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

Un Fin De Semana En Barcelona

Thursday Jan 27

8pm - Karrah and I leave class and eagerly start our journey towards Barcelona.

8:45pm – The bus that normally runs every 10 minutes from Camino de Ronda to the bus station is regrettably now 30 min late. Our bus for the Malaga airport leaves at 9:30pm. Panic insues.

9:02 pm – Bus #10 spotted!

9:25 – We run off the bus and arrive at the bus station with no more than 5 minutes to spare. I wish I could tell you that this was gonna be the last time Karrah and I ran to catch a bus, plane or train this weekend but that would be a boldface lie.

Much to my surprise we depart promptly at 9:30 and arrive at the Malaga bus station around 11:20. The Malaga bus terminal is small and dark, there are a few people sleeping on benches but for the most part the place is empty. Immediately upon arrival we do the most logical thing buy a Kit Kat bar.

I was slightly disappointed with my purchase when it did not taste just like American Kit Kat bars ☹ even the chocolate here is healthier for you… less sugar I guess?

At this point we decided that we would be better of if we headed to the Malaga Airport and just wait for our early flight departure there. Only problem was we weren’t 100% sure how to get there. We walk around and see there’s a line of taxis lined up but neither of us dared approach them. They seemed sketchy. All of them had drivers in the front seat but the drivers were sleeping. We come to the realization that we are gonna have to knock on one of their windows and ask them for a ride to the airport because there was no way we were gonna stay at the bus terminal much longer.

Before we ask though we decided that we need to throw away our kit kat wrappers, an obvious ploy to put off the creepy taxi ride that was about to ensue. It was at this point that we noticed a small sign advertising 2 Euro bus rides from the terminal to the airport we were so excited and then we noticed that the last bus of the night left the terminal at 11:45. It was 11:44… we ran to the bus.

Friday Jan 28

We arrived at the Malaga Airport a little after midnight. Their airport was surprisingly large and even featured a very nice outdoor waiting area addition. We now had the pleasure of waiting 7 hours for our flight from Malaga to Barcelona. WooOOoOooOo At first we didn’t think it would be that bad because both of our senoras had told us that the Malaga Airport was international, so we had made the foolish assumption of thinking it would be like O’hare were the restaurant and stores are always open.

The reality was that once inside the Malaga Airport, as large as it was Karrah and I could have counted the number of people there on our hands alone. We find a bench and decided to set camp there. I look at the enormous clock mounted on the wall 12:15am … cool we only had 6hours and 45 min more to kill. Karrah starts writing in her Spanish diary and I continue reading Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Skyes, a book that I had started a few days prior due to the fact that I am currently Internet less at home. To amuse myself I tell Karrah what time it is every ten minutes. She wants’ to kill me after I do thins twice to her and openly admits it in her Spanish diary… I wonder what Naria will think of her when she reads it?

OMG How will we EVVVER Find SEATS?

12:45 am - I decided now would be a good time to work on internship applications.

1 am – Karrah and I are approached by a very happy traveler. He has a very childish face and for some reason reminds me of a lawn gnome.... the most awkward moment of either of our lives ensues. The guy starts the conversation with a friendly Hola do you speak English? We both respond si. At this point he proceeds to tell us he’s bored and has a lot of time to kill before his 6:30 am flight to his home in Berlin.

Awkward silence… it was at this time that it occurred to both Karrah and I that this guy wanted to sit and chat with us for the next 6 hours. Something that neither of us were really in the mood to do.

The awkward silence continued on for what seemed like forever and you could see the poor guys expression go from super happy to smile to just straight up confusion as to why the two of us seemed incapable of speaking.

I broke the silence in the most suave way possible… I lifted the blank piece of paper in front of me and said. I’m sorry I’m working on this. After that he just kinda said oh and walked away. I realize this was incredibly rude but in my defense I had been working on that piece of paper, I was trying to write and internship essay I just hadn’t managed to write it down & the thought of having to talk to this stranger for the next 6 hours seemed rather exhausting.

the exact piece of paper (aka back of my ticket) that i was 'working' on

2 am - Karrah and I have successfully entertained ourselves for another hour reading dear blank please blank and text from last night. We decided that it would be smart if we try to get some sleep so that we can be awake during the day on Friday and immediately go sightseeing with Alyssa upon our arrival.

2:30 am- It is at this time that Karrah and I hit an all time low. We make a bed using a Starbucks coffee table and 6 chairs.

5 am – Starbucks is gonna open in 30 min so we get out of our bed and make our way to the actual sitting room. Neither us actually slept. I would say maybe MAYBE we got 30min a piece while we were there.

5:15 am- Karrahs bag is searched after it goes through he x ray machine. The guard thinks she has a knife… it’s actually a rather large nail clipper.

7 am – Board the plane. I pass out 5 min after only to be woken up at 8:20 am once we reach Barcelona.

9:30am- We make it to Alyssa apartment, a feat which would not have been possible had Alyssa not given us the most detailed instructions on how to take the metro.

