Ireland!

Hello Everyone,

So this trip began in Dublin. We arrived at the Dublin airport pretty late, about 10 or so, checked into our hostal called Paddy's Palace, and then went out to see the city. Nightlife here was great. At every pub, they love supporting their Guinness considering the Guinness Brewery is right down the street. They have live bands, great fish and chips, and have complementary food out. We obviously feasted on this late at night both nights. One night there were Apples and Oranges in giant bowls. There was a large group of my friends on this trip, a total of about 17, 7 guys and 10 girls, so when we were out it was a fun time. The small two person band was made up of a man and a woman playing the guitar. It didn't take long for us to all get a round of Guinness and sing along. Very fun night. The next day we woke up and headed over to the Guinness Brewery for a tour. It was very interesting and the entire city thrives off the Guinness factory. On the top floor there is an observation bar that has a 360 degree view of the city of Dublin. You can see the sea in the distance, the Liffey River, as well as the many towering cathedrals and churches. We stopped by the St. Patrick's Cathedral where there is a very nice courtyard off to the one side. We also made it to Trinity College which is beautiful and has many very old buildings. I believe it began in the mid 19th century. The city of Dublin was a cool place. After another night out, we woke up early the following day to get on a bus to Galway.

The bus was a pretty cool 2.5 hour ride. The Irish countryside is beautiful and it seems to have a never ending supply of rocks as every property in the land is split up by a 4 foot wall of hand laid rocks. I thought this looked especially cool and gave it a unique look.

Once in Galway, we went to our hostal called Kinley House. It was packed with students from all around. This made for an interesting pre-night, and early morning experience. The night in Galway was a lot of fun. We went to a very well known pub called King's Head. A live band was playing and a bunch of our friends were there. After that, there was this club that had a Silent Disco party. What this means is everyone gets headphones going into the club, and there are two stations to listen to. The songs were great and it was something I probably wont experience again.

The next morning we headed to the bus station to sign up for a tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The tour was a cheap 20 euro and brought us all around the Irish countryside and eventually to the cliffs. The tour was guided by an old Irish man by the name Desmond. He had a thick accent and was doing these tours for the past 17 years. We could tell from the get go that this 70 year old man had been using the same jokes since he began his career as a tour guide. But it was all pretty funny none the less. It wasn't until about 2.5 hours into our tour until we got to the cliffs and the anticipation reminded us all of Christmas morning as children. The cliffs were honestly jaw dropping. The view of these cliffs, the green grass, the crashing waves, it was all like a movie. After 1.5 hours here, we made our way back to Galway along the rocky coast. This tour is something that I will never forget and made the trip to Ireland complete.

Unfortunately, our flight left from Dublin at 6 am and we didn't want to pay for another hostal, so we got on the first bus back to Dublin and crashed at the airport from 10-6. It was a slow ending to a trip that seemed to last forever.

 Liffey River in downtown Dublin.

 St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

 Trinity College, Dublin.

 Jamison Distillery, we didn't tour it but we made it there!

 Silent disco club

 Stone Tomb dating back to around 4000 B.C.

 FREE Glass of Guinness at the Guinness Factory Tour

 Cliffs or Moher...awesome views.

Another of the cliffs.

Granada

Hello everyone,


Last weekend, two of my roommates (Ben and Joe) and I traveled to the south of Spain to the city of Granada. It was an amazing trip that I will never forget. The original plan was for me to visit Chris and Magnolis (family in Granada), while Ben and Joe would do their own thing and explore Granada. Ben and Joe really didn't have any plans for once they got to Granada; they don't speak Spanish, they didn't have a hostel, they didn't really know how long they wanted to stay, they knew there was something called "The Alhambra" there, but they were going to Granada. 


The bus ride was about five and a half hours through beautiful southern Spain. We arrived on Friday night and quickly realized that Granada was much larger than we thought. Thankfully though, I informed Chris and Magnolia that my friends were coming, and they made them feel as at home as possible in Granada. They basically made our weekend perfect.  They picked the 3 of us up at the bus station at drove us to there apartment in downtown Granada and they knew Ben and Joe didn't have a hostel so the told us about one that was right down the street from them. Then they invited them over for dinner and said that they want to feed us every meal for the weekend. They were so incredibly nice. Chris and Magnolia have two children; Lucas (9) and Carla(5). Their apartment was amazing. Not the biggest, but it had great interior with a balcony and a patio on the roof-it was wonderful. The best part of the apartment was the view. They lived on a hill that over looked the entire city. To the right you could see the local cathedral and the to left was the Alhambra. The Alhambra was an ancient fort that was build during the 14th century by the Moors then taken over by the Christians later. Its huge, about a square mile fort on top a hill and they only lived 200 yards from the entrance. The next day (Saturday) Chris, who knew everything about Granada and the Alhambra, gave us a 4 hour tour of the Alhambra, which was unbelievable, so interesting, so much history. It was great. After that we went to a tapas restaurant for lunch/dinner, (Which my Aunt Susan paid for and was delishious). After that we went on a walk though the city.


