Last stop: Italy

The final trip of my travels abroad ended in the gorgeous city of Venice, Italy.  After a brief stop in Rome for a night, I took a train the following morning to visit the city on water.  The weather was gorgeous, the sites were impeccable, and I couldn't have been happier with the place I had chosen to end it all.

Coming to Venice from the 5 day party I had had in Dublin made for the perfect relaxing vacation that I needed.  I checked into a hotel where I had my own room, bathroom, and private balcony and reveled in the luxury I had given up before by traveling through hostels.  I took a bus to the city center every day, checking different sites on the island each time, and spent my breaks eating italian food every meal time.  It took me a day and a half to order something other than pizza but after I had finally had my fill I expanded my cuisine to lasagna, spaghetti, ravioli, risotto, and gnocchi.  I had had it all and then some, and by the time I left venice I'm pretty sure I had eaten enough food to feed all the starving children in Africa.  Not something I'm looking forward to working off when I get back to the states.

The first day in Venice I spent roaming around the city, climbing over various bridges that hung over the canals and meandering around aimlessly.  I walked without a plan admiring the luminous canals and the old ruble homes that had been so eloquently put together.  The whole city was out, and as I ventured deeper into the neighborhoods I ran into several children out kicking the soccer ball around or balling around on the basketball hoops.  The whole friendly neighborhood scene engulfed me right from the start and I felt like I was in a movie.

View Over the Grand Canal

I went back to the main land the second day with more of schedule, and took time to see the Rialto bridge and St. Marks square.  It was close to impossible to get lost as there were sides around every street corner pointing me in the right direction and I moseyed along slowly taking my time to stop at the different shops and admire the different masks and trinkets they had to offer.  As I got closer to the Rialto bridge more and more people started to crowd the small alley ways .  There were shops stacked along the bridge and as I perched myself over the edge I admired the view of the grand canal.  There were as many gondolas as there were seagulls in the water and I watched wishing I had an extra 80 euro to splurge on a gondola ride.

Rialto Bridge

When I got to St. Marks square I learned where all the people had come from. There was an entire concert of tourists in front of me and I couldn't spot one who didn't have a camera, myself included.  The plaza was huge and St. Marks Basilica stood tall over everyone.  The architecture was extravagantly decorated with different religious scenes and the floors on the inside were pieced together by a rainbow array of tiles.  I marveled at it all.

St. Marks' Basilica

St. Marks' Square

My last day in Venice I took a 4 hour excursion to the three Islands off of Venice: Murano, Burano, and Torcello, but not before my wallet was taken by surprise by a local market that had planted itself right outside my hotel.  I spent a good amount of money on Italian clothes and fruit, which were just a few of the things it had to offer.  I made it to the excursion an hour later with three new outfits  and 30 euro less in my wallet.

Street Market

While on the excursion  I met a girl from Algeria who had also been traveling by herself and we became excursion buddies.  Our first stop was the island of Murano where we had the privilege of watching the glass blowing process.  Murano dapples in its glory of glass blowing and after being blown away by all the colors we wandered around the canals admiring the various glass shops. The Island of Burano came next, which is famous for its lace.  We visited a local lace shop and then toured around the main square where all kinds of scarves lay out tauntingly for tourists.  I was a magnet for these sales and I ended up buying three.  The designs were so unique and the material unlike anything I had see before, I couldn't stop myself.

Burano

Murano

I hid my wallet after that as we approached the final Island of Torcello where its population count was 11.  People had been driven off of it by malaria and it was now an island filled with grassy walk ways and broken down churches/museums.  I spent time with Aria, my friend from Algeria, sitting along the water and admiring nature.  It was the perfect end to the excursion.  The sun set as we headed home and I left Venice the next morning.

