So the semester was officially over on
May 20th. I had grudgingly packed up all my stuff, suffered through some finals and papers, and had tearful goodbyes with my host family and best friends. But the traveling wasn’t over.
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| Saying goodbye to Tricia at the airport. |
Miss Liz Maidl and I were off to explore three more countries! Thank goodness she changed her plane ticket and stayed to travel or I would have had some way different plans. Well the first country on the horizon was Spain. But before we even left Copenhagen we made some memories. I think it was an indicator of how our travel break was going to be:
1. Public transportation was like the Easter holiday all over again. Instead of taking one train to the airport, we had to take 3 and a metro. But this time it was because of a Copenhagen marathon instead of construction.
2. I was covered in sweat at 8am. Dragging my luggage through the cobblestones paths to leave at DIS was very fun. That is sarcasm.
3. Brilliance aka myself doesn’t get along with revolving doors. I ran right into one at the airport. Thank goodness my glasses didn’t break.
Once leaving David and Tricia at the airport, Liz and I hopped on our easy jet plane. No problems flying with them. It was only a three hour flight to Madrid, but that was good for Liz who was sick and tired from an all nighter.
Upon arriving in Madrid, our first order of business was to find a grocery store but since it was Sunday nothing was open. We did stumble upon a little Asian shop that had bread and nutella. Perfect. After using our Spanglish to talk to a different restaurant lady we ate there before heading back to Madrid’s tropical train station (they had turtles inside of it) to catch our ~4 hour train to Jerez De La Frontera.
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| I miss this. |
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| This is inside the Madrid Train Station |
Now we bought these train tickets like 3 hours before the train left and the lady told us they only had first class available. Not true. We sat down and decided if we wanted to catch the next one tomorrow to avoid spending $150 versus $85 bucks. Well we decided we would talk to a different guy and we bought 2 of the 3 normal tickets left. Lesson learned. We did almost miss the train because we had no clue where the track was. Thank goodness we didn’t wonder to far from the train station as to not get lost in the city without a map and no Spanish translator.
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| The train to Jerez de la Frontera |
On the train I sat next to a Spanish family that stared at me for a good chuck of the time. It was a young couple with two kids. I wish I could have communicated with them, we did try but it was a fail (sorry Senora Canche). It was a pretty ride though with rolling hills and the skies/clouds kept changing to weird views I've never seen before.
We didn’t get to Jerez until around 10:30pm and it was a surprise when Sean and his step dad picked us up in a car! We just avoided a half hour walk… uphill with our bags. Sean is a high school friend with dual citizenship and we stayed with him for 4 nights. Now the first lesson learned in Spain is that you give cheek kisses with your hugs/greetings. I guess I should have expected that after growing up in Hawaii.
That night we just watched TV and visited with Sean’s mom and dad in their cool apartment that used to be a winery. We called it an early night after a day of traveling and we were waking Sean up early (9am) the next day to head to the beach in Cadiz.
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| Where Sean lived. So awesome! |
May 21st
After a slow start to our day and a leisure walk through Jerez, we made it to Cadiz. There we walked through some narrow/tourist shopping streets and past this amazing church. We struggled to find a beach because it was so windy, so we decided to grab some bread, crème cheese, and chips for our open face sandwiches while eating in a side alley. Don’t knock it till you tried it. Yumm.
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| Check out those blue skies... I mean the cathedral. |
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| Seriously good. |
Well we decided to give the beach another try, hoping that the other side of town would have the wind blocked. And it did, for the most part. We chilled there and Leslee and Liz fell asleep and got pretty sunburnt. Never have I ever been burnt on my armpits. Thanks Spain. I also learned that sunburn and jeans = rash.
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| Beach with Sean in Cadiz |
After heading back to Sean’s place we took showers and headed to dinner in town. Now this was one of my favorite experiences. We went to Sean’s and his families favorite Tapas place called Meson Del Asador. Now Tapas are very small meals or appetizers. So you get a bunch of them to fill you up. So good and you get to have a variety of food. I think America should adopt this. But Tapas isn’t till like 9pm. We also had Tinto, kinda like Sangria. It was so good. It needs to be introduced here. Soon.
In Spain they have a different way they go about their days. You get up, go to work, and from 3-6pm it’s siesta (nap) time. That’s the hottest part of the day, so people need to escape the heat and rest. The stores then reopen till 11!? and dinner is around 9pm. Around midnight it’s bed time.
