Germany: A Friendly Visit

I arrived in Germany on May 30th. I had been counting down the days until I could leave my lonely traveling that I was actually starting to enjoy and be around people I knew again. So after spending he night in the Barcelona airport, third nigh stay of my semester in that airport, I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. My friend Svea was waiting there for me and we headed to her school so she could give a presentation before heading to her house in Weisbaden. I took a nice nap once I got here before going out with her friend, Laila, and her to go grocery shopping and hang out a bit. The next day we went to this elevator much like the one in Bilbao expect it was run by water. It showed an okay view of Weisbaden and there was a pretty gazebo. We also visited a church that had built for this lady who had died so she had a resting place or something. It wasn't something I would've paid the 2 euro for if I had known what I would see upon entry for sure. Was rather disappointing. She also showed me a hot water spring in her town that had been turned into a fountain and then there was a smaller part of the spring that had been turned into a drinking fountain where people could get a cup of the water. Supposedly you're supposed to drink a cup a day because of all the minerals in the water.

Photo Cred: Mildred
Gazebo on top Weisbaden hill view

Photo Cred: Mildred
The Church

Photo Cred: Mildred
Hot water water fountain

The next day in Germany, Svea took me on a spontaneous trip to see a place called the Residenz. We went on a tour of it and the tour guide told us all sorts of fun things. For example, the chandeliers were made of pink glass that was transported there in barrels of butter because then it wouldn't break. There was also a room filled with mirrors that had to be completely reconstructed after world war 2. The rooms of the Residenz were sometimes used for entertaining guests obviously. Back in the day when you were entertains you didn't even leave the room to go to the bathroom. Instead you would proudly have the chamber pot brought to you and you would go in front of your guests. It was an honor to see someone of high power use the bathroom. Just imagine going home from the Residenz one day "Mom! I saw the king poop today! It was amazing!" How weird would that be in today's standards! After the tour of the Residenz we went and spent the rest of the day with her childhood friend, Marcel in her home town, Warzburg. It just so happened there was a town gathering the day we went there. They needed to get the most people at this gathering in order to win the honor of having an air show in their town instead of one of the other towns nearby. In order to do this, they bribed everyone with free beer and food. Then everyone was ushered into a fenced in area and held hands to walk out and be counted. They got to 1 thousand people before we left I believe. 

Photo Cred: Mildred
Residenz

Another day I was there, we went on a road trip to Koln. We saw a cool church that reminded me a lot of the church in Hunchback of Notre Dame. While we were there, a panhandler started chatting us up. Supposedly her daughter is married to Cher's son. I'd say she has a pretty interesting life. In Koln my favorite part was that one building had a huge ice cream cone that looked like it had been dropped on the building by a giant. It was giant sized after all making me want to search for Jack's beanstalk. After a few hours there we went to her godmother's house for the night. It was a beautiful house and very relaxing there. We watched Matilda with her godmother and husband after dinner. It was a really enjoyable time. On the way back to Weisbaden the next day, we stopped at a river side town and walked around there a bit. It was rather cute but then it started to rain. We headed back and chilled with Sveas friends after that. I wasn't all that amused with that part of the day, but that's not surprise because drinking and smoking aren't in my list of fun things to do. 

Photo Cred: Svea
Hunchback of Notre Dame Church

For the rest of my time there I spent the time at her house doing a Harry Potter Marathon. We also went out to dinner at a restaurant called Enchilada (I admit we actually went twice). Mexican food in Germany is different from Mexican food in the states. It was good though, just different. Then on the morning I had to head to the airport to get to London to see my sister, I found out we were planning on going to a different airport. It was my fault but how was I supposed to know Frankfurt had more than one airport! #notagermanyexpert So yeah that was my bad but I managed to get to the airport and on my way to London just fine.

A Reflection on My Solitary Travels

My decision to change plans was an extremely needed decision. When I chose my 10 days in Madrid I was skeptical about whether I would truly feel better about traveling alone. I was expecting myself to be miserable for the rest of my trip in all honesty. I didn't really think there would be a turning point. There was though. My days in Madrid were extremely relaxing and I even enjoyed myself. I made new friends on my time and didn't force myself to do anything but relax. By the time I started site seeing again, I was relaxed. I realize now that my original plan would never have worked anyway. I was too ambitious. No one can actively site see for a month nonstop in my opinion, it's just not possible without getting tired. By the time I was sitting in the Madrid train station, I realized I was content with what I was doing. I wasn't miserable or pining for home anymore, I was relaxed and ready to go to the next place and see what it brought me. 

In Bilbao, I continued with my relaxed way of travel and didn't rush anything. I spent a lot of time on park benches just watching everything around me. My time in Bilbao was really just me moving from bench to bench. I found I do in fact enjoy traveling alone. I never would get to hear all the stories I have if I had been with a group because we would've talked amongst ourselves. I enjoy the ability to chose exactly what I'm going to do that day, whether it's a spur of the moment decision or I ask someone else what to do. I like having the ability to decide "yes that's exactly what I want", "no I think I will sit here for awhile". 

Once I reached Barcelona, I was an expert at doing what I wanted to do without feeling extremely guilty for not being a complete tourist. I don't enjoy doing touristy things alone, but pretending to be a local I enjoy. Sure I do some touristy things still, but only ones that really interest me. I don't go to all the touristy places just because it's one of the things you absolutely "have" to do while you're there. I did what I wanted, which sure was sometimes not leaving the hostel. I didn't feel guilty about it though. People may say I missed out on seeing things, heck there are some places I learned about after being in that city I would love going back and seeing, but I don't feel like I missed out. I saw what I wanted to see, sometimes more, but I didn't force it. You can't force it or you'll be miserable. 

Traveling alone I have come to realize what works for me and what doesn't. I have become fully dependent on my own decisions instead of letting myself depend on others to make decisions for me. I have found I like making my own decisions. Usually I just go along with what everyone else wants to do, just the sheep following the leader, but I was my own leader traveling alone. Being by myself I could pretend I wasn't a tourist, lots of people thought I wasn't a tourist. For my future travels, I now know what I need in order to enjoy solitary travel and I'm glad I had the ability to figure that out. I know traveling shouldn't be stressful for me. I also found that I would be content living in a large city, since I spent so much time in Madrid. I stepped outside of my comfort zone during my exploration of Spain but not too far out to make me miserable. I found the line and succeeded in enjoying my travels. So yeah, traveling in solitary works for me actually, I just wasn't doing it right before. Having said that, I feel the urge to close my last Spain blog post with the customary saying to pilgrims heading to Santiago "buen Camino bitches" (okay we may have edited the saying). Spain it's been real, and I will be back in a little over 7 days, but next time I'll be a tourist instead of a pretend local. Buen Camino Bitches....

Barcelona, Spain

On my last full day in Spain, I went walking. I really wish I wore long sleeves, or at least not my shoulder shirt, because by the end of the day I was sufficiently sunburnt. I was also already sunburnt so my sunburn was sunburnt. It hurts to move right now. Luckily it's really only my shoulders that are burnt. My face seems to have survived the day. Anyhoo, I walked around aimlessly for about an hour before I decided I should probably find plaza catalunya, which I had been walking away from accidentally for the last hour. Once I got there I just sat and stared at people, it took an hour before beggars started coming up to me. By this time I was extremely bored and wondering how the hell I was going to waste the day away without going back to the hostel. I ended up wandering down La Rambla, very touristy place. When we went to Barcelona the first time we never walked the whole thing, but have no fear I did this time only to find there is a La Rambla de Mar! To get there I had to cross this roundabout that had this statue structure thing I think called the Mirador de Colon or some shit. It was quite large and everyone was climbing all over the lion statues at the base for a picture. My observations showed that you either took a picture riding the lions that were laying down or as most people seemed to be choosing, you took a picture with the butts of the lions that were standing, who had very detailed balls. I saw quite a few people take pictures of themselves grabbing the lion's balls. The statues were thoroughly violated to say the least. I didn't stop long enough to get a good photo, but here's the lion's ass.

