BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA...I MEAN, BONJOUR! EDITION: JUNE 17 - PART 2

Wow, sorry about that. The day was so long that it felt like two completely separate eras.  I call them BN and AN (before nap and after nap.)

OK, so I left off where we had reconvened with our friends back in the lobby.  We decided that before we did anything else, we needed crepes.  I mean, we NEEDED them.  So we set off and found a delightful little creperie (which is too a word, stupid spell check!) down the street from our hotel called Les Embruns.  We proceeded therein to eat many crepes and have coffee.  I got one that had dark chocolate and coconut on it, and almost had to be restrained from rubbing it all over my body in sheer delight due to its deliciousness.  It had been a while since I'd had a crepe, so I can't tell you for certain if it was the best place for crepes in all of Paris, but it had to be pretty darn close.  This place was also the site where the first picture of me on this trip that didn't make me look like a dehydrated sea witch was taken.

 Oh, coffee, you're so funny! I love you.

After we left, we went to the Gare de Lyon train station and got three day passes for the subway (underground?) so we could get to where we needed to go.  Trouble was, once we got into the station proper, we could not read the map.  Now, some of you may have been in Paris before and probably thought that it was easy to get around, but not us. I've been on several different subway systems in my life and had no trouble getting from place to place, but to me the map of the Paris subway looked like a wind shield that someone smashed their head into.

Imagine this in all different colors and in a language you don't speak. Easy peasy!

We did meet a nice lady that got us started on our way (bless you, random Parisian!)  From there we made our way to the Sacre Cour!  We had to climb, like, four thousand steps to get up to it, but it was worth it!  It was an absolutely beautiful church with a breathtaking view of the city below.

It was very crowded there and we didn't attempt to go in, but that was fine. We enjoyed looking around outside!  After taking some pictures, we walked over to a street in Montmontre that was lined with souvenir shops, bakeries, restaurants, and it had a square that was where a lot of artists were selling their work!  I bought a lot of art, you guys.  Like...a lot.  For all I know they have little sweat shops at home where people make this stuff and they sell it here and pretend to be artists, but I didn't care, it was real art and nothing massed produced!  I was so excited!  This is what I'd been looking for!!  We also saw a lot of artists doing sketches and caricatures of people right there, but we didn't want to stop and have anything done, because it would have taken too long.  Plus...I don't need a picture of myself to hang anywhere. I can look at myself in a mirror anytime I want! :)

 

We walked around some more and I bought some kind of...well, I don't know what it is, exactly, but it is delicious.  They are some kind of cookies or cakes or something like that from a place called the Biscuiterie de Montmontre. That website doesn't tell me what I bought, and I can't read the label.  For all I know the're for dogs, but they taste good and I don't care.  I have a feeling that I'm going to fall in love with these things and never be able to get them again, which sucks, but as far as that goes, it just means I'll have to appreciate them (i.e. not share them with Steve) more.  We stopped at a cafe at the end of the street and had dinner outside.  I got a croque madame, which is basically a fried ham and cheese sandwich with an egg on top. Sorry for talking about food so much, but this is the first time in months I haven't worried about what I was eating, so humor me this time, please!

Mrs. Sandwich, if you're nasty.

From there we walked a ways until we came to the Moulin Rouge!  It was located in a section of town that seemed a lot like a clean Burbon Street.  I know it isn't the original building and all of that, but it was still fun to see in person!

 Lot of nipples around this place, too.

It was finally sort of getting dark by this time (although I'm not sure when the sun goes down here.) So we decided to end our day and headed back to the hotel.  I have no idea how long we'd been up by this point, but it felt like days.  I know I keep talking about how tired I am, but this is a new level of tired for me. I think that maybe I'll survive it, though.  At least I hope so.  I want to see if Spain makes it to the World Cup Finals! Shut up, I'm invested now.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA...I MEAN, BONJOUR! EDITION: JUNE 17 - PART 1

We didn't go to bed last night.

OK, see, this is where I'd normally talk about going home after our trip to Spain, but NO! We didn't go home!  We went to Paris!  The one in France, not Texas!  Yay!  We had the chance to add on a short jaunt to France with a few others from our group and we took it!

HOWEVER...getting there was not a lot of fun.  In fact, up until a little while ago, this part of the trip was a huge cluster-fark. There were about 30 of us from the band going on the Paris trip, and for some reason we had to leave the hotel at 3:00 AM to make it to the airport in time for our flight.  That would have been fine if the gate agents could find our reservations.  They could not.  Apparently there was a glitch that didn't show any of the people in our group having a reservation on the plane.  We were told that nothing could be done until the office agent showed up for work. Greeeeeeeeat.  So we sat in the floor of the Malaga airport for a long time until the unfortunate agent came in.  I say that they were unfortunate, because a lot of the people we were traveling with were the kind of people who didn't have much of a sense of humor about being delayed.  Simply put, they were pissed.  Not only were they pissed, they were indignant!  Luckily (for all of us) it turned out to be an issue with Delta, and after some finagling they found our reservations at the very last minute that it would matter.  Oy, vey.  We almost had to run to make it to our gate, and we got there about 20 minutes before we started to board.  It was tense and we were so tired.

