A LOT to catch up on!!!

This blog is extremely long as I've been trying to keep up on writing down what we've been doing with ourselves the past week or so.Some of it is summed up but it gives you at least an idea of where we've been and what we've been doing! We are currently in Rome and loving it. I'm kind of sick at the moment (I caught it from some Canadian girl that we stayed with in Cinque Terre, Italy). Tomorrow we are heading to Florence...after that Venice...and then off to Croatia. Good luck reading this!!! Hope it's semi-interesting. Madrid April 8 2013 Madrid Round II. Spain is the one country that I have actually visited in Europe previous to this trip. In my junior year of high school I spent 10 days in Madrid – half of the time with a host family and the other half with my Spanish class. It’s been many years but I surprisingly remember some of the sites. Before we left for Spain we packed up all of my things, left Winchester, and headed to London to check out Jay’s new place in Notting Hill. I can’t believe how fast the semester went. Just unbelievable. Our weekend was very eventful – filled with a lot of eating and drinking. Justin and I had to cross off some places on our list of suggestions from friends and family back in the States. Our chiropractor and his wife suggested a wine bar called ‘Gordon’s’. To give you a mental image---- it was dark and gutted out like a cave. Candlelight, wine, cheese – very interesting, but very good. Of course we all got a bottle of red wine to share. From there we went to this hotel that Justin’s uncle demanded we get Gin and Tonics at. You could tell by all of the nice cars parked on the street that this wasn’t the backpackers budget area of town . It was great though. Good time to talk with Jay and get some ideas for how to make the most out of our travels. The weekend ended with a dinner at Jay’s favorite place – Electric. On Monday morning Justin and I made our way to London Luton to fly out to Madrid. Our flight went well and we made it to our hotel without any major issues. Our hotel was extremely nice…very clean with many resources to enjoy the city of Madrid. We ventured around and ended up on “Gran via” – a popular and famous area in Madrid. From there we headed to Puerta del Sol (Translation: gate to the sun) which is in the center of the city. Very tourist area but busy and cool to see. From there we went to La Plaza Mayor. This is a square area with apartments, restaurants, and shops around the perimeter. Our free tour guide later gave us some information about this area but without being there this information may not be too exciting for you. That night we went out to eat and, of course, not being able to understand the waiter (neither of us can speak Spanish very well - it’s been a long time since either of us has taken a Spanish class, but we made out okay), we ended up ordering this stew of bull intestines. Once I found out what it was (using the little Spanish I know to ask the waiter)….I couldn’t eat it anymore. Recovering vegetarian problems. We found this awesome market afterwards that had all different kinds of food and drinks but of course after that I kind of lost my appetite. Justin and I took it easy on Monday night so that we could get up early on Tuesday to go for a run. We found a park in Madrid and took some pictures along the way. Most hostels offer free walking tours which, in my experience thus far, are very beneficial. So following our run we went on a 2 ½ hour walking tour with a guy named Pablo. He wasn’t originally from Madrid, somewhere in South America, but he had lived in Madrid for over 8 years and had given around 1300 tours – so he knew his stuff. The sun was shining, the weather was tolerable. It went well. We kind of struggled finding something to eat for lunch because we were in a hurry to catch a train to Segovia so our meal wasn’t the greatest but whatever . We survived. Trying to communicate with people that can’t speak any English is not the most entertaining thing ever but after some struggles in the train station we were on our way to Segovia to see my exchange student that lived with my family for half a year in high school. Victor and his sister Paula picked us up from the train station and showed us an amazing 2 days in Segovia. Segovia April 9-11 -hotel across from their apartment in the city’s center -went out for some tapas and then took a drive.. Saw the aquaduct and cathedral at night. -hung out in a park -It was Victor’s birthday. Went out for some drinks and stayed at a club until 4 am. April 10 -Went to La Granja. Got some groceries and ate outside. Gorgeous sunny day. Walked around this awesome park. The view of the mountains -attempted to ride some horses but didn’t make it in time. -more driving tours from Victor and his sister Paula. Ate lunch at this mall. -victor went to class