James and I in Spain

Monday August 20-friday August 24

On Monday I had the day to myself. I spent the morning grocery shopping (the stores were all closed on Sunday), wandering around Barcelona, and eating empanadas.

Gràcia

I had my first real tapas experience and saw lots of foods that are far too bizarre for my comfort. I ended up getting some patatas bravas, bread with a soft cheese and jam, some other tapas that I've  already forgotten, served with a glass of sangria. Then, I hopped on a train to head to the airport to pick James up.

On Tuesday, James and I ventured into Barcelona, having a cute breakfast at a little cafe. In the afternoon we went jet skiing. James didn't want to drive, so I ended up driving our jetski. I wasn't the best driver, but we survived the ride and it was mildly terrifying and fun. After our jetski, we hopped on segways and took a 90minute Segway ride along the beach. It was a beautiful evening to enjoy the sunset. My Segway ran out of battery, and as a result, our guide traded segways with me and walked, pulling the broken Segway behind him until someone from the company brought us a new Segway. We finished the day with an authentic tapas experience where we got to pick tapas up from the bar, ordering our hot tapas and ranciones. We had some yummy veggies in bread, cheese on bread, potatoes, and cake.

Wednesday, we had a relaxing and slow morning, starting the day with another leisurely cafe breakfast. Then, we took a bus and train to get to sitges, a resort town. There were lots of little (air-conditioned) shops that we wandered thru. We had a nice lunch with salad and a margarita-esque pizza with honey, and of course a pitcher of sangria. Later, we took a “tour” of Casa Bacardi. It was the most bizarre tour that I have been on, with our tour guide throwing in lots of excessively long, ackward pauses. The highlight was the cocktail making workshop where we were taught to make 3 cocktails. One of the cocktails had muddled kiwi in it and it was really gross. James and I both chose to make a mojito. We learned the proper way to slap the mint leaves to enhance their flavor and how much to muddle the lime without bringing out the bitterness. We spent a good chunk of the day relaxing at the beach, in the balmy Mediterranean. We finished the day at NEM, a well-reviewed tapas restaurant. We had some delicious mozzarella, bread with tomato spread, a very spicy patatas bravas, and an amazing hummus with croutons.

We woke up early on Thursday to go kayaking in Costa Brava. We got to the meeting point early, but as it got closer to 8, we began to wonder what was happening, as there was no one else at the square. By 820, with still no sign of a tour bus, I went back to the cafe we had breakfast at and asked to use their phone. I called the tour company, and they were perplexed saying they did not have a tour today at 8am. They saw that I did in fact have a reservation for an 8am tour and apologized, offering us to go on the 1045am tour. We went to a local park and took a much needed rest, before returning to the meeting spot, this time finding a much busier square. We hopped on the tour bus and enjoyed a 90min bus ride to Costa Brava. We got on our tandem kayak and began paddling. Our first stop was a little cove with a few cliffs we could jump off. I jumped off of the shorter one, probably about 2m high. Our second stop was a little cave that we got to walk in a bit. The last stop was a little reef area. I hopped out, put on my snorkel, and got to see lots of fish and an octopus. It was really cool as the water was super clear. We finished the 3+hour adventure with sandwiches. The sandwich options were cheese (kind of a mild Swiss), cured meats, tomatoes, lettuce, barbeque sauce, mustard, and mayo. It's interesting to see the similarities and differences between sandwiches in the US and here. They like to put this tomato spead on everything, I think it's just pureed tomato. James got a sandwich in Iceland (on his layover) that had salmon and hard boiled egg on it.

Friday was out last full day in Barcelona. We had a yummy lunch where we ordered “fried brie tacos with tomato jam”. Somewhere, Google translate got confused. What we got in no way resembled tacos.  Rather, we were seved fried brie balls. But they were delicious.

After lunch, we tried to go shopping to find James new gym shorts as he threw them away in Nashville due to possible contamination with bed bugs. However, most of the shorts were more European style and short, and not James' style.

In the evening, we walked around the Gràcia neighborhood where we got more tapas including a weird eggplant, onion, and red pepper dish, an empanada and some cookie and dark chocolate ice cream.

It's been a fun 16 days in Spain. I've eaten lots of different foods, pickled veggies, tapas, lots of baked good, potatoes, and sangria. I've practiced my Spanish, visited countless churches, seen works by Gaudi, relaxed on the beach, and enjoyed art.

