madrid

people have had mixed reviews about madrid but i can tell you that i loved this city!  from a tourist perspective, there isn't a whole lot except for the usual museum/palace/cathedral, but i just loved wandering around and getting lost.  it's the second largest city in spain, therefore huge, but it didn't feel that way to me.  


i got to my hostel incredibly early in the morning and for some reason decided it would be a good idea to do the walking tour that started at 10:30.  HORRIBLE IDEA.  it went on for 3.5 hours (the longest walking tour i've done to date), the scottish guide talked like he was a tv show host for the ENTIRE TIME and it was hot.  not seville hot, but hotter than the other cities i've been to so far.

churros con chocolate...awesome drunk food :)

one awesome thing about madrid is that most of it's major attractions have free entry after a certain time.  since i enjoyed the picasso museum so much, i wanted to check out the reina sofia where guernica is.  i took a little siesta then headed over at 7 when it was free.  the reina sofia is a modern art museum which is neat...but huge and overwhelming...like most art museums if you ask me.  after getting in and checking out some rooms, patrick and i headed to guernica and gawked at it for a while before calling it quits because we had had enough after 1.5 hours. haha.  patrick is a friend of chris' who i met in valencia.  he happened to be in my walking tour and after speaking for a bit, we realized we had a degree of separation.  small world, huh?


i went to the prado the next day when it was free after 6 and holy shit that place is a maze and a half.  the prado has classical art and houses work by goya and valesquez (spain's well known artists) so the crowd here is larger than the reina sofia.  the prado also had at least 75 ROOMS of paintings.  i got so lost in there and after about 1.5 hours, i was out.  i swear everywhere i turned i saw yet another jesus in pain painting.  i will say that valesquez's las medinas painting (some people say it's the most impressive painting...ever...) was cool to look at.  i just don't think i know how to appreciate art.


before heading to the prado, i wandered around on my own checking out the royal palace (it was ok...they tried to compare it to versailles...i laugh in their face).  then made my way to the san miguel market which was awesome!  i was such a happy little kid walking around and trying out all kinds of foods.  i got a few seafood/bruschetta type things from the casa de bacalao and then also grabbed a tapas portion of paella.  everything in that market looked so good that i went back the next day with some girls!  this time i gave gazpacho a try and it was so good!  when it's as hot as it is there, you don't want hot soup.

after hitting up the market with the girls on wed, we walked around and found my fav chain in spain, cervecerias 100 montaditos!!  it is pretty much a little sandwich shop (i really mean little...think sandwich sliders...you need at least 3 or 4 to get full) with salads and cheap beer and tinto de verano.  this place has a soft spot in my heart.  we went a few times in seville and on wednesdays, everything is 1 euro with the exception of salads and tinto de verano (2 euros).  since it was my last wed in spain, we made a stop and had some tinto de veranos before moving on.  oh how i will miss you!

my guidebook also sold me on what was arguably madrid's best ice cream so obbbbviously i had to go check it out before i peaced out.  i really enjoyed it.  it was definitely the most expensive ice cream i've paid for, but worth every penny.  i had the dulce de leche which was pretty much pure caramel and then marscapone with fruit.  yeah...it was a lot of ice cream and i ate it all.  not that you expected any less.

i had the best time in madrid meeting tons of great people from my hostel and just touring the city at a leisurely pace.  it's bad but siestas are becoming part of the daily routine.  i will definitely miss that about this country.  what i won't miss is the spanish.  i've been able to survive off key phrases, but it's funny because even when you tell the people you don't speak spanish, and you give them the most confused look possible, they still continue to the verbal assault on you as if it will click if they talk at you long enough.  yeah right.  that is definitely one thing that i am really looking forward to in morocco...french!!! 

barcelona

this is actually my second time in barcelona, but i was equally as excited to come again.  the first time i came when i was studying in france with a few lovely ladies during our toussaint holiday.  pert and i arrived super early in the morning (thank you night buses) and checked into our hostel before yet again, ditching our stuff to walk around.  there were a few people that were also in barcelona the same time as us that we had met during our travels so we planned to meet up.  however, as i've come to learn, not having a cell phone really makes things quite difficult.  we wandered around for a bit before returning to our hostel when we magically ran into chris!  we had met chris in seville and apparently he told us he'd be at our hostel at noon...i had no clue.

it was actually chris' last day and he hadn't seen parc guell yet so we headed up there with him.  one thing you should know is that barcelona is filled with antoni gaudi goodness. gaudi is one of the well-known architects from barcelona who had very whimsicle and grandiose buildings throughout thecity.  parc guell is an example of this.  it was supposed to be a rich housing community but since it wasn't affordable, the city then turned it into a public park instead.  i really enjoy his work so i had a great time wandering around.  the park is also higher up so it had some great views of the city.  you can see all the way to the ocean.