and Paula showed us around Segovia. Took us to the castle and some other touristy areas. Gorgeous views everywhere. She took a lot of pictures of us . Met their mom outside of her shop on the main street -Met up with Victor after his class. Tapas and drinks again for dinner. Their friend joined us. Justin and I had a disgusting salad with mayo and ketchup for dressing. April 11 Victor took us to the grocery store and then the train station. Helped us get a ticket. Headed for Barcelona! Got into Barcelona around 5 pm. Had some troubles getting to our hostel but we eventually found it : Kabul Backpackers Hostel. The sun was shining and the streets were packed. Checked into our hostel and did some wandering around the city. We stumbled upon this little bar that had a free mini buffet with the purchase of a drink. Best Sangrias ever! Pretty easy going night. Got some rest so that we could be rested up for the next day. April 12 -Went running around the city. Parc Guell – saw all of the Gaudi (Antonio Gaudi- architect) style buildings. Parc Guell was incredible. People trying to sell you stuff all over the city. Ran to the Segrada Familia but unfortunately we didn’t tour it. -Found this incredible market with tons of different meats, fish, sweets, fruit, etc. Had paella and a chicken kebab.. -Rested on the beach in the afternoon. Did some shopping. Went out for dinner with a girl we met in our hostel from Canada. Enjoyed some tapas, paella, and sangria. -Pub Crawl with the hostel. Shot bar: shots on fire, topped with whipped cream, crazy names (maybe 100 or so different choices of shots) went to a more relaxed pub . Back to the hostel for their happy hour at midnight. Played drinking games with people from the US and Australia. Met a guy from Hawaii named Kevin – crazy dude that went to Berkley and is traveling for 5 months. Took a taxi with an Australian to a club. Stayed out until after 4 am. Snagged some food from some guy trying to sell to drunk tourists. April 13, 2013 Went to the beach and hung out. Drank a cider and beer. Deli meat. Had greek food for lunch and then some macadamia nut gelato. Grabbed our stuff from the hostel and headed to the train station. Off to Montpellier France to visit Justin’s friend from the States. That night we went to a little café to listen to some live music and meet some of Megan’s friends. She went back home while we checked in to our hostel and walked around to see the night life. Montpellier was a cool area. It didn’t feel as touristy as the big cities and it gave us a feel for the French life. April 14 2013 Stayed in a sketchy hostel in Montpellier. All guys dorm but Justin and I shared a bed. Got up by 6:30 am to watch the sunrise with Justin’s friend Megan and her French mate Christian. Returned to the hostel for breakfast and to check out. Megan bought us some chocolate breakfast pastry and made some tea. We charged up all of our devices and then she gave us a tour around Montpellier. In remembrance of English cuisine, Indian was the Food of choice for lunch. Everything else was closed on a Sunday anyways. Megan taught us how to ‘slack line’ in a pretty area by the university campus. It was a gorgeous day and we enjoyed this challenging and unfamiliar activity. The train station brought about some other typical traveler issues but we ended up getting a train to Marseille where we stopped for dinner at a stand near the train station. It’s fine trying to communicate with French folk who can’t speak any English. Some people get a kick out of it…especially this guy making our ‘esalope baguette’. Following this pit stop we hopped back on the tren to our destination of Nice! It was a beautiful, sunny day in Montpellier so we can only hope for the same tomorrow in Nice! -got in to Nice after 11. Way later than expected but it worked out. (Train on a Sunday was all filled up so we couldn’t get a ticket out of Montpellier until the afternoon) April 15 2013 -Nice hostel. All girls room + Justin. Nice breakfast of granola, cereal, breads, spreads and tea  better than any other hostel we’ve had (breakfast wise). Memory foam pillows and decent kitchen/cookware. Promoted all sorts of activities like sailing, diving, canyoning. During breakfast we spoke with a German guy who worked at the hostel. He told us to head to ‘Eze Village’ and ‘Monaco’ for the day. It only cost 1 euro to take the train to these two places and he mentioned that they were beautiful. Showed us some pictures. Tried to catch a bus to ‘Eze Village’ but failed horribly. We were at the wrong stop and we ended up waiting around for over an hour…maybe even close to two hours. Once we finally got on the right train we headed up the mountain to get to this Village. It was so beautiful on top of the mountain. The village was an interesting little area. Little brick streets winding around with cute shops