The flight out was fine, except that I fell into another one of those half-sludgy sleeps that are neither restful or useful, but by the time we got to Paris to deplane, I was fairly awake.  The next problem we had was trying to find our tour bus.  We couldn't.  I don't know how long we waited, but one of the men with us got tired of waiting and went on a quest to find the one bus that looked like it might be ours, and as luck had it, it was. Thank goodness, because the older people in our group were being kind of hateful and had we not gotten our bus, I am pretty sure that there would have been a riot.

Oh, but it didn't stop there.  The bus driver spoke zero English and had no idea where we were going, so he took us to the wrong hotel.  Luckily, before we all got out and removed our luggage, someone at the hotel we stopped at could speak enough English to tell us) where we were supposed to go!  HOWEVER...when we got to that hotel, it was too early to check in, so we had to leave our luggage and either get out of the place or sit in the lobby for several hours.  SIGH.

Five of us, Steve, myself, Anthony, Kayla and Katie, decided that we didn't want to hang around and be grumpy, so we set out to explore a bit before our check in time.  We are currently in Gare de Lyon, which is right next to an enormous train station and seemingly in the middle of Paris.  We wanted to find a place to eat, and there were a lot of choices. We walked and waffled around for a bit before we finally just decided to pick a place not far from the hotel, which was a pizza cafe.  It wasn't very "French" in the way you think of a Paris cafe, but the food was good and the waiter was quite charming.  Everything was decorated for the World Cup, which I find very fun!  As an aside, I have enjoyed watching the bits of soccer games that we have managed to see.  I think I'd like soccer pretty well if I could watch it with people who could explain what is going on!  I'm still cheering for Spain, though.  They're hanging in there!

Afterwards, we walked around some more!  We didn't find anything particularly interesting right away, so decided to go back to the hotel and wait until we could get into our rooms and then we'd regroup. There were still some of the older people from our group standing in the lobby, pacing back and forth and looking pissed that they couldn't get to their rooms right away.  Come on, folks.

I am not too proud to say that I fell asleep for a few minutes in the lobby, which was no small feat because the place was infested with children.  That sounds rude, so let me 'esplain you (as Pedro says.) Apparently our charming little hotel lets children stay for free, and apparently every parent in Europe who is visiting Paris this week are staying in our hotel.  I've heard children complain in about 11 different languages today.  Whee.

We finally got to our room! It's very nice, even if the glass walled shower is right next to the bed.  Oh, la la!)  Heh, the glass wall has this button that you push that makes it almost opaque, which is nifty and I played with it more than a grown woman probably should have. I didn't get a video of it (because I was in the shower when it was on and you guys don't need to see that) but I found a gif that shows what I'm talking about:

via GIPHY

Lieutneant Dan! Magic Glass!

Just imagine a naked person in that instead of a Pepsi can, and that was what it was like to take a shower! We (again) took a nap and regrouped with our friends after about an hour.  We wanted to explore the city! 

I'mma stop here for now, because I am tired. That seems to be a trend on this trip.  But we had a great rest of the day!  More soon.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 16

Today was so much fun!

This has been the first day that we've had to ourselves, which was very, very nice.  We didn't have to rush to have breakfast and then run off anywhere. We just got to do our own thing until the evening and that was great!  The only sad part is that it is our last day in Spain. *sniff*

After we got up this morning, Steve and I walked down to the beach.  It was still early, and not many people were out, so we had the beach almost to ourselves. We were told that the water would be warm, but that was a filthy lie!  I tried to walk into the surf and immediately ran out, because it was freezing cold.  It was also very windy and a little chilly, so walking around was a bit uncomfortable at first, because we were wearing shorts and tee-shirts, as you do.  The main thing I wanted to do, as I do whenever I'm on a beach, is look for shells, but there were hardly any there at all. We found a few, fairly large in-tact arc-like shells, but they were few and far between.  What we did find a lot of, though, were rocks.  Seriously, chunks of marble, I think, were everywhere. So we picked up pretty rocks as well as the few seashells we could find! Our luggage is going to be very heavy, I bet!

Take a good look at my Lunch Lady Ankles!

The beach was pretty.  The sand was coarse and dark, so nothing like the sand in the gulf, but I didn't mind. We walked for a bit, and then lay down in a couple of the sun chairs that lined the beach.  We thought that they must belong to our hotel, since they were right in front of where we were staying, but we had only been there a little bit before someone came and asked us for money!  Oops.  We hadn't brought any cash down to the shore, so we had to give up our chairs. Boo!

