back to bern!

the next day i woke up early and went on a canyoning trip with some guys from arizona. canyoning, for those of you who may not know, is basically hiking down the inside of canyons by walking, climbing, jumping (my favorite), rappeling, and swimming. very fun!
when i got back, i grabbed my pack and caught an afternoon train to bern, only an hour away. when i got there, i found my hostel and headed out. i planned to go to Neuchatel the next day, which left me only the night in bern. i walked towards the rose garden to check it out, but when i got to the bottom of the hill leading up to the entrance, i was exhausted. i started up the hill, got half way, and literally turned around! i couldnt make it, i was so exhausted! very unlike me - i must really need sleep. so i changed my plan: get a glass of wine in town, go back to the hostel to make dinner, read, and fall asleep. and that was about all my poor body could handle that night, unfortunately.

the next day i checked out, locked up my pack at the train station, and caught a train to neuchatel. the reason i was going to neuchatel was because on the train from paris to bern we had passed through it, and my mother decided right then that neuchatel was a magical, wonderful place. she talked about it through the rest of her time in europe, and sent e-mails about the swiss utopia, encouraging me to go there. i figured i could spend a day there to make her happy and get a look for myself...
well neuchatel was a small, but lovely city. i went up to the cathedral and took a tour of the castle (a functioning castle that seems modern, despite its age). then it was raining so i ducked into a small local cafe for lunch. when it cleared up i headed down to the huge lake and took a long stroll.
and then it was time to be heading back to bern - i had to board a 12-hour night train to amsterdam to meet dave and hannah!

lack of internet...

hallo hallo. i have not had internet in a while, hence the gap in updates.

so i left salzburg and my midnight train ended up being a 2am train due to delays...and in zurich i decided to go straight on to interlaken, only i had to take a train to bern and transfer there to my final train, which would have been fine, had i not slept through my transfer in bern and continued on toward geneva...bummer. oh well. i hopped off and cought the next train back to bern, and transferred to the right train. i got to interlaken by 2pm... not too much of an inconvenience.

interlaken is a huge draw for backpackers from arround the world because of its' adventure sports! ice climbing, sky diving, bunjee jumping, canyoning, paragliding, rafting....you name it, interlaken has it...for a price. i was immediately faced with the major dilemma of what to do, how much to spend, how long to stay! i immediately made friends with a couple guys from michigan and southern illinois (one of the guys had the same exact voice as dan the man... quite odd, especially once i realized that they had very little else in common). they tried to influence me to go glacier climbing the next day, and canyoning the day after that. i decided i would take the brochures, find myself a beer and a bench, and ponder over my different options alongside one of the peaceful rivers nearby.

$250. that is what i decided to allow myself to spend. it was a lot, but i would choose activities that i could not do in the states, things that i may never have the option to do again. what would they be? well... i've been sky diving and bunjee jumping and paragliding and rafting... so those were all out. ice hiking and glacier climbing? that sounds pretty unique. canyoning was one of the most popular activities, and people seemed to love it.

so by that evening, i had booked one more night in interlaken, a glacier climbing adventure, and a canyoning trip, with an extra day allowed for hiking (the only free activity... IF you don't take the tram back down). ha... ya only live once, right?

the next morning i woke up really early and hopped in the van that picked us up for glacier climbing. i was with the guys i had met the day before, plus a couple of guys my age from texas (they had just graduated from UT), and some aussies! a fine group! and an excellent guide. it was an hour trip out and a 45 minute hike up to the glacier. wow. i think i got my money's worth just after the hike. the view was spectacular, and we were hiking a real, moving glacier! what?! really really cool. when we got to our base we had a picnic lunch in the ice, and then got ready to climb! our guide (a liberal, middle-aged, jack daniel-drinking swiss guy with a dirty sense of humor) had decided that i would be the model for the trip. so i was used as a prop to show everybody else how to do things properly. this was all fine, until i realized that i would be the first to descend into the depths of the glacier. oh dear! fortunately, the first climb was an easy one, and i set a fine example!
throughout the course of the day we did a whole bunch of different climbs. some were pretty simple, and others were really difficult! a couple times i was convinced i would NEVER back it back to the top! my upper body strength is limited, and some of the ice was very slippery! luckily my belay was really encouraging and patient (one of the aussie guys, named matt). the climbing was really fun! but also very challenging and exhausting! by the end of the day i had added to my collection of bruises, ripped my pants, cut my skin, but most importantly, climbed a glacier! it was all worth it! and i cannot explain how cool the view was... and i'm sure the pictures will not do it justice either. by the end of the day, when the clouds hid most of the sun, the glacier - this live piece of ice making its way through the alps - was a bright blue! it radiated blue from each crevice... really, really amazing.
that night i hung out around the hostel (which had one of the most happening bars in interlaken) and chatted with my new friends, while meeting even more.