while we are on the topic of gaudi, we did a free gaudi walking tour which was really awesome.  we walked around to his different buildings and learned more about them.  basically what you need to understand is that he befriended guell who was his financier and friend who paid for majority of this extravagant buildings and eventually went bankrupt...i'll let you put two and two together.  anyway, we walked along to casa batllo and la pedrera before finally stopping at the sagrada familia.  

casa batllo

la pedrera

the sagrada familia is a basilica that has been in construction for over 120 years...and still has 30 to go...they estimate.  it is insane!  gaudi realized that this would not be completed in his lifetime so he left blueprints and drawings for future architects to finish his work.  the church is just amazing.  the structure is large and there is so much detail everywhere.  there are multiple facades around the church that tell the story of mary and jesus' life, etc.  the inside of the church was finally completed this last november so it was great to go in and take it all in.  gaudi was very inspired by nature (hence all the curvy lines in his architecture) and the inside of the church is no different.  you really do feel like you're in a forest when you're in there!  i really hope that this church is completed in my lifetime because i would love to come back and see the finished product.

we also spent a fair amount of time at the beach here.  the beach in barcelona is man made from when the olympics took place in barcelona.  they were very smart to do this because it definitely helps boost their tourism.  the beach is small and jam packed full of tourists and people yelling 'cerveza, beer, agua, cola' every ten seconds.


on our last day, we went to the picasso museum and took advantage of the free entry with it being the first sunday of the month.  thank you guidebook!  i really enjoyed this museum.  it laid out his artwork chronologically which was great because you could see how his art changed and came to be.  as a younger artist, picasso painted very realistic images while in school and gradually shifted to cubism.  this is what happens when you force a child to paint a certain way from a young age...let this be a lesson! haha.  one fact that you may or may not know is that picasso, is actually pablo's mother's maiden name.  pablo's father's last name was actually ruiz.  for quite some time, picasso signed his paintings pablo ruiz picasso before dropping the ruiz eventually because he was closer to his mother.  *knowledge bomb dropped* 


last but not least, barcelona is also known for its pickpockets!  everywhere we've been people have been warning us left and right about our stuff because there have been so many horror stories of people getting their bags stolen with money/passports/etc.  luckily we did not have any issues, but pert did save the day for an old man!  we passed through the turnstile and was waiting for kim when we saw an old man struggling to go through.  well these two pickpockets who were working together decided to take advantage, but had no clue pert was watching.  one guy tried to distract the old man and help him through the other was behind him trying to reach into his bag.  pert, on the other hand, and on the other side of the gate starts yelling at the guy!  the guy sees pert yelling at him, spits at him (but misses) and then takes off running because at that point the security officers are out with their dogs.  meanwhile, the old man literally has no clue what just happened because he is still trying to make it through the turnstile and had no clue that pert helped him out.  haha.


barcelona has also been bittersweet because it is my last travel destination with pert!  after traveling for two months, we are now going our separate ways.  his friend kim came over and met up with him to travel, and i wanted to make morocco work so we had to say our goodbyes here.  i am headed to madrid on my own and they will make their way in a few days, but at that point i will be headed to morocco!  pert and i had a crazy two months.  it felt like just yesterday we were starting off in vietnam...but that was almost two months ago!  while it was sad to say bye to him, i am also looking forward to traveling on my own.  i haven't actually done so before, so i'm looking forward to the experience!

valencia

welcome to the home of paella. now you know why i came here.  although i gotta tell you, mr. rick (steves) does NOT have any descriptions about valencia in his SPAIN 2011 guidebook which was a big letdown.  i mean, who leaves out the birthplace of paella?  clearly he doesn't have his priorities straight.

pert and i arrived very early in the morning and made our way to the hostel before heading out to explore a little on our own.  we were in a very centrally located part of town which was nice.  we walked to the mercato central which is a market with tons of fresh fruit/veggies/meat for the locals to shop in.  that's the thing i love about their markets here...people actually do their shopping in them.  it's a shame pike place is such a tourist trap back in seattle.  any way, i've noticed that the markets in spain are all very clean which is a nice change from the asian ones.  

our goal for that day was to find good paella for lunch.  not the frozen kind that tourists are often tricked into ordering, but the legit stuff that takes 30 minutes to prepare!  luckily the lady at the tourist information center recommend le riua to us which we walked past earlier that morning and i recommented to pert then that, that looked like a legit place for food. go me!  well, the restaurant didn't open until TWO for lunch (yeah...don't question the spanish), but we held out and had paella valenciana--paella with chicken and rabbit.  the flavors were very simple and clean--i really enjoyed it!

that afternoon we went for a walking tour around the city and met a new friend chris, from denver.  since he had been traveling solo, he hadn't been able to eat paella, so twist our arms, pert, him and i decided to go again for paella that night.  don't judge.  this time we went to a new place and tried the seafood paella which was also very tasty.  you really can't go wrong with paella when you go to legit place!