Torcello

Along the Canal in Torcello

I more than enjoyed my time in Venice and was glad I had the opportunity to visit such a unique city.  I found it interesting how the public transportation was made up of water taxis and water busses and loved how every time I lingered outside a restaurant a waiter would pop his head out and ask me, "Pi-zah?" or "Spa-ge-tti?"  It was a great experience that I'll always remember.

With all my travels out of the way it's time to slowly start heading home.  And when I say slowly, I mean slowly.  I've got an overnighter in the airport, 11 hour flight to Texas, a 4 hour layover, and then another 4 hour flight before I'm home again. ¡Mama mia!  This life is a crazy one, but I love it.

Back in Ireland

Oh Ireland... where to begin with you? With every visit to this country I find my heart growing fonder and fonder of it.  From the gorgeous countryside to the friendly locals, there isn't anything I can think of that I don't love about this country.  Granted I have never visited during the winter time when I hear its hell, but hey.  Every country has its downside.

Second time round to Ireland was amazing.  I had just left my Madre behind in Barcelona and was a bit nervous about traveling alone but all my rickety emotions went out the window the second I landed in Dublin airport.  There's something about that airport that puts the goofiest grin on my face every time I get off the plane.  I had smooth sailing all the way to the hostel and once I was all checked in and my bags were tucked away in my room, I set out to explore the city once again.

After a few hours of strolling around temple bar district where all the pubs, restaurants and gift shops were, I made my way to the Mercantile Bar to kick off my first night with a pub crawl through the city. We ended up going to four pubs and a club and I met more people than I could keep track of that night.  Highlight of the night, and probably my entire trip was at the club ( I can't remember the name of it for the life of me) where I met people from all over the world.  There was a group of people visiting from Portugal, a girl from Sweden, a local from Ireland, some guys from France and more who all spoke different languages and even though we couldn't communicate, we could all jump up and down together with our arms wrapped around each other belting out every lyric to "Don't You Worry Child" by Swedish House Mafia. I definitely reveled in that moment and went home that night more than satisfied with how my break had kicked off.

The next day I decided to join a free three hour walking tour through Dublin. My guide was a local and over the course of the tour she taught us a lot of history about the city while giving us the chance to see a bit of Dublin. The city isn't big at all so not much walking was involved.  While on the tour I ran into two girls I had met at the pub crawl the previous night.  They were two friends who had been studying abroad in Paris for a year and had come to Dublin for a long weekend. We reminisced over the pub crawl and after the walking tour decided to get lunch together.  After that we fell into being travel buddies and spent the next two days exploring the city and going out to the pubs together.

We met up for drinks with some friends I had made the previous night and all sat around together enjoying the live music at some of the pubs.  It was an enjoyable night in good company and the following day I met up with the girls to visit the prison in Ireland.  We joined a tour and learned about how the Irish had designed the prison to be torturous to its prisoners with no windows, individual rooms etc.. and learned about some of the famous people who had been prisoners there.  It was a bit creepy if you ask me but that's prison life I guess.

After the prison tour, we goofed around in downtown Dublin, took a stroll down Grafton Street and through temple bar once again.  I met up with them one last time for drink that night and after listening to the live band we parted ways.  I had more than enjoyed their company and was glad to have met them but now I was going to explore on my own for a bit.

I woke up the next day in the wee hours of the morning to go on an all day tour that took me up along the east coast of Ireland to the Giants Causeway and to visit Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland. Once again I had my breath taken away by the ocean side view from Ireland.  I love how green everything is and when the sun reflects off the hills the world looks as if it is made of gold.  I enjoyed Belfast as well.  It was a cute town with a bit more of a city feel to it than Dublin.  Overall the trip was incredible and I had been blessed with gorgeous weather again, aside from the strong winds.  Walking anywhere was a workout with the force of the wind blowing me every direction except the one I wanted to go but it died down towards the end.