the next day was my hiking day! i got a good night sleep and then met some friends for breakfast. (all of the guys i had gone glacier climbing with the day before were going on an all-day canyoning trip. i was a bit disappointed i had not booked the same trip, since the group had been so fun). we made a picnic lunch and set out for Harder Kulm, a 5-hour hike away. the hike was challenging - each step up-hill - but interesting, with great views of interlaken below us. when we reached the top, we sat and took in the beautiful city and enjoyed the conversation. our group was pretty diverse - mayank from india, tressa and devon from University of Georgia, and kevin and pete from Wheaton College in Illinois... a christian college. it made for interesting conversation - kevin, mayank, and i talked about culture and religion for a couple hours... each of us coming from a different background with different beliefs. very interesting.

back at the hostel, we made a big dinner of potatoes and other vegetables, and bought a few bottles of wine. later, pete and i went for a long walk and had some interesting conversations about our pasts and distinct spiritual beliefs. it was a good time... though i have to admit after a while i just wanted to go back and hang out with some of the other people i had met during the day. oh well.

more updates to come!

salzburger

yesterday while clint was at work i took a walk into the old town and explored the tiny city. salzburg is really nice and quiet, with a small city center. when clint got off work we went back to town to have a drink. then we had dinner back at the castle. after dinner, i sat in on the seminar. the theme was globalization and consumer capitalism... i found it to be quite interesting.

Salzburg Global Seminar invites academics from all different cultures and institutions to come and discuss global issues. its actually a pretty cool organization, and the presentation i saw was really intriguing. afterwards we were able to just mingle and chat with the participants in the courtyard.

then clint and i went to the other side of the pond to enjoy the whiskey we had bought at the store (and today i have a headache, to say the least).

today we woke up late and went on a hunt for a pharmacy....in the rain. then we went up to the top of untersberg (an intimidatingly huge mountain nearby) for lunch. now we are back at the castle - clint is napping while i update the blog and do laundry (which i desperately needed to do). and tonight we will have dinner here and then i am leaving on a midnight train to georgia.... i mean, switzerland. i have a hostel booked for tomorrow night and the next night in interlaken, and i am debating whether i should stop in zurich on the way there...the train to interlaken stops in zurich, so it would be cool to check it out. the problem is that it gets in there at 6:30am... so there prob wont be much to do. so most likely i will just continue on to interlaken.. i'll let ya know.

okok hope kyle's birthday was good. i sent him a message on facebook.

laterr.

czech me out!

...and i slept. for 12 hours! i had planned on getting out early and doing a walking tour at 9:30, but i awoke to a huge thunder storm, so i stayed in bed and waited it out. at about 11:30 the rain had pretty much stopped, and i headed out along the river to the narodni divadlo (the national theater) and then crossed medieval Charles Bridge over the vtltava river to mala strana.
i went up to the prague castle (where i watched the Changing of the Guard) and through the third courtyard towards St. Vitus's Cathedral, a truly stunning building.

i had decided that st. nicholas' s church would be the one place that i was going to suck it up and pay the entrance fee (luckily, most of the other places were free). so i reluctantly paid my 70 crowns (a little under $4, i think) and went in. built by the jesuits in the 18th century, the baroque church is huge and ornate. definitely worth the money.

then i visited wallenstein palace, now occupied by the czech senate. it is known for its formal garden, which claims to be one of the finest in all of europe. i enjoyed a walk all around the pond and garden, and took some time to read up on the czech involvement in the EU.

finaly, i visited the church of our lady of victory, where the wax figurine known as the "Bambino di Praga" is housed. people come from all over the world to see this small figurine... frankly, i just don't get it. its pretty small, not very impressive. its like a doll, that they dress up in different clothes and put in a glass box in a church...

ok, time for a beer, and then a visit to strelecky ostrov (an island in the middle of the vltava) and home to finish my pizza leftovers and hang out with people at the hostel!

