so this past weekend i met up with my roommate from school in istanbul!
i left on thursday and ariel and i met up around midnight at our hostel when her flight got in! i got in around 6, so i basically just hung out at the hostel on the rooftop terrace with people in the hostel that night. the hostel was pretty sweet. the owner was SO nice. on thursday i was trying to decide what i wanted to do for dinner, since i didn't really want to go out by myself, and the owner was like, i'm cooking, you want to eat some? i thought that was very nice of him! and that night ariel and i had the room to ourselves! it was nice catching up!
anyways.
friday. we wake up early to begin our day of sightseeing. we first decide we need to go to the tourism office because we have no map. so we take the guidebook that they have at the hostel with its tiny little map and set off in search of the touroism office. we never find it. but we do meet lots of nice people willing to give us directions! eventually we just give up and go to the blue mosque. the blue mosque is the only mosque in the world (beside mecca, which has since added a 7th) to have 6 minarets. its very impressive from the outside, and pretty on the inside too, but very tourist-y.
after the blue mosque we went to ayasofia (hagia sophia or st sophia for us english speakers) which was right across the square. this is a very impressive old building. it was built by constantine in the early 300 AD as a church. it was then converted to a mosque...i can't remember when, and then into a museum in the 1900s. so in the building there are all of these old christian mosiacs of jesus and mary and st john the baptist, alongside these huge wooden discs with arabic script of prophets names etc. it was an interesting juxtaposition.
anyways, after the ayasofia we walked up to the topkapi palace, and i'm sad to say we weren't really sure what all we were seeing here. i think for this you should spring for a guide. it was really pretty, and had gorgeous views, but like i said, not really sure what we were seeing.
anyways, after the palace we went and had lunch at this cute little restaurant where we got to sit on couches on the floor. we tried traditional turkish dishes like dry yoghurt with mint and something else, speical rice wrapped in wine leaves, and filo pastry with feta cheese. and then dessert! baklava! it was delish! and our waiter was super nice. we asked her how to say thank you, and its hard to say thank you in turkish! she said it..and we sort of looked at her..and then she wrote it down for us... and kept saying it over and over for us. we eventually got it (sort of...) but it was kind of like the them of our trip..how to say thank you. lol
after lunch we decided we were going to go see the bascilica cistern, but on the way we got distracted by some souvenir shops, and one of the shops had this really nice guy who offered us some apple tea, a local speciality. and we read in our guidebook that its really rude to refuse, so we were like..ok. whatever. so we sat down with this guy in his shop, and we talk for a bit... he's been to georgetown, life is good..and then he starts trying to sell us a carpet! mom i tried calling you to see if you wanted anything..but my phone wouldn't work. he did however have wonderful selling skills,c ause he convinced ariel and i to buy a couch cover and pillowcases. he gave us a great deal though.. don't judge us. we're very excited for our apartment that we have yet to rent... if anyone needs a carpet though, we have his cards.
after that rather expensive apple tea break, we made it to the bascilica cistern, which is this underground area that holds water. i believe it was built my emperor justinian (i think he was early ADs... can't remember the exact date) here again it would have been nice to have a guide.
after that we decided we had had a long day and needed a nap because we hadn't slept well the night before (the prayer call at 4:30 in the morning does tend to wake one up...). so we go back to the hostel and do that.
after our nap we go to the rooftop terrace where we hang out for a bit before going to dinner, where we have more traditional turkish food: lentil soup (very good) and humus(also very good) and then turkish coffee (i enjoyed it!)
that night the hostel owner offered to take us out to fun turkish places, so we went out to this bar that had a turkish singer and band, and it was a lot of fun! the singer was a great entertainer, she had the whole bar up and dancing at one point! ariel said it reminded her of a bar mitzvah. we went to some other places too and had a lot of fun.
the next morning ariel and i woke up early again and went to the grand bazaar which was overwhelming and crowded and expensive. so we wanedered only a little bit and then gave up and went to the egyptian or spice bazaar. i liked this one much better. it had fun food shops selling colorful spices and turksih delight and other sweets and dried fruits and nuts. i bought some pistachios (i wanted to bring some home for you dad..but i don't think they would have held up great) and some honey and pistachio sweets. very good.
after that we were tired cause we stayed up late the night before and woke up early, so we went back to the hostel and napped. after our nap we went to the hostel across the street from ours to have a late lunch and it had gorgeous views of the water and ayasofia! then we went and tried to take a ferry boat ride on the bosphorous, but of course, we get there around 5 or 6, which is rush hour and basically all 16 million residents of istanbul were there...so...we gave that idea up. we admired the water for a bit, and then went back to the hostel and chilled on the rooftop terrace before going to dinner. we had lentil soup and humus again. we had finally figured out how to say thank you and the guys at the restaurant loved it. they gave us some free appetizers!
we basically wanted to call it an early night since we had to get up at 4 the next morning to catch our taxi to the airport since i had a flight at 640... but somehow didn't get to sleep until around 1:30...
overall it was a great weekend! turkey was more expensive than i expected (in fact..it could give paris a run for its money...)but i think its just cause we were in such a touristy area. i would go back to turkey in a second!
anyways: here are some funny phrases that were said at us on the streets:
"how can i steal your money today?"
