All Roads Lead to Rome (Eventually).

Hello everyone!

I am back in the good ole US of A*, but I need to finish recounting my travels. A brief recap: smog ruined my life in Turkey, so I missed my flight. One might suspect after we made it on our (new) flight, that chapter of my life would be complete. And one would be wrong.

*As this was posted. When I was writing it, I was in a lovely (sarcasm hand raised so fast it created a sonic boom) airport in Madrid.

After the Terror in Turkey…Is that too dramatic? Perchance. I’ll start over: Being frustrated and having lots of feelings *shudder*, Katie and I both ranted about missing our flight in our journals (Or rant books, if you will. I prefer that term.) for a long time. A solid hour of silence and writing only partially helped, so we began planning our time until our new flight left at 10PM. With eight hours to kill, it became a discussion of how long we would sit in one place before migrating because there is not a lot to do in airports especially sans Wi-Fi. Finally it was time to board and everything went well on the flight and we made it to Rome. Celebration time!

We grabbed a cab outside the Rome airport and shared with two old Italian ladies. The conversation occurred in three languages because we found out our cabbie, Claudio, could speak Spanish as well as English. I said it in my other Italy post, but there are definitely similarities between Spanish and Italian, so, to a degree, there was a level of understanding between us and the Italian ladies. Claudio was excellent in Spanish and English, so it was easy to understand him.

After our 50 euro ride, we made it to the hostel building and we climbed out. It was well after midnight, so Claudio waited to make sure we got into the building alright.

This section can be called “All Hell Breaks Loose: Part II.”

As you might guess from how our day went, no one answered when we buzzed the room. We kept trying but yeah, no. Wasn’t gonna happen. Fortunately, a man was going in the building so our cabbie talked to him and made it so all three of us could trail in behind him. We tramped up to the room to find out that while our hostel doesn’t have a curfew, that doesn’t mean there will be a receptionist at all hours of the night. So our options were to wait outside for maybe someone, sometime to show up or start knocking on the doors of hostels in the same building. We opted to knock on doors.

Lucky for us (Oh wait…), everything was full. Katie ended up mostly begging (in Spanish) an old Italian man for space in a corner of a hostel. Not even for a bed or anything, we just needed a roof in all honesty. Obviously, it was against all hostel rules or laws of the land or something to let us stay, but Old Italian Gentleman let us stay for a reduced price. We ended up sleeping at a table in the tiny lobby for five hours.

When I say “sleep” that is generous. There were other occupants who came in at all hours of the night and desks are quite comfortable. Yeah… Despite this, all of my faith in humanity is restored. Our cabbie gave us his card and I am nearly positive he would have let us stay in his house or driven us somewhere else had we needed it. Old Italian Man gave us pillows and soap and a shower made me feel like a real person again. The day and night were terrible, but people are good.

After a refreshing night of sleep (Ha.), we headed to a different hostel at 7 AM to check in and actually start the day. Our room wasn’t ready, but we stored our things and ate breakfast and it somewhat revived us. On our two/three hours of sleep, we headed out to the Vatican for mass. We read somewhere that mass started at 9 AM, so we got there a little early to get good places and because we had nothing else to do. (Except sleep…I don’t know how we function.)

Unfortunately, mass didn’t really start until 10:30 AM. There was some singing and mass-y sort of things going on from 9-10:30, but it was pretty clear it wasn’t particularly significant because all of the Italians were chatting with each other and cracking jokes. Because of our recent streak of luck, it was raining during almost the entire service and neither Katie nor I had an umbrella. But Italians are my favorite people because they shared and would jostle us forward to get into position under the canopy of umbrellas. One lady even gave us an extra for a while.

Sidenote: “Umbrelli” said with a super thick Italian accent is possibly the best word ever. I heard it a bazillion times and will never get sick of it.

We were pretty exhausted by the time Communion occurred because we had been standing in the rain for about three hours, listening to another language and being overwhelmed by the crowds. This was made better by two things. One was, obviously, seeing the Pope and having him drive his little Pope-mobile through the crowds. Because I am smallish, a bunch of Italian ladies shoved me up to the front. Southern hospitality has nothing on All Italians. The second occurred while waiting for the Pope. Katie and I had both noticed an extremely attractive guard, and it seemed we weren’t the only ones. It was hilarious to hear all the little, old Italian ladies chattering among themselves with the recurring word “Novio” or boyfriend. If that can’t make your day, I don’t know what can.

After mass, we raced back to the hostel to change clothes and head out once again because there was so much to see. Katie grabbed her umbrella and we got some food from a Mini-Mart and it seemed almost as though we never left the Vatican because we were back so quickly. We ended up in a massive line to see Saint Peter’s Basilica, which was well worth the wait. It was adorned with so many different colors of marble and shnazzy statues and gold and extravagance. Etc. Etc. (We know how I feel about descriptions by now.) So pictures!

