Madrid

Now after 10 days of traveling the logical thing would be to stay put for a while but nope not me. Got back Sunday night and was already heading of to Madrid by Wednesday. This turned out to be one of the funest most bizarre weekends of my life.

The weekend started of on a rocky note with me getting to Madrid and having my phone run out of money the second I attempted to contact Natalie and Christina the girls I was meeting up with.

If I were anywhere else I would have freaked out but since it was just Madrid I felt pretty good, so I took a cab to the apartment were we were gonna be spending the weekend. I get out of the cab and start looking for the building when I start hearing chanting and a sea of red start coming my way.

WOO I was in the middle of a mob/riot/protest !!! how exciting

It was at this point that I started to get a bit more nervous because I could not find this apartment to save my life. Thank god for I phones tho, I was able to use the internet to get in contact with Natalie and all was well.

The rest of the weekend can be summed up as such…

Palace. Gelato. Gardens. Gelato. Dinner. Tour. Gelato. Nap. Kapital. Cathedral. Gelato. Royal Gardens. Gelato.

10 diaz, 5 paises, Una Mochilita

Stage 3: Budapest Hungry

We arrive to Budapest bright and early and immediately changed our money into Hungarian huffs or as we liked to call them huffelpuffs. After doing so we took a nice little 20 min walk to the loft hostel, the place were we would be staying at for the next 2 nights.

It was at this point in the trip that I thought Cory, Madeline, Meg, Ryan and Ryan might murder me…because I had booked the hostel.

We arrived at the address of where our hostel should have been tired and cold and all we wanted to do was move in. So we open the door to the Loft hostel in immediately find ourselves on the set of a terribly low budget bad guy kills all the stupid teens horror movie.

The light is flickering as we walk in and in front of us is a courtyard that was in major need of some upkeep. The skies were gray which only added to the eerie vibe the building was giving off, there was not a soul in sight and all the plants in that courtyard were beyond dead.

To our right we see a little sign that reads “ The Loft Hostel 4^th Floor”. We had two ways of getting up there the stairs or a coffin sized elevator that seriously looked like it belong in a haunted house or tower of terror at the very least. So as we make our way up the run down stairs I can feel everyone starting to get mad at me for booking what we all thought at that moment was going to be our death…

the elevator had a 600lb weight limit... we crammed 6 of us in there and lived

Things didn’t get better when we got on the 3^rd floor. Again there we were greeted with another sign pointing toward the loft hostel. We then had to walk around the 3^rd level of the courtyard to the other side were there was another set of stairs.

These stairs were wooden and ridiculous run down and to make matters worse there was acreppy wooden door on this ‘staircase’ that led to nowhere. I though for sure we were going to be taken. I didn’t understand though how this could have happened. The hostel had a 98% approval rating and it looked great in pictures…

We finally made our way all the way up to the ‘4^th floor’ were there was a door at the end of the hallway that had Loft Hostel on it. We open the door and YES its not a hell hole. Its actually a nice place.. its actually

a really nice place!?!? With FREE cookies and nuttela andhot chocolate. YES

Once inside we got settled into our private 6 person room …were for the first time in a week we all had OUR OWN BEDS we made our way to Budda. (the other side of the river)

We did some sightseeing and climbed up a mountain to St. Matias church and the palace

(we would later find out that there were stairs)

After a couple of hours of walking around Budda in the snowrain we decided to go buy groceries and then head to the hostel and make some dinner.

Because the euro is stronger than the hufflepuff and because hungry is not an expensive country to travel within we were able to again get a ridiculous amount of food for close to nothing. It was also at this time that we discovered the most delicious thing EVER

For about 50cents you could get a fresh croissant that was as big as your head that was filled and dipped in chocolate. Naturally we all got one.

For dinner that day we decided to make breakfast omelets. Madeline and I made this and added one special ingredient to the mix. Wine. Turns out eggs taste better when they have been mixed with a bit of wine who knew?

After dinner we decided to have a chill night so we stayed in at the hostel that night and did what every American student in Europe should do. Watch Taken.