We headed back to the hotel to choose what to do with our day, and Steve decided that he wanted to sit next to the pool.  I didn't mind, but it felt kind of silly to lie next to a swimming pool when we had the Mediterranean Sea right in our backyard, but I only gave a token protest. We texted Anthony to tell him where we were and lay down for a bit.  The sun was bright and hot by this time, so we managed to get some sun.  The pool area was really crowded, and so when Anthony and a couple of other people we knew came downstairs, I decided to abandon my chair and go back to walking on the beach. I left Steve in his chair because I was kind of bored.  :)  The rest of us walked around for a while, picking up more rocks and stuff, until Steve met up with us and we were ready to walk down the street and look in the shops.

I'm glad to know that cheesy beach culture is international.  We found some really cute stuff and some really awful stuff, but it was a lot of fun to go in and out of the souvenir shops. We also had such at a local place while we were out. Somehow we ended up eating in an English pub not far from the beach.  It was weird and out of place, but we ate there.  I joked that I went all the way to Spain to eat in an English pub, where I ordered a hamburger called a "New York" burger that had Irish bacon in it.  It was...not good, but we had fun and I didn't mind.

We also watched part of the World Cup with some guys from England, and in light of full disclosure, I felt kind of dumb.  Our tour guide had been talking about wanting to see the Spain and Portugal football game for several days. I had no idea he was talking about the World Cup.  I thought it was just a regular game, so when we got to our hotel and two huge ballrooms had been set up with chairs and televisions, I thought "Wow, these people take soccer seriously." While we were at the pub, Anthony had to explain to me the significance of the game (France and...Egypt, I think) and what was actually going on!  So, you know, now I know why it's such a big deal.  Oy. 

After we left, Steve went back to the hotel, but Anthony and I decided to go back to the beach for a bit.  As we walked around, I started noticing that a lot of the ladies on the beach were topless! (No pictures of that, perv.) You know, I had read about that being a thing here before we left, and even joked about it on Twitter, but honestly, I had forgotten all about it until right then.  Once I noticed, it was difficult for me not to stare a bit, because seriously, just...nipples everywhere!  I feel bad about being caught so off guard, and it isn't that boobs are a foreign commodity to me or anything, but I'm not used to seeing them out in the wild like that. I got over it fairly quick and didn't stare long, though.  In fact, I was a little jealous.  It looked so comfortable and free and none of those ladies gave one fuck about it, either.  I wished I could have done it too, and I suppose I could have, but I didn't for a few reasons. #1- a lot of the men we were with had zero chill about the topless women.  They were not catcalling or anything like that, but they were taking pictures and making comments among themselves and that's just gross. I was traveling with these dudes and I didn't want them seeing me like that, because I had a feeling it would get brought up in some kind of uncomfortable way later on.* Yuck.  #2- I was with Anthony, and as dear of a friend as he is to me, he is not the kind of friend I even talk about boobs with, much less show mine to...so, no thank you. #3, and this one is a bit more internal than the others, I REALLY have to trust a person before I can be that vulnerable around them. I don't have a great track record with people who have seen them on purpose. (I say on purpose, because the girls do "slip the surly bonds of earth" from time to time on accident.) Not that there have been many, mind you, but most of the ones who have tend to...not ever talk to, or want to see me again.  So...yeah, I have issues.  Having said that, I think I could have done it if none of the band people or Anthony had been there, though, because no one else cared or even paid attention.  I was also gratified to know that you didn't have to be young, thin, or attractive to be topless.  What I'm trying to say here is that I saw several people's grandma's bare breasts, and I can never unsee that, but good on them.  Anyway...lots more boobs than I thought I'd see on this trip.

Other than that, Anthony and I rented some beach chairs and just chilled out for a few hours.  I actually fell asleep, and the sun shifted, so half of my body got burned and half didn't, so that'll be some fun tan lines!

Later that evening, we had one more trip to make, which was to a swanky hotel up in the hills where we were given a reception.  It was better than the reception we had in Ireland, because there was actual food there and it was fantastic!  The view from the front of the building was amazing as well.

We had a lovely dinner and a lot of fun.  This was a great way to end our trip to Spain!

*Yeah, I made the right call about the not-going-topless-in-front-of-these-men thing. One guy, who was more creepy than the others, approached me and another woman later and got weird about the topless ladies he had seen on the beach. It was one of those conversations where you start looking around for an adult, because you get that uncomfortable.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 15

Oooh, y'all...

Last night when I finally took my shoes off, I saw that my feet and legs were swollen up to where they didn't even look like people feet anymore!  It was so gross!  I don't know if it was because of walking so much, or because I have gotten stuck not being able to move my feet and legs for hours at a stretch on the bus, but yuck.  I'm too cute to have feet that look like that!

Anyways, today we would be traveling to a new destination, which I was very excited about!  We headed to the Costa del Sol in Malaga, on the coast of the Mediterranean sea!  I was going to stand on the coast of an ocean that I'd never seen before!  Neato!  But first we had to get there, which was a day long situation.  It involved a lot more sitting in an uncomfortable bus, and a lot more falling half asleep as we drove through more farmland (still very beautiful) and rural areas.  Actually, during my awake moments, I really thought the drive was lovely.  We saw what I assume were a lot of independent farms, more sunflower fields, and fields of some kind of bright yellow flowers that looked like mist.  It was so pretty.

