SPAIN barcelona (bon nadal!)
yay for holiday time with family! this was going to be my first christmas alone so i was kind of sad and unsure of what i should do. all that changed when my parents and bro decided to come here! they arrived christmas morning and i have to say it was one of the best presents ever! my mom also brought me some things i desperately needed…like costco-size teriyaki sauce and japanese mayonnaise. i don’t know how i survived without these things. seriously though. my roommates were also home for the holidays, so until they came home my family got to stay in our flat! this was really nice because we were actually together the whole time.
in the short time we had, we tried doing most of the touristy things here in barca. i must say it was an exhausting week of walking. the sagrada família, casa batlló, la pedrera, park güell, dancing fountain show of plaza españa, montjuic, picasso museum, walking up and down la rambla, and the macba…whew. i think we all had our favorite, and where my favorite was the “flamenco y opera” show (at palau de la musica), my dad’s was the joan miró museum. paul actually said, “this is the best day of my life!” i told him if that is the case, i don’t think he has had a very good one. haha…
thanks for visiting me guys! i love you!
MOROCCO chefchaouen
we decided to forgo the more well-known cities of marrakesh and casablanca and head over to the town of chefchaouen. to get there, we had two options: hire a taxi or wait a few hours for the next bus. we decided on the taxi…but it was a crappy feeling trying to negotiate a price knowing full well we were getting ripped off. it turned out to be a pretty good decision since we got there in about two hours…but still.
chefchaouen, although small, has its share of things to offer. it is surrounded by mountains for endless hiking…and the streets, walls, and buildings are all whitewashed shades of blue and white! but just like fes, it is still touristy-with vendors calling you into their store and restaurants trying to get you to come in. some of these people even spoke japanese! and because it is so chill, i liked chefchaouen much more than fes.
a couple of days were spent hiking around the nearby mountainside, and it was great because i haven’t felt so tired in a while! the first hike was amazing because we didn’t have a path to follow but created our own. we scaled big boulders and walked through thick bushes shoulder-high…and then at the top ate pomegranates and morrocan bread with “laughing cow” cheese. mmm. of course, the view was exhilarating as we were so high we could see dozens of rolling hills and the town where we started. i think we hiked for about six hours that day!
MOROCCO fes
fes turned out to be an unexpected cultural stop as we got to know a local family and spend some time with them! we were using the internet when a local guy (hatim) and chris hit it off talking about futbol, and hatim soon invited us upstairs to eat cuscus with his family. we got introduced to his family and then waited for his mother to prepare our meal! they didn’t have a kitchen table to eat at, but something like a coffee table in front of sofas which aligned the walls. it was pretty amazing since these were multi-purpose sofas, as they were also used for lounging and sleeping. although they had a vacant unit upstairs, they didn’t use it and i could see that family was very important since they seemed to do everything together and time seemed to center around its members. what a change from the states where most people have their own room and want of privacy!
hatim’s little sister halima wanted to show us around, and once day she invited us to the hamam. when i heard that it is something like a turkish bath, i imaged hot thermal pools and relaxing massages. . .just like the one in hungary. so it was quite a surprise when we got to a sauna-type thing with people scrubbing themselves in a steamy room with warm water. dirty water with dead skin was not exactly being flushed away to the two drain piped in the middle of the big room, so it kind of pooled around everyone. sick. the scrubby thing they use is amazing in that it scrubs all the dead skin away, but just by thinking about it i am getting itchy. atleast we survived and it was quite an experience!
MOROCCO fes
i love the feeling of my first steps on a new continent! even after a long journey, these steps re-energize me as i look forward to the days ahead on foreign soil. this was especially true for morocco because it is my first muslim country. so stepping off the ferry onto the dock was, well…exhilarating. especially since it was a trip and a half to get to morocco! i don´t know why but i thought it was going to be far more efficient than this! we took a coach from sevilla to algeciras (which took about two and a half hours) and then another coach (a half hour or so)to tarifa, and FINALLY a ferry (another half hour of so) across the straight of gibralter to tangier, morocco. whew! it also took longer at each stop since we tried asking around for the cheapest deal…too bad all the companies more or less charged the same price!
