So I have officially been home, back in Texas, for a few days now.
Although you all know I am enamored with the travel life, I do have to say there is nothing as beautiful as sleeping in my own amazing bed (Hey- and no drunks stumbling around my room at the wee hours!) and taking a hot shower with nice water pressure and having free internet access and having my own transport....Oh, I could go on!
It's the little things in life, right?
Anyways, this is the end of this travel blog, but I promise there will be more trips soon. (No, that trip did not "get it out of my system"...Quite the opposite, in fact! I have new ideas!)
Thanks for reading!
Until next time.......
Friday, July 13, 2007
Home Sweet Home
Life inside a Postcard
I could barely handle the quaintness! Too cute! Czechy Krumov in Czech Republic
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Deutschland!
So my dad and my younger brother Brett had a "Dad and Lad" trip to Germany planned for a while and then the traveling daughter/sister decided to crash their trip! Yeehaw!
Actually, they had a good few days of male/bonding over liters of Pilsner beers that flow like the rivers there. And then I crashed it!
We had a great time seeing the sites like the lazy American tourists we are!
We spent most of our time together in Berlin and spent most of that time rollin the streets with our phat beach-cruiser bikes. The most perfect way to see the city, truly!
We all had enough history lessons of Germany to last us a lifetime! But so interesting- from the near-total destruction of the city after WWII to the Berlin Wall separating a city into 2 completely different cities, one under communist rule, to JFK declaring that he too is a jelly donut. We even saw the window of the hotel that Michael Jackson dangled that baby out of! (Highlight of trip for sure!)
We drank lots of beer, bought ridiculous souvenirs (my dad's Russian military hat that airport security made him wear for fun), ate sausages and soft pretzels and sauerkraut and other real German treats and even got fully cussed out by a German woman in her car (not effective- just made us laugh uncontrollably.)
Anyways, we had lots of fun and laughed a whole lot (mostly at the Germans.) It was so great to be back with family. And in out motherland too!
Thank you Germany for the good times!
Just a typical East Berlin Communist Family
We were at a cool hands-on museum that recreates an E. Berlin home. There were Communist books on the shelves, censored TV stations that they were only allowed to watch, and even a person talking to me on the phone in some crazy German.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Highlights from Morocco
-What a first impression! I arrived into town at night and hopped a city bus to the center of town with 2 American kids I met from the plane. We were dropped off at Plaza Jema’ el Fna, which the guidebook says is “the busiest plaza in all of
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Sassy Henna Artist
Henna on your hand is maybe like a manicure for us? This was the good henna artist who actually did a decent job and charged me a portion of the lady who ripped me off in the plaza. Oh well, tourist tax, huh?
At the food stalls in the Plaza
Marrakech has the busiest square in all of Africa and this is me at my favorite food stall with the cooks. Stall #97 is the best!
Morocco Colors I
I love the intricacies of design in every square inch of this country, and they are not afraid of colors. Amazing!
Oh the shopping...!
And this is coming from a non-shopper like me: I could spend millions in this place on their beautiful goods!
Henna Hand
Some ladies in the plaza grabbed my hand and before I knew it, I had a henna design on my hand and they were telling me to pay them crazy amounts of money! Oh well, it looks cool enough.
Essaouira Music Festival!
This is Heather, Jim, me, and Josie dancin at the Gnawa Music Festival on a beach town in Morocco (gnawa is traditional African music.) I read that over 450,000 people come from all over the world for the festival! It was great fun dancing under the African stars!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
This is Bliss!
Here is the face of una chica muy contenta!
I splurged for a night and got a hotel by the beach at one of those all-inclusive resorts on the coast (also full of blue-eyed blondies from Western Europe and lots of English spoken.)
It was such a dream- I had my own apartment, with kitchen, satellite TV, and my own bedroom! The complex had 3 pools and it was on the ocean. Soooooo nice, I stayed by the pool all day on Sunday, reading and swimming. I was in heaven!!!
