Listening to ABBA in Ireland

I never really know how to write about my more intense travels because I often try to do and see so much that it's overwhelming to even think about writing it all out. For some reason Emma, Meg, and I let our strange obsession with ABBA run wild during the last puente and their songs sort of punctuated our entire journey. So, dear reader, I now invite you to open your preferred music library and find ABBA's Greatest Hits album, Gold (I know you have it), and allow your four favorite Swedes to accompany you on an Irish expedition.

Friday, Track 1: Dancing Queen

Our mornings (when we had a room to ourselves, at least) were often kicked off by that great piano slide at the beginning of this track. We began our trip with an early morning out of Madrid, landing in Dublin and finding our hostel around 1pm. The weather was a bit glum (surprise) but the skies eventually cleared up and after lunch and a stroll through Temple Bar, Meg and I set out to find the Guinness Storehouse.

In a word: great. After visiting this and the Heineken Experience in Amsterdam I feel that I am allowed to judge and compare and generally consider myself an expert on beer tourism. My only qualm with the Guinness Storehouse is that they let you do a tasting too soon. Sure, I really wanted to have a Guinness within moments of landing, but you just can't give me a taste of the black stuff on the second floor and then tell me the Gravity bar is on the seventh floor! I can't really say what was on the next few floors because we snapped pictures and rushed through them to get to the bar where they teach you how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. I made Meg be the group's guinea pig and we poured our pints and got our certificates. I tried to make a clover on top of my beer but I was more concerned about pouring a delicious pint and drinking it to make any beautiful artwork.

That night, we had a few drinks around Temple Bar, ate some dinner, and had an early night so we could get up early and start heading across the country.

Saturday, Track 2: S.O.S.

An early morning and a big Irish breakfast took us to the Dublin bus station to head out to Galway, where we'd arranged to rent a car and begin our Irish road trip. Bad luck #1 - we arrived at 1pm and the rental office closed at noon. And doesn't open on Sundays. And we were planning to bring the car back Tuesday morning. Now what? Our extremely helpful staff at the Barnacles Hostel gave us a few suggestions as we modified our itinerary and then went for a walk around town. Lunch was at the apparently famous (but not too famous because their website is in Comic Sans) McDonagh's so we could re-work our plans on a full stomach. After deciding to stay in Galway a little longer we walked through the town, found an open-air market, and had a few pints. We went out to a few bars that night after our hallway was invaded by a neighboring stag party from Dublin that sang to us before they went out.

Sunday, Track 3: Money, Money, Money

Must be funny. At breakfast Sunday morning, Emma asked me, "do you have my money?" Well, no. Of course not. Why do you ask? All of her cash was gone. Bad luck #2. I had been in charge of the bote the night before (bote is a Spanish term used for when everyone puts in the same amount of money to pay for something like dinner or a night of drinks) but I still had our change and nothing more. Then we found out Meg's cash was gone too. Fortunately my stuff was untouched, but it was really unsettling. My inner detective says it was the guy in our room who nobody knew (you're lucky I didn't see your face, guy) because he took cash from bags that weren't very easily accessible in the back of the room, while my stuff was right by the door. Anyone just sticking their head in the door would take what they saw first... not go to the back of the room hoping to find something. And yes, I KNOW we should have been more careful with where we left our things. We've all stayed in hostels before. Consider it a momentary lapse of judgment.

As I said, our hostel staff were super helpful and when we told them about it they dedicated quite some time to our 'case' and gave us a private room for the next night. Once again, we changed our itinerary. Instead of trying to get to some well-known spots in the area, we found a cheap bus out to Clifden and walked along the beach after a quick stop at a playground, because we are adults. We cooked dinner at the hostel that night and then played a game of Clue with a girl from CA in the hostel lobby. I won by default because the other three guessed incorrectly, but then so did I! One extra card (stupid Mrs White) threw us all off.

Monday, Track 4: Super Trouper

We took hostel guy Danny's suggestion to visit the Aran Islands and stay at his pal Dave's hostel, the Kilronan. A choppy ferry ride on a cold, dark, windy day brought us to the pier on Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands. As per the hostel's directions, yes, you really can see it as soon as you get off the boat! We walked over to the hostel and found that we had our cute little room with tiny beds all to ourselves. We had been told that on the Aran Islands it's very common to rent a bike and see the island that way, but when we arrived it was the coldest, windiest, rainiest day of the trip so far... so we opted for a van tour instead. It was the same price and our driver was so knowledgeable about the island that in the end I think it was way more worth it. Even on a nice day we wouldn't have heard so many fun facts on a bike! Our driver took us to the most famous spots on the island, including Dún Aonghasa, an ancient fort atop 100-meter cliffs and my favorite spot of the entire trip.