Day 2

The next day we got up bright and early and made our way to our free waking tour.

After the walking tour we went home and had some lunch and then went right back out because our walking tour guide had told us that this was a very special weekend in Budapest because there was a lot going on. Like a massive pillow fight in the middle of the town square were people write words on pillows and then have a pillow fight as a way of letting out negative feelings out in a positive way. Or at least that’s how she explained it.

So we get to this square eager to see this pillow fight and WOMP WOMP nothing. Nada. No one was there. It was at this point that we started to question everything our tour guide had told us.

Was Budapest really pronounced Budda-pesht by Hungarians or was that some joke they played on all the Americans? Was the market really the best place to eat? The list of doubts goes on….

After that letdown we headed home and made pasta for dinner.

Day 3

We got another early start to make the most of our last full day of break and walked around the famous streets of Budapest making our way to the Opera house and the Terror museum before finally making our way to city park.

After walking around city park for awhile we made our way the Hungarian bath house.

Which as home to more than 15 different indoor and outdoor pools, a sauna and spa. This would be the perf

ect way to relax after 10 days of traveling.

My favorite bath was the one that was outdoor. Although you nearly froze to death trying to get into it once inside it was well worth it the water was so warm and it was really nice just to be able to sit there and look up at the sky.

After spending a couple of hours at the baths we made our way to dinner. We had heard nothing but positive things about this little restaurant by our hostel that made great duck so we decided to go there.

The entire 30min walk back Madeline kept singing. Oh NOM NOM where’s my Duck. Once there Cory, Madeline, Meg and Ryan got the duck. I got steak which came served with a mountain of fried caramelized onion and French fries. NOM NOM

After a very satisfying meal we headed back to the hostel and got ready for the long day of traveling ahead of us

DAY4

We woke up bright and early having really enjoyed the past 9 days but more than ready and eager to be back home in Granada. We left our hostel and started making our way to catch a bus which would take us from Budapest to Bratsliva, where we would be flying out of to head home to Granada.

Were walking and walking, and we start noticing that were still not there and still not there. Meg looks at her watch we have 15min to get there. So we power walk and power walk and power walk

Still no bus station in sight

10min left on the clock….

The 7 of us start full on running. This was not at all an enjoyable experience. For one running in boots is not comfortable or practical and running with a huge backpack which at that moment felt more like an 50lb gorilla is never okay.

We ran for a while the guys were a block or so ahead and after running up a flight of stairs we saw the bus. THANK GOD ryan had ran ahead and stalled the bus because if it were not for him we would have missed that bus because the second the last of us got on that bus was moving.

Looking back we are so lucky to have made that bus. I don’t event know what would have happened if we didn’t. How we would have gotten home and how much that would have cost all of us.

Once in Bratislava it quickly became apparent to us why the movie hostel was filmed there and we were more than happy to just board and plane and head on home

10 diaz, 5 paises, Una Mochilita

Stage 2: Vienna, Austria

After a very nice bus ride, which included Free WIFI we arrived in Austria. It was noticeably colder than Prague and we again severely underestimated how much warm clothes we would need to bring. It was during this part of the trip that Ryan Mcnallys’ fingers would turn blue … Vienna would be our Valley.

We arrived in Vienna early and immediately met up with Matt N. a friend from school who had agreed to host us for the next three days. After buying our tickets for the U BANN ( the most organized and efficient metro system I have ever ridden) we mad our way to Matt’s place which was about 20 min away. After settling into a room that should never have more than 7 people in it ever. We went off to explore Vienna.

After a few hours of walking in the snow and McNally losing all feeling in his hands we decided that it was time for dinner. We arrived at this restaurant called centimeter which had been highly recommended to us from students past. The restaurant had a whimsical feel to it with odd paintings on the walls and metric rulers everywhere. Now this restaurant was a little out of our way but we HAD to go there to get this legendary sausage/bacon/fries/heart attack dish.

When we arrived we all ordered and finished this dish, which included; a mountain of French fries and three sausages filled with cheese and wrapped in bacon. I felt like I was on Man v Food.

