Yesterday, we hit all the big sights...cathedral, monuments, sagrada familia, parc guell, the beach, and the illuminated fountains.
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But then we got to the house and Amparo left a note for me, saying she was really sad she wasn't here to see us, she left towels out for us to use, she wrote out the key to the wireless, and, BTW, she also got the water shut off while she was away, so she left a bucket of water for us to wash with. I have no issues showering from a bucket, but we had been so so so excited to wash clothes, and there was no way we were going to last the next several days without a toilet
:(
So we found a cheap hotel within five minutes of Amparo's place. It ended up being great-we had the kitchen to use at amparo's and a place to leave our stuff, but we also had a (clean, but very simple) place to shower and sleep and a toilet to flush.
(I'm really easily amused...the hotel was called Etap Oviedo...and they labeled their tape....)
The first afternoon, I gave Andy the quick walking tour of town. It was kind of sad to see how some of the stores and cafes and bars had been revamped or replaced over the last couple years. At the same time, it was fun to walk the same route I took to school every day and to force myself to remember how to get to my favorite shops, the cathedral, the parks. We were pretty wiped from our all nighter, so we called it an early night.
The next morning, we got up and headed straight out for the trek up to Cristo. It was a beautiful hike up but a bit steeper than I had remembered (or had been able to warn Andy about, whoops...)
It would have been nice to have Amparo here, but it was still fun to come back and remember all the adventures I had with great friends a couple years ago. I'm not sure if it feels like it should be two years ago already, but so much has happened in the time since, that it sometimes feels like a decade has passed. Looking forward to coming back to Oviedo again sometime when Amparo is home!
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We spent the next day walking through the main district, gawking at the prices at most of the stores, and finding a few good bargains (North Face Milan shirt, yes!)
I found a woman working for one of the bus companies, and the last bus of the day had already left for the the other airport, but she listened to our predicament, made a few calls, and by some stroke of luck, the driver turned around to come pick up the five of us. And he knew we were in a hurry, so he stepped on it. (The funny part was that our flight ended up getting delayed a half hour, so we really made it to the correct airport in PLENTY of time! Still a bit stressful though.)
Then, when we got to the airport in Madrid, we all had to split up. Andy and I had a great plan to take the metro to the train station right away before the metro shut down and wait there for a few hours till we could get the first train to Oviedo. Turns out, the train station was closed for the night by the tine we got there, so we ended up sitting outside playing card games until it re-opened at 5am. (Don't worry, mom and dad, it was only 3 1/2 hours and really, really not as sketch as it sounds!!)
Then, we had to hop a train to a different train station where we had to stand in line with a grumpy teller whose response to everyone in line was either that he didn't understand the language they were trying to speak (so I stepped in to do a little translating) or that he could neither help the customer, nor direct them to someone who could. Everyone was thinking it, but finally a guy in line started totally ripping on the guy about how horribly unhelpful he was being to everyone in line and how he couldn't believe his hard-earned money was going to help pay this guys wages, etc. It got a little nasty and there was a threat to call the police...but finally we were able to talk to someone else and get our tickets for Oviedo squared away.
But wait, the adventure continues...
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Day 2: The islands. We got a day-long ferry pass and visited Murano (saw a glass-blowing demonstration), Burano (walked around and took pictures of all the brightly painted houses), and Lido (went to the beach and found big pasta dishes and gelato for dinner...are you catching on to the kinds of food we've been eating in Italy?)!
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After we got to our hostel, Andy and I went to Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps that night. The next morning we all went to see the colosseum, roman forum, the pantheon, etc. Then we hopped a train to Naples and from Naples to Sorrento.
Our first day here, we went to Mittenwald, a tiny mountain town about two hours away from Munich. We asked about it at our hostel, and the people at the desk had never heard of it, so we were a little hesitant, but it ended up being my favorite thing we did here. We hiked around in the mountains for a few hours, enjoying views of the Alps peeking through the fog. Our few hours of casual hiking made me excited for the annual Colorado this fall!
Today, we got up early to catch a train (then a bus) to Dachau. The concentration camp just outside Munich was built for 6000 but held more than 30,000 when it was liberated in the mid 1940s. It was horrifying to learn about the torture people were put through, the medical experiments that prisoners were put through, and the living quarters...kind of a downer on such a beautiful, sunny day. We came back, got ice cream and post cards, and spent the rest of our afternoon relaxing in a park near our hostel. This afternoon we have to take a train to Memmingem to get to the airport for our flight to Rome. Hard to believe there's only one country left till Spain and only 5 days till our group separates!
Snack: Pretzel the size of my head. Delish.
Yesterday, we toured the Old English Market to find some breakfast
before hopping a bus to Blarney.
Today, we spent some more time downtown this morning, passed bt St.
Anne's cathedral, and headed for the street performers world
championships at Fitzgerald park. There were five arenas set up for
the performers to rotate around. It was a really fun, laid back way to
spend the afternoon, even though some of the street performers were not that special...