I ended my last night in Dublin at a pub where I met yet again more people.  They were locals from Dublin and happily invited me to hangout with them for the night.  I went back to my hostel in good spirits and left Dublin the next early afternoon.  As I got ready to board my plane to Rome I thought about my time in Dublin and all the people I had met.  I'm grateful for the incredible opportunity I had to meet people from all over the world and I love that after a few hours of chatting you can be considered friends. I'm leaving Ireland behind with a whole new perspective on the world, and with all the friends I've made, there's no doubt in my mind that I'll be back some day.

Temple Bar District

Live Music

Kilmainham Prison

Inside the Prison

Giants Causeway

Hills of Ireland

View over the Causeway

Belfast

Spring Break in Bilbao & San Sebastian

I ended the last weekend of March with a trip to Bilbao and San Sebastian.  My roommate and I had decided long before that we would want our Spring Break to be a relaxing one, so instead of planning multiple trips to different cities we stuck with two where we could break up our vacation.

 The first place we went to was Bilbao, which we had to catch a 6am flight for.  It was our third early morning flight and you’d think from how much we hated the other ones I would have known better than to force us to take one but thankfully it was our last.  When we got to our hostel in Bilbao I passed out on a bean bag in the lounge while Kim read about meaningful things in the city. 

Once we were allowed to check in, we took time to explore the city a bit.  Bilbao is a smaller city with all the alleys and street ways squished together.  It was super green with all the trees and was surrounded by fields and the cloudy overcast made it feel a little like Seattle.  We discovered a little fruiteria by our hostel and made it our daily breakfast stop.  Fruit in Spain is ridiculously cheap and also tastes amazing, it made it hard to leave that fruit stand when the time came.

While in Bilbao we had the opportunity to experience a little bit of the Basque culture by visiting a local museum and reading about their traditional dances.  Later that night we got to see it first hand as the entire city of Bilbao got together to celebrate Semana Santa with a holy parade and music festival.  My roommate and I stumbled upon the music festival quite by accident as we turned left into a square to find tons of town folk prancing around happily in cirlces.  The music echoed off the walls and after a couple of dances I found myself being dragged by one of the locals into the dance.  

"It's easy, just follow me," she said.  Which it wasn't too hard and I caught on quick but as the rhythm of the music started to pick up I found myself lost.  My roommate chuckled when I came back after the dance and I laughed off my awful basque dancing.  We had both had our hand at a foreign dance now.

After the music festival we joined the crowds of people to watch everyone in the holy parade.  People were dressed up in suits similar to that of the KKK but with different colors and small patches on their chest.  It was startling to turn around and see one directly behind you but it wore off after awhile.  I left Bilbao feeling very cultured and content with the way things were kicking off.

We ended our break in San Sebastian where we were greeted with rain and friendly locals.  As we tried to figure out how to get to our hostel from the bus stop one of the locals over heard us and decided to guide us all the way to our hostel.  It was a welcoming start to the city.

We spent our time in San Sebastian climbing hills to see the view over the city and the beaches and made several visits to local gelatto stores (there were hundreds) to enjoy a nice chocolate waffle and some coffee.  My sweet tooth controlled my wallet that weekend as I ended up buying one or two chocolate waffles everyday!

It turned out to be a very laid back vacation which was very much needed.  We took a couple nights out to enjoy a casual beer with a tapa and get lost in the busy night life.  San Sebastian was crowed with people at all hours of the day and when we came back to our hostel one night we ran into a party in our room.  Four girls from Mexico had cans of Red Bull and bottles of Jager open everywhere.  Happy Easter to us.

They left a few hours later and weren't a bother after that and we ended our last day roaming around the city.  When it came time to leave I set my alarm early the next morning to catch my seven am bus, which I ended up missing.  I exited the hostel to pouring rain outside and a long line of drunk people waiting in line for a taxi.  I thought, no way will I be able to get a taxi in time, so I decided to run with a very large suitcase you could fit three small dogs in.  After running 2.5 kilometers in the pouring rain and pushing my suitcase on wheels, I arrived 15 minutes late and sopping wet.  I took the easy way out and bought a plane ticket back so I would get to school on time the next day.  It cost me an arm and a leg but I tried not to think twice about it.