Like any good monument, it had a place you could climb up: the dome. The climb wasn’t so bad until everything started being sideways to follow the curve of the roof. I was okay until we came out and were able to look down into the church from the dome. I can remember the feeling of my stomach just dropping and dropping and drop p i n g…After that, I stayed as close to the wall as I could until we climbed back outside. I’m fairly certain Katie was amused because she didn’t realize I had a slight phobia of falling to my doom.

We had been inside long enough for the weather to clear up, so we decided to head to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain to complete the day. We climbed all of the steps which was a challenge because my legs didn’t feel like being legs after standing so much early in the morning. In addition, I don’t think I’ve ever been so aware of the number of tourists in one place. We sat on the steps to relax a bit before strolling over to the Trevi. Like all good tourists in Italy, we stopped for gelato first, because gelato. Mint gelato and famous monuments. Nothing better. We took some classic pictures of throwing coins into the fountain (One coin to return to Rome, two to find love in the city and three doesn’t matter because the first two are all you need. I wished for my Vatican guard boyfriend.)

Because we had gotten very little sleep and had been on our feet all day, exhaustion ensued. We decided to go get some dinner by our hostel but this ended up being a lot of wandering in search of the Perfect Place. When we found a place and got our food, Katie did all the talking because she could function and I was brain dead. When we finally left, our legs were stiff so we walked (Really it was limped) like goons back to the hostel. I remember saying, “I think I slept funny last night because my back hurts,” and then remembered I actually slept at a desk which probably counts as sleeping funny. Maybe this is why everything was hurting, hmmm?

We went to bed early because lack of sleep from the night before was killing us. Or tried to. I distinctly remember locking myself in a bathroom which made bedtime a little later. So it goes.

I Too Tired

Dear readers, I am going insane in this airport. I have begun rewriting that one Robert Frost poem about woods and snowiness because of the line “And miles to go before I sleep.” Want to read it? Of course you do!

Whose wi-fi this is I think I know

He's guarded it with a password though.

He must have some idea I'm here,

So I can't steal it and that blows.

My brain has gone a little weird

Because there are no people near.

My mind and body start to ache

As though I've sat here for a year.

I give my little legs a shake

Thinking there is some mistake

My foot has fallen fast asleep

End the tingling for heaven's sake.

This airport makes me want to weep,

But I have a flight to (HOPEFULLY) keep

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep.

 

That’s 6AM poetry of a madwoman for you. Carry on with the rest of my Roman Holiday.

Because there was so much to do in Rome, we were up again way too early the next day as well. We were met with beautiful drizzle like the morning before because that must be how Rome rolls. Katie and I got up so early for more standing in the lines. Yay! We walked over to the Vatican museum and got into an enormous mass of people to wait almost three hours before entering. Despite my complaints about lines, everything we saw was well worth it. There were tons of religious paintings, naked statues (Classic) and random artifacts throughout the museum. Also, someone needed to tell the painters how to paint babies because baby Jesus was terrifying in all of the paintings of him. I get nightmares.

The crowning jewel came at the end: Rafael’s School of Athens fresco and *trumpets*

Do do do do do doooooooooooooooooo!

The Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was a genius in both painting and sculpture and this shows it. It was awesome to just stand and stare for a while because you could keep discovering details. And details. And oh, some more details. No pictures were allowed though, so go buy your ticket to Rome! This is a joke…but really. Just do it.

To get out of the rain and fill our grumbling bellies, we hopped over to the nearby pizza place. Sitting is the nicest thing I will ever experience in my life. Maybe a little travel here and there too. But mostly sitting.

We continued our search of Super Famous Stuff by walking (busing? I can’t remember…UGH) over to the Coliseum. I was very excited to see this because Gladiator is the greatest movie ever. Okay, really good. Maybe not quite the greatest. As per usual, rain occurred while we were there but we had already taken some good pictures and seen most of it by the time that happened. It was spectacular to see because of how amazingly, mind-bogglingly old it is. And history! And time! Whoa, guys was I excited for a second.

With our ticket to the Coliseum, the Roman Forum was also included. These were some spectacular ruins across from the Coliseum that don’t get enough attention for how cool they are. It was more of the history/time nerdiness coming out for this entire place because my imagination goes crazy in these types of places. Why don’t ya got any ruins, Minnesota?

We wandered around these quintessential Roman ruins until an announcement came that the park was closing. The first exit we got to was already locked, so my legs were loving me by the time we made it back to the original entrance.

I am fairly certain we went to the train station one of these days to purchase tickets for the rest of our journey. I can’t remember which day, but it took up some of our afternoon. We can say it was this day. Yup.