"talk is free!"
"come buy things you don't need!"
"can i steal 2 minutes of your time? don't call the cops on me!"
"i love you. but you already knew that"
and i'm too lazy to post photos: but most of you have facebook anyways and can see them there. or when i come home in 2 weeks.
eek.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
south of france
so this past weekend was a long weekend here in france so i went to the south of france with 3 of my friends!
on thursday night i took a night train to nice where we arrived on the holiday friday...so nothing was open or running basically. we were instructed to call our hostel upon arrival, which we did, and they told us they would be sending a shuttle to come pick us up and take us to the hostel, since its basically way far away from the city center. just one of the amazing things our hostel did for us. when we got there we knew it would be too early to check in but they were like, have you eaten breakfast yet? and showed us to the free breakfast! and while we were eating two different people came up and asked what we were going to do that day and then gave us suggestions...one of which was to go to the villefranche beach instead of the nice beach. GREAT suggestion. it was SO pretty. it was about a 10 minute train ride from nice, and the beach was just off the train station. here is a picture of the beach:
so we lounged on the beach basically all day, and then decided we should go see nice, so we trained back and walked over to old town nice, where we decided we needed to eat, and then walked up about halfway up the hill and got gorgeous views of the city:
then we went back to our hostel and just hung out for the rest of the night!
the next day we had decided we were going to go canyoning! we saw something for it in our hostel and signed up for it! it was basically an all day thing, and this guy came and picked us up at our hostel, drove us for about an hour into italy (you know...no big deal) and then gave us wetsuits and we hiked about 40 min to the start of the canyon. then we had lunch (which..btw, was DISGUSTING. it was ham and beet and pickle sandwhiches. and it was like.. a full beet cut up on every persons sandwhich. it was so gross. and bananas. so naturally i ate very little...) but anyways. the canyoning was SO MUCH FUN. we made our way down this river by sliding, walking, and jumping off of rocks! it was great! it was cold though, and exhasuting. ialso hit my knee on a rock so have a rather large bruise on my right knee... but it was so much fun! sadly i don't have anypictures:( it was SO gorgeous too.
so then after getting back to our hostel after our day of canyoning we went to the train station and went to marseilles. we were staying in this hotel in marseilles that i found and booked because it was the only cheap one...and it was SO SKETCHY. we walked up and the front was all closed, and i saw a little alley with a sign saying "entree" so i went there and saw a sign that said "reception open from 8 am to noon, if you arrive after call this number" which was this guys cell... and when i called he said this is your roomm, doors unlocked, keys are in the room. and the room was really crappy. but you know, you get what you pay for.
anways, we were so tired after our day of canyoning that we found food and basically passed out (on the most uncomfortable beds ever...).
the next morning we went to the beach! it was glorious. spent most of the day there, and ten decided we should see old town marseilles, so we walked in and saw the harbor, but we were all very exahsuted so this turned into us walking and sitting down on a bench, and then debating about how soon we wanted to move to go get our dinner...and then finding another place to sit down.
here are some pictures of the beach at marseilles:
the harbor:
the group in front of the harbor:
all in all i'm glad i went to marseilles cause otherwise i would have been disappointed with myself, but i wouldn't go back.
anyways,
the next day we went to aix-en-provence which was SO pretty.
we basically just walked around all day..its a VERY small city. did some shopping, sat in some gardens, sat in a square, sat at a cafe, just had an enjoyable afternoon. except for the pollen. lots of sneezing by all of us!
by this time my camera had basically run out of battery so here is one of the only pics i have:
all in all it was a wonderful weekend, much more of a vacation than a trip if you understand what i mean by that. we basically had no schedules, just that we had a train to catch on monday night and that we were supposed to be in nice friday night, and marseilles sat and sun night. it was glorious!
anways, i'll have more interesting posts next week: this weekend i'm off to istanbul!
on thursday night i took a night train to nice where we arrived on the holiday friday...so nothing was open or running basically. we were instructed to call our hostel upon arrival, which we did, and they told us they would be sending a shuttle to come pick us up and take us to the hostel, since its basically way far away from the city center. just one of the amazing things our hostel did for us. when we got there we knew it would be too early to check in but they were like, have you eaten breakfast yet? and showed us to the free breakfast! and while we were eating two different people came up and asked what we were going to do that day and then gave us suggestions...one of which was to go to the villefranche beach instead of the nice beach. GREAT suggestion. it was SO pretty. it was about a 10 minute train ride from nice, and the beach was just off the train station. here is a picture of the beach:
so we lounged on the beach basically all day, and then decided we should go see nice, so we trained back and walked over to old town nice, where we decided we needed to eat, and then walked up about halfway up the hill and got gorgeous views of the city:
then we went back to our hostel and just hung out for the rest of the night!the next day we had decided we were going to go canyoning! we saw something for it in our hostel and signed up for it! it was basically an all day thing, and this guy came and picked us up at our hostel, drove us for about an hour into italy (you know...no big deal) and then gave us wetsuits and we hiked about 40 min to the start of the canyon. then we had lunch (which..btw, was DISGUSTING. it was ham and beet and pickle sandwhiches. and it was like.. a full beet cut up on every persons sandwhich. it was so gross. and bananas. so naturally i ate very little...) but anyways. the canyoning was SO MUCH FUN. we made our way down this river by sliding, walking, and jumping off of rocks! it was great! it was cold though, and exhasuting. ialso hit my knee on a rock so have a rather large bruise on my right knee... but it was so much fun! sadly i don't have anypictures:( it was SO gorgeous too.