Today, we are flying to Budapest. I'm curious to experience a very different culture, strongly influenced by it's communist past and participation in both world wars. James studied abroad in Budapest when I was in London but did not sightsee much when he was abroad

Granada and Barcelona

Our days have been so busy that I haven't had time to journal until today's plane ride to Barcelona.

Sunday, August 12

For our last full day in Madrid, I started by visiting the El Rastro. It's a giant flea market that sells new and used leather, clothing, and a ridiculous amount of miscellaneous goods from foam, to nails, to ugly vases, and antiques no one wants. Then, I met up with Sara and we headed to the Royal Palace of Madrid. It's a huge palace with over 2,000 rooms ornately decorated with frescoes and velvet, also including my personal favorite room, a Japanese smoking room. From there, we visited the cathedral. After a rest break, we went to a flamenco show to round out our Madrid experience.

Monday, August 13

After a brief Uber ride this morning, we took a bus to Granada. The bus was nicer than I was expecting, it included WiFi and TV screens. Once we arrived, we got some tapas and explored Granada, heading to the sacromonte region where we visited an Abbey and saw where a large population of Roma live.

Tuesday, August 14

We got up early today for the Alhambra. It's the largest tourist attraction in Granada. It consists of an old Moorish fort, palace, gardens, and more. The entire place was decorated in beautiful patterns. After spending over 5 hours at the Alhambra I took a nap to escape the heat. I spent the evening visiting the Royal cathedral and chapel, going on a tourist train of the city, and eating a delicious meal at a moraccan restaurant. I even got henna done which was very fun.

Wednesday,August 15

We got up super early today to take a plane to Barcelona. Currently, we are circling the Barcelona airport as we had to abort on our first landing. Hopefully we land soon.

Update: 45 minutes later we eventually landed. They said we had to abort the landing because there was a plane on the tarmac in front of us.

Once we landed, we took a bus ride to our Airbnb. We soon discovered that our Airbnb was on the fifth floor. Thus, 105 stairs stood between us and the apartment. After quickly dropping our bags off, we headed out to visit our first Gaudi attraction, La Pedrera. His vision focuses on nature, incorporating curves, arches, and lots of natural light.

We then went to the Sagrada familia. I thought I was tired of churches, however, I really enjoyed the Sagrada familia, mostly because it didn't feel like a church. Tons of natural light floods the space through beautiful stained glass. The church has been under construction for decades and is still under construction, with only 8 of the 18 towers currently built.

To finish the evening, we headed to montjuic. It took a while to get there, our original metro train didn’t go to it's final two stops, and as a result we ended up taking the train backwards a stop. Then, we transferred to a different metro line. Following that, we got on a cable car, and lastly a funicular. We had beautiful views of Barcelona and the sea. We had a bit of time to explore the castle, the world Fair grounds, the 1992 Olympic stadium, ending at the magic fountain. It's a large fountain that has a show that includes lights and music. It was touristy, hilarious, and a nice way to end the day.

Thursday, August 16

This morning I got to sleep in until 9! It was amazing and much needed. We got on a train to Tarragona and fifty minutes later arrived. We explored lots of Roman ruins including an ampitheter, forum, theater, wall, and circus. Sara has an endless store of Roman knowledge so she served as our personal tour guide. For the first time this entire trip, the heat got to me. Even though it was cooler than Madrid, it felt unbearably hot, despite fans, misters, and shade. We tried to take a few breaks, but due to differing traveling preferences, we went to the beach at the end of the day instead of going during the hottest parts of the day. As a result, Sara and I were a bit too hot in the afternoon sun.

Friday, August 17

This morning we got up and took the train to girona. Unlike our train to taragonna where we had to sit on the floor, this time we got seats! We had a nice morning in Girona, walked the Roman walls, and saw some places where they filmed game of thrones. We knew there was a chance of rain when we sat down to eat. However, what we didn't realize was that five minutes later it would get gray and start to rain. The drizzle quickly turned to pouring rain. As we began to hear thunder, we picked up our first course and made our way to the covered arch way. We got comfortable sitting on the floor and watched as the winds picked up, rain flying everywhere. Soon after it began hailing. Luckily for us, one of the covered tables opened up so we got to eat our main course at a table. We took a brief walk in the rain to get to a taxi and then headed back to Barcelona. While Sara and Lorena visited a cathedral, I sat down at a little cafe and had a delicious eclair type dessert with my latte. I enjoyed the wifi and my food, as I watched tourists attempt and fail to order in Spainish (the story is funnier in person, I promise).