Our hike was exhausting given the wild weather on our way to the top, but it all paid off as the clouds cleared and we enjoyed some incredible views. At the base of the fortress there's a tiny cafe that made the most delicious beef & Guinness stew I've ever had.

Highly recommended! That night we made some pizzas for dinner before having some pints in the tiny town where everybody knew everybody's name, just not ours. We were nearly proposed to by some gross old locals who sang to us to try to win us over, but it wasn't meant to be.

Tuesday, Track 5: Mamma Mia

At noon we were on a ferry back to to the mainland. At about 1:00 we were on a bus back to Galway center. At 2:30 we were on a bus to a very cold, rainy Dublin. Early the next morning, we were on a plane back to Madrid. Whew! Of course, I took way too many photos and I can only hope they convey the splendor of some of the things we saw. Click here to see them!

London, Paris, not Milan

I took over four hundred photos on this trip, so if you want to see them all, please click here. If not, I made a silly little scrapbook-y video in iPhoto for silly enjoyment. So, enjoy! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqXAFyWJ5Wg]

Last week was one of my favorite weeks of the year: Semana Santa!! Meaning "holy week" in Spanish, this is always the week leading up to Easter in which those of us involved in schools get to take a nice 10-day vacation. Last year I went with Leigh to visit her family in Scotland and this year I returned to the UK to see London with mom and our friend Sharon.

Due to a general strike taking place on, wouldn't you know it, the day I was set to fly to London, I changed my ticket and got to London with two full days to spend on my own before they arrived. In this time I got to meet a friend of a friend and stay at her house in North London (thanks again, Michelle!!) and get acquainted with the city. Late Thursday night we were all reunited in the hotel and had to get a bit aggressive with the guy at the front desk until he gave us the room we booked. I don't know if I'll ever believe the phrase "fully booked" again...liar!!

Rather than attempt to write out every day of the trip (nine days for me), here's a quick run-down of the sights we saw/things we did:

London

• Big Ben/Parliament/London Eye, etc (we didn't go in any)
• National Gallery
• Shakespeare's Globe theatre experience
• The Rose theatre
• Tate Modern
• Tower of London/Yeoman tour/Crown jewels
• Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace
• Stroll through St James park
• Abbey road - the crossing was closed!!
• Primrose hill & Regent's park
• "Haunted pub crawl" - see below
• British Museum
• Maundy Thursday mass at Westminster Abbey
• British Library
• King's Cross station/platform 9 3/4
• Harrod's
• Hyde Park

Re: The "haunted pub crawl" - Sharon's London guide book had some daily itinerary suggestions and one of those was a haunted pub crawl, suggesting some pubs with a lot of history. On this crawl, we started on Fleet Street at the Punch Tavern which to me seemed to only be haunted by young bartenders with stupid tattoos and strange taste in music. We were so distracted by the blaring electronica-meets-trip-hop that we had to finish our drinks quickly so we could move on to the next stop, The Old Bell Tavern. This pub had a bit more of the cozy pub feel we'd enjoyed at The Blackfriar a few days prior, so imagine our non-surprise when we picked up an Old Bell menu and noticed it was exactly the same -- from starters to puddings -- as the Blackfriar. Turns out they're both owned by a chain called Nicholson's Pubs. This is in no way a hindrance, as we liked both pubs very much, from decor to staff and drinks. Clearly Nicholson's are doing something right. But alas, two stops do not a pub crawl make. On to the next--Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. This was by far my favorite of all the bars we tried last week. Rebuilt in 1666 after London's Great Fire, this locale has been a pub since 1538, it boasts a long list of authors who were once regulars, among those Mark Twain and Charles Dickens (allegedly). We walked into a dark, wooden bar with no clear windows and only one door. The floor was dirty, the lights were set to a low orange-y glow, and the only sounds to be heard were the patrons' muffled conversations and the occasional burst of hearty laughter.

I loved it.