so then after getting back to our hostel after our day of canyoning we went to the train station and went to marseilles. we were staying in this hotel in marseilles that i found and booked because it was the only cheap one...and it was SO SKETCHY. we walked up and the front was all closed, and i saw a little alley with a sign saying "entree" so i went there and saw a sign that said "reception open from 8 am to noon, if you arrive after call this number" which was this guys cell... and when i called he said this is your roomm, doors unlocked, keys are in the room. and the room was really crappy. but you know, you get what you pay for.
anways, we were so tired after our day of canyoning that we found food and basically passed out (on the most uncomfortable beds ever...).
the next morning we went to the beach! it was glorious. spent most of the day there, and ten decided we should see old town marseilles, so we walked in and saw the harbor, but we were all very exahsuted so this turned into us walking and sitting down on a bench, and then debating about how soon we wanted to move to go get our dinner...and then finding another place to sit down.
here are some pictures of the beach at marseilles:
the harbor:
the group in front of the harbor:
all in all i'm glad i went to marseilles cause otherwise i would have been disappointed with myself, but i wouldn't go back.anyways,
the next day we went to aix-en-provence which was SO pretty.
we basically just walked around all day..its a VERY small city. did some shopping, sat in some gardens, sat in a square, sat at a cafe, just had an enjoyable afternoon. except for the pollen. lots of sneezing by all of us!
by this time my camera had basically run out of battery so here is one of the only pics i have:
all in all it was a wonderful weekend, much more of a vacation than a trip if you understand what i mean by that. we basically had no schedules, just that we had a train to catch on monday night and that we were supposed to be in nice friday night, and marseilles sat and sun night. it was glorious!anways, i'll have more interesting posts next week: this weekend i'm off to istanbul!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
avignon
ok so the last part of my trip was in avignon!
getting from granada to avignon was interesting. i thought i had a booked a flight from granada to madrid at 9.05 in the morning and then had a connecting flight to marseilles at 2. apparently i did something wrong because not only was the 9 flight not at 9.05 but at 9.50, but i somehow managed to book myself on the 2 pm flight... so... problem. i ended up having to buy another ticket from granada to madrid because i was going to have to buy a new ticket in any case. funny related story: zaid ended up missing his flight from barcelona to paris... we laughed about our mishaps together.
anways.
so i get to the airport way early because i take the bus thats 3 euro versus a 30 euro taxi. it was weird waiting for the bus at 6 am when all of the club goers were going home. anyways, i eventually got to marseilles where i was told there was a train station to get to avignon. but i apparently have to buy tickets at the airport, but they only have machines, and just fyi for every american person that travels to france... your credit card WILL NOT work in these machines. i, of course, knew this already because i've been here for awhile, but when i get on the bus (oh yes, it took me some time to realize that i needed to take a bus to the train station...) the bus driver asks me for my ticket and i go "sorry, my card doesn't work" and he seemed very flummoxed and informed me that there was no person to buy a ticket from, even at the station. ok, so i get on the train without a ticket.... and ask the controleur to sell me one. so it was quite a production. anyways, i finally get to avignon, and my hostel is very easy to find (YAY!) and end up walking around the city. go check out the pont d'avignon which only goes half way across the river and just wander this way and that before having dinner and calling it a night, since it had been a long day.
the next day i wake up and go to the palais des papes which was very interesting! i got the audio guide here too and it was much better presented! i really enjoyed the tour, but i could tell that i was ready to be back in paris..i was tired.
my admission to the palais also got me admission to the pont d'avignon so i went on it and did the audio guide there too..i was way tired by this point so i didn't really glean much. then i had a crepe (which i had missed so much) and just wandered around waiting to get on my train!
it was nice to be back in france where i spoke the language, legit.
anyways here are some pics:
pont d'avignon close to sunset:
palais des papes: (at a weird angle...)
getting from granada to avignon was interesting. i thought i had a booked a flight from granada to madrid at 9.05 in the morning and then had a connecting flight to marseilles at 2. apparently i did something wrong because not only was the 9 flight not at 9.05 but at 9.50, but i somehow managed to book myself on the 2 pm flight... so... problem. i ended up having to buy another ticket from granada to madrid because i was going to have to buy a new ticket in any case. funny related story: zaid ended up missing his flight from barcelona to paris... we laughed about our mishaps together.
anways.