Lorena and I proceeded to the Picasso museum. It was interesting to see all of the mediums he worked with in his lifetime and see a variety of styles of art. We finished the evening wandering around LaRamblas, a super touristy street market.

Saturday, August 18

Because we had a plethora of day trips, we decided to cancel our plans to go to Montserrat. To start the morning, we went on a walking tour of Barcelona. Then, we explored, had a nice lunch, shopped for souvenirs, and had more ice cream. To finish the day, we went to park guell, another Gaudi creation. We ended with tapas and sangria, as Lorena and Sara prepared to leave.

Sunday, August 19

Early this morning, Lorena and Sara left for the airport. Once I checked out of my Airbnb, I (stupidly) decided to walk the two miles, uphill, on cobblestone streets, in 85’ with my luggage. An hour later I arrived. I sacrificed a room with a view for a room that was ready right away. Our suite is really nice, has a living room and bedroom, fridge, and large bathroom. After a few hours of relaxing, I walked to a metro station, unsure of where I would go. I ended up on settling on Barceloneta, the beach area of Barcelona. Once I was tired of the heat, I found a place with AC-which ended up being a super busy McDonald's. I'm heading back to my hotel soon so I can finally update this blog and call my parents. James is currently flying from Nashville (where he officiated a wedding) to San Francisco to Iceland to Barcelona (unclear why this was the cheapest flight). He arrives tomorrow evening and I'm super excited for him to arrive.

Holy Toledo!

Our first day trip of the trip took us to the lovely city of Toledo. It's a small town of 10,000 known for it's religious diversity, mazapan, and metal work.

Getting to Toledo was relatively simple. After a quick metro ride, we arrived at the station. We printed out our tickets, went thru security, and hoped onto our train. The thirty minute ride went by quickly as we read about Toledo and enjoyed the views of the Spanish countryside. We arrived at the edge of town and made our across the river and up the hills into the city. After getting a latte we hoped onto the touristy train vision. It was essentially a little three car trolley that took us around town, while providing some great history about the city .

Next, we visited the alcazar which contains the Spanish army museum. It contains a huge collections of minatures of various militaries from across the world.

Following lunch we went to the famous ToledoToledo cat. It was absolutely gorgeous and incredibly detailed. 

After visiting a few smaller churches and a mosque-turned-syagouge, we headed to the Zipline. I was a bit nervous as I stepped into the harness, but by the time I stepped up to the edge I was purely excited. It was an absolutely gorgeous view, flying across the river. 

First 24 hours in Spain

It's been a while since I blogged, but as I start this European vacation  I thought it would be nice to revisit blogging.

Wednesday, I woke up to a text that said our flight was expected to be delayed four hours. However, because the flight could leave early, we still arrived at the airport at 3:45. We were provided with meal vouchers so we got to eat at PF Chang's for free. After a while, we headed towards our gate. It felt like absolute madness, as several neighboring gates were hours delayed, but we eventually got on the tarmac, to take a bus. After standing on the bus for ten minutes, we started moving. With sweet relief, the bus stop, the doors opened, and people began gallivanting off the plane…. But mere moments later, we were told our bus was at the wrong plane. We squeezed back into the bus and finally got to our seats. I got situated and promptly fell asleep for a good 5-6 hours, missing take off entirely. The remainder of the flight went by quickly as I fell back asleep, and spent the last two hours of the flight watching Eat Pray Love. We arrived 6 hours later than expected, but we breezed through customs. After a metro ride with two transfers, we made it to our Airbnb.

(Upstairs)

(Bedroom)

We knew before we arrived that there would be a lot of stairs, but it was still a surprise to find 110 stairs between us and our room. We managed to haul our bags up the stairs with a brief rest break part way.

After dropping or bags off, Lorena and I went exploring, wandering in the direction of anything interesting. The area around or apartment is amazing. It's so lovely, filled with tapas restaurants, ice cream shops, and oodles of nooks and crannies with little stored. After two hours of exploring and eating delicious ice cream, we returned to our apartment to try to sleep.

Today, we got up and walked around Madrid, starting the day at a delicious crepe restaurant where Sara and I split a savory crepe with spinach, Swiss, and mushrooms, and a sweet crepe with blackberries and marscapone. They were both delicious and complemented my espresso with sweetened condensed milk.

