Madird

(WARNING - This is a very long post, with a lot of description about people I met on my trip. Give yourself 10-15 minutes to read it all, and see "Mucho Madrid" album on my facebook page)

I've got to crank this post out to be up to date with my trips since I'll be heading on another one at the end of this week. Now most European cities are starting to look the same, and I'm having a more difficult time recalling the details than a few months ago.

After I'd taken a few trips with my friends I knew that I would eventually want to take a trip by myself. I'd gotten the basics of weekend trips down - booking flight and hostel, navigating from the airport to hostel, finding a free walking tour, pub crawl, local food and shopping. One day, on a whim, I planned two trips - one to Madrid and one to the UK, because I knew my days in Europe were numbered and it's sometimes difficult to plan trips collaboratively with multiple people. I didn't originally desire to visit Madrid, but it ended up being the cheapest flight I could find at the time I was able to go. I asked if anyone would be able to come with me, and as it worked out, no one was - so this unintentionally became my "solo trip."

If you're wondering about my UK trip - Annie will be joining me - we're going to Edinburgh, Scottland together, and then I'm continuing on alone to outside of London to visit my friend Lynn who I met while teaching in Taiwan.

I was looking forward to travelling alone - to be able to make all of the decisions by myself, eat, sleep, tour, shop when I wanted. I do enjoy some good "me time," but I like to be social and around friends often as well. I pictured myself doing everything by myself, but before I even left Geneva, I realized that wasn't my fate for this trip...

While waiting in line at the Easyjet gate, there were two [somewhat obnoxious] girls in front of me. First of all, they kept going back and fourth between speaking English and Russian, so I could only catch bits of their conversation. Secondly, one of them had bought 2 cups of beer and 2 cups of wine from the little snack bar near the gate....so they were getting even rowdier. Swiss people do not, generally, like rowdiness so these girls stuck out like a sore thumb.

If you've travelled Easyjet you know that there are no assigned seat numbers, you just board the plane and choose your seat. This is why you must queue (yes, I'm picking up British mannerisms) for a long time before boarding the plane. Guess who decided to sit beside me? Yep, twiddle dee and twiddle dum.

They acutally turned out to be interesting girls. One was born in Moscow and moved to Montreal at 10. The other was raised in Moscow and went to university in Canada. They were both working/studying in Geneva now. Though they were a bit outspoken, we enjoyed bashing the Swiss together, saying how everyone on the flight seemed so serious even though we decided that there couldn't possibly be anyone on the plane who wasn't going to 80 degree Madrid to have a good time - and I'm sure everyone could understand us....us ignorant foreigners :S I also talked to the girl on the other side of me - Huong. She was originally from Paris, living in Neuchatel (Swiss city near Geneva) as an engineer. Her family is from Vietnam though, so we talked about Asian society versus European society (specifically French and Swiss) and shared similar views.

I arrived in Madrid on Friday night around 9pm and made my way to my hostel. It was just 15 minutes walk from the main tourist area, and no need to take a subway anywhere. The owner spoke barely any English...and no French, but he was still quite helpful showing me where to go on my map. I walked through Puerto del Sol and noticed that everyone was out - just enjoying the night. Then I was on to Plaza Mayor to meet up with Huong and her friend from Paris who she was meeting. The streets were so small and restaurant filled that I couldn't find the restaurant they were at, even after stopping to ask at a bar in the area. It was 11:30pm and I was starving...and the streets were still bustling - Spain is on a completely different clock. I ended up dining alone (which I was used to from Taiwan). I chose a restaurant in the corner of Plaza Mayor and sat outside. Coincidentally, Huang and her friends ended up passing by me on their way back to their apartment, so I still got to see them afterall. During dinner, I did a lot of people watching - there were quite a variety of tourists in Madrid - families, elderly, Asians (the most of any city I've visited), and homosexuals. At one point while I was eating a woman came up to me and asked where I was from (she must have overheard me ordering in English). She and her husband were from Fort Wayne, Indiana, [Grammy]!

I was staying in a 3 bed women's room at my hostel, and when I got back I met one of my roommates - Dora, a woman from Hong Kong on a month long Europe trip. She was also traveling alone, and was spending 4 days in Madrid. She was so cute! She followed her Lonely Planet like it was the bible....she already had an excursion to Toledo planned for Saturday (recommended by Lonely Planet). This was when I wanted to explore Madrid, so we planned to do something together on Sunday.