the next day, we headed to the oceanografic, an aquarium in valencia's bioparc which is essentially a bunch of museums that are housed in futuristic looking buildings.  pert and i rented some bikes and biked along this old riverbed now turned park to make our way there.  the aquarium was a little pricey, but so worth it!  i loved it!  they had a lot of different buildings that broke out the sea life.  my personal favorites were the sharks and arctic.  they had these extremely long tunnels that you could walk under and look at the huge fish swimming above you.  it was awesome.  then in the arctic park, there were two enormous walruses and belugas!! call me a nerd, whatever...i loved every moment.  not to mention they had several souvenir flattened penny machines :)

that afternoon we hit the valencia beach which was very relaxing!  later that evening we returned to the hostel and bumped into anan, a friend we met in seville. gotta love traveling!  it was great seeing him again before taking off that night for...barcelona!

granada

i was especially excited to go to granada because i got to hang out with my friend RJ who i met in egypt a year and a half ago when i went to greece/egypt with cat.  i was stalking him on facebook one day and realized he now lives in granada so we had to have a mini reunion!

it was great seeing RJ again.  he is kind of a big deal.  he owns his own software company with a team he runs...while finishing up his doctorate.  yea.  can you say badass?  he loves granada and chose to live here because of the laid back attitude that everyone has there.  i have to agree.  the granadians (?) had the longest siesta out of every spanish city i've been to so far!  

while in granada, pert and i visited the alhambra, the main attraction in granada.  the alhambra is supposedly the last and greatest moorish palace in the world? europe?  you are supposed to reserve tickets beforehand...it is that big of a deal.  well, we did it the old fashioned way and got up way early and stood in line.  the alhambra is made up of a few parts including the generalife gardens, the alcazabe fort and the nazarine palace.  the gardens were really nice--very green and manicured to perfection. 

we strolled through the for a bit and then headed off to the alcazabe to check out the fort that used to protect the 2,000 people that lived there.  we had to kill time before our 11:30 palace visiting time.  the alcazabe had a lot of towers that we could climb up to get nice views of the city.

then there was the palace.  again, i really dig the moorish architecture so i really enjoyed it.  i also had good ol' rick (steves) guiding me through the place so i could get more out of the experience.  for example, i learned that the phrase, 'only allah is victorious' is repeated 9,000 times throughout the palace.  a bit OCD but whatever works.  i will say that the palace wasn't as large as i thought it would be, but still glad i saw it.

one of the neighborhoods that i really enjoyed in granada was the albyzin neighborhood which is the old moorish quarter.  it had a lot of character with windy cobblestone roads and teterias (tea shops) which we spent some time in.  i had the most fantastic iced black tea with mint, honey and something else i can't remember.  i also had this phyllo pastry with honey and pistachio.  it paired wonderfully with the tea...and the hookah we smoked as well!

later that night, we went to a spanish fair because it was the corpus christi celebration in spain that week.  what is a spanish fair, you ask?  it is our summer county fairs but on steroids.  this thing was HUGE.  tons of food stalls, rides, and then since we're in europe, they had their fair share of discotheque/club tents.  the beats were pumpin.  haha.  unlike our county fairs, this one also stayed open till the wee hours of the morning.  we left at 4:00am and the fair showed no signs of slowing down.  there were still little kids running around then.  i literally don't know how they do it.  while there we did try churros con chocolate (look at me practicing my spanish), which is a popular breakfast item here.  it's not like the churros we are used to.  it's more similar to a chinese doughnut that is dunked in a cup of hot chocolate sauce.  it was delicious (especially at 3:30am) and the churro guy liked us so much he snuck some churros on the house over to our table ;)

the next day, i met up with rj, esmerelda and flora (rj's dutch friends) and we went to lunch and then on an adventure for a river.  rj took me to his favorite paella joint in granada and it was to die for!  we had the paella mixto with seafood and chicken and it was legit.  they were generous with their seafood and the rice was so flavorful.  i definitely ate way to much for my own good that meal.  it was so worth it though!  i'll diet when i get home?

esmerelda was hell bent on finding a river to swim in because it was quite warm in granada so we hopped on a random bus from a recco we got from a traveler and ended up in the town of monachil where we walked 30 minutes down a road to find a river running through town surrounded by concrete walls. wah wah. well we continued wakling and esmerelda charmed some spanish guys along the way so they offered to drive us to a riverbed which would've taken us 45 minutes to walk.  they assured us that the water was 'super fria' but esme claimed it did not matter.  i think they just wanted to see our expressions once we touched the water.  just so you have an idea, this river is made from the melted snow that comes off the sierra nevada mountains.  yea.  we found the riverbed and i stood with my feet in it for about 30 seconds before i started to lose feeling!  esme and flora played in it for a little bit while rj and i watched before our new spanish friends drove us to the bus stop.  andalucians are so nice!  later that night, pert and i said our goodbyes and then headed off to valencia!

