Me encanta España

There is one whole day from our trip that I have absolutely no pictures from..... owing to the fact that we did absolutely NOTHING. Actually, we were true southern Europeans that day, and sat at a cafe for about 3 hours and had more churros con chocolate (not nearly as good as our first experience with them, though).

The NEXT day was quite enjoyable, however. First, we took the metro over to Retiro Park and had a nice little picnic (we including Berry, Sarah, and myself). We found a little grocery store down the street from our hostel and purchased some goodies for lunch. We made cute little sandwiches and got ourselves some chips. Let me take the time to now express my love for Paprika Pringles, an obsession I wish my fellow Americans shared with me. It really is a shame that they don't carry them here.

Estanque del Retiro 

Retiro Park was quite lovely, despite the fact that a girl from our hostel had gotten her purse stolen from there only two days prior. Apparently, she and her friend were just lounging about in the park (much like we were) when some guy walked up to them and pulled his junk out, while his partner snagged her bag while they were distracted. Super bummer! I am still quite honestly surprised that I managed to make it through the whole trip without being pickpocketed.

Monument to King Alfonso XII

While checking out the monument, I saw two ladies in a paddle boat in quite the predicament:


They literally sat next to the spewing fountain for a good 5 minutes before trying to get away from it. They just sat there laughing and screaming. It was entertaining to say the least.

Madrid, like most of Europe, is filled with people on the streets trying to make money. In Madrid, though, instead of just selling things, a lot of people provided entertainment of some sort. This bubble man at least occupied these little kids for a spell (so cute!)







After Retiro, we metro'd on over to the Reina Sofia, Madrid's modern art museum. It has excellent collections of art from both Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and I quite enjoyed myself there.







Yes, I did get to see Guernica, but they don't let you take pictures in that room.... and my camera died literally RIGHT before I got there, so I couldn't even sneak one. 
And that, my friends, was my last day in Madrid. We left the next afternoon for Rome!! Which was also the last leg of my trip. 

Tapas Tango

Our hostel, thankfully, was full of English-speakers, although we definitely had our fair share of Europeans in the mix. We ended up mostly hanging out with a badass chick from Canada most of the trip (whom I still owe a cd!! hmm...). Funnily enough, she was staying in a room with a guy from California... who used to live in Fremont (a few towns over from my home town).... who goes to SDSU..... I swear, the world is like this big |                  |.

Mmm tapas!

That night we figured it out we all decided to go grab tapas at a place near our hostel. This was Berry and my's second experience with tapas, as we had gone out the previous night with her friend's friend who had been living there for the past semester. It was still really, really good though. We didn't do it in true Spanish-fashion, though, as we were seated (somewhat regrettable, but after walking all day we really had no choice).

Our new friend from Fremont just happened to speak Spanish, which was SUPER helpful, because the majority of Spaniards do not speak any English (or at least those we encountered). This was a little unexpected, as nearly everyone in Greece spoke English very well. As a Californian, I know a little bit of Spanish, but generally only the question part of a conversation, not necessarily the answer (not so helpful).

Prepping for the night out at our hostel's bar

Later on that night... well, really you could call it the next day (as we didn't leave until 1am) we went out with our hostel on a pub crawl. Our pub crawl consisted of two bars (each with a free drink) and entrance to the mega-club, Kapital. Kaptital is a 7-story night club, each floor with its own theme, and is absolutely INSANE.

The bars were quite entertaining, as I was accosted at each of them. Apparently, in Madrid it is perfectly acceptable to walk up to a girl and kiss her without so much as a hello beforehand. I found that, in such instances, there isn't really anything you can do but laugh and walk away.

This was decidedly my most successful night out, although it was the night that I lost my ring. Night life in Europe is so much different than in the States! Like I said, we didn't even leave for the first bar until 1am, and I didn't make it back to the hostel until the sun was coming up at 7am. Yes, the night was definitely a success.

¡Viva España!

From Athens, we (Berry & I) traveled to Madrid, Spain, while the rest of our group (except for Molly, who went to Barcelona) returned home. At least for me, there was no way I was going to travel all the way to Europe and not take full advantage of it, so traveling post-Greece was a must.

I am a somewhat seasoned European traveler, having visited the continent on three other occasions, but this was my first time in southern Europe. My first impression (while in Greece) was that southern Europeans do nothing but sit in cafes all day long and stare at American tourists. Madrid was entirely different, probably mostly because it was super-touristy, but the hustle and bustle of the city was hard to get used to after just having left such a relaxed country.

The most regrettable part of the second half of our trip was that we had no personal tour guide to tell us the significance of the things we were seeing. The most we could do was reference my little Rick Steves' book and read the bare-minimum information it had to offer. We did, however, take advantage of the free walking tour our hostel offered:

Plaza Mayor

Luis Candelas = Spanish Robin Hood

Oldest restaurant in the world

It's good luck!

El Oso y el Madroño

Just a pretty fountain

We also did our tourist-y duty and hit up the Prado, where we met up with Berry's friend, who also happened to visiting Madrid, and staying with a friend who is/was studying abroad there.

Before the Prado, though, was our first encounter with sangria. This glorious drink consists of an inexpensive red wine, sliced fruit, sugar, and just a hint of triple sec.... and it is heavenly. Seriously. And, once you've finished the drink, you can enjoy the leftover bits of fruit that have been soaking in wine (or, in Ryan's case, scoop out the leftover sugar) so it's practically a meal in itself. 

While enjoying our sangria, we watched Spain play Switzerland in the World Cup game. Man, they just love David Villa over there (and I don't blame them! hottie fo' sho'). Unfortunately, they lost 0-1, and the Spaniards were not in too great of a mood after that.