May 22nd
Day 2 in Spain was another slow start. But that was fine by us. Finals, packing, and goodbyes had worn us out. We decided that Liz and I would book our bus tickets to Lisbon, Portugal that morning, finally. Well it was an unfortunate morning, while Sean was surfing on the internet, brilliance that is myself showed up again. I decided that it would be a good idea to tap the back of Sean’s step dad’s laptop with my foot. Not. While it was only a light tap the screen flickered and the computer shut off. It turned on for a minute only to turn off again. Yep, I broke it (news update it is now fixed thanks to some computer store).
That event should have been an indicator for the next serious of events. So I left a note about the computer and we left to go to the internet café. There we tried booking our bus tickets but thanks to Sean translating the phone call, it was discovered that it would only take a Spanish credit card. So we had to go back to the house, transfer money, and have Sean order it for us. Uff da.
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| Playa de Valdelagrana |
Next we headed to the train station to buy some more bus tickets to Gibraltar for the next day! That was more successful. And then we hopped on a train to Valdelagrana. More beach time even though it was still a little windy – weird for this time in Spain I guess. I covered myself up the whole time in fear of the sun but Liz and I did jump back into the Atlantic Ocean for the second time this trip and then got some ice cream! I have come to the conclusion that the Atlantic is colder than the Pacific. Another weird thing about going to the beach in Spain is that you don’t go until noon or later, which is opposite in Hawaii.
Back in Jerez we were on a mission to find a cheap duffel bag I could bring back to Denmark and bring home since my suitcase was overweight by 10 pounds (Thanks Rete for this idea). We found a perfect 7 Euro ($9) one at an Asian shop where Liz also got 1 Euro shampoo ($1.30). Thanks Spain for intruding us to these shops. We could have had a lot of fun in there. We slowly made our our way back to Sean's after wondering through the city to see some more Muslim mosques and a big Cathedral.
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| The cathedrals are stunning in Spain. |
Back at Sean’s place it was shower time before his mom cooked fajitas for us and she bought Tinto since she found out it was our new favorite. She is so sweet! Before dinner we also decided to go check out the movie store and pick up an ingredient for
Sean’s mom. Sean also got this awesome chewy candy. I don’t know how to
explain it…so good. Well dinner was also so good and we got to chill and watch TV with Sean's parents. We tried to watch the Princess Bride later, but that was the worst movie/acting ever so Liz and I called it an early night before our big day tomorrow.
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| The awesome candy |
May 23rd
Early next morning Sean’s mom so nicely drove us to the train/bus station while on her way to work. On the way there we saw some flamingo dancers, horses, and Virgin Mary. The people were taking her on a pilgrimage. They have many celebrations in Spain!
Well we only tried to get on the bus going in the wrong direction once, no big deal. Once we arrived in Algeciras, Spain we had to hop on another bus to La Linea, Spain. From there we walked across the street to Gibraltar. Now Gibraltar is in Spain (at the tip, close to Morocco, Africa). But it’s an English (UK) colony. So the people speak Spanish and English.
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| The runway and rock |
To get into Gibraltar, you have to show your passport, walk along the airplane runways, and your there. Thank goodness no planes were landing when we went through. So Gibraltar is known for its giant rock with the monkeys. The monkeys are called Barbary Apes and they are special because they have no tails. They are only found in Gibraltar.
While in Gibraltar we found a side alley out of the sun and ate our open face marinara, chip sandwiches. We then walked through Gibraltar before deciding to go with a tour guide up the rock. They drove us around instead of us walking everywhere. Best choice ever. It was a kinda scary drive up this rock, such tiny roads. First we saw the Pillars of Hercules which is also a scenic outlook where you can see Morocco. Next was St. Michaels' cave that used to be a medical facility and concert area!? And finally it was monkey time! These monkeys will grab any loose things you have on you, but luckily I didn’t experience that. One of the tour guides put a monkey on our shoulders and then he gave us a peanut and the monkey would jump on your arm. They are baby monkeys so they are nicer then the adults. It was an awesome experience. There were a ton of monkeys and they like to just chill on the roof of the cars while we are driving. Surreal. Finally we went to our last location, The Great Siege Tunnels where Liz and I channeled our inner 6 year old and spit from the opening down the side of the rock.
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| That is Morocco behind us. Ahhhh so close. |
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| Pillar of Hercules |
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| St. Micheal's cave. The concert area. Also check out the stalagmites. |
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| New bffs. |
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| The Siege Tunnels. |
This was only a 1.5 hour tour so we were soon back down. The tour was a little more pricey for us (30 Euros = $40) but it was so worth it. You could spend hours walking up there since it is all spread out. Everyone that we talked to that went had a car with their host family. So a tour was really the only way to do it.