San Jose
I went to the beach for a weekend and it was soooo what I needed! (I never realize how bad I need to escape the city after a while until I go away to somewhere chill and beautiful and I feel I can breathe again...)
After some long bus rides, I arrived in San Jose to stay at a really nice $15 hostel on the ocean! It was so nice to relax there.
Interesting fact about the coast of Southern Spain: the climate there is very hot and dry, so it´s like a desert, but obviously on the ocean. It is so similar to the desert, that Hollywood has made many movies there (including Lawrence of Arabia, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)! There is even an "Old West" town you can visit to see the movie sets. Random, huh?
El Rincon de Michael Landon
The coolest bar in Granada- "Michael Landon´s Corner"!!! It was all tongue-in-cheek, with photos of ML ("Pa" as I remembered him best) Even this shrine, where i paid homage to the memory of him....
Look at these little guys!
We were walking past an old abandoned house and heard these little guys crying for help. How precious! I was worried about them in a box in the hot sun and went to visit them the next day and the box was gone. Hopefully they went to a good lovin home!
Granada at Sunset
We climbed up a big hill, past all these cool caves that people have converted into their homes, to see the sunset ontop of the city.
Granada Festival
Granada has an annual festival called Corpus Cristi and the whole town is decorated and there are parades and fireworks and music and a carnival too. A lot of the girls in the town dress up in their flamenco dresses too.
Our Own Art Project!
Us crazy artists had a big art project we did at the hostel. This is looking up at the glasstop terrace on the roof.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
My Granada Routine
Old Town
So I´ve been in this amazing city for over a week now and it still hasn´t lost any of its magical charm. I still walk around in awe and love discovering new hidden places. My professor talks about the history of this city and the other day he was referring to the city´s streets that were made in the year 713! It blows me away that this place has been around for so long, that the stones that line the walkways I use everyday had been places there by the fingers of someone (most likely a slave) from the year 713!!! And the craziest thing is, compared to other cities like Rome and the Greek cities, Granada is not even that old. Europe is so old I can barely grasp these ideas! We are such babies in our country (of course the Native Americans can claim history much older than ours)!School Days
Anyways, now that I´m here for 2 weeks (and 2 days) studying, I´ve adapted to a routine, more or less.
Everyday I wake up early and always always super tired. Try as I may, it is very rare to sleep well in hostel room with a dozen or so other travelers who either stay out late partying or wake up crazy early to catch trains or planes. I could bore you to death everyday with a story of how and when and why I was woken up the night before. Oh well, such is the price I pay for living in a $25 hostel...
I get ready and eat some breaky (like the Aussies say) and then walk 15 minutes to my school. As mentioned before, I am always extra-tired in the morning and then go to sit in a warm room while a professor speaks to us in super-fast Spanish that takes all my effort to keep my eyes open and my brain working. It´s so easy for all those words to turn into bladeeblahdeebladeeblah at that time of the day. So I try when I have time to grab a cafe con leche to help the process.
I have class from 9 til 1 in the afternoon with a 30 min break in there. My professors are cool and I think do their best to make it interesting. I´m going to be nice today and not go into how I feel about the other students in my class. I´ll just say Thank God for the people I hang out with at my hostel!!!
La Siesta
After school I go home and make lunch (usually an amazingly deelish sandwich if I do say so myself!) Then comes my favorite part of the day- la siesta! Everyday I watch all these high-strung Americans and super-busy Asians try to resist the siesta and say "Ugh, I feel so lazy sitting around! I can´t believe I just took an hour nap!" But what they need to learn is that you can´t resist the siesta! You just need to give in! Not only is it way hot and this South Spanish sun really intense, but the whole city shuts down! You can´t even really go anywhere anyways! So everyday from 2pm until about 6pm, I relax and read and nap and write and do art in my book and I love it! I think I am very good at doing the siesta. Siesta champ, I am!
