Coming back...

Okay this blog has been a bit of a dead weight for me. It's been what... almost a year since I last put something up here? Okay I need to brush up my blogging skills once again.


Originally this blog was meant for my traveling adventures. I did pretty good for a while... when I started my trip in France back in May 2010 I kept up with this as best as I could. I tried to write everyday, but I kept that up for about three days, I think, and then that faltered too. I opted for every week, and then ultimately settled down to one blog post per city or country. I did pretty well with that too, but then I stopped at Amsterdam. Possibly I had just way too much fun with the Dutch, that I didn't have enough energy stored to continue on from there.


My trip, by the way, did NOT stop in Amsterdam. In fact I went back to Germany and then on to Spain, Portugal and finally ended my trip back in Nice, France. I was going to finish the blog up once I got back home in LA, but once again the inevitable happened - LIFE. I got caught up in trying to catch up with friends and family I hadn't seen in months. I was exhausted, mentally and physically and just like many things in my life, this blog got pushed to the wayside.


So here I am again... just sitting at a local coffeeshop (with all the other aspiring writers), looking at my bare and empty blog, finally deciding to pick it back up.


BUT before I fast forward to present daily life, I can't possibly continue without at least doing a very very quick recap of the rest of my trip. So here we go...


AND THE TRAVELING CONTINUED...


Shortly after my wonderful and amazing stint in the city of legal grass and taxable copulation... I moved on to Köln (Cologne), Germany and couchsurfed with a young 25 year-old girl named Laura, originally from Illinois. She moved there a year prior to teach English at a local high school. I hung out and drank with her friends at night, while sight-seeing during the day. I took a boat along the Rhine River and consumed the fresh air and reveled in the captivating sights. I left two days later.


Next stop: Ibiza, Spain
My only local flight within Europe was to this beautiful party island.


This time around I decided to enjoy the relaxing beach atmosphere alone and stayed at my first hotel. I mainly did this because I couldn't really find anyone to crash with, but it turned out to be a nice little escape from crowed hostel rooms and awkward first moment conversations, that I had to endure up until this point. 


Of course I partied- how could I not? This is the party capital of the world... need I say more? The first night I went to a club with the hotel manager... this is a long story in and of itself so I won't get into details, but we can just say it was fun yet extremely awkward. She was 30+ and I went with her group of friends, none of which could speak any English. You can imagine from there how the night went. I took a cab home alone @ 3am... the party was still in full fledge but I was pretty beat. This was my first taste of how the Spanish party, and let me tell you we're wusses compared to them.


The next night I went to a club alone and met a group of girls visiting from Madrid. The best part- they were foreigners too! Two of them were from the US and one from Canada. I hung out with them the whole night and we became a little foursome. Great night but I ended up losing my purse (lost my drivers license, celphone, and hotel keys)... another long story.


Night three I went to see Tiesto in concert. This night I was completely solo, but the music was great! Had a beer, danced alone then went home to sleep it off.


Next stop: Barcelona, Spain


At first I was not impressed with this place. I've heard all the stories... "It's amazing... beautiful... fun!" Blah, blah... I wasn't feeling it for some reason. It was possibly because it was crazy humid (the kind of weather I can't stand the most!) or because I got ripped off by a cab-lady within the first 20 minutes. All I knew was that I wasn't very excited. I know this sounds quite stuck-up of me. Here I am in beautiful Spain and I'm "whatever" about it. Could I be more spoiled?


To be fair I had been on the road for about two months now, I was pretty tired (yes, yes poor little me!).


I only stayed for about a day because I was heading back to Barcelona at a later date, so I walked around a bit, but didn't try too hard to get to know the city.


The best part of this leg was visiting Park Guell by famous architect Antonio Gaudi. http://www.barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/gaudi/park-guell.html 
One word - BREATHTAKING - think of a park in Tim Burton's dreams and you'll see this place there.