7/16: i was planning on catching an early train to salzburg to meet up with clint, but he was going to see harry potter at night, so i opted for a later train (i don't get the whole harry potter thing...) i checked out, went to the train station to lock up my bag, and decided to take advantage of my extra day in prague (my train didn't leave until 5:15)! i hiked all the way up to the vysehrad (High Castle). when i got there, i realized that the real attraction was the church and the cemetery. i was a little bummed (another church?! and a cemetery? we have those in the states)...until i actually entered the grounds. the church was beautiful ... aren't they all? but the cemetery was unlike any i have ever seen before in my life. the czech National Cemetery is where the country's great and good (and rich!!) have been buried since the late 19th century. each grave had a statue or a monument or a work of art or a tree.... it was amazing... as odd as that sounds. i walked up and down each row multiple times. these people put a lot of thought (and money, i presume) into their tombstones! it was like being at a unique and diverse art gallery.

afterwards i strolled through the park and enjoyed some spectacular views of the city and river.

eventually i made my way back towards the old town, and found my czech mask (!!!) at a small store on the way. with another hour to kill, i decided to enjoy a liter of pilsner while people-watching in the heart of the city. at 5:15 i boarded my train (it was a 7 hour ride to salzburg)... a very old train, but not umcomfortable. there were cabins with 6 seats each. and no AC, but all the windows were open. for the first 45 minutes i stood and watched the passing countryside with my head out the window.. then i slept for a couple hours.

we had a half hour layover in some town, so i grabbed a beer and some crackers and got back on quickly (i'm extra nervous ever since missing the train in milan). when we took off i again stood with my head out the window, but now watching the most spectacular sunset. i never would have thought 7 hours on this train would be so enjoyable.

at midnight i arrived in salzburg, where clint was waiting for me. it was so good to see him! we took a taxi back to his place, Schloss Leopoldskron (you know, the castle...seriously) and he showed me around. we took a walk around the pond and caught up.

back in his apartment, we hung out and called pete via skype! it was good catching up with him as well. he is going to be working in austin, TX starting in august. i will have to make a trip out to visit him (austin city limits, perhaps??)

today clint is working, and i am using internet to book hostels and trains and basically plan the rest of my trip. i can't believe i will be home in less than a month! time is going by so fast.

good times, bad shape.

first off, a couple random comments:

1) i am in bad shape. for a person who rarely bruises, i look like i have an abusive boyfriend. my legs are visibly bruised in like 8 different places and my arms as well. i think this is mostly from being a tourist and not watching where i'm walking (either because my head is in a map or mesmerized by the striking european architecture across the street) and i keep slamming into things (posts, benches, garbage cans, people...)

2) i think my german roots are most reflected in my physical appearance... or maybe i just dress like a german girl? because in all of the countries i have been to, germany seems to be where i fit in the most. i have been asked for directions from germans so many times! and when waiters or sales people address me they assume that i speak german (even when i hear them address the tourist couple next to me in english). hmmm...

anyway, felix and i had a great day on monday! it was so nice to have my personal tour guide, who knew all the places to go, and was also on a tight budget. we started off the day biking to the monument to the battle of nations, an impressive, massive, and intimidating monument built to mourn the deaths that occurred during the battle in 1913 between the prussians, austrians, and swedes on one side, and napoleon's army on the other. although it was built to mourn the deaths, the monument has a complicated history. during the era of extreme nationalism, it was used by the nazis as a sign of german strength and power. now it is a bit controversial: on the hike up to the top we saw numerous signs arguing that the monument should not be renovated, but should be allowed to fall, since it serves to glorify war. regardless of what it stands for, however, the edifice really was remarkable - the huge statues are intimidating, while at the same time quite calming. we hiked all the way to the top to experience the best views of all of leipzig.
afterwards we explored all around the city, including the Neues Rathaus Südansicht, where i had entirely too much fun playing on the posternoster. if you do not know what a posternoster is, google it immediately. and then find the closest one to you. and go ride it. i don't even know, do we have them in the states? or post-1700 anywhere?

then we went to the stasi museum, housed in the old headquarters of the secret police. the museum was interesting, but all in german :(

afterwards we biked out towards the river. then we stopped at Gosebrauerei Bayerischer Bahnhof to have a taste of Gose beer, a beer brewed in leipzig that does not follow the strict german beer purity law (it includes coriander and salt). it was really tasty and really refreshing after riding around in the sun all day long!

