekking along the cliffs enjoying the amazing views and sauntering slowly due to the heat and the lack of motivation to move any quicker. eventually we spotted the beach after a little help from this local lady who told us all the beaches are just the same.. glad we didnt listen to her.. this one was even better! more crystal clear deep blue-teal water and yellow cliffs.. some out in a circle in teh middle of the ocean.. clearly a spot we had to swim to! we took in a little sun before swimming out.. o it was soo cool be surrounded by the cliffs on all sides. there were little coves to swim into where if you went through, you might find a beach or just a dead end.. you couldnt tell til you went! all was good... but it wouldnt be complete without an injury to remember it by.. the shadows in teh water made it hard to judge teh depth adn i wacked my foot on a rock. oops. so that gushed a bit for a while..just another ashley move. we enjoyed the scenery and the sun for a bit more.. then some of carlas friends came down to the beach and told us how to get back on the main road so we could do it in 15 mins instead of an hour.. o well. our adventure was beautiful. o i want to go back right now.. its freaking raining!!why did i leave portugal!?! we had a low key night.. joined a group to a cheap restaurant for a 4 euro meal.. i tried to be as portugese as possible with my seasoned prawns.. i spent so much time pulling heads and feet off.. and everyone else had these huge portions of real food. o well. i htink mine tasted better!
the next morning i got up nice and early and went for my second run in three months! it felt good..i ran to the end of the earth.. well.. thats where i was headed. it was a big discussion about how far it was to sangres.. the "end of the earth" back in the columbus days. i ran out to this point where there was a light house..and i could see where the end of hte earth was.. but im glad i didnt try to run there.. i might still be there.. o wait, that would be a good thing! it was prolly a 45 miles.. whoever suggested that was most right.. not a 45 min bus ride, bike ride, or walk.. next time! i had to get back to pack up to head back to lisbon to catch my overnight bus back to madrid.. yes horrible planning. i already know that. it all happened in those tired desperate days of madrid where i wasnt thinking clearly.. and now i haveta live with that. o well.. after i took the bus to lisbon and met my african/portugese boyfriend on the bus.. our conversation was o so throuogh.. ican see why he asked me out. haha. i caught the first train to sintra just outside the city. sintra is just another reason im now in love with portugal.. i met maria on teh train, she was a local med student and explained a lot to me about the portugese ppl adn whatnot.. and she gave me tips on what to eat and see in sintra.. not that its a huge town with so many things to see.. but it was good to have a direction! i first took the famous pastry suggestion at a little pasteleria.. it was alright. i wish i knew waht it was called right now. i have it written down cuz i couldnt remembre the name for hte life of me.. apparently all the english go there to get this one pastry. it was flaky and sugary on the outside, with some creamy custardy stuff cooked inside. really not bad at all..but ive been having a few delicious pasteries already.. so then i hiked to the peña castle.. passing by stephanie who i met in lagos along the way, no big deal... just another backpacker occurance.. i was hiking up the cobblestone path in these sandals i dont normally wear too much, but it was nice because they dont touch my boo boo on my foot..bad decision. they killed all teh way up and down. but the hike was soo well worth it! (OMG the roof is going to crash in in this littel internet cafe right now.) walking the walls of the castle is seriously like being in a fairy tale.. the walls are bright yellow and red, and there are colorful tiles everywhere. the view is just as magical with tropical plants that were imported from australia back in the 1800s. i saw a statue in the distance, and since i techinically paid to see the gardens as well.. well you better believe i walked all teh gardens! haha. i was the only one out there.. taking about an hour to wonder the queens throne and stroll by the little creek and up a hill to a big fat cross which wouldve been an amazing shot with my camera that i still miss so dearly! but i took a mental picture, and hopefully one with my crappy half working little camera! ok time to get back! i stopped in another pastry shop.. and had a little custard pie deal.. mmm my favorite now! i wonder why im still gaining weight even though i dont eat much.. devoured it on the walk back to the train station, and didnt think twice as i gave a french couple directions to the castle in french. haha. everyone approaches me in every language but english i swear. its fun when i can actually respond though! so the train to the overnight bus... great. free accomadation is how i see it. o yes. me and the bus man got in a bit of a bicker.. he wanted me to put my bag under the bus. i was like no way buddy.. ive already lost my camera, im holding onto this with dear life. eventually he won if i wanted on, so i took my time taking out my wallet, passport, and basically all my valuables..aka everything in the dumb bag so that i could board with my buldging pockets and the dumb bag was under the bus.
madrid at 6:30 am was special.. more drunk ppl than sober were out.. and more people were making out than walking around. aye yaye. caught my NEXT bus up to san sebastian where i hoped to lay on teh next beautiful beach for 2 more days! o wait. it was raining... why did i leave portugal again? so 5 hours later, i get there and trek 30 mins in the rain to my hostel.. apparently theres a huge film festival going on.. and brad pitt was there.. i didtn see him, but i wish he wasnt there so my hostel was cheaper! lots and lots of people.. made for a good night out hopin between little bars in the old section of town.. quite cute and full of stinky cigarettes.. my clothes have never smelt so bad. i made some new austrian friends, as well as some from paris, and as always teh next aussie handful. we had a lot of fun dancing and chatting and whatever it is you do til 4 am.. before we went out.. i decided to do something with my day even in the rain and hiked up to "the jesus on teh hill" it was cool and had some good views of the little beach bays of san sebastian.. and the fort or whatever on teh top was pretty cool.. and not so bad of a hike even though i was soo sore from my run the day before haha. i also popped into a bar for some world famous tapas.. and somewhere in translation i thought thez were 60 cents each.. which was a crazy deal, but they were really €1.60. good thing i only had two. they were definitely delicious.. a shrimp on top of this crabmeat mayonaise on a slice of baguette, and the other one was some sausage stuffed in bellpepper with bacon and some cheese to top off the heart attack! mmm. i picked up some bread from the panderia and veggies from the lil fruit shop on the corner.. where i was on top of my game.. he tried to gyp me 4 euros.. poo head. i wonder how many other times ive been ripped off and just went on with my life like a stupid tourist. i bet a few. im getting quicker... and better at quick math to keep these cheating europeans in line!
then the next morning we were all leaving, except one of the austrian boys was missing.. so we waited around with his friend alex, pondering where he went. i couldnt sit around anymore... so i went to go take care of photocopies and my dumb portugese phone that was out of credit in one day.. and to solve the mystery of andy the missing austrian.. iwent the police station.. la estacion de policIA no policia. omgosh. how a little pronunciaiotn makes a difference! well they suggested i go back to the urgent care next to our hostel and the guy said he had been tehre all night with this girl, but he left an hour ago.. so i figured o great. well at least hes ok and prolly back int eh hostel. in the meantime i lollied around and went to beach in the rain.. cuz it was there. i had to! and shopped around for some warmer clothes under €5..by the time i got back to the hostel, i asked if andy had come by.. but he hadnt.. and apparently the guy lied to me about him being in the waiting room.. or he was confused.. or there was someone who had the same features and clothes on in there too... we will never know! around 7 pm he showed up right before i had to leave.. apparently he was stuck in a town 30 mins away.. wow. i think ive about seen it all now. or so id like to think.. caught my next bus to the middle of nowhere espana for my bus transfer at 11pm.. its so sketch..and i was scared by bus wouldnt show up. theres nothing labeled or anything to confirm you are the right place let alone the right city except the bus drivers word. but what do you know.. it rolled up just 5 mins after its expected arrival. i climbed on for my nights sleep... well, whatever sleep you can get with 2 crazy girls screaming in the back of hte bus alnight long.. no one in spain sleeps i swear.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Portugalll
Needless to say.. I finally made it! I jumped on the first bus the next morning.. which wasnt until 9:30.. and of course it didtn leave til 9:45.. so i couldve been late for that one.. but i was there 8 am waiting for that stinkin bus.. and they charged me €6 to change my departure date... whatever. i was going to portugal! the bus ride was longgg.. 8 hours.. the whole day. the occasional rest stops were an experience in themselves.. defnitely anything but english is spoken out in teh countryside of spain... its all rolling hills and golden dead grass with teh occasional green tree.. kinda like cali in late august.. or even september. since it is september. when did that happen?! so the rest stops.. my favorite included a greeting from a huge ass turkey with its blue gobbler face starring at me as i tried to walk in.. you order your food at the bar.. all the food i could only translate half of anything so i wnet with the tortilla espanola.. i think its likes potatoes in a loaf form.. cut up and stuck in some bread. dry, but good. everyone eats standing up at the bar. and sips their teeny tiny little cafès.. not even a sips worth a swear. why even botehr putting anything in the cup? on my way out.. i walked around with the peacock, geese, and chickens....not forgetting to say goodbye to the huge turkey before i peaced..