After that meal all 7 of us where in no shape to continue walking.. or sightsee or do any form of physical activity for that matter. So we headed back to Matt’s place were we relaxed and played cards before going out that night.

Vienna Day 2

The next day we got off to a bit of a slower start than normal but we had an amazing breakfast complete with eggs, toast, nuttella and my personal favorite…COLD MILK!?!?!

(the likes of which don’t exist in Spain)

Now our plan for this day was to take a walking tour of Vienna, because up to this point we had done and loved that in every city we went to. Only problem was for some odd reason Vienna did not offer ANY free walking tours, the best we could find was a ‘free self guided tour’ online. So we decided to do this and explore the city on our own.

It was freezing out. Everything in Vienna is to spread out to enjoy in the cold. Ryan’s hands turned blue again. Our ‘walking tour’ was a fail. After a couple of hours of aimlessly wandering and a few good sights later we decided to seek refuge in an American institution…McDonalds

Now for those of you who have never had the pleasure of traveling to Europe and experiencing Euro McDonalds I have this to say to you. We in America are being completely ripped off. Euro McDonalds are 100 times nicer than American ones there menus are more extensive including curly fires and waffle fries and their food just looks better than anything you could order from McDonalds in the states.

But enough about that. After our little McD’s break and some hot chocolate we made our way to the famous Palace which we were sure would not disappoint because 1. It’s a palace 2. We were told it had gardens that were comparable to those in Versailles. We didn’t think this all the way through…

The Palace itself was huge and beautiful but the gardens… well … everything was dead. As it should be in the middle of winter, but it does NOT make for good sightseeing. After that disappointing adventure we decided to make our way back to matt’s but not before stopping at a hill we passed on the way to the palace because Madeline NEEDED to take a picture on the hill and recreate scenes from the sound of music .

the hills are alive with the sound of music

palace

For dinner that day we were lucky enough to find a little Euro ALDI were we purchased a ton of food for about 5 euro. We made ourselves some pretty delicious grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and then got ready to meet up with some U of I friends that were studying abroad in Vienna’s business program.

(which I would like to point out at this time is NOT a real program because 1. They have a total of 16 days of class2. They got 3 credit hours for going skiing for a week)

Vienna Day 3

We woke up to find another miserably cold day in Vienna.. so we again decided to take our time leaving the warmth of Matt’s place. We made another awesome breakfast and then left to meet up with Kelsey, McKenna, Breanne and Estaban fellow Granada U of I’ers.

Since it was so cold again. Surprise. We decided to go to some of Vienna’s famous museums stopping first at a famous chocolate stand. NOM. And then making our way to a music museum

After awhile at museum we made our way to a world market and did a little souvenir shopping in sub zero weather before making our way back to Matt’s for dinner.

The day before we had agreed on having pasta for dinner on this night but again we didn’t think it all the way through, after making about 3 pounds of pasta and burning some garlic bread we realized we had one little problem…

Utensils . Turns out Matt only had 2 plates. 3 forks. 3 spoons. And for some odd reason 4 knifes. There were seven of us…

We ended up enjoying our pasta on napkins, which we felt were a suitable alternative to plates and doing what we could with our silverware situation. Bottom line we were savages it was both hilarious and sad watching us try to eat that pasta. I honestly felt like I was on survivor .

To top of the night we played some cards and got to bed early because we had an early bus to catch to Budapest

10 diaz, 5 paises, Una Mochilita

Stage One
10 days 5 countries one average sized backpack. That is what I am about to attempt to accomplish.

slightly under-packed for a rather cold 10 day trip...woops

The first leg of our trip wentrather smoothly. About 24 of us boarded the 9pm bus headed from Granada toward the Malaga Airport. For what was gonna be yet another night (and yes I realize this won’t be my last) of me sleeping at the Malaga airport whoop

This time it was basically a party though which made the time go by even faster. After some talking and joking around we decided to attempt to do something that is absolutely impossible to do at the Malaga airport .... Sleep

Since the seats have armrest that don’t go down or up and the floor at this point seemed rather uncomfortable I decided to wiggle my way through the hole that was between the armrest and seatand made a rather comfy bed

At 5 am we got ready for our first flight to the Netherlands. This would be my first time flying on Ryanair and it was an experience to say the least.