Once it cools down a bit, I´ll leave the hostel and get some food, do email, go to a park, or just walk around and explore. Not a bad life, no?
My Nightlife
In the evenings, I hang out with other travelers. At the hostel, they have an excellent cook who makes amazing dinners that we can eat for $4! Sometimes I go out with people to the bars or whatever and other times I just hang out at the hostel and read or even watch a movie or whatever.
So, that´s what I´ve been up to! I´m taking a beach vacation to escape the daily grind of my studious life in Granada ;) this weekend and then on Wednesday, I´m off to Morocco!
Thanks for reading! Thanks for emailing! I´ll post more photos next time! Hasta luego...
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
We love tapas!!!
Heather, me and Franco with our store-bought tapas atop our hostel. Don´t forget the $4 excellent Spanish red wine.
Mmmmm
Always always lost
Lost with fellow traveler Franco (from Argentina)
Metro, big city, little street, you name it, we were lost there!
The Land of Siestas is The Land for Me!
I love it.
Right around the time to digest lunch and when the sun is at its hottest, everything shuts down for a good 3 hours.
I think it´s more un-natural to try to work and keep going when your whole body and mind is screaming ¨Take a break!!!¨
I did learn in class though that the correct siesta española lasts only 30 minutes and is strictly done in a soft chair/recliner.
You mean when I sleep in the hostel bed for 3 hours that isn´t a true siesta??? ;)
We talk a lot about the differences btwn Europe and the US in class and it always goes back to this:
Us Americans are crazy money-obsessed workaholics always multi-tasking and in a rush. Mmm, sounds familiar...
I think I´ll move here.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
In Granada
So we took a 6 hour bus trip to Granada, which is in the South of Spain here.
The landscape on the trip was beautiful- lots of picturesque olive tree fields and mountains. We even got to watch "Pequena Miss Sunshine" on the ride.
Arrived at Granada and checked into a hostel that you don´t even need to leave: we have internet, satellite tv, rooftop terrace, bar, ping-pong, dinners made here, and more. It´s crazy-nice and only about $25 a night. Sweet!
Granada is nothing less than magical, that´s the only way I can describe it. This city was occupied by the Moors for centuries, so this place looks like Morocco everywhere- the intracacies of the decoration is unbelievable! I think I´ll send photos instead of trying to explain it. Good idea?
Been having some amazing experiences just walking the labyrinth streets and getting lost. We were in the middle of a picture-perfect neighborhood the other afternoon and sat on the bench to enjoy an amazing jar of Spanish olives eaten with a tomato eaten like an apple. Authentic experience, it was great!
And to save the best for last, I have a very special visitor in town- our very own Heather Parrish (my homegirl from Tx)! She has been traveling around SE Asia and other countries and decided to add Spain to her list of destinations! Surprise! So it´s been fun walking around the place with her too.
I feel like I am at a loss for words today. Have you ever tried to explain something inexplicable? That´s how I´m feeling. I think I´ll stick with photos. Soon to come!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
This is Your Art History Lesson for the Day
This is a painting I saw today in the museum. It´s called Guernica by Pablo Picasso.
This painting depicts a time in Spain´s history during its Civil War when the Germans (who were allies with the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco) bombed the city of Guernica to show how horrible the war´s atrocities were.
The power of the raw emotions in this painting just blows you away! And the dimensions: the painting was huge, taking up most of the height of the wall, you couldn´t avoid staring at it. Draws you in. And the way he used the black and white was a powerful effect too.
Amazing. If you get a chance to come here ever, you must see this painting.
Aye que Madrid!
So I had a crap night sleeping at that beautiful hostel, mainly due to drunk 18 yr-old Americans at the place. Oh goodness. But I did manage to meet 2 quality guys, one from N Carolina and the other from Cordoba, Argentina (where I studied once for a summer) and we went out for the classic Spanish experiencia of drinks and tapas (like sliced meat and cheese and olives and bread) late night, complete with sweet old lady dancing Spanish style. Fun!
