The Holidays Part 3 - Málaga

After an action-packed week in London and Paris, we had a morning of sightseeing to do in Málaga before we headed home to Algeciras. (Well, home for me anyway.)
Málaga might seem like a strange place to spend the last day, but since our flight got into Málaga at midnight the night before, we were in the area anyway.

I had super low expectations about the tour to start. The guy who was advertising it looked like he had just woken up and was still half asleep (probably true). But once the tour started, he did a complete 180 and gave one of the best tours I've ever been on. We went on a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of the old part of Málaga, and he mixed in historical facts with funny/interesting/little known stories about its history.

For example, one of the churches in the old city houses a giant throne that is used in processions in Semana Santa. There was construction done on the church and somebody messed up the measurements for the door's height. So that year when they tried to bring the throne out for the processions, it wouldn't fit through the door!
What did they do? They just broke through the top of the door frame, saying they would fix it mañana* (tomorrow). They didn't.
The next year they tried to take it out and the same thing happened. So they broke through the frame again, saying they would fix it mañana.
They didn't.
Finally, almost 80 years later, instead of just fixing the short door, they constructed a completely new, excessively tall, side door for the throne to use instead.

-- *mañana, while it literally translates to 'tomorrow', is actually used as "sometime in the future". In this case, 80 years in the future...haha. --

Then after lunch Matt and I went for tapas with the guide and a guy from the Netherlands. It was a true intercultural experience! And to top that off, our waiter messed up our tab and charged us 7.25 instead of 13euro. Win!!

Here are some pictures from the walking tour.

New Years Day in sunny, southern Spain

Málaga is extremely proud of their ties to Pablo Picasso. All over the city you can find these little white and blue plaques talking about his life. They can be about important things, like where he went to school, or completely irrelevant things, like this one. "In this spot, Old Mamely Pharmacy, Picasso's father had a philosophical talk." Umm...what?

There are 4 churches in the city where the builders ran out of time to do the stone-work decoration. So they substituted and simply painted it on. Way to be creative!

The city ran out of money before this church was finished, and so now the residents of Málaga call it the "one-armed woman". When the city tried to finish building it a couple of years ago, the residents wouldn't let it, saying it was more special the way it was now.

Reflection pool.

The Holidays Part 2 - Paris

Getting to Paris was a nightmare in itself. Since we hadn't booked our train tickets in advance, when we tried to do it the night before naturally all the cheap tickets were gone. Instead of paying the original $65 it would have cost if we'd done it a month ago, we wound up paying 4 times that for a 2nd class ticket. Blah.

And remember how I said our tour guide laughed at our plan? And that we only spent 30 minutes in Oxford because we had to try to catch our train? Well, this is how that went....

• Thanks to dumb people on our tour bus who couldn't tell time, our tour had gotten more and more behind schedule throughout the day. Now, instead of arriving back in London at 6:30, it would be more like 7:15. Which did not give us time to catch our 8pm train halfway across town. 

• Thankfully, we had an amazing tour guide who looked up train times on his phone for us, from Oxford to London. We went on a 20 minute walking tour of Oxford with him, while lugging our suitcases so we could leave as soon as the tour ended. Then he pointed us in the right direction, waved bye, and probably laughed as he watched us sprint down the streets.

• As soon as we arrived back in London we had another a couple metro stops and some more streets to sprint down. By the time we finally arrived in St. Pancras International Train Station, Matt was limping and I was clutching my side.  

Then we had a 2 hour train ride to sleep on before we pulled into Paris. And then spent the next 3 hours trying to find our hotel while refusing to get a taxi. 3 different people told us 3 different ways to get to our hotel, but each pointed us in a different direction. So basically, nobody had any clue.
Let's just say that when we finally made it, I slept like a rock that night.

The next morning we were still feeling the effects of our late night running across town. We got up, ate breakfast, and made it as far as seeing the base of the Eiffel Tower before admitting defeat and returning to the hotel for a nap.

Feeling invigorated, at 5pm that night (oops), we headed for the Louvre and Notre Dame. Both were closed. Fail.

But we did get to enjoy them in all their glowing glory at night. So that was cool.

This place looks deceivingly small from the front.

Then, as we were walking back to our hostel, Matt pulled a sneaky move and gave me my Christmas present midway across a bridge, overlooking the Seine River. I'm such a sucker for romantic things like that :)

And then my wallet got pickpocketed on the metro. So that sucked.