After, we went out to eat and I remember none of this. All I have written about it in my notebook is “Okay pasta.” So I had some okay pasta. And I guarantee you we went to bed after that, once again walking with our too-stiff legs from our walking-around-so-much-how-can-legs-feel-like-this day.

 
The next day, we woke up late. Nope, early again. We had a train to catch but decided to stop by the Pantheon first. On our way, we stumbled upon a really cool piazza with a fountain by someone famous depicting river gods and four continents. It was fun to guess which were which but we had Not Enough Time, so we kept walking to the Pantheon. This was fascinating because it was once dedicated to ancient Roman gods and now is Christian and the fact that something in such good condition has been around so long is crazy. Crazy I tell you! (Like me at this point. Airports, am I right?)

We grabbed our stuff from the hostel and made it to the train station well before our departure, thank everything holy. There was a nearby church with a fancy sculpture Katie wanted to see, so we dragged our stuff through the drizzle and went into the church one at a time, with one person guarding the keerap outside. Apparently the sculpture was in a different church, so some nice Italian gent escorted Katie there and back before we raced off to the station again.

A train ride brought us to a new city and it was time to find our hostel, which is always a fun game. Our directions took us through a rather large outdoor market, and I can’t think of a better place to drag my gigantic suitcase. That might not be accurate. To add to it when we got to our hostel, there was no elevator. So. Many. Stairs. God bless the Italians for carrying my suitcase up three flights of stairs.

After getting settled, we went back out to go to the largest church in the city, the Duomo. It was built a long time ago (Surprising) but the entire fancy façade was added much later. Pictures will help you understand. This inside was surprisingly bare except for the dome and a counterclockwise clock. I want one. As a good Cathedral, there was a tower we climbed for a great view of the city.

We (I) had had enough excitement with heights, so we went to the market and both bought items. I splurged and purchased an Italian leather purse because I needed a new bag and there will never be a better time. We got all our shopping done surprisingly quickly and knew of a place across the river to watch sunset. We had the first major navigation error where we walked parallel to the river for a good half hour before we realized we were getting nowhere. Oops. Luckily, there was still enough time to get to the top and enjoy (with all the other tourists) the sunset. Magnificent, as always.

We wandered on that side of the river to find a restaurant that had been recommended to us, but alas, were unsuccessful. Luckily, the ravioli I ended up getting at the Random Restaurant was still quite good. Walking back proved almost as difficult as finding the sunset spot and we got lost again. Le sigh. It was bedtime after we made it back because tired. (That is a terribly formed sentence. Forgive me. 2AM in an airport is not my best time.)

We awoke early in the mornin’ to see the best sight in all of Florence. We ate a quick breakfast of pastries and then journeyed to the Academia, another museum. We started off learning about old-time musical instruments because they have great names (Hurdy-gurdy. That’s a thing.) and we could sit and enjoy the music. Everything else after was religion-y and sculpture-y, good but not excellent until we saw it. The David was easily the best piece of art in Florence. There were unfinished Michelangelo sculptures leading up to it, so you can really appreciate what a genius he was. I wasn’t allowed photos of the real thing, so I have some with a fake David we found in a piazza. He is less cool. Sorry, fake David.

We stared at him (What can I say? He’s an attractive statue) for a long while and then left to do something we couldn’t in Rome: ENJOY FREE TIME. I missed you so! So I am too excited for the Do Nothing part of traveling, and Rome was great but absolutely exhausting. Sitting in our room napping and talking with our Canadian roommates was a great change of pace. Katie and I lazed for a few hours and later meandered around (window shopping for our engagement rings) until it was time to eat again.

We went out to a great place that was in Katie’s guidebook and had one of my favorite meals and it stood out even with all the pasta I’ve eaten in the last week and a half. On a whim, we bought a bottle of champagne from a store after dinner and took it down by the river to chat and relax. The night was excellent and we decided to head back and call it a night.

The night changed for the more exciting when we got back. We had met a guy, Lee, from our hostel and Alice (or Alex? Katie and I still aren’t sure which), who both wanted to go out for the night. We headed to a couple of bars which meant I had a grand total of one bright-pink passion fruit margarita. Poor Lee, drinking a pink margarita and getting told he could be “one of the girls.” We bar hopped until we found a place with some classic American music (Don’t Stop Believin,’ much?) and stayed until it closed and then got gyros. All in all, we were out until 4AM. We put the kibosh on waking up early the next day to go to the food market.

Well, dear readers, we are almost done with my time abroad. Next post will be about Cinque Terre and Venice and then…That is everything. Wow.

Stay tuned!

¡Holy Toledo! (And Segovia)

¡Hola todos!

This week has already been more exciting than last week (said Wednesday Emily. I tried to write this not-all-at-once so I would remember things better). Maybe. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Anyway, I have a plethora of kee-rap (my dad's version of "crap") to tell you all.