On the way, we stopped in a town called Ronda, which is in Malaga, Spain. We didn't learn very much about the place, other than being told that it was a tourist stop, so the Wikipedia page can tell you way more about it than I can. When we got there, we had to walk a long way to the place where they wanted to let us loose, which happened to be next to the oldest bull fighting ring in Spain. Steve, Anthony, and a woman named Kayla that we'd been hanging out with, all decided that they wanted to tour the ring, but I demurred.  I don't approve of bull fighting at all.  I mean, you guys know I'm not a vegetarian, and I'll eat beef all day and all night, but just the idea of someone stabbing a poor bull to death with spears for fun gives me the heebies.

 Ole, bitches!

I told them to go ahead without me, which apparently made me seem like a party pooper, but screw that. I'm not going to pay to go into a bovine colosseum!  I didn't tell any of them why I didn't want to go, just that I'd rather look around, which I did.  Ronda is a very pretty city, and had a lot of beautiful buildings. I also found out that Earnest Hemmingway and Orson Wells spent summers in Ronda, so...neato, I guess. I walked along the shopping streets and looked around a bit.  I met everyone back at the bull ring gift shop, so I wasn't alone for very long.

We had lunch at a little cafe where we got churros and hot chocolate!  YUM! YUM SQUARED!

After we left Ronda, we made our way to the coast, and it. Took. Forever. Exclamation Point.

We were told it would take about an hour to go from one place to another, but it actually took three.  Our tour guide, bless him, really underestimates how long it takes to get places.  It was a beautiful drive through the Montes de Málaga Natural Park (I think) though, so it wasn't that bad, but I was very tired of being in the bus by then.  Oy.

We finally made it to our destination and got checked into our hotel, which is supposed to be some kind of resort place, but it is...kind of a nightmare.  Don't get me wrong, it's a nice enough hotel, but it is so damn full of people that trying to do anything is uncomfortable. There are screaming children everywhere, and even trying to get dinner in the hotel restaurant was difficult!  I was so tired, and my feet were swollen up again (WHAT IS MAKING THEM DO THAT?!) and I was tired of being around people.  We were supposed to go to a flamenco show tonight, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just wanted to be in some quiet for a while. I felt bad because Steve was looking forward to the show and was kind of bummed that I didn't want to go, but I knew I wouldn't enjoy myself. I told him to go ahead and I'd just stay in the room and rest. So that's what I did. I took advantage of the quiet and not-being-around-other-people, which was nice.  Steve came back a couple of hours later and showed me his pictures and that's how we ended our day.  Tomorrow we get almost the entire day free, which I'm looking forward to. It'll be nice not having to go anywhere.  I'm tired, yo. Still having a blast, but very tired.  Goodnight! 

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 14

Whelp, in the tried and true tradition of me traveling anywhere, my face has decided to revolt. Just like my trip to Ireland, I awoke to my skin looking like I was having a particularly angry bout of puberty. However, unlike last time, I know it’s not an allergy! Apparently, when my diet changes, or the water is different, my skin does this. It’s gross, but what can I do? I have some makeup, so I’ll spackle that shit for as long as it lasts! Haha!

I’m so stupid...so stupid.  Last night, when Steve came back to the room, I was dead gone asleep, but he woke me up. Knowing we had a full day today, I took a melatonin pill to help me go back to sleep so that I wouldn’t be awake the rest of the night (seriously, when does the jet lag stop?) I didn’t look at the time, so I didn’t realize how late it was, and when I got up, I was in too much of a hurry to get ready to realize I was still affected by the pill. We jumped on our bus, and about halfway there, I started feeling weird. I was dizzy, faint, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I literally felt like I was going to pass out, which scared me enough to kick off an anxiety attack. It was scary! Steve managed to help me calm down long enough to remind me about that damn sleeping pill, so I got into the right frame of mind of deal with that and managed not to freak out in the middle of the tour!

Today we are is Sevilla, and we were taken on a tour of the city where we had to walk freaking everywhere. It wasn’t that bad, really, but geez. We had a tour guide that gave us these little personal radios that are tuned in to what she is saying, which are ingenious really, but you can't get away from her voice and that is a little annoying.  At one point, she said that she would take us to the old Jewish section of town, where we would see the crooked streets.  Why did it have crooked streets?  Well, because apparently it was to keep the Christians from easily raiding the neighborhood.  Yikes.  I know we have the Great Commission and all, but I never considered it to be a battle cry. On a lighter note, even if no one else did, at least the Jews of Sevilla expected the Spanish Inquisition and acted accordingly.

We walked through gardens and streets, around buildings and eventually through something called the Royal Alcazar.

Look. If you want to know details about the place, please read that link, because I don't remember anything that the tour guide said.  It wasn't because she was bad at her job, or that it wasn't interesting, but it is because I have heard SO MUCH INFORMATION about various churches and palaces and all of that in the past few days that all of it is running together.  I can tell you that it was beautiful, and that the moorish decor has been some of the most stunningly intricate stuff I've ever seen, and from an art standpoint it certainly is a treasure, but history wise...I got nothing but pictures.  Let's look at a few, shall we? Oh, one thing I did remember was that Game of Thrones had filmed at this place, but I've never seen it, so I don't know where it happened or in what context. Maybe you know.