so i get to the airport way early because i take the bus thats 3 euro versus a 30 euro taxi. it was weird waiting for the bus at 6 am when all of the club goers were going home. anyways, i eventually got to marseilles where i was told there was a train station to get to avignon. but i apparently have to buy tickets at the airport, but they only have machines, and just fyi for every american person that travels to france... your credit card WILL NOT work in these machines. i, of course, knew this already because i've been here for awhile, but when i get on the bus (oh yes, it took me some time to realize that i needed to take a bus to the train station...) the bus driver asks me for my ticket and i go "sorry, my card doesn't work" and he seemed very flummoxed and informed me that there was no person to buy a ticket from, even at the station. ok, so i get on the train without a ticket.... and ask the controleur to sell me one. so it was quite a production. anyways, i finally get to avignon, and my hostel is very easy to find (YAY!) and end up walking around the city. go check out the pont d'avignon which only goes half way across the river and just wander this way and that before having dinner and calling it a night, since it had been a long day.
the next day i wake up and go to the palais des papes which was very interesting! i got the audio guide here too and it was much better presented! i really enjoyed the tour, but i could tell that i was ready to be back in paris..i was tired.
my admission to the palais also got me admission to the pont d'avignon so i went on it and did the audio guide there too..i was way tired by this point so i didn't really glean much. then i had a crepe (which i had missed so much) and just wandered around waiting to get on my train!
it was nice to be back in france where i spoke the language, legit.
anyways here are some pics:
pont d'avignon close to sunset:
palais des papes: (at a weird angle...)
granada
so on wednesday i left sevilla for granada. i took the train and it was slow and stopped everywhere and was bumpy... i've been spoilt by the trains in france obvi. anyways, i get to granada and find my hostel, which was a little difficult because 1)i don't speak spanish (obvi) and 2) i'm by myself at this point and 3) the streets in the part of granada that the hostel in is cobblestones and uphill and twisty and wind-y and not really labelled. anways, i get to the hostel and see my friends from sevilla! we go up to the rooftop terrace because its gorgeous and warm and we all like the sun. so we hang out up there and meet lots of people, which is good for me because at 8 pm that night they left me!:( they had a night train to catch to barcelona so we really just had the afternoon together.
anyways, we met lots of people, and i hung out with these people all night. they were all really cool and we had a lot of fun.
the next morning i woke up and decided i was going to go on this free walking tour the hostel offered before going to the alhambra. so that is what i did. it was a pretty good tour, i was sad i didn't get to stay for all of it because there is a specific time that you are allowed into the alhambra and if you miss it...tough luck. i also booked this ticket like.. two weeks before i even left for spring break because you can't just go up to the alhambra and expect to get tickets...its that popular. (and they limit the amount of people that can go in..)
anyways, the walking tour: we went up the albacyin (i'm not really sure how you spell it) but its another hill in granada (a hill the overlooks the alhambra) and this is where all of the regular people lived back in the day. it was really pretty. i learned a lot of fun stuff too, like when the christians finally captured granada they didn't build one new thing, they just put christian stuff over top all of the muslim stuff, so mosques became chruches, and you can really see this because the minaret became the bell tower and there are always 3 brass balls on the top of the minaret and these weren't taken down, a cross was just added. its very interesting. our guide also pointed out the only mosque in granada, which is very new, i think he said 2005. crazy! our guide was crazy and i really enjoyed him!
then the alhambra:
so the alhambra is a bunch of old palaces of rulers before the fall of granada. i didn't really learn much there to be honest. i got the audio guide, but it was really poorly done, and it was really hard to get a sense for things in the rooms. don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, but a little overrated in my opinion. i think if you go you should try to get a guided tour. one of my friends summed it up pretty well: i liked the views of the alhambra better than actually going into it. i sound so cynical, there were just so many people (in this instance i'm going to digress for a second: the french usage for lots of people fits so much better in my opinion: beaucoup de monde: lots of the world.. i legit feel like lots of the world was at this place with me!).
anyways.
that afternoon i then did some shopping in all of the moroccan themed (i think this is the right word?) shops... bought a fair amount of stuff... all for so cheap! loves it.
then i chilled on the rooftop terrace again, and then hung out with my friends from the night before, went on a tapas tour: delicious. legit, probably some of the best food i have ever eaten was at one of these places. probably helped that i was STARVING...
so that was granada! it was a very pretty city and i had lots of fun! which is good cause i was a little worried about being in a city by myself...
anways here are some pics:
view of the sunset from the rooftop terrace at the hostel:
view in the opposite direction from the rooftop hostel: those are the sierra nevada mountains!
the alhambra from the valley in between the hill its on and the albyacin (again, sorry for the spelling)
some of the decorations in the nazarin palace:
water was very important for the rulers who lived in the alhambra: for obvious reasons, they were from north africa where, in case you hadn't realized, they lived in desert conditions (shocking, i know). so they really celebrated water in granada:
anyways, we met lots of people, and i hung out with these people all night. they were all really cool and we had a lot of fun.
the next morning i woke up and decided i was going to go on this free walking tour the hostel offered before going to the alhambra. so that is what i did. it was a pretty good tour, i was sad i didn't get to stay for all of it because there is a specific time that you are allowed into the alhambra and if you miss it...tough luck. i also booked this ticket like.. two weeks before i even left for spring break because you can't just go up to the alhambra and expect to get tickets...its that popular. (and they limit the amount of people that can go in..)