Friday was a much more productive day. We checked into our new hotel (in a nicer part of town) before 10am and then spent the entire day exploring. Our new hotel was off of the metro stop 'Marcel Semblat'. If you've ever seen the youtube video 'Marcel the Shell with Shoes On', you'll understand why this entertained us for the rest of the weekend.

On Friday we saw:

• Pont Nuef - the oldest standing bridge across the Seine river in Paris, built in the 1570's.

• Notre Dame - Construction started in 1163 and finished in 1345. It is the most popular monument in France, even more so than the Eiffel Tower. (Who knew?) I fell in love with the stained glass windows pretty quickly. 

• The Islands - We found the most delicious ice cream place ever, Berthillon Ice Cream. Look it up if you're ever in the area!

We stumbled across this band playing on the bridge by one of the islands. The saxophone player and singer were both from the U.S.!

• Shakespeare & Company - a cool quirky bookstore near the river; by day its a regular bookstore, by night its a place for writers who need a place to crash. My uncle stayed here for a while when he was younger, so it was neat to stop in and see it.

• The Louvre - We saw the Mona Lisa, and that was about it. My tolerance for museums is fairly low...but I do regret not spending a little more time poking about.

We did see this gem of a statue though as we were passing through. Seeing the looks on peoples faces as they passed by were priceless! Everything from a hand clamped over the mouth, to outward disgust, to puzzled looks. I could have stayed and people-watched all day!

• Place de la Concorde - In my opinion, this was one of the most interesting places in Paris. In the past, this was where the guillotine was held and where all the public executions were done. (During the 'Reign of Terror' in the summer of 1794, over 1,300 people were executed in this square.) Then in 1829 the Egyptian government gave the French government a giant obelisk, that had once guarded the entrance to Luxor Temple.  The obelisk was placed in the square over the spot where the guillotine had been. The square was named Place de la Concorde as a reconciliation effort with its bloody past. 

This is largest square in France. And easily the most impressive. 

Whew. Busy day.

Saturday morning it was decided that climbing up the Eiffel Tower (instead of taking the elevator) was a worthwhile thing to do. 

Does anybody know how many stairs that is? 

...

Well, it's the equivalent of climbing up a 43 story building. 

So a lot. 

But it was a great experience, I would definitely recommend that versus taking the elevator. But because we walked, we only went to the 2nd floor, and not all the way to the stop. I was fine with that though, the second floor is still very high up there!

Little, tiny people waiting in line

After that little excursion we saw...

• Sacré-Couer Basilica - located on the highest point of the city. You can choose to walk up the front steps or take a elevator-like  escalator for 1euro. Guess which one i chose :)

• Christmas Markets - Yes! They still had Christmas Markets up! 

• Arc du Triomphe - Placed in the center of the largest roundabout in the world. This place was a f***ing mess, pardon my French.

Then it was time for a brief siesta before heading to the Eiffel Tower for New Years Eve fireworks!

There's really nothing compared to standing with thousands of people, cheering and popping champagne, while watching the Eiffel Tower light up and glitter with thousands of little lights. Although the fireworks show was a little (okay, severely) lacking, the sheer amount of excited people and energy made up for it.

Right at midnight. And no, the fireworks didn't get any better. 

We learned later that the fireworks show used to be better, but that Paris is having some financial difficulties...but who isn't these days??

Sunday, on our "last day in Paris", we spent 2 hours waiting to by bus tickets to take us to the airport, and another 6 hours waiting in said airport. Fun.

The highlight of our weekend in Paris was definitely when I got a present from "the panini guy" at our metro stop. Matt and I got sandwiches from him on Thursday and then went back for dinner on Friday. I said hi and ordered the same sandwich, but I wasn't sure he remembered us. Then, while my panini was baking, he started making a crepe.
Matt and I looked nervously at each other, because I had been talking about getting a crepe when we walked up, but I'd never actually ordered it. "Did he think we wanted one? Should we say something? Uhh..awkward..." But I figured that if he was making it for me I would pay without complaints, cause let's be honest, I'm always up for a little desert :)
We watched as he added Nutella and carefully spread it evenly around the crepe, and then neatly folded it up and wrapped it in tin foil. By this time, because of the care he was putting into this delicious crepe, I was certain that it was a snack for him to take home or something.
BUT THEN!! He handed me my panini followed by the crepe, saying "a small gift for you".  I was so shocked I couldn't even thank him properly. What a nice guy!! He was in his 60's, graying hair, but...I think I'm in love :)

The Holidays Part 1 - London

I'm finally back in Algeciras! I never anticipated being this excited to return to 'the butt-crack of Spain', as I like to refer to it. But after a week of being on the road, it was nice to finally return home. And hear Spanish. Music to my ears!