Immediately after this, we were taken to the Seville Cathedral, which is, by far, the biggest church I've ever seen in my life.  That isn't really an impressive comparison, I guess, but it was bigger than at least two of the convention centers that I've been in before, and that is a whole lotta church.  It used to be a mosque (WTF is it about Christians back then taking over people's churches?  Dang.) and the main tower was once their minaret, but it had been added on to to make it a bell tower for the cathedral.  Lots of famous people are buried in there, including King Ferdinand (of Ferdinand and Isabella fame) and Christopher Columbus.  Well, most of Mr. Columbus is there. Apparently some bits of him are missing.  It was a lovely church, but a bit overwhelming. When I say it was a whole lot of church, I mean that I'm fairly certain that God would raise an eyebrow and say "Really, guys? This may be much, even for me!" 

 I don't know which saint has the bird on his head, but Mary seems amused.

 People for scale. A LOT OF CHURCH, I SAY!

Most of Christoper Columbus is in there.

Afterwards, we walked around the city a bit.  I like how everything is within walking distance and all of the restaurants and shops are so close.  We accidentally lost Anthony for a bit, but he found us.  Heh, he missed hearing the strange lady singing in the street.  I shouldn't laugh, because it is possible that the lady was mentally challenged, but she was standing outside of a cafe sort of monotonically singing "I Just Called To Say I Love You."  She was singing both in English and Spanish, which made it all the weirder to me.  I dunno, but it was funny.

Later that night was the last concert, and it was held in a place about an hour away called Cadiz.  It is a coastal town, and that's about all I know about it.  The concert was going to be held in a proper indoor auditorium, and it had been promoted by the city and everything.  After grabbing a soda at a local cafe (I have had more Coke on this trip than I care to admit, but I know how to pronounce it.) we went back to the theater to watch the show.  The concert was the best they've performed the entire time we've been in Spain, and it was well attended and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Here they don't say "Otra! Otra!" to get an encore, they clap in a particular rhythm. That was neat.  There was a Spanish man sitting beside me the whole time, and I figured out how to ask him if he enjoyed the show in Spanish, and he completely ignored me.  Pffft.  Rude.  

The show went on until very late, and afterwards, two different restaurants stayed open long enough for us to have dinner.  Our place was a hotel restaurant, and the food was surprisingly great.  I'm not sure why the salad had fish on it, but I enjoyed it!  They still had the problem of having a little bit of water and a whole lot of wine, so in desperation, I drank some wine.  We were sitting with two people who really enjoy wine and go to vineyards a lot, so they were trying to teach me the proper way to drink wine to make it enjoyable.  You've got to swirl it around and sip it and get air into it, they said.  It kind of worked, I guess.  I didn't hate the red wine we were served, and it tasted like butter, which is a complement in case you were curious.  I still don't know if I'll ever be someone who just loves wine, but that wasn't bad at all.  Still...you know me and alcohol. I pretty much fell asleep as soon as we got back on the bus, and am so tired right now.  Seriously, don't give dehydrated people alcohol! GAH.

It has been a long day, but a good one.  Oof.  Let's go to sleep.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 13

What day is it? Where am I? I have no idea anymore.

We got back to the hotel after 1:00 am, which seems to be acceptable to some people. Not me. Not so much. Blerf.

The two cups of Sangria seem to have done me some damage, which is hilarious in a way. I’m beginning to think that it isn’t the wine as much as it is the sugar that was in it. Oh, well. It doesn’t matter. The end result is the same. Haha!

This morning we had to get up and leave the hotel for our next destination. On the way, though, we had two stops. One is in Córdoba to the Mosque-Cathedral, affectionately known as the Mezquita (which sounds like mosquito and was the subject of some jokes.) We saw a gorgeous Roman bridge, which was still being used, and spent about an hour of free time eating tapas-a thing of which I am in love with. The tapas was great!  It was me, Anthony, Steve, and a man named Rick that I didn't know, and we ordered a bunch of things to share. I ordered oxtail, because that sounded interesting. It was delicious, but even though I'm familiar with anatomy and animals and all that, I didn't expect to find a fully recognizable vertebrate inside the meat part.  Still, though, I ate two of them, so it didn't bother me that much.

If the Romans had built it, London Bridge would have never fallen down.

Tapas. Everything was delicious except for the paella. Fight me.

 We also did some more souvenir shopping. I’m honestly having trouble finding anything I want, because almost every single shop in these tourist areas has the same tacky crap. I am a discerning souvenir shopper, and I don’t want to buy stuff you can get anywhere in Spain, just with the name changed!  However, I did buy myself some candy. I'm tired of worrying about what I'm eating. It's too stressful.

This is the Gatlinburg Main Street of Spain.