From there, we explored a modern art museum inside of a government building. After, we went to retiro park where we rented a rowboat and then had a picnic in the park. It was the perfect way to enjoy the day. To round out the day, we went to the Prado museum where we saw a lot of European art. We're taking a rest break and will soon be heading out for the evening. I'm going to try to keep my posts short since I'll be seeing all of you soon.

I'm graduating?

I recently reread a few of my blog posts (okay, I will be honest, I was procrastinating from writing a paper on analyzing a-bungarotoxin) and I realized how much has changed since London. One year ago today, I went  to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and a tree lighting in Trafalgar Square. That week I had gone to the V&A, Sir John Soane's museum, Westminster, and had tea in a crypt, saw the changing of the guard, went to borough market, Abbery Road, 221B Baker Street, and the Hyde Park Winter carnival. That was one week! I don't remember being exhausted or not sleeping but goodness that is a lot! It's also ridiculous to reread these blog posts because in the December blog posts, I didn't even write about walking by Big Ben, the London Eye, Whitehall, the horse guards, etc. By December, seeing the sites of London was an everyday experience that was not even worth noting in my blog.  It's funny how time flies and how quickly I adapted to living in the metropolis of London.

But maybe the bigger difference is how much my thinking has changed. In London, we planned a few days ahead, maybe a week, but I rarely thought about what would happen in a month, much less a year. But now, here I am, and breakfast, lunch and dinner conversations always mention the future. The girls who I lived with in London are now applying for graduate schools and jobs, we ask questions like "Would I like to live in Arkansas? What about Seattle?" and friends respond saying things like "I could see you in San Francisco" or "I don't see you liking the East coast." Furthermore, we discuss good verbs to have on our resumes, should we say "assessed" or "analyzed", do jobs from the summer before college matter, and should I use size 12 or 11.5 font. There are good days and bad, one day someone's letters of recommendation is missing, another day someone gets an interview, rejections, waitlists, and acceptances are becoming a large part of our lives. Some days we tread lightly at a meal, knowing a key acceptance or rejection is due that day, other days we try to pretend that the real world doesn't exist and we immerse ourselves in a discussion of who we would eat first if we were trapped on a desert island.

As for me, I "graduated" on Thursday. We had a nice catered dinner and got a goodie bag with a Grinnell mug and water bottle.

I still have two weeks of classes, but I am one step closer to finishing my Bachelor's degree. I know officially know that next year I will be in school to become an Occupational Therapist. Luckily, the time I have spent with OTs has reassured me that helping individuals become more independent and improve in their activities of daily living will be a satisfying, challenging and exciting job. I can't wait to start this part of my life but I am first going to enjoy my last six months in Grinnell! 

My mom somehow knows how to pack a care package that simultaneously says "I know you are an adult" (socks and fancy snacks) and "you are still a kid" (punching balloons, flying helicopters, light up toys, cotton candy and gummy bears) all while saying "I love you". NOTE: This care package also included a box of RitzBitz Peanut Butter. I was really excited to get these and have a snack while in class. I noticed the box was open but oh well! But then the bag was open. The person sitting next to me reassured me that my mom must have gotten hungry and grabbed a few to eat. So I ate one. It was horrible and stale but I was in class so I couldn't spit it out. I turned the box to look at the best by date- MAR 2014. THEY EXPIRED 9 MONTHS AGO! So I threw them away and they are not pictured here. But otherwise an A+ care package.  

Mind the Gap

In London, there is a phrase that I heard all of the time on the tube, "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform". "Mind the Gap" has become a catchy phase that is put onto everything from t-shirts to bookmarks. At our last dinner, Professor Vinter gave each of us a keychain with the phrase "mind the gap" on it. Afterwards, while giving her speech, she said something that made me think. She said that when we go back to the US, there will be cultural changes and we should mind the gap, remember what we have learned in London, and maintain the gap and keep it in the back of our minds. Professor Vinter's speech was much more eloquent than that; however, the point is the same; we have all been changed and should appreciate these differences.

I have been home for two days now (four when publishing this) and it has been wonderful and a little strange. I got to MSP on Saturday at about 9pm (after my flight was delayed for 1.5 hours) and then found my mom, retrieved my baggage, and then went out to eat with my parents before picking Gilly up at the airport. By the time we got home and I got to bed it was after 12:30 ct (6:30 London time). I was exhausted, but it was so exciting to be home, see my family, and hold my kitties.