Now I've always heard the expression you get what you pay for bur never in my life had it become as evident to me as I boarded that. "plane" . But I guess with a 25 euro flight you shouldn't expect much. This is what we got

1. Our bag had to fit in the box that was about the size of a small drawer or large encyclopedia

2. No lines! Good?? No bad they weren't organized enough to make lines we just mobbed

3. Picking a seat was a free for all … first come first serve.. if not SORRY no seat for you

4. The airplane was painted in these neon yellow and blue that made you nauseous

5. They did not provide those little throw up bags

6. The seats did not recline at all

7. Window seats did not always Include window

8. Upon arrival there is a loud cheering noise that plays on the speakers which says hoorrayyy you have been on one of 11-% of Ryan air flights that make it on time

9. The airline sells you toy airplanes that cost more than your actual ticket

10. At no point during the flight were the cabin lights turned off??

Gracias a dios we made it o the Netherlands just fine. The airport in Eidenhoven was no bigger than the union and that's being generous.

We wait for the plane and we wait and wait... And then an announcement. Woo one hour delay

While we wait a group of 12 guys come into the waiting room. They are completely decked out in neon suites... We don't no why this is the case but we are all very amused. They board our plane as well.

Stage Two: Prague

All smiles on the way to Sam's

After a 900 Crown taxi ride (yeah the currency is ridiculous but cheaper than the dollar and euros) we made it to Ryan’s friends apartment.

Well kind of… You see even though Ryan new the address he didn't know which one of the apartments was actually his.

We had 10 choices. 9 door bells were blank and the other had the name Aswani.

So we figured as any normal person would that since none of Ryan’s friends were named Aswani it had to be one of the first 9

Well 9 guesses later and me saying Sam… Sammy… is this Sam?? 9 times with no answer we decided to try Aswani and bam door opens

Sam? Yes yes it was Sam and the most wonderful apartment ever

5 bedrooms two floors. For something that was given to them by their program it was a palace. We would have one pull out couch and a bed to share for the next three nights.

After settling in we decides to go off and explore a bit. Lucky for us Sam’s place was no more 10min away from the main square so we ventured off there.

We got to see some pretty amazing sights as the sun was setting and we walked through Prague old town

On our way home we stopped at these little slice of heaven. These food stands that sell sausages and fried cheese sandwiches. OM NOM NOM I got a massive sausage that was the size of my arm French fries OM NOM NOM for a really good price

Prague Day 2

We woke up and had a quick typical European breakfast... Toast with nuttella, now I regret to say

that at a later date I would actually hate this combo because of the obscene amounts that I consumed it in during my trip bit for now I still loves it.. lots

After breakfast our "super six" yeah Cory came up with that real original name, made our way once again to old time sqaure. There we met up with a free tour company and our new BFF FILLIP

Now it was during this 3 hour tour that I realizes I still had allot of old pics on my camera so I started deleting them to make room for the next 9 days of my European travels
Womp womp my camera apparently features a delete all button which I pressed woohhooo and with that I lost all the pica from the previous night. Prague during sunset, Madeline spilling her allergy pills all over the bus station, Bruce and Logan and their grandma and grandpa luggage and the original nomming of the sausage pics.

I was devestated.

Lucky for me this lil accident occurred on day one, and not later on in the trip. During the tour we went all over Prague and got to see some pretty amazing sights.

By the end of it we were all freezing. But were determined to make the most of our day so we crossed the famous Bridge and made our way to the John Lennon wall

After a couple of failed attempts at taking a cartwheel pic in front of this wall we made our way back home to Sam’s place where Madeline being the good little Italian that she is made all 10 of us a wonderful pasta dinner.