Once on th othe side I went to the docks where there was a shit ton of sailboats and just sat there for awhile. It was peaceful other than th seagull giving me the evil eye the whole time. He literally just a stood by me until a ship went by about 20 minutes later. 

To be honest, these are the only two photos of Barcelona I took. I didn't even bring my camera with me for my outing. I stopped by Starbucks for lunch and to hide from the sun, my sunburn had started to really hurt when in the sun by then. After that I ended up at a supermarket, not the one I wanted because it was closed because Sunday, and bought this drink that was Aloe Vera Mango juice. It tasted pretty good but then I read th ingredients and realized the pulp that had been grossing me out wasn't even mango. I felt really lied to and didn't even drink half of it. Plus I psyched myself out by reading about the benefits of drinking aloe Vera only to find it sometimes is a laxative depends on how it's processed. Didn't seem like a good risk for my night in the airport. 

At 5pm I allowed myself to go chill at the hostel since my phone was dead, and stayed there until 10pm. A guy from Nigeria talked about how you have to learn English for science and business because you can't publish findings in anything but English to begin with. Otherwise it won't get the attention you want. He also said the first time you see the desert you will fall in love. Then a guy from Wisconsin, who sadly described his state as being a fist with a thumb instead of being a mitten, and also used Chicago to explain where Wisconsin was, started talking to me about the European university system. He had just finished a semester in Coimbra and had previously done a semester in Brazil so he knew differences. We decided European universities must like segregating language students from other students and regular classes. He also supposedly has heard of Loras, I'm skeptical though. Then I headed to the airport for my blissful night of reading. 

Bilbao, Spain

My train ride from Madrid to Bilbao was 5 hours long. Luckily for me, the views were spectacular. The glare on the train windows wasn't so spectacular but I managed so see amazing views anyway. I found that the Tarzan soundtrack enhanced the views the most, but the Lion Kong and Mulan soundtracks did just as well a job. There was a really loud group of Americans in front of me for that 5 hour ride, so I couldn't even doze. They also did not speak Spanish and were extremely rude to a confused adorable man who probably just couldn't make out what his seat number was or something. I was appalled at their behavior, giving Americans a real bad name. Anyhoo, the train was basically an airplane on the ground. They handed out headphones, played movies, walked around with a drinks and snack cart. I'm pretty sure the only difference is we were on the ground and they didn't give us blankets and pillows like they would for long flights. 

At 10pm I arrived in Bilbao, which was great because I wanted to sleep anyway so I didn't really miss out on much, just took the metro to my hostel and slept. The next day I interrogated the hostel worker and added an extra night to my stay since I wanted more time in Bilbao and one day in Pamplona probably wouldn't have been enough either. I was real ambitious when I made my plans during the semester let me tell ya. I spent my first day in Bilbao just walking around, typical Mildred style. I could've gone to the museums, but I wasn't really feeling that so I just took a nice riverside walk. Bilbao is gorgeous so just walking around was really enough for me. Around 2 I went back to the hostel to enjoy seista and read, but then I failed to leave the hostel again that day like I had told myself I would. 

So then the next day, May 27th, I began my day a lot earlier because everyone else was up and moving so I just got up with them. I ate a lovely breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to check out all the sites circled on my map. I started at the Duck Park. It was slightly disappointing after seeing so many beautiful parks. This was just a small park that was very obviously surrounded by busy roads. After spending time there, like an hour, I headed on my way to the train station. I walked passed the museum circled on my map, didn't feel like going in so kept walking. Bought my train ticket and then river walked. I found a slightly sketchy side of Bilbao. It wasn't actually sketchy, there just wasn't a lot of people. Then I went to old town and walked around there before going to the elevator. The elevator was much like the 4th street elevator in Dubuque, taking you up to see the view. This one went allllll the way up a mountain though so you could see all of Bilbao. It was a gorgeous view let me tell you. 

Then I headed back to the hostel for the night. I ran into one of my roommates at the hostel on the way back and she was rushing back because she messed up the time her bus left. She had been thinking 16 was 6 o'clock and realized her bus was actually leaving at 4. So she was rushing back with 30 minutes to get there. She's a nice lady, she had hurt herself walking 170 kilometers of the Camino. She was from New Zealand and we had a lot of chats about the teaching methods that she has seen there. She currently doesn't have a home, and had just quit her job of 20 years working with domestically abused women. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her life, but she's walking the Camino and then going to walk around the entire circumference of New Zealand if she can complete the Camino. As a 60 year old, I think she has her life figured out because she's doing what she enjoys and not staying somewhere she didn't have a passion for anymore. Turns out her bus was at 18, 6 o'clock after all by the way so she ran back for nothing. While at the hostel I also met a Danish couple who were so adorable. They were taking a few days off from the Camino as well. Every night they would sit on the females bed and just tease each other in Danish, lots of laughter and giggling, until she was ready for bed and then he would tuck her in before going off to do whatever he was doing. They were adorable. The New Zealand female gave them all sorts of tips for when they travel to New Zealand at some time in the future. 

Anyhoo, on May 28th, I woke up at 5 am and walked to the metro to get to the train station. My train left at 6:30 and I arrived in Barcelona at 13:30. Another gorgeous train ride too with Disney soundtrack enhancing the imagery. Then I spent the rest of the day reading in the hostel. 

Madrid, Spain: Just Dang Bubbly, Heavenly Moments

Tuesday, May 24th

Today was my last official day in Madrid. I head out to Bilbao tomorrow for a new adventure, which I'm thinking about extending slightly since I don't really feel inclined to go to Pamplona. I haven't decided on that yet so I'll probably decide when I get to Bilbao and find out if the hostel can extend my stay. As it was my last official day, I made planned on going to the train station to buy myself a train ticket to Bilbao, mostly just to figure out the metro without all my bags with me. I was lazy though and didn't end up going to the train station. I know how to get there, it'll just be the semantics that I don't know. My day I spent in heaven, complete and total bliss. In fact, it's probably my favorite thing I've done this semester and that's saying something since I loved a lot of this semester. 

Today I went to the Real Palaceof Madrid, the one I learned about during the free tour yesterday and the one I kept walking passed day after day. I hadn't planned on going there, I was just walking aimlessly. At first I had planned on getting pizza for breakfast, but then that place was closed so I had kept walking. Then a statue had caught my eye so I had to go check that out. Eventually my aimless wandering landed me at the palace though so I decided I had to go in. I wasn't expecting anything super grand since it didn't look like you could actually go inside the palace. I was just thinking I could snap a 5€ picture without the gate being in the way. Turns out there was a ton to see there. I started out in the Armory. It was two floors. TWO FLOORS. They had statues of horses with armor and armored soldiers riding them. I got to see just how long a lance actually was and see the saddles from back on the day. I learned that saddles are called "Silas de montar" in Spanish (riding seats is the direct translation). I saw armor that was made for little kids that were the height of maybe a 5 year old. All of the armor was highly decorative. One of the headpieces for a horse had a horn on it, so obviously unicorns used to exist back in the time of sword fights and armor. There were beautifully made swords and then really really long guns in the armory. I was really impressed with the collection, especially upon finding that there was a second floor. 