and once i arrived in Lisbon (lisboa to the locals) i was really mad i missed my bus. and even more upset i didnt have my camera to take pictures of the awesome city.. all the sidewalks are mosaic-ed with stones.. pretty patterns in the squares that pop up every couple of blocks.. every other building still has reminense of the patterend tiles that covered the building..and the alternate ones are painted in warm bright pastel colors. its really cool. almost third world, but defnitely not.. and its the first capital city that didtn blend in with the rest of them.. because i got there so late.. i didnt see the bridge.. i went over it to get there but i wanted to admire it.. the bridge is built by the same architect who designed the golden gate..and from pictures i wouldve told u it is the mini golden gate.. theres also little yellow cable cars running all over the city and up the "steep" hills.. theyre definitely hills.. but not quite like the ones at home.. theres a castle up on a hill..and at night its lit up so nicely.. i finally sat for dinner on dad.. it was in teh old section of town.. sitting in a little alleyway with lights hanging from above..and the local who lived next door took his dog out to pee next to my table.. that was connected to teh next table wehre a couple were googling all over each other.. but it was still nice. haha. no more than 2 tables could fit side by side in order for people adn teh occasional taxi to fit through. i had some fried sole..forgot fried meant fried in batter like fish and chips.. o well.. other than the extreme amount of salt.. it was good and teh tomato rice was AMAZING! i think its a local thing.. saw it on lots of tables.. delicious. i strolled on home.. only feeling uncomfortable when i ended up in the african neighborhood which was not the best end of town.. the main streets were booming.. and the little pasteries in teh windows all looked so different and delicious.. and i headed back to my super nice hostel.. what makes a nice hostel..here you go dad: the nice ones have space in the room.. some are tiny and crammed.. otehrs have janky metal frames that squeek when you try to crawl up the bunks.. the solid wood frames are the best and hard to come by.. the three story bunk beds are also a joke in the really low end hostels.. the best ones have free internet.. thats really rare.. and free breakfast.. this hostel gave us pancakes! wow.. usually its cereal with warm milk if your lucky.. otherwise some toast and jam.. maybe nutella on a good day too. juice is often a plus as well.. hot water adn water pressure make for a nice enjoyable stay..and not having to share a room with a snoring old man is always great as well.. having places to hang out and meet people and colors and info on the walls to stimulate your brain and give you ideas on what to do all make a hostel better! so this hostel had it all.. location, not quite as muhc but it wasnt bad. this hostel im in now is slacking on the posted free breakfast...and the toilets are kinda gross.. the toilet paper goes in the bin..remember were half third world here. but im getting ahead!
the next morning i woke up early as always.. feeling better rested..but could really use another 2 days sleep.. i indulged on teh free breaky... pancakes! yes. wish i could go back for some more right now.. then i strolled through town to find the vodofone.. what a journey! portugese and spanish are not as close as everyone makes tehm out to be.. i got my phone so that my parents could get my new iphone upgrade at home! so if you want to call me in portugal.. well ask for my number! then after i get it.. i get all my messages from dad saying dont buy a phone.. well too late.. so if anyone ever goes to portugal.. ive got a phone! then i stopped in a pasteleria for a scrumtious little treat.. my breakfast digested too fast.. i ordered what the little kid next to me was eating..this tall chocolate cone with a cherry on top. he picked a good one.. so i enjoyed my pastry at the counter like everyone else.. it was kinda like cake almost inside.. with a vanilla extract almost flavor. but it wasnt cakey.. it was good. id eat it again.. id eat it righhht now even. then i packed up and headed to the bus station to get to lagos! yes... its never a straightforward process.. but i made it on the bus right at 12:30.. and accepted teh fact that the weather would completely shift when i headed to beach. it started raining..even pouring on the bus... apparently its like the only day of rain ever here.. of course. at least it cleared when we finally arrived 4 hrs later.. and the guy who owns the hostel (he advertised himself as I look like jesus) met me halfway to walk me to the place.. since apparently the advertised free bus station pickup was about as accuarate as the breakfast. o portugal. was tehre even gonna be a bed? haha. lagos is soo cute. a tourist town for sure.. the main streets run by old ppl vacationers.. and cool ceramic blue and yellow tiles and trinkets.. the back streets are all bars and backpackers.. run by australians and young travelers. tehre are more aussies than portugese here. i set down my things in the monkey house.. pet the hostel cat ... and then strolled to the beach hidden among the cliffs.. theres all these tiny beaches connected to eachother by crawling thruogh these little caves. how awesome. the was going down...so i decided to wonder back.. it couldnt be too hard.. i came across 5 aussie boys and a tent in the middle of hte road.. so i joined their party for an hour and they told me how to get back to my hostel.. everyone konws everything in this little town.. kinda cool. hung out on teh roof with some more crazy aussies.. a diverse group really.. and we went out for our free drink.. the best free drink ever. it was a full on cocktail.. but me and stephanie werent really feeling the lame monday night scene with the wasted aussies.. so we tagged along to a few more places before turning in for the night.. now its just an overcast morning.. youd think i was in the central coast.. but the air is still so clean and fresh and it feels good.. hopefully the sun pushes out soon. i could really use a tan these days :) maybe ill go find a churro for breaky or somehting first :)
and once i arrived in Lisbon (lisboa to the locals) i was really mad i missed my bus. and even more upset i didnt have my camera to take pictures of the awesome city.. all the sidewalks are mosaic-ed with stones.. pretty patterns in the squares that pop up every couple of blocks.. every other building still has reminense of the patterend tiles that covered the building..and the alternate ones are painted in warm bright pastel colors. its really cool. almost third world, but defnitely not.. and its the first capital city that didtn blend in with the rest of them.. because i got there so late.. i didnt see the bridge.. i went over it to get there but i wanted to admire it.. the bridge is built by the same architect who designed the golden gate..and from pictures i wouldve told u it is the mini golden gate.. theres also little yellow cable cars running all over the city and up the "steep" hills.. theyre definitely hills.. but not quite like the ones at home.. theres a castle up on a hill..and at night its lit up so nicely.. i finally sat for dinner on dad.. it was in teh old section of town.. sitting in a little alleyway with lights hanging from above..and the local who lived next door took his dog out to pee next to my table.. that was connected to teh next table wehre a couple were googling all over each other.. but it was still nice. haha. no more than 2 tables could fit side by side in order for people adn teh occasional taxi to fit through. i had some fried sole..forgot fried meant fried in batter like fish and chips.. o well.. other than the extreme amount of salt.. it was good and teh tomato rice was AMAZING! i think its a local thing.. saw it on lots of tables.. delicious. i strolled on home.. only feeling uncomfortable when i ended up in the african neighborhood which was not the best end of town.. the main streets were booming.. and the little pasteries in teh windows all looked so different and delicious.. and i headed back to my super nice hostel.. what makes a nice hostel..here you go dad: the nice ones have space in the room.. some are tiny and crammed.. otehrs have janky metal frames that squeek when you try to crawl up the bunks.. the solid wood frames are the best and hard to come by.. the three story bunk beds are also a joke in the really low end hostels.. the best ones have free internet.. thats really rare.. and free breakfast.. this hostel gave us pancakes! wow.. usually its cereal with warm milk if your lucky.. otherwise some toast and jam.. maybe nutella on a good day too. juice is often a plus as well.. hot water adn water pressure make for a nice enjoyable stay..and not having to share a room with a snoring old man is always great as well.. having places to hang out and meet people and colors and info on the walls to stimulate your brain and give you ideas on what to do all make a hostel better! so this hostel had it all.. location, not quite as muhc but it wasnt bad. this hostel im in now is slacking on the posted free breakfast...and the toilets are kinda gross.. the toilet paper goes in the bin..remember were half third world here. but im getting ahead!
the next morning i woke up early as always.. feeling better rested..but could really use another 2 days sleep.. i indulged on teh free breaky... pancakes! yes. wish i could go back for some more right now.. then i strolled through town to find the vodofone.. what a journey! portugese and spanish are not as close as everyone makes tehm out to be.. i got my phone so that my parents could get my new iphone upgrade at home! so if you want to call me in portugal.. well ask for my number! then after i get it.. i get all my messages from dad saying dont buy a phone.. well too late.. so if anyone ever goes to portugal.. ive got a phone! then i stopped in a pasteleria for a scrumtious little treat.. my breakfast digested too fast.. i ordered what the little kid next to me was eating..this tall chocolate cone with a cherry on top. he picked a good one.. so i enjoyed my pastry at the counter like everyone else.. it was kinda like cake almost inside.. with a vanilla extract almost flavor. but it wasnt cakey.. it was good. id eat it again.. id eat it righhht now even. then i packed up and headed to the bus station to get to lagos! yes... its never a straightforward process.. but i made it on the bus right at 12:30.. and accepted teh fact that the weather would completely shift when i headed to beach. it started raining..even pouring on the bus... apparently its like the only day of rain ever here.. of course. at least it cleared when we finally arrived 4 hrs later.. and the guy who owns the hostel (he advertised himself as I look like jesus) met me halfway to walk me to the place.. since apparently the advertised free bus station pickup was about as accuarate as the breakfast. o portugal. was tehre even gonna be a bed? haha. lagos is soo cute. a tourist town for sure.. the main streets run by old ppl vacationers.. and cool ceramic blue and yellow tiles and trinkets.. the back streets are all bars and backpackers.. run by australians and young travelers. tehre are more aussies than portugese here. i set down my things in the monkey house.. pet the hostel cat ... and then strolled to the beach hidden among the cliffs.. theres all these tiny beaches connected to eachother by crawling thruogh these little caves. how awesome. the was going down...so i decided to wonder back.. it couldnt be too hard.. i came across 5 aussie boys and a tent in the middle of hte road.. so i joined their party for an hour and they told me how to get back to my hostel.. everyone konws everything in this little town.. kinda cool. hung out on teh roof with some more crazy aussies.. a diverse group really.. and we went out for our free drink.. the best free drink ever. it was a full on cocktail.. but me and stephanie werent really feeling the lame monday night scene with the wasted aussies.. so we tagged along to a few more places before turning in for the night.. now its just an overcast morning.. youd think i was in the central coast.. but the air is still so clean and fresh and it feels good.. hopefully the sun pushes out soon. i could really use a tan these days :) maybe ill go find a churro for breaky or somehting first :)
Saturday, September 12, 2009
help my dreams come true!!!!! haha
please please please take the few steps to help me get to antartica.. im sure you heard me say im going.. well now i can! if you vote for me :) haha. how awesome would it be?! and you all would get to hear all about it!!
get ashley to antartica!
vote for me por favor!!!!
get ashley to antartica!
vote for me por favor!!!!