Saturday night was sooo much fun. Chris and Magnolia had been telling us about this famous flamenco (Spanish dancing, kinda like tap dancing I guess) show that Granada was know for. People said it was debatably the best show in Spain. What made it interesting was that it was in the gypsy neighborhood of Granada. And to make it more interesting,  it was in a cave in the side of on of the hills. And to make it MORE interesting, it was the same exact show that Michelle Obama went to this past summer. We had no idea what to expect.  So we took a cab, told the driver where we want to go, he knew the place, drove us there, we got out...and realized that we were on the patio of some house with a couple of Spanish people standing around. And all the houses in this neighborhood were caves dug into the hill. Now, there were signs for the show, but it really wasn't that obvious that we were in the right place. After about 30 seconds of awkwardly standing around, this older guy in suit kinda showed up out of nowhere and started talking to us. (We later came to find out he was the manager) He knew that we were there for the show and told us to follow him to get tickets. He leads us into like the living room of one the cave houses and lets us buy tickets right there. Very funny. After about 5 mins the show begins and we are allowed to enter the cave where the doing the show. The cave was about 50ft long,10 ft across and about 7 ft tall. It was lined with chairs and had a space in the middle for the dancers. Now, the reason we had taken a cab to the show was because the bus that usually picked people up for the show was full. It was at this point that we found out that the bus was full of about 30 Japanese tourist all going to the show. 


So to recap, its 30 Japanese tourists and us watching a flamenco show in a cave, that was run by gypsies, in the south of Spain and Michelle Obama has been here before...it sounds like a Mad Lib. The show was amazing, they danced literally inches in front of you and at the end...they pulled Ben up to dance with them (theres a video of it on Facebook). The last day we got a quick tour of the oldest neighborhood in Granada called the Albaicin. It was very beautiful and there was a light snow which capped of our perfect weekend. 


I am still working on getting the pictures up but for some reason it is being stubborn. If you can see them on my facebook they are up there.


Hope all is well back in the states!

Segovia

Segovia is a small city about an hour and twenty minutes north of Madrid. It has very old buildings, skinny streets packed with shops for tourists along with stores to buy sandwiches.

When we got off the bus and looked toward the city, the first thing you can see is the Cathedral. It is massive and towers over the entire city. Walking up the main path, completely looking like tourists with the group we were in all taking pictures of everything cool (old) that we saw, it seemed like such a different life. Then we hit the Aqueduct. It was built by the Romans c. A.D 50 and was built with a natural gradient of 1% so the water would reach many cities on it's way. Once it arrived at Segovia, there were side pipes that were used to bring water to the city, while other water continued on toward the next stop. It was really cool to see the towering pillars and arches that were designed and constructed so long ago.

Continuing on we hit the shops. Considering Segovia was the first city to use Iron in warfare, there were many medieval swords, guns, armor, as well as fully suited knights. These were also very cool to see and all had a lot of detail. I purchased a Spanish flag that one day will be hung in my apartment in Coronado next year. great investment.

Next came the Cathedral. There is the Plaza Mayor just outside it which was filled with vendors selling all kinds of snacking foods, sandwiches or bocadillos, and drinks. These were greatly taken advantage of as people flocked to this plaza for great pictures of the entire Cathedral. The detail was amazing and there never seemed to be a boring spot on the surrounding walls. Crazy to think of how long it took to construct.

A little further up the road was the castle. For a small price, we were able to go into the castle, most rooms of it, as well as to the top of it. This gave an awesome view of the entire city. (I have had trouble downloading the pictures onto the blog but they are on my Facebook if you can see them) The castle had the traditional chair for the king and queen, a large dining room table, the king and queens bed, many rooms with lots of information about the castle, how it was constructed, the cannons, and the many other parts of the castle.

Overall i thought this trip was awesome. very exhausting as the bus ride back consisted of a drooling nap.

Below is a picture from the top of the castle toward the whole city. Cathedral with the mountains in the background.

Next weekend I will be in Granada so more to come shortly...

First Few Days

Hey Everyone,

So I figured I would start from the beginning. The flight was not bad at all. I was sitting next to my roommate Ben for both flights. Chicago to Washington D.C. then Washington D.C. to Madrid. Our long flight was about 7 hours and wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. We sat next to a girl who had studied abroad two years before in Barcelona, and was now living in Valencia. One year ago, however, she lived in Madrid. She was a huge help because she told us many places we should go visit, how to use the metro system, as well as different types of food we must try. It just so happened she was going to take the metro to a bus that she needed to take, which then would bring her to Valencia. This metro was the same line as the one we needed to take to get to our place. The metro system is used a lot here in Spain and there are about 8 lines that all run in different directions. So travel is very fast and cheap.

When Ben and I arrived to our apartment building, we didn’t know what to expect. (There will be pictures attached once I get them up.) Out host’s name is Sonia. She is very nice and speaks little English. There is also another woman named Patty who helps with the cooking. They make a small breakfast as well as a larger dinner every day.  The first few dinners have been interesting because it is the time when we spend the most time with our hosts. I am the only one out of 4 other roommates who can understand and speak Spanish, to an extent. So it is very difficult because I am constantly translating for everyone.

The city of Madrid is awesome. We have been able to get around a little bit because our apartment, our school, and this area called Sol are all in different parts of the city. Sol is where everything seems to be happening. It is home to the Plaza Mayor which is really cool as well as hundreds of shops, little restaurants, and bars/discos. Wine and sangria are both very cheap! Which we students all like a lot.

There will be more to come as we (a group of my friends) are planning on going to Toledo for a two day/one night trip. Staying in my first hostel should be an experience in itself…