 Afterwards, we went with our tour guide Angel, who looked like a member of a Spanish boy band, but who was a great guide all in all, into the mezquita.

The place was amazing. I mean that, it was huge and complicated, and it was amazing to know that even back then, without computers and whatnot, there were people who could create such beautiful, intricate things with mathematics and a compas that have lasted (and will last) thousands of years. We have all the technology available to mankind at the moment, and the buildings made today will fall apart in 100 years! Nuts, I tell you! NUTS!  These old cathedrals just blow my mind, with all of the art and altar pieces. If my church was like any of these we’ve visited, I’d never hear a word my pastor said. I’d be sitting with my mouth open staring at the walls the whole time I was there.

Afterwards, we got back on the bus and continued our long drive towards Sevilla, which is where the next concert would be held. I think I have some kind of Pavlov’s Dog relationship with our bus, because every time I get on it, I fall asleep. Only it isn’t a good, solid sleep. It’s one of those half dozing things that is neither restful or useful. I forgot to mention that before we got to Córdoba, I had been doing one of those half conscious dozing things when the bus stopped at a roadside stand to let us out to stretch our legs and whatnot, and I was still half asleep when I got off and was shuttled into this roadside stand where everyone was talking and yelling and I was so confused that I got a little scared. My contacts were dry and I couldn’t open my eyes, and Steve kept asking me questions that my brain wouldn’t process, so I had to go outside and collect myself. It would have been concerning if it hadn’t been funny. I didn’t know where I was or what was going on, but darn it, I shopped!  If I give you any weird, olive related items when I get home, this is where it came from.  Nice bathrooms, though.

It was a long ass drive. The area we are covering in Spain is much larger than the one we covered in Ireland, so we spend a lot of time on the bus. The bus is uncomfortable, too, but that’s fine. We get to see some beautiful scenery along the way, and so far we always end up somewhere interesting.

We finally made it to our hotel and had dinner. Steve wanted to go out, but I was too tired, so I went back to the room and he found some friends to have drinks with. So I’m currently sitting here relaxing and not wearing pants while that chump is out there enjoying the nightlife. I guess we all know who is winning tonight!

It’s me...not Steve. Just FYI.

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: June 12

We had to get up at the butt crack of dawn for some reason this morning. I thought that we had a tour appointment of some kind, but no, we were just taken to the city center of Grenada and dropped off to look around. I mean, that’s fine, but that could have waited an hour, right?

We walked around the city and it is gorgeous!  Its so clean and interesting. Our tour guide led us through the historic Islamic section of town to see the houses and side streets, and we explored on our own and did some souvenir shopping. I got a few things for family/friends, but I haven’t found anything special for myself yet. I like souvenirs, but after the debacle of trying to get a snow globe on an airplane, I tend to look for something a little less...liquidy. Eh, I'll find something.

Although it might not seem like it, I’m trying very hard not to live through my phone this week, but every five minutes I’m pulling out my phone to take a picture of something!

 

 

Oh, and this might be my favorite one:

It means "Kissing Street." Squee.

One thing I didn't take a picture of, but really enjoyed, was that there was an open air spice and tea market in the middle of town.  It smelled so good!  It's a shame we couldn't get anything from there, but honestly, the last thing I want is to have a spice bomb detonate in my luggage on the way home. I mean, it would smell nice, but would probably ruin my clothes!

Two things as we were returning to our busses: We are probably going to be on the Spanish news today because there was some kind of protest being filmed and we had to walk in between them and the news cameras! I’m sure they appreciated that. Also, that lady who played the Ugly American last night at our hotel, fell and busted her face on the street. It was bad. She’s an older lady and apparently she missed the edge of a curb, and as she fell, she hit a light pole with her face and then face planted. Her face is badly bruised, but at least she didn’t break her teeth like we had thought. Ugh, something like that is a fear of mine. I honestly hope I don’t get sick or hurt while in another country. That’s just too vulnerable of a feeling.

Anyways, from the city center, we were taken to the Alhalambra, which is an old Arabic castle/fortification up in the mountains. It had absolutely gorgeous gardens that had once been only for food (we were told surviving was too difficult for people to bother with flower gardens in the twelfth century) but they had been converted in the 1930s into the flower gardens we saw today. It smelled gorgeous, too. Literally, it smelled like jasmine and honey! My sinuses have not appreciated it, but my eyes enjoyed it! The tour itself lasted for a couple of hours and, while interesting and definitely a thing you want to see, made my poor feet tired. So very tired. The decor was beautiful, though. The Arabic calligraphy script and Moorish design are quite lovely. The mosaic and woodwork are like nothing else I've ever seen!

We left there and headed back to the hotel for lunch. There is apparently a place across the street from us that is the equivalent of a US Wal-mart, so we went over there to pick up some necessities! It really was like a Wal-Mart, but no one was in their pajamas, so...Spain in winning on that account. Hehe.