Then I went onto the Palace itself. My neck hurt by the end of that hour because I looked up so often. From floor to ceiling everything was beautifully decorated. I'm sure people thought I was crazy there because I would read the Spanish explanations of the rooms but if I didn't understand something I would hop over to the English sign and then go back to reading the Spanish sign once I cleared up the confusion. Sometimes I just wasn't familiar with the term and it was the same in both languages so I was just stuck with being confused. I wish I could've taken pictures there but they have to preserve that beauty for years to come after all. Then we got to the part where I went to heaven. I wasn't expecting it at all, I had just been reading about Don Quixote or Cervantes when I entered this room. I almost walked passed the room in all honesty because it wasn't labeled, but luckily I had attached myself to this couple and was creepily following them around. Okay I wasn't doing it on purpose, but we were definitely playing leap frog. I saw the cello first, and was amazed with all the details carved or painted into the sides of it. Then I moved onto the violin or viiola, I have no clue, and that's when I saw the label. I was looking at a Stradivarius. I backed tracked to the cello to find it too was a Stradivarius. I was geeking out with a huge grin on my face at that point. My cello loving self was in complete bliss just looking at these beautiful instruments. I'm so thankful that I made the decision to go into the Palace and that my feet took me to the Palace to begin with because I was in a room with FIVE Stradivarius instruments today and was in heaven. 

Now some quick background information you can get from just a quick Google search, Stradivarius instruments are over 250 years old made by a family of string instrument makers. The most famously known one is Antonio Stradivari and these instruments are believed to be the best made strong instruments that offer the perfect sounds musically. There's only 60 cellos and 9 violas left, whereas there's about 600 violins left in existiance. For the Madrid instruments specifically, Google says there are 2 violins, a viola, and a cello in that room however I'm pretty sure I saw two cellos. A few years ago, the Madrid Real Palace cello was broken, before it was broken it was valued at 20 million dollars. I'm not sure what the value of it is now though. You understand why it's such a big deal though. I was in a room with millions of dollars of rare string instruments, and they looked so beautiful. 

After my heavenly experience I made the ultimate sacrifice of buying natural froyo that is absolutely disgusting in order to have a spoon to eat yogurt for lunch. Then I went back to the hostel for the rest of the day. I am still extremely excited to have seen these instruments, feeling just dang bubbly about it I swear. I had a great, the best in fact, day and my geeking out was very necessary. Trust me, I love strings.

Madrid, Spain: Loras is everywhere

I binge watched the entire first season of Prison Break. Needless to say, I have quite enjoyed my time with Netflix. My 2nd hostel in Madrid was about a 20 minute walk from Cat's hostel, if you didn't get lost that is. I got stuck on the top bunk of thesqueakiest bed alive. I mean I'm sure it's not alive but you get my drift. I got told about free walking tours and a cool company that led these tours while I was at that hostel. I stayed there for 3 days, not really doing much. I did buy kiwi and popcorn, managed to burn the popcorn, and the kiwi wasn't ripe. Well one of them was ripe yet, it was sad.

That picture above is the common room of the hostel. I spent lots of time there reading cause the wifi didn't work in the common room, only in my room. Then on May 22nd, I returned to the Cat's hostel where I am staying in a 14 person mixed dorm this time. 

It has classy roll out cages to lock your stuff in. The same day I arrived, a girl named Rebecca arrived. I chatted a little with her that first day, mostly cause I overheard her conversation with her mom when I was trying and failing to watch Charles graduate, and you know how I can't help but chime in on conversations I overhear. But yeah Charles graduated on May 22nd so I spent an hour trying to get the live stream to work but the wifi wasn't having it. I tried for an hour though so it's the attempt that counts in my opinion. 

I'm a pretty proud sister of this trouble maker for sure. That's all I did on May 22nd though, switch hostels and fail at watching my bro graduate. I also took weird pictures with the wall paintings since there wasn't much else to entertain myself with. I was very entertained though. Oh I also had some inspiration for a new story so I started working on that, wishing I had my laptop for that though. 

May 23rd, Monday

I woke up before 9 because someone's annoying alarm was going off and they weren't turning it off. It just kept going until the alarm turned itself off. I went back to sleep because I quite enjoy sleeping and woke up, got ready for the day so I could leave around noon. I actually had the day planned before I got up, somehow I decided I needed to start being a tourist in Madrid. I chatted with Rebecca a little more in the bathroom, I'd say I perfected my small talk right there by asking her what her plans were for the day. It only took me until I went back to our room to realize I should've invited her along on my plans of the day since she hadn't known what she was doing. Don't worry I asked and we went to the botanical gardens. It was big but at the same time felt rather repetitive. It was still interesting that we were in Madrid but it didn't feel like that at all because of all the nature around us. That didn't take long to go through at all, and we ended up going to the park that was right up the road from there. It was a HUGE park that again made it feel like you weren't in the city at all. This all took us about an hour, hour and a half to do. We were just walking and talking, typical companion things to do, and then around 1-1:30 we decided to head over to the start point of the free walking tour. 

The walking tour only covered part of Madrid. I could've paid for one about the Spanish Inquisition but I'm not nearly committed enough to pay money even if it's about a topic that never ceases to interest me. Anyhoo, we started at Plaza Mayor and were told of a silly sculptor who didn't think about plugging the mouth of the horse sculpture that he made. Resulta que, it was a disgusting smelling statue. I'm sure they would've said rotting eggs type smells came from this statue. I don't know how they figured it out, but birds had been flying in the horse's mouth and then couldn't find their way out because it's pretty dark in statues.  So really what they were smelling was rotting corpses of birds, isn't that exciting. They plugged the hole or built a new statue or something though so everything is fine now! Madrid has 4 walls, not like a room has 4 walls but if a room was quadruple walled type thing. This is because it started out as a small village turned capital and was just expanded on. 

The second wall had some big Catholic influence, which is a no duh because Spain is all about that Catholic life. The gates for the second wall, had the cheater's gate and the bad people's gate. Obviously they weren't called that, but that's what they were. During the day you could leave Madrid by the bad people's gate and go cheat on your wife but you couldn't get back in after dark because the gate was closed. It was the Church's way of weeding out the cheaters basically. So you'd have to walk around the wall to the main entrance to Madrid, the cheaters gate. Everyone knew what you had been up to if you came back through there late at night. Then the bad people's gate you could enter during the day, so all the mischievous people would go in and lay wait until night for their mischiefs. Eventually the Church just closed that gate completely and put a cross up to remind everyone that they were sinners and all that fun stuff. 

We then went to a convent, technically we stood outside of it, that had a secret. If you go up to the door and hit the call button, someone will ask what you want (in Spanish) and you reply with Galletas. They buzz you in and you follow the signs to a talking wall to receive cookies that the nuns there bake! Obviously you aren't really talking to a wall but a nun. The nuns there can't be seen for some reason. We were told a bunch of other things, like Henry the 8ths wife was from Madrid and she created divorce. We saw the palace I've been walking past quite frequently and told about that. Everyone in Europe and Latin America can get in for free at certain times for some reason, basically because Spain is racist. You can also get in for free if you're the king or queen of Spain just saying in case those people were unaware. The palace isn't even inhibited since the royal people live at a different palace in Madrid or something. The palace though, was burnt down by a French ruler because he didn't like it so he packed his family up with some prized paintings and such, went away for Christmas and then burned it down. He rebuilt it in a very French way. In front of the palace is a statue of a person on a horse. I forget who it was but he was a Spanish King that Velazquez painted riding a rearing horse and he had liked it so much that he wanted it put where his people could see, which meant it had to be a statue not a painting. So a statue was made and he hated the face of it, so Velazquez came to the rescue and had his friend redo the face. Basically the statue was beheaded and then given a new head from that. 