So we switched to a hostel that is 100x better with quality people (full of Argentines. What´s up with that?) It´s great here. Yesterday involved touring the city (so beautiful!) and using the wonderous Metro subway system here and even rowing in a little boat in the middle of a lake like they did back in the old days with ladies in parasols! It´s crazy how deep the culture is here and how art is everywhere, just a normal part of life. You know I love this!
We´re at a hostel with a kitchen which always means it has a great social life (food+people= instant friends) and there are always super interesting people to meet traveling!
Today we went to the Reina Sofia Museum and saw some amazing art!
Tomorrow we go to Granada which is where I´ll be studying for a few weeks. And as nice as Madrid is, it´ll be nice to get out of the gigantic city...
I´m having fun and hope that you are too!
Monday, May 28, 2007
The Hostel
I guess it was some sort of Moorish palace? Nowadays it´s full of dirty backpackers. Love it!
mullet mania
The presence of mullets here is staggering. Even for me, who can appreciate them done with the right style. We´re talking man mullets, woman mullets, even baby mullets. Should I get one as a souvenir?
Walkabouts
is what I´ve been doing with my time.
Here are some photos of some of my first Madrid impressions.
I haven´t figured out some computer photo-upload trickery, so this is as good as it gets, folks!
Once I make some friends, maybe I´ll be in some of the photos! ;)
Hasta luego!
Sunday, May 27, 2007
I´m here!
Hey guys!
Success! I made it to Madrid after a crap travel day spending 10 hours in-flight in addition to countless hours in airports with long layovers- blech!
I want to thank the following sponsors for making that travel day possible:
i-pod- Oh so many songs, so many hours to listen!
Bridgette Jones´s Diary- smutty novel so good for endless waiting!
Dramamine- the only way I actually got some real sleep on the plane
I promise- I would probably not have made it without these wonderful things! I love them.
So yeah, international travel is not for the weak! And trying to figure out a way to sleep in a slightly reclined seat is near impossible (without drugs!) Especially when you travel alone and a nice older gentleman is next to you. I woke up with my knee touching his leg (huge no-no for seatmates we all know!) and my feet stretched diagonally across, into his feet space. Oops!
So I´m in Madrid, I feel awesome even with little sleep and I do have to brag and say that I made it all the way from the airport by subway with half a dozen train changes and then walked around and actually found my hotel! High 5 to me!
I´m locked outta my room right now, but they told me it´ll be ready soon. I can´t waaaaaaaaaait to take a shower!
So I left the hotel for a little walk around (I´m downtown) and let me tell you what I saw in my first 10 minutes in Madrid:
-2 men about to rumble (Don´t be scared, Ma, I´m in a good part of town!) Anyways, the one guy was yelling and holding out his mace to spray the other dude and they were both yelling and then the other one grabbed a bungee cord from car and was threatening to hit him with it and they were yelling "tu madre" back and forth. I hurried past them so I wouldn´t get maced. But I don´t think anything happened after that. Weird!
-Right after above incident, an old guy looked at me and muttered "Bien, bien, bien." Ewww.
-And then I went to the park and saw a group of teens sharing sips from a 40 oz beer at 11:00 on a Sunday morning.
Bienvenida a Espana!
It´s going to be an interesting trip I think!
Please know that I´m safe and sound and as always, God´s got my back!
Until next time!
Friday, May 25, 2007
My Last Happy Hour Stateside!
Thanks for keepin it real, my Austin peeps! I'll miss you!!!
Roomie, Roomie, Roomie, Wanna-be Roomie (but we love you, LaLa!)
Me & my homegirl Jess
Roomie, Roomie, Roomie, Wanna-be Roomie (but we love you, LaLa!)
Me & my homegirl JessWednesday, May 16, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
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