My Christmas holiday kicked off on Friday the 23rd, when my friend Emily and I went to meet my boyfriend at the bus station. Needless to say, after 3 months apart I was practically jumping up and down when the bus pulled up. Buuut....he wasn't on it..............

Luckily I only spent 30 minutes searching for him frantically before finding him lonely and lost waiting down by the port station. Ug.

Christmas was really low key. Saturday we visited Gibraltar and then my friend Aram came over and the 4 of us drank 6 bottles of wine with dinner. On Sunday we made pasta and garlic cheese bread for dinner and then proceeded to play drinking games while watching Despicable Me. Our caption for the night? Keepin' it classy :)

Then on Monday, Emily took a train back home and Matt and I settled in for a long week of traveling. Since writing a recap of the following week would take faaaaaar to long for me to write, I'll just leave you with the fun points.

• After getting into London at midnight on Monday, we hailed a taxi and what can accurately be described as a 'Harry Potter night bus-esque' taxi ride. I say night bus-esque because our driver seemed to like driving over the center line and swerving only when necessary to avoid oncoming cars. He also enjoyed speeding down the bus lanes to pass other cars, and taking very hard left turns. But my favorite part of the ride was when we turned down a side street with speed bumps every 25 feet. He would speed up and then slam on the brakes, and hit each speed bump with enough force to shake me and Matt out of our seats and send our luggage flying. We paid £30 that ride and it was worth every penny, just for the sheer experience.

• An advertisement in the subway for the new Sherlock Holmes movie called it "an action packed christmas cracker". <3 British English :)

• Matt was continuously amused at my clumsiness. Each time I tripped he would gleefully say "first time walking?" To which I replied, "No. It's my second actually." So then after a long careful day of planning, he finally said "zeroith time walking?" And I walked riiiight into in and said "No! First time actually!" .....................Dammit.

• I got my picture taken at Platform 9 3/4! Which actually isn't even in King's Cross, they had to move the set outside because all the tourists kept clogging up the station. But seeing the inside of the station was just as impressive anyway!

Inside Kings Cross Station.

• We saw Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, rode on the London Eye, saw Kings Cross Station, walked around the Tower of London, saw Millennium bridge (where they filmed a Harry Potter Scene), rode on a Night city bus, and minded the gap in the subway.

Tower Bridge

Buckingham Palace

Matt and I, attempting to get the London Eye in our picture. And failing.

Big Ben at night from the London Eye

Then on Wednesday we took a tour to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford. 

Windsor Castle is the Queen's preferred residence, and where she stays on the weekends. Our guide says she dislikes Buckingham Palace and calls it 'the Office'. 

I've been to castles and palaces before and after a while they get kind of boring. They are all old, the beds all look uncomfortable, and there are lots of paintings of ugly monarchs and their families. 

Windsor Castle was different for me though, because it is currently being used, and due to a fire that broke out in 1992, many of the rooms we saw were newly remodeled. For part of the year, many of the rooms that we toured are closed to the public while the Queen uses them to entertain guests. For the other part of the year (like while we were there), they were open for public viewing.

My favorite part of the tour was seeing Queen Mary's doll house. It was created in the 1920's as a gift to Queen Mary, who collected all things miniature. The entire house is made to scale and includes electricity and running water and working plumbing! 

After Windsor Castle we headed to Stonehenge. I love how Europe is such a mezcla (mix) of old and new, historic and modern. Stonehenge sits on a hill in the middle of a field, surrounded on one side with a field of sheep, and on the other a busy highway with miles of cars piling up to visit the old monument.

After Stonehenge we jumped back on the bus and headed to Oxford. Oxford has been on my bucket list for places to visit for forever. Visiting Christchurch and seeing where they filmed the Great Hall scenes in Harry Potter is a very close second. But things didn't exactly work out the way I had planned, and what actually wound up happening was us going on a whirlwind 20 minute city tour and then running with our bags down to the train station to catch the first train to London. (Meaning we'd had to ditch our tour.)

Why? When I had booked the tour, I had known that we only had 1 1/2 hours after the tour ended to get to the train station for our high speed train trip to Paris. Which, according to websites I checked, was doable.