it could be worse
yea... i was supposed to be on a bus to portugal a solid hour ago now.. but im not. i left early so I could even be there 30 mins early.. clearly that wasnt enough time.. the arrow for the tram line mustve pointed the wrong way, or someone flipped the sign over or something. who knows. maybe im just that tired and it proves i need a few days to just sleep on the beach. however it happened.. i found myself at the top of the blue line instead of hte bottom where i was supposed to catch the circluar line.. i still made it to the circular line, after a diversion because this lady slipped down the steps and had cracked her head open... then I asked the guard which way to go since he was blocking my path.. naturally he sent me the longer way around the circle.. and as i counted down the minutes on my phone between stops....it looked like i was going to miss my bus. Got to the stop precisely at 11:00.. sprinted my butt off with all 17 kilos on my back.. (close to 40 pounds... yes i need to get rid of some of my crap for sure) i made it to the bus depot.. but there were no buses.. only a guard looking all too okay guarding the empty parking lot.. i sprinted to him with my adreniline running.. and out of no where was fluent in spanish for a solid minute and a half. i asked where the bus was.. yes the one to lisbon..yes lisbon portugal.. and he took his jolly time investigating my printed out bus pass that really doesnt say much except for the name of hte station i was already at. well shit. now on a few levels of confirmation my bus was gone.. but i tried the information lady as well.. i guess the heat of the moment was over.. and thus so was my spanish, but it was the coolest thing i was capable of today. freaked out.. and no where to go.. i was supposed to sleep on the bus.. i headed back to the hostel i came from... of course getting back in 5 minutes instead of an hour and 5. luckily i ran into some of my roommates on the stroll back.. i think they are irish .. they are soo nice! the nicest ones by far! they saw the look of death on my face... and walked me back to the hostel, getting me in all the doors and up the 4 stories with all my stuff.. they even gave me their bed to sleep in til they got back..guess the hostel is full tonight.. and the reception closed at 10.. guess its alright.. not the first time ive had to crash a hostel! so im safe for the night.. hopefully they let me on the bus in the morning.. ive already booked all my super sweet hostels in portugal.. adn i cant wait to get there.. they even serve you pancakes in teh morning!!!! o but this was just the last hour of today...
this morning started out nice.. a slow start with a nice bowl of chocolate flakes.. delicious and the cheapest cereal.. you cant go wrong! everyone seemed to gather around the free internet computers throughout the late morning.. prolly shouldnt call it morning even.. it was more like noon.. i had to check out at 11 but 12 worked too.. and i even just left my bag in my room.. no big deal here. i went out with the same kids as the day before.. we went to explore the parks and have another nice stroll in the beautiful sunshine... saw plenty more fountains and trees and statues.. everyone even came with me to find sonna´s apartment where she lived for a year studying in spain.. it was like a hunt.. not too hard but a nice direction to our walk.. on the way.. we naturally came across the finest of spain who were also out for a walk.. this one guy decided to smack all the chairs over for this outside cafe for no reason.. just cuz he could.. and the owner walks up and slaps him like a little girl.. because that wasnt enough.. the busser runs up and throws the lamest punch into the guys head to top it off.. it was enough to knock the guy out cold on the cobblestone sidewalk.. we all starred with our jaws dropped.. just watching. i whip out my camera and started shooting.. this moment had to be documented! duh! then teh owner and the busser drag teh guy into one of the chairs that he had knocked over and sit him in teh corner waiting for him to come back to his senses.. we watched him twitch a bit.. and then we all gave each other the look like o crap. that just happened.. we better get moving. we walked another two blocks to sonna´s street.. and up the road to her apartment! had a small little photoshoot for her.. why not.. and continued our stroll to another park.. and then we headed towards the palace so jacquie could see it.. on the backside of the palace we found a little lake/fountain that everyone was sticking their feet in.. it was nice and cool water so we joined in. it was just so nice and lovely it our little picnicked spot.. and as we get up to go.. O WAIT. my camera is not longer right next to me. just gone. the strap was resting on my leg.. and everyone else was facing towards me. no one saw it leave. i didnt feel it leave... adn i didnt ever see anyone walk by close to us at all. so thats gone too.... my camera and my bus. great day. they all felt so bad for me.. i did a little panic and accused everyone near the fountain of taking it.. when really.. whoever grabbed it did it so quick and sly and was probably no where in sight.. gone. with all my pictures of madrid.. sorry sonna! at least i changed the card since ireland and i have all my other countries tucked away in my backpack.. dont know how that didnt get grabbed too. we made our way to the estasion de policia where we hung out for a while.. giving details of my camera taht will never be found..and has probably already been sold on the black market.. i was thinkin if i could find the black market and asked for a canon SLR, maybe i might just get mine back!? dom was singing in teh station to lighten the mood for us and all the other people who had been robbed in teh station... haha.. i was defintiely not alone.. lots of stolen passports and credit cards.. guess a camera isnt the end of the world even though it feels like it.. it was like my little child that i washed up at night and tucked in beside me ;( guess i haveta sleep alone tonight.. on the floor of the hostel. haha. life almost sucks. o anyway.. the cops called dom out for singing.. no cantando en la estasion! oops. we sauntered back home..and jacquie adn i remember taht we had a date planned for watching the hookers down teh road.. so she was so nice and bought me some tapas to make me feel better :) i could only translate half of the things.. so we got a surprise mix.. mostly little baguettes with different meats/fish and cheese and sauce.. decent. and a great show to watch. we sat there for almost 2 horas watching the girls in the new little outfits work it on the street. we decided it is legal to be a prostitute... and the girls must rent out the trees.. tehy were on teh same ones as the day before. the girl we guessed wasnt gonna go anywhere left and came back twice.. adn the girl who was throwing herself on the men finally took away two at the end.. we were almost cheering her on.. haha thats almost as classy as how these girls looked. o gosh. what a day. time to go find a couch or a temporary bed or space on the floor til manaña.. man i hope they let me on the next bus! or i just wasted soo many euros. poo.
this morning started out nice.. a slow start with a nice bowl of chocolate flakes.. delicious and the cheapest cereal.. you cant go wrong! everyone seemed to gather around the free internet computers throughout the late morning.. prolly shouldnt call it morning even.. it was more like noon.. i had to check out at 11 but 12 worked too.. and i even just left my bag in my room.. no big deal here. i went out with the same kids as the day before.. we went to explore the parks and have another nice stroll in the beautiful sunshine... saw plenty more fountains and trees and statues.. everyone even came with me to find sonna´s apartment where she lived for a year studying in spain.. it was like a hunt.. not too hard but a nice direction to our walk.. on the way.. we naturally came across the finest of spain who were also out for a walk.. this one guy decided to smack all the chairs over for this outside cafe for no reason.. just cuz he could.. and the owner walks up and slaps him like a little girl.. because that wasnt enough.. the busser runs up and throws the lamest punch into the guys head to top it off.. it was enough to knock the guy out cold on the cobblestone sidewalk.. we all starred with our jaws dropped.. just watching. i whip out my camera and started shooting.. this moment had to be documented! duh! then teh owner and the busser drag teh guy into one of the chairs that he had knocked over and sit him in teh corner waiting for him to come back to his senses.. we watched him twitch a bit.. and then we all gave each other the look like o crap. that just happened.. we better get moving. we walked another two blocks to sonna´s street.. and up the road to her apartment! had a small little photoshoot for her.. why not.. and continued our stroll to another park.. and then we headed towards the palace so jacquie could see it.. on the backside of the palace we found a little lake/fountain that everyone was sticking their feet in.. it was nice and cool water so we joined in. it was just so nice and lovely it our little picnicked spot.. and as we get up to go.. O WAIT. my camera is not longer right next to me. just gone. the strap was resting on my leg.. and everyone else was facing towards me. no one saw it leave. i didnt feel it leave... adn i didnt ever see anyone walk by close to us at all. so thats gone too.... my camera and my bus. great day. they all felt so bad for me.. i did a little panic and accused everyone near the fountain of taking it.. when really.. whoever grabbed it did it so quick and sly and was probably no where in sight.. gone. with all my pictures of madrid.. sorry sonna! at least i changed the card since ireland and i have all my other countries tucked away in my backpack.. dont know how that didnt get grabbed too. we made our way to the estasion de policia where we hung out for a while.. giving details of my camera taht will never be found..and has probably already been sold on the black market.. i was thinkin if i could find the black market and asked for a canon SLR, maybe i might just get mine back!? dom was singing in teh station to lighten the mood for us and all the other people who had been robbed in teh station... haha.. i was defintiely not alone.. lots of stolen passports and credit cards.. guess a camera isnt the end of the world even though it feels like it.. it was like my little child that i washed up at night and tucked in beside me ;( guess i haveta sleep alone tonight.. on the floor of the hostel. haha. life almost sucks. o anyway.. the cops called dom out for singing.. no cantando en la estasion! oops. we sauntered back home..and jacquie adn i remember taht we had a date planned for watching the hookers down teh road.. so she was so nice and bought me some tapas to make me feel better :) i could only translate half of the things.. so we got a surprise mix.. mostly little baguettes with different meats/fish and cheese and sauce.. decent. and a great show to watch. we sat there for almost 2 horas watching the girls in the new little outfits work it on the street. we decided it is legal to be a prostitute... and the girls must rent out the trees.. tehy were on teh same ones as the day before. the girl we guessed wasnt gonna go anywhere left and came back twice.. adn the girl who was throwing herself on the men finally took away two at the end.. we were almost cheering her on.. haha thats almost as classy as how these girls looked. o gosh. what a day. time to go find a couch or a temporary bed or space on the floor til manaña.. man i hope they let me on the next bus! or i just wasted soo many euros. poo.