at night we went shopping for food to make a "traditional (although, vegetarian) german dinner". we ended up making Knödel (delicious) with sauerkraut and apple streudel for desert! then we went out to rent and rented a german movie (Herr Lehmann) and drank some good german beers! all in all, a great, german day!


yesterday morning i thanked felix for a great time and we said our goodbyes and i caught a train to prague! i got to my hostel (Dizzy Daisy) at about 4 o'clock, dropped my bag and headed immediately out. since i had stayed an extra night in leipzig, i would only have 2 nights in prague, and i was determined to see as much as possible. and i did fit a lot in! i did all of the east side of the river, including the old town, the astrological clock, and King Wenceslas square, where i stopped and had my first half liter of Pilsner Urquell (a czech beer, in case ya didnt know). for dinner, i stopped and had really good pizza (which i had been craving)! by the time i got home i was exhausted and went straight to bed.

walk, walk, walk

7/11:
i woke up late and then set out to discover berlin in the daylight. first stop: checkpoint charlie, a former berlin wall crossing point. i spent a couple hours just wandering around and learning more about the recent history of berlin, and the (literal) divide that occured during the cold war, separating friends, family, and neighbors.

then i made my way over to potsdamer platz. built on the former death strip, it is now a very popular, busy plaza with shops, restaurants, clubs, and hotels. there are remnants of the wall still in place, covered in interesting grafiti, of course.
then i walked up to the holocaust memorial. it is a park of almost 3,000 concrete blocks of all different sizes built atop rolling ground. from outside it looks stark, but interesting. almost like each block is a tomb. as you wander through, the columns become taller than the people, and most kids had begun a game of tag or hide-and-go-seek in this concrete maze.
further up the street was the wall victims memorial, commemorating all the people who died during their attempts to cross from east to west.
then the famous brandenburg gate and down Unter den Linden, stopping for a vegetarian kebap along the way...

after lunch i walked alll the way up to the berlin wall documentation center, a museum about the wall with a viewing tower overlooking a memorial across the street. this museum was free, but the view was not really that great and most everything was in german...too bad i had walked 25 miles to get there.

i finally made my way back to the hostel, made some dinner, and passed out. i was exhausted!

7/12:
check out was at 10am so i woke up early, showered, locked up my bag downstairs, and headed out. i was determined to see as much as i could before catching my 5oclock train to leipzig.
first i walked a long way to the east side gallery, the longest surviving stretch of the berlin wall, covered in grafitti and other art. it was completely worth the hike over there (through some sketchy neighborhoods). for 1.3 km i experienced some of the best graffiti i'd ever seen, and and some of the best other forms of art as well. from trippy scenes, to cries for freedom, to revolutionary depictions, to political cartoons...this is the kind of art that appeals to me. it tells the story of berlin's history, germany's history, and in many ways, the history of the world as a whole.

after the emotional experience provided by the east side gallery, i wandered up to alexanderplatz, through the parliament building, the university and the art museum, and finally back to the hostel to collect my bag and head to the train station.

i caught the train to leipzig and met my friend felix, whom i had met at my hostel in brazil this march. he had offered to show me the city and let me stay at his flat for a couple nights. and honestly i was really excited to be staying in a "home" for a couple nights.
his flat is really nice. he lives with his 18 year old brother brother, and the flat is actually owned by his parents who had to move to another city recently for work, but the boys stayed in leipzig to study.
felix showed me my room and then we went on a bike tour of leipzig, a very lively city (due in part to the university's presence, i believe) with a long history and beautiful old town. felix was really an excellent guide... would i know this much about chicago?
we stopped for dinner and made it home just as the rain began. then we made a cake! ha it was really nice to be able to do normal home activities.

today we will go to some museums and then i will help felix and his friend begin their "at-home wine production".

on to berlin!