They say that everyone will have some sort of culture shock returning from abroad; however, coming from London, I doubted how much this would be true. In Minnesota, the streets are quieter, the ground is snowier, pop is served with ice and refilled, and words like "barbecue sauce" and "to go" are back in my vocabulary. It is wonderful to be home with my family and has been wonderful to have a few relaxing days. On Monday, I saw three people total. Not sure the last time that that happened, it was probably months ago.

Going abroad was an amazing experience and I am so fortunate I was able to go abroad and travel extensively. I learned a lot this semester. I can now recite the English kings in order (thanks Eleanor!), navigate London, and I have a lot more faith in my own abilities. Before this semester, I would never have thought of traveling alone in Europe. After a week of traveling in Italy, I realized that I can travel in an unknown city, in a different language, and have an amazing day.

I want to say thanks to all of the people who made this such a phenomenal experience. Thanks to my flatmates who lived with me day in and day out. We had so much fun and you guys all added so much craziness to everyday.

Thanks to all of the Grinnellians who I traveled with, had class with, and hung out with. Finally, thanks to my family who skyped me at 6am, 4pm, 1am, and all hours in between. You always put a smile on my face and reminded me of the bigger picture.  Thanks for supporting me, giving me the freedom to go abroad, and allowing me to learn on my own.

I hope this blog was interesting to read and kept you updated on my travels. Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

London

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Belgium

Wales

Scotland

Italy

England

Paris

Ireland

Last Day

Yesterday was our last day in London! In the morning, I went with Kate and Kimmie to sell Kimmies books and then we went to the Hyde Park carnival. It was fun to walk around during daylight and I took some pictures that will go up later! Afterwards, we walked past Buckingham palace, St. James' palace, Big Ben, and the eye. We took some corny pictures (to be added later) and then got a chimney cake at the Soutbank market before heading home. I was exhausted so I took a quick nap before I finished packing. I have no idea how heavy my bag is so I will figure that out in two hours! In the evening, people came over and hung out for a bit and said goodbyes. At 4:30, Kate and Eleanor left. We leave in an hour! I am really excited to getting home, but I still have to get my three bags and myself to Farringdon station, get on a tube, get off the tube, go up two flights of stairs, get onto a second tube, get to Heathrow, turn in oyster card, check in (and hope that my bag is under 50 pounds), get to my gate and then relax for nine hours. Luckily, four of us will be going to the airport together, and there will be lots of Grinnellians with layovers in Chicago so hopefully our gates will be close. Then, after going through customs I hope to have a short wait at Chicago before flying to Minnesota. Hopefully the weather cooperates! Fingers crossed!

The Last Few Days

The last few days have been a crazy mix of excitement, sadness, happiness, and stress as we all try to pack, prepare to go home, and say our goodbyes! On Wednesday, we had our last day of class and our professor brought us yummy cookies and bars. Afterwards, we came home and worked on a bit of packing, last paper edits and then we went to a pub for  a bit in the evening.

On Thursday, I ran a ton of errands! In the morning I made french toast for everyone (in a desperate attempt to use up the remaining groceries). Then I sold my books, printed my paper and turned it in, and bought a few last souvenirs. In the evening, we had "The Last Supper", our end of the semester dinner. All of our professors showed up and we had a delicious meal! When we arrived we got our prosecco and then our appetizers arrive (I got calamari). We had the cracker things that you open and we did it the fancy way with crossed arms so that was really fun. After that, we were all looking ridiculous with the silly hats and told the "jokes" that were in the crackers. A bit later, our main courses arrived and I got really yummy chicken with prosciutto, green beans and roasted potatoes. Then, for dessert I got a chocolate molten lava cake with ice cream and it was delicious! We finished the night with limoncello and then we all hung out and took pictures. It was really fun and the meal lasted over three hours!

Eleanor and Meredith

Half of the room

GIL professor and director, Prof. Vinter, giving her speech

Lacey (program assistant) and Prof. Vinter opening cards

Prof. Katy Layton-Jones adding hats to Dany's head

Nathalie, Kate, Prof. Julianna, Kimmie, and me

Kate, Prof. Layton Jones, Kimmie, and me

Flat: Meredith, Sara, Kate, me and Eleanor

Sara, Mollie and me

Roommates: Meredith, me, and Sara

The truth of our relationship!

Afterwards, nine of us decided to walk home and it was a gorgeous night out so it was really fun to walk around and see London one more time at night!

I am going to miss this city!