Today we woke up early and had to catch a bus to Auschwitz. We had some eggs for breakfast and headed to the bus station. We didn’t leave ourselves enough time so we ended up running part of the way once we got near. We ended up making it with a little time to spare. When we got there we had to get a guide since during the day you can’t visit unless you have an official guide. We were worried that we were not going to get on the 12:30 english tour and that we would have to wait an hour till the next one but thankfully they have multiple tour guides that go at one time so it doesn’t really fill up too much. There were like 150 of us. And they broke us up into groups and assigned us to tour guides. The guy we had at first you could tell struggled with his English and that he had most of the speach memorized. We decided we were going to try to switch guides, we did successfully by asking someone what channel they were on. They give you headsets so that everyone can hear the guide and you can walk a little slower with out worrying that you will miss something. It was nice, the lady we had was really good and she described it still with the terror and fright of such events. You can tell that it hasn’t become like just another place, it still is shocking to them to tell the stories. It was crazy to hear some of the stories that they have heard from survivors that they have met along the way. I couldn’t imagine returning to the place that you were imprisoned and treated so badly. It was an emotional experience for me and I don’t have any strong ties between it(as in knowing people who went through it) besides that I am a human and it was such a tragic event. It made me think of Ernie my old neighbor, who was German and lived around that time. I wish I was older when he was my neighbor that I could learn more from him, I vaguely remember any of his story, its sad how much you lose from your youth( and I’m not even old yet 
. This could be bad ) Walking through the camps they take you into the Barracks, into what used to be a gas chamber, and all around. It really is an intense experience and many times along the way I found my self holding back tears. I think it’s a sight to see as morbid as it is. It makes you question how something could spiral so far with out basic humanity kicking in and stopping them. It makes me super thankful for the life that I have lived and makes me wonder how strong I could have been in such a situation. As we looked at some of the pictures, there were only 2 females that were on the wall that lived longer than a year at the camp. After Auschwitz one they take you on a bus to Birkenau. Unfortunately we couldn’t fit on the bus with our tour guide, so we had to wait 20 mins before the next one arrived. We were worried we wouldn’t have a guide because none of the people on our bus were a guide. Thankfully there were two of the English guides waiting, so we didn’t get the same guide but we were able to catch a different one. Here you can see the famous platform where you always see pictures of the lines of people. He showed us the gates towards life and towards death. Its crazy when you stand there and all the films, books, stories you have read come flashing back in your mind and you imagine what it was really like less than 100 years ago. What your life would be like if you had been there just 70 yrs ago, it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it again. After the bus back to Krakow, we found a carrefour! I was in heaven, buying all the goodies I used to eat in France. For those of you who don’t know what carrefour its a type of grocery store, in France a lot of them are super stores, like walmarts in a way. I love a lot of their brand names , especially a cereal I used to always eat from there with granola and dried fruit. They also have all different types of Chocolates. I definately bought way too many sweets and maybe too much food in general, but I will be traveling on train for a few days so I figured it was worth it. Plus its so cheap being in Poland. After groceries we headed back to the hostel and indulged in a lovely sandwich with hard boiled eggs. Which I had never thought about doing when traveling before, but really its a great way to get some protein in your diet and its cheap. Plus you can have fresh ones in the am and then hard boiled ones on ur bread for lunch or dinner. After my sandwich I cleaned out my pack and completely reorganized and tried to do some laundry. As I had my stuff all sprawled out I met some guys from the netherlands who were asking if I was holding a market. Lols. They were driving from Amsterdam to China. At first I thought they were kidding, but I think they might have been serious. They are on the development team for the ipad. They were asking for suggestions. I wonder if they were serious. I will never know. I had another early night since I had a 7 am train to catch.