We had a short break during the tour, because someone wanted to sell tickets to the other tours the company does. So I being the outgoing person I am, sat with some random guys. That's right I asked if I could sit with them all by myself. Then it turns out one of them went to Loras! He graduated in 2014 too so he was there when I was a freshie. Loras kids are everywhere I tell ya. He was traveling with his brother and they both found it interesting how many women they have met that were traveling alone. No big deal but they called both Rebecca and I brave. Their sister would never have been allowed to travel alone according to them (cause their mom wouldn't allow it). Seriously though, Loras is everywhere. EVERYWHERE. 

So after that we returned to the hostel and I read for a bit before I went out and bought me some Kebap for dinner. I have found that the tour sunburned me, so that's not cool. We did spend at least 4 to 5 hours out in the sun today between our morning activities and the tour. 

Madrid, Spain: The Days of Aimless Walking

Sunday May 15th to Thursday May 19th.

Let me tell ya, Madrid is huge. It has all the fast food restaurants you'd expect any large city to have. It has a metro to take you everywhere. When I first got here, I stupidly decided to just take a taxi to my hostel because I couldn't be bothered to figure out the metro with my huge suitcase. The hostel said it was going to cost me about 15 euros to get there from the train station and I decided that was okay since most of the hostels had said more than I had previously I had to pay. Well that was a bad decision because 25 euros later, we finally arrived to the hostel and then the taxi driver added on the train station fee so I lost a pretty penny on that decision instead of a couple euros. I learned my lesson though and will not be using a taxi again in Madrid, probably not in Barcelona either. 

So the first 4 nights in Madrid, I stayed in a hostel called Cat's Hostel, also my own as Living Cats Hostel on Hostelworld. It's a very pleasant hostel, and appears very clean. The wifi didn't work anywhere expect the common room, which wasn't a terrible thing because the common room was beautiful. It had a lot of seating room and was very cozy. I would've really liked wifi in the room though cause Netflix was calling my name.

If you stayed in the hostel for more than one night, you'd realize how unclean the hostel actually is. Th cleaning ladies come into the rooms around 11am, and quickly change any sheets that need to be changed. The big blanket on the bed is never changed. I watched multiple people come and go and the blankets were always just refolded and put back on the bed. They never changed the blankets while I was there, so I'm really unsure how long those blankets have gone since they were washed last. Normally I assume the fitted sheet on the bed isn't clean because a lot of hostels hand you sheets for the bed, but I never would've thought the sheets were cleaner than the blanket. Basically, that hostel could've diseased me. I'm sure they just don't expect people to be in the rooms paying that close attention to what they are doing so they cut corners, but they knew I was in there so you'd think they would've been a little more secretive about it instead of making it obvious. Then again, most of the girls in my dorm didn't even notice that they did it when I pointed it out. The cleaning ladies also would just throw those blankets wherever was out of the way in the room, sometimes on a huge pile of dust that was the top of the lockers, sometimes half on the bed half on the floor. The blankets were not clean in case you haven't caught that yet. 

So the first night I was there, they put me in a female only dorm which I hadn't asked for but greatly enjoyed. I didn't even have to go to the bathroom to get changed! The bathrooms there were wonderful. It was a lot like a locker room set up with a long row of toilets and another long row of showers. There was never a line because there was enough showers and toilets. They also had changing rooms in the bathroom as well. It always appeared to be clean, but I didn't sit in there to watch the cleaning crew do their job ya know. Anyhoo, on the first night I was there the boiler was broken. They were sending everyone who asked why there wasn't hot water to their sister hostel 2 blocks away to shower. One of the girls in my room, Tessa from LA, went through the trouble of going here but I couldn't be bothered. The showers weren't nearly as cold as I thought they were going to be, it was freezing but I didn't die so it wasn't terrible. Tessa was actually the only girl in the dorm that was traveling alone, so she was willing to chat with me. There was another girl traveling alone but she didn't speak English or Spanish very well so we couldn't really chat. Tessa had just finished a semester in Salamanca and was waiting around in Madrid for her friend to arrive so they could go backpacking through Europe before her summer semester started. She was extremely ready to go home and stop living out of a suitcase. 

Other than hanging around the hostel, I can't say that I've really done much in Madrid. I walk around a lot, gotta get my 10k steps in every day after all, but other than aimless walking I haven't done much. The second day I was in Madrid, I was out of money so I walked around everywhere looking for an ATM. The first one tried to eat my card. I admit it was just going really slow and not saying anything on the screen so it just seemed to eat it. After about 5 minutes of clicking the cancel button, the ATM decided to spit out my card. Needless to say, that banking company and I have ended our relationship, not really though. I tried 4 other ATMs, all telling me they were temporarily unable to do my request. One of them was from the same company as the card eater ATM. By the 5th ATM, I just gave up and decided I would never eat or do anything ever again because I had no money. It was obviously ATM siesta time because a couple hours later when I was finally heading back to the hostel, I found a Bankia ATM that decided to grace me with the ability to eat again. So yeah I mostly just walked around and watched gross tourists do stupid things. I also did a few touristy things because I decided it was perfectly acceptable since I am technically a tourist. 

One day, I was craving kiwi and had walked passed a prepackaged thing of 6 kiwis but knew I couldn't eat that many without my tongue bleeding. I can eat one maybe two before it starts bleeding, and I would want the kiwi cold but the hostel didn't have a kitchen for us to use. I ended up buying kiwi yogurt. 

It's not nearly as good as I was hoping for. The yogurt really didn't have that strong a flavor, it was very bland. I think it was just normal yogurt with chunks of kiwi thrown into it cause that's what it seemed like and then the yogurt flavor outweighed the kiwi flavor. Speaking of yogurt though, I did get some froyo but nata wasn't an option, only natural. Let me tell you, it is definitely natural. Froyo should never taste so purely of natural yogurt ever.... 

On the same day I got my kiwi yogurt, I found a Dia (obviously where the kiwi yogurt came from). When I went to enter Dia, a beggar came up to me and was very insistent that I listen to her. I wasn't really feeling the whole trying to understand Spanish at that moment so I just told her no (multiple times) and kept walking around her to get into the store. Then as I entered she slapped my back and called me a witch so I'm sure that I've been cursed or something now. I'm ready to go back to Santiago where the beggars were at least nice. Madrid has rather mean beggars and they always are shaking their money cup at you too. Like please, I'm no more likely to give you money if you shake that at me than if you just sit in your spot. The spot that you are at day in and day out. I understand that begging is a job for some of them and that's why they have their specific spots outside shops (don't be stealing their spots now) but when they get mean about begging and more insistent I don't want to give them anything or be near them. I don't see how the mean ones ever manage to make money because why would you give money to mean people when there are plenty of nice ones about?

On my last night at Living Cats Hostel, a guy stayed in my room. I'm almost positive he was in the wrong room since his key didn't work on his locker door and he couldn't open the door. Mind you the door is very hard to open, but still you'd think he would've figured it out after so many times of trying. Plus I'm almost positive that dorm is always a female only dorm and it doesn't just change based on who arrives, it wouldn't make sense to change when there's already people there ya know? Anyhoo, he was a Daniel from TN who had been living in Spain for the last 2 years doing the Auxilery program, the one where you teach English. He was extremely ready to go home and when we chatted he had 2 days until his return trip to the states. He also brought up the point of what a youth is since the hostel we were staying in was considered a youth hostel. We decided they don't actually care how old people are that stay there since there were adult adults in the hostel and it's not like they ask for your age. I did point out that he was probably in the wrong room, but neither of us cared so hopefully the cleaning ladies realize he was in that room and clean that bed. I doubt they will though since they just go by their list. 

