Oh my goodness. Any of you who are working out on the stairmaster just need to move to Marseilles. Stairs in the metro station, stairs in the hostel, stairs up to the church on the top of the hill, stairs from the docks ... just stairs everywhere. The ones to the top of the hill above the city where Notre Dame de la Garda is were the worst. It seemed as if they would never end. The church is incredible, totally worth the climb... or if you'd rather take the bus you do have that option as well... I just didn't want to figure out the bus schedule. I do recommend having good knees if you're going to climb all those stairs... I don't have good knees, so it was interesting to say the least. But as my sister said, makes the butt look good!
We only spent one day in Marseilles - so we spent 2 nights there. It was a nice city, pretty easy to get around and yes, I found Edmond Dantes - he was a boat, but I found him! We found a pretty decent place for food and the waiters there were very nice, even though we do not speak French. And no, it was not a French restaurant because those were pretty expensive... we ended up at an Italian place and shared the pizza there. The most awesome thing? Instead of giving us crushed red pepper like they do back home, they give you a bottle of olive oil with little whole red peppers in it. So you just put the oil over the pizza and wa lah - spicy goodness on the pizza. Heaven! The more I listened to French, though, the more I thought it would be nice to learn it. I thought the announcer on the train was trying to seduce me until I realized that's just the way French sounds. Before I left, one of my friends used to text me in French and I can assure you, it looks just as good as it sounds. I'll most likely try to learn German, though - I have a friend who is German and it would be kind of fun to talk to her in her language instead of me being lazy and always using mine. One thing about it, being an English speaker means that I can be a whole lot more lazy than I have any right to be!
So we spent our day in Marseilles climbing stairs, then trying to avoid stairs... we failed, but that's ok. We survived. And I was kind of pathetically happy when a French guy smiled at me... at least, he could be French... a really tan French... anyway, he was CUTE! And he smiled at me... so yay! Our first experience with the French was a good one. We then went on to see about experiencing Italians... but that's for another post! :)
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Barcelona! Why do we always end up bass-akwards?
Sooo, as you probably already know, we lost a day in Barcelona due to a swollen ankle and rain. When we did get out, we took the free tour of the Gothic quarter (no, not a lot of teenagers in black with spikes and painted faces, Gothic architecture) which was really interesting. We saw some of the ruins from when the Romans founded the city, stood on the highest hill in old Barcelona (16.9 meters high... easiest hill we've climbed yet!) and had some... interesting... food at a hole-in-the-wall diner. I ended up having rice with a shrimp who was all there, head, feelers, legs, exoskeleton, as well as squid, an oyster and pork. For the main dish it was fish in some kind of great sauce and fries. Good food, but you shoulda seen me ripping that shrimp up! We then took a walk down by the beach and saw the Mediterranean Sea for the first time - it was so pretty. We tried getting pics of the surfers, but no luck. On the way back to the hostel, we went past some guys who were break dancing in a square, so we stopped and I got a video of them... pretty amazing what those guys could do!
Day 2 of touring we had to go back to the train station to figure out how we were getting to Marsielles and then we were going to take another tour, but got caught up in shopping (I got people stuffs... he he he) and looking for protein for Ana. We decided that we would go to Park Guell (the park that was designed by Gaudi). Well, we found the metro station just fine, then tried to follow the signs and ended up on the wrong hill (we found that out by asking the guy at the pharmacy for directions) ended up going down the hill we were on and up the next hill, finally found a sign and started into the park... about halfway up we were both wondering what the hell was so special about that park because it seemed just like any other park. Come to find out, we went up the back way. A lot of climbing and nothing really special on that side because it was the side that faced the hill we were on. As we worked our way to the front of the park, the view became extraordinary - all of Barcelona spread out in front of you with the Mediterranean in the distance. We found the hill with the 3 crosses on it that I'm calling Calvary, as well as the front of the park. The front of the park is a LOT more awesome than the back of the park.... just so's you know. So my best advice... google maps the directions, don't trust your map!