Archive for the Category »Europe 2010 «
We arrived to Krakow around 3:30 in the morning with bug bites all over us from waiting for our last train. The mosquitoes are quite pesky and love our blood. We were shocked that there was no announcements on our train letting us know which stops were happening the only way we knew when to get off was the approximate time. Surprisingly not that many people got off at Krakow either. Once we arrived at the station successfully with out getting stuck on the train we were all quite sleepy since the prior train was cramped and super hot. We landed us some benches in a fairly dim lit place in the train station on one of the platforms. Just as we were getting situated the lights came on and an announcement was made. Hopefully they were not telling us to not sleep there because we don’t understand Polish. Either way we decided we would give it a shot because we didn’t know where else to go and it was late in the night, or early in the morning however you look at it. So we sent up camp, I pulled my sleeping bag out and cuddled with my bag so no one could steel my stuff. I slept like a baby, only occasionally waking up when a train would roll through. At one point I woke up and some polish kids were staring at me through the train window, slightly awkward. We were able to sleep there until 7 am when security woke us up and shoo-ed us out. Which is quite laxed, most the time you get shoo-ed by 5 or 6. We headed to find our hostel, there was a hostel help point and the guy did not know much but he tried to be really helpful. He told us we could take any or the trams, that he wasn’t sure. Lols. We gave him a slight tip maybe equivalent to 30 cents us money and he jumped with joy, it was cute. However since he wasn’t too helpful we decided to get a taxi to be safe. It cost us 20znt which is about 6-7 dollars split between 4 of us .. Not too bad. We were standing outside the address looking slightly confused, there were no signs pointing to a hostel. Low and behold some perky lady in a red dress asked us if we were looking for the hostel, we told her yes and she led us the way. On our way up she said that people always complain about finding it, of course silly there needs to be signs of some sort. We later find a piece of paper on the stairs pointing the way but that is after you have entered the building, it would be much more helpful on the outside of the establishment. We were thankful that she was entering the same time or who knows if we would have ever figured it out. When we get in the hostel is very nicely decorated with a nice Ikea red theme. (Almost all the hostels are products of Ikea) We sit down and she is quite a spastic lady we begin to realize. She wants to help, her lack of english and our lack of Polish creates a lot of miscommunication. I have realized this with most of the Polish people, they are eager to help, with almost a sense of emergency, but the proficiency of the english language is not the best so it ends up in confusion. I appreciate the willingness to help though. We can’t officially check in until noon so we put our bags in the hall at the end and shower up and get ready for our day in Krakow. We end up stumbling upon most things. It is a rather small city and fairly easy to navigate. I find it very intriguing, especially when I think back to what it must have been like just 20 yrs ago. It still seems to be trying to recover. The city is very cheap and its not very crowded. I am happy I have decided to check it out. There is not a ton to do here but I think its definitely worth a stop, especially because it is so cheap to do. We walk around the city most of the day and a lot does not seem to be open, not sure why but a lot seems closed , especially in the main square. (Possibly we are too early). We stop in at a milk bar which is like a cafeteria that the food is subsidized by the government, which causes it to be even cheaper. Lauren tries to order perogies, but ends up with pancakes with cheese and blueberries. I end up splitting potato pancakes with mushrooms with Marina for equivalent of 2 dollars total, one per person. They were different than eny potato pancakes I’ve had but they were very delicious, greasy but great! After the milk bar we end up going to the Wawel Castel. The church at the top is composed of several different architecture styles. It was a mod podge of centuries and styles but it seemed to work. Then we tried to get into several other things but we needed a ticket to get in and according to Rick Steves it wasn’t worth it. At one point I had to go through a metal detector and I had my knives on me. I didn’t want them confiscated so I asked the police if he could hold them, he gave me a strange look and pointed me in an area which I could check my stuff. We ended up not able to get in that place anyways so I got my stuff right back. After that we stumbled upon a lady filling a water bottle from a spicket on the wall. We