Friday, September 11, 2009
España
¡hola!
spain es muy bueno... and my español is dramatically improving.. I was more confindent in my abilities than I should´ve been obviously.. but i am also doing better with my spanish than i couldve hoped to.. still speaking plenty of english.. especially hanging out with the aussies and british kids at the hostel.. yesterday i got here around 10 am.. and i sat at teh free internet for quite a bit because its free! yes. after an hour.. i felt guilty sitting around, and headed out for a walk.. i wandered around el sol. the center where our hostel is .. and eventually made it to a few more squares, a cathedral, and teh grand palace.. and through another square.. madrid is quite like i had hoped.. there is a lively feel in the air even though everyone is so relaxed for a big bustling capital city.. theres tons of shopping and places to sit and eat..i will splurge tomorrow before i leave eating at a cafe! apparently its not too bad... but after checking the funds, and the costs of traveling to portugal and back to spain... welll.. i think spaghetti and i are going to become even better friends! haha. i went back to the hostel.. ready for my siesta after my earllly flight.. and i met some cool kids in the hostel.. chloe and ashleigh from adelaide and jackie from melbourne.. they told me about their crazy night out and were just getting up when i got back from my stroll.. our hostel is so cute..its like living in an ikea showroom as someone pointed out..and almost feels like our own apartment right in the center of madrid.. pretty awesome.. and everyone is so friendly and gets along so well.. that after we all dined and got ready together.. and waited for many hours until the appropriate time to go out.. basically the entire hostel went out together.. in a mob more or less.. o yes. we had to wait til 1am to go out.. and even then.. the ¨locals¨ who run teh hostel and went out with us.. well they are from argentina... but theyve been around a fewww more weeks than us.. they took us to a local bar before we were allowed to go to the dance clubs at 3 am. o gosh. i was so tired. i had some local delicious spanish beer and an a spanish girl barf all over my leg before it was time to leave the bar. next up was the club.. but apparently the club was a jazz club.. and the 14 other of us werent really feeling the jazziness.. so walked more of the city to find a club.. the legendary nightlife of madrid was bound to jump on us... so we thought.. wandering the streets at 2 or 3 am.. whatever time it was.. was much like strolling around at 10:30.. with people selling beer on cardboard .. that they drank out of.. i believe. why would you buy an open can of beer from them? we eventually ended up in an irish pub.. bah.. i just came from ireland! and it was packed to the walls with tourists adn everyone in madrid who wasnt spanish.. it was alrigth for a bit and then i headed home with the first crew around 5 am because i was soo pooped :( o well. no flamenco for tonight.
i did my best to sleep in and not get up at 8 am.. i made it til 11.. enjoyed a slow morning in our ikea flat with my new friends.. and we eventually all made it out for a beautiful day in madrid. the weather was perfect.. 29 (84) degrees.. sunny, with a slight breeze. yay! soo happy for nice weather! finally i can get my tan back that ireland, iceland and the uk were holding back.. we we took the metro to the bus station so some of our british friends could get their tickets to barcelona..and then we strolled through the streets and to the parque de buen retiro for a little sit down. we people watched at the million displays of affection and talked about life and the usual.. we saw this little lake with paddle boats..adn tehn continued through the park and back to the streets of madrid.. stopping at some pet store with all these little kitties! and a bakery where i wanted to get some traditonal spanish pasteries.. but i ended up with a porto... no idea really what it was because my spanish wasnt good enough and her english didnt exist.. it was somehting like a glazed piece of pie filled with onions, brown sauce.. what i thought was chicken but then found some squid in there too.. it was strange but eh. ive eaten weirder things at this point. it was getting pretty late.. about 6 pm.. so people were starting to fill the streets again after siesta time.. we found the road where the prostitutes hang out by their little trees.. took us a while to figure out why these less than attractive ladies were all posing in these horrible outfits every 20 feet.. then it came to me! haha.. we think it mightt be legal here... maybe. it was guess.. tomorrow evening jackie and i are going to sit at the cafe across the way, have some tapas and beer and people watch as the men walk by and select their classy ladies... also booked my lovely 10 hour bus journey to lisbon... not where i thought i was headed first.. but what are you gonna do?! from there down to lagos to lay on the beach for a few days and then i haveta head back to madrid on the overnight bus so i can get up to northern spain! if i had only researched my transportations options two weeks ago.. i couldve flown 20 mins for €20 instead of busing for 9 hrs and €70..but thats the way its always goes.. ugh. such is life and traveling on the go. luckily ive just spent the past 2 hrs talking to meredith so we can use our eurail passes to get around! yay! im so tired. nite ntie.
spain es muy bueno... and my español is dramatically improving.. I was more confindent in my abilities than I should´ve been obviously.. but i am also doing better with my spanish than i couldve hoped to.. still speaking plenty of english.. especially hanging out with the aussies and british kids at the hostel.. yesterday i got here around 10 am.. and i sat at teh free internet for quite a bit because its free! yes. after an hour.. i felt guilty sitting around, and headed out for a walk.. i wandered around el sol. the center where our hostel is .. and eventually made it to a few more squares, a cathedral, and teh grand palace.. and through another square.. madrid is quite like i had hoped.. there is a lively feel in the air even though everyone is so relaxed for a big bustling capital city.. theres tons of shopping and places to sit and eat..i will splurge tomorrow before i leave eating at a cafe! apparently its not too bad... but after checking the funds, and the costs of traveling to portugal and back to spain... welll.. i think spaghetti and i are going to become even better friends! haha. i went back to the hostel.. ready for my siesta after my earllly flight.. and i met some cool kids in the hostel.. chloe and ashleigh from adelaide and jackie from melbourne.. they told me about their crazy night out and were just getting up when i got back from my stroll.. our hostel is so cute..its like living in an ikea showroom as someone pointed out..and almost feels like our own apartment right in the center of madrid.. pretty awesome.. and everyone is so friendly and gets along so well.. that after we all dined and got ready together.. and waited for many hours until the appropriate time to go out.. basically the entire hostel went out together.. in a mob more or less.. o yes. we had to wait til 1am to go out.. and even then.. the ¨locals¨ who run teh hostel and went out with us.. well they are from argentina... but theyve been around a fewww more weeks than us.. they took us to a local bar before we were allowed to go to the dance clubs at 3 am. o gosh. i was so tired. i had some local delicious spanish beer and an a spanish girl barf all over my leg before it was time to leave the bar. next up was the club.. but apparently the club was a jazz club.. and the 14 other of us werent really feeling the jazziness.. so walked more of the city to find a club.. the legendary nightlife of madrid was bound to jump on us... so we thought.. wandering the streets at 2 or 3 am.. whatever time it was.. was much like strolling around at 10:30.. with people selling beer on cardboard .. that they drank out of.. i believe. why would you buy an open can of beer from them? we eventually ended up in an irish pub.. bah.. i just came from ireland! and it was packed to the walls with tourists adn everyone in madrid who wasnt spanish.. it was alrigth for a bit and then i headed home with the first crew around 5 am because i was soo pooped :( o well. no flamenco for tonight.
i did my best to sleep in and not get up at 8 am.. i made it til 11.. enjoyed a slow morning in our ikea flat with my new friends.. and we eventually all made it out for a beautiful day in madrid. the weather was perfect.. 29 (84) degrees.. sunny, with a slight breeze. yay! soo happy for nice weather! finally i can get my tan back that ireland, iceland and the uk were holding back.. we we took the metro to the bus station so some of our british friends could get their tickets to barcelona..and then we strolled through the streets and to the parque de buen retiro for a little sit down. we people watched at the million displays of affection and talked about life and the usual.. we saw this little lake with paddle boats..adn tehn continued through the park and back to the streets of madrid.. stopping at some pet store with all these little kitties! and a bakery where i wanted to get some traditonal spanish pasteries.. but i ended up with a porto... no idea really what it was because my spanish wasnt good enough and her english didnt exist.. it was somehting like a glazed piece of pie filled with onions, brown sauce.. what i thought was chicken but then found some squid in there too.. it was strange but eh. ive eaten weirder things at this point. it was getting pretty late.. about 6 pm.. so people were starting to fill the streets again after siesta time.. we found the road where the prostitutes hang out by their little trees.. took us a while to figure out why these less than attractive ladies were all posing in these horrible outfits every 20 feet.. then it came to me! haha.. we think it mightt be legal here... maybe. it was guess.. tomorrow evening jackie and i are going to sit at the cafe across the way, have some tapas and beer and people watch as the men walk by and select their classy ladies... also booked my lovely 10 hour bus journey to lisbon... not where i thought i was headed first.. but what are you gonna do?! from there down to lagos to lay on the beach for a few days and then i haveta head back to madrid on the overnight bus so i can get up to northern spain! if i had only researched my transportations options two weeks ago.. i couldve flown 20 mins for €20 instead of busing for 9 hrs and €70..but thats the way its always goes.. ugh. such is life and traveling on the go. luckily ive just spent the past 2 hrs talking to meredith so we can use our eurail passes to get around! yay! im so tired. nite ntie.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
more irish jigging
after my lovely tour of the western coast.. i get back to my hostel and cook some din din.. the standard mix of whatever is in my bag.. everything is just fine.. except the wierd hostel owner man.. whos defnitely not the owner.. but he is running the place.. anyway he keeps coming in and asking everyone if they are having a good time and enjoying thier stay.. kinda like he was overly worried.. ijust wanted him to leave me alone so i could cook my potatoes.. later on when i went back up to my room.. i was talking to sana and the old irish man again.. and mr simon bursts in ¨looking¨ for the other strange character who is supposed ot be in our room.. really.. this guys face is painted white, he has long hair, red lipstick, and metal plated boots.. nice guy..but strange.. he clearly wasnt in our 4x4 room.. so sana said sorry hes not here... and simon starts ripping on her.. blatenly being racist and saying horrible things about her.. he mustve been drunk or something.. but it was horrible the things that were coming out of his mouth.. for no reason.. i was getting a little scared..getting ready for my hit.. but he offered me a new room so i wouldnt haveta sleep near the dirty israeli girl... i said i was fine.. feeling better in numbers... SO. sana and i packed up early to get out of there..luckily sana got out early and left.. i still had to get my id back that was held for my key deposit.. something i learned that is illegal in ireland.. but nonetheless he still had my id and i needed it back.. so i rang the bell for 30 mins at the reception where simon was supposed to be an hour earlier..waking up everyone else.. and then i pounded on his door.. i tried i climbing through the little window.. but that didnt work.. eventually i broke into his room and yelled at him.. that got him up.. and i got my id and LEFT. so that was my weirdest most uncomfortable hostel stay ever. i got the second bus to killarney.. since imissed the first one because of the bozo.. i had to stopover in limerick for an hour and half.. definitely not too exciting of a town, but it never hurts to see more places! and then i got to killarney and it is just the cutest little town ever! cozy..and the hostel there was amazing.. i got hte second night free which i was able to transfer back to dublin! and the national park was a 3 min walk.. i walked around for about 4 hours.. taking pictures and wondering down paths in the on and off rain and sunshine.. every horse drawn carriage that went by was filled with ppl averaging the age of 70.. and all the horse drivers made a comment about me walking by.. ireland is very critical, but beautiful. i stayed in the hostel and chatted with ashleigh from sydney about croatia and portugal for hours.. excited about my upcoming destinations! o and of course we met this other girl who played lacrosse for ASU. she was a nomad couch surfer... going wherever the next couch surfing event was.. who knew they had organized events?
