What you've been waiting for

A real post with pictures! I wrote most of this on Notepad in my iPod while traveling, so please excuse the frequent use of present tense in my writing.

Spain and Germany

Thursday
This morning, I awoke a frazzled mess at 10:30, seeing as we had planned to leave at 11, and I had such a late night with wrapping up big projects that I hadn't finished packing or checking into my flights. Mind you, I could only take one backpack.. So packing was tricky. Europe isn't a fashion show anyway, right? After a whirlwind of a shower, packing, and quick goodbyes to housemates, we made the 11:40 coach to Luton just fine.

I've been feeling sick to my stomach all day- probably because of the bus, airport, and airplanes. I'm a fragile little kid. You can guess the rest- fast forward, smooth trips, no tossing my cookies. Then we landed in Madrid about 8:30 local time.. An hour forward! We had to take a LOT of metro rides to get all the way from the airport to city centre, where our hostel is! Props to Grant on the kickin location. We're in the Cat's Hostel, which used to be a castle? Or something. Need to double check facts. Went to Museo de Jamon (literally, 'the ham museum') for dinner, Cailee and I split some seafood paella while the boys had some sort of ham, eggs, and French fries combo. The waiter was a very patient older Spanish man who spoke NO English. I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about not knowing ANY of the language. Uh oh.

Wifi usage and a military shower this evening, since the dadgum things operate like push-button sinks in public bathrooms: water on, off. Soap up. Rinse and repeat.

Big day exploring Madrid tomorrow!

Friday

Madrid was busy busy. Breakfast at the hostel, then we basically just explored the city while the boys navigated.

Got kicked out of a church,

saw Plaza Mayor,

Palacio Real de madrid, ate lunch from various little kiosks inside Mercado San Miguel, and enjoyed Museo del Prado.

Logging the days by pedometer make them seem even more tiring.. And this was a whopping 10 miles. We also spent a lot of time on the Metro (subway), so I can't imagine how many more miles that would've been on foot. Overall, a very entertaining city that we regretted not being able to spend more time in (mostly due to the fact that we couldn't find a hostel with openings for Friday night). Instead, we utilized a journey we have now nicknamed the 'bustel'- foregoing a solid night's sleep for a patchy 7 hour nap on an overnight bus to the next location. Hey, save the Euros you would've spent on a hostel AND the travel time that would've eaten up your day!

Great idea, but dadgumit you need discipline and patience to survive this one. Our bus left Madrid around 11, we had an unknown layover around 12, and we finally arrived in Alicante around 5:30 am. That was a painful, painful little experience here. My closest family and friends are reading this, knowing EXACTLY how this went down for me- I was straight up exhausted the rest of the day. We sat in a cafe at the Alicante bus station until 7ish, then decided we better get started exploring the city. First thing you should know about this little gem (and the rest of Spain, really): nothing really opens until 11 or 12. Nothing. You know how McDonald's is open 24 hours in the states? Try a third of that: 11 to 7. Joke was on us! Here our 'family' of four was staggering like zombies around a Spanish city no tourist has ever heard of, while many of the Spanish partiers were just getting home from their eventful evenings. I guess now is the time to break the second piece of Alicante information to you- it is not a tourist city. We literally planned this trip looking at bus routes to the coast, and settled on this one. Many people may not find this appealing, but I loved it. It was just a genuine Spanish port city, with us passing through for a couple of days. The best part (well, one of them) was that it felt undiscovered, almost 'unruined' from becoming a tourist hub. I find something alluring in being able to say that I didn't hit up all the typical tourist-ridden destinations while traveling, although I will do plenty of that elsewhere.

Around 9:30 (we've been up for 4 hours now, remember) the consensus was one simple goal- find the hotel. What.an.adventure. We walked, hiked, climbed through very interesting outskirts of Alicante's city center for 4 miles.

It was absolutely hilarious, kind of frustrating, and I will never forget it, no matter how much my memory sucks. Definitely a major group bonding moment. Can a moment last 2 hours? A mile or so before we arrived, we stumbled across a random city park that was literally an oasis. It was gorgeous, and so out of place in a eyesore-type area of city.

Finally, 11 am spelled victory. Used the self timer on my camera to take an arrival picture, and we checked into our very first hotel of the trip!