So Barcelona was fun, we walked a lot as usual and after my ankle got back to it's normal size and my boots dried, life was again happy. We had to leave mega-early to get on the train to come to Marseilles .. and the train stopped in the middle of nowhere station and we were told (in Spanish) that there would be a 1-4 hour delay because of some problem with the tracks up ahead. One of the ladies that was sitting there said something along the lines of "It's Spain, what do you expect?" So Ana and I pulled out our cards and played a few games until we left. We were a little behind in getting to Marseilles, but we got here and that's the important thing.
So my advice for any of you who decide to quit your jobs and come backpacking through Europe... bring at least 3 pairs of shoes... one pair of hiking boots, one pair of shower shoes and one pair of sneakers. Also make sure your hiking boots are 100% waterproof and if it's raining, try not to be out in it ALL day. If you have to leave somewhere and your stuff is still wet, feel free to dry it on the train when the train has an over-active heater. You will thank me when your clothes don't smell like mildew. Use the hostel's laundry services if they have them and bring things that can be dried in the dryer. Waiting for my comfy pants to dry kinda sucks a bit... but I wouldn't give them up, either. They've been a life-saver on some of these trains, believe me. Also, the Eurail pass is totally worth it. We would have been screwed without it.
Random thought - as we experience so many different showers in the hostels, I find myself designing the dream shower of my someday-house. He he he - cuz water pressure and good water heaters are MUY IMPORTANTE!
Much love from the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, Mandi
Day 2 of touring we had to go back to the train station to figure out how we were getting to Marsielles and then we were going to take another tour, but got caught up in shopping (I got people stuffs... he he he) and looking for protein for Ana. We decided that we would go to Park Guell (the park that was designed by Gaudi). Well, we found the metro station just fine, then tried to follow the signs and ended up on the wrong hill (we found that out by asking the guy at the pharmacy for directions) ended up going down the hill we were on and up the next hill, finally found a sign and started into the park... about halfway up we were both wondering what the hell was so special about that park because it seemed just like any other park. Come to find out, we went up the back way. A lot of climbing and nothing really special on that side because it was the side that faced the hill we were on. As we worked our way to the front of the park, the view became extraordinary - all of Barcelona spread out in front of you with the Mediterranean in the distance. We found the hill with the 3 crosses on it that I'm calling Calvary, as well as the front of the park. The front of the park is a LOT more awesome than the back of the park.... just so's you know. So my best advice... google maps the directions, don't trust your map!
So Barcelona was fun, we walked a lot as usual and after my ankle got back to it's normal size and my boots dried, life was again happy. We had to leave mega-early to get on the train to come to Marseilles .. and the train stopped in the middle of nowhere station and we were told (in Spanish) that there would be a 1-4 hour delay because of some problem with the tracks up ahead. One of the ladies that was sitting there said something along the lines of "It's Spain, what do you expect?" So Ana and I pulled out our cards and played a few games until we left. We were a little behind in getting to Marseilles, but we got here and that's the important thing.
So my advice for any of you who decide to quit your jobs and come backpacking through Europe... bring at least 3 pairs of shoes... one pair of hiking boots, one pair of shower shoes and one pair of sneakers. Also make sure your hiking boots are 100% waterproof and if it's raining, try not to be out in it ALL day. If you have to leave somewhere and your stuff is still wet, feel free to dry it on the train when the train has an over-active heater. You will thank me when your clothes don't smell like mildew. Use the hostel's laundry services if they have them and bring things that can be dried in the dryer. Waiting for my comfy pants to dry kinda sucks a bit... but I wouldn't give them up, either. They've been a life-saver on some of these trains, believe me. Also, the Eurail pass is totally worth it. We would have been screwed without it.
Random thought - as we experience so many different showers in the hostels, I find myself designing the dream shower of my someday-house. He he he - cuz water pressure and good water heaters are MUY IMPORTANTE!