The beginning of the week led to some annoyance on my (and my mommy's) part due to credit card companies. Apparently most people don't buy three plane tickets right in a row in order to continue a European Adventure. Due to impatience concern, my mom called the credit card company and acted like me to clear up the situation.

An open letter to cops/federal agents/people involved with the law:

Dear cops/federal agents/people involved with the law,

You might say this is "fraud" or some such nonsense. My mams cosigned the credit card thinger, so she shouldn't have had to do this. Someone at the bank or company or something messed up. So calm yourselves.

Best wishes,
Emily

Anyway, they called my mom's bluff because she didn't know the code on the back of the credit card. So I got a talkin-to via the phone at 1AM on account of her fear that the company would cancel my tickets. This led to us Skyping while she cleared up the matter. Neither of us was particularly pleased, but everything got fixed for the better. And during the Skype call, our feist (similar to feisty, but a noun) was calmed to normal levels. And all was well in the world. Or something.

Wednesday night, we had a talent show at the Fund. I didn't participate because my talents aren't the kind you can put on a stage. You don't believe me?

A List of Emily's Talents

-Drawing
-Taking naps
-Changing radio stations while driving (You might be under the impression that this isn't a talent. Clearly, you've never ridden with me)
-Being short
-Procrastinating (Why yes, I have written an eight page paper the same day it was due. BOOM.)
-Ruining part of a Game of Thrones for the guy I had a crush on (See also: Being a nerd)
-Getting tan on only one half of my body

Anyway, this was probably one of my favorite Fund events. I was constantly impressed, whether it be by my classmates courage just for being on stage or their actual talents. I became quite aware of my own deficiencies and have decided to take up singing, dancing, playing guitar/train whistle/cello, doing magic tricks and being amazing. Actually, I can cross the last one off the list because I've got it down pretty well.

Because it was my friend Coral's birthday, we went to a nearby bar to celebrate. The bartender knows us, and put up a "Feliz Cumpleaños" sign for her and even gave her a free bottle of champagne. Unfortunately, I had class early the next morning so I wasn't out as long as I wanted to be but it was still an extremely fun night and I won't forget it soon. (As predicted, Thursday morning came too soon.)

 Although Thursday wasn't really exciting, it made me realize how quickly my time here has gone by, and how little I have left. For my Art in Toledo class, we had our final visit (to the University here) and my final for that is in less than a week. *Gulp* I can't believe I only have two more weeks here, and while I am ready to see my family and friends, it is painful to think about leaving Toledo. So generally I try to ignore this doom and gloom outlook on things and focus instead on other stuff. Fun stuff. Like how I spent the entire day in a tank top and skirt while it just blizzarded in Minnesota.

On Friday, we hopped on the bus for our last Fund excursion to Segovia. There were some awesome parts to this trip although, overall, I wouldn't say this was the prettiest city I've been to in Spain. (The more I travel around Spain, the more I fall in love with how gorgeous Toledo is. Other cities are great, but the don't have the medieval atmosphere and beauty that I find here.) In any case, we did visit some marvelous parts of the city: namely a great castle and some ancient aqueducts. The castle was, like always, called the Alcazar, which means it housed royalty and some military stuff and I didn't retain everything, so hopefully that is all. This one, in Segovia, was actually the inspiration for the Disney logo and castle. It used to be defense-oriented but then one of the kings (Felipe Something? Carlos Something? There are too many kings with the same name...) decided to make it look pretty and added the pointed towers that we tend to associate with castles. At the end of the tour, we were allowed to go up the highest tower and view the entire city.

A brief note: I am very excited for America in a few respects. One of them is in regards to stairs. There are eight bajillion stairs in Europe and going up the tower was no exception. Obviously they had to be the tight spiral kind of stairs, too. The kind where you keep going in circles and eventually you get super dizzy and think you are going to fall backwards and take all the other people down with you. Those kind of stairs. As a child, I wanted them in my house because they looked so majestic. To which I tell my childhood: No. A thousand times no.

When we finally made it to the top, everyone was having trouble breathing on account of the stairs. But, man, was it worth it. I will obviously be adding pictures because we all know I am lazy bad at writing descriptions. It was the perfect day for this trip as well, weather-wise. The sky was extremely blue and the sun decided to hang around making it even better.

Afterwards, we headed to the Plaza Mayor and got a good glimpse of the Cathedral. We had seen it from a distance, due to the tower, but seeing it up close was even better. We didn't have enough time to go inside, but it was enough just to enjoy the exterior. Then came probably my favorite part of the trip: the aqueducts. I never really thought of them existing in places outside of Italy, but, whadda ya know, they do. These ones were apparently built in the first century and some of the best preserved. They are made completely out of stone and don't even have mortar or anything keeping them together, which makes them even more impressive. I also had no idea they would be so massive, but they definitely are.