(Zoom in on this picture. You won't be disappointed.)
Holiday Inn Express, I never knew I would love you so. By this point, we could barely stand from fatigue. One blissful four hour nap later, we hiked BACK into city center (why in the world?) for dinner. However, we did treat ourselves to a cab ride back to the hotel after dinner. No way we were going to trek that in the dark. Nuh-uh. Yay for showers back in the room! I looked as badly as I smelled. Sicknasty! Then, I did something I haven't done in years: I went to bed at 9. And baby, it felt so good. Taking the hint from the previous morning, we saw no reason to head into town, especially with noon check-out, so we slept until 9! What a great 12 hours it was, too. Kinda too-realistic trippy dreams, but I got over that pretty quick.
This morning (Sunday), we were in no hurry to get back to downtown. That's the great thing about being in an unheard of city. You don't feel pressured to get anything done, and really get to unwind.

What a perfect day.


For 2 hours, we just played and read and relaxed on the beach. Somehow, everyone else got a sunburn but me! Success. Well not for them, but it would've been torture for this fair complexion. That's a joke, y'all.

I think this was, overall, one of our favorite days of all of our travel breaks. More exploring en route to city center, and then chilled at the beach with a picnic lunch through the early evening.

We played cards and sampled the 'euro' menu at McDonald's, which I know is shameful to do while vacationing in Spain, but I learned how to play hearts!.. Because that totally matters. Another 'bustel' experience tonight from Alicante to Barcelona, except I doubt it will be as rough, being so well-rested. A girl can dream, right?

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I'll be blunt- that was the bus ride from h-e-double hockey sticks. But really. I tried to remain passed out for most of it and succeeded, but poor miss Cailee witnessed an argument that disrupted the entire bus- apparently there were little men everywhere, yelling about seating arrangements. It got pretty heated, and got some police and other bus drivers involved. Morning hurt when it came with our 7:30 arrival in Barcelona, but things started looking up pretty quickly.

Barcelona was, by far, our favorite (up to this point. Berlin ended up winning). We spent time getting a little sunburned at the beach, gawking at the architecture of Gaudi,




seeing the Olympic village (Parc de Montjuic),

seeing the aquarium, the FC Barcelona stadium, walking, and eating lots of good food.

After all of my stress from last week, I feel like I was finally able to unwind and not have to worry about a single thing. Having an entire city to explore at my leisure was such a liberating feeling. The main impressions I took away from Spain are: as long as you're cautious, it really is safe. Sunshine and warmth feels amazing, especially after England has caused you to forget the idea. Signs are usually in three languages: Spanish, Catalan (a mix of Spanish and French), and English. Buying a 10-trip metro card is a good idea. So is ice cream. And local markets. This culture is beautiful. I can't say it enough. Colors are vibrant, buildings are bold, and there is so much to be learned.

Germany


I am obsessed with Berlin. Really. I'll admit, I was completely apprehensive hopping on a plane to a place that, in my mind, would be cold, stark, and boring. Luckily, I was wrong on all three counts. The weather was absolutely beautiful and sunny, except for the day we took a tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp just outside of Berlin. How fitting. Our first full day, Cailee, Spencer, and I went on a NewEurope tour of Berlin- and it was free! For 3 and a half hours, my mind was blown as we walked around the city, learning about the intriguing history that transpired not too long ago.


The guides for these tours make money solely off tips, so you are free to pay what you feel suits the worth of the tour- and it was certainly a wonderful one! I highly recommend NewBerlin/NewEurope tours.



It was just amazing to us how a city had reunited only 20 years ago, and was flourishing so greatly. I loved the very elegant architecture, graceful pillars and statues, and thought-provoking momuments marking the events of the Holocaust. Because of the tour, our curiosity to further explore each of these areas was piqued- unfortunately, we didn't have a week to spend there, as we wished we could've. Our second night in the hostel, Nicholas and Jacob actually joined us from their excursions around Germany! We had dinner together, and also toured the Reichstag and Sachsenhausen as a group (with our same tour guide as the day before!) the next day.


It was so wonderful to meet up and share stories.


Sachsenhausen was one of the original 'models' for concentration camps because of its triangular design that worked so efficiently for the Nazi rule, and it was sobering to stand on the ground where such horrific repression and abuse took place against people Hitler labeled as inferior. I don't want to sink the mood, so if you want to hear more about it, I'd love to tell you what we learned.


After navigating the S and U bahn and a flight to London, we actually reunited with Grant (who had deviated from us to see his family in France) on the bus ride home! Haha, so fun to exchange stories about our partially-separate spring breaks. It was a wonderful 10 day trip, and such a blessing to be abroad with wonderful people.

Phew! I need a nap after all that. Hope you enjoyed reading my silly little details.
Always,
Sydney