the next day it was up nice and early again to catch the bus to cork.. cork is alright.. another city.. i get bored with the cities. i like the countryside so much better... but its where some of my family is from which is cool.. but i couldnt find anything.. the only sheehan thing i found was a bar in dublin thats been around for 70 years or something.. in cork i found the butter museum and this little old irish lady selling hard candy.. so i got a little bag. its gross.. im still trying to eat it since i paid for it though! i wondered to the bus stop to go to blarney.. where i met melissa from pittsburgh.. it was her 29th birthday and her friend had invited her to travel aorund ireland..and then ditched her after 4 days.. hmm. so we bonded and related.. and rode to the blarney castle.. im so glad i went.. it was really cool.. and kissing the stone is actually almost scary.. naturally i didnt lean back right and the guy holding me was not amused and he yanked me up and ripped the pocket of my jacket that i just bought :( man.. i just sewed the shoulder together after a quick movement with my backpack! so much for the 13 euro jacket... i wish i had packed black thread instead of white too! there were these 4 ladies behind us in line taht were hilarious..scared of the 100 step height we were at.. they freaked out everytime i took a picture over teh edge...they were convinced kissing the stone was safe since the 100 people infront of them did it alright.. and then one of them couldnt even do it! haha.. well, i can feel my eloquence working already! melissa and i wondered around the grounds together.. theres this cool little park next to the castle thats just ..AMAZING! and you feel like fairies are going to jump out behind the bushes.. i wish i took more pictures of that., but my battery was nearly dead and my memory card maxxed out.. i try to keep countries all on the same card. i learned that melissa has one of hte coolest jobs ever working for the olympics.. and she got the job because she believes in ¨the secret¨ and wrote it on a napkin 3 years ago.. and her thoughts came true...i need a napkin! after teh castle we went our seperate ways, but it was definitely great company for the day! i bused it back to dublin for the night and stayed in what used to be an asylum owned by the catholic church.. cool. the only crazy thing that happened was this drunk boy taht wondered into our room at 5 am.. turned on the lights..and fell asleep sitting up before he could fully take off his clothes. i wish i got a picture.. his shirt was hanging on.. he had one shoe on, and belt undone and he was snoring sitting up. haha.
the next day i did laundry! yesss.. and paid 3 euro for a dryer. it was well worth it. and i met this canadian girl who looks a lot like steph from my lacrosse team.. it was her very first day of traveling alone.. and so she asked me a million questions.. i took her under my wing and we went to the guiness factory together.. the building is raelly cool.. and pouring my own guiness was cooler.. i even got a certifcate that i lost before leaving :( apparently guiness is 250 years old.. and everyone there was very excited for the upcoming birthday... theres a nice view at the top of all of dublin! o! and i ran into korla.. the secretary at the office for my major at cal poly walking into the brewery. how random... of all the people to run into.. after our tour of the factory, i gave heather a quick basic tour of dublin.. like a pro, almost.. kinda freaked myself out.. and we ended up in temple bar of course.. and so we went for a pint at the temple bar in temple bar.. because...it sounded cool. i payed for my free hostel with that stinkin pint..€ 6.30.. like 9 or 10 bucks.. holy smokes. but it was fun..and the bartender loved heather.. not me. im american! haha. o well.. we hung out for a bit more.. then i went to my old hostel in dublin and layed on the couch for a few hours talking to belguim boys and watching tv before i headed to the airport for my cozy nights sleep on the cafe chairs.. i took the last bus so that i wouldnt haveta be there long.. apparently that was a bad idea because everyone else got prime pickings of the starbucks sofas.. i made a little bed in the corner and got up at 4 am to head to MADRID! whooo! and here i am! i havent seen anything yet.. but im ready to go!
the next day it was up nice and early again to catch the bus to cork.. cork is alright.. another city.. i get bored with the cities. i like the countryside so much better... but its where some of my family is from which is cool.. but i couldnt find anything.. the only sheehan thing i found was a bar in dublin thats been around for 70 years or something.. in cork i found the butter museum and this little old irish lady selling hard candy.. so i got a little bag. its gross.. im still trying to eat it since i paid for it though! i wondered to the bus stop to go to blarney.. where i met melissa from pittsburgh.. it was her 29th birthday and her friend had invited her to travel aorund ireland..and then ditched her after 4 days.. hmm. so we bonded and related.. and rode to the blarney castle.. im so glad i went.. it was really cool.. and kissing the stone is actually almost scary.. naturally i didnt lean back right and the guy holding me was not amused and he yanked me up and ripped the pocket of my jacket that i just bought :( man.. i just sewed the shoulder together after a quick movement with my backpack! so much for the 13 euro jacket... i wish i had packed black thread instead of white too! there were these 4 ladies behind us in line taht were hilarious..scared of the 100 step height we were at.. they freaked out everytime i took a picture over teh edge...they were convinced kissing the stone was safe since the 100 people infront of them did it alright.. and then one of them couldnt even do it! haha.. well, i can feel my eloquence working already! melissa and i wondered around the grounds together.. theres this cool little park next to the castle thats just ..AMAZING! and you feel like fairies are going to jump out behind the bushes.. i wish i took more pictures of that., but my battery was nearly dead and my memory card maxxed out.. i try to keep countries all on the same card. i learned that melissa has one of hte coolest jobs ever working for the olympics.. and she got the job because she believes in ¨the secret¨ and wrote it on a napkin 3 years ago.. and her thoughts came true...i need a napkin! after teh castle we went our seperate ways, but it was definitely great company for the day! i bused it back to dublin for the night and stayed in what used to be an asylum owned by the catholic church.. cool. the only crazy thing that happened was this drunk boy taht wondered into our room at 5 am.. turned on the lights..and fell asleep sitting up before he could fully take off his clothes. i wish i got a picture.. his shirt was hanging on.. he had one shoe on, and belt undone and he was snoring sitting up. haha.
the next day i did laundry! yesss.. and paid 3 euro for a dryer. it was well worth it. and i met this canadian girl who looks a lot like steph from my lacrosse team.. it was her very first day of traveling alone.. and so she asked me a million questions.. i took her under my wing and we went to the guiness factory together.. the building is raelly cool.. and pouring my own guiness was cooler.. i even got a certifcate that i lost before leaving :( apparently guiness is 250 years old.. and everyone there was very excited for the upcoming birthday... theres a nice view at the top of all of dublin! o! and i ran into korla.. the secretary at the office for my major at cal poly walking into the brewery. how random... of all the people to run into.. after our tour of the factory, i gave heather a quick basic tour of dublin.. like a pro, almost.. kinda freaked myself out.. and we ended up in temple bar of course.. and so we went for a pint at the temple bar in temple bar.. because...it sounded cool. i payed for my free hostel with that stinkin pint..€ 6.30.. like 9 or 10 bucks.. holy smokes. but it was fun..and the bartender loved heather.. not me. im american! haha. o well.. we hung out for a bit more.. then i went to my old hostel in dublin and layed on the couch for a few hours talking to belguim boys and watching tv before i headed to the airport for my cozy nights sleep on the cafe chairs.. i took the last bus so that i wouldnt haveta be there long.. apparently that was a bad idea because everyone else got prime pickings of the starbucks sofas.. i made a little bed in the corner and got up at 4 am to head to MADRID! whooo! and here i am! i havent seen anything yet.. but im ready to go!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
eire.. the land of the crazy drunk people
i decided to catch the bus to galway.. i knew i wasnt on the cheapest bus and that bugged me..but i couldnt find the cheap bus station and i couldnt be bothered tromping around in the rain with my big bag.. the people i meet here are all so interesting.. the dublin crowd is for sure a special one.. interesting people to say the least... all these big international capital cities are starting to look the same and blend togehter.. the other night after i met up with the aussies, adn their aussie pack.. im practically an aussie, and was considered an honorary one for the night to make explaining easier.. just how it goes! so went to the store to get the cheapest things we could find.. dan and i noticed a typo on one of the labels saying hte individual cost of the cans was 20cents a liter.. maybe it doesnt seem that amazing to you.. but remember.. im in europe! and ireland nonetheless.. where im pretty sure the only way the country makes money is on alcohol.. so i tried to get my 20c a liter.. but it didnt happen.. then some of the boys i was with were basically harassing the lady in the next line.. she was crazy.. maybe even as drunk as them (they were at the pub all day watching the footy game) so she didnt give me my 20 cents a liter.. but she was dumb enough to give me the 4 pack for the single can price! yes. everyone was jealous. hahah. its weirdly satisfying to get a dirt cheap deal.. and something all us travelers live for.. so we had our few drinks at the hostel and hung out with some english girls who straightened my hair for me! (the first time my hair has been done in 2 months!) and headed to the irish club.. it was interesting..different from the other clubs.. there was a live band playing rock songs.. so we rocked out and had a grand time.. and when we were leaving to go back home, i almost witnessed my first beating of a drunk dude who peed all over hte bouncers car. bad idea. never pee on a bouncers car. so we quickly left the situation and were just fine. theres so many drunk people here day and night its a little out of control. so the next morning i tried to sleep in..but failed as always.. cant miss that free delicious hostel breakfast! haha. toast with nutella and a bowl of cornflakes.. i try to fit in my standard 3 or 4 bowls of cereal to hold me over for most of the morning.. sometimes it works.. then i took the bus to galway.. stopping every 10 mins in rando little irish towns.. they all have a pub or 3 on the corner, green grass and sheep, o and the bus stop obviously.. theyre still much bigger than the towns we went through in iceland.. so i guess its all relative. i can never manage to stay awake on a bus.. but i tried because i wanted to take in teh scenery.. its defintely green and gorgeous.. so i got to my crazy hostel in galway.. apparently i booked the wrong nights online because i would.. and the guy 'struck me a deal' that wasnt a deal at all.. but i went with it. im getting much more lazy in my aging travel days. i met this old irish dude and israeli girl in my room.. and we talked for far too long about people and cultures, and ignorance of americans.. standard. they were a bit older and a bit more insightful though than many of hte other travelers i met. so sana, (kinda like sonna!) the israeli girl and i went out to the pubs so i could get the full irish experience that i didnt feel like i was getting in dublin.. so i got my pint of guniess and we enjoyed a live band in a cute little bar that looked like a castle, kinda sorta almost.. with bajillions of drunk young and old irish men. we chatted with some old dudes who bought us drinks and when i turned to talk to someone else they were all offended and peaced out. the perfect escape! haha. but i feel much more irish cultured now at least!