On Thursday May 19th, I repacked my bags (managed to get almost everything into my big suitcase somehow) and began the 20 minute walk to my next hostel. I definitely got lost on the way there but managed to find it eventually, no thanks to google maps. There's a reason I only use google maps as a guideline instead of as a GPS, half the time it just completely screws up in giving directions. 

Salamanca, Spain: The Rude Awakening

As I write this post, I am extremely pissed off. I only should blame one person for this, but I am blaming this hostel and the whole group of guys that arrived at 8 IN THE MORNING, one of them at 7 IN THE MORNING, instead of just blaming the one guy. This morning, on my first night in Salamanca, I was woken up, after being woken up multiple times by their group, by a drunk guy with his pants around his ankles falling on top of me when he didn't even belong in my room. No I do not need someone inviting themselves into my bed when I'm half asleep, or ever for that matter. I just want everyone here to remember, or be informed, I absolutely hate being touched and it spikes my anxiety greatly when strangers on the streets bump into me, so just absorb that and think how I must feel about someone who is practically naked landing on me while I'm trying to sleep! I'm just glad I wasn't fully asleep, who knows what would've happened... I pushed him onto the floor, sadly he was uninjured, and he just laid there giggling his ass off while his friends watched him and were giggling as well until someone who wasn't drunk as hell came in and started telling him to get out and that he didn't belong there. I'm pretty sure the person that came in to yell at him was a staff member of the hostel. I am beyond pissed at this situation really. I understand that they were all extremely shitfaced, but that doesn't put any of them off the hook because that is never acceptable behavior. I don't give a shit if it was an accident or if he was confused. He's lucky I didn't do anything but push him off the damn bed. 

Okay it's now the end of the day Saturday May 14th. I had a pretty good day even if this morning was extremely upsetting. Just to be clear, I'm not a violent person and I was just very upset this morning when I wrote that rant up there. He did say sorry to me and I would've responded with "Honey you need to work on your bedside manner" but I wasn't sure how to translate bedside to Spanish on the spot. The hostel did end up blaming the whole group and they were kicked out of the hostel in the end. I'm sure something else must have happened because I was first told they were going to try and put me somewhere else but when I asked later that day I was told that there wasn't anywhere to put me and if it happened again to just tell the hostel and they wouldn't be sleeping at the hostel tonight. I feel sorry that someone's bachelor party was probably spoiled but at the same time, I am extremely pleased with the hostels decision since I really didn't want there to even be a possibility of it happening again. I was also starting to get really annoyed with them saying sorry to me every time they saw me. The hostel also keeps saying sorry for it, which is silly since it's not their fault.

Anyhoo, I spent part of the day chilling in the hostel clock room, I have no clue what they call it but it has 6 clocks. None of them are functioning but it's still 6 clocks. 

It's the only room that has wifi in the hostel. Then around 11 I headed to a cafe for breakfast. I could've done the breakfast that was included with my hostel stay, but I wasn't very happy with the hostel at that point and I wanted something more than toast. Well that something more was extremely delicious. I found a cafe that was selling toast! This toast was a lot more appetizing than the hostel's cafe's toast though because it had cheese, cream cheese, a green pepper, and chicken on it with more cheese on top. I didn't think it was going to be that good since I'm not a bit fan of peppers, but I am so glad I decided on that one instead of one of the other kinds I was eyeing.

There was about 10 different options of toast (fake sandwiches really) at this cafe. If I knew how to return to the cafe, I would be going back to have breakfast there tomorrow. I walked around for ages trying to decide on the perfect cafe. My heart had been set on a croissant but I walked in and decided to try the toast instead. 

I saw quite a few beautiful buildings today and I can't tell you what they were or anything because I don't know. I was just walking and looking. I impulse bought a few things, got myself a new wallet, and have decided that retail therapy is actually a very helpful thing.

It also helped that Salamanca has my all time favorite Spain store. I never saw it n Santiago so Salamanca has that going for it. Ale Hop has an actual cow sized cow sitting at all the entrances of their stores in Spain, I don't know if it's a store in any other country. This for some reason makes me extremely happy, plus thinking about the fact that they have to move it inside every time they close the store. Then it's also a store like Silver Spider in Mt. Vernon, which is literally a store of odd cute things. I mean some of the stuff wasn't cute, like the mankini that they were selling, but it was odd and hilarious. It's also like Tiger but I personally think Ale Hop is better,and that's saying something because I really like Tiger too. I also went in a souvenir shop and bought a post card so I could know what the things I had seen were actually called. 

Around 2, I participated in Siesta by sitting in the clock room for a few hours playing games on my iPad and reading (also on my iPad). Part of the siesta I was surrounded by the stupid bachelor party group of guys so I put my ear plugs in and Bachata'd out to my Strictly Bachata Amazon playlist (which is my favorite Amazon playlist). I almost did by Tarzan, Mulan, and Lion King playlist (my fav iPad playlist) but I realized I had wifi there so I was damned if I didn't chose to use it. After they left, leaving trash everywhere might I add even though there was a trash can on their way out of the room, I chilled for maybe an hour more and went exploring some more. My previous visit to the souvenir shop sparked my interest during this exploration because one of the cathedrals had a postcard of a astronaut engraving and frogs were on everything they were trying to sell. I did a bit of research while I walked, after hunting down a Smooy and learning that Santiago Smooy ruined all other Smooys for me ( Salamanca Smooy didn't put very much on for toppings and didn't give me as much nata as Santiago normally gives). Back on track though, my research revealed that frogs were the school mascot ( I have no clue I made this part up but I'm pretty sure it is) and that in order to graduate as doctors they had to find the frog on a university building or something along those lines. It's actually very interesting. Supposedly the frog represents Prince Juan's physician who failed to save the Prince's life, which is why the frog is on the skull. Then Salamanca has two cathedrals nowadays, the new one being from the 16-18th centuries. During restorative work in 1992 apparently the restorer decided to add his own touch, so there is an engraving of an astronaut (which didn't exist when the building was built remember) and an engraving of a gargoyle eating ice cream. I never tried to find any of these engravings but the stories are very interesting. 

The caption for this picture would be that Morgue's pirate ship is ready to raid the Convent but captions don't exist on the app and I'm unsure whether that is a convent or a cathedral or what because there are so many.

Around 6ish I was bored of walking around and was going to go get a Telepizza for dinner, but I found the hostel first so that plan went out the door. I really like Salamanca and would definitely consider coming back, but in a group that does tours and history of the place because there are so many old buildings here that have stories to be told. I really outta just become a historian so I can always have the opportunity to learn about my favorite subject. Tomorrow I leave for my 10 day visit to Madrid, where I will hunt down Telepizza at least once, maybe three times, while I'm there. I suppose I'll have to go to Taco Bell just for kicks and giggles too. Hopefully there is an available train tomorrow! 

I did forget to mention, on the day I changed my plans to just go straight to Madrid instead of other places, I met this older gentleman from the UK and we had a nice chat about how 10 days in Madrid was too long. He also called me bipolar because I was making it so I didn't have to travel so much but in June I am doing really short times in places again. Yesterday we talked about a large tire fire outside Madrid, after he realized he was talking to me again. I'm the girl from Ohio to him and he never remembers who I am. It's hilarious. Then is morning, Sunday May 15th, I went to breakfast with him since we happened to be heading towards the hostel's cafe at the same time. We had a lovely chat about what I should do in Madrid while I'm there and obviously we talked about soccer since his team, Arsenal, is playing today. He also kept saying I should spend more time in Salamanca because that's where everyone in Madrid goes for vacation and it's a nicer place than Madrid. He travels about once a year and he's been coming to Spain a lot lately to try and learn Spanish, so I suggested he visit Santiago next time since he's been finding it hard when everyone switches to English with him. He found it hilarious that someone fell on me, I gave him a nice good laugh about that for sure. Then we parted ways and I got to the train station just in time to catch the 12:30 train to Madrid.  Didn't even have to wait around forever for the train to leave or arrive. Quite pleasant. 