followed suit and then realized she was using it to water flowers and it was normally locked. But she didn’t seem to mind, unlike the lady in Barcelona. We then headed our way to the Jewish Quarters and I stopped and had some perogies, which were rather tasty I thought. The other girls didn’t seem to impressed, but I was pleased. We then went to a jewish cemetery which was quite moving. A lot of it had been reconstructed using the broken tomb stones found after nazi destruction to create a mosaic wall around the cemetery as well as a memorial to all the jews that had been buried there. Its hard for me to imagine such hate and how people could destruct tombstones, let alone millions of people. After the cemetery we headed to the bus station, where the girls tried to figure out there next stop. It was supposed to be Budapest but things got tricky when everything was really expensive or the buses didn’t line up with their schedule. We also got our bus tickets for Auschwitz. It turns out it is a lot cheaper to do it on your own then the package tours, plus its not difficult at all to do it with out a package. After our bus extravaganza it was time for a siesta. We took a nap for a little then it was Fiesta time. We went to get food on the main square, it is just way too cheap in this town to do anything less. For a nice dinner with stuffed chicken rice, veggies and salad it was less than 7 dollars on the main square. We then were walking around and we were a hot commodity all the promoters kept handing us tickets for free entry, money off drinks, it was great. They popped out of nowhere and normally would first talk to us in Polish, then would switch to English and start their whole speech again. It was quite a site to see. We decided to go to one that had live music and 20 percent off wine rates. We enjoyed a really good wine and was entertained by the king of pop. He sang some Aky Breaky heart with a Polish accent which really just brought a smile to my face. We were sitting in the VIP section, which was pretty special. After our vip treatment we were ready for an early night. On our walk home we had two guys come up to us and talk a bunch of jibberish, all we could get out of it was good boy, good girl, good club. Two guys boughi boughi boughi ( this was a sound effect he made) while insinuating two guys together.. All we could do was laugh and walk away.
Today was a late start. We had to check out of the hotel and then head down to the city. We were planning on doing a bike ride out to the country side. Things were already ridiculous in the city for the game.. People were everywhere it was so crowded. We went to get bikes paid for them and then realized that there was no where we could really ride to and that it was way too crazy in the city today to get anywhere. We went to see if we could refund our tickets and instead get a canal tour. This worked out well for us, Thanks Carlos 
it was hard to stay awake until towards the end where there was a kid who would not stop crying and screaming. It was awful and everybody booked it off the boat as soon as it docked. Another reason I don’t think I want kids, they can be such little punks. After the cruise we ended up getting some groceries and headed down to watch the game. It was super crowed and we were able to score free hats that had horns to blow attached as well as free orange shirts. We found a place and stood to watch it. I could hardly see and then a girl let me stand on her crate with her during the first half. The second half I tried to wiggle my way so I could see the game. At some point I couldn’t not find the girls again. Oh alone in Amsterdam once more. This time we had a plan in case we got separated, we would meet by the baggage lockers at 6. Since our train left at 7. After Holland lost everyone went silent and walked away. I figured now was the chance to find my friends. No luck. I saw where we were sitting, the french people were still there. I asked if they saw my friends and they pointed as if they left a while ago. Oh well looks like I need to find something to do for 6 hrs. I head to the park because I figure I could crash out there easily. I found a flag on the ground and was rather upset so I picked it up and then I later used it to sleep on. Some guy almost peed on me in the woods and so then I had to move places. I saw a fire so I went to it to get warm. I meet some dutch guys who took the flag pole and used it for their fire. They also had a shopping cart in their fire. Crazy people. Eventually they left and summoned me back to my trees. They called me tree woman. I found a new place to crash out, but by 4 am it was too cold and I decided to head to the train station. I made it there with no map. It was great! I found a spot and camped out for about an hour then decided to head over to the luggage. It was sweet relief when I saw the girls. Wahoo! Successful once again! And then we headed to begin our 18 hour train ride on to Poland!