tangier, being a port town is really busy with traffic and people bustling about. the very first thing i noticed was the lack of women. all the cafes and restaurants were pretty full with customers, but with male customers. there were enough women walking wherever they had to go, but none sitting down enjoying the night. i didn´t feel threatened at all and i don´t think sue did either, but it was definitely a surprise.
chris had been to morocco last year and warned us of the moroccan transport system, so we should have been ready for our almost six hour coach ride from tangier to fes. (the guy at the ticket counter said about two) we even stopped for some sandwiches around hour four, and i knew then it was going to be atleast two more hours. and at last, after one in the morning, we arrived in fes.
we got lucky with a patient taxi driver who drove us around the new city looking for cheap hotels. most were charging too much or were full at this time of night, so we headed over by the medina and found a place at the main gate for only 150 dirhams a night! (roughly 5 euros a person!) the location could not have been better, and we settled in for the night ready to start our morocco journey!
SPAIN sevilla (champions league!)
sevilla sevilla sevilla!!!! that is how one of the songs start for sevilla fc…and the only words i remember. haha. what a memorable event! we went to the sevilla-arsenal champions league game one night, and it was especially exciting because arsenal has been top-ranked recently and sevilla was at home. we tailgated on the way and outside the stadium (a good attempt anyway) with a couple of locals who, like other europeans i have met, asked us if any of us had msn messenger. i swear every european person i have met is obsessed and is appalled when i don´t have it. i also don´t see what we would talk about after meeting for 15 minutes. hmm maybe one day.
the tickets were bought at the front window but our seats were scattered, and at a packed game it was going to be impossible to sit together. nonetheless, we tried…in some prime rows behind the goal! i think these seats were for season-ticket holders since the people knew these were not our seats…they said we could still sit there if no one came, and we thought we got away with it until the real seat-holders arrived after the game started. haha sad.
i can not compare the incredible atmosphere of the sevilla crowd because i have never been to anything so passionate. only to say that the fans are truly loyal and the sport and players so respected. i thought the barça crowd was amazing, but it does not ever compare to the sevilla crowd! to top it off, sevilla played really well and won 3-1!
SPAIN sevilla (free tapas with drink!)
off to sevilla we go! to start our trip, suesan, chris and i flew over using vueling air…for thirty euros and only one and a half hours! so much more convenient than a train. i had high expectations because spaniards even recommend going to sevilla, and i was not let down! if i had been here before settling in barca, i am sure i woulda stayed. i love it! streets lined with orange trees (like the namesake), the gothic cathedral which reminded me of milano’s, and the plaza españa? AMAZINGLY GORGEOUS! the tile work was especially beautiful with the sun shining on it, and it is my favorite “plaza españa” thus far (ok i have only seen two…but still).
we couchsurfed with some people, and as always it was great to talk to locals and get their perspective on the city they live in! but going out for tapas with tina (one of the hosts), her friends, and other couchsurfers was cool because i met people doing similar things. oooh ya and i can not believe how cheap everything in sevilla is! i had no idea barça was so expensive until i got here…and paid only 50 cents for a beer (cruz campo-the local brew) and free tapas with drink. i need to move here stat! haha.
ENGLAND london
i FINALLY made it to london! i went to visit my friend chris, who i met with enda and randall in la paz…and like the 10th person i have seen from my south america trip. good times. despite everyone telling me how expensive things are, i was not ready for it. for example: my twenty pound (so 40 FREAKIN DOLLAR) mexican restaurant bill for three beef tacos and my share of a pitcher of margarita! how i miss my $1.75 tres hermanos tacos. anyway, all the restaurants we hit up were so delicious and it was good to eat something other than bocadillos and eggs.
we basically did all the “london” sight seeing in one day, and it was efficient and enough for me. i figure i have to be back here for my flight out, so if i missed something i will catch it later. the weather was crappy overcast-typical london according to chris. but it was kinda perfect for running around the city without getting too cold or hot. we walked through some parks ( i thinkst. james´s…since it was by buckingham palace) and then down by the river to see big ben…and i finally felt like i was in london when i saw the parliament building! we even checked out the tate modern and viewed an exhibition by some french artist named louise bourgeois…and basically got my share of museums for the next five years.
this was nfl weekend since the dolphins played the giants in the first regular season game played outside america. i would have wanted to go if it were any other team…but the dolphins? the game was at wembley and was shown on skysports…but that meant i had to listen to the skysports commentators. lame. made me miss my espn…and tnt…and hilarious and most times irrelevant comments by charles barkley. in the underground we saw a lot of people who were going to the game, wearing jerseys repping practically every team. this was cool to see-gotta support your boys! go seahawks!