We ordered a round of drinks and I was hooked (the Cheshire Cheese is a Samuel Smith's pub). I finally got my hands on a pint of Sam Smith's Extra Stout, my favorite of the trip, tied with the Belhaven Black Scottish Stout I had at the Blackfriar, and the three of us thought about ordering some dinner there if we could find a table. The place was packed upstairs and we were unaware of the network of caves that sprawl through the basement, so when I saw what appeared to be an open table, I asked an old gentleman if he'd mind us sitting with him and he said it would be no problem. There we sat, the three of us sharing a delicious chunk of fried goat cheese, and our table mate, Stephen, telling us stories of his trip down the east coast of the US with some friends. He did not like Orlando at all. He gave us some suggestions of other Samuel Smith's bars to visit (The Princess Louise and the Cittie of Yorke, which we did eventually find) and even bought us a round of drinks. We later decided that he was a ghost and the rest of the bar patrons thought we were crazy talking to nobody to make our haunted bar crawl seem more legitimate.

Paris

• Notre Dame
• Eiffel Tower
• Liberty flame(?)
• Arc de Triomphe
• Champs-Élysées
• Musée du Louvre
• Moulin Rouge/Montmartre (quickly!)

My advice for one day in Paris: don't do it, unless you've seen everything a billion times and you're just going there to be there. It feels like someone took my camera and went to Paris and gave it back to me. Yes, I've seen all of those things listed above, but I don't have any story to go with it. I wish I did. I guess this means I just have to go back to Paris! Life's hard.

Holland Days

December puente once again came around and for some reason I decided I wanted to go to a place where I could be cold again, like last year's Superpuente in Germany and Prague. So, this year my friend Emma and I hopped on a flight to Amsterdam for a long weekend of superfresh goodness.

Amsterdam, as you can see to the left, is surrounded by multiple canals, each one as beautiful if not moreso than the last. The buildings lining each canal are all different colors and designs and it was really difficult for us not to immediately take out our cameras at every corner to snap more photos of boats, bikes, and canals. The first day, we arrived in the early afternoon, dropped off our bags at our hostel, and got to enjoy two whole hours of sunlight before dark settled in around 4pm. Yikes! We spent the day getting acquainted with the city and noting things we'd like to come back and see during the daytime.  It was very cold and windy, so we decided we wanted to stop in at a super tacky Christmas market for a glühwein. It was way more expensive (5 euros!!) and not nearly as tasty as the ones I had last year in the German Christmas markets, but Amsterdam isn't exactly known for it like Germany is. After warming up with our wine, we continued on our walk until we accidentally ended up in the Red Light District. That was quite a shock! We had definitely planned to walk through there at some point, but it can certainly be surprising when you aren't expecting to suddenly see scantily-clad ladies (and, er, "gentlemen") in a window right around the corner. I didn't dare trying to take a picture of any of the people in the windows, but as we approached one of the canals that runs through the neighborhood, we noticed some pretty swans a-swimming. I took this opportunity to take one of my favorite photos of the trip (see right).

After a brief stroll through the Red Light District, we found a tiny neighborhood-y bar called Cafe De Gaeper. We took two seats at the bar and ordered superfresh pints of Heineken. The bartender was delightful and like pretty much everyone we encountered in Holland, his English was impeccable. I suppose as a teacher this was really encouraging to see. We finished our drinks at De Gaeper and moved on to have bratwurst at a Christmas market and another drink at a bar closer to our hostel before going dashing through pouring rain to get back and sleep.

Day two began our tourist-y exploits. We fought through the crowds at our hostel's free breakfast before going to stand in a quick but very chilly line to get into the Anne Frank house. That was a really incredible experience. Having read the book I sort of knew what to expect, but it did not prepare me for how it would feel to see those dark, tiny rooms and climb those "leg-breaking" steep stairs. It was especially interesting to see the magazine clippings that Anne Frank posted to the walls of her bedroom to make it more "livable" inside. It's just so cool to experience the things you've read in books come to life. I took some notes in my little pocket notebook for things I wanted to read more about, along with this quote blown up onto one of the bedroom walls:

"I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, feel young and know that I'm free." 24 December 1943 - Anne Frank (from her diary)

When we left the house we walked back down the canal to find for a place for lunch. A slight detour into a boot shop ended with me buying some rainboots, but the distraction was worth it as we came out of the store to see a small deli across the street with a newspaper clipping in the window with a picture of a very delicious-looking pastrami sandwich. We assumed the Dutch article only said good things about the deli, so we went in and observed the locals drinking small glasses of milk with their lunch. We copied them and ordered our sandwiches (mine, above, smoked bacon & brie) with a glass of freezing cold superfresh milk. I would definitely recommend 't Kuyltje for any trip to Amsterdam. Don't ask me how to pronounce that.