After lunch, some relaxing, and hanging out near the 'ducts, it was time to get on the bus once again and return to Toledo. Cue in the siesta.

Saturday brought the amazing weather to Toledo. I have been walking around today in a skirt (Shocking, right?) and a tank top because it was that nice. I can't actually say it was a really exciting day but it was just good. I decided to wander around Toledo and do some actual tourist shopping. I've neglected buying presents for some of my friends (Sorry T and Carly!) but today I actually got around to it. That is more or less what my day consisted of: meandering around tourist-filled streets by myself to finish "chores." It was nice to just spend some time with my own company (said the introvert). After a while, I decided to grab my Nook and find a quiet spot to read. Sadly, I got tan on only one side of my body.

What are we doing tonight? I have no idea, actually. We might go out or have a movie night. I am no longer the leader, so I ignore these "planning" things. If something interesting happens tonight, I'll let you guys know.

You probably won't hear from me for a week.

Lies, you actually will hear from me. It is approximately (exactly) 3:38AM and I just got back from La Nuit, the discoteca here. We all had an excellent night, starting out at Dragos, our bar. It was incredibly fun just to hang out, especially knowing we have to savor our last couple of weeks here. From the bar, we headed out to the club to finish off the night with some dancing. My dancing skills could definitely use some improving, but I got to practice my Spanish skills with some of the Spaniards tonight. It was a good night, but I am exhausted. I'm super excited to wake up early and study tomorrow....

¡Hasta Luego!

Rest & Relaxation

So we meet again, Buzz Lightyear. It's been one of those weeks

Sorry, I wasn't feeling like saying "Hola" or "Hello" this time. So I thought I should just throw in some Toy Story to spice things up a little. Because this will be a fairly vanilla (read bland) post today. My humblest apologies.

The most exciting news of the week: my plane ticket got switched, so I am for sure staying in Europe, never to return. Just kidding. I'll be in the lengthy process of coming back on May 14th. So watch out, America, because you forgot what a great thing you were missing. I would like to thank my Mommy for here patience in regards to the Travel Situation because she has been amazing in changing my ticket. I've also ran into some issues buying a plane (and a boat!) ticket, so she was able to call the credit card company and get all of that sorted out for me. Can she get a round of applause please? *Thunderous applause via the Intranets*

Okay, now to the excitement that was this week. Or not. This is going to be a short post, but I'm going to do my best. Just hang in there! For my Art in Toledo class, we went to the Cathedral here (I mentioned that Mams, Claire and I went there last weekend but shhhh...! We are going to ignore that for the time being). I'm actually glad I got to go again because there are a few things I think the audio-guide didn't know that my teacher did. The first time I went, I didn't realize that our Cathedral was the first one built in Spain. I can now check Visit the Oldest Cathedral in Spain off of my bucket list.

Before I continue, I need some sustenance. I'll be back in five; I need a Twix. You guys can all get settled and comfy while I'm gone. Cool? Cool.

I'm back! I think I eat enough Twixes that my maid judges me based on how often she finds the wrappers in the trash. Tis life, I suppose.

Like I previously stated, I really enjoyed the Cathedral, but I am also quite aware of my own idiocy and/or laziness. I might've worn flip-flops to a building where "it is colder inside than outside." (I'm pretty sure that's an actual quote from my professor.) I was happy to leave by the end because my toes have a tendency to turn purple when they are cold. Poor circulation much? Another note on laziness: I've woken up early enough for breakfast everyday this week. I made it down to the cafeteria once. My stomach hates me.

Friday afternoon involved going to another museum for my Grandes Maestros class, so we headed off to Madrid to visit the Reina Sofia. In true Emily form, I fell asleep on the buses because that is what buses are for. Or something. Anyway, I woke up when we were in Madrid and kept trying to convince myself we weren't that close because I really wanted to finish my nap. Unfortunately, the bus killed the dream I dreamed and it was time to wake up for museum time. This museum wasn't necessarily my favorite because it focuses more on modern paintings and we went specifically to see those of Picasso and Dali. And they don't fall under the Emily's Favorite Painters category. Van Gogh holds the top spot (although Dali was pretty crazy too, but less in a I-will-cut-my-ear-off-to-give-to-a-girl way and more in a I-will-call-my-autobiography-Diary-of-a-Genius way). Most of Dali's paintings were off in Paris anyway for some exhibition thinger, so we mostly saw Picasso's work. I know he is considered Super Good, but the only painting I really found interesting was Guernica, which I had seen eight gajillion times in other classes. To be fair, I hadn't really been impressed by it until I saw it in person and then I found it much more interesting. So it goes.