anyways, the walking tour: we went up the albacyin (i'm not really sure how you spell it) but its another hill in granada (a hill the overlooks the alhambra) and this is where all of the regular people lived back in the day. it was really pretty. i learned a lot of fun stuff too, like when the christians finally captured granada they didn't build one new thing, they just put christian stuff over top all of the muslim stuff, so mosques became chruches, and you can really see this because the minaret became the bell tower and there are always 3 brass balls on the top of the minaret and these weren't taken down, a cross was just added. its very interesting. our guide also pointed out the only mosque in granada, which is very new, i think he said 2005. crazy! our guide was crazy and i really enjoyed him!
then the alhambra:
so the alhambra is a bunch of old palaces of rulers before the fall of granada. i didn't really learn much there to be honest. i got the audio guide, but it was really poorly done, and it was really hard to get a sense for things in the rooms. don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, but a little overrated in my opinion. i think if you go you should try to get a guided tour. one of my friends summed it up pretty well: i liked the views of the alhambra better than actually going into it. i sound so cynical, there were just so many people (in this instance i'm going to digress for a second: the french usage for lots of people fits so much better in my opinion: beaucoup de monde: lots of the world.. i legit feel like lots of the world was at this place with me!).
anyways.
that afternoon i then did some shopping in all of the moroccan themed (i think this is the right word?) shops... bought a fair amount of stuff... all for so cheap! loves it.
then i chilled on the rooftop terrace again, and then hung out with my friends from the night before, went on a tapas tour: delicious. legit, probably some of the best food i have ever eaten was at one of these places. probably helped that i was STARVING...
so that was granada! it was a very pretty city and i had lots of fun! which is good cause i was a little worried about being in a city by myself...
anways here are some pics:
view of the sunset from the rooftop terrace at the hostel:
view in the opposite direction from the rooftop hostel: those are the sierra nevada mountains!
the alhambra from the valley in between the hill its on and the albyacin (again, sorry for the spelling)
some of the decorations in the nazarin palace:
water was very important for the rulers who lived in the alhambra: for obvious reasons, they were from north africa where, in case you hadn't realized, they lived in desert conditions (shocking, i know). so they really celebrated water in granada:
Monday, April 27, 2009
sevilla
so on sunday zaid and i had a flight back to madrid (it was our go-to spot in spain apparently) and then immediately got on a train to sevilla. loved sevilla, it was just so chill.
so. we got into sevilla late on sunday night and saw 3 friends from our program who were already there (we knew they were there, so this wasn't random at all...) and we just hun gout for a bit, talking and planning for the next day. we decided that we would sleep in (yay!) and then have a picnic on the river and then get churros... so thats exactly what we did. we went from breakfast to go buy food at the supermarket and then straight to eat that food on the river! it was really pretty and sunny, and there was this crazy dog who kept trying to get food off of us. he didn't though! and then the churros and chocolate... a little overrated in my opinion. i think it would have been better without the chocolate and if there was powdered sugar on top instead...like funnel cake haha. oh well. then our 3 friends had to leave to catch their train to granada (where i would see them again). i decided to do a bit of reading on the rooftop terrace, and then decided to walk around...so i walk around, wandering this way and that just enjoying how i have no idea where i am going because none of the streets are straight and i don't have a map, and its sunny and warm! so i wander for about an hour, then zaid comes and meets up with me, where we wander some more and then decide its time for sangria, so we sit and chill and drink sangria. sevilla is basically just chillin the whole time. later that afternoon(or evening if you will) zaid and i meet up with benj and like.. 4 of his friends and 2 of our friends and just hang out until its time for us to change into warmer clothes before tapas and a flamenco show! it was benj and one of his friends and zaid and one of our friends who go to the show and it was cool, free, so not the best, but still good because i had never seen it before! that was basically the first day.
the next day benj offered to walk zaid and i around and show us te city, so we woke up and did that, and then met up with our friends to do the cathedral which was cool, mostly i liked seeing the views from the top of the tower. then zaid and i went to plaza de espana, which if you know episode one of star wars, will be familiar, and then chilled in the gardens by it eating lunch and just enjoying life. and then we thought, its time for more sangria, so we do just that. and just chill some more. (legit, thats all sevilla is about!) then zaid needs to leave, which marks teh beginning of being on my own (weird!). that night benj says he has to go to a concert for one of his classes and asks if i want to go, and i'm like sure. apparently its this really famous traditional sevillian music group, so listened to them for an hour and it was good! then we just hang out.
i left around 11 the next morning!
here are some pictures:
a view from our river picnic:
view from the cathedral tower as seen from plaza nueva or nuevo or some spanish name like that:
hanging out enjoying our sangria:
gold tower: where ships departed for the new world back in the day!
part of the top of the cathedral (the 3rd largest in the world after st peters and st pauls) and some of sevilla...it was gorgeous.
orange trees in a courtyard of the church: you could smell all of the orange blossoms basically as soon as you got off the train. it was glorious.
gold alterpiece in cathedral: it was HUGE. the picture doesn't really do it justice.
