Quick Update

Hello again!

Sorry I haven't been able to share anything, our adventures the last few days have made us need every moment of sleep we could steal! We successfully made it from Barcelona to Nice to Verona to Venice to Florence to Pisa and back to Barcelona all in one piece and are now preparing for our flights back to the United States tomorrow. I will surely talk all about it as soon as I can, but I just wanted you to know we are safe and sound and can't wait to see you all soon!

Back to Barcelona

We weren’t sure that train was ever going to end. Addy seemed to have a periodic alarm set for the entire trip that reminded her to turn around from the seat in front of me and whisper, “I’m. So. Bored,” each time placing the emphasis on a different word. The farther into the trip, the more I understood. When the train finally stopped at literally the end of the line, Addy looked like a pot whose lid was steaming from the water about to boil over. Between her massive amount of unused energy from the day and equal amount of excitement to see who was waiting for her, she was ready to run. And I mean run. While Victoria’s and my own legs felt like Jell-O from the sum amount of 200 steps we’d taken that day, Addy and all 3 of her ridiculously large bags were bee-lining it through the station like a mini-Hulk. Good thing she’s shorter than we are.

TRAINing buddies.

The low point of our evening was the evil taxi driver we had the misfortune of meeting. I know I don’t know a lot of Spanish, but I know what he was saying and how he was saying it, and it’s a good thing Addy and I don’t know how to be sassy in Spanish. Victoria did her best to handle it, even after he pushed the x2 button on the bill when we got out. There are just some people that make you question it all sometimes. But, they also make you remember how lucky you are to find the good ones, too. When we made it to the alley of our apartment, we couldn’t figure out which door it was, and we had just about had all we could take. Well, that was when we saw 3 friendly faces strolling down the alley towards us, and the stress melted away and was replaced with annoyed laughter. Bret (our friend from Coruna), his friend, Sean, and our long-awaited new adventure buddy, Marcello (yay, he’s finally here!), came to the rescue and showed us inside. Our apartment was small but pretty neat and just enough space for us. The only questionable part was the stench that loomed from the bathroom, reminding us of the apartment we stayed in while we were in Madrid. At least they were trying to cover it up here, so it was now a smell of sewage with a breath of Fresh Daisy Breeze. Home sweet 48-hour home.

Bret waiting for Marcello's arrival.

The next day was a cycle of eating, exploring, taking pictures, and repeating. The heat sans an ocean breeze was back, and Vic, Addy, and I didn’t know how to handle it – we’re not in Coruna anymore. We set off early in the morning in different directions – Addy to the airport to pick up her sister, Emily, who’s joining us on our trip as well, Bret and Sean to rock climb, and Vic, Marcello, and I to Camp Nou, the official home of the Barcelona professional sports teams, and thus also the home of Victoria’s hero, Lionel Messi. The sports stadium was huge and had been set up with a full museum and self-guided walking tour of the history of the soccer team and the stadium in general. There were hundreds of trophies beginning in the 1920’s all the way up to their accomplishments this year. They also housed all 5 of Messi’s Ballon d’ Or awards, which is an honor given to the best soccer player of them all. And he’s won it 5 times. Needless to say, I have a new-found appreciation for both professional soccer and Messi, and we are now looking forward to the day we can come back to the soon-to-be renovated stadium and see it all in action.

After the stadium, we met up at the apartment, recharged for a bit, and set off on an impressively large loop around the city. We did our best to stick to the shady side of the road, drink lots of water, and fan each other on occasion, or in Addy’s case splash each other with water. None of us handle heat very well, but it was a mutual understanding of that that got us through. Marcello and Emily were both champs and fought the jet lag valiantly, but by the end I’m afraid we were death marching Marcello a little bit. He never complained though, and if it were any of your regular 3 idiots, we would’ve been whining endlessly. On our loop we saw some really beautiful places, check them out below!

Sagrada Familia

Your favorite traveling sister pair

Park Guell

The view from the top.

Casa Batllo

On our way back to the apartment, I was walking a few steps in front of our pack when three tourists who looked like they were from the States timidly asked me if I spoke English. In my head I said “yes,” but my minimal Spanish ability intervened and converted it to “si,” so when everyone else walked up, they saw three Americans explaining a map to a fourth American with the smallest words and most hand gestures they could. Unfortunately, I was in too deep, and I couldn’t help them with the map, so I just backed up and let Mama Addy do it and made sure I said, “adios!” in the most convincing accent I could as we walked away. Do you speak Spanish? Nope. Do you speak English? Nada. I speak perfect Spanglish though, just at inopportune times.

By the time we returned to our apartment, we had walked 15 miles, we all had super fat fingers, and the only way we knew our feet were still connected was the smell. Exhausting? Yes. Totally worth it? Absolutely.

