Entry 6: Barcelona, Spain May 24-25, 2011

We got to Barcelona early in the afternoon on May 24^th and made the trek to Alberguinn, our hostel. The hostel has a laundry room which made both of us extremely happy. We found it quite amusing that the washer and dryer are identical to the ones in UNC’s dorms (they are old school mid 80’s looking/functioning machines). We were joined in our room by an odd collection of people. Nicolas is Dutch and incredibly talkative. He informed us that he hitchhiked to Barcelona and that he routinely does his when traveling across Europe. Needless to say, we plan on sticking with public transportation. The other members of the crew were a random girl that we didn’t get the chance to meet, an old man (in his 60s which really surprised us since it is supposed to be a youth hostel), and 3 teenage boys that seemed to be traveling with the older man. Our first day in Barcelona led us Las Ramblas, the main strip of the city, which had a ton of shops, performers, and people to watch. At the end of the street we stumbled into another large rally for the Spanish social revolution (this one much tamer than the one in Madrid). There was a main speaker with a megaphone and thousands of people sitting, squished together in the plaza. The listeners would throw their hands in the air and shake their hands to show approval (much like spirit fingers or Duke Basketball fans – either way rather embarrassing from our point of view). After exploring for a few hours we decided to go to IceBarcelona (an Ice Bar on the beach) later that night in Barceloneta. They kept it at -11˚C and supplied a winter coat and gloves. The ice area was really cool (haha) and smaller than we expected. The inside had a bar made of ice, ice sculptors, televisions, and ice couches. We met a few French students and some Americans before heading back to our place for the night. Not too surprisingly the older man and his crew were leaving as we were calling it a night at around 4am (after eating Dὂner Kebabs which is pretty much the taco bell of Europe). The next day we rented bikes and explored the city. Our first stop was the Nou Camp which is Barcelona’s soccer stadium. The tradition there is immense and the stadium is the 2^nd largest in Europe holding nearly 100,000 people. After spending two hours at the Camp Nou Experience we went on to see La Sagrada Familia and some of Gaudi’s architecture (Casa Battlό was amazing). Our bad luck with bikes continues as Matt got a flat tire and we had to walk for the last 2 hours of our journey. Barcelona is a great change of pace from the rest of Spain. The Catalan culture/pride is palpable (more than half of the windows have a provincial flag or FC Barcelona memorabilia) and the language is difficult, but interesting, since we have been exposed to Spanish almost exclusively.

 Catalans showing their approval in a rally for the Spanish social revolution

 Entrance to Camp Nou

La Sagrada Familia

Entry 5: Balearic Islands, Spain May 21-24, 2011

We made 3 stops on our tour of the Islands of the Eastern coast of Spain (one very brief). We flew into Pala de Mallorca from Valencia in route to Ibiza. The flights were gorgeous as we were able to see Mallorca, Ibiza, and the Mediterranean. While in Ibiza (Eivissa) we stayed in the town of Ibiza. We spent a while looking like tourists trying to find our hotel (Hotel Central Playa) but did so with the help from a few locals. I think that we were satisfied with the hotel overall as it has a great location, friendly staff, and good amenities. The only real negative that comes to mind was the inconsistency of the air conditioner (wouldn’t work 80% of the time). Matt and I enjoyed having a TV for the first and only, time on the trip and watched the end of Rocky III in Spanish on the first day (which is funny if you can imagine how goofy it looks when Sly speaks in English). The island has a lot to offer and we tried to take advantage of it all in our short 2 ½ day/3 night stay. The beaches were unbelievable. The sand on the majority of them was a stark white and the water was the clearest I’ve ever seen. Ibiza is famous for its night life and it certainly lived up to expectations. We spent the first two nights getting to know some locals and going to Club Pacha. By this time we were beginning to get used to the Spanish lifestyle of eating dinner later and going to bed much later, but leaving Pacha at sunrise was odd (not to mention beautiful). We decided to catch the sunrise before heading to bed and it was well worth staying up the extra 30 minutes or so. The 2^nd day was highlighted by a great meal at a seaside restaurant, short time on the beach, and a return trip to Pacha. The final day was a treat. We took a 45 minute fairy to the island of Formentera in a glass bottom boat for about 20 euro round trip. Ibiza is gorgeous, but Formentera is divine. The atmosphere is much more laid back and there are gorgeous, secluded beaches framed by huge mountains and other tiny islands. We decided to rent bikes while on the island but seemed to have some bad luck with them (this has become a theme on the trip). My chain came off on five separate occasions with two different bikes. We explored the beaches on the island, ate lunch at a beautiful restaurant, and swam in the Mediterranean. Formentera is easily the most scenic spot on our trip to this point. After nearly three days in Ibiza we flew to Barcelona for a Catalan experience.