and restaurants. We made it to the ‘Cactus garden’ Which had a student discount rate. The 2.50 euro was worth the beautiful view. We took a lot of pictures because it was so pretty. Such a great sunny day as well. Of course we didn’t have any sunscreen because it was so expensive at any of the stores. We completely sucked at figuring out the bus station so we ended up missing the next bus to Monaco but eventually we made it. We were just going to head back to Nice but we would’ve had to wait even longer for a bus and we figured we may as well stop in Monaco. Monaco is surprisingly a country. The smallest I’m pretty sure. Very wealthy country as could be noticed from all the expensive cars and HUGE yachts. The port was amazing. Justin was of course extremely interested in this since he lives on a lake and drives boats for his summer job. It was incredible. We looked at a place that sold yachts…some of them over 60 million euros. Ouch. After checking out the port we headed back to Nice once we found the bus stop. I was completely exhausted from our day walking around in the sun but we stopped to get some groceries for dinner and then worked out in the miniscule workout area in the hostel. For dinner we made salmon, escalope (which we can’t decide if we think it was turkey or chicken), salads, sweet potatoes, and mixed mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli. This amazing creation along with a bottle of wine less than 2 euros made me feel right at home. I loved it. After dinner we did some research for where we were going to head next….We’ve been kind of doing it on the fly. But we met two Canadian girls in the hostel and decided to head to Cinque Terre, Italy with them. One of the girls was sick so she did some research and found a 4 bedroom apartment type place for us to spend the night in. I headed to bed after doing our hostel research and Justin walked around Nice for a little while to check out the nightlife. April 16 2013 We got up around 7:45 to finish the rest of our eggs that we had purchased the day before, munched on some free granola, and slammed some English breakfast tea (can’t get over my love for tea). We then met the two Canadian girls, Megan and Katie, to head to the train station in order to get to Cinque Terre. We are currently on the train now about an hour away from our final destination. After Cinque Terre Justin and I will be spending the weekend in Rome! Can’t wait to see what Italy has to offer  Got to Cinque Terre after 2 train changes around 5 pm. Great hostel! We stayed in a 3 bed (4 person) room in a place right by the train station. Both pairs split off and wandered the city for a little bit before we met for dinner. Justin and I walked down the main streets, went to the water, and found a supermarket to buy a few things. For dinner we ate a HUGE, cheap meal. Justin and I shared a vegetarian pizza and a gnocchi dish. It was so cheesy and filling we thought we were going to explode. After dinner Justin and I walked around to see the night life before heading to sleep. We stumbled upon this bar where a bunch of people were salsa dancing. I met this guy while Justin was in the bathroom and he told me that they had all been taking a salsa dancing class and were now practicing. Free food was offered to us which was very interesting and we found out that this guy owned a gelato store in Monterosso (one of the 5 towns in Cinque Terre). We promised we’d stop by! April 17 2013 The hostel we stayed in gave us free breakfast passes for this place right down the street. We had morning pastries and some tea before we left for Cinque Terre. It was pretty good but we still felt like crap from our huge dinner the night before. We got to cinque terre maybe around 11. It was a gorgeous day and we were excited to take the “love path” from city to city…but UNFORTUNATELY we soon found out that the path was closed and we had to take the train instead. It was still a great day wandering through all 5 of the cities ( Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza , and Monterosso). Pretty much just gorgeous views of the water and little shops to check out. We found a little deli type place and had an extremely cheap lunch. Salami with cheese and then some carrots and fruit. It was the best salami I’ve ever had….that’s saying a lot because I don’t even really like to eat meat. We found the gelato shop that the guy from the salsa dancing place told me about and he gave me and Justin free gelato! It was so awesome. Highlight of my day. I got lemon and nutella gelato…Justin got chocolate chip and pistachio. Yummy. It was so great. We made it back to La Spezia where our hostel was located and now we are preparing to get some dinner. It’s been a long day of walking around and I’m pretty sunburnt. Can’t wait for some dinner…hopefully it’s not as filling as last night!