Today was a late start. We had to check out of the hotel and then head down to the city. We were planning on doing a bike ride out to the country side. Things were already ridiculous in the city for the game.. People were everywhere it was so crowded. We went to get bikes paid for them and then realized that there was no where we could really ride to and that it was way too crazy in the city today to get anywhere. We went to see if we could refund our tickets and instead get a canal tour. This worked out well for us, Thanks Carlos it was hard to stay awake until towards the end where there was a kid who would not stop crying and screaming. It was awful and everybody booked it off the boat as soon as it docked. Another reason I don’t think I want kids, they can be such little punks. After the cruise we ended up getting some groceries and headed down to watch the game. It was super crowed and we were able to score free hats that had horns to blow attached as well as free orange shirts. We found a place and stood to watch it. I could hardly see and then a girl let me stand on her crate with her during the first half. The second half I tried to wiggle my way so I could see the game. At some point I couldn’t not find the girls again. Oh alone in Amsterdam once more. This time we had a plan in case we got separated, we would meet by the baggage lockers at 6. Since our train left at 7. After Holland lost everyone went silent and walked away. I figured now was the chance to find my friends. No luck. I saw where we were sitting, the french people were still there. I asked if they saw my friends and they pointed as if they left a while ago. Oh well looks like I need to find something to do for 6 hrs. I head to the park because I figure I could crash out there easily. I found a flag on the ground and was rather upset so I picked it up and then I later used it to sleep on. Some guy almost peed on me in the woods and so then I had to move places. I saw a fire so I went to it to get warm. I meet some dutch guys who took the flag pole and used it for their fire. They also had a shopping cart in their fire. Crazy people. Eventually they left and summoned me back to my trees. They called me tree woman. I found a new place to crash out, but by 4 am it was too cold and I decided to head to the train station. I made it there with no map. It was great! I found a spot and camped out for about an hour then decided to head over to the luggage. It was sweet relief when I saw the girls. Wahoo! Successful once again! And then we headed to begin our 18 hour train ride on to Poland!
Ahh.. It’s hard to believe how much one relies on technology especially cell phones. After my arrival to Amsterdam I was to meet the girls I have been traveling with previously. They had a flight earlier in the day. My original plans were to sleep in the airport that night, since it would be a safe shelter and I would be able to meet up with the girls in the morning. I read about the Amsterdam airport on sleepinginairports.com and it was rated one of the best ones and that cops do not let homeless people stay. So I figured it would not be a bad option. However I received an email from Marina telling me that they would wait for me at the central stations and I could sleep in their hotel with them. I was a bit worried that they were not going to be there because my plane had been delayed but they didn’t have a way of communication so I figured that I didn’t want to leave them out waiting for me all night. By the time I got to central stations it was already 1:30 am, 2 hrs later than when my flight was to arrive. I was walking around and couldn’t find them anywhere. It was already too late to go back to the airport since they don’t have trains going there after a certain hour. I didn’t know what the name of the hotel was or where it was located so I couldn’t try to find it on my own. I checked my email and saw that they emailed me and had already gone back to the hotel because the last bus came at 1:15 am. Welp.. Now what to do I was thinking. I locked up all my stuff in a locker and took out only my sleeping bag and my knives and my phone. I walked around for a little while trying to find a nook where I could hide out. But in central amsterdam there was not much I could see. I contemplated jumping a construction fence and sleeping inside a work zone since no one would really find me inside, but I decided I could get into a lot of trouble. So I ended up walking around more. Then a guy, asked me if he could use my blackberry really quick to email his friend, that he was trying to meet up with. I said sure and sat down talking to him. He was having the same problem as me, couldn’t get in contact with his friend. He turned out to be from the states as well and goes to yale, so I figured he couldn’t be too much trouble. Also it was better that I was with a male rather than wondering by myself. After waiting for his friend till 3:30 we decided that he probably wasn’t going to meet up with his friend. I ended up staying at a campsite that night that Henry had known about. In the morning I was awoken to goats There was live music in the morning at the campsite which was nice. And we found out that his friend had ended up at some british peoples place, so he wasn’t lost all night. Henry and I went into town and was waiting again for his friend.. No luck. At this time my phone was dying and I hadn’t had any confirmation that the girls were going to meet me at the bus stop at 1 like I suggested. We decided to get lunch and it was amazing. We got these sandwiches but they were just great roast beef, pesto, fresh moz. It was one of the best meals I have had in a while and it was cheap. After lunch I headed over to the bus station which I thought was where their bus would arrive. I sat there for about an hour just people watching and reading. Still no sign of the girls I turned my phone on to see if there was any word. There was an email, saying they never saw me and a new meeting spot and time. I went over to the hotel, and maybe after 5 mins Marina had spotted me. It was great to finally find them. And Henry had heard word from his friend