Burnt Out

So many people love to travel, and I've met quite a few who say traveling alone is the absolute best. I've also met people who don't enjoy traveling alone. I absolutely love traveling and was looking forward to my month trip where I could go see more of Spain and do whatever I wanted to do. Needless to say, I was majorly surprised when a week into this trip I found myself feeling completely miserable. I've wanted to go home since I left Santiago and today I finally realized why. It's not because I'm homesick, which yes I'm homesick but it's not a bad feeling. I don't enjoy traveling alone. I quite honestly cannot see the point in traveling alone. No one is around to enjoy the views with you or make silly comments about the places you go to. There isn't someone there to cheer you up on a bad day or make sure you're eating since sometimes you forget that eating is important. Traveling to me is all about the shared experiences not just seeing places on your own and meeting strangers. While I enjoy myself slightly more hanging out with the people I meet at the hostels, it's not the same. They don't know you already so understand your sarcasm or any of your emotions or feelings. It's just basic level knowledge and I don't find that basic level enjoyable enough to fully enjoy the experience. Every time you move to a new hostel, you start from scratch with the people there. You could find someone that's fun to hang out with or you could be left on your own in that town. You have to start over though. All the basic information that the last strangers from the hostel wanted to know the strangers from the new hostel want to know as well. It's like living on repeat with different surroundings and that's not enjoyable. I love hearing their stories yes, and I'm sure they love hearing other strangers' stories as well, but I only want to repeat so many times "I just finished a semester in Santiago studying Spanish and am travels around Spain now, what about you?" "Yes, I was just there you should see blah blah blah when you go."

Traveling alone for me means that someone is looking for something relaxing to do and just wants sometime alone to relax. I can relax at home though. I don't want to relax while traveling, I want to go out and see everything, but traveling alone makes me not want to see everything. Traveling alone makes me feel guilty and stressed out when I decide that I'm staying in for the day because my stomach is upset or I started reading a really good book. I'm not relaxed. Relaxing is Netflix and reading and just being in familiar surroundings for me. Sure the parks I go to here are a relaxing environment, but I'd rather relax at at park at home. Here I want someone to walk through parks with and make little comments about the annoying birds trying to fly straight at our faces or complain about the dogs being allowed to shit everywhere and no one cleans it up. I want the deeper conversations that you probably shouldn't have with strangers who just met you, like all those subjects that have a taboo on them but you talk about with your friends anyway because friendships know no taboos. 

With 16 days left of alone time and 7 more places to go, I've come to the decision that I hate traveling alone and would not like to do so again. I want to change my plans so I have fewer places to travel to now. I don't want to go to south Spain anymore. I'd rather save the south of Spain for a later time when I'm not completely miserable being on my own and go with someone who I can enjoy exploring Spain with. As much as I love Spain, I can't love it enough to find traveling alone through it enjoyable. So that being said, I'm going to just go to Madrid for a while after Salamanca instead of going to Málaga, Murcia, and Valencia. I burned myself out on traveling and it's just not worth it to keep going... Since I'm about 3 days from my trip to Málaga, I had a hard time finding places available in Madrid for the week and a half or so that I rescheduled. I am now hostel hopping in one town!

Coimbra, Portugal

On the day I went to Coimbra, my train didn't leave until 14:52. This means I could've left my hostel and done something that morning, but I had really done everything that I wanted to do in Porto. Plus I didn't feel like walking around just to come back for my bags. Instead I had a pleasant morning hanging out with the cat and dog. I thought about eats breakfast there, but then I would have to pay. It looked very tempting though. 

Around noon, since that was check out time, I summoned Uber and successfully didn't die on my way to the train station. I would've walked but I don't really like rain when my bags aren't waterproof ya know? So for the couple hours that I had at the train station I just chilled. Then got on the train to find out it had free wifi on it. I sat in the wrong seat, which is just cause I can't read Portuguese and was one seat off. Don't worry the guy who had the seat I took was polite about it. Found out that seats actually matter in Portugal since they just check your identification with the identification that bought that seat. Then the guy helped make sure I got off at the right stop since Portugal just announces it instead of having screens with the stops like Spain. 

I took a taxi to the hostel. Portugal must really want me to get in shape, because this hostel had stairs leading to reception and then the ten person dorm I am staying in was in the attic, third floor. Lots of stairs to struggle up with the heavy bag that tries to make me fall over. I'm super looking forward to carrying that downstairs. I could've gone exploring Coimbra on Tuesday when I got in but I really wasn't feeling it. Instead I chilled in one of the "living rooms" and then watched Lord of the Rings before going to bed.

Wednesday, May 11th

I started the day by taking advantage of the free breakfast the hostel provides. It wasn't nearly as good looking as the breakfast the Porto hostel had, but it was still food. Then once I was ready, I went exploring. There was only two places that I actually wanted to go to. I started the day by going in completely the wrong direction, but it was okay because I found a cute, little gazebo that had a moot and four bridges leading to it. The reviews of the place I was going to go to after I found the magnificent library I was looking for said it was really hard to get to. I completely missed the library and ended up finding the Botanical Garden instead. I spent a couple hours in the garden, hiding under tress from the rain and just relaxing. Some of the trees were very cool looking and definitely had their own bigger than you attitude going on. The Botanical Garden also had a "skygarden" which was like a miniature ropes or zip lining course. It wasn't open though so I just looked. After my adventure in the garden I walked around trying to find the library only to find I had to buy tickets to enter a university library. I mean it makes sense, and I probably would have but I didn't feel like going anymore and just wanted to go relax out of the rain and in dry clothes so I just went back to the hostel. On the way back I saw a different park that I think might be fun to check out. I'm proud to say for dinner I took advantage of the hostel's free fruit and had a peach and apple.

Thursday, May 12th

I had breakfast and then got everything ready to go. My train doesn't leave until midnightish though so I was planing on spending the day in the hostel. While I was sitting in the living room, someone arrived too early to check in so she was directed there as well. We ended up putting our stuff in a safe room and heading out to see stuff together. We ended up meeting up with one of the friends she had met in Porto and having lunch together before heading back to the hostel so she could check in. We all agreed before parting ways that Coimbra is definitely a day trip and in the one afternoon we had really seen everything there was to offer. So the girl I met at the hostel is named Veronica and she's from Canada. She's been traveling all over Europe for the past couple weeks and now is at the same point I'm at of just being ready to return home. I can't believe that she's at that point after only being in Europe for a couple weeks but I suppose she's been traveling that whole time and it's exhausting whereas I've only been traveling for a short period of time. Then her friend is from Germany and has an obsession with cheese. I forget what her name is though. We had fun walking around, eating, and talking. They both are getting ready to enter the world of adulting and that just sounds horrible. I'm glad I have another year at least before I have to adult.