 View from the plane flying to Ibiza

 Sunrise on Ibizan beach

Beach on Formentera

Entry 4: Valencia, Spain May 20, 2011

We arrived in Valencia after a two hour train ride and hiked to HÔme Youth Hostel. The weather was great hovering at around 21˚ C (we still haven’t figured out the Celsius system still but we know that 20-26˚ is perfect) and sunny. The first thing we noticed on our walked to the hostel was the amazing, antiquated architecture. Everything from the train stations to the statues had an 18^th century feel to it. On our journey we noticed more socio-political signs and banners in a plaza a few blocks away from the hostel and we thought we’d be caught in another rally a mere 12 hours after the aforementioned gathering in Madrid.  After getting HÔme, we took an hour and a half Turisitc bus tour through rustic Valencia (they also have a Maritime route) to get a feel for the historical and cultural context of the city. The tour was a great option as we only have ¾ of a day there and it allowed us to hit 80% of the sights relatively quickly. Matt, however, was apparently very tired and fell asleep a few times on the surprisingly comfortable bus seats. I got a great video of him bobbing up and down for the better part of three minutes. At the end of the tour we got dropped off in Plaza de la Reina we got gelato and wandered around the area for a while spending most of our time window shopping and taking pictures.  We bought a few postcards on the way back to the hostel before dinner. I was particularly excited about dinner because I read on trip advisor that we should got to a Café in Plaza Torres de Quart to watch thousands of bats take flight at dusk (Valencia is notorious for having a huge bat population and the bat developed into a de facto provincial mascot) the base of the at dusk to watch thousands of bats take off for the night. We posted up at Restaurante La pieza de sal in a table under the towers and eagerly awaited the show. To our disappointment, we saw about 75 bats flying sporadically throughout the evening rather than thousands. Apparently it happens randomly and we got unlucky but the rest of the almost everything else seemed to work out well. The food was the delicious. We got  a Spanish version of bacon cheese fries (Spanish cheese and an herb sauce drizzled over the fries and bacon really set it off) before our entrée of Lomo atún de la pimienta. We got back to the hostel and almost immediately left to wander the city with a few other hostels. We really hit it off with some guys that were graduating from Med school at Oklahoma, a guy from a small town in Bavaria there by himself on holiday (upper twenties, a girl from New Jersey, and four Germans that were studying in Valencia. Good company made for a good night before we ultimately got back to our hostel before our flight  to Ibiza, Spain.

 Plaza we saw upon leaving the train station

Spanish countryside on the way to Valencia

Post 3: Madrid (Round 1)