We are spending today on a train to Nice. This morning we said our goodbyes to Bret and Sean, but we hope to see them in Colorado sometime soon! This afternoon we have a 4-hour layover in Valence, France, where we will hopefully find some lunch before our next train. We won’t get into Nice until late, about 10:30 PM, and we will have 24 hours there before our night train tomorrow. That’s okay, though, we are excited to hang out on the beach for a little while before heading to Italy! It has been so fun to have Emily and Marcello with us to witness our moving disaster in person and add commentary much like Cotton and Pepper. Actually, it’s rather impressive how many Dodgeball lines fit into our daily lives, and equally impressive how many times Addy and I crack them:

“Let’s see how this one works out for ‘em, Cotton.”

“If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball.”

“Pepper needs new shorts!”

That’s all for now, folks. Talk to you soon from the rails of Italy! Bon voyage!

More pictures from yesterday:

We enjoyed some authentic Argentinean empanadas for lunch

Vic found her spirit animal.

When you start experimenting with sling shots. Shake n' bake, bro.

Quote of the Day: “It’s like the pee Olympics in there.” -Marcello, talking about the tricky situation of the toilet seat you had to hold open while you used it. What’s life without a little challenge?

Theme song of the Upcoming Week: 500 Miles, by the Proclaimers.

Lauren’s Country Count: 4, 3 more than just 6 weeks ago!

Final Days and a Formidable Farewell

Here we are again, cruising on a train through the green mountains of Galicia. It feels like just yesterday when this train was rolling the other direction. However, we have over 1000 pictures, a slightly larger Spanish vocabulary, and some bad tan lines to prove otherwise. We spent our final few days in La Coruna doing our favorite things – eating, exploring, and hanging out together as much as we could. As always, we have a few good/unfortunate stories to share!

I had one morning when I felt pretty heroic – as I was strolling to school, an old lady asked me to walk her across the street. The first words she said were, “you’re not of Spain,” but she said it in Spanish and I understood, so I’ll take that as a win for me. I guess I don’t hide it that well. Nonetheless, I hooked my arm under her hand and we walked, majestically, I’m sure, to the other side. She was talking to me, but I’m afraid the combination of our 1+ foot height difference plus my lack of Spanish ability made for a lot of nodding and smiling on my part. Though Vic has done that a few times now, it was pretty cute, and I smiled a little bit the rest of the way to school.

Speaking of school, the end of our classes meant we had to say goodbye to Eugenia, which was so much harder than one would have anticipated when we got here. Addy, Nicki, and I have had so much fun taking her class in the morning, even if most of it was because we had no idea what she was saying. We took our exam on Wednesday, and by how she met us for breakfast the next morning, I’m guessing none of us failed. That morning, Addy and I met at a photo shop downtown to get a picture from our adventure with her printed and framed so she couldn’t forget us, even if she tried. As we finished, Addy asked me if I had the final part of her gift, a little statue we’d found of her favorite animal. Yes, I had it, safe and sound, wrapped nicely and sitting on my desk in my apartment. It was 10:18. We were supposed to meet at 10:45. My apartment was a 25-minute uphill walk from where I was standing, and school was another 20 minutes from there. Addy and I just looked at each other for a second and both reached the same conclusion of what I had to do – run. I took my keys, dumped my backpack on Addy, and channeled my inner Forrest Gump as I began to run in my jean shorts through the city. I’d like to say I got there without taking any breaks or whining in my head about why my apartment had to be on a hill or had to have 84 stairs between the front door of the building and the front door of my piso, but I just can’t do that. However, I did sing a pretty special rendition of Kelly Clarkson’s, “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger,” between my Darth Vader-sounding breaths. I also decided that it would really be best if I exercised more. Ferran was pretty confused when I burst through the door, stayed for 2 seconds, and left again without any explanation, but he never brought it up. Eugenia was confused, too, when she showed up and I was dripping with sweat with only the explanation of, “I was running late.” I explained later though, and how touched she was that we remembered those things made it all worth it.

Another day, while Victoria was at work, she got stuck in the bathroom for a pretty substantial period of time. The door of the bathroom in her apartment is apparently a little sticky, and one day she swung it closed with a bit more force than usual in her urge to use the bathroom. When she tried to leave, the door was stuck. She tried to open it for a while, but even after putting her foot on the wall and pulling without pulling the doorknob off, she had to resort to yelling "ayudame" as loudly as she could. After about 20 minutes, her roommate finally heard her and started pushing from the other side, and eventually freed her. They had a moment of silence, appreciation, and sudden laughter afterward. At least Vic knows now that she did in fact have roommates the entire time.