7/8: cordoba
this morning we woke up early (though im pretty sure i could have slept all day. traveling always gets exhausting after a while... i will have to take a rest day soon) and went to the mezquita, the main point of interest in cordoba. originally there was a church on the site, but after the muslim occupation it was confiscated and turned into a mosque. over the course of 200 years it was expanded until it became the second-largest mosque in the world. then after the Spanish Reconquista, it was transformed back into a church, with a cathedral right at in the middle of the huge muslim edifice.
so obviously there is a very mixed and interesting history to this building. and i have to say, after being in muslim north africa last summer and visiting countless mosques (including the renowned mosque of kairouan) this was the most spectacular, largest, and interesting religious building i have ever seen.
afterwards, we walked around a bit but there wasnt much else to do in cordoba, so we made our trek back to madrid. i had emailed our hostel to see if we could come one night earlier, but i had yet to hear back from them. we decided to take our chances and head there. so after taking the metro to the nearest stop, and caitlin lugging her entire life up 19 flights of stairs (i think she might regret having packed so much at this point) we arrived to find out all the rooms were full. bummer.... but they directed us to a different hostal, a mere 5 minutes walk away (or thats what they claimed anyway.... in reality more like 15) with all of our luggage (my back is about to break at this point). when we got there we walked by the hostel without noticing it (it was not marked at all) 3 times before we had to stop and take a breather... and a jarra of sangria, of course. then i made one last effort to find it and succeeded, and they had 2 beds open! excellent. and the hostel was even referenced in my guide book, so it couldnt be that bad right?...wrong.
a four hour lockout in the middle of the day, bad breakfast, uncomfortable room - hot, smellllllyy (almost unbearably), cost for internet and expensive laundry, not very nice staff, early check out, cost for luggage storage, not very fun - no social activities. the worst hostel of this trip for sure. and i cant think of any off hand that i have ever stayed at that i disliked more.

7/9: toledo
we took the half hour train ride out to toledo, a UNESCO world heritage site. we only had a few hours there, but we had heard that it would be plenty. it was reallly hot but we wandered through the medieval streets of old toledo to the cathedral, stopping for drinks and to shop a bit.

back in madrid we planned our final night of spain! i didnt want to be out too late, since i had to leave for the airport by 8:30am. we decided to go for tapas and then to see more flamenco! the show was longer and way more formal and elaborate than what we had seen in sevilla. i am so happy we got to have both experiences- the show ended up being amazing, the perfect to end our spanish experience (in total i had spent 16 days in spain, far more than i will be spending in any other place).

7/10: moving on...
off to the airport for my first EasyJet experience. not so easy, i found out... as check-in took about an hour. good thing i had left early.

we arrived in berlin on time and i navigated my way via bus and the U-bahn to the hostel, Meininger Hostel. it was cold and rainy and i was happy to arrive. aaand good news: they had made a mistake and overbooked so i had been upgraded to 6-person dorm instead of 9-person, at the same price, aannnd i found out that because i have a eurail pass i get 10% off the cost! sweet! aaand all my roomies are nice (two girls from texas, two boys from england, one guy from mexico)!

at night i hung out with will and robbie (the english guys) and molly (a new austrailian friend) around the hostel until about 12:30. then we decided to take bikes out to a cool area recommended by molly's friend who lives in berlin. this was a good idea except we only had two bikes, which meant i was on the back of robbie's (who was already pretty drunk... not the safest bike to be on) and will was on the back of molly's. and molly and will were both bigger than robbie and myself... so they had a bit of difficulty. but the situation made for a hysterical and frightening ride out to the bars. (though on the way home, we opted for a cab)
we ended up (in one piece, luckily) at a very nice bar ! great conversation and ambiance and german beers! we got back around 4am i think...

updates!

sorry about the delay.. but i have arrived in berlin and the internet cafe next door is cheap (and its raining so i dont mind wasting an hour here), so hopefully i can get all cought up..

7/4- fourth of july, seville style!
so there were no fireworks. but our true american colors did show - caitlin and i bought some fo'ties and drank them in the center of a Plaza. when we got there we realized we didnt have a bottle opener so i had to squat down while all dressed up to go out and bust the tops off on the side of a bench...very classy. a man who was setting up his makeshift bed on a bench nearby even started laughing at us. if the homeless population is laughing at your ghettoness, you know you are classy...

then we met some sevillan municipal workers as they came to clean the park. i am having trouble remembering their names, but im pretty sure one of them was named after some sort of desert. flan, perhaps? unsure of the legality of boozing on public monuments, we made a lame attempt to shade our drinks. they laughed... and then we chatted for a while. later on in the night, we would run into them again. and the people we were with (other americans) found it odd and hysterical that as the garbage truck came by and the people jumped out to clean a street, caitlin and i were greeting them by name!

