MM Part Two: Ireland

The third weekend in March the madness continued with a trip to Ireland over St. Patty's day weekend.  I went with my roommate Kim, and we ended up having the time of our lives.  We got into Dublin late Friday night, and after getting lost in the maze that was our hostel we prepared ourselves for the weekend.  People at the hostel were very friendly and also very drunk.  We had a few highly entertaining conversations with the people staying at the hostel before we retired for the night and checked out the next morning to head to Galway.

Before leaving on our bus for Galway, we walked around Dublin for a few hours to see the city.  I loved the old small town city feeling that Dublin gave off and people were also very friendly.  Everyone was walking in the streets in green hats or dressed as leprechauns and the town was decorated in shamrocks.  There was a very happy feeling in the air and also a lot of history around.  

We walked down Grafton Street and saw all the street performers out and visited a museum with a lot of cool exhibits on Ireland way back in the day.  We spent a good majority of our day walking around so when time came around to board the bus we were more than happy to have a seat.

 

Dublin

The drive through Ireland to Galway was gorgeous and as we drove through the green hills of the country during sunset I sat eagerly awaiting what was to come.  We met up with Kim's friend at the bus station and stayed at her apartment for the weekend.  After getting food and determining sleeping arrangements (we got a mattress out and pushed two couches together) we prepared for the evening.

That night we went out to the pubs and ended up meeting a couple of Irish guys who had come from northern Ireland to celebrate.  I met a guy named Hugh and we spent the night dancing and singing to music in the pub.  Later when the pub closed we all gathered around outside on the cobblestone streets and danced to a guitarist while the boys sang their Irish jangles.  Everyone was all in such a good mood and so happy to be where they were that I couldn't help but feel like I was in a fairytale.

It was a night that carried over into the wee hours of the next morning and we woke up three hours later to catch a bus to the Cliffs of Moher.  Though we were tired and my roommate a bit cranky, the trip proved to be more than worth it.  We made several stops along the way through hills greener than I had ever seen and past bodies of water shades of blue that looked like they had been painted in place.  The air was cold but the weather perfect and standing outside we couldn't have felt more alive.  Being submerged in such a storybook nature setting took our breath away.  

On the Cliffs of Moher

Stop along the way

Cliffs of Moher

Dunguaire Castle

Hills of Ireland

We saw castles, waterfronts, and rock canyons that all felt surreal but nothing compared to the breathtaking scene at the cliffs of more.  Being up so high on the grass cliffs, the Atlantic Ocean looked like it spread on forever.  The air smelt the freshest I had ever experienced and being surround by all the colorful nature made life seem unreal.  We left the Cliffs of Moher content, and convinced that nothing could beat that moment in our lives.

View over the Atlantic

Cliffs from the Castle

St. Patty's day ended with an attempt to master the pubs as we had the night before, but this time the pubs were packed with ten times the amount of people.  Trying to get a drink was impossible.  The sea of people dressed in green between us and the bar tender made it a challenge and trying to find somewhere to stand consisted of humping random strangers as the crowd pushed and squeezed us in directions we didn't want to go.  We ended up ditching the pub scene and landing in a burrito joint for a late night snack which proved to be just as fun.

A huge crowd of drunk people came in and started singing and dancing as they ordered burritos.  Some even attempted handstands and cartwheels miserably and it suddenly felt as if the bar had found us.  Needless to say we more than enjoyed the night without a pub and as we headed home for the night we were more than pleased.

I left Ireland with a change of heart and have never felt more alive in my life.  Being around such great company and seeing nature as I had seen it made everything else in life seem so different, in a good way.  I loved it so much that I have booked one more trip back to Ireland before I head back to the states.  

St. Patty's day weekend proved to be a success, and maybe one of the best weekends of my life.  Cheers to March Madness.  It has only continued from there.

March Madness Part One: Sevilla & Granada

March turned out to be the craziest month of my life, and when I say crazy I mean it in the best way possible.  It kicked off with the loss of my crutches and the boot, which I had no regrets with shoving them in the back of my closet, and from there the fun began.  I managed to visit several different cities across Spain and a few in Ireland and came back to Barcelona with a life time of memories.

The madness began with my first trip the first week of March, three days after being released from my boot.  I took a ten hour train ride to Granada with a friend of mine from the program and we later took another over to Sevilla.  Granada proved to be a real test on my foot, as the city was all on a hill and we had to walk everywhere to get anywhere.  After struggling through a ten hour train ride (we had some wine to help us through it), walking proved to be much needed.

The city was quite old and small, with a very picturesque feeling to it.  I almost felt like I was in one of Monet's impressionist paintings, the way the shrubs and trees were decorated in the hills.  Everything was so green and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  We dumped our things off in our hole-in-the-wall hostel and spent the day touring the city.  We ended up taking a visit to the Alhambra, which took one hell of a walk to get to, and had our breath taken away by the prestige of the palace and hillsides.  I couldn't stop taking pictures and by the end of the day the battery in my camera had died.

View over Granada

Streets in Granada

Alhambra

Later that night we went tappa hopping, which consisted of walking from
tapa bar to tapa bar to sample different tapas and ended our night in a hooka bar.  The tapas were all amazing and proved to be the perfect dish with beer.  After dinner, we treated our self to gelato, which is to die for in Spain, and then called it a night.