Now I have very little left to talk about, but I will still try to make it worth reading. This weekend was rather a non-event; simply me doing homework and planning my trip and being frustrated when websites won't take my money. (They can have this attitude if they give me my ticket. If they jack up the price 20 euros between times I try to pay though, I get irate.) In order to not end up in my room going crazy (crazier) from technology, I play a kind of weird game. (Intrigued?)

But more back-story first. In the past two blogs, I've commented on how I became the fearless navigator and leader due to...stuff. Either way, this is generally a poor life decision because I've never been known to be good at finding places. For a frame of reference: when I first got my driver's license, I needed directions from 11 year old Claire to get to a pizza place in my hometown. That is how terrible of a decision it is to let me be in charge of directions.

Anyway, I play this game where I go to streets of the city I know and then turn off at random interesting-looking streets (People from back home: Toledo is super safe, so don't worry that Emily is doing something crazy and is going to die in Spain. I promise, it is completely safe. Cross my fingers and hope to die and all that jazz). I turn off onto other interesting looking (There are people there! It isn't some back alley where you know serial killers hunt or whatever. Please stop being nervous. It is A-OK, I promise promise promise) streets until I have, at best, only a vague idea of where I am. As you may remember, I live in a literal labyrinth. So it becomes a Find Your Way Back kind of game (I don't go that far....I've scared you all with my living on the edge and bad-assery, haven't I? I swear I live a safe, normal lifestyle). This is also an excellent decision when I'm getting caught up in the I-have-homework-I've-procrastinated-on-and-I-need-plane-tickets-and-the-website-won't-work-stress-stress-stress sort of thoughts. I've come to realize I get caught up in my anxieties and overall my interior stress levels are a lot higher than people might think (because I always appear calm, cool and collected. Obviously). So this is a good stress reliever as well as gets me some exercise because Toledo believes in hills.

Honestly, this was more or less how my week went: hanging out, homework and wandering. It was a good change of pace from the perpetual tramping of Spring Break. Hopefully I'll add some pictures later today for you to enjoy. Don't be too scared of my daring boldness in the Lost Game.

Until next weekend!

Planes, Trains & Automobiles: Semana Santa Part II

Hello Everyone!

I just made it back to Toledo, so it's time to update you on my many comings and goings. Along with this, I have news about future travels plans. Intrigued? Then it's time for Emily Is Abroad.

Titanic!

My program ends at the end of April (the 28th), but I have made the difficult (not really) decision to stay 2 and a half weeks longer. This is still in the works, but I'm at the 90% sure it's going to happen stage, so I've decided to make this announcement to all my adoring fans. I'm hoping to go to Istanbul, Athens, Santorini, and a million places in Italy. Also, maybe Prague. We shall see. I hope this works because it would be the bestest thing ever (besides seeing my dad!)

Now that you are super excited/jealous of me, we'll get to what Claire, Mom, and I did this week. It was extremely busy and hectic, so be prepared. This will (probably) be a long one.

Monday

Unfortunately when starting off this particular post, I had to start with probably the most boring day of week. Alas for that is, as they say, how the cookie crumbles. We traveled by train to Málaga, a coastal city in the south of Spain. From there, we took the metro to Torremolinos, the town our hotel was in. Our travel agent said that Torremolinos, was super pretty and great or whatever. Lies! Okay, it wasn't that bad. But it is more of a resorty, touristy city so it was mostly abandoned when we got there. Claire and I were lazy and there wasn't much to do unless we wanted to catch the metro back to Málaga...and laze won out. We meandered around the streets for a while and got some good seafood. Being the sloths we are (not my mommy), we went back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the night. (We watched BATMAN cartoons. I regret nothing.)

Tuesday

This day was exhausting. We ate a healthy and nutritious breakfast at the hotel and found the metro stop to get back to Málaga. My mommy has become obsessed with cathedrals, so that was our first stop when we got there. It was quite beautiful, although we all agreed the ones in Sevilla and Toledo were still quite a bit better. We also met more Americans there, which excited my mom a lot. Anytime she found someone to speak English with was probably one of the better times in her trip. (This didn't stop her from jabbering with people on the train though. If they sort of understand English, it's enough for a conversation.)

After our Cathedral adventure, we went to the Alcazaba, which is an ancient fortress castle thing. It had some quite excellent vantage points, but we kept noticing a path to the very top of the hill. Claire and I weren't particularly interested in finding said path; we mostly messed around, which led to a little bit of sassiness when my Mams really wanted to find they way up to the top. Exhausted from our excruciating search (I swear, I don't exaggerate), we went to a nearby restaurant to find some sustenance. In true Emily-and-Claire fashion, we ordered brownies with ice cream while my mommy-face got a salad. Unfortunately we were still hungry, so Claire and I split a salad after that. And then came inspiration for another Claire poem. The pigeons started searching for crumbs by our feet...So Claire fed one chicken. Oops.