plaza de espana:
where we ate lunch!:
so. we got into sevilla late on sunday night and saw 3 friends from our program who were already there (we knew they were there, so this wasn't random at all...) and we just hun gout for a bit, talking and planning for the next day. we decided that we would sleep in (yay!) and then have a picnic on the river and then get churros... so thats exactly what we did. we went from breakfast to go buy food at the supermarket and then straight to eat that food on the river! it was really pretty and sunny, and there was this crazy dog who kept trying to get food off of us. he didn't though! and then the churros and chocolate... a little overrated in my opinion. i think it would have been better without the chocolate and if there was powdered sugar on top instead...like funnel cake haha. oh well. then our 3 friends had to leave to catch their train to granada (where i would see them again). i decided to do a bit of reading on the rooftop terrace, and then decided to walk around...so i walk around, wandering this way and that just enjoying how i have no idea where i am going because none of the streets are straight and i don't have a map, and its sunny and warm! so i wander for about an hour, then zaid comes and meets up with me, where we wander some more and then decide its time for sangria, so we sit and chill and drink sangria. sevilla is basically just chillin the whole time. later that afternoon(or evening if you will) zaid and i meet up with benj and like.. 4 of his friends and 2 of our friends and just hang out until its time for us to change into warmer clothes before tapas and a flamenco show! it was benj and one of his friends and zaid and one of our friends who go to the show and it was cool, free, so not the best, but still good because i had never seen it before! that was basically the first day.
the next day benj offered to walk zaid and i around and show us te city, so we woke up and did that, and then met up with our friends to do the cathedral which was cool, mostly i liked seeing the views from the top of the tower. then zaid and i went to plaza de espana, which if you know episode one of star wars, will be familiar, and then chilled in the gardens by it eating lunch and just enjoying life. and then we thought, its time for more sangria, so we do just that. and just chill some more. (legit, thats all sevilla is about!) then zaid needs to leave, which marks teh beginning of being on my own (weird!). that night benj says he has to go to a concert for one of his classes and asks if i want to go, and i'm like sure. apparently its this really famous traditional sevillian music group, so listened to them for an hour and it was good! then we just hang out.
i left around 11 the next morning!
here are some pictures:
a view from our river picnic:
view from the cathedral tower as seen from plaza nueva or nuevo or some spanish name like that:
hanging out enjoying our sangria:
gold tower: where ships departed for the new world back in the day!
part of the top of the cathedral (the 3rd largest in the world after st peters and st pauls) and some of sevilla...it was gorgeous.
orange trees in a courtyard of the church: you could smell all of the orange blossoms basically as soon as you got off the train. it was glorious.
gold alterpiece in cathedral: it was HUGE. the picture doesn't really do it justice.
plaza de espana:
where we ate lunch!:
Sunday, April 26, 2009
lisboa
so on friday afternoon zaid and i had a flight to lisbon! zaid turns to me on the plane and goes "katherine, you know the only thing i know about lisbon?" and at the same time both of us go "that they speak portuguese!" so obv zaid and i were going to this place with NO idea what to expect, but it turned out wonderfully.
one of my friends gave me a recommendation to stay at the travellers house hostel in lisbon, which has been consistently ranked as one of the top hostels IN THE WORLD for the past few years. so ture. such a great place. we get to the hostel after a long bus ride (we of course opt for the cheaper bus that makes stops everywhere and we're standing up for 40 min) and everyone was just so nice! they give us a tour of the place, which has a tv room, free internet, a lounge area, kitchen, dining room, a book shelf with lots of travel guides and a shelf where you can exchange books and a dorm fridge that has soda, water, and beer. they also explain about the events they do everynight, and that night happened to be a tradtional portuguese dinner. one of the guys also sat use down and put a map in front of us and said these are the places you should go. and wrote stuff down and circled and everything. he was great. then we saw our room, which had nice comfy beds, and a place to store your stuff and lock it up! obv i'm impressed with the hostel. legit, go to lisbon and stay here. totes worth it.
so anyways, then i walk around the city a bit while zaid is napping, buy some stuff, admire all the pottery (i am my mothers child) and then chill for a bit. that night i do the traditional portuegues dinner dealio which had chorizo, cheese, bread, smoked ham, butter, olives, and red wine... only 4 euro! it was really good, and the guy cooked the chorizo on this little pottery pig, it was pretty cool. hung out the rest of the night.
the next day did some sightseeing, went to castel sao jorge, a flea market, wandered around the alfama district which is the oldest part of the city, then went up to some ruins of an old monastery, did some shopping, napped a little, then zaid i went to this restaurant that the hostel recommended. it was traditional portugeuese food and apparently portugal missed the memo that europeans eat small portions, cause the amount of food we got at this place was insane! NO ONE could finish it! we got a rice, fish and shrimp dish and when we sat down we got a calamari salad thing (that wasn't bad!) and some fried cod fritters or something... we also got free after dinner drinks that i guess are typically portugeuse, it was cherry flavored. i wasn't a huge fan. hung out with people the rest of the night in the hostel.
the next morning we woke up and checked out and then went over to belem where they have monuments to the explorers (since this is really where it all started) and then a monastery and, the best part, the BEST PASTRIES YOU WILL EVER EAT. they are called pasteis or something and are basically just custard creams, but they were SO GOOD. SO GOOD. then that marked the end of our time in portugal. it was sad leaving!
it is legit one of my fav cities, i would highly advise everyone to go there. everyone we met was super nice!
here are some photos:
that is the castel sao jorge on the hill up there:
a lot of the houses are covered in tile: i thought it was cool!