The next day we took off on a train to Sevilla which turned out to be my favorite city in Spain.  It had a very southern feeling to it and people were incredibly friendly.  We took time to visit Plaza España, the Plaza de Torros, the gardens and other parts of Sevilla.  The town wasn't too big so two days was plenty to tour the city.

Row Boating around Plaza España

Our first full day in Sevilla we enjoyed a nice row boat ride around Plaza España, that is until it started pouring down rain, and we had to frantically paddle back to the dock.  People huddled together underneath the Plaza to keep dry and cheered for us as we rowed back.  By the time we were out of the boat the rain had stopped and were left sopping wet.  It was a bit unfortunate, but I enjoyed the adventure nonetheless.

Flamenco Dancers

I had an incredible time our first night in Sevilla.  Marisa and joined our hostel in a trip to a Flamenco show at a private showing and watched a male and female dance flamenco.  Their passion and agility was amazing and we stayed after to get our picture taken with them.  Afterwards, we made our way to a bar along the river that had a live band and the whole bar was dancing flamenco.  Women and men stood together happily on the floor clapping their hearts out and I could feel the Andalusian culture in the air.  It was a night to remember.

Plaza de Torros

We ended our time in Sevilla the following night with a tapa tour through our hostel where our guide told us about the meaning behind tapas and how they are a part of the Spanish culture.  We were joined by two other couples from different hostels, one from Canada and the other from Germany and ended the night with a two hour conversation about each others hometowns.  It was interesting to hear about the way people live in different countries and I left Andalusia feeling very cultured.

My foot was sore and achy after I got back, but I regretted nothing.  I had some great adventures in the south of Spain and from there only more were to come.

Flamenco en Barcelona: Los Tarantos

Last night my roommate and I decided to checkout the Flamenco in Barcelona.  Barcelona is mostly a tourist city and probably has the least spanish culture out of all of Spain, but we figured since we're here, why not?

The place we ended up going to was a Flamenco bar in Plaza Reial, a plaza just off La Rambla, and only cost 10 euro to get in.  The other Flamenco places I had looked up going to cost a pretty penny to get in, so Los Tarantos ended up being our spot for the night.

Flamenco Stage

Los Tarantos

Walking down La Rambla on a Saturday was crazy.  There were vendors everywhere and people were all dressed up to go to the theater or restaurants along the road.  The street was lit up with bright lights and signs advertising the hottest spots to go out for the night, and the people were all awake and ready for the night to begin.

As we turned down our alley that lead us to Plaza Reial, we walked by several pubs and bars that bumping music from back home.  I find it amusing that American Pop is the highlight of all the clubs and bars in Spain.  The music followed us all the way to our bar, where we waited outside to purchase our tickets.  Plaza Reial is filled with restaurants and bars, and people were drinking wine outside the restaurants and hanging around the fountain in the middle.

Once we had our tickets we entered the bar and grabbed two seats in the second row in front of the stage.  We were some of the first people there, giving us the advantage of prime seating.  Each row had its own mini table for people to place their drinks on, and the chairs were small black folding chairs comfortable enough to host someone for a 30 minute show.

The Bar

Los Tarantos had a calm, relaxing vibe with low lighting and a dimming red hue that lingered over the room.  It set off the perfect feel of Flamenco with a red theme prominent through out the bar.  We put our stuff down and I went off to the bar to get us drinks before the show.  While at the bar, I ran into one of the performers who was hanging with his friends before the show.  He had been dancing behind me when the thud of his feet against the floor startled me.

Our Table

We got to talking in Spanish for a few minutes before he switched to english after recognizing my accent.  He introduced himself as Louis and bragged about how he loved to dance.  His vocal coach was sitting with him, Ferran, and they talked about how they worked together.  Louis was very animated during our conversation and had a lot of energy.  He would wrap his arm around his friend every time he'd talk about him and do a mini-flamenco every time he talked about performing.  It was a light-hearted pre-performance conversation to say the least.

Flamenco Dancers

 I left after I got our drinks and sat back down to watch the show.  The performers: two guitarists, a drummer, two female flamenco dances, and the singer (Louis) all came on stage and took their position.  Louis started off the set with his deep voice that echoed throughout the bar.  His singing style was similar to that of the Arabic music, only a little raspier with Spanish flare.  The flamenco dancers came on to the stage and started tapping their heels at a pace I had never seen before.  Their faces were hard as they concentrated on the music they made with their feet.

The set was incredible and I caught myself saying "Oh my god," a few times.  The singing added a dramatic flare to it and I instantly fell in love with the performance.  With each dance the dancers moved their feet faster than the last, which I didn't think was possible, and they moved with such grace it was incredible.  They wore long red and black dresses with their hair pulled back tightly into buns, and they knotted up the hem of their dress in their fists as they did the Flamenco.

It was a short performance and I could tell it wasn't as renowned as the original Flamenco in Seville, but it was definitely entertaining.  It was a great kick off to the Flamenco I'll see this coming weekend when I travel to Seville, home of the Flamenco.