The second concert was tonight in a little, out of the way town called Chouchina. (That page is in Spanish, so good luck.) Well, even calling it a town is being grand, it was a village, which is fine, but so out of the way and tiny that I was surprised that a concert was being held there, but they had a music pavilion and we were a part of some kind of music festival, so what do I know? The band was also playing with, what I believe was,  a community band from that town, which was fun! The concert itself lasted so long. So. Damn. Long.  I don’t know what the band director was thinking, but he just kept on playing. People were leaving! However, the people who stayed seemed to be having fun, so again, what do I know? I do know that by the end of the concert, I was tired, cold, and had been sitting on concrete bleachers for several hours. Oy.

Also, there was an uncomfortably handsome man in charge of this particular concert. I mean...I don't know how a person can look like that and be normal.  He was also very nice. I just looked at him a lot. So much so that I felt I had to apologize to Steve, but eh...even he said the guy was handsome. I didn't touch him or talk to him directly except to say thank you, so I'm sure I didn't make anything weird. But still... Damn, Javier!

Before the concert began, we were unexpectedly herded onto the bus shuttled to a bar and told to ask for a drink and tapas, which we got and had to bolt it down, because not 20 minutes later we were told to get back on the bus and go back to the amphitheater for the concert. It was weird. After the concert (already effing late) we were taken to the courtyard of the local high school and given drinks and food, and had some kind of party where none of us could talk to the people in the other band because of the language barrier, but it was still fun. I tried sangria for the first time. Well, not proper sangria, I was told, but still pretty tasty. I have now discovered that my tolerance for alcohol is even less than it used to be, so that was fun.  Yikes.

BTW, I am still disturbingly dehydrated on this trip. Kind of like Ireland, they want to give us booze and water, but not a lot of water. We never seem to have enough to drink and we are on the move so much that tying to get a bottle of water is difficult. I feel awful pretty much most of the time, but what can I do? Hopefully that will change the further along we get on this trip. Also, we don’t get a lot of choice in what we eat right now and I know I’ve already gained at least 5 pounds. I’m starting to get anxiety about going back to the weight loss center. They are going to be so disappointed and I don’t think they are going to believe that we pretty much only get to eat what we’re given. Most of it ready-made buffet food and lots of potatoes and bread. Eh, such is the life when on tour with a band, I guess. I’m still having fun, so that is the important thing!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 11

This morning we were awoken by some very cheerful, very loud Spanish gentlemen singing and dancing in the room next door. I’m not sure how we angered them, but I assume someone from Miraflora called and tattled on us for interrupting siesta yesterday and hoped to get us back.

I woke up early (GAH) and lounged a bit. I also didn’t go down to breakfast this time. To avoid temptation, and the bread, I stayed in the room and ate one of the meal replacement bars I brought with me. Was it as delicious as the egg and potato omelette and bread? Hell no, but I needed to do a little damage control after yesterday. Plus, and maybe even more to the point, going from mostly meal replacements and low carb everything to delicious Spanish food with no pause is playing heck with my body. Too much sugar and oil all at once is making me feel gross and slightly ill. Don’t worry, I’m still going to indulge, but maybe not all day every day. Damnit.

We checked out of our hotel in Madrid, and headed to our next destination, which was Toledo.

HOLY TOL...oh, never mind.

It was amazing! We had a local guide who walked us all over the city, telling us the history of the different religious sections and churches. There may be more churches in Toledo than there are in Athens, AL...maybe. It also seems to be the only place where you can literally say you walked uphill both ways, because it didn’t seem to matter which way you went, you were always walking up a hill! I'm still a little frustrated by the tour guide situation we have going on. It isn't that I don't appreciate the information, because I do, but they take us from the bus, run us through the city, we have no time to stop and see any of the local stuff except what they specifically want us to see, and then they dump us off at a place with things like McDonald's and Starbucks all around. We passed a ton of shops and restaurants that would have been so cool to visit, but no.  Anyway.

We saw the third most important painting in the art world at one of the chapels, and then we went inside one of the most beautiful cathedrals I’ve ever seen. It was called The Primate Cathedral of St. Mary and we got a great, in depth tour.

 
We even heard a little boys choir sing, and it sounded so beautiful! We walked around for quite a while, until we were told to go grab a bite to eat before we left the city. We actually left the American Fast Food Area that we got left at and found a local place called, I think, Yogi's.  I ate green peas and ham, and even though it sounds weird, it was delicious!

 My grandmother would have loved this.

I also fell getting out of the bus, which was embarrassing. Luckily I caught myself before really getting hurt, or hitting the stairs, but I pulled every muscle in my right arm and upper back, and it feels like I’ve been boxing! This'll be fun on a long bus ride!

We rode for four uncomfortable hours in our tour coach while listening to examples of flamenco music and saw literally hundreds of thousands of olive trees. Spain in the world’s main producer of olive oil, and I can see why. It was the largest agricultural operation that I’d ever seen in my life, and very impressive, if not a little monotonous!

 

I dozed on and off the whole time, but couldn’t get any quality rest. I still feel like a zombie. As much as I enjoy traveling overseas, my body does not adjust very well!