It felt good when I finally made it back to Barcelona and I crashed on my bed the second I got home.  We had to wash 6 loads of laundry to clean the wet clothes that had gone through the marathon to the bus stop with me and Madre was not impressed but what can you do.  It was a crazy end to a crazy month and I ended March with enough memories, good and bad, to last a life time.

March Madness Part Three: Family Adventures in Spain

The last two weekends of March kicked off with a visit from my Mom and my Grandma who flew in from Germany to visit me in Barcelona.  I showed them around the city, which after living here for 3 months I've found I know just as well as Seattle.  I showed them La Rambla and the Gothic district and we went to several different tapa bars.  I ate more tapas than necessary that first week.

What I enjoyed the most was my family getting the chance to meet my Spanish family.  My madre, roommate, mother, and grandma all went out to a flamenco show and had a blast.  At the end of the show the dancers pulled my roommate and my madre from our table to join the dance and I watched happily as everyone danced around in their own fashion.  There's a video somewhere back home I'm looking forward to whipping out when I get back.

After my two families got the chance to hangout  a bit, I left with my mom and grandma on our own little vacation around Spain.  We rented a car and drove along the coast of Spain to Sitges and Valencia and got to see a beautiful view of the water.  We couldn't have asked for better weather and the sun reflecting off the green hills of Spain just added to its beauty.

Right off the bat I had to make the adjustment to traveling like a tourist.  Traveling with my family was an experience in its own, and my mom being the biggest tourist ever, runs into every tourist problem possible.  The first encounter we had was at the airport before we even drove off from the car rental place.  We spent what felt like an hour trying to program the GPS and then once we were ready to go, my mom was convinced the car wasn't filled with gas.  I sat in the back of the car listening to music thinking something was wrong with the car but after twenty minutes of sitting around in the car, I finally asked whats was wrong and had to point out to my mom that she had read the gage wrong.  Tourist definition right there.

Our tourist problems continued in Sitges where the city streets are all alley ways and one way streets and when we pulled into a parking lot to turn around a stranger had to get out of his car to drive our own because my mom couldn't figure out how to reverse the car and we were blocking traffic.  There was a long line of cars behind us confused at what was stopping traffic and I sat biting my tongue in the back of the car to keep myself from saying anything as my mom climbed back into the car to drive again.  She was stressed and jokes wouldn't have flown.  We spent the rest of our first night driving around lost in Sitges with a GPS that kept telling us to go the wrong way down one way streets and by the time we got to the hotel we were pooped.

Once we had our living situation sorted out, Sitges was fine.  We walked along the beach, visited the vendor stands and I bought a few scarves to add to my collection.  Living in Spain has flowered a love for scarves in my wardrobe.  We ate food along the beach and headed out of Sitges in smooth sailing compared to entering.  Our smooth sailing didn't last too long though, because as we came into Valencia we encountered several large roundabouts with multiple traffic lights and no lanes.  I'm pretty sure I left Valencia with whip lash in my neck from all my mom's jerking on the breaks. We would go around the roundabouts several times before actually exiting and when we finally returned the car to the airport I was more than happy to see it go.

Aside from the roundabout madness, Valencia was enjoyable.  The beach was beautiful and had sand castle artists building the most incredible castles I had ever seen.  The weather was beautiful and we ended up taking two different tour busses around Valencia to see the city.  The city felt like a mix between Sevilla and Barcelona, with a city feel but older spanish architecture and countless courtyards.

Sand Castle Art

Beach Front Valencia 

The visit from my family was a whirlwind of adventure to say the least, but definitely enjoyable.  I loved getting to roam along the coast of Spain and seeing other parts of Spain.  Next time we take a vacation in a foreign country, I'll be prepared for the hectic travel that comes with my family!