so everything worked out. It always does. So we went to work out our train tickets to get out of Amsterdam and it seemed like it might not happen. Everything this summer seems to be quite full and hard to book. Maybe its because of the world cup? Maybe because the Euro is down? Not sure but trains are hard to come by this summer. After getting our train tickets we decided that it was time for a break and just to stroll along the streets and go on a Rick Steve’s self guided walking tour. It was nice. We went to Vondel Park and got completely lost. We could not find our way out to save our lives. We kept walking in circles it seemed like. The same damn Gazebo we passed like 5 times. Eventually we made it out and had some amazing pancakes, one was a shrimp pizza, one was a gyro meat style, one was chocolate and nuts and the last one had fruit. We looked like pigs eating these it was rather entertaining. After our pancakes we went to find the Anne Frank house, however we ended up completely lost and it started storming like crazy. We hid out in some cafe and then gave up on the storm ever ending. Walking along the streets, I happened to run into John Holmen, a kid I have known for quite some time and went to the same school as me. Small world. Somewhere along the way a guy was handing out Ponchos, I believe you had to pay for them, but I’m not sure that we did. Sorry Amsterdam. Then eventually what seemed like an eternity to me we made it to the bus station. And made our way back to the hotel. There is no way I would have found it on my own. It was a golf resort out in the middle of nowhere. I fell fast asleep by midnight.
After sending Marina off to her flight. I tried to book a train ticket to go on the night train to amsterdam. I was talking to a guy who had been trying to get to switzerland but had been stuck three days in barcelona because everything was booked. He was having a breakdown I felt bad for him. I tried to help him out and look up flights for him, and tell him that if he could get to france it was a lot easier to get to switzerland. I went up to the counter and tried to book my ticket but they said it would be 75 euros just for a reservation to Paris and that didn’t include the part to amsterdam. I was not having it. It would be a faster and cheaper to book a flight. So I went back to the hostel where my stuff was stored and tried to book a flight. For some reason I could not get either my cards or my pay pal to work. I was getting flustered. Zach a nice gentleman from Cali was the voice of reason and convinced me to try another website. Of course that’s a good idea. So I did and I was able to book my flight. It cost me ten Euros more but it worked. I talked to him for a little while and found out he lives in San Fran and is willing to show me around. People are really awesome. I then napped for a long while since I didn’t sleep much on the bus. I started talking to stephanie a girl from Ecuador who was really awesome and helped pass time. I then showered and hung outside until it was time to catch my flight. It was a nice day to relax and catch up on sleep.
Once again I find myself in Barcelona. I have now revisted every city that I had done on my first ever Europe trip. Kind of crazy! In the morning we awoke and did some laundry in the sink, about time we were getting rather stinky. I met up with my Montreal friend to find the tickets to go to Italy. However I realize a little later that I can not go to Italy because I will be in Pamplona at the time. Ops I have not been doing well at keeping my dates straight. So I have to tell them I can not join Sad Story. I still might try to meet up with them in Croatia. We shall see. After laundry we make breakfast. EGGS!! get some protein in my diet. The Eggs were amazing. After breakfast we had to to check out and then try to get to the walking tour. However checking out took us longer than expected so we didn´t really get on time to the walking tour, which thankfully turns out was non existant. Rather than get off the metro we continue to take it up to Park Guell which is the Gaudi Park. It was nice to return and brought back flashbacks from being there 6 years ago. I can´t believe its been so long ago. I was climbing on one of the pillars to try to take a picture and a lady walks by and calls me crazy. At first I think she is joking. I then realize she wasn´t when she asked if I lost my brain. ops. I am not sure if it was because I was crazy that I could get hurt climbing or it was crazy because it was disrepectful, either way she was not having it. After walking around for a while at the park we went to fill up our water bottles in the toliets. The three other girls were yelled at for doing the same thing, but I was really thirsty and had not seen anyone around, so I went for it. Out of nowhere the potty natzi comes up from behind grabs my water bottle and dumps out the the water, including about a half of bottle that I had already had. I was not a happy camper at all. We then go to visit one of the houses-apartment complexes that Gaudi had created and went inside. It was okay but I was a little disappointed in how plain the regular rooms were . The terrace and the Attic were awfully neat to see, but not sure it was work the seven euros. We then decided to get some food and walk down to the end of la Rambla to eat it, maybe in a park or at the port. We got food at Carrefour (where I would shop in France) and then found a shady area to eat. It was a lot longer of a street than I remember from the day before, maybe because I was hot and hungry this time around. After dinner we went back to the hostel to get ready for Pamplona and then go to watch the Spain Game. (Which secretly I was cheering for Germany) I wanted to be in Germany for the final but they let me down Now it looks like I will support holland! We had to leave the bar early to catch our night bus, but I was able to see the goal by Spain. I also was able to catch the last minute of the game right outside of a bar near the trainstation. After the win, Fireworks started going off!! I am sure it would have been a good time had I been able to stay and celebrate!