Saturday at 11am I went to the Plaza Mayor, the meeting spot for the Sanderman's free walking tour. Awkwardly standing alone, I took pictures of the surrounding ancient walls to occupy myself. While passing around a clip board which asked for our email addresses, I heard a group of girls speaking "American" about 10 meters away.....so I went over and struck up conversation. It turned out that they were on their spring break trip from a study abroad program in Nottingham, England (just north of London)...but their "home university" is Bucknell, near Lewisburg - just about an 1.5 hours from Mechanicsburg! None of them were from PA though - all NJ or NY. Our tour guide lead us around the city on a beautiful sunny day, entertaining us with some stories, jokes, and a little too much history in my opinion. I tagged along with the Americans, Canadian, and Australian in the girls' study abroad group. Two of them are coming to Geneva in May, so I just might be their personal tour guide then.

After the tour I did some shopping - I wish I'd brought a carry on bag rather than my backpack. The shopping was so good and, as always, cheaper than Switz or France. After revisiting some of the places our tour guide pointed out, I got some ice cream and sat at a fountain in Puerto del Sol (probably my favorite place in the city). Around 7pm I went back to my hostel to rest a little, wash my feet (I'd forgotten how dirty feet can become when wearing sandals in the city) and wait for Dora to return from her day trip so we could head out for dinner.

Dora had yet to try Paella or tapas, so we were adamant on finding a restaurant which had one or both of those dishes. We ended up at a place off of the Plaza Mayor which had a 10euro - paella and sangria deal.

During dinner, again at around 11:30, I got a hilarious text from my friend Chelsie who was camping that weekend in Interlaken with some of our other friends. Let's just say the marshmallows weren't the only things that were "toasted" that night....I later found out that they skinny dipped in leech infested waters...and that was only the beginning of their hoopla.

My tour guide had recommended a churro cafe which served a cup of melted chocolate and fresh churros until 2am...so Dora and I decide that was a must-have dessert....And that was the extent of our nightlife! Back to our hostel to consult Lonely Planet for Sunday's activities.

After breakfast we ventured out to take the subway to a Sunday flea market. It was very easy to catch yourself spending money here - with scarves and jewelry as cheap as 3 euros. Madrid had the most street performers of all the cities I've seen in Europe. The painted people seemed to be most popular. At the market we walked by several groups of Americans - it's so easy to pick them out as they pass talking. Then we went to the Prado museum, the famed art gallery which has been compared to the Louvre and London's National Gallery. Well, we actually weren't where we thought we were. There were many museums in the area, and we were taking pictures in front of a palace, not a museum....but we went inside anyways. The Prado ended up costing more than we wanted to spend - and we both admitted to not entirely loving museums in the first place. We did walk down Rio del Prado which is a nice tree lined promenade ith fountains and benches. I got some ice cream to tie me over, as we walked back towards Puerto del Sol. We found a cafe near there and sat outside. Our meal was not exactly tapas, but it was pretty close. We went back to Puerto del Sol for a final hour of people watching and sun.

And so, there are two types of "sole travelers" - those who precisely keep to themselves, and appriciate the time to discover new cities without others' companionship - and those who can't help talking to people they encounter and connecting to experience new sights and activities together. Though I envisioned myself in the first category, during this trip, I most certainly fell into the second. If you are thinking about going to a new place for a night or two, try going alone and see what happens. You never know what interesting new things you might learn about yourself.

Barcelona

At the beginning of March, I went to Barcelona with my American friend Vicky who was in Europe on a 2 week trip. She was visiting family in Cyprus and a friend in Rome, and wanted to make it over to Switzerland since we had seen each other since we met - in Australia (ahhh, the start of my abroad living experiences <3....I miss Aussie dearly). After fondu and meeting my Geneva friends for a night at Mulligan's, we awoke early Saturday morning for our flight to Barcelona. I don't think we stopped talking from the minute I picked her up at the airport to the time our Easyjet flight landed in Barcelona. We reminisced about old times at DLC (our living quarters in Sydney), and discussing the current stresses and celebrations of our lives. Despite our excitement at just being reunited, we didn't fail to notice the gloomy gray skies when we landed. We weren't thrilled to see sagging, dripping palm trees as we made our way to the subway to our hostel, but our spirits were still high and we decided to focus on one of the our most beloved interest - food.

