Madrid/Goodbye, Spain :(

(These accidentally are now out of order by one post, whoops....deal with it)

In the morning, I slept a little later and took a little longer in the shower than I should have and because of that  had to pack too quickly.  I just threw everything in there and it ended up being lopsided and very heavy, which I regretted in the hills of Madrid.

We kinda ran to the train station and then ran to buy our tickets.  Barcelona Sants, the station, thought it was an airport and had security at 3 different points and a bag scanner.  To each his own, I guess.  We got onto the train with about 5 minutes to spare and settled in for the ride.  I read the entire time on the Nook (I'll write about my book later) and it was no time before we were in Madrid!

It was also very warm there (thank God, I'm not ready to give up this warmth).  The ride, as Braden had pointed out, looked a lot like Southern California, and made me miss one of my homes away from home.  We went to the ticked office to book our night train from Lisbon to Paris and the first office told us the train didn't exist and sent us to the International office.  Ugh.  We got there and the woman tried to tell us again that it didn't exist.  She was the 3rd person we had talked to about this train and the first that actually looked it up.  Probably because we were not taking "no" for an answer.  When she looked it up for the day we wanted, though, it was FULL!  U.G.H.  Fail.  We tried to book it so many times and now it was sold out.  We had to buy the ticket for the day before.  Now we have to rearrange hostels and book a new one.  On the plus side, I'll get to see another city in France :)

We walked to our hostel (of course entirely uphill) and checked in.  There was a mix-up and instead of a 4 person room, we're in a room to ourselves.  Fine by us!  We don't have to be so stingy about security this way!  After orienting myself with the city on the map for a while, we went out to explore the Spanish Capital.

We started our self-guided city tour at the Plaza del Sol, which is the point that all major roads in Spain lead.  It is also where the statue of the symbol of Madrid (a bear climbing a fruit tree) is found.  It was not very crowded and made us happy already that we were leaving the majority of the tour groups behind us at least for a while.

After exploring there and getting some cheap food, we walked over to the Plaza Mayor, the main plaza in Madrid and saw people sun-bathing.  We loved Spain for its weather, and Madrid did not disappoint.

From there we moved on to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) which turned up closed because of an official event.  Spain still has a royal family, so it was kinda cool thinking there was some royal function going on.  We then walked around some of Madrid's really awesome gardens and just relaxed the rest of the day.  Madrid is a great city, but there isn't a ton to do.  That night we went to the Hard Rock and got drinks and an app.

When we got back to the hostel that night, we did not expect what we saw.  The entire hostel had turned out for the "All you can drink" Sangria party the hostel was throwing.  It was very loud and messy and all of the public areas were filled with people.  It wasn't a very welcoming looking place and it did not look like a lot of fun, so we just went up to the room.  It was SO loud.  We had some e-mails we had to check for the changes we made to the trip, so we waited until it quited down to go downstairs to where the Wi-fi was available.  It wasn't until about 12:30 that everyone finally went out to the clubs.  When we went downstairs, we saw that the police had arrived.  I guess one of the other hostel guests had called the police because of the noise and they were going through the halls telling everyone to leave or quiet down.

There was an Irishman at the front desk who asked us if we knew what was going on.  He called us "lads" and said we had an American accent, and didn't believe us when we told him his Irish accent was just as thick.  He informed us that the hostel was host to 80 students from Dublin and they were there until Thursday.  Thank God we only had one night in that hostel!  The police left and we did our internet stuff and we hurried up to bed before they all got back from the clubs.  Our room had no window and was very hot and the fan didnt help much, so getting to sleep wasn't very easy and just when we did finally get some zzz's in, they came back and didn't go to bed until around 8.  They kept knocking on our door because we were the only room on the floor that didn't have Irish occupants, so they assumed we were a part of their group, and they kept slamming all the doors.  It was probably the worst night of sleep we had gotten up to that point of the trip.

In any case, the next day we checked out on time and went off to do a little more exploration.  We were taking a night train to Lisbon and it didn't leave until 10ish, so there was no hurry all day.  We saw all the fountains that you were supposed to see (some that night and some during the day).  We also did some more walking in the park.