So after we ended our adventure with the German, we hung out at the hostel for a couple of hours until one of the British guys who is currently living and working in Porto invited us to go to a cafe for a drink. We went, we chatted, apparently the UK is going to vote on leaving the European Union, and then his friend Ollie showed up. Ollie also lives in Porto. We chatted some more then went back to the hostel since all of them had said they would eat the vegetarian chili a French guy was making for dinner. Around 8pm, I began my walk to the train station to wait around there for my midnight train. I'm glad I went before dark because it turned out that a part of my journey was just walking on the highway without there being a sidewalk. Just slightly sketchy if you ask me. I made it there fine and waited around the net few hours in boredom and ready to sleep. Once I got on the train I probably slept most of the trip. One of the train conductors must have had a problem with one of the passengers, I have no clue what caused it, but the GNR was called in about half way through our train ride and she had to provide them with passports and they kept asking her questions. I got that some part of her documentation wasn't in order but she was arguing that she had lived in Lisbon for 7 years now and was on her way to Bilbao and nothing was wrong. After about 20 or 30 minutes of this, they finally let the train move on. 

Porto, Portugal

Sunday, May 8th

Today l began my journey to Porto. I left my hostel around 7:30 because google maps had said it was about an hour walk and I wanted to make sure I wasn't late for the train since it wasn't going to wait for me. Google maps obviously doesn't walk as fast as me though because I arrived at the train station at 8am. I was rather concerned about my bags on the train once it was time to board because there wasn't a luggage rack since it wasn't actually a Renfe train like I had expected. I really like Renfe so I was greatly disappointed with that. The train ticket was less than I had expected though so that's always good. I'm pretty sure the person gave me a youth discount which I thought you could only get if you had a certain card but I guess not. So my concern was very unfounded because there was a whole 2 other people in the train car I was in. I'm not really sure what was going on there because it seemed like they didn't have tickets but I don't know. 

So about an hour into the train ride, the train conductor person came around for tickets and told everyone that they would have to change trains at the next station. Now this was after we had entered Portugal and let me tell you, he did not speak Spanish or English. I had no clue what he was saying but luckily the people sitting with me translated. I did understand the train conductor saying that I don't speak anything, but I understood nothing else, so awkward. So we all changed trains, there wasn't an option on which train to change to so we successfully avoided that confusion. Then I arrived in Porto an hour later, which is about when I realized I was in a different time zone and that's why I hadn't arrived at the time I thought I would be arriving at. I took a taxi to my hostel around 10:30 thinking I wouldn't be able to check in for a while but I could at least leave my luggage there. Well, they let me check in a heck of a lot earlier than I figured they would which was really nice. The guy that checked me n even carried my luggage up the stairs (thank god cause that was going to be an impossible feat).

The hostel has a very cozy feel to it downstairs. There is a dog who follows people around so that's really cool. She seems to greatly enjoy follows people but not being petted. Trust me I've tried. But I wasn't really a big fan of the room when I was shown in. There was very very little space for the amount of people in there. It felt very crammed, which I am not a fan of. A cat was sleeping on one of the beds too which really shouldn't happen since some people could be allergic to cats. I hung out in the hostel for a couple hours since I had nothing better to do with my life. While I was spending time in this hostel I have definitely decided I do not like it. I'm sure people that actually want to interact with others like the hostel just fine. The bathroom you share with the whole floor and there is only one. The rooms as I've already said are extremely crammed. I mean sure most people don't come with huge bags, but there really isn't room to put much of anything. The ceiling of my room isn't symmetrical. Oh and since it's like an apartment building, there is barely any outlets so I don't get to charge shit basically. I wasn't given any keys or anything. You just have to be let into the apartment building hostel and then have free range. Anyone could technically walk in, I just walked in without anyone the wiser since it was a different worker who didn't know me. They don't seem to control it. 

Anyhoo, after a couple hours at the hostel, I went on a walking tour with "Porto Walkers". The tour was technically free but a tip is suggested since the tour guide makes a living giving these free tours. My guide was Pedro I believe. He's been doing the walking tours for a living for 4 years now so I would call him an expert. I'm pretty sure that's what the statue behind him said when he introduced himself as having the same name. Right as the tour was starting it completely downpours which was not a fun experience at all. We found shelter pretty quickly and then continued on once it stopped downpourimg. Pedro had a wealth of information to share with us. He talked a little about the nightlife before taking us to this tower. He says it was one of the tallest buildings in Porto for a long time. There is a story with the tower that a Galician man decided to climb the tower, but on the outside instead of by the 240some stairs on the inside. 100k people came to watch him climb and were making bets on where the poor man would fall since surely he would fall to his death. When he made it to the top everyone was in shock and didn't clap so he climbed even farther up to do a handstand on top of the cross. Everyone clapped then so he got out his biscuits and tea and drank/ate at the top. Once it was quiet again he started to throw papers down to the people in the shape of a biscuit and so goes the story of the first major marketing ploy.

After that he walked us by the Harry Potter bookstore, which I later went into for 3euro and was only slightly disappointed. It was cute and beautiful, but they are currently restoring it so there was scaffolding on the inside. It's an actual bookstore by the way, I bought an English book quite literally so I could have a book to bum around and read somewhere. I'll probably end up leaving it at one of the next hostels I go to once I'm done simply because I don't have space to spare.

 Then the tour guide gave us a long talk about the university plaza which isn't even known by its official name, people have to ask for the Lions fountain to find it. The university building was closed because it's being restored, one too many students fell off broken chairs. That's okay though because it's no longer the only Uni building. We were shown Sirius Black's house inspiration supposedly, or it just seems that way. Two priests of a popular church got in a fight so one of the priests built his own church right next door. The Vatican doesn't allow touching Catholic Churches though so the priest built his house between the two, which today is used as a warehouse. It's a very very small house he has and looks like Sirius's house would before the expansion. 

After the churches he talked about some other stuff until we made it to a cute little park. The trees on one path had huge trucks because they became infected with some disease. To fight that, people had cut off the branches and put healthy ones in its place so that's why the trees are still living. Then these laughing men statues were a gift from an rising Spanish artist. He died at a young age though and the laughing men are considered his last work. Pedro joked that they were laughing at the building across the street where the dictatorship dueled out "justice". Lady Justice is at the front of the building holding a sword and scales but the scales aren't ready to weigh anything since the dictatorship wouldn't have looked at both sides without bias. The sword had electrical tape on part of it so I like to think that the sword is only being held together by a quick tape job. Seems terrible I know. There was a lot more stories he told as he showed us the view of some random city, Gaia, on the other side of the river and walked us down near the river. An old man kidnapped us to share his knowledge about the old customs control and rice building. 

We were told about the graffiti now being street art that the governor encouraged in certain spots and discouraged doing at night. The scaffolding outside the Harry Potter bookstore was actually graffitied with an audience and in daylight so people could see the artist work. There were plenty of other stories he had to tell during the tour. I just don't feel like sharing them all. Once the tour was over, my new friend and I walked back to the start point before going our separate ways without learning each other's names or anything so that was probably a short friendship. I admit I then rewalked the walking tour we literally had just done so I could take the pictures I wanted to when I had decided I wasn't going to take pictures during the tour.

Monday May 9th

I took a real long time getting up today because why not take my time when I don't have much planned? Once I was ready I went to a cafe and was rather disappointed to find they didn't have hot chocolate. I had a cressant though and it was way too sweet and doughy to be a cressant. Then I went about my business for the day, which was going to the Crystal Palace gardens. They were are wonderful as was promised to me and the building that had replaced the crystal palace was as ugly as promised. I spent half my day there, which took an hour to find even though it was a 20 minute walk. I would post pictures but iPad ain't has any. After the palace I walked around a bit more before heading back to the hostel. Around 5 I started reading the first Harry Potter book and spent the rest of my afternoon reading on the balcony of my room, with the pouring rain as my music. I'm glad I came back when I did cause that's when it started raining for real. Tomorrow I get to decide to call up uber or walk the 30 mins with my bags to the train station. Hopefully it isn't raining.