Much love from the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, Mandi
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Portugal - Lisbon and Fatima
Ahhhh, figuring out bus/metro/train stations in another language, finding out that Ana is not a fan of the Portuguese language and wondering what did people do before Google maps (seriously, how did anyone get around without what I'm calling the 'cheat codes'?). Lisbon is a pretty big city, it has 3 train stations and the one that we first came in on did not have ANY signs to assure us that we were, in fact, in Lisbon, much less which station we had arrived at. Now, we came in on a night train and didn't have a sleeper cabin, we just slept sitting up, so we weren't exactly on our 'A' game when we were trying to find bus 28... 28.... bus #28 DOES NOT EXIST! The bus # is actually 728. We figured that one out when we found the bus stop and looked at all the stops the bus had and found the one that we needed. So we get on the bus, and the stops are not clearly marked, so we missed our stop, got off at the next one, walked back to where we were supposed to be and found the hostel.
We go into the hostel and meet Fabio - a very nice guy who lets us check in about 4-5 hours earlier than the actual check in time. In my opinion, this hostel has been the most fun one so far, because of the longer-term guys who have been staying there, Antonio - a 56 year old Spaniard and Fabrizio - a 44 year old Canadian / Italian - and Pedro - from Pourtugal but living in Switzerland and seemed to be there for work. My favorite quote from Antonio is "My Dr, he say that I have to stop smoking, I have to stop drinking so what I do? I find a new Dr." Masira was from The Netherlands and was a really, really good cook, so we were very well fed for a couple dinners there. He he - we had 2 parties at the hostel, one where I got WAY too drunk and poor Ana had to deal with a hung over Mandi the next day - I lost our locker key that night on a walk to the river... no clue where it went, had to pay for it when I checked out... cest la vie - and another where I just stayed up too late. The second party was funny because Pedro kept on asking me if I wanted more wine, which I didn't but saying no didn't help, my glass kept on getting magically refilled. It was also funny that at the hostel you could get a water pipe and sheesha to smoke while you were there - a couple of people from the party got one and brought it to the kitchen when they were going to bed so we got to smoke some pretty good mint sheesha (it's a kind of tabacco). When we left, Ana made some chicken and fideo which was good, as always, and we asked the guys if they liked it hot, they said yes, so she made it spicy and then when we were eating, I swear, they were sweating. It was hilarious! So remember, when a Mexican asks you if you like it spicy think about your answer!
We had an adventure in eating while we were in Lisbon - we were looking for an Indian place, instead we found a Portuguese place - very small, full of local little old men watching the football match. The waiter spoke no English and understood a bit of Spanish. He ended up bringing us 2 plates full of chicken, beef, pork, tripe, pig knuckles, rice, potatoes, beans and carrots. We ate what we could, then found out that it was the special of the day, so we could also have chicken soup and dessert - all of that for both of us was 15 euros. Neither of us could fit anymore in our stummies, so instead we went to the store and bought stuff to make sammiches for later. We tried eating out one other time, this time to a place that had the menu in Portuguese, Spanish and English - I had the pork loin and sweet potatoes with sesame seeds - OMG it was sooo good. Ana had the codfish on toast with greens and tomatoes - also good and more typical Portuguese. When we first got there, they brought out bread, unsalted butter, olive paste and olive oil - OMG, I thought that I had died and gone to culinary Heaven. It tasted so, sooo good. Now we have decided that we will go to a wine, cheese and olive oil tasting while we are in Italy. I don't know what they do to the food here, but it is so good.