SPAIN barcelona (my first barça game!)
my first barça futbol game! tickets are really reasonable and we were able to get tickets for only 30 euro! camp nou is a pretty big stadium and it looked pretty packed, considering it was a wednesday night game. i got into the game instantly by feeding off the crowd’s energy and passion for their team-much different than a game back home. my friends should definitely play over here where futbol is appreciated.
camp nou has a big screen but all it shows throughout the game are names of players substituting for each-other and scores of other games. no instant replays, no nothing. this was strange for me, especially when there was a play that called for one. waste of a big screen, no? anyway, the final score was 4-1 over zaragoza!
getting home was a chore and a half! the game started at ten, so it did not get out till after midnight….which meant the metro was closed for the thousands of people who stayed till the end. i don’t know why the city didn’t just keep the metro open for an extra half hour. night buses run every twenty minutes so we knew we could get home but you shoulda seen the crowd waiting to board. and for some reason, people would pile in and then stand sardines-style in the FRONT of the bus…while there was all this space in the back. seeing this, an old man stands in front of the bus and refuses to move. so, instead of asking people to move towards the back, the bus driver lays on the horn for about 10 minutes. no joke. i felt for him and others who wanted to get on, but damn. finally, people shuffled to the back and he and about TWENTY people got on. talk about an ordeal. at least we were on the bus.
SCOTLAND edinburgh
we took the megabus to edinburgh for the weekend…which only cost us about 5 pounds each! magabus is a low cost busline that runs between cities, and is similar to easyjet/ryanair on ground…which means sometime the same route might only cost a pound!
there was so much to see, and although small, edinburgh definitely caters to tourists. we had good times on princes street and george street (the rat pack piano bar is a must!), and we even tried some haggis at a scottish place on the royal mile! liam had a whole meal of it and i had a bite..which was enough for me. thinking about eating a whole plate where the main ingredients are sheep heart, liver, and lungs boiled in it’s stomach makes me gag. so back to the sites…with my favorite was the view from “the mound,” where you can see the castle and scott monument. we didn’t go into the castle because it was 11 pounds to get in, but now i wish we had. sad. i should just sucked it up and paid.
we stayed at argyle backpackers, which is up the street from ”the meadows” (a big park in the middle of the city). i lied being a bit outside of everything, because it gave us a chance to walk through parts of the town we would have otherwise missed. make reservations at http://www.argyle-backpackers.co.uk/index.htm!
since it was the rugby world cup, we caught the argentina-south africa game…and i was sad to see argentina lose. i also learned that the last thing most irish and scottish want to see is england win at anything. so, it was better for south africa to win because they had a better chance of beating the english in the final. (which they did!) basically, the english and the americans are kinda in the same boat and have a bad rep around the globe.
SCOTLAND aberdeen
i LOVE scotland. it is really chill here, and the greenery and fresh air is amazing! reminds me a bit of home. aberdeen was a nice surprise, since it is NOT a shithole like everyone said it was. i stepped off the plane and immediately felt like i could actually breathe…which was a nice change from the shit air of barça. ugh.
liam (a friend from the pub who is attending uni here) picked me up at the airport, and off we were to start our scotland trip! first stop: the town of aberdeen and the university. (founded in 1495!) most of the buildings are pretty short-i would say six stories max. i really like this about the campus and nearby neighborhoods, since it gives the area a small-town feeling.
i was kinda scared to stay at the guys´place because i imagined houses like the u-district. but liam and his friends might keep things in order more than some girls´! they have a chore list that is kinda followed. for example, a couple of people usually cook dinner, and then others take turns doing the dishes for EVERYONE. wtf. i have never heard of such a thing. who wants to do dishes that have been lying around? aberdeen uni boys. kind of outrageous, actually.