this morning i woke up too early again and was on a mission to eat a real breakfast.. i went down the road a few steps to the convienience store i was pointed to, and asked the guy if there was a proper grocery store nearby because i was not baout to pay €4 for a yogurt.. and besides.. i wanted some bacon! he started telling me i was crazy because i was up at this hour on a sunday.. he was too? it was like 8:30.. he told me to go home and go back to bed.. no one gets up on sunday before noon.. everyone in ireland is too busy making love so thats what i should be doing.. so i started walking out at my failed grocery trip when this kooky old man comes stumbling in the door, clearly still on the piss, and says 'i know where the grocery store is!' and the store owner and him start a yelling match about open grocery stores.. dont listen to the old drunk man.. dont listen to this kook.. i just stood there confused, especially because they were almost fighting about something that didnt actually affect either one of them... so i went with the drunk old man who promised me a store down teh road.. wasnt sure if it was 20 mins the shop guy said or the 5 the drunk guy siad.. but really..i didnt have anything on the agenda.. luckily i picked the right guy.. so go with the drunk old man over the cranky store man is what ive learned today! haha.. after my delicious breakfast i went on a 'short' day tour..that was over 6 hours.. to see the cliffs of moher.. apparently theyre in the race to be one of the seven wonders of the world.. theyre 200,000 votes short of seventh.. so maybe you want to vote? they were cool.. beautiful with lots of birds.. apparently puffins but i didnt see any still :( anna should've come with me to find the puffins! the cliffs are a lot like the 12 apostles in australia.. except way greener and not on a beach.. ha. .but its what came to mind.. maybe because it was raining in both places when i was there.. i got to experience the lovely all day gray sky and misty air.. a bit more authentic than the sun that kept poking through in dubin! apparently this is also the wettest summer in irish history.. since before 1860 something.. hmm guess ill haveta try back next year?! after the cliffs we stopped at this dolmen.. which is an old Celtic tomb.. its like a baby stonehedge.. with this huge rock on top of two standing up.. apparently if your infertile, you can make babies if you do it on top of the tomb.. this one theyve found over 22 bodies buried there from over 600 years.. o yea.. and its older than the pyramids! crazy! so this random rocks i had no idea i was going to see is the oldest thing ive seen so far. thats kinda cool. then we stopped and took some pictures of a castle.. and i wondered through galway back to the hostel. think im headed to cork tomorrow.. maybe killarney to try to see something of the national park.. o i dont know! so many options!
this morning i woke up too early again and was on a mission to eat a real breakfast.. i went down the road a few steps to the convienience store i was pointed to, and asked the guy if there was a proper grocery store nearby because i was not baout to pay €4 for a yogurt.. and besides.. i wanted some bacon! he started telling me i was crazy because i was up at this hour on a sunday.. he was too? it was like 8:30.. he told me to go home and go back to bed.. no one gets up on sunday before noon.. everyone in ireland is too busy making love so thats what i should be doing.. so i started walking out at my failed grocery trip when this kooky old man comes stumbling in the door, clearly still on the piss, and says 'i know where the grocery store is!' and the store owner and him start a yelling match about open grocery stores.. dont listen to the old drunk man.. dont listen to this kook.. i just stood there confused, especially because they were almost fighting about something that didnt actually affect either one of them... so i went with the drunk old man who promised me a store down teh road.. wasnt sure if it was 20 mins the shop guy said or the 5 the drunk guy siad.. but really..i didnt have anything on the agenda.. luckily i picked the right guy.. so go with the drunk old man over the cranky store man is what ive learned today! haha.. after my delicious breakfast i went on a 'short' day tour..that was over 6 hours.. to see the cliffs of moher.. apparently theyre in the race to be one of the seven wonders of the world.. theyre 200,000 votes short of seventh.. so maybe you want to vote? they were cool.. beautiful with lots of birds.. apparently puffins but i didnt see any still :( anna should've come with me to find the puffins! the cliffs are a lot like the 12 apostles in australia.. except way greener and not on a beach.. ha. .but its what came to mind.. maybe because it was raining in both places when i was there.. i got to experience the lovely all day gray sky and misty air.. a bit more authentic than the sun that kept poking through in dubin! apparently this is also the wettest summer in irish history.. since before 1860 something.. hmm guess ill haveta try back next year?! after the cliffs we stopped at this dolmen.. which is an old Celtic tomb.. its like a baby stonehedge.. with this huge rock on top of two standing up.. apparently if your infertile, you can make babies if you do it on top of the tomb.. this one theyve found over 22 bodies buried there from over 600 years.. o yea.. and its older than the pyramids! crazy! so this random rocks i had no idea i was going to see is the oldest thing ive seen so far. thats kinda cool. then we stopped and took some pictures of a castle.. and i wondered through galway back to the hostel. think im headed to cork tomorrow.. maybe killarney to try to see something of the national park.. o i dont know! so many options!
Friday, September 4, 2009
a wee bit of ireland
so now im in ireland.. i got in verry late the other night in the lovely rain.. it seems to rain here whenever it really feels like it. .apparently the weather has been amazing since.. the sun comes out for 10 or 15 mins and warms you up enough to smile, and then dumps some water on you. yesterday i tried to sleep in.. but failed. and found some internet to catch up on life... i still need way more hours to figure everything out adn talk to everyone.. but at least i know im going to spain on sept 10! and while i was there, dan and kristi, more friends from my egypt tour found me in the cafe and then we headed out for the day! we went to howth.. kinda sorta an island in the dublin bay.. we had a little cafe lunch and then explored 'the beach' and attempted to walk to the sad little lighthouse.. it started raining.. so we said good enough... adn as we turned aroudn the sun came out.. so we started on a little walk. the island has like 4 different hikes you can do.. we went down and climbed on these rocks over green rocks.. yes even the rocks are green in ireland..covered in moss! found some runoff that looked like a waterfall, adn made friends with these 3 dogs. we played fetch with rocks for.. about an hour im sure. the dogs would catch the rocks in the air! crazy kids.. then we started on what we thought was the shortest route..and turned out to be maybe a middle one? we managed to detour from the path, but it was so beautiful and green and blue water.. wtih purple adn yellow flowers all over the hill and cliffside. we kept an eye out for puffins.. apparently they live on the cliffs too... adn since i didnt get my fix in iceland. i hoped id get it here.. but no such luck so far :( it was a nice afternoon of walking and enjoying the fresh air, and they we headed back on the train into dublin.. we got some food for dinner..and when you get a combo of all the cheapest things at the cheapest supermarket.. well you get the worst meal ever.. but we all ate it and laughed about it. and then we had some beer and cider.. and went back to my hostel and played cards with the spanish kids.. by the end of the night we were all playing cards completley in spanish! yes.. we thought we were pretty cool.. i wish i remembered all the spanish this morning! itll come back in madrid im sure!