Least Flattering Picture

With our spirits much higher after food, we decided to continue our trek in search of the Mysterious Path We Couldn't Find. Fear not, for we did indeed find it, and the view was spectacular. While Mom found more Americans, Claire and I spent the time taking pictures. This led to the Least Flattering Picture of Me, here for your enjoyment. Thanks, Claire! The giant hill led to much exhaustion and it was fairly late, so we headed back to our hotel for the night and get ready for more traveling adventures the next day!

Wednesday

We woke up early Wednesday, so we could take a fairly short trip to Granada. I remember none of this because I slept on the bus and woke up with my neck hurting and being in a new city. Yay! Upon getting settled, we headed out into the wild blue yonder. Actually, it was more like the hunt for the Random Plaza so we could buy tickets to a really old Muslim/Arab palace. Because every map we've had on this trip was sub-par, we ended up (surprise, surprise) getting minorly lost. After a few wrong turns and a short uh... discussion later, we made it to the Magic Plaza (my name for it, not the Spaniards') and found our little kiosk. We got our audio-guides and tickets for the next day.

It had been a while since breakfast, so we went to a nearby restaurant. The waiter asked if we spoke Spanish, to which my mom (obviously) and sister answered in the negative. He got them English menus and me a Spanish one. We had a short conversation in Spanish and he said I spoke it well! It wasn't exactly accurate, but if the cute Spanish waiter is going to say something nice to me, I'll take it. To be perfectly honest with you, all of my days are blending together so I believe we headed back to our hotel whereupon I immediately took a nap and Claire and Mom read/slept. But I could be completely wrong. Either way, we're gonna say we killed a few hours doing these activities. Yup, I'm sticking to it.

My mommy-face didn't want the day to be a complete waste though, so after our lazy afternoon, we stepped into the night and pursued that flighty temptress, adventure (Harry Potter reference much?). Our adventure consisted of more wandering until we ran into another procession near the Cathedral. There was a huge float and a bajillion people around, just chilling and socializing. Because all of the streets were so crowded, our journey probably didn't last more than an hour. Also, more ice cream, so this can be considered a non-waste of a night.

Thursday

I have so many of the days to talk about. It's exhausting! Okay, almost all of Thursday was spent at the Alhambra. We had quite a bit of free time in the morning so we went out into the streets and went shopping. Because of the Arab influence of the Alhambra, there are a ton of Moroccan-y markets in the streets with pretty cheap stuff. All three of us made purchases and we ended up stumbling upon the way to the Alhambra, which was excellent. We decided to go back to our hotel and dump our stuff before heading back. We also bought strawberries which were delicious (otherwise I wouldn't mention them...)

The Alhambra was absolutely A) huge and B) amazing. We were there for four-ish hours because there is so much to see. The Alhambra used to be a fancy palace, so it has a bunch of gardens, castle-y parts, and water stairs. We got there at about two in the afternoon and spent a good deal of time in the gardens because they were so beautiful. Afterwards, we headed to the castle-ish area that has a special name that I forgot. We climbed around this area for a while and got to see a great view of the city. There was also some random labyrinth-y part that my mom kept asking me about. (What is this? I wonder why it's here...Are you sure you don't know what it was used for?) We were there for quite some time before it was our turn to go into the palace part. Which is, again, indescribable. Pictures!

I really fast-forwarded that part, but we were there for forever. I just can't remember describe everything and this is already a lengthy blog. My apologies. 

Because we were so tired, we took the bus back to the Cathedral and then found a delicious place to eat. We all had pasta, which of course, is a very Spanish meal. (Sarcasm hand raised). Either way, it was one of the best meals ever. Our Granada journey ended with relaxation and packing.

Friday

Almost done. I can do it! Friday started off with a plethora of un-fun. We woke up early and took a taxi to the bus station. We thought there were buses from Granada to Madrid at 9AM, 10AM, and 1PM, but this proved false. There were only buses at 9AM and 1PM, so we made an upgrade in our bus and booked it so we could catch the earlier one. 

The Super Fancy Nice Bus was an excellent upgrade. It had super plush seats and we were given two snacks and drinks. We got headphones so we could watch Cars 2 (I like children's movies, okay?) and were given a gift bag at the end. This is the definition of class.

After our four-and-a-half hour bus ride, we were sufficiently tuckered out. We recovered a little at our Super Fancy Nice Hotel in Madrid and took showers to wash the travel off. (It might sound dumb, but I swear travel sticks to you. It feels gross.) Afterwards, my mom was already done with the idea of sitting, so it was time to explore. I was excited because I've been to Madrid, which means I know what's up. It was super easy for me to navigate the metro and Claire and my Mams were quite impressed. And I live for impressing them.