My thing I was really excited to do was the Royal Palace, but it was kinda just like every other palace and once you've seen one they all blurred together.  There were far too many people in this one and the hallways were blocked by Asain and Spanish tour groups and it really detracted from the whole experience.  I would say it was beautiful, but I spent so much time stuck between people that I didn't really enjoy myself.  Overall, Madrid was not our favorite, and the weather the second day was overcast.  It just left a bad taste in our mouth after how awesome Barcelona was.  I think I would like to explore the south of Spain a little more, but I probably won't go back to Madrid.  We did, though, eat Churros in the city they were invented.  LOVED THEM!!

That night was our second night train.  After having such a great experience with the first one, we were excited for this one, except that we had chairs instead of beds.  We heard they were fine though.  They weren't.  That was by far the worst night of sleep and I will never subject myself to that again.  The man in front of us had an awful snore, the lights were never turned off, and our seats were not very big and didn't recline.  I had to tie a scarf around my head to block out the light and listen to the "Braveheart" soundtrack the entire night to block out the sounds of people not really sleeping and constantly moving around. It is well worth the extra 20 Euro for a bed.  WELL WORTH.  We got to Lisbon, on time though, and Portugal was awaiting us.

BARCELONA!!!!!!!!

Waking up on a train was so cool.  I was convinced it was the only way to travel.  Go to bed in Torino and wake up in Barcelona.  Except, no.  We woke up somewhere in the south of France and were still hours from Barcelona.  We ended up being about four and a half hours late to Barcelona which really sucks because it is such an awesome city.  We had our jackets on and our layers and we went out of the station and walked to our hostel.  In like 30 seconds I was dripping in sweat.  It was like 60 degrees.  P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

After some trouble involving me turning the wrong way on a street, we found the hostel.  We had to sit and wait 45 minutes before we were able to check-in because the man behind the desk was doing something else and then a different group of clueless girls had to check-in before us.  When we FINALLY were able to go explore the town it was almost 4.  We walked along La Rambla, a pedestrian zone with a ton of vendors and street performers and then made our way to La Segrada Familia.

This church rocked.  It was like the hippie cousin of the Vatican.  The coolest thing about the church is that it is not even done.  When it is done, it will rank amoung the tallest churches in the world.  Even uncomplete, this church dominates the Barcelona skyline (as we saw the next day).  Here are some pictures of the church.  Bear in mind it is a work in progress, so there are some cranes and plastic covering some stuff up.

We also went up to what is now the top, but later will only be halfway:

After doing that, we went back to the hostel and then to dinner.  It was an early night because we wanted to get a lot done the next day.

We woke up early and went immediately to the coastline.  There was a dock system that went out into the port and had good view of Montjuic (The hill we went up later that houses all of the Olympic stuff).  It was so pretty there!

There is also a monument to Columbus, Chiristopher.  He either is from there, left from there, or gained support there.  I am not really sure which.

From there, we walked La Rambla again and headed toward the Gaudi sector of Barcelona.  Gaudi is the archetect that built La Segrada Familia.  He did pieces all over the city, and one street has 4 of the buildings he built.  They are all so unique and different from one another!

This one is by far the coolest, it's like water.

At the end of that walk, we got on a metro (having bought a 10 trip pass) and made our way up the funicular to Montjuic.  This was probably the best decision of our day!  We started out with seeing the Olmpic stuff.  For those of you who were unaware, Braden is obsessed with the Olympics, and since the '92 summer Olympics were here, we were in for a treat.  All of the buildings and stadiums were in one area and they had great views.

The '92 torch

From there we walked over to what we assumed was a church but ended up being a museum.  It was also home to the end point of a marathon we had seen earlier.  This was my second European marathon!  Pretty cool stuff.  There were some pretty fountains there, too.

After lounging there for a time, I really wanted to see the sea.  So, we walked up a huge hill.  I mean like, we needed to take a break halfway through it was so steep and long.  It was not a fun walk, but it was so worth the reward.  We got a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea and were able to do some tanning in the grass on the hill for about an hour.  It was so relaxing.  I also found super cheap postcards and bought those to send out.

These made music when you stepped on them, Braden loved them.