today i went on a free walking tour of dublin. ... tehres really not so much to see here.. so i def haveta get out into the country to see ireland.. working on getting to cork to go kiss the blarney stone where the locals all pee and possibly to galway or maybe north to belfast and to the causeway.. who knows.. im not in a hurry.. i need to feel grounded for a bit since ive been moving practically every single day for... well about 2 months! so im ok not doing too much.. but im definitely antsy to get out and see things.. afterall, how often are you in ireland?! headed to temple bar to catch up with dan and kristi for some good irish guiness at the aussie pub.. hahha. o geez. part of the right of passing in dublin is the guiness.. maybe ill hit the factory tom.. if im not on a bus somewhere! everything is going well.. and im still enjoying myself. .maybe i can land a one week job here if im lucky :)
today i went on a free walking tour of dublin. ... tehres really not so much to see here.. so i def haveta get out into the country to see ireland.. working on getting to cork to go kiss the blarney stone where the locals all pee and possibly to galway or maybe north to belfast and to the causeway.. who knows.. im not in a hurry.. i need to feel grounded for a bit since ive been moving practically every single day for... well about 2 months! so im ok not doing too much.. but im definitely antsy to get out and see things.. afterall, how often are you in ireland?! headed to temple bar to catch up with dan and kristi for some good irish guiness at the aussie pub.. hahha. o geez. part of the right of passing in dublin is the guiness.. maybe ill hit the factory tom.. if im not on a bus somewhere! everything is going well.. and im still enjoying myself. .maybe i can land a one week job here if im lucky :)
ICELAND
when i got back to my room in paris to pick up my bag.. the maintenance man was there dismantling the bunk beds that i was sleeping on.. i asked him if he owned the place since i never met the real owner.. he said yes.. and so i asked him how i should pay for the last night adn if i could leave now and not pay for the final night. he was so confused. mostly becuase he wasnt the owner and didnt really speak english. had i just kept my mouth shut and grabbed my bag and left, i woulda got 2 free nights! GAH. but he helped me find the landlord, adn i tried to explain that i slept there the night before.. apparently she had no idea, and that i was going to the airport.. she convinced me to stay in the house another night for a discounted rate of the room.. so i took it, headed back to the room to go to bed, i hoped.. but the crazy french maintenance man was still there, smoking all over the room and taking everything apart. i told him i paid to sleep there.. adn it was time to go to bed since i had to get up in 4 hours. he said ok. and wanted to konw about all the american things i had in my bag. .apparently my deodorant and hairbrush were amusing.. and my toothpaste that advertised clean fresh breath. i was just so tired and worn out.. and he eventually got it and left.. i think. i locked the room... and was woken by him at 4:30 instead of my alarm at 4:45... he was taking apart the kitchen. ahh. i was ready to get out. so i left and made it to the airport.. handed the security man my postcards to mail.. so if you never get them.. well thats why.
i got to iceland and quickly figured out that everything is going to cost a fortune. omg. and it was worse a year ago. so maybe this was the worst decision i made for my bank account. .but the country is beautiful and something i wouldnt have seen otherwise.. so im glad i went! i walked from the hostel to town to try to claim this room i reserved online for 1 euro.. the man wouldnt let me in til 2 pm.. so i left.. they emailed me saying i couldnt have the room unless i fronted 113 more euro. i was gonna tell them the customer and her confirmation are always right..and then i didnt. and i had to get back to meet anna! my iceland traveling partner.. i met her on my tour in egypt.. im considering finding another tour because as you see these tour friends are really coming in handy! so i hung aroudn the hostel, and then realized that my clock was an hour off, and waited an hour more.. reading pamphlets on puffins and hiking glaciers, snowmobiling, dog sledding, and all the really cool things i def couldnt spend 100 bucks each on :( anna came and we made a plan! kinda.. found a rental car, and then headed to the blue lagoon.. the most touristy thing in all of little iceland.. yes their pop is 300,000 for the whole country. but the blue lagoon is really cool. .apart from the pre-bathing with the 30 naked old ladies.. ew. we were the youngest ones in there by a long stretch...apparently iceland hasnt caught onto the young backpacker thing quite yet.. the blue lagoon is a heated thermal pool that glows blue! and its in lava crater more or less.. and all this hot water is pumped in this pool.. theres hot pools all over iceland.. its like the thing to there for sure. for our low entry fee, we also got to take advantage of the silica in the buckets all around the pool and leave it on our faces.. we applied it to our whole bodies for as long as we could stand being out of the water... iceland isnt exactly warm if you didnt guess! so i was soft as a babys bum from head to toe and all naturally cleaned from the sulfur and whatever else was in that mucky blue water! adn then we headed back to annas hostel.. where they didnt ahve a bed for me.. and so i slept on the hard ass floor.. at least it was free! we made the standard spaghetti with whatever else i could i could take out of the free bins in the hostel.. im getting overly good at making meals out of the free baskets. people ocasionally complement my food..and i laugh. if they only knew... we talked to uwe for too long about where to go in iceland and the world.. hes been to antartica! and he for sure thought anna and i were a disgrace to traveling.. spending 4 or 5 days in a country.. whatever. he can do what he wants and well just keep trekking along :) hes been in iceland for ages writing a book about trekking there. .maybe youll find it someday and be like ooo.. ashley met him! haha.
the next morning we hit up the grocery store for some food for the week.. STEEEP prices, but defnitiely cheaper than buying meals we later found out. and then we got picked up for our rental car.. sat there discussing the insurance options.. decided to pay for all of them except the windshield one.. only to get in our car and realize 10 mins down teh road that htere is infact a hole in the windshield.. we went back and said hey! what do u think youre doing..and then we did a walk around and got off the hook.. phew... we drove to the 'golden circle' where we saw wehre the american and euroasian plates meet.. well, where they are dividing.. theres a huge gap! so i guess i was technically back on the american continent for a tiny little bit :) this is also wehre the vikings set up the first parliment and decmocracy or something like that.. and they had meeting where they voted for things about vikings and such! it was a really pretty place.. lots of green and pretty deep blue rivers.. then we went to see the geysir... pronounced gay-zeer.. where all the otehr geysirs get their name from.. we watched it blow up 4 or 5 times.. it was pretty darn cool.. and then we saw this huge waterfall where it was too windy for words..and im surprised i didnt get frostbite! after that, we started heading along the southern coast of iceland towards the biggest glacier in europe.. viajkionomoninklm or something like that.. we got to our place nice and late.. and then the guy siad sorry i no longer have beds for you, goodbye.. so we pulled into the campsite nextdoor and slept in the car after our makeshift dinner of leftover baguette from paris, tomatoes that were supposed to be for our pasta we couldnt cook.. and juice and what not. it completely worked. and sleeping in teh car was almost better than sleepin on the hardwood floor.. except for the temperature! it was the first night i was happy my sleeping bag was so warm..
the next morning it was up nice and early because of the sun.. and we had a glacier to hike! we got our gear.. helmets, gloves-thank god!, rock-climbing harness? ice pick, and cramp-ons for our boots so we could scale up ice! the hike was nice.. and cool- in both ways. we saw some blue ice! and i stuck my head in some bottomless ditches where the water went to the depths of the earth it seemed. .if you dont believe in global warming.. you should defintiely head to iceland.. although a lot of it is part of the natural cycles of earth.. you can see how fast the earth is heating up, where the lines of the glacier used to be.. the glacier melts so much that our guide had to find new ways to hike since it melts and changes everyday.. lots of waterfalls in ice! whichi is cool and just awesome scenery.. i enjoyed swinging my ice pick and trying to walk almost vertically up the ice with my cramp-ons.. neither of which were helping the glaceir stay intack longer.. sorry earth! after our hike..we took advantage of the 4 dollar campsite shower and i bought a liter of milk to mix with my spanish version of nesquick that i picked up somewhere.. haha.. definitley made for a good few meals :) we drove lots and lots and filled up our little ford focus with the most expensive gas in teh world.. so it seemed! and we eventually made it to berunes on the east coast for the night. it was of course beautiful the whole way.. o! and we stopped at this glacier lagoon.. which was soo cool! and blue! and awesome! tons of icebergs just floating around like no big deal.. then we wound through the fjords and ran over some sheep before we made it to our little farm house.. now these towns really only consist of one or two houses really.. kinda crazy.and then its ages to the next little house.. with a street sign that is the name of the town. kinda crazy! so we gave into the homemade dinner they were cookin up.. some porkchops and mush and potatoes and icelandic stuff.. it was delicious..and apparently 25 bucks as well. oops... at least it was the best bed ive had on my trip so far! our sleep was all too short before it was up and adam to keep journeying around iceland..
we spent most of the day driving.. we really wanted to get to this 'mosquito lake' that uwe told us about.. but it was raining so it was so awesome to be hanging out outside.. we stoped at this place up in the north that had bubbling mudpots.. they STUNK. horrible. its like sulfur and natural stinkiness on a beautiful backdrop.. and you want to stare at the bubbling pits but they smell so bad.. and then it sprinkled down hard some more.. i whipped out my industrial strength poncho (thanks dad!) ha.. and we hiked up a crater to see a blue lake at the top.. the poncho turned out to be a bad idea cuz it was so windy and i was just as wet as anna who wasnt wearing a poncho.. mostly i used it to protect my camera.. and look like a big red balloon! we were laughing as we kept sliding down the hill wondering why we were attempting to get up this volcano.. that is overdue to errupt.. ooo i want to see lava! well, the blue lake looked about the same from the rim as it did from the parking lot.. but i never really mind a little hike or adventure.. we got back down and headed to the most dangerous steamy volcano or geysir..or stinky steam spitting hill that it was. somehow my lens cap and polarizer decide to just drop off my camera.. and i couldnt just settle with leaving them in the lava fields... so were on this deck that says stay off the ground. and i look around for resources.. i pull the metal pole out of the little walking path fence for lack of a better description, and slowly push the lens cap between the planks of the deck about 20 feet to where i can get on the 'hot' ground to grab them.. it wasnt hot thank god! and they were in one piece. .it only took about 20 mins too.. i felt accomplished rescuing my baby! haha.. so we saw more steam and a hydrothermal plant.. yes all the water in all of iceland is heated by the land.. and therefore it all smells like sulfur. i can still smell it on me i think.. so we kept driivng and saw antother big waterfall.. theres tons of little ones on all the hills we drive thoruhg.. and we saw some green christmas trees and whatnot.. changing scenery from the south coast.. it was another late night pulling into snaeberg.. (the ae should be connected as one letter) where slept in a bit before our drive home to reykjavik.