Entry 3: Madrid Round 1 May 24 

Hola a todo! We only had a day in Madrid this time around due the aforementioned delays but we experienced a lot in our short time in the Spanish capital. We touched down in Madrid 14:30 (we’ve had to adopt military time) in the afternoon after a short layover in Zurich. Upon arrival, Matt and I dropped our bags at La Posada de Huertas (International Youth Hostel) and sought to see a couple of the sights that did not have any entry fee/closing time since it was getting late in the afternoon at this point. Our journey began with looking at the outside of el Museo Nacional del Prado. The nation’s most important art history landmark features a gorgeous exterior with statues of Goya and a number of Greek deities. We plan on making it inside during our second stay in the city and hope that Goya, Velázquez, El Greco, and Co.’s art lives up to the standard the museum’s architecture foreshadows. Next up, we walked through el Real Jardín Botanico (Royal Botanical Garden) for some floral pleasure. The garden features vegetation from all over the globe and was well worth the €3 entry fee.  From the botanical garden we walked through Parque de Retiro which was gorgeous, but slightly less than we expected. We went on a Thursday and apparently it only gets really crowded on the weekends.  Then we made our way to the Plaza de Cibeles and Puerta del Sol. The Plaza has a fountain of Athena in the middle and is surrounded by Banco de España and the Palacio Cibeles. Puerta del Sol is a huge quad that has small shops, cafés, restaurants, and some lodging. Our experience was rather unusual because there upon entering we saw thousands of people chanting and protesting “peacefully”. Matt’s sister said that she saw the rally on CNN the next day. Apparently there is a nationwide Spanish social revolution lead by college students. After joining the chanting for a short stint (didn’t want to look too much like tourists) we made our way back towards La Posada de Huertas Youth Hostel in hopes of finding a bite to eat. We found ourselves at a hole in the wall tapas bar called España Cañí for a Spanish staple, Tapas. They were delicious but they merely served as an appetizer for the more substantial meal we got beside our hostel some thirty minutes later. After dinner, around 10pm (the Spanish typically don’t begin dinner until 9pm at the earliest), we got ready to go to a famous discoteca in Madrid called Kapital. Kapital has 7 dance floors and a rooftop terrace. The largest surprise of visit to the discoteca was a huge fog cannon that immersed the dance floor with chilled fog sporadically. We left Kapital for our hostel around 5am where we slept next to an overzealous Kazak and a shy Indianan (that was studying abroad and very depressed about leaving) for the States the next day. We then took a train to Valencia the next morning after about 3 hours of sleep.

The ticket with the garden in the background

 

Video of the gathering at Puerta del Sol

Post 2: Getting there…kinda!

Where to begin?! To put it mildly, getting to Madrid was an ordeal. First, our flight from PTI was delayed due to thunderstorms in the Washington D.C. resulting in our spending 2 ½ hours on the tarmac. Air Traffic Control kindly updated us of our situation every 45 minutes which allowed for a relaxing and convenient wait (rolls eyes). Then, after deboarding the plane for about an hour we got the green light to head to D.C. The ground delay in D.C. meant that there was still a slim chance that we’d make our connecting, direct flight to Madrid. So after we arrived to Dulles Airport we realized that our flight was still on the tarmac but away from the gate. In short, we were screwed! Things only got more frustrating from there. Matt got in line at United’s customer service desk with the hundreds of others who missed their flights while I ran around trying to determine if there was still the possibility of departing that night for Europe (there wasn’t but shout out to the wonderful Ellen Lindh who braved the storm with us, literally and figuratively). We were downgraded to a flight connecting through Zurich, Switzerland which was scheduled to ultimately arrive in Madrid a day and a half after our original flight. United then informed us that they were unwilling to comp a hotel room for us because the delay was weather related. We contacted everyone we knew in D.C. so that we wouldn’t have to sleep in the airport and Matt’s friend, Ashley Casteel, picked us up from the airport, let us stay at her place for the night, and drove us back the next afternoon. As if we didn’t have enough getting in the way of our departure, United didn’t get our luggage to us for 5 HOURS. We sat in baggage claim until midnight. After we’d asked them several times in the 5 hours we were waiting because after we got them to radio down they “must have just not sent it up” according to the apathetic lady working at the baggage claim desk. Then, the next day, our flight to Zurich left over an hour and a half after the scheduled departure time. We spent that hour and a half sitting on the tarmac and were left ignorant as to the cause of the delay for most of the first hour. Needless to say United Airlines (and all affiliates) were added to our “No Fly List”. Well, in other news, we finally made it to Madrid where we will spend our first day before heading to Valencia.

 Finally got our bags

The sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean

Post 1: Hello, all!

"...the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing though is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it."

                                                                                                       -Johnny Depp

We decided to set up a blog so that our friends and family can keep up with us during our month-long excursion through Europe while trying to make our own history. Our plan: 9 countries in 1 month beginning, and ending, in Madrid, Spain. We'll do our best to keep the blog up to date and we'd love to hear from you all along the way! Two days until take off and tres días hasta llegamos en España.