6/5 - cadiz
an awful travel day.. we checked out of our hostal in seville (which i ended up really liking and would recommend) and headed to the bus station. after a long, hot walk, we still had to wait a half hour for a bus. and then a long wait for a train and a long train ride. when we finally arrived in cadiz. i called the hostal to get directions and they recommended taking a cab... it would be 4 euro. so we get in the cab and start going.... 25 minutes later we are on the expressway headed back towards seville! wtf?! at this point we were certain there has been a misunderstanding and pulled over to call the hostal again. well, there was a misunderstanding - a misunderstanding about where the hostal was and what train stop to get off at. apparently our hostel was in a suburb of cadiz called el puerto de santa maria, where we had just passed a half hour before on the train... bummer.

when we finally arrived (30 euro later) at Costa Luz (more like a motel than a hostel) we threw on our suits and headed straight for the beach!
then out to explore the downtown area, filled with restaurants and clubs and bars and ice cream stores! very cute little town, with fun for everyone. in fact, the thing that stood out most to me about El Puerto de Santa Maria was how safe it was! it may be because i am used to traveling in third world countries, where beach towns are sometimes the worst places for petty crime, but this was nothing like that. i kept expecting to turn down a street and have to turn around, or to babysit my purse instead of heading into the water, but there was no need for that here. not once was i in any questionable situation, even though i was in a completely foreign town. it was really refreshing!
another thing about the town is that there were very few international tourists... it seemed to be more of a vacation destination for spaniards (like lake geneva for many chicagoans). it was very family friendly, but also with plenty to do for people my age.

6/6 - happy birthday mom!
today we spent all day at the beach! (and caitlin is a whole mix of different colors ...some white - where the sunscreen was applied, much RED - where she missed, and some brown - where the freckles have just blended into each other)

then outtt!

7/7 - we had planned on heading to granada today, but apparently the only trains out of cadiz go to madrid, seville, and cordoba.. so cordoba it was then! but the train didnt leave til 530 so we had lunch, went on an ice cream hunt (for as many ice cream stores as there are in the town, none of them were open during the middle of the day at the peak of the heat...) until we finally had to settle for ben and jerrys (american, but delicious!), and then we headed to the station a couple hours early (we had already checked out of the hostel and didnt have many other options).

at the train station, we were entertained for literally two hours by a series of events i cannot even explain. words will not do it justice.. i will post pictures when i can. but essentially, there was one very large, very unattractive, very neon-clad, very close-talking, mullet-sporting guy that kept harrassing people and asking for money (including us). and every ten minutes or so this old man would march inside waving a cane and screaming at this boy to leave everybody alone. he would sit down on a bench for a couple minutes until the man left, and then start again. this went on the whole time, one time the old man almost hit him with the cane! hahahahahahaha.
and a couple times he squeezed through the turnstile with another passanger and made it out to the platform. then the old man would come running and the boy was dragged back outside! haha but other than the old man everybody was oddly low-key about the whole situation, laughing at him, and not threatening to call cops or arrest him or even kick him off the property all-together. soo odddd. like, was this just a big skit? are we on candid camera right now? hahahaha i cant explain how funny this all was, especially for caitlin who couldnt even understand what was being yelled.

on to cordoba!
our hostel was arabic themed, but we spent very little time there. when we arrived we threw our bags down and went out for tapas, the best tapas we had the whole trip! so good. and there had been no vegetarian food in cadiz, so i had been craving the grilled veggies that i was finally able to order.

ok now i need a break from the computer... i hope to get up to date in the next couple of days.

cheers! (or greets! as my german friend keeps saying)

sorry!

sorry about the abrupt halt in posting... i have not had sufficient internet access for a while. i fly from madrid to berlin today and should have access at my next hostel... updates to come!

sevilla!

yesterday we woke up late ....noon. we had missed our 11 oclock check out, and breakfast. they were not too happy.

then we headed to the train station and boarded a 3oclock train to seville.

seville, we quickly learned, is the hottest city in madrid. when we got off the train, it was roughly 104 degrees. damn...

our hostel, el nuevo suizo, is right in the heart of the city. it is a really old building with a lot of character. the only downside is that we were sharing a room with 8 other people....without air conditioning.. bummer.
but the roomies were really nice, a few from north carolina, the rest european.

we walked around for a few hours exploring. caitlin's feet were destroyed by that point, and she was determined to buy some new shoes. fortunately, 95% of spain's blocks are occupied by shoe stores (seriously, its really odd..).
then we had our afternoon jarra of sangria.