Then, we went to see Monica's friend sing at a Notre Dame glee club
concert at the university in Cork. Tomorrow morning, we catch a bus to
Dublin and fly from there to Munich for a few days...then Italia!
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Today, I saw St Paul's Cathedral, the tower of London and the tower
bridge. I hadn't seen any of these tourist attractions on my first trip here, so that made
the trip a little more exciting! The four of us got to our bus stop in
plenty of time, but Michelle had made a few other stops and had a tube pass,
so she was planning to meet us at the bus stop. (The rest of us decided to walk a half hour to get there, since tube passes are 4-6 pounds per trip...which is near $7-10!!) We had envisioned her
running late/not finding the bus stop, so we took lots of preventative
measures...we left her a note and her plane ticket in her bag, we taped
up directions on bus stops in the middle of London [should have taken a picture..], etc.
We were all loaded up on the bus when we saw a frantic and sweaty
Michelle at the end of the street, doing her best to sprint toward the
bus with her HUGE backpack over her shoulders. Luckily, the driver was
nice enough to wait for her and let her on the bus, so we all made it
to the airport safe and sound!
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The next morning, we woke up to head to the castle. Monica, Michelle, and I found a little footpath up the side, so we got to use our rock climbing, scrambling skills to crawl up to the top of the castle. It was a lot of fun, and there were great views of the city from our little perch. Once we made our way back down, we went around the actual trail to enter the castle and see the armor, the crown jewels, etc. It's not every day you get to hang out in a castle!! We even happened to be there when the daily 1pm cannon shot was fired.
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This morning we got up early to visit the Anne Frank house, which is just down the street from our hostel. It was really cool to walk through the tiny hidden annex and up the steep stairs...in a humbling sort of way. (It was pouring rain when we left, so it helped to set the mood, I suppose). It's hard to imagine something like that happening right here where we are staying!
Next, we went to the Heineken Experience, which I thought might be another tour just like Coors in Golden or Guinness in Dublin, but I think this one takes the cake. There was a 4D ride that took us through the process of being bottled as a beer and a place to be come a certified Heineken draught master. Impressive, right? International certifications and whatnot...Anyway, it was fun, much more interactive than some of the others.
We spent this afternoon strolling around the city center, souvineer shopping, and then had to pass through the Red Light District, just for the sake of getting the real Amsterdam experience. There wasn't a whole lot happening on a Sunday afternoon, so it was probably a good time to not get TOO much of an eyeful. The city has an interesting mix of extreme conservatism and intense liberalism.
We are just hanging out at the hostel this evening, we have to catch an early bus to the airport tomorrow morning, and we will be off to Scotland!
Side note --> BIKES, BIKES EVERYWHERE!!!
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The next day we went to Versaille. We tried going last time I was in Paris and had a major fail moment (got on the wrong train and ended up an hour outside of Paris...and then we decided we didn't care enough to try to find our way there), but we got right to it this time!! WOW, WOW, WOW-huge and amazing and beautiful! Though we did have to spend a lit of time waiting in line both to buy tickets and to enter the palace. The garden out back was crazy huge, but it was filled with Alice in Wonderland-like bushes and fountains and vendors selling fresh-squeezed OJ, yummm!
This morning we went to Notre Dame before swinging by the Lourve. Today things were pretty stressful with having ticket and transportation issues, including sprinting (with our backpacks on, so we probably weren't moving all THAT fast) to catch the train from Brussels to Amsterdam this afternoon and getting on the train about 5 seconds before the doors slammed closed and we shot off, but the good news is that we made it to the hostel, and so far, so good here in Amsterdam. Trip report to come!
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None of us slept on any of our 3 flights from Des Moines to Madrid, and we got in just before 8am, so it was a long, long morning before we could check-in at the hotel at 1pm. I think it really combat the jet lag early though.
We visited the Museo del Prado and then went back to take a much needed few hour nap. We ended up having our own awesome apartment just off of Gran Vía, which was a great spot, and we were able to pick up a few things at the nearby Corte Ingles to make our own pasta dinner..yum! That night we went to a Flamenco show--very different than the one I saw last time I was here but still cool.
One thing that was really challenging was the shift from Nicaragua Spanish back to Spain Spanish...the vocab and dialogue are slightly different, so it was still understandable, but it made me realize how long it has really been since I was in Spain last!!
The next morning, we went to the Plaza del Sol area and looked around the shops, saw all the protestors in the square (people are living in tents there to protest that the government isn't really doing anything to help fight the 21% unemployment rate in Spain. I was worried this might be a dangerous area that could blow at any minute, but it was actually really laid back..they just wanted the voice of the people to be heard! They were so settled in the square that they even had a make-shift library set up!), and saw the Puerta del Sol (very center [East-West] of Spain).
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