We did the tour and we were the only ones who showed up, so it was a little awkward come time to tip the man - they say that there are 7 hills in Lisbon, well they are friggin' steep hills!! He did tell us that the "Golden Gate Bridge" in Lisbon is not a copy of the one in San Francisco, it was just built by the same guy so it looks very similar. However, the Jesus statue that looks like the one in Rio de Janiero is a copy. Some guy went to Rio and liked the statue, wanted to build one in Lisbon and how did he raise the money? He went to the women and said "the Lord kept us out of WW2, kept your sons and husbands from dying so you should donate to the building of this statue to thank Him." It worked - we have a lot of pix of the statue. He also told us that they celebrate the feast of St. Anthony in Lisbon, it's a big deal because he was from there - the celebration is the end of May / beginning of June and they decorate the streets for it - the decorations were still up (in Jan). Made me laugh because my old roomie and I had our Christmas tree up for about 2 years... and I never knew I was Portuguese before! He he. Also, we found out that the Portuguese language (along with French) is the closest to the original Latin, but with a few thousand words that have their roots in Arabic, so that's why a Portuguese person understands Spanish but a Spanish speaking person doesn't understand Portuguese.
We also took a day trip to Fatiima, which personally I think should count toward some time off from Purgatory considering how it ended up. First, we got on the train because per the train info, you could take it to Fatima. On the train, the conductor guy comes by and asks us about our reservation... we didn't have one, nothing told us that we needed one... so he takes our rail pass, comes back and says 5 euros each for the reservation. Fine, we can do that, pay and sit and he comes by to tell me when it's our stop... the train stops at the middle of nowhere, we get off the train and I figure, "ok, we'll have to take a bus." Wait for the bus, bus gets there, we pay to go to Fatima. We get to Fatima and it's raining. I didn't bring my umbrella, but Ana brought hers and she has a hood, so she lets me use her umbrella. We find a hotel and ask where the basilica is - the lady is really nice, gives us a map, shows us how to get there. Great. We find the place. I know nothing about what the buildings are, I just know that I wanted to go to Fatima. We go up to the basilica and they are having Mass, so we wait for them to finish and have lunch while waiting (we brought sammiches). We go into the basilica and take some pictures, but it's kind of loud and echo-y so we go to the chapel where the apparitions actually took place (google it if you don't know what I'm talking about). They are praying a rosary in Portuguese there, so we sit and pray a bit. Then after the rosary they have Mass, so we stay for that too. After Mass I stayed for a bit and Ana went to find somewhere warm and dry. We met up later, she hadn't had any luck - we went shopping for a couple things for my family members (I gotcha something) and then we went for coffee. At this moment, our feet are still dry, although our pants are soaked from the bottom of our jackets to the ground. Somewhere from the coffee shop to the bus station, our feet get soaked. We take the bus all the way back to Lisbon because I thought it would make more sense than trying to figure out where we got off the train. We get back to Lisbon and... we have no idea where we are. There are more than one bus station for Lisbon. We end up taking the metro to get back to the train station that we originally came from, bought the reservations to leave the next day on another night train to Madrid and then the train to Barcelona, took the bus back to the hostel and didn't leave again. I would like to go back to Fatima some day, and will remember to check the weather first! It was really pretty, just really wet too. And the sun never came out the next day, so we had to hang our wet things in a bathroom that wasn't being used until it was time for us to leave. Sigh. Nothing was dry, so guess what the mission was in Barcelona... you guessed it - LAUNDRY! Ick. I also had to wear my flip flops since my boots were soaked, so now I have a very nice ankle the size of a basketball. Hence the reason why the blog is getting updated so soon! Hopefully my boots will be dry by tomorrow and my ankle will be the right size so that we can go see the Mediterranean sea! I've always wanted to see the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean seas!!
So all in all, it's been good. Just need to start remembering to check the weather (but does anyone ever really trust the weatherman? o_0). It was fun having a couple parties with people - reminded me of the groups I used to get into trouble with... K-mart crew, college peeps, the guys from OD and Pariah (especially when they brought out the hookah - oh my, oh my), my TX crazies... well I ain't never had too much fun! ; )
We had an adventure in eating while we were in Lisbon - we were looking for an Indian place, instead we found a Portuguese place - very small, full of local little old men watching the football match. The waiter spoke no English and understood a bit of Spanish. He ended up bringing us 2 plates full of chicken, beef, pork, tripe, pig knuckles, rice, potatoes, beans and carrots. We ate what we could, then found out that it was the special of the day, so we could also have chicken soup and dessert - all of that for both of us was 15 euros. Neither of us could fit anymore in our stummies, so instead we went to the store and bought stuff to make sammiches for later. We tried eating out one other time, this time to a place that had the menu in Portuguese, Spanish and English - I had the pork loin and sweet potatoes with sesame seeds - OMG it was sooo good. Ana had the codfish on toast with greens and tomatoes - also good and more typical Portuguese. When we first got there, they brought out bread, unsalted butter, olive paste and olive oil - OMG, I thought that I had died and gone to culinary Heaven. It tasted so, sooo good. Now we have decided that we will go to a wine, cheese and olive oil tasting while we are in Italy. I don't know what they do to the food here, but it is so good.