When I came back two weeks later (my second to last stop before heading back home), I enjoyed Barcelona a lot more. I knew what to expect and just enjoyed it. AND yes everyone was right... it is
"Amazing... beautiful... fun!" How could you not love a place with architecture like the Sagrada Familia  http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php - which has been in construction since 1882 with 30 more years to go! Or the endless row of bars on the beach and $5 massages while you lie in the sand. People are friendly, the food is great and there is an infinite amount of places to discover at each corner. I'm converted and will never take this place for granted again.


Next stop: Madrid, Spain


I loved, loved, loved this place!


I stayed at Barbieri International Hostel in the heart of Gay Madrid. This ended up being fabulous because I happened to go during the Gay Pride Festival. 


One word: INSANE


Gay, straight, and bi-curious people from everywhere came to celebrate. They closed down the biggest street in Madrid and people partied all night long. Broken beer bottles, streets cluttered with trash and the fresh aroma of piss filled the air daily. Once again the Spanish had proven they can party like no other.


I even hung out with the three girls I met at the club in Ibiza. I met all their friends and had an exhaustingly fun time. 


I left Madrid three days later but came back a week later to celebrate Spain's first World Cup win! Two crazy street parties in Madrid during my trip... how could I not have a special place in my heart for Spain's capital?


Next stop: Pamplona, Spain


Incase you're unfamiliar with the San Fermin Festival http://www.sanfermintravelcentral.com/ it's basically the Running of the Bulls event people worldwide see on television; where crazy drunk foreigners and locals get run over by wild bulls, who race to the arena to meet their ill-fated demise. 


And incase you're wondering : YES... I DID RUN WITH THE BULLS!!!


One word... hell this deserve a sentence: The most intoxicatingly euphoric, adrenaline-rushed moment of the trip!


I wish I had pictures of my run... but I'll have to settle for the memories. 


P.S. If you ever do this run, you'll never forget it, but please don't be stupid enough to get super inebriated before you run with animals that have razor-sharp horns that could puncture your intestines. Common sense I think, but 75% of the people running didn't think so... mostly dumb foreigners crazy enough to run with bulls!


Next stop: Lisbon, Portugal


My stay here was far too short. I only had two nights and one full day. I decided to cough up the money for an over-priced tour bus (which I would normally never, ever do), just to get the most leg out of this short stop. 


I saw the Torre de Belem, Marques do Pombal Square, the Tower Vasco da Gama, and I also got lost for about two hours. A city of pure culture and loads of character. The beach scenery is also quite amazing. If you ever plan to visit, brush up on your Portuguese because English isn't a commonality here. Oh, and neither is Spain for that matter either. 


My one regret was not staying longer... but I had to get going... my trip was coming to an end fast. One day I hope to be back. 


Next stop: Granada, Spain


Here I stayed with my only couchsurfing hosts in Spain. I crashed in a lovely condo with the cutest couple Maria and Sergio, along with their two cats Paco and Leo. Once again... great hosts. Couchsurfing has never failed me! They cooked me paella, a traditional Spanish rice dish, that was delicious and homemade! I'm craving it right now!


Granada's not very big, it's a college town so it's good for parties, but I avoided all that. I went to the famous Alhambra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra a former mosque built in 1527. It was part of the Alhambra Moorish palaces and built for the last Muslim Emirs in Spain. A must-see if you ever go to Granada. 


Next stop: Back to Barcelona!


I won't get into this, but once again I'll say the second time around was much better. I stayed in a youth-filled hostel full of college kids and party-crazed 21 year-olds. This was a change from my normal local encounters. It was kind of relaxing though, to not have to worry about language barriers or conversations with any substance. Nothing against the crazy kids, but if you're that age and traveling in Spain, are you really going to think about Catalonia's angst against the Spanish motherland? Probably not...


Moving on...


FINAL STOP! Back to Nice, France!


Before I get into the very last leg of my trip, I want to mention the very interesting dilemma I was in trying to get back there.