We finally made it to our next destination, which is Grenada. I can’t tell much about it yet, but our hotel is very nice at least. We had a buffet dinner that had that same “kids menu” vibe, so I'm wondering if that’s just how things are here. At least there were some vegetables this time! My stomach is confused. Some of the people in our group are going out tonight, but we didn’t join them. I feel kind of bad for not exploring more during our free time, but I’m just too tired.

Unfortunately, we had an “Ugly American” incident, where one of the ladies in our group got upset about something to do with her room and she caused quite a scene. I’m embarrassed, as there was absolutely no reason for her to behave the way she did. Oy.

We are finally back in our room and my old, tired bones are going to sleep. Goodnight!

BLOGGED ALONG THE WAY: VIVA ESPAÑA EDITION: JUNE 10

I feel like a zombie. Sleep and wakefulness make no sense. I’m unsure what day it is or where I am. Apparently I forgot to change one of my clocks and woke up in a panic thinking we were late, only to have a very annoyed Steve tell me it was only a bit after midnight Madrid time. Yikes.

This morning I looked up how to ask "Can I pet your dog?" in Spanish, and this is what it gave me:

"Puedo acariciar a tu perro?"

 

Even with the Google bot recording telling me how to say it, my mind wouldn't wrap around the pronunciation. I blame it on being tired.  So I asked our tour guide, Pedro, how to ask to pet someone's dog. Even with his excellent English, he didn't know what I was asking him.  I had to show him the words.  It seems like the word "pet" isn't one he was familiar with, so when he finally understood, he repeated that phrase above, and with some explaining, we finally understood that "acariciar" is like "caress."  So I'd basically be asking someone if I could caress their dog. I ain't doing that.  I'll just do hand motions and lunge directly at the dog. They'll either let me pet their dog, or I'll get maced.  

Oooh, and before we left the hotel, a marathon, or some kind of race at least, went past our front door.  We stood outside and cheered people on for a long time.  That was fun. For all we know it was just a jogging club, but they were wearing numbers and looked tired, so we cheered!

 

Hooray, running people! 

Today was our first full day in Madrid, and after breakfast (still with the bread, you guys) we were taken to the Prado Museum. There are loads of amazing and famous paintings and other artworks at the Prado, but we were only given a tour of those painted by Spanish artists. (We also weren't allowed to take pictures, so *sad trombone sound.*) As someone who loves art, and especially art painted my famous masters, I was annoyed at the very narrow theme we perused, but also as someone who loves art, I got to see a lot of beautiful works and I'm ok with that. We still saw a lot of stuff that I'd heard about. My favorite was one by Goya, called "The Nude/Clothed Maja" which was a set of two portraits of the same woman (but with her face changed because SCANDALOUS!) One of the portraits was actually nude and one was clothed, and the dude who they belonged to would change them out depending on who was going to see them.  People get so worked up about nudes today and that stuff has been going on since the dawn of man. Although, I guess getting painted nude took a lot longer than a Snapchat would. I bet she got cold!  :)  We had a local tour guide that seemed very passionate about what he was showing us, so I was still entertained, even if I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to.  I did get to see Las meninas, which I'd studied in college, and that was worth the price of admission alone!


We left there and returned to the hotel. I’d love to say that in our free time we explored the city, but Steve and I have napped every chance we have gotten to try and feel more human. I won’t apologize! Besides, the first concert is tonight and we don’t want to be exhausted for that.

The concert was held in a small, mountain village about an hour away called Miraflora de la Sierra and it was...well, it was effing charming. It looked like a place specifically designed to make you love tiny villages in Spain! It looked like something created for Epcot.

 
The place was hilly and surrounded by twisty streets and cafes. We arrived during siesta, and of course promptly shouted the place to the ground like true Americans (oops.) It was cold up there, and started to rain, but the rain sort of stopped just in time for the performance to begin and the people in the town came out to listen. The band sounded amazing and the spectators seemed to truly love the concert. People danced and clapped, and at one point they started chanting what we thought was “roll tide” but apparently was the Spanish word for encore*. Haha, that was confusing!  The concert lasted almost two hours because the conductor likes to keep going despite weather or exhaustion, and we were freezing and wet by the time it was all over.

We were supposed to have dinner in Miraflores, so we packed out this place called the Bohemia Cafe and had an amazing dinner, laughed a lot, and made a lot of noise. In fact, we closed the place down and had to be chased out by our tour guides. It was a great evening. I like traveling with this group of people (at least thus far) because we all have something in common and all want to have a great time.

 Try the lamb. Trust me. 

We’re back at the hotel now and getting ready to sleep. Tomorrow, or later today rather, we are moving south to our next destination! Goodnight!

PS: I am so dehydrated. There is so much wine and so little water. Help me.

*I found out later that they were saying "Otra! Otra! Otra!" but the way they said it really did sound like they were chanting "Roll Tide" with an accent. I wasn't the only one who thought so, so I know it wasn't just my lack of culture, thankyouverymuch.