Then when we asked our tour guide the best way to do this, he basically laughed in our faces and announced to the rest of the bus that the 2 Americans were trying to do the impossible. 

Great.

Ah well. What matters is that in the end, although it took quite a bit more money and time than I'd anticipated, we made it back to London and caught our train. And eventually made it to Paris.  

A Year in Review

So 2011 just ended, which is crazy because I feel like it just started. More than that, it's crazy to realize that 11 years have passed since the Y2K scare and that there is only 1 more year left until we finally put an end to all this 2012 Apocalypse crap worrying. (I don't put any stock in this but it can still be a little troublesome to hear that the world as you know it possibly might not exist before you turn 24.)

2011 was a crazy year, lots of traveling, saying goodbye, meeting new friends, and realizing that it really is possible to make a home for yourself almost anywhere. Let's take a look back through the year:

January and February was mostly spent lounging in my Packers jersey, while watching them beat out team after team to become the Super Bowl champs.

In March I went on a road trip to Las Vegas, with this boy ^, and 2 friends. We saw the mountains in Colorado, more of Utah than I'd ever like to see again, and almost ran out of gas in the middle of a 100 mile stretch in between gas stations in Nevada.

Bellagio fountain show.
<3

In April, I was a bridesmaid in a friends' wedding. The majority of the bridesmaids and groomsmen had been friends since we were little, and we wound up having such a great night :)

In May I saw Jason DeRulo in concert, graduated, moved out of the apartment I had called home for the last 2 years, gave my cat a pat on the head since my roommate was taking her home with her, and saw a tornado rip through La Crosse, just four blocks from my new apartment.

Not the best concert I've ever seen, but definitely glad I went.

The family :)

Bella was abandoned on the beach and left to fend for herself when she 8 weeks old. My roommate and I  took her home and spent the next year saying 'HIDE THE CAT!!!!' every time the doorbell rang. (Our landlady had specifically told us that no cats were allowed.)

The tornado missed my house by a couple blocks, but my roommate and I did go in the basement when the lights started flickering and the wind picked up. I'd never seen destruction from a tornado before this.

In July I taught my Mom how to be gangster.

Success.

Then in September I said peace-out to Wisconsin in the best way I know how - going to a Brewer's game and a Packer's game. (The Brewer's lost...first Ryan Braun tripped and face-planted as he rounded 3rd base, and then the pitcher pitched a Grand Slam to the opposing team's pitcher. 

The Packers won though :)

Then I moved to Spain, found an apartment, and started a new life.

In October I started working as an auxiliar de conversación (language and culture assistant). I also visited Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, and made a trip back to Granada (where I had previously studied abroad) for Halloween.

Cadiz, Spain

Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

Granada, Spain

When November hit I waited for the cold to come, but it didn't. Algeciras stayed at a balmy 70 degrees all month :) I had my first full month of work, but also took time to explore Tarifa, and return to Jerez de la Frontera to get a city tour from a local resident, one of my coworkers.

In Plaza Alta, the main square in town. And the prettiest.

Hard at work :)

Teaching my students things like who a 'scuba diver' is. Awesome drawing, right?

Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, with my coworker...and co-auxiliar Eli, (not pictured)

We toured the Tío Pepe Bodega, home of the world famous Tío Pepe Sherry. I tried it, and although it might be world famous, I thought it was disgusting.

December started off fantastically, when 2 of the bilingual classes went on a field trip to a Honey Museum, and Eli and I got to tag along. That next week was a puente, so I headed to Munich, Germany for the first weekend and then Madrid, Spain for the second. 

All dressed up and ready to be pretend beekeepers!

The town hall in Munich, Germany

We visited Dachau Concentration Camp in Dachau, Germany.

During my weekend in Madrid we took day trips to Segovia and Álcala de Henares, and also went to see Cirque du Soleil Zarkana :)

The aquaducts in Segovia, Spain

Visiting Cervantes birthplace, Álcala de Henares, Spain.

After that exhausting week it was back to work for 2 weeks, a christmas lunch with all the coworkers and a christmas party with friends. All that led up to when Matt arrived! 

Which was followed by a Christmas at home with him and a friend, and a whirlwind week of traveling. 

Matt and I brought on the New Year in front of the Eiffel Tower watching the worst fireworks show I have ever seen, but I suppose I can't be too upset since i was in front of the Eiffel Tower... :)

Continue reading here and here to find out what kind of gift I got from a stranger in the metro and why I need to go back to London ASAP, as well as many more adventures from our week-long travels!

Happy New Year everyone!