First of all I missed my train back to Nice. Normally this wouldn't be a freak-out kind of issue, but I had a plane to catch back home in two days and I didn't want to chance missing it on the account of my stupidity. I can't exactly remember how I missed it... I just know I got there early and thought I was at the right terminal so I took my time, then of course found out too late that I was wrong. I tried to re-book but that ended up not being so easy. It turns out that trains going out of Spain were few and far between. The next train out was the next day. My only option was to get re-routed to a random town at the edge of the boarder between Spain and France. I was told I would have to figure it out from there. 


I took the train and ended up in... can't remember the name (this is why I should have written this sooner!). When I arrived, I found out that I wasn't the only stranded tourist. The next train to Nice would be again... the next day. I was stuck in this border town with no where to go, but at least I was in France. I asked the local police officer where the closest hotel was and he had no cluel! This did not get my hopes up... if the local officer didn't know where I could stay how would I possibly find a place? I proceeded to walk with my heavy luggage down a desolate street hoping to find something... anything. And just like the travel Gods have always shone upon me, my saviors had arrived in the presence of Gili and Leslie, two Greek travelers in the same predicament as me. 


Gili and Leslie were a young couple from Athens, back-packing across Europe waiting for a train to Paris. Gili (the guy) helped me with my luggage as we walked down to the beach. They had decided to sleep and camp out on the sand, and invited me to join them. Upon arriving at the beach, we discovered a whole row of little restaurants and hotels, filled with foreigners enjoying the serenity of this small French town. Being the spoiled little LA girl that I am, I decided to stay in a hotel. It was the very last leg of my trip and the last thing I wanted to do was worry about protecting my luggage or fighting off mosquitos. After checking in, I did however go back to the beach to hang out with my new Greek friends for the next few hours. We laughed about our situation, shared stories of our travels and ate french baguettes, while the moonlight danced around boasting the wonder of the french riviera. A happy ending to my small misfortune. But alas I never saw them again...


And on to Nice!


Finally arriving, I settled in, took a long long nap and ate my final dinner in Europe. 


I stayed at Villa Saint Exupery Beach, the sister hostel to the one I stayed at on my first night in Europe... what a way to go full circle huh? 


My trip was practically over... but not before one last fun night!


I ended up staying in a five-bed room with four guys (all friends) from Finland. It was kind of funny because my first impression of them was based on hanging underwear on a make-shift clothes line, over the bed I was suppose to sleep in. They weren't in the room by the way, when I saw this lovely display of personal items. I didn't care too much as long as they weren't testosterone filled douchebags. Luckily they weren't... 


I met the guys a bit later... they were four friends who were celebrating two of them finishing their tour of duty with the Finnish military. They were about 19-21 years of age and they ended up being very kind and considerate young men. I saw them downstairs again while I was eating dinner and they came and joined me at the table for an hour or so. I must say I was quite impressed with these youngsters. We talked about foreign policy, traveling, politics, military agenda, and Obama's current term. They were very well informed about history and foreign affairs, and I couldn't believe they were only 19-21 years of age. My conversation with them was clear proof of the depleting and disappointing quality of our U.S. education system. I mean these boys could actually name U.S. senators and list bills passed in the Senate that current year. Most of our nineteen year-olds barely even know what the Senate is let alone current bills being voted on at Capitol Hill. 


Anyhow, the night ended with a cheers as they got ready to go to the pub, while I went to sleep to catch my 6 am bus back to the airport.  And like so many of the other acquaintances I had met throughout my long three-month-trip, I bid them farewell and deposited their presence into my little bag of traveling memories, to reminisce on at a later date. 


And so came the end of my 11 week residence in the continent of Europe! 


Four hours later I was on a plane back home! I was more than ready to retire my travel legs... for now at least. I missed home and I was ready to be an L.A. girl once again.


It was an unbelievable, astonishing, one-in-a-lifetime journey that will forever grace my soul with constant gratification. Thank you Europe for the memories! I will miss you!


THE TRAVELING ENDED (for now) SO ON TO THE PRESENT...