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| Our sandcastle friends are in the back! |
Back in the town we wondered around and had ice cream before hitting the beach. We were still sunburnt and didn’t want to torture ourselves on the beach for the whole afternoon so we slowly worked our way there. Well we made it to the beach without a map – we took a picture of the map of Gibraltar to save money (aka be cheap asses). At the beach we jumped in the Mediterranean Sea after continuing our habit of lathering on the sunscreen. It was freezing, even more so than the Atlantic. It was also a lot clearer then the Atlantic, so when Liz saw a jelly fish, we bolted out.
Back on the sand, we decided to make a sand castle instead of being stung. A little 4 year old girl from Gibraltar helped us make it. It was probably one of the best sand castles I’ve been part of. And this 4 year old could speak Spanish and English, so adorable and smart. Even her younger sister started to help us. After changing in the parking lot we made our way back to catch our bus to Algeciras.
In Algeciras we tried to find a quick, cheap, and good dinner but we ended up at a kebab shop. The guy wanted to practice his English and told us about the awesome deals. Probably my cheapest meal in Europe: Pizza, fries, and a water bottle – that don’t happen in Europe. We decided to eat outside and of course a beggar saw the few Euros sitting on the table. While she was harassing us she was trying to get us to look away so she could grab it. Thank goodness Liz caught on to her plan and put it away. She bothered us for a good 3 minutes and even had the nerve to pat me on the shoulder. Lucky she walked away right after, or we would have started flipping out at her. From our seats outside I could see her bother other people walking by, and this was no tourist town.
Well we caught our bus back to Jerez through an awesome sunset and cute white housed towns (like Greece). Liz and I also successfully navigated the half hour walk back to Sean’s. Once there we watched some TV with him and his parents before again going to be early for our next big day.
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| Plaza de Espana. It was over 100 F here. |
May 24th
The following day the three of us headed to Sevilla! There we walked around and saw the soccer stadium, the Plaza de Espana, hid from the heat in McDonalds AC, got our Spain souvenirs, saw the Sevilla Cathedral, found our bus station, and meet Sean's girlfriend at Burger King. She just got back from London and was studying abroad in Sevilla. She was so sweet and nice.
After picking up our backpacks from the train station we said goodbye and jumped on a bus to take us to the international bus station. Thank goodness the bus driver noticed our confused and lost faces and told us where to get off. It was a struggle to talk to the driver since we didn't speak the same language. But it turns out we took the wrong bus, but we weren't too far of a walk away. And we didn't miss our 11:30pm overnight bus to Lisbon, Portugal (this experience is for the next blog). Lesson learned, take a picture of the bus stop list so you know when your stop is coming up since you can't see the signs from the windows.
Anyways Sevilla was a full day of walking in over 100 F weather. It was safe to say we were super tired and sweaty. Sevilla was very pretty and big. I would have enjoyed the sights and colors more if it wasn't so hot and my feet so tired. But still an awesome experience.
Honestly, I enjoyed Spain a lot more then I thought I would. I knew I would like it, but I loved the culture. Although no one could speak English and my Spanish skills were non-extant, but the people were so nice! It was also great to not only see Sean but to also have him as a translator and guide. So a big thank you to Sean for letting us stay with him and show us around. We learned/experienced so much more then if we were by ourselves.
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| We call this turtling. In front of the gorgeous Jerez train station |
Other things about Spain was that it was not as cheap as we thought it would be, but hey still cheaper then Denmark. Also coming from still cold Denmark, the heat was crazy. Close to or over 100 F every day. What a shock. And staying with Sean for 4 nights saved us so much, so again thanks to Sean AND his lovely family. I'm still feel bad about the computer causality, but happy that it's working now. It was also great that Sean's home town was basically wine country, Liz and I loved this fact. I guess a lot of old people come and visit there for the wine.
A funny thing about the Spanish is that they wear shirts with English words on it and listen to English music but they have no idea what it means, so if they find out you speak English they will ask you what their shirt says. Another great thing about Spain are that there are free bathrooms, finally.
Gibraltar was a great experience. It was such a culture clash with Spain and England but it was definitely interesting/awesome. My only regret about this trip is that we didn't go/plan our trip to Morocco. It was only a half hour away on a boat from Algercias. Next time it is happening.