We went back to the hostel to shower and nap before heading back to De Gaeper for dinner because of the dishes we'd seen people eating the night before. Emma and I split a schnitzel plate and thai peanut chicken with some more superfresh Heinekens before strolling back through the Red Light District and returning to our hostel when we got too cold to be out.

On day three, Saturday, we decided to take a side trip to a town nearby called Utrecht, based on multiple suggestions. Utrecht is very small and looks very similar to Amsterdam - adorable buildings hanging over multiple canals - but I liked it just as much. We spent most of our time just walking up and down the streets because there really isn't much to do there, but we eventually stopped for lunch at a small cafe with a big fat cat sleeping on a chair outside. We again had sandwiches (a guy from Utrecht on our flight to Amsterdam told us that was "very Dutch") and after lunch we went to the cathedral to hear the local church choir sing a Christmas concert. I really loved that, but it was so cold in the cathedral that we couldn't stay the whole time. To warm up, we (naturally) went to a nearby cafe and had really delicious hot chocolate before catching our train back to Amsterdam and having a warm night in our hostel.

On Sunday, our last full day, we didn't have anything really planned (and we were running out of money) so we decided to devote the first part of our day to buying touristy things. I found a sticker for my notebook and then we stopped in a store called HEMA (click that link and let the page load--they have a really cool thing going on for Christmas right now) and I bought a tin of stroopwafels to bring to Chicago. You guys are gonna love them! We spent the rest of the morning walking along a massive shopping street in the center before we got hungry and decided to look for that deli again. Thus began a trek around town only to discover that it is closed on weekends. Instead we went to a tiny bar on the corner because we were just too cold and hungry to keep looking. We opened the door to an empty bar where one girl was working and playing Bon Iver from her ipod. Perfect! I had broccoli soup. Unfortunately, this was the coldest day yet and we couldn't stay out walking for very long, so we stopped in yet another cafe for coffee and the most delicious apple pie I think I've ever had. Wow.

When we finished our coffee and pie we decided to go to the old Heineken brewery and do the "Heineken Experience" tour. It was really interesting and informative, and in keeping with the theme of the trip, the drinks were superfresh! We toured the museum and got to see the old brewery with all the copper-plated machinery, tried wort (odd), had a weird motion video ride thing, did a tasting session, played weird DJ games, sat in space-chairs, and eventually got to have our two included drinks at the Heineken world bar.

For our last night in Amsterdam, we had more bratwurst for dinner and found a bar called Hans en Greitje (Hansel and Gretel) and managed to sit by a group of Spanish people. Eventually one of them approached us to get our opinion on an argument they were having (whether or not the name Séfora would be pretty for a baby, to which we replied, you mean like Sephora the store?), and when one of them asked his friend to translate what we'd said, imagine his shock when we translated it for him. We ended up chatting with the group for the rest of the night before going back to the hostel to sleep before our flight the next morning.

I had a really good time in Holland and I would definitely love to visit again when it's warm and sunny. Until then, click here to see my cloudy, cold-weather Amsterdam photos.

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...Christmas!!! Finally! It's Christmas time in Madrid and I could not be happier. Christmas is and has always been my favorite time of the year, because it really is The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. And this year, I am even more excited than I usually am, because this year I'm going home! Living away from my family in Chicago is something I've done since I was five years old, so for me, December comes, school lets out, and I go to Chicago for the holidays. It's normal, it's my tradition, and I love it. But last year, I didn't go home. Mom came to visit me, and we had a great time, but we both decided that it just wasn't the same... so away I go!

To begin the holiday season, at work we celebrate Día del Maestro, and in our school we celebrate in style. Our lunch began just after school ended last Monday and we all got to eat lots of delicious Spanish foods while we talked and discussed our patron saint of teachers. Like last year, we are again playing Amigo Invisible, or Secret Santa. In this lunch we drew names, and the game starts tomorrow! This is one of the things I will miss the  most about this school. There's such a buen rollo there. We all get along and enjoy staying at school until five or six in the afternoon just to hang out and have a good time.