So today- last night we took an overnight bus from Barcelona to Pamplona. All we carried with us was ourselves, fully dressed in white ( White tank and white shorts) enough money to get us by, a bag full of food for the night and for breakfast, a camera, a phone and thats about it. All of this compiled into a small purse and a sac. The bus was super hot, so thankfully we didn´t freeze in our outfits, however it was unpleasantly hot so it made it hard to sleep. We had heard from a friend the trick was to get half way in and then run till you get in the stadium with the bulls. So this was our plan. However we did not know much else. Upon arrival to Pamplona at 5 a.m. We were greeted by many drunkards all very very dirty covered in spilt sangria and other nonsense. I tell you no one sleeps around Europe. We walked around aimlessly trying to follow people who looked like they knew where they were going and tried to find other english speakers. Both of those were not successful. We stumbled upon the path after asking several people the way to the street. We were followed by a drunken Canadian who wouldn´t leave us alone till we talked to him. So we tried to get information out of him to figure out what to do. At this time my nerves finally set in and I litterally was making myself sick. Part of it was the uncertainty of what I needed to do and how I could accomplish the run with out getting gored. A spanish guy came up to us as and was talking to us trying to give us information. I am sure I asked the same question millions of times as how I was supposed to get to the middle with out actually having to run beside a bull. Eventually we made friends with Parker a guy from Cali who seemed to have done his research. We waited in the plaza and hung out for a few hours as that was where we were supposed to be. This whole time I am bouncing back and forth doing my nervous dance. We tried to move our location to get closer to the end about 5 minutes before the bulls were to be released and as we were nearing death corner, we were picked off by the police. The purse that Marina was carrying was not allowed. We at this time had alrready ditched the sac of food. We empty the purse with neccessities in my money belt and hide the purse in an alley and try to find our way back into the street. By now it has been all blocked off and there was no way to re-enter It was litterally only minutes before the guns went off which meant that we couldn´t even find a decent place to watch the bulls run. We were able to catch the steers run by.. Wahoo! Now we are heartbroken and stuck in Pamlona until late tonight when we have another night bust to catch. I contemplated staying for tomorrow and figuring out then what to do. However I didn´t want to sleep by myself or go out with the drunken masses of people. So one day I shall return to Pamplona again and that time I will run with the bulls
After I had posted the previous.. We went to take a nap in the park to try to pass time and to sulk a little in our saddness. We decided that we could go watch a movie and then still have time to go out before catching our bus. We went to see Eclipse in all Spanish. I didn’t understand much of it but Marina was being my translator. I could pick up a few phrases here and there, my spanish is definitely getting better. Which gives me something to look forward to back in Texas. After the movie we heard some loud drums so we decided to follow them. The whole streets were lined with people going Crazy. It was a massive party everywhere you turned. So we decided to go to the grocery store to get some fanta to make our own drinks and share a donner kebab my favorite( although they are very different in Spain than in France). So we sat and ate as we watched a parade go by and all kind of excitement. We just wondered around meeting people. Then we went to this dance party place which was just a blast. The crowd was much older but still lots of fun. We then wandered around again, making friends with some locals. It was a ton of fun and I have to say it totally lifted my spirits. Some how we stumbled onto a street preformace, where I totally was amazed by one of the dancers. He pulled me out into the circle which was pretty crazy. I then believed I tried to talk to him after but he kept avoiding me I think. Oh well it was to catch our bus, I