We walked down the hill and took the funicular down to the metro and then went to the opposite side of Barcelona and up a totally different, but no less steep, hill.  This one was really bad and parts even had escalators.  It was really an accomplishment to get to the top of that one!  It had a better view of the city and from there the sea was in the background!  It was also home to more fun creations by Gaudi.  Braden says his name fits him, and I think I agree.

Here is the world's largest single park bench!

Also, this guy is on a ton of postcards from Barcelona, and he was really cool.

Here are some more random Gaudi creations.

From there, we went back to the hostel after a long walk back to the metro station.  On the way, we found a shotglass for me and a mug from Braden.  It was just such a successful day.  We wanted to have traditional Spanish cuisine, so we went to one of the places that had outdoor seating and was also still pretty cheap and had tapas and paella.  Funny story about that, Braden thought Paella was pronounced "Pallella" like our friend Steph Villella's last name.  He keeps saying it now just to make me laugh.

The dinner was really good and when we got back to the hostel I read in the lounge and got so caught up in the book I didn't go to bed until 1!

The next day we were off to Madrid.

Italian Day-Trips

While staying in Florence, Braden and I took 3 day trips: Pisa, Siena and Torino (Turin).  These were each fun in the own different ways.  First, Pisa.

We walked lazily over to Firenze Santa Novella (the main train station) and when we got there we noticed that the train to Pisa was to leave in 5 minutes!  What luck, we wouldn't have to wait.  We even got 2 seats next to each other.  It was a nice train ride, but I had forgotten my iPod, so I had to just read the travel guide book, which I have done on more than one occasion.  I feel like I could get around fairly well in Athens though I have not done any further research than this one guide...many times over.

When we got to Pisa, I knew we had a long walk ahead of us to the tower so I bought some orange gatorade, it tasted like tooth paste.  I still drank it, though.  When we got to the leaning tower we wanted to go up to the top because it was such a pretty day and I thought maybe we could see the sea and there were also some mountains in the distance that looked nice.  So, we went to the ticket office and were immediately appauled.  They wanted to charge us 15 Euro each for a trip up to the top...are you kidding me?  This is when the old saying "If the Vatican was free..." came into play.  They also were charging to get into the church that is right by the tower.  I just think that some things should be free or at least cheap, and this should be one of them.  Lord knows they get enough tourists to make money, I'm sure they could stand to reduce the price.  But, the thing is...people pay it.  Namely, the Asian tour groups, but if people pay at that price, it just means the rest of us can't afford to do it.  Too bad for us.

We walked alond the kitchy shops and I got a cute leaning shot glass to add to my collection.  We also took some pictures of it (the tower)!

On the walk back, I decided that I wanted a book to read.   Listening to all the books on my iPod was getting old and I had forgotten that in any case.  But before we could look for a book, I needed to eat one more time at my favorite pizzeria in Italy.After that, we stopped by the chain book store il Fraternelli or something like that and I looked at the English section.  They had classics for 3.50, so I bought "The Odyssey".  We walked to the train station and got there just in time for the train once again. That was lucky for trains 2 times in one day...we knew we would pay for that later (and we did).   <- that is foreshadowing.

The train ride back was fine, I was reading my book.  I was ULTRA sad that I had forgotten my iPod when the most obnoxious woman came in snapping her gum while she chewed.  I honestly almost decked her in the face.  However, Braden started clicking his ipod clip and that pissed her off, so we were about even.  Don't mess with us. :)

 Arriving back in Florence, we went to bed.

The next morning was supposed to be early, but I'm glad it wasn't.  We decided to just sleep in and make the day fold out how it wanted to.  We got up and walked lazily to the train station and got breakfast (doughnut and OJ) at McDonald's.  We took that with us to the train and went to Siena!  I had not been there before, so I was interested to see what was there. I hadn't even really done too much research on the town.  I was nervous to find everything, though, because when I had quickly Google Mapped the walk from the train station to the city center was a 1/2 hour walk.

When we got there, I wasn't really in the  mood to site see or walk a half hour (it turns out uphill the whole way), but Braden made me do it. It wasn't very fun, but when we got into the town it was pretty cute.  The main Piazza was cool, it was on a slope which was really interesting.