buenos dias, espagne!

seville


of all the destinations that pert and i have travelled to during our whirlwind tour of the world, spain is the one country we are spending the longest amount of time in.  why? couldn't tell you.  so i can find the best paella there is? haha. you know me.

the first stop for us was seville.  seville is further down south and literally the hottest city ever!  this is why the spanish have siestas.  it got to about 110 degrees during the day.  you just end up feeling lethargic the entire time therefore you have to nap.  we picked a really good hostel to stay there--the oasis backpacker's palace.  if you are ever in seville, stay there.  it is really new (therefore totally furnished by ikea), really clean and we met a ton of amazing people  there.


we did a walking tour around the city which was nice.  we learned more about the history (they really did not like jews back in the day) and why we should NOT eat the oranges that we see on trees (read: fertilized by drunk guys...you do the math).  


one thing we did in seville was check out a bullfight.  to be honest i didn't really know what to expect.  since it is now outlawed in barcelona, i wanted to check it out before it's illegal everywhere.  i will say that i am glad i got to experience it...but i don't feel the need to ever go again.  it was so sad watching these trained bulls being tortured slowly.  every time the matador turned around to show off to the crowd i was secretly hoping inside that the bull would charge...but no such luck.  and then i had to watch it be repeated six times. yea...no thank you!

i also went to the alcazar, a moorish palace.  it was really cool--i really enjoyed that type of architecture so i was just snapping away at everything, but don't think i adequately captured it on camera.  

one interesting we learned about seville was that many of the monuments/buildings that are in the city were built for the world fair that never happened because of the depression in 1929.  on my last day there, we headed to plaza d'espagne which had a beautiful building that, yep, you guessed it, was built specifically for the fair.  it was just breathtaking.  after seville, we took a night bus and headed to granada!

crete

of all the islands i've been to so far, crete remains my favorite.  it is the largest island but i just love how relaxing and slow the pace is there.  i think it feels less touristy too because there is so much land for people to disperse themselves among.  we got into heraklion and got on a bus headed to chania.  upon arriving, we rented a car (that we later named hercules) and then drove to the hostel.  if you're ever in chania, stay at the niriis hotel just 4km west of the city.  the owner, george, is awesome.  he is super helpful and tells you the best places to go and eat.  not to mention, his brother is a professional basketball player for the greek national team so he has some good stories to tell!

renting hercules was key because the next morning, we drove 2 hours south to my favorite beach in the world, elafonisi!!! cat and i went last time we were here after having it recommended to us by our hostel owner and we had a blast.  i was so excited go to back--so excited that i left my camera on my bed but had 2 extra spare batteries and a memory card.  go me.  pert and rachel were nice enough to take some more pics for me to make up for my idiocy!  even though i knew where we were going and what it would be like, i was still mesmerized once we got there.  it is absolute paradise there!  we stayed for an entire day before heading back to chania.

once returning, we met our new dorm mate jon, from kansas.  we all headed to this vegetarian restaurant in town that was recommended by george which was to die for.  the food was all organic and incredibly tasty.  we showed up with a map that george had drawn for us and that had listed out what special cretan delicacies we needed to try.  after reading off the list, our waitress asked where we were staying and low and behold, she just broke up with georgie boy 5 days ago! haaaaa.  for only knowing her for 5 minutes, it was amazing the amount of information she divulged.  later we helped her deliver a note to george that was taped up in masking tape and written in pink pen.  perhaps it was a take me back note?  we will never know.  

the next day, we headed to balos which is a lagoon that was also another 2 hour drive away.  this was a true test for hercules because we had to drive on a dirt road for a while, but he survived!  did i mention that hercules is a daewoo matiz from the early 90's (we are guessing with no power steering?  yes, all part of his charm.  after arriving in the parking lot, we had another 20 min hike down to the beach.  along the way, we saw a lot of mountain goats which was really kind of random, but whatever floats their boat.  the hike was totally worth it because the view of the lagoon from the top was stunning.  it wasn't quite as 'beachy' as elafonisi, but still a great way to spend our day.  we found a little sand bar and threw up the umbrellas that george let us borrow (see, he's the shit) before camping out for the remainder of the afternoon.  we were the first people there in the morning which was great but more ferries showed up eventually and it was filled with people in a few short hours.

after leaving balos, we booked it back to chania before pulling everything together to leave.  we had a great goodbye dinner with jon and rachel in town eating some seafood before getting dropped off at the airport.  it's been great how many wonderful people we've met along the way.  now i have a couch to stay on in melbourne or kansas city if i ever go!  after flying to milan and spending the night in the airport, pert and i are off to spain!