On Wednesday after our final afternoon class, we all went to the store to buy some food for dinner and made our way to the spherical elevator so we could see Monte de San Pedro again before we left. However, it wasn’t until we got there that we found out it was closed for what looked like construction. So, instead of making the 40-minute walk to the other side of the large hill, we made our way to some nearby cliff-like rocks that Sarah and Bret had discovered on their go-karting adventure last week and ate there. It was so, so beautiful, and the best kind of change-of-plans!

Our beautiful Victoria, such a lovely picture with her water.

Our beautiful Addy, such a...lovely...picture with her...sandwich.

Other things this week:

This 90-year-old lady told us jokes, called Victoria ugly, and ran away.

Addy got her hair cut and now she looks like her sister and her mama :)

Dinner with Sophie's Parents

Vic and her Goodbye Cake with her bosses/bros

Friday night we had a final dinner with everyone at the first restaurant we all ate at together. It was still delicious, and very fun to think about how much we’d changed in just 5 weeks. Maria, our afternoon teacher joined us, and she even spoke English occasionally, which was fun to hear. After dinner we hung out for a little while at Soraida’s apartment, reminiscing of some of our times together. We have a special crew here, and I use special in every sense of the word.

Goodbye Dinner

On Saturday, the time had come to pack everything we had back into our suitcases that seemed to have shrunk over the last few weeks. When I looked back into my temporary room as I rolled out the door, the sadness finally hit me. The excitement to start a new adventure in Italy had prevented it from coming earlier, but now I was feeling home sick for both my Colorado home and my temporary Galician one. Though I didn’t love cleaning the bathroom, I will miss Alvaro’s animated hello’s and my slow discussions with Ferran about our common love for nerdy TV shows and video games. However, leaving just reminds me that I need to work hard to be able to come back again, and I’m willing to do just about anything to see those beaches another day!

After we all packed up, Addy, Vic, and I met at Soraida’s apartment, as she let us stay the night before our train in the morning. After the several flights of stairs up to her floor with our backpacks and suitcases, we’re now looking forward to how strong we’ll be after we climb the obscene number of stairs that lie before us in Italy. Especially Addy, because she’s found that if she leans backwards just a little too far, her duffle bag will have the same effect as a turtle shell and trap her on her back, and she’ll have to deal with Victoria and I pointing and laughing before we help her up, which she’s not sure her pride can handle. For the rest of the day, the three of us, Nicki, and Sarah took in as much of the beach and the ocean as we could, ate dinner (at 10:30, we’ve finally adjusted!) at one of our favorite restaurants, and sang along to Moana while eating chocolate and popcorn to finish out the night. Just like every other day here, it was wonderful. One of my favorite parts was when Addy was gently petting the cat which soon became annoyed by the love, so he reached his paw across and slapped her in the leg. Literally slapped. Then, he wanted to be pet again. And Addy can’t figure out why her Harry Potter Patronus (spirit animal) is a cat…just kidding!

This morning, we said our goodbyes to Soraida and Sarah, and climbed into a taxi that pulled us away as dramatically as it is in the movies. Nicki escorted us all the way to our train, where we contemplated how we could take her with us or get her to move to Colorado in the future. When we came to Spain, I was hoping to meet some nice new people, but I didn’t expect to meet someone whose generous heart is even more noticeable than her beauty and who would make our goofy times together even more fun. Nicki is the kind of person that this world is lucky to have, and we’ve been so fortunate to get to know her. Releasing our embrace of our beloved 4^th Musketeer was very tough, but we all have adventures left to conquer this summer. As Soraida said at our farewell dinner, so many things had to be just so for our group to find each other in a city across the world from our homes. We all got along as if we’d been friends for years, despite our differences in hobbies, career paths, and life experiences. I couldn’t have asked for a better group, and hope that our escapades will have us cross paths again in the future!

Adios, Ferran! See you in 10 hours, Barcelona, and see you in 10 days, Mom!

More pictures from the week:

Our Favorite Cafe, Tahona

We will miss our beloved Soraida.

Victoria,

Don't leave

your phone

on the table.

Our crazy crew!

Quote of the Week: “If you can't win, confuse them." -Soraida, giving us valuable life advice.

Addy and Lauren’s Favorite Spanish Phrase: “Doy en el clavo” --> Nailed It

Number of Restaurants We’re Worried Might Close Without Our Constant Business: At least 3.


P.S. It will be a little tricky to post next week, but I'll do my best! Talk to you soon!

Week 4, Only One More...

Week 4 in La Coruna. We've been here for a month! And next Sunday, we're leaving for Barcelona on a very enjoyable 15 hour train ride (we're really looking forward to that - Disney movie marathon perhaps?). While it's tough not to think about the future, we're doing our best to make the most of every day we have here, and last week was no exception! So, some highlights...