After seeing that for a while, we went up to the church.  The facade was VERY pretty, but when we looked at the entry price we were again shocked.  I think it was 8 Euro per person just to enter the church.  They claim there are valuable artworks inside (which I'm sure there are), but that was just not reason enough for us to pay.  I would have liked to have gone up the bell tower because it was on a hill and probably had a gorgeous view of the Tuscan countryside, but it was cloudy, so I don't think it would have been worth it.

With that disappointment behind us, we went back to the Piazza for my postcard and some gelato.  On the way back to the train station we realized that we were going to just miss the next train and have to wait for an hour, so we drastically slowed our pace and stopped in about every shop window for a few seconds.  We still were there early, but we did catch a cool view we hadn't seen on the way up the hill while we were hurrying.

That night, we had dinner with a friend from Concordia.  It was so nice to get to see someone from home and we were able to switch up the conversation a little bit!  Her name is Becca Hovland and she is going to be an Orientation Leader with Braden and me and is also best friends and roommates with Yvonne, who is in Jena with me this year.  She was on her way to Paris on a night train after dinner and we had to pack to leave for our own night train the next morning.

After packing up we went to bed.  When we woke up and checked out we walked to the train station and I said my goodbyes to Florence.  It was sad to know I wasn't coming back for a while.  We boarded the train to Torino and settled in for the ride.  It was odd because we didn't have seats next to each other, but facing one another across the aisle.  It was fine, though, because we were just going to read anyway.  I'm in the middle of 3 books, one I'm reading, one on Braden's Nook and one from my iPod...I keep switching back and forth.  While I was resting, Braden got a phone call from April.  Her and Maria were in Edinburgh and would be leaving for London the next day.  We were excited to hear from them and it made us look forward to Lisbon and seeing them again even more.

We knew that we needed to leave that night from Torino Porta Susa, but the train was ending in Porta Nuovo after stopping in Susa, so, we decided it would just be easier to get off at Susa and leave our stuff there and travel Torino from there.  BAD IDEA.  It was under construction and there was hardly a station at all.  Because of this, we had to wait for the next train (about an hour) to take us to Nuovo.  WHOOPS.

We got there eventually and were able to leave our bags.  We walked around for a while and ate a quick snack.  We then decided the only things we needed to see (and even had heard of) were the Olympic 2006 stuff.  So, we figured out the metro system and bought a ticked.  ANOTHER WRONG STEP.  The metro to the olympic stuff was also under construction.  So, we just used our ticket for a bus.  The bus was not direct, but it took us to a bridge and from there we walked about a half hour to the Olympic Stadium and park.  We were also able to see Olympic Villiage and a cool foot bridge they had built for the occasion.

The place where the torch was!

MOUNTAINS!!

The footbridge led to a mall where we spent the rest of our time people watching and window shopping.  There was a theatre playing movied that I really wanted to see, but all in Italian.  Sad.  I am going to have a lot of movie catching up to do when I get back home.  From there we went back to the station (Nuovo) and ate some dinner.  We got our packs back and went to look for the next train to Susa.  That was when we first noticed that something was very wrong.  The delays were all about an hour and nothing was going in or out of the station.  We had a lot of time, though, so we didn't panic.  After standing and waiting on a train for a while, we chose to just take the metro to Susa, that line was not under construction.

We did so, and when we got there it was much the same.  I started to get nervous.  I was sure our train was just going to skip us because it was on an international schedule.  I asked the customer service rep and he told me "Track 3, 9:18".  O.K.  So we sat for a half hour and still nothing moved.  9:18 came and went and still nothing moved.  10:18 came and went and still nothing moved.  11:18 cam and went and still nothing moved.  Finally, around 11:30 they started up slowly again.  The delays were crazy.

By midnight, our train still hadn't come.  We were the only ones left in the station (us and those also going to Barcelona).  All of the waiting angry people had gotten on the trains they needed and ours just was not coming.  I, of course, was convinced it had skipped us, but still we waited for it to appear on the sign, signalling its approach.  Around 12:15 a train showed up.  It didn't say on its side what train it was and nothing was on the overhead signs.  When we asked, though, we found it was the VERY late night train.  We got into our cabin (after getting stuck in the tiny hallways and our backpacks not fitting through the door) and went directly to sleep.