We did the tour and we were the only ones who showed up, so it was a little awkward come time to tip the man - they say that there are 7 hills in Lisbon, well they are friggin' steep hills!! He did tell us that the "Golden Gate Bridge" in Lisbon is not a copy of the one in San Francisco, it was just built by the same guy so it looks very similar. However, the Jesus statue that looks like the one in Rio de Janiero is a copy. Some guy went to Rio and liked the statue, wanted to build one in Lisbon and how did he raise the money? He went to the women and said "the Lord kept us out of WW2, kept your sons and husbands from dying so you should donate to the building of this statue to thank Him." It worked - we have a lot of pix of the statue. He also told us that they celebrate the feast of St. Anthony in Lisbon, it's a big deal because he was from there - the celebration is the end of May / beginning of June and they decorate the streets for it - the decorations were still up (in Jan). Made me laugh because my old roomie and I had our Christmas tree up for about 2 years... and I never knew I was Portuguese before! He he. Also, we found out that the Portuguese language (along with French) is the closest to the original Latin, but with a few thousand words that have their roots in Arabic, so that's why a Portuguese person understands Spanish but a Spanish speaking person doesn't understand Portuguese.
We also took a day trip to Fatiima, which personally I think should count toward some time off from Purgatory considering how it ended up. First, we got on the train because per the train info, you could take it to Fatima. On the train, the conductor guy comes by and asks us about our reservation... we didn't have one, nothing told us that we needed one... so he takes our rail pass, comes back and says 5 euros each for the reservation. Fine, we can do that, pay and sit and he comes by to tell me when it's our stop... the train stops at the middle of nowhere, we get off the train and I figure, "ok, we'll have to take a bus." Wait for the bus, bus gets there, we pay to go to Fatima. We get to Fatima and it's raining. I didn't bring my umbrella, but Ana brought hers and she has a hood, so she lets me use her umbrella. We find a hotel and ask where the basilica is - the lady is really nice, gives us a map, shows us how to get there. Great. We find the place. I know nothing about what the buildings are, I just know that I wanted to go to Fatima. We go up to the basilica and they are having Mass, so we wait for them to finish and have lunch while waiting (we brought sammiches). We go into the basilica and take some pictures, but it's kind of loud and echo-y so we go to the chapel where the apparitions actually took place (google it if you don't know what I'm talking about). They are praying a rosary in Portuguese there, so we sit and pray a bit. Then after the rosary they have Mass, so we stay for that too. After Mass I stayed for a bit and Ana went to find somewhere warm and dry. We met up later, she hadn't had any luck - we went shopping for a couple things for my family members (I gotcha something) and then we went for coffee. At this moment, our feet are still dry, although our pants are soaked from the bottom of our jackets to the ground. Somewhere from the coffee shop to the bus station, our feet get soaked. We take the bus all the way back to Lisbon because I thought it would make more sense than trying to figure out where we got off the train. We get back to Lisbon and... we have no idea where we are. There are more than one bus station for Lisbon. We end up taking the metro to get back to the train station that we originally came from, bought the reservations to leave the next day on another night train to Madrid and then the train to Barcelona, took the bus back to the hostel and didn't leave again. I would like to go back to Fatima some day, and will remember to check the weather first! It was really pretty, just really wet too. And the sun never came out the next day, so we had to hang our wet things in a bathroom that wasn't being used until it was time for us to leave. Sigh. Nothing was dry, so guess what the mission was in Barcelona... you guessed it - LAUNDRY! Ick. I also had to wear my flip flops since my boots were soaked, so now I have a very nice ankle the size of a basketball. Hence the reason why the blog is getting updated so soon! Hopefully my boots will be dry by tomorrow and my ankle will be the right size so that we can go see the Mediterranean sea! I've always wanted to see the Mediterranean, Adriatic and Aegean seas!!