Think we found an end of the rainbow.

Tuesday, as you know, was our beloved Independence Day and we hope you all had wonderful celebrations! We celebrated, too, which in no way influenced our "stick out like a sore thumb" problem that we already have as Americans. Anyway, to celebrate, we did what Americans do best...eat. And boy oh boy did we do a good job! In some combination during the day, we had ice cream cones, churros and chocolate (not American, but I'm sure I was thinking about our Founding Fathers as I drank hot chocolate), real beef hamburgers (sometimes it's questionable), and french fries. I had french fries of sorts, too - they were made of yucca root (I don't know either, but they were delicious) and I'm not sure if I've ever been so full. Smartest decision? Probably not. Worth it? No doubt!

One day during our afternoon class we toured a nearby fort that has been converted into somewhat of a cultural center - we toured the exhibits in the refurbished fort led by a very nice lady and I think Addy and I understood more of this one than the last tour, so that's exciting!

Monkey arms coming in handy

On Thursday, we went to something called a Queimada. After how many times I've been surprised on this trip, I thought that I would be ready for anything, but I can guarantee that is not the case. We all went to a local bar around 10:45 guided by the lovely Soraida, who takes us to do all sorts of cool things. Well, as time passed, more people started to trickle in, until Soraida told us to go stand by the bar to get a good spot. Good spot for what? When we got up to the counter, all that sat there was a large sphere half-filled with a clear liquid, a tambourine, and a black cauldron. In case you missed it folks, that was cauldron. Like, the one on the Hogwarts school supply list. Then, at about 11:50, you'd think the building next to us was on fire and the only escape was through the back of the bar. For a place that only has room for 3 tables, it fit upwards of about 100 people I think, stuffed in every crevice in the room. And I mean every one. At the stroke of midnight, the room went dark, it got as quiet as that many people in one room can manage, and the ritual began. It was unlike anything I've ever seen - for about 15 minutes, the bartender chanted something that was a combination of Spanish and Gallego while wearing a straw hat and cape and stirring a pot of liquid fire. It was so, so cool! He had been performing the ceremony every Thursday for 20 years, and I don't know how long it took him to perfect it, but it was surely perfect when we saw it!

Fire in the hole!

On Saturday we toured the Torre de Hercules, the oldest lighthouse in the world! Constructed during the days of the Roman Empire in the second century, it has been a symbol of Coruna for thousands of years. It is even the symbol on the sewer holes (that's when you know it's important). It was restored during the 18th century and has been kept in pristine condition ever since. Though the sea breeze was very strong, it was beautiful! We had the best tour guide ever, too. Dressed in a blue checkered kilt, matching scarf, and authentic leather shoes, Oscar never broke character until he asked us for a review on TripAdvisor.com. He was hilarious and by the end Bret had another man-crush.

Soarin'...

Flyin'...

There's only one roof below heaven that Addy can reach!

Channeling her inner Zoolander.

Blue Steel.

Photogenic is an understatement for these two goofballs.

Awkward family photo.

Argh when we're happy. Argh when we're sad...(featuring Oscar)

After the tower and some lunch we tried to go to the Aquarium, but it was very expensive. So, being the cheap college students we are, we did our best to get our money's worth.

When the aquarium thinks they can keep us away from the seals...

"It's a beautiful night, we're looking for something dumb to do..." -Bruno Mars. What did we come up with? Singing! Loudly. In public. In other words, karaoke. So, made our way to the nearby karaoke bar. I can't do much to explain it other than quote Victoria: "Well, this is where I don't want to end up on Saturday nights in 50 years." We did belt out some pretty good songs, though, most notably in my mind was my favorite, Breakaway, by Kelly Clarkson. It was definitely an experience. I'll leave it there.

They were troopers.

Domingo was the perfect end to a great week, and hopefully the start of another one! We woke up late, met for lunch at a very delicious Thai restaurant, and decided to rent some bikes to explore a little more of the city than we could on foot. Well, almost all of us had bikes - Sarah and Bret tried to go with the go-cart, but it turned out to be harder than it looked. It only allowed one person to pedal, while the other was the side-gunner without a gun. Additionally, the only brake was the emergency brake. They handled it like champs, but they fell a little behind as the rest of us pedaled off along the road. We decided to go around the large green hill/mountain that marked the end of the visible part of the city. When we got to the other side, it felt like we were in a different country. The colorful houses were widely spread out, the roads were cobblestone and quiet, and everything was either green or salt water. What a change, all in 30 minutes on a bike!

Bike ride buddies.

In the Octupus's Garden in