We ended up near the Palacio Real and the Cathedral of Something. Because it was Good Friday, we figured the Cathedral was closed to tourists which left us with the terrible (just kidding) option of seeing the palace. This, however, didn't go as planned. The Palacio was closing in a hour and the tour people told us it would probably take an hour and a half to go through the entire thing, so we made the decision to save it for the next day. 


My Mams was determined the day not be wasted though. Because the Cathedral was right next to the Palacio, we checked to make sure it was closed. Lo and behold, no tourist activity was allowed but a mass was starting within half an hour. My mommy made the split-second decision to go inside to see it. I didn't get any pictures because, church, but this church was very different from the others. The stones were all white and the style of painting was brighter, so it seemed more airy. Unfortunately, we were in a back corner, and it wasn't super easy to see what was going on. At least I could partially understand it though.

Mom would ask me what was going on every once in a while. At first, I couldn't really answer because I would sort of understand but then would lose the flow of the words. It was sort of like having water run through your hands, where you have it one second and then it's gone. By the end, I was doing better though, and things made more sense. It was extremely interesting and fascinating to experience.

Afterwards, we went to an American restaurant because America is the man. 

Saturday

This day, we figured out the most excellent form of touring a city ever, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Sorry, excitement! Saturday morning we were unable to find a place to eat breakfast on account of our hotel was located in some swanky shopping district. This led to us taking the handy-dandy metro to the center of the city and me locating a delicious churro & chocolate restaurant. Obviously, I had churros for breakfast and that was one of the best meals of the trip. Mmmmmm. After a uh, healthy breakfast, we went shopping for a little while and meandered towards the Palacio Real. I've already described this in my...second (?) blog, so I won't go through the details again. Suffice to say, in nearly every room I asked my mom if we could redecorate our house.

Me: Oooh! Blue and gold! Mom, can we get a chandelier? I think we need to rethink our floor plan.

Okay, now the best touring experience of the trip. [Sidenote: I realize I've gotten your expectations up. You are probably thinking we rode upon the backs of some majestic emus or something that pranced of into the sunset. I'm so, so sorry.] A bus! We got on a double-decker open air bus and this was the best decision ever. Now you may ask "Why are you so excited about a bus, Emily?" 

Answer: We did not get lost and laze.

For most of the trip, we've walked nearly everywhere. Which can get fairly exhausting. So a chance to see most of the city without walking is better than majestic emus. Also, Madrid is huge so we would have been able to do significantly less had we not taken this tour. It was beautiful out for most of the day, which made this and even better decision. We hopped off at the Puerta del Sol, a huge plaza. Claire bought a Crisitano Ronaldo my future husband's fútbol jersey and I showed them the best pastry shop ever. We jumped on the bus again after a little bit and searched for a restaurant from the comfort of our bus. (I am not endorsed by the company, I swear.) Eventually, we found the Hard Rock Cafe. Yup, authentic Spanish food at its finest. Either way, the food was good and our entire Spain journey ended on a high note.   

Sunday

How I feel about missing the fam

We woke up early (actually this time), with a few false starts. The time change just occurred here, so that made the travel day extra fun. It was a whirlwind of packing and then checking out of the hotel. My mom decided to take a taxi to the airport instead of the metro because real adults don't need to be quite as cheap as college students. (The front desk said it was going to be 30 euros. I said it was 42 euros when we took a taxi...and it ended up being like 41-something. Nailed it!)

After printing boarding passes and checking bags, it was time to say goodbye. I miss you people already! (Especially inside jokes with Claire. Save Bandit!) I can NOT wait to see MY DAD, Mom and Claire again when I get back. Maybe Tom.

A uninteresting metro and bus ride left me happily in Toledo. It's good to be home.   

Traveling Conclusions

1) Being the leader is the worst. I navigated (!!!!!) almost everywhere, which is terrifying in itself. Also, being the only translator is a rough gig. My mom would want to talk to people and I was always thinking, "But people. We aren't supposed to talk to strangers!" This left my mom un-thrilled and ready to get the English back. She later asked me how I did everything on my other trips and wasn't super surprised by my response. Answer: follow everyone. It's (mostly) stress free and easy.

2) My mom is paranoid. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing because it's somewhere between practical, hilarious and annoying. She's more of a "ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure" type of gal and I'm more "Eh, what happens, happens." We didn't get anything stolen (good job, Mams!) but it also led to Claire and me waiting in the lobby of every hotel while my mom went to fish out our passports from her hidden money belt. And this gem of a conversation:

Me: Mom, the room is super hot. Can we leave the window open tonight, pleeease?

Mom:....Okay

Mom: [20 MINUTES LATER] I can't sleep! We have a balcony...someone could sneak in through the window....I just have to close it!

Me: .....*sigh* 

3) It is fun but exhausting. I don't think anything is quite so exciting and so draining at the same time.

Next weekend will hopefully be a bit more relaxing, as we plan on staying in Toledo.

Adios until then!