Prague Day 3

1130

Bam?-!? The bad luck monster strikes again. An alarm that was supposed to be set for 10am was not set and we do not end up making it out of the apartment till 12.

This would not have been a problem except foe tw fact that the Castle closed at 3 and the Jew museum closed at 4

We made it to the Castle at 1, walked around the castle grounds and made are way through yet another gorgeous cathedral. Afterward we made our way to the Jewish museum. This would turn out to be on of my favorite part of my Prague trip.

3 of the rooms had nothing on the walls but black and red writing. These where the names of Prague Jews who were sent off to concentration camps. It included their date of birth and death. For many of the names of the wall this record is the only record of their existence.

Upstairs featured a smaller room filled with children’s art. These sketches and doodles were drawn by children secretly inside of a concentration camp. Though this art children of the holocaust were better able to express their feelings toward the situation around them

We continued our visit of the museum with a trip to the Jewish cemetery that was also on the same grounds. This grave was about 11 feet above ground level. A result of the lack of space for more Jewish burial grounds, bodies at this cemetery are literally buried one on top of the other.

The cemetery also features the grave of a famous rabbi and as legend has it if you leave a wish with him it always comes true.

We all left a little wish behind before making our way to the Spanish synagogue one block away.

This synagogue was gorgeous and even though we were all so eager to take pictures . Pictures were not allowed

I find this no photo thing to be a reoccurring theme in Europe. Almost every Place I have visited has had one of these signs, but since no one was ever really there to enforce it all was okay

Except for the Spanish synagogue. Web we walked in we saw a various people taking photos so we thought it was okay. Then Ryan pulls out his camera and bam

Put of no where this cracky little old woman comes and starts yelling at him saying no photo ! No photo!
He apologizes and buta his camera away and then we watch in awe as a woman and her husband take a series of photos right in front f her face

Her reaction... None

After that episode was over we headed back toward the main square to do some touristy shopping

for those of you who don't no I have a thing for collecting black and white postcards and I had ye

t to snag one here

Before making it to the square we stopped and nommed another amazing sausage then we continued on with our shopping.

Now the day prior we had stumpled upon this restaurant called bohemian bagel. It was a chain restaurant

with what looked and sounded like amazing breakfast food. The night prior we had all decided that this would be the perfect place to have dinner on our Finnalt night. And we were all planning on ordering this delicious egg pancake bagel sausage bacon and hashbrown combo

We made our way to this lil gem with nothing but positive things on our mind and then we get there and I make a rather alarming discovery.

Womp womp bohemian bagel does. Not accept any credit cards or euro. The majority of us had very limit

ed crown left and none of us had thought that such a Cain place would nit exempt that form of currecy

We decide to make our way to the nearest change place to excnahw some euro for crowns to pay for the meal.

Bad idea .

We then decide that the cheapest thing to do is to just o home and call it a day. Our awaken dinner turned into a night of outmeal and waffela with nuttela

We had a early bus to catch the next day so we all stayed in and got ready for the next part Of our trip...

Sevilla

Now before I start this post, I would just like to say that Sevilla is probably one of the most underrated places i

n Spain and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is considering coming to Spain. Secondly I would like to say that I don’t think I could have gone to Sevilla with a better group of people. You guys are honestly amazing and I had one of the best weekend of my life thanks to all of you ☺

Friday Feb 4th

Woke up at 6:40. This is the earliest I have woken up in awhile. It was cold and dark out but lucky for me the bus that that takes me to the Granada bus terminal picks up 2 blocks away from my apartment. I wait for the bus and it arrives and 7:20 there is a lot more traffic than normal and I make it to the bus station around 7:45.

It is there that I had planned o

n meeting up with Madeline, Caroline, Lauren and Danielle. Much to my surprise upon arrival Lauren and Danielle were no were to be found….turns out as luck would have it that they had taken the wrong bus to the bus terminal and were instead headed toward the Sierra Nevada.