So all in all, it's been good. Just need to start remembering to check the weather (but does anyone ever really trust the weatherman? o_0). It was fun having a couple parties with people - reminded me of the groups I used to get into trouble with... K-mart crew, college peeps, the guys from OD and Pariah (especially when they brought out the hookah - oh my, oh my), my TX crazies... well I ain't never had too much fun! ; )
Madrid - getting back to touring
Madrid, how wonderful it was to get back to being in Hostel-world. The first night we were there they had made a mistake, so Ana and I were able to have our own room instead of the dorm room. Very nice. We were so happy to be out of (what we are now calling) the hell-house that we treated ourselves to a really good lunch - 3 courses for 10 Euro, including my wine. I wish we had been with it because I would have taken a picture - had no idea what I was ordering for the first course, it ended up being zucchini hollowed out and filled with marinara sauce and topped with cheese - MUY DELISIOSO! Then I had the chicken which was so tender it fell off the bone and then I had helado - chocolate ice cream. It was soo nice.
We really didn't do a whole lot in Madrid, we took the free tour which was interesting, and the guide was really nice. We had food at a doner kabab place because that pretty much spells 'good food for cheap' in any language (thank you, Bjorn for introducing us to the wonderfulness). We tried to do a tapas tour, but the guide never showed, so instead we went back to a bar that we had found one day - the bartender really liked Ana - and ordered Sangria. Now, in Mexico and the states, sangria is a cheap drink, usually sweet and tasty but not expensive because it's made with shit wine. Not so in Spain - we're talking 4 euros for a glass. We thought that the bartender guy was ripping us off at first, but then we checked the receipt in another place and sure enough, it was right. The tapas that he gave us were bread with a slice of ham (Madrid is big on ham, and I'll tell you why in a bit) and green olives. Now, Ana and I don't like olives. Really, not fans at all... but these olives were friggin DELISH! We devoured those things like they were going out of style. I'm not kidding, the seeds were still in them but it didn't matter, eat around the seed and then spit it out. We are both more than a little creeped out that we seem to like olives over here, and now I'm curious about is it the olives themselves Do they do something to them in the states? Why do I seem to like olives now?! Seriously creeps me out, but on the other hand, yay for yummies. And the ham - Spain is famous for it's ham because of the Spanish Inquisition - if you used to be a Jew or a Muslim and you wanted too convince the church that you are now a good Catholic, what is one cheap thing that you can do at home to prove it? Eat pork. And they did, and they do and it's really good. We also found a Mexican place... I know, I know, you're in Spain and you eat Mexican food, WTF? Well it's like this, we were hungry and I wanted something familiar... no tripe, no pork knuckles, something safe. And it was good, really good, very tasty. So judge all you want, but until you've been somewhere, ordered something you didn't know what it was and ended up with something nasty, you won't understand where I'm coming from. :p
We also tried to find new jeans for me because mine were pretty well hashed - they were old and patched and they were tearing around the patches. Well, European sizes suck and Spain doesn't have much in the way off Lane Bryant or Torrid so I found one pair of jeans, tried to get them on and failed, got pissed so we went for a drink. The next day, Ana tried the same jeans and they fit her so she bought them and gave me a pair of hers - they were a size smaller than the ones I got rid of, so yay! They still aren't perfect though because the ones that Ana bought fit except in the waist, which is too big. Sigh. Apparently we're both shaped weird, yet totally different. Story of my life. I bought 2 Spanish shawls - they are sooo pretty - and a scarf... and now I'm cutting myself off from any more scarves or shawls (unless I find one that screams "buy me for Mo or buy me for Oompa"). So far, I've bought a hat and chocolate in Bruge, scarves in Rasov and Budapest, shawls and a scarf in Madrid, playing cards in Bergen... and I think that's it. The cards saved our butts in the hell-house as it gave us something to do. My bag is getting heavier and by the time we get to Ireland it might just be filled with souvenirs! He he. We almost bought jewelry, but then we both decided that we didn't really need it.