at night we went to a packed flamenco club and got our first taste of the intensely emotional spanish dance, and an interesting drink called the Agua de Sevilla...

sleeping was rough in the heat, but bearable.

today we are going to the flamenco museum and to the bullfighting arena!

today

so we were able to book an extra day in madrid!

woke up - hip still hurting a lot.
prado - goya - hip doing wayyy better.
plaza de santa ana - we had some sangria... we reaalllly enjoy the plazas.
teleferico! we did the teleferico up to a cool park. very peaceful. a good rest.
casa luz.. we visited keelin´s favorite spot. good food and cold drink. they knew who keelin was and his friends, and david comp´ed most of our food. good call!
back to hostel for a nap
outtttttt.

july

7/1:

i woke up this morning and booked my flight to berlin! 11:30 am, july 10th, madrid to berlin! hoozah! kinda expensive, not the best airline, but a plan! cant wait! berlin will be amazing.

anyway, after that i woke caitlin up for breakfast. then we got dressed and walked to the prado. unfortunately she was suffering from some jetlag, dehydration, and bad orange juice (for breakfast) so we never actually made it inside. she was actually pretty sick, so we found some shade and chilled for an hour or so... and then decided we might as well head back to the hostel. she could sleep for a few hours and i could do my own thing.

i walked down towards gran via and chueca, and discovered that madrid´s gay pride festival was begining tonight! there were people everywhere, and bars, and kegs being filled, and taps being set up, and stages and decorations! having been sad about missing the gay pride parade in chicago this past sunday, i was really happy to find a madrileno substitute!

i went back and woke cait up, but she was still tired. i worked out for an hour and a half and woke her up again. i was eager to show her the places i had discovered. we walked towards puerta del sol (which was packed by that point, beacause of the festival) and we shared a jarra of sangria at plaza mayor. afterwards we had some tapas and headed back.

we were planning on going out but i am having some major problems with my hip (in addition to my ever-present knee problems...damnit why am i a 72 year old grandma. seriously...). it started bothering me in lisbon on saturday, and i ignored it. now it is really bad... seems to be not in the right place. so i am not going out and hoping that tomorrow it will be better. we are hoping to switch our hostel reservation in seville so we can spend an extra day here and do all the things we had planned on doing today...we´ll see..

okok goodnight.

coincidences, and caitlin!

6/30: so i boarded my train last night and found my "room". there were two canadian girls already in there, sarah and sabrina. turns out they were pretty awesome, and we had a lot in common, including musical tastes. sarah had just graduated from queens, and sabrina had graduated a year ago and had been working and living in barcelona for a year. AND we were staying in the same hostel in madrid! crazy, eh?
then our fourth roommate came in. she was a bit older but very friendly. she was brazilian and had recently moved to madrid (and was still struggling with the spanish). she didn´t speak any english but sabrina and i are pretty fluent in spanish so we were able to communicate just fine. she was really sweet and invited us to hang out by the pool at her house in madrid! she said her 26 year old son would love to hang out and show us around (oh would he??) she gave us her address and phone number - we may just have to take her up on the offer!
then she was talking about how on the way to lisbon (she had gone for the weekend for a convention) she was stuck in a seat and how cold it had been. after i started making the same complaints, we both did a double take and realized that we had been sitting right next to each other on our trip from madrid to lisbon! weirdddd. too bad we hadn´t talked more on that trip (i had assumed she only spoke portuguese and she had assumed i only spoke english).
after a surprisingly great night sleep (there is something peaceful about the rhythmic sound of a train), we woke up in madrid. i went to the hostel with sarah and sabrina to check in. we dropped off our bags and went out for coffee and then to retiro park, the largest park in madrid. we hung out by the lake for a few hours until it was time for me to go meet caitlin at the airport.

at the airport i ended up having to wait for nearly two hours because the flight was delayed a bit and caitlin had had some issues with her bag (which was so big, it made my mom´s bag look tiny! and she was only there 10 days! oooh caitlin). then we went back to the hostel, showered, and went out for tapas and sangria.
caitlin was really jetlagged so we came back early, did some more trip planning, and now off to bed!

ps. caitlin´s arrival also meant the arrival of my debit card! i had made it the whole time with very limited cash! i will have to go out for a nice dinner this week!