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...
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
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)
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)
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
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.
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!
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!
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