I have decided not to take for granted having multiple options of clothes from now on. For real, when I get back I may have a dress-up party and wear all of my stuff that makes me look GOOD! The dirty backpacker look is ok, but I kinda miss being sophisticated city woman, cute country chick and hardcore metal badass. Thank God for umbrellas because otherwise I'd be rocking not only dirty backpacker but also my drowned rat look. It's funny how much stuff I take for granted back home... like hot showers. Most of the ones in the hostels have been lukewarm at best, probably they have a built-in max hot thing to keep from getting sued. Damn it. If I want to scald myself in the shower, I should be able to scald myself in the shower! Sigh.
We also decided to watch a little TV in Madrid - they don't dub everything, some things are subtitled, so we watched the Discovery channel and one day we found Castle - that was a good day. They don't go all commercial crazy over in Spain - they run the show for like 15 mins and then have a 6 min break for commercials (and they tell you how long it will be) so that was nice. We just chilled during the Spanish siesta time, and our hostel was close enough to downtown that we could walk back and forth. We loved the cathedral and found out that Spain felt a little bad about what they did in the Americas during their colonization so if you are from a central / south American country you can tour the royal palace for free during certain times and on certain days. Totally makes up for the conquistadors, don't you think? We laughed about that.
So all in all, it is nice to get back to living in hostels and seeing the cities and knowing when we flip a light switch the light will turn on, there are no cats or dogs to make Ana's allergies act up, we don't have to mess with a generator and the heat is not coming from a stove downstairs. For seriously, it is soo nice to sleep all warm and cozy and not have to tuck the blanket all around (woe to the stray foot / arm / face when out of the blanket... COLD!). I think the story of Madrid is being so happy to be out of hell-house that we were trying to acclimate ourselves to civilization again! And laundry, although we were a little worried about that because one of the guys in the hostel had sent his laundry out and it was stolen - along with his passport which he had in the pocket of his jacket (for some reason, that makes NO sense to me).
As for the pictures, yes, we are really behind, no we don't know when more will be up and frankly, be thankful for Ana because if it were me, I'd be making y'all wait until I got home and then just send you a power-point presentation of 'em! Much love to all - I miss ya - Mandi
We really didn't do a whole lot in Madrid, we took the free tour which was interesting, and the guide was really nice. We had food at a doner kabab place because that pretty much spells 'good food for cheap' in any language (thank you, Bjorn for introducing us to the wonderfulness). We tried to do a tapas tour, but the guide never showed, so instead we went back to a bar that we had found one day - the bartender really liked Ana - and ordered Sangria. Now, in Mexico and the states, sangria is a cheap drink, usually sweet and tasty but not expensive because it's made with shit wine. Not so in Spain - we're talking 4 euros for a glass. We thought that the bartender guy was ripping us off at first, but then we checked the receipt in another place and sure enough, it was right. The tapas that he gave us were bread with a slice of ham (Madrid is big on ham, and I'll tell you why in a bit) and green olives. Now, Ana and I don't like olives. Really, not fans at all... but these olives were friggin DELISH! We devoured those things like they were going out of style. I'm not kidding, the seeds were still in them but it didn't matter, eat around the seed and then spit it out. We are both more than a little creeped out that we seem to like olives over here, and now I'm curious about is it the olives themselves Do they do something to them in the states? Why do I seem to like olives now?! Seriously creeps me out, but on the other hand, yay for yummies. And the ham - Spain is famous for it's ham because of the Spanish Inquisition - if you used to be a Jew or a Muslim and you wanted too convince the church that you are now a good Catholic, what is one cheap thing that you can do at home to prove it? Eat pork. And they did, and they do and it's really good. We also found a Mexican place... I know, I know, you're in Spain and you eat Mexican food, WTF? Well it's like this, we were hungry and I wanted something familiar... no tripe, no pork knuckles, something safe. And it was good, really good, very tasty. So judge all you want, but until you've been somewhere, ordered something you didn't know what it was and ended up with something nasty, you won't understand where I'm coming from. :p