After the Prado we tried another Spanish delicacy... chocolate con churros. This might just be one of the greatest inventions man has ever come up with. We went to the famous Chocolatería San Ginés for our churros, just west of Puerta del Sol. This is seriously one sinful dessert. 

Our first day in Madrid was definitely our  most productive. After having a strict schedule for three weeks that called for waking up at 6:30 every morning, we allowed ourself some extra leisure time. We slept in often, which I honestly have no idea how we managed. We shared a room in our hostel with 12 other people, each with their own schedule. At any given time there was someone asleep and someone awake, so it was hard to determine when it was appropriate to have the lights on. 

The reason I mention, this, though, is that we didn't get too much touristy-things accomplished while in Madrid, so I will most likely be combining several days into one post (as opposed to having multiple posts for just one day, like I had for Greece). Just to warn you. 

Greece: Grocery bagged

Yes, our last day in Greece, which was appropriately in Athens. We had another free day (as Roula had left us two days prior and we'd already done pretty much all the touristy things to do there). Most of us did the remainder of our souvenir shopping that day in the Plaka.

After doing whatever shopping I had left, I went back to the hotel and found Andrew who was just about to head out to the spa at the Hotel Grande Bretagne.. aka the big fancy-pants hotel right next to Syntagma Square. I was in desperate need of a pedicure, so I joined him.

After that, Andrew, Dan, Danielle and I enjoyed our last Greek-style lunch at a place they had been to before. It was dee-lish, and this time there was no rabbit for Dan to eat in front of me.

Our last night in Athens was also our last group dinner. Before going out, our group of 28 (plus Thalia & Mr. Karey-- our affectionate name for Karey's husband) had a big fat photo sesh:

Evidence of our freshly pedicured feet

But seriously now: aww

Sara & me

Joe & Thalia 

Kristine & me

Me & Tracie

Me & Joe!! 

Now that was madness, but we finally made it out alive and celebrated the end of our trip with a big fat Greek dinner. 

Blurry, but you get the point

I think the attitude this night was somewhat somber, as most of us were thinking about how this would be our last night in this wonderful place.

On the way back from dinner we took one last stroll through the Plaka (and even more pictures ensued:)

Kyle & me

Kelsey & me

I wish I could have stayed out longer, but I had a flight to catch to Madrid the next morning, and had to be up in the wee hours of the next morning to get on the bus to take us to the airport.

I've never been very good at goodbyes, or conclusions of any sort for that matter. I can say, however, that this was undoubtedly one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The people I met and the places I saw will never, ever be forgotten. 

I'm choosing not to formally end this blog, because it is my intention to include my pictures from my travels after Greece (re: Madrid & Rome)... despite the limitations I might have put on this blog when naming it. Oh well, what can you do...

Good to know that hardcore is alive and well

Our last day in Crete was a free day, but it also happened to be a Sunday, which means NOTHING is open. I don't really know what I decided to do this day, as I have no photographic evidence that this day even existed except for this (which I will leave you to ponder):

That night we took the ferry back to Athens, for our very last day in Greece.

Free booze with every meal? I might never leave this island

The next day we went to Rethymno and checked out its Venetian castle, Fortezza.

Rethymno was supposed to be a place of shelter for the Venetians, as well as a kind of go-between from Heraklion and Chania. But, they ended up abandoning it after it was attacked.

After the castle, Roula let us run loose in the city of Chania, but not before taking us past a little bakery and asking the nice man to show us his goodies:

Seamonster?

Cretan wedding bread

Zucchini balls... enough said

That night was the World Cup kickoff game of USA against England. The nice people at our hotel, Hotel Lato, told us of a sports bar... that was 35468179 miles away. Upon arrival, we realized that the only thing they served there was toast (aka grilled cheese), and our tummies were looking for something a bit more substantial. So Katie, Kristine and I decided to try one of the many places we had passed on our way there. We had DELICIOUS food, and the kind people working there put on the match for us. Definitely a win-win.

It's customary in Crete to free Raki & fruit as dessert... okay with us!

As you may or may not remember, the game ended in a 1-1 draw... again I say: "okay with us!"

Didn't you know? Cameras don't work without batteries

OH MY GOD, I think I might just be the most brilliant person on the planet. The day we went to Santorini was the day I forgot my camera battery. Oh yes, I had my camera, I was just lacking that ever so essential component that gives it life. Brilliant!!! The whole ferry ride over there I was depressed beyond belief. But life goes on! And so will this post...

If you don't mind, I'm going to snag these pictures from Robyn's Facebook album, seeing as how we shared this lovely day together. We started off by having a nice little lunch with our tour guide, Roula, at her favorite restaurant on the island, while everyone else went to the beach. To give you a little background: Roula is one classy lady, and she doesn't mess around. This lunch was incredible. The view was literally something out of a picture book, and the food was absolutely to die for. Seriously, if you are ever in Santorini, try the tomato pancakes. It will undoubtedly be the best decision of your life.

After lunch we shopped our way through the little town. We found a little jewelry shop that had pieces made out of Greek volcanic rock and Spanish coral. I got gifts for my mom, my roommate, and myself! After exhausting all of our shopping options, Robyn and I stopped a cafe and treated ourself to dessert (why not, right?). The place we happened to choose was the same place Roula had decided to enjoy her ritual coffee + cigarette. I had to assure here that we weren't following her!!

Santorini was absolutely breathtaking. I am so glad I got to spend the day there with Robyn! It was nice to kind of get away from the group and not have a super-strict schedule.

Sunset on the ferry ride home