Vigo, España

On Saturday I had the day to explore Vigo. I didn't really do all that much, choosing to sleep in and super taking my time getting ready. By the time I was ready to go I had very little time to actually go anywhere until everything closes at 2. I spent some time at Parque do Castro which was this cute park on top of the hill that gave you a really nice view of Vigo's waterfront and the town itself of course. It used to be a fortress to protect Portugal from British Invasion I do believe. Anyway it was really cute.

There was lots of nooks to check out. Then it started raining so I wasn't as inclined to stay out. I went to the supermarket and bought some food before heading back to the hostel. I wasn't super impressed with this hostel but that's probably because the first night I shared the room with a group of pilgrims which means they smelled. Especially the smell of blistered feet. I can seriously do without that smell for a long long time. The second night there was only one other person sharing the room with me and I'm prett sure he spoke French. We didn't really talk, except when he wanted to turn the light off and then promptly left the room like a jerk. Who turns the light off to go to sleep but then leaves the room? Oh also, they didn't even have a place to put your umbrellas. Why wouldn't a hostel have a location for that so their hostel doesn't get puddles everywhere from everyone's umbrellas? Anyhoo I attempted to go to a museum that Morgue told me I had to go to, the salt museum. I looked up the hours online and made sure it was actually open on Saturday and the hours for it befor venturing out into the rain with my trusty umbrella. Well as you probably can guess, the museum's website lied to me and was closed so instead I just went to the train station and bought my ticket. After that I just headed back to the hostel and watched Netflix for the rest of the day. I didn't really plan my time very well I don't think. I could've spent another day in Vigo to actually see things, but then I'd have to spend two more because most things are closed on Sunday. And quite frankly, I was fine with just spending the day watching Netflix. Maybe a little guilty but who cares? If I wanna spend my time in a foreign country watching Netflix I will!

Let me tell ya, it's really hard to motivate myself when I really don't feel like doing anything. I don't want to really see anything new. I just want to go home and relax. These places really aren't for relaxing either. They are for sightseeing and I've been done with the whole sightseeing stage of this semester for a couple weeks now. Like I enjoy seeing new places and appreciate them immensely but I'm ready to be done. Abigail and I decided we are like Jane from Tarzan and Ariel, we both have two homes that we are forced to pick between, without really having a choice on the outcome. I'm ready for it though....

The final week in Santiago 😢

Just a heads up: I no longer have my computer so I now am using the app. I can't caption pictures or organize the way I want to which is really annoying but it happens....in fact, Blogger App doesn't even keep my posts in order by date which the online version does. I have no clue how they are ordered on this app but it doesn't make me the least bit happy. 

The last week was a very bitter sweet time for me. I enjoyed finally having free time and being able to aprovechar the nice weather. It's hard to remember everything that has happened this last week. We celebrated Spring by having a fair which seemed very farmers markety to me. I wasn't a big fan of it because it was a very large crowd and rather hard to walk around. We did get to see some people doing traditional Galicia dances though. Then Steph and I got lost because we kept walking and ended up by the Natural History Museum. We went in and saw some poor taxedermy and lots of rocks. I was super unimpressed with that museum.

On Monday, Melisa and I planned our trip to Finistere for Tuesday which was promptly changed when Melisa's friends decided they were hosting us for a goodbye dinner. I didn't get a chance to tell my host mum the change of plans though so she made plans for lunch the next day thinking I wouldn't be there. On Tuesday, we attempted to find Monbus at the bus station but could not find it anywhere so we never ended up going to Finistere.

I went home for lunch, figuring my host mom who had briefly seen me that morning had figured out I wasn't going to Finistere only to find out she had plans. I feel really bad cause she rushed to make me food before leaving. I should've sent her a message or something but I didn't think about it. Well since she was in a huge rush at lunch, I didn't tell her about my dinner plans and decided I would just eat two dinners since I again didn't think about the fact that I have her number and can message her. 

Now I admit, I really didn't want to go to this goodbye party. The only person who I knew that was hosting it had ended up not being able to go and I just didn't want to be there for that awkwardness. Obviously I still went at the scheduled time and we had fun I suppose. Dinner wasn't ready until it was time for me to go home for dinner though so I didn't get to try the Mexican food that they made which I really wanted to try. It was also Morgue's 20th birthday Tuesday so we were celebrating that afterwards. After I left the goodbye party though I was in a really bad mood and didn't go back out to hang with them. I regret it but no take backs. 

On Wednesday, the festival for Ascension 2016 began and all the lights we had been watching people put up were turned on. I went to two concerts that night. I absolutely hated the first one which was the 40 top hits and run by a DJ who kept interrupting the music. The plaza was also packed without breathing room so my social anxiety was throwing a hissy fit at me for being so close to the stage where everyone wanted to be. We went to the concert in Alameda after that and stayed there for about 2 or 3 hours and it was just wonderful. I quite enjoyed that concert and was really impressed that they could dance and sing without a long break. Once that was over, Steph and I hunted down our friends which were unsurprisingly at our usual bar, Copas Rotas. Morgue, Tim, Marge, Mary, Steph and I then proceeded to the fair where we bought tickets to the Ferris Wheel after buying many food items. The Ferris Wheel was terrifying. Not only is it supposedly one of the biggest in the world that travels around from place to place but it also goes extremely fast. It was going roller coaster speed for sure and then would slow down like it was time to get off before it would take off going real fast again. So put a drunk person, a buzzed scared of heights person and me who also is scared of heights on this Ferris wheel together and you get magic. Morgue was screaming basically the whole time, and rocking our carriage or whatever it's called. Steph kept moving around too. Oh I forgot to mention Steph and I both get motion sick! We were on that ride forever (10 minutes or so) and quickly decided it was never happening again and it was awful. Steph has the snap story of us screaming that it's never happening again to prove it. Did I mention we did this at 3 in the morning? After that we called it a night and headed home. This was the latest night I ever stayed out, staying out until 4am so I feel real classy for almost hitting Spain stay out time. 

On Thursday, I slept until noon and then went to Milay one last time. I don't know if I've talked about Milay before but I am a regular there and they know my order. Then we went back to the fair in Alameda and I bought some more cotton candy, I had had tropical the size of my head the day before and chose apple for the flavor on Thursday.

It was wonderful. I went home and made dinner for my Vermonters after that since during lunch my host mom had explained she was busy and couldn't feed us so she put me in charge. I really felt like part of the family when she had me prepare dinner for the Vermonters, who ended up not even wanting it because they decided to go to Burger Lab. After dinner I started packing my bags and realized just how much crap my have. I really need to get rid of some of it for sure, I just don't know what. 

While I was packing my host mom came in and told me she couldn't go to my graduation on Friday because she was going to Italy as a surprise Mother's Day present. So we said goodbye Thursday night successfully without crying. Then I went out with my friends, watched two concerts, went to Copas Rotas and then headed home to finish packing and write my presentation for my internship. I didn't go to sleep until around 3am. 

On Friday, we gave our presentations on our internship and then went to the school's cafe one last time and headed to the print shop for all our travel needs. Then we filled out an evaluation of the semester and graduated.

We all need to work on our comical faces for silly photos obviously but that picture is from when we graduated. Then Steph and I went to Alameda and met up with Carlos to say goodbye before meeting the rest of our friends to say goodbye to them. I admit to crying. Then I went home finished packing, said by to my host brother, and headed to Vigo by train. 

Right now I really wish I didn't have this month long adventure by myself. I wish I was either staying in Santiago or heading home. I just don't feel like traveling but I already have plans so I can't really back out of them sadly....