Our hostel was recommended by my friends for it's good location, cool building, and fun pub crawl. We were enthusiastically greeted by the female employee behind the desk, "hi beautiful!" This was our first interaction with anyone from the city, and that friendly vibe seemed to be the way of the Barcelona people. Since it was raining we figured we would find ourselves a restaurant with anything Spanish - and a pitcher of sangria. Our hostel girl gave us directions to a popular place, but with her speed of English (and sloppy writing), combined with our lack of Spanish - we ended up getting off at a subway stop that only sounded like the correct one....so we wandered in the rain in an area that wasn't exactly a restuarant hub....and had to settle on Mexican - but at least we got sangria...and mojitos, and guacamole.

Right down the street from our hostel was a house, Casa Batllo, designed by Antoni Gaudi (famous for his rounded, organic architecture in Barcelona). Normally, I wouldn't pay 18euros for a tour....but it was raining, we weren't too far from our hostel, and the 2 hours we spent in Casa Batllo turned out to be more interesting and beautiful than most museums I've been to. Maybe it was because we were actually walking, climbing and touching his art rather than viewing it from behind glass.

For dinner, Vicky said we HAD to have Paella (rice and seafood dish), so we headed to Placa de Catalunya, and found a place on the square. There were two open tables, and the waiter lead us to the worse of the two. It was next to two typically Spanish men who literally would not stop staring - oh, we gave them dirty looks....yes we did. Vicky even said something to them, but they were so obnoxious. We did our best to ignore them. Sangria, again, was a wonderful accompaniment to our Spanish meal. We were raving the whole way back to our hostel about how good our meal was. We didn't have time for dessert because we had to make it back by 10pm for the start of our pub crawl.

Earlier in the day we met two Quebecian girls (I could hear the difference in their French immidiately - it was so much harsher - like a German person trying to speak French), Anne-Marie and Benedicte, who were sharing our 16 person dorm at the hostel. I think our connection came when the four of us shared the same opinion of the other travelers rooming with us - they were strange. I'm sorry to be so blatant, but napping in the middle of the day and cutting each other's hair with electric sheers in the hostel bathroom are just not common practices when you're on vacation. Plus they spoke some unidentifiable language (possibly Russian?), and were not very courteous at 7am the next day when we were just entering REM sleep...

The four of us ended up being the only ones to convene in the lobby for the meeting time of the pub crawl. Luckily our hostess brought us to a pub where we met up with people from another hostel. We went to 4 bars and 1 club with a free shot or drink at each one...and somehow we usually ended up with more than that. Our leaders, Jamie and Patrizia, were lots of fun, and we all had a great time. At some of the bars, there seemed to be tons of "kids" younger than me. I noted from a trip to the ladies room what funky style the Spanish teenagers have. The club we ended at was super packed. Benedicte wasn't feeling so great by this point, and she and Anne-Marie headed back to the hostel. Vicky and I were having a great time, but it was so crowded that we couldn't really dance - we felt more like sardines. We really had no idea where any of the places that we were taken were located - but somehow we navigated our way home without a map!

We'd heard that the rain from the previous day was unseasonable for Barcelona, and as promised a sunny day was in store for Sunday. We started out with some refreshing salads fo brunch.

Vicky had done a hop-on-hop-off bus tour in Rome, and we thought it would be a good way to soak up some rays, relax a bit, and cover the most ground in this city as well. I don't know how we would have seen all of the sights on foot. I've heard others recommend a bike tour, which I could see reasonable, but we were in relax mode. We hopped off at Park Guell, to get a great panoramic view of the city. We also saw the Olympic Stadium, beach, and many parts of the city. We got off at Autoritat Portuaria (the port) where there was a flea market and people walking around the harbor. There were dogs playing, people napping by the docks and sailboats backed by endless blue sky. At the market, I picked out an adorable pair of red espadrille shoes for Victoire. They are honestly one of my favorite European purchases.

We had yet to visit a Tapas restaurant, so before checking out of the hostel, we popped across the street to "Tapa Tapa." THIS was my favorite food experience of the trip. When the waitress took my order, she thought I was ordering for both of us! HAHA - fat Americans :) Vicky and I each devoured about 5 tapas plates of various veggie, meat, seafood, and pasta combinations. We took an Airport Express shuttle-bus from Placa Catalunya where we took in our final observations of Barcelona.