the next morning.. first thing i had to do was touch the artic ocean.. it was cold. icey cold and put taht cold california ocean to shame even. but now i can say ive touched all four oceans :) whoo hoo! now for the seven continents... we tried to get anna an authentic icelandic woolen sweater..but the place didnt open til 1:30pm.. hmm. so we drove and drove and headed to the newest national park on the western side of iceland: Snæfellsjökull National Park ... thank you google. we stopped in a little port town and had a real lunch.. some seafood soup with lobster and fish and deliciousness. then we drove more and found some cool lava rock stuff.. climbing the black rocks on the stone beaches and exploring the cliffs and lava fields from the top as well.. theres lots of stones piled up everywhere.. theyre harder to make than they look! but as legend goes.. those are trolls.. anna built like 3 trolls.. i oculd only manage one! we made it back into reykajvik at night.. the town where you must be a young mom pushing your bundled up infant in a stroller down the street in town to be accepted. we went to a bar and had some icelandic beer..and then made a friend who is the best chess player.. (and football/soccer player as well) in all of iceland.. and he bought us another one. he was the first stinky man i met in iceland.. although im sure after 5 days in the smae clothes we didnt smell to fresh either.. and hten it was up briggght adn early to drive anna to the airport.. i went back to the hostel for a little nap before returning the car and getting to the airport to head to london and onto ireland!!!!
i got to iceland and quickly figured out that everything is going to cost a fortune. omg. and it was worse a year ago. so maybe this was the worst decision i made for my bank account. .but the country is beautiful and something i wouldnt have seen otherwise.. so im glad i went! i walked from the hostel to town to try to claim this room i reserved online for 1 euro.. the man wouldnt let me in til 2 pm.. so i left.. they emailed me saying i couldnt have the room unless i fronted 113 more euro. i was gonna tell them the customer and her confirmation are always right..and then i didnt. and i had to get back to meet anna! my iceland traveling partner.. i met her on my tour in egypt.. im considering finding another tour because as you see these tour friends are really coming in handy! so i hung aroudn the hostel, and then realized that my clock was an hour off, and waited an hour more.. reading pamphlets on puffins and hiking glaciers, snowmobiling, dog sledding, and all the really cool things i def couldnt spend 100 bucks each on :( anna came and we made a plan! kinda.. found a rental car, and then headed to the blue lagoon.. the most touristy thing in all of little iceland.. yes their pop is 300,000 for the whole country. but the blue lagoon is really cool. .apart from the pre-bathing with the 30 naked old ladies.. ew. we were the youngest ones in there by a long stretch...apparently iceland hasnt caught onto the young backpacker thing quite yet.. the blue lagoon is a heated thermal pool that glows blue! and its in lava crater more or less.. and all this hot water is pumped in this pool.. theres hot pools all over iceland.. its like the thing to there for sure. for our low entry fee, we also got to take advantage of the silica in the buckets all around the pool and leave it on our faces.. we applied it to our whole bodies for as long as we could stand being out of the water... iceland isnt exactly warm if you didnt guess! so i was soft as a babys bum from head to toe and all naturally cleaned from the sulfur and whatever else was in that mucky blue water! adn then we headed back to annas hostel.. where they didnt ahve a bed for me.. and so i slept on the hard ass floor.. at least it was free! we made the standard spaghetti with whatever else i could i could take out of the free bins in the hostel.. im getting overly good at making meals out of the free baskets. people ocasionally complement my food..and i laugh. if they only knew... we talked to uwe for too long about where to go in iceland and the world.. hes been to antartica! and he for sure thought anna and i were a disgrace to traveling.. spending 4 or 5 days in a country.. whatever. he can do what he wants and well just keep trekking along :) hes been in iceland for ages writing a book about trekking there. .maybe youll find it someday and be like ooo.. ashley met him! haha.
the next morning we hit up the grocery store for some food for the week.. STEEEP prices, but defnitiely cheaper than buying meals we later found out. and then we got picked up for our rental car.. sat there discussing the insurance options.. decided to pay for all of them except the windshield one.. only to get in our car and realize 10 mins down teh road that htere is infact a hole in the windshield.. we went back and said hey! what do u think youre doing..and then we did a walk around and got off the hook.. phew... we drove to the 'golden circle' where we saw wehre the american and euroasian plates meet.. well, where they are dividing.. theres a huge gap! so i guess i was technically back on the american continent for a tiny little bit :) this is also wehre the vikings set up the first parliment and decmocracy or something like that.. and they had meeting where they voted for things about vikings and such! it was a really pretty place.. lots of green and pretty deep blue rivers.. then we went to see the geysir... pronounced gay-zeer.. where all the otehr geysirs get their name from.. we watched it blow up 4 or 5 times.. it was pretty darn cool.. and then we saw this huge waterfall where it was too windy for words..and im surprised i didnt get frostbite! after that, we started heading along the southern coast of iceland towards the biggest glacier in europe.. viajkionomoninklm or something like that.. we got to our place nice and late.. and then the guy siad sorry i no longer have beds for you, goodbye.. so we pulled into the campsite nextdoor and slept in the car after our makeshift dinner of leftover baguette from paris, tomatoes that were supposed to be for our pasta we couldnt cook.. and juice and what not. it completely worked. and sleeping in teh car was almost better than sleepin on the hardwood floor.. except for the temperature! it was the first night i was happy my sleeping bag was so warm..
the next morning it was up nice and early because of the sun.. and we had a glacier to hike! we got our gear.. helmets, gloves-thank god!, rock-climbing harness? ice pick, and cramp-ons for our boots so we could scale up ice! the hike was nice.. and cool- in both ways. we saw some blue ice! and i stuck my head in some bottomless ditches where the water went to the depths of the earth it seemed. .if you dont believe in global warming.. you should defintiely head to iceland.. although a lot of it is part of the natural cycles of earth.. you can see how fast the earth is heating up, where the lines of the glacier used to be.. the glacier melts so much that our guide had to find new ways to hike since it melts and changes everyday.. lots of waterfalls in ice! whichi is cool and just awesome scenery.. i enjoyed swinging my ice pick and trying to walk almost vertically up the ice with my cramp-ons.. neither of which were helping the glaceir stay intack longer.. sorry earth! after our hike..we took advantage of the 4 dollar campsite shower and i bought a liter of milk to mix with my spanish version of nesquick that i picked up somewhere.. haha.. definitley made for a good few meals :) we drove lots and lots and filled up our little ford focus with the most expensive gas in teh world.. so it seemed! and we eventually made it to berunes on the east coast for the night. it was of course beautiful the whole way.. o! and we stopped at this glacier lagoon.. which was soo cool! and blue! and awesome! tons of icebergs just floating around like no big deal.. then we wound through the fjords and ran over some sheep before we made it to our little farm house.. now these towns really only consist of one or two houses really.. kinda crazy.and then its ages to the next little house.. with a street sign that is the name of the town. kinda crazy! so we gave into the homemade dinner they were cookin up.. some porkchops and mush and potatoes and icelandic stuff.. it was delicious..and apparently 25 bucks as well. oops... at least it was the best bed ive had on my trip so far! our sleep was all too short before it was up and adam to keep journeying around iceland..
we spent most of the day driving.. we really wanted to get to this 'mosquito lake' that uwe told us about.. but it was raining so it was so awesome to be hanging out outside.. we stoped at this place up in the north that had bubbling mudpots.. they STUNK. horrible. its like sulfur and natural stinkiness on a beautiful backdrop.. and you want to stare at the bubbling pits but they smell so bad.. and then it sprinkled down hard some more.. i whipped out my industrial strength poncho (thanks dad!) ha.. and we hiked up a crater to see a blue lake at the top.. the poncho turned out to be a bad idea cuz it was so windy and i was just as wet as anna who wasnt wearing a poncho.. mostly i used it to protect my camera.. and look like a big red balloon! we were laughing as we kept sliding down the hill wondering why we were attempting to get up this volcano.. that is overdue to errupt.. ooo i want to see lava! well, the blue lake looked about the same from the rim as it did from the parking lot.. but i never really mind a little hike or adventure.. we got back down and headed to the most dangerous steamy volcano or geysir..or stinky steam spitting hill that it was. somehow my lens cap and polarizer decide to just drop off my camera.. and i couldnt just settle with leaving them in the lava fields... so were on this deck that says stay off the ground. and i look around for resources.. i pull the metal pole out of the little walking path fence for lack of a better description, and slowly push the lens cap between the planks of the deck about 20 feet to where i can get on the 'hot' ground to grab them.. it wasnt hot thank god! and they were in one piece. .it only took about 20 mins too.. i felt accomplished rescuing my baby! haha.. so we saw more steam and a hydrothermal plant.. yes all the water in all of iceland is heated by the land.. and therefore it all smells like sulfur. i can still smell it on me i think.. so we kept driivng and saw antother big waterfall.. theres tons of little ones on all the hills we drive thoruhg.. and we saw some green christmas trees and whatnot.. changing scenery from the south coast.. it was another late night pulling into snaeberg.. (the ae should be connected as one letter) where slept in a bit before our drive home to reykjavik.
the next morning.. first thing i had to do was touch the artic ocean.. it was cold. icey cold and put taht cold california ocean to shame even. but now i can say ive touched all four oceans :) whoo hoo! now for the seven continents... we tried to get anna an authentic icelandic woolen sweater..but the place didnt open til 1:30pm.. hmm. so we drove and drove and headed to the newest national park on the western side of iceland: Snæfellsjökull National Park ... thank you google. we stopped in a little port town and had a real lunch.. some seafood soup with lobster and fish and deliciousness. then we drove more and found some cool lava rock stuff.. climbing the black rocks on the stone beaches and exploring the cliffs and lava fields from the top as well.. theres lots of stones piled up everywhere.. theyre harder to make than they look! but as legend goes.. those are trolls.. anna built like 3 trolls.. i oculd only manage one! we made it back into reykajvik at night.. the town where you must be a young mom pushing your bundled up infant in a stroller down the street in town to be accepted. we went to a bar and had some icelandic beer..and then made a friend who is the best chess player.. (and football/soccer player as well) in all of iceland.. and he bought us another one. he was the first stinky man i met in iceland.. although im sure after 5 days in the smae clothes we didnt smell to fresh either.. and hten it was up briggght adn early to drive anna to the airport.. i went back to the hostel for a little nap before returning the car and getting to the airport to head to london and onto ireland!!!!
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