On Sunday, a few of my friends came to my house for an early Christmas party. We also played Secret Santa - my friend Emma got me a few key pieces that every good hostess should have: a cute tray, napkins, tea, and a cute cupcake-shaped sugar dish. Everybody brought something to eat (I made mulled wine and spinach cups), we exchanged gifts, and watched Christmas movies all night. I think being of the Friends generation, I always imagined this was what "growing up" would be like.

Now there are only fifteen days between me and heading home for Christmas. How am I handling the wait? Well, on Thursday I'll head to Amsterdam for a long weekend (thank you, Spanish holidays) and then I'll come back to a week of work, a weekend of shopping for presents, and a trip or two on the Navibus, I'm sure. To help you guys aguantar until Christmas, check out my video from last year's lights and fireworks:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVzCliL1Pwk&w=560&h=315]

...and some photos from this year's Christmas decorations:

[slideshow]

Felices Fiestas!

Basque-ing

Puente - Spanish for "bridge," a puente is the word used to describe a regular weekend made longer by connecting it to a bank holiday on, for example, a Tuesday. In this case, my weekend was connected to Tuesday, the first of November, or All Saints Day, giving me and my friend Jessie four days to head up north and discover San Sebastián and Bilbao.

Stop #1 was San Sebastián, or in the local language, Donostia. This small beach town was super charming and full of history. When we climbed to the top of Monte Urgull, between the Bahía de La Concha and playa Zurriola (closest to our hostel) we got to visit a small exhibition within a giant statue dedicated to el Sagrado Corazón de Jesús full of history about País Vasco and Donostia.

Our hostel experience here was...odd. We arrived to find the owners of the hostel (a married couple) welcoming us with mini croissants and a chocolate bar, and the guy, Jaime, dressed in a stage turban, winter coat, sweatpants, black socks, and white jelly shoes. He referred to himself as the Sultan of Karpukala (apparently he'd recently been in some sort of play or something) and eventually posed for a photo in the middle of the tiny room with us. The "hostel" was nothing more than a room in the couple's house where they'd installed three-story bunkbeds. We chose this place because it was the cheapest hostel with availability, and though it was really strange, we were lucky to be sharing the room with a group of really nice people who made the stay that much better.

While in Donostia, we basically walked all over the entire town, stopping only for the occasional coffee or ice cream. We took a lot of photos on Monte Urgull and in the old town on our first day out, but unfortunately it was really overcast until our tourism day came to an end. On our last day in Donostia it was warm and sunny, so we just sat on some giant wavebreaker rocks in Zurriola, soaking up the sun before we had to catch a bus to our next stop.

Bilbao (Bilbo) is probably most well known for the Guggenheim museum. One of the travel books I read said that one could refer to history in Bilbao as BG and AG - Before & After Guggenheim. Apparently the construction of the museum really changed everything there, transforming it from an industrial district to a modern and diverse riverside city.

On our last morning in Bilbao, we took the funicular de Artxanda and got to see some incredible views of the city, the river, and the surrounding landscape. The old town in Bilbao was cute, and the Guggenheim was impressive, but this was my favorite part of the trip. Seeing a city in a valley surrounded by cloud-covered mountains reminded me so much of Boone. Of course, in Boone they don't speak Euskera... I only learned hello and goodbye (kaixo/agur) and thank you (eskerrik). Even though the signs were all in Euskera, they were also in Castellano, and everyone in Donostia and Bilbo speaks Castellano as well, so I didn't have any trouble getting around... just didn't get to learn any cool new words or phrases. Bummer.

In writing about Euskadi (Basque Country), pintxos must be mentioned. Pintxos are similar to tapas in that they are a small delicious snack to accompany your drinks, but pintxos differ from tapas in that they include a pincho - Spanish for spike - that is usually a toothpick holding the toppings together on a slice of bread, while tapas could be almost anything. You could look at it this way: pintxos can always be considered tapas, but tapas can't always be pintxos. Squares and rectangles.

We ate lots and lots of pintxos at every possible opportunity. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Delicious!

Click here to see the rest of my photos from a weekend in the Basque Country.