We also tried to find new jeans for me because mine were pretty well hashed - they were old and patched and they were tearing around the patches. Well, European sizes suck and Spain doesn't have much in the way off Lane Bryant or Torrid so I found one pair of jeans, tried to get them on and failed, got pissed so we went for a drink. The next day, Ana tried the same jeans and they fit her so she bought them and gave me a pair of hers - they were a size smaller than the ones I got rid of, so yay! They still aren't perfect though because the ones that Ana bought fit except in the waist, which is too big. Sigh. Apparently we're both shaped weird, yet totally different. Story of my life. I bought 2 Spanish shawls - they are sooo pretty - and a scarf... and now I'm cutting myself off from any more scarves or shawls (unless I find one that screams "buy me for Mo or buy me for Oompa"). So far, I've bought a hat and chocolate in Bruge, scarves in Rasov and Budapest, shawls and a scarf in Madrid, playing cards in Bergen... and I think that's it. The cards saved our butts in the hell-house as it gave us something to do. My bag is getting heavier and by the time we get to Ireland it might just be filled with souvenirs! He he. We almost bought jewelry, but then we both decided that we didn't really need it.
I have decided not to take for granted having multiple options of clothes from now on. For real, when I get back I may have a dress-up party and wear all of my stuff that makes me look GOOD! The dirty backpacker look is ok, but I kinda miss being sophisticated city woman, cute country chick and hardcore metal badass. Thank God for umbrellas because otherwise I'd be rocking not only dirty backpacker but also my drowned rat look. It's funny how much stuff I take for granted back home... like hot showers. Most of the ones in the hostels have been lukewarm at best, probably they have a built-in max hot thing to keep from getting sued. Damn it. If I want to scald myself in the shower, I should be able to scald myself in the shower! Sigh.
We also decided to watch a little TV in Madrid - they don't dub everything, some things are subtitled, so we watched the Discovery channel and one day we found Castle - that was a good day. They don't go all commercial crazy over in Spain - they run the show for like 15 mins and then have a 6 min break for commercials (and they tell you how long it will be) so that was nice. We just chilled during the Spanish siesta time, and our hostel was close enough to downtown that we could walk back and forth. We loved the cathedral and found out that Spain felt a little bad about what they did in the Americas during their colonization so if you are from a central / south American country you can tour the royal palace for free during certain times and on certain days. Totally makes up for the conquistadors, don't you think? We laughed about that.
So all in all, it is nice to get back to living in hostels and seeing the cities and knowing when we flip a light switch the light will turn on, there are no cats or dogs to make Ana's allergies act up, we don't have to mess with a generator and the heat is not coming from a stove downstairs. For seriously, it is soo nice to sleep all warm and cozy and not have to tuck the blanket all around (woe to the stray foot / arm / face when out of the blanket... COLD!). I think the story of Madrid is being so happy to be out of hell-house that we were trying to acclimate ourselves to civilization again! And laundry, although we were a little worried about that because one of the guys in the hostel had sent his laundry out and it was stolen - along with his passport which he had in the pocket of his jacket (for some reason, that makes NO sense to me).
As for the pictures, yes, we are really behind, no we don't know when more will be up and frankly, be thankful for Ana because if it were me, I'd be making y'all wait until I got home and then just send you a power-point presentation of 'em! Much love to all - I miss ya - Mandi
Sunday, January 13, 2013
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