Madeline, Caroline and myself promptly bordered the bus at 7:55, Lauren and Danielle would be forced to take another bus. The bus ride to sevilla went smoothly, we were given ‘breakfast’ on the bus and I almost immediately feel asleep after eating my palmera cookies

We arrived at Sevilla around 11 and were welcomed by absolutely gorgeous weather, it was in the 60’s at least. After leaving the train we made o

ur way to the “Garden Backpacker Hostel”.This would be my first hostel experience ever.

We made it to the hostel without any problems, just a couple of creepy stares. The hostel was awesome! It featured and outdoor garden area complete with tables and hammocks as well as a full service kitchen and sun roof.

Since Madeline and I had booked the hostel later then the rest of the girls we w

ere going to have to be sharing a bed for the first night. So I checked us and we made out way to ‘our’ room. The rooms were pretty big and the beds were too thankfully.

Lauren and Danielle arrived around 2pm and as soon as they settled in we took a walking tour, that our hostel offered for free. The tour last about 3 hours and we were able to see a lot of what Sevilla had to offer

We made our way back to the hostel around 6:30pm. By then Estaban and Ryan had arrived to sevilla as well so we were gonna meet up with them and plan the rest of our day. Back at the hostel we decided to sign up for dinner. 6 Euro got us all you can eat Palle and Sangria. It was absolutely amazing and it defiantly set the tone for the rest of the night.

We spent a majority of the night just drinking and talking at the hostel and it turned into one of the funniest nights I had had in a while. It was during this time that I noticed that at our hostels ‘bar’ there were straws that were about a foot and a half long. I NEEDED to have one, I ended up with 8 and our group was entertained for quite some time as a result of these.

Around midnight our group made our way back into the city because we were really eager to get a taste of the Sevilla night life. This didn’t work out exactly as planned but we still managed to make a night out of it.

Once back at our hostel Madeline and I realized that we would be sleeping under what we decided was the creepiest man we had ever seen. So we made the executive decision to switch rooms, we grabbed our mattress and moved it into Estaban and Ryan’s room private room.

After the most ridiculous photo shoot ever and getting in trouble by the hostel staff for giggling to loud we went to sleep.

Saturday Feb 5th

We woke up the next day at 9:30 to get an early start on our day. The hostel offered us a free breakfast. Mine consisted of toast covered in nuttella, how incredibly healthy of me right?

This day I would end up referring to as The Perfect Day. During the morning we went sightseeing visiting the Cathedral, which is gorgeous and is currently my favorite, the Alcazar with its beautiful gardens. Around 2 we got a Menu del dia at one of the local restaurants. It was delicious, but it did not compare to the AMAZING paella from the night before. OM NOM NOM

Afterwards we climbed up the cathedral tower, which at one point used to be the tallest building in the world. 37 ramps later we were greeted with enormous bells and a rather amazing view.

Now for the past day or so we had all been toying with the idea of renting bikes and that afternoon we decided to go for it. This turned out to be the best decision of the weekend. We rode our bikes down the bike path, along the river, through the parks, and around la Plaza Espana. It was the perfect way to end the day.

After all off that we were all pretty hungry so we decided we needed to get food. Being the economicly savvy college kids that we are we decided making dinner for ourselves would be our most affordable option.

So we walked into super sol not knowing what to expect and then we stumbled upon this little deal… 2 full size pizzas for….. drum roll 90cents?!!!? Only catch? They were ham and cheese pizzas

Did we buy them? Of course!
Did we each eat our own? Duh?!
Did we regret it later?! Helll no. ( well Esteban did….)

That night my nutritionist approved dinner consisted of: 1 full size ham and cheese pizza (45 cents) one roll of principe cookies (they are amazing and you should all try them) (25 cents) 3 mandarins (60 cents) WIN

Sunday Feb 6th

Esteban, Madeline, Ryan and myself went to mass at the cathedral. It was the fastest mass I have ever been too… ever. It was incredible how fast the priest were speaking.

We spent the majority of our last day in Sevilla just walking around the city and taking in the sights. We even napped a lil along the river. It was all very European of us… until lunch when we all caved in and had burgerking.

Nonetheless it was another great weekend with some pretty amazing people