one of the views from the top of the castel:
i just like this shot: saw it when we were wandering around the alfama district!
another view of the hill the castel was on, just from a different side, so on a diff hill!
the ruins of the monastery:
the monument to explorers:
so good: and it brought me back to samantha brown. love the travel channel. when i told the guy at the hostel i did know about this place i think he was happy i knew SOMETHING about the city haha. go me.
one of my friends gave me a recommendation to stay at the travellers house hostel in lisbon, which has been consistently ranked as one of the top hostels IN THE WORLD for the past few years. so ture. such a great place. we get to the hostel after a long bus ride (we of course opt for the cheaper bus that makes stops everywhere and we're standing up for 40 min) and everyone was just so nice! they give us a tour of the place, which has a tv room, free internet, a lounge area, kitchen, dining room, a book shelf with lots of travel guides and a shelf where you can exchange books and a dorm fridge that has soda, water, and beer. they also explain about the events they do everynight, and that night happened to be a tradtional portuguese dinner. one of the guys also sat use down and put a map in front of us and said these are the places you should go. and wrote stuff down and circled and everything. he was great. then we saw our room, which had nice comfy beds, and a place to store your stuff and lock it up! obv i'm impressed with the hostel. legit, go to lisbon and stay here. totes worth it.
so anyways, then i walk around the city a bit while zaid is napping, buy some stuff, admire all the pottery (i am my mothers child) and then chill for a bit. that night i do the traditional portuegues dinner dealio which had chorizo, cheese, bread, smoked ham, butter, olives, and red wine... only 4 euro! it was really good, and the guy cooked the chorizo on this little pottery pig, it was pretty cool. hung out the rest of the night.
the next day did some sightseeing, went to castel sao jorge, a flea market, wandered around the alfama district which is the oldest part of the city, then went up to some ruins of an old monastery, did some shopping, napped a little, then zaid i went to this restaurant that the hostel recommended. it was traditional portugeuese food and apparently portugal missed the memo that europeans eat small portions, cause the amount of food we got at this place was insane! NO ONE could finish it! we got a rice, fish and shrimp dish and when we sat down we got a calamari salad thing (that wasn't bad!) and some fried cod fritters or something... we also got free after dinner drinks that i guess are typically portugeuse, it was cherry flavored. i wasn't a huge fan. hung out with people the rest of the night in the hostel.
the next morning we woke up and checked out and then went over to belem where they have monuments to the explorers (since this is really where it all started) and then a monastery and, the best part, the BEST PASTRIES YOU WILL EVER EAT. they are called pasteis or something and are basically just custard creams, but they were SO GOOD. SO GOOD. then that marked the end of our time in portugal. it was sad leaving!
it is legit one of my fav cities, i would highly advise everyone to go there. everyone we met was super nice!
here are some photos:
that is the castel sao jorge on the hill up there:
a lot of the houses are covered in tile: i thought it was cool!
one of the views from the top of the castel:
i just like this shot: saw it when we were wandering around the alfama district!
another view of the hill the castel was on, just from a different side, so on a diff hill!
the ruins of the monastery:
the monument to explorers:
so good: and it brought me back to samantha brown. love the travel channel. when i told the guy at the hostel i did know about this place i think he was happy i knew SOMETHING about the city haha. go me.
gran canaria
so on tuesday morning zaid and i left early for gran canaria! we were both very excited to get to the beach and just lounge all day! however, we chose to stay in las palmas, which is the capital city and on the north side of the island. for anyone who is thinking of going this is a MISTAKE. DO NOT stay in las palmas! las palmas is a city that you visit from the south of the island. it really is just a city, and it rains there a lot. so the first day we got to our hostel, which was really...interesting. we had our own room and our own bathroom but the bathroom was not fully enclosed, it was open at the top so you could talk to each other while someone was in the bathroom.... so our arrival on gran canaria was a little bit of a letdown. but we rallied and decided we needed food so we walked trying to find an open place, which we found, and it was a local place where we got huge bocadillos for SO CHEAP. it was amazing. we got cokes, and 2 big sandwiches each, and neither of us knew how much it was going to be, but each of us though to ourselves, ok, this was a big sandwhich, i'm ok paying 5 euro for this sandwhich. our total bill was 7 euro. great. then we walked down to the beach, but by this point it had clouded up and was starting to rain, so we went to an i nternet cafe to figure out what we would do with our lives for the rest of our time in gran canaria. so we looked at places to go out that night etc, and then we were talking about going to the south of the island the next day for the whole day and so we were trying to figure out the buses to come back, we decided to just completly move there since the buses stopped early. so we found a place to stay and moved there the next day.
the night however, another epic adventure ensued.
whilest at the airport we got a flyer for outlet malls and the flyer said there was a mango and a zara outlet so that basically equalled katherine's heaven. it also said we could get there by public transportation, so we go to the bus station, and ask at information, and the lady there tells us to get on bus 80, so we go to bus 80 and ask the very nice man "las terrazas?" and show him a flyer and he goes no, so we start to walk away, but the guy must take pity on us, cause he honks at us (that was loud!) and tells us to sit down and he'll take us to the bus we need to take. so he takes us to the other bus station and tells us "uno, you need one" so we go to bus one and we do the same thing with this driver "las terrazas?" and show him the flyer. the guy looks at us, and must thinkwe're nuts and sort of grimaces and says fine, but points to the first seats on the bus. so we're driving along, and after about 20 min of driving on the HIGHWAY the bus driver points at us, points at the outlets across THE HIGHWAY and points to a stop ON THE HIGHWAY and then proceeds to stop and tells us to get off. so zaid and i got off of a bus ON THE HIGHWAY and had to walk down a dirt hill to get under the highway and to the outlet complex. apparently the flyers lied about public transportation access, and the only entrance was through the parking garage which took us a long time to figure out... so when we finally got in we were a little disappointed..i did find some good things at mango...but thats about it. and we had to take a taxi back cause neither of us was enjoying the thought of walking along the highway till we came to a bus stop..... so we went back to our hostel to change and rest before going out that night, but that turned into falling asleep at like.. 10. it was ok though.
we woke up the next morning and hauled it over to the other side of the island. best decision ever. it was sunny and warm and legit a resort. so we got to our hostel which was actually this guys house that he rented two extra rooms of, and then immediately went down to the beach where we stayed for the remainder of the day. that night we went out to this really cool area which was basically a shopping mall of bars, coolest complex ever, and we went to go see a drag comedy show. i had NO idea what we got ourselves into, but it was hilarious all the same... but the jokes did get kind of old so we peaced a lil early.
the next day we went to a different part of the beach that was a farther walk but toally worth it because there were sand dunes! it was basically a little mini desert! and spent the monring/early afternoon there before heading back to shower and then catch our bus to the airport.
we were both SO exhausted. we were spending the night in madrid at my friend casey's apartment again, and we were supposed to get there around 1 and we had planned earlier in the week that we would just go straight out...since thats what time everything start anyways.... however, when we got to madrid i looked at casey and zaid and was like... uh..not happening, i was just too tired. its ok though, we woke up the next morning and went to the prado for 30 min, but i saw all that i wanted, goya and valezquez (which i cant spell...) and then we got on a flight to lisbon!
here are some pics of the canary islands:
this is the beach in las palmas: see why we were a lil disappointed?
playa del ingles: the other side of the island: compeletly different!
the dunes:
before starting our trek over the dunes to the beach!
the night however, another epic adventure ensued.
whilest at the airport we got a flyer for outlet malls and the flyer said there was a mango and a zara outlet so that basically equalled katherine's heaven. it also said we could get there by public transportation, so we go to the bus station, and ask at information, and the lady there tells us to get on bus 80, so we go to bus 80 and ask the very nice man "las terrazas?" and show him a flyer and he goes no, so we start to walk away, but the guy must take pity on us, cause he honks at us (that was loud!) and tells us to sit down and he'll take us to the bus we need to take. so he takes us to the other bus station and tells us "uno, you need one" so we go to bus one and we do the same thing with this driver "las terrazas?" and show him the flyer. the guy looks at us, and must thinkwe're nuts and sort of grimaces and says fine, but points to the first seats on the bus. so we're driving along, and after about 20 min of driving on the HIGHWAY the bus driver points at us, points at the outlets across THE HIGHWAY and points to a stop ON THE HIGHWAY and then proceeds to stop and tells us to get off. so zaid and i got off of a bus ON THE HIGHWAY and had to walk down a dirt hill to get under the highway and to the outlet complex. apparently the flyers lied about public transportation access, and the only entrance was through the parking garage which took us a long time to figure out... so when we finally got in we were a little disappointed..i did find some good things at mango...but thats about it. and we had to take a taxi back cause neither of us was enjoying the thought of walking along the highway till we came to a bus stop..... so we went back to our hostel to change and rest before going out that night, but that turned into falling asleep at like.. 10. it was ok though.
we woke up the next morning and hauled it over to the other side of the island. best decision ever. it was sunny and warm and legit a resort. so we got to our hostel which was actually this guys house that he rented two extra rooms of, and then immediately went down to the beach where we stayed for the remainder of the day. that night we went out to this really cool area which was basically a shopping mall of bars, coolest complex ever, and we went to go see a drag comedy show. i had NO idea what we got ourselves into, but it was hilarious all the same... but the jokes did get kind of old so we peaced a lil early.
the next day we went to a different part of the beach that was a farther walk but toally worth it because there were sand dunes! it was basically a little mini desert! and spent the monring/early afternoon there before heading back to shower and then catch our bus to the airport.
we were both SO exhausted. we were spending the night in madrid at my friend casey's apartment again, and we were supposed to get there around 1 and we had planned earlier in the week that we would just go straight out...since thats what time everything start anyways.... however, when we got to madrid i looked at casey and zaid and was like... uh..not happening, i was just too tired. its ok though, we woke up the next morning and went to the prado for 30 min, but i saw all that i wanted, goya and valezquez (which i cant spell...) and then we got on a flight to lisbon!
here are some pics of the canary islands:
this is the beach in las palmas: see why we were a lil disappointed?
playa del ingles: the other side of the island: compeletly different!
the dunes:
before starting our trek over the dunes to the beach!
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