Once in Barcelona with Alyssa we immediately go sightseeing!!!

Doodles by Picasso

Around 2pm we decided to have lunch at this place that according to Alyssa has the best burgers in the world. (I know how American of us) But seriously these were amazing. Alyssa and I ate them like normal people & then there’s karrah who cut her burger into about 16 different pieces and ate it with a fork and a knife.

We topped of a great day of sightseeing with a trip to the Happy Pills store where both Karrah and I got a delicious prescription & did some shopping.

Saturday Jan 29

We wake up bright and early and make our way to the La Sagrada Familia and Park Guell

La Sagrada Familia

Park Guell as seen on ANTM

Today for lunch we are moth authentic and purchase fruit from the market. Where we eat the most delicious smoothies and mango ever.

After lunch we walk down to the pier and make our way to the beach. It drizzles a little while we are on our way their but stops just as we get there. I’m happy it rained because because of that we were able to see this beautiful sight.

Rainbow

Later that night the three of us walked over to a small supermarket that was close to alyssas apartment. There we bought some chicken and vegetables to make a stir fry for dinner. I was really surprised when all the food we bought came out to only 7 Euro, vegetables are really cheap in Barcelona.

Sunday Jan 30th

We stayed up till 4:30 that night, I considered staying up till 6 because we had to b up then anyway to make our flight that left at 9am. But we all decided on a quick nap instead.

Karrah set her alarm for 6:15 so that we could make the 6:45 train and get to airport with enough time to get through security and make our 8:30 boarding time.

6:45am - Karrahs alarm goes off. She says five more minutes. I reply okay just make sure you set another alarm. She says she already has…

7:42am - I wake up…… and immediately yell OMG its 7:42. Karrah and I shot out of bed and literally RAN to the metro. We needed to get there before 7:50 because that was our last absolutely last chance for making it to the airport on time.

7:50am - At metro station looking completely disheveled and freaking out because the train is not here yet.

8 am- still no train

8:02am - Train arrives

8:31 am- Train arrives at airport. Relief? No… we just remember we still have to take a get to the correct terminal

8:42 am- We are finally at the airport, karrah and I literally sprint of the bus and run into the airport. We get STUCK in a revolving door because one of her suitcases gets caught. At this point we were literally trapped in a glass box. We did not like this woman in the least. As soon as we are released we run to airport security which thank the lord was not overly crowded.

Had it been as crowded as the one in Madrid that we went through on our initial flight to Spain there is no way we would have made it. This time we went through security without a problem. I don’t think either of us had ever put our shoes on as fast as we did after that cause in the blink of an eye we were running again frantically looking for our departure gate.

8:50 we arrive at our departure gate and are shuttled to the airplane which I guess had been moved elsewhere on the runway.

9am we depart for Granada

Great travels with some of my favorite people loved barcelona

Hamba Hamba Y Hamba

I have been living with my senora now since saturday, since then i have only seen her eat 3 chicken nuggets, once slice of cheese and coffe. Meanwhile I have been getting feed 3 course meals at every meal.

Each meal starts off with a salad, it's not your typical salad es un ensalada Espanola! This first course consist of lettuce, a whole fresh cut tomato, corn & shredded carrots. All of which is beautifully blended and swimming in olive oil. YUM

The second course of the meal is always ridiculously large. Take today for example, after nomming my delicious salad I was presented with not one but TWO plates. The first held 3 Hot Dogs and a Hamburger which of course us 'americans' cannot eat without a mountain of French Fries argo, the second plate. Also to keep up with proper american customs I was presented with two bottles of ketchup, a generic spanish one & good old Heinz. ( Yes I did take the Heinz... it only seemed right). As if that meal were already not healthy enough i was also given, as I have been given with every meal since I've been here.. yes breakfast included.. a piece of bread wooo

After the main portion of the meal I am always offered dessert too which is much lighter than everything else and is almost always fruit and yogurt.

I have enjoyed all the food that my senora has cooked for me thus far, especially la tortilla espanola but these ridiculous food portions are kind of alot to handle.. especially when you have a senora who does not eat.. and tells you that you dont eat enough

Today when I failed to consume all three hot dogs, the burger etc.. she said " AYE nina tu deverdad que no comos mucho".

I felt bad like I had let her down but if I ACTUALLY ate everything she gave me I would come back to the USA loooking like this.

Y Al Piso Me Voy

Bienvenidos a Casa

Since my arrival in Granada I have been staying at the Hostel Athenas until TODAY when I got picked up by my Host mama. My Host mom's name is ... ready for it....Maria Amparo de Blas Santiusted . She is a very lovely woman who's energetic outgoing and is very passionate about Granada and her daughter Beatrice. But it gets better, my senora is an artist :) she's a phenomenal painter and host painting lessons at her place twice a week! Which is something I plan on defiantly being a part of! And as luck would have it I am only a 5 min walk away from the University and live in a very popular part of the city, by block is home to a various tapas bars, dulcerias y panaredias. Yum.

Que Vista