didn’t have to time to chatter. When we get to the bus station we were told our tickets were no good and they were for the day before. Which made no sense because there was no way possible we could have made it to pamplona to even catch that bus. We left Barcelona at 11 and our bus was to leave Pamplona at 1 am. Its a 7 hour drive. So the guy at the bus station when selling us the tickets made a slight mistake and we didn’t catch it. Thinking that it was the next day but technically 1 am means it would be the following day. So now we trying to plea with the driver to let us on, I even offered sleeping with the luggage. He was not having it and started yelling at us we made a huge production. Then somewhere in our minds (I believe Marina’s actually) we decide to try the bus next to us. It was going to Barcelona as well. We thankfully were able to get on and I’m sure if the bus driver even noticed that it was for the wrong day or wrong bus. But thankfully were we able to get home on time and Marina was able to catch her flight. On the bus we happened to be sitting next to the guys we were going to run near. I think I chatted to him half way through the night, and then we decided we should probably get some sleep. Good idea.
Sorry I have not been posting often, life has been kinda hectic and when I have a spare minute there is one of 2 problems. My phone is dead, or I am tired and all I can think about it sleep. I should be having a long travelling day where I shall be able to catch up. I have mostly kept up in my notebook at least writting down memo´s so I can return and fill all of you guys in. I can share my last past few days now, so they will be slightly out of order. OPSIES.! Oh well here goes for some of the posts from the past few days. I am going to work backwards now, so don´ t be tricked. Also as far as future plans I am not sure yet what is going to happen, I have a few ideas a brewing. There is soo much I would like to see and soo little time. I am highly regretting that I bought the Eurorail about now tho =(
We decided to take a day trip to Cordoba to see one of the Moorish Cathedrals. When we got up our groceries from the night before were gone. Marina’s face was priceless. We should have known from there it was going to be a rough day. We took a two hour bus ride which was about 18 euros there and back. I tried to sleep the whole time since we really only had 3 hrs of sleep the night before. When we got to Cordoba it was about noon and we were all feeling a little crappy. Lindsey was hungry so we stopped in some place to get a sandwich. She had a tuna sandwich which I tried and it surprisingly was delicious, I tell you my mind is slowly changing its opinion on seafood. We then went to the Cathedral which was 8 euros, no student discount this time. The cathedral was awesome to see inside because it still had a lot of its moorish accents to it from when it was a mosque. Something different than what I am used to. After the Cathedral we were going to try to go into some places but everything closed at two. Kind of disappointing. We should have done a little bit more research. Oh well we sat down and I had a tuna panini with tomatoes and cheese, quite the treat we then went to the Synagogue, and tried to find the river. The river did not seem to exist like it did on the map. It had mostly run dry. We sat on the side of the road like dead dogs, exhausted. We later see a thermometer which read 45 degrees C. Which is give or take around 118 I don’t know the conversion off the top of my head. Ops. The city pretty much conquered us. There were some fountains near the bus station that I decided to wet my hair in to cool me off. Then we sat and waited for our bus back. When we got back there was BBQ happening at the hostel so we had a burger and some tortilla which is like a potato and egg mixture type of thing. After dinner we took a shower, breaking my one shower per city rule and went to watch some free flamenco show. We arrived rather early so we went back to where we originally ate dinner to have a glass of wine before the show. The show was fairly good considering it was free. One women dancer and a male singer and a male guitarist. The singer was the best part and the woman did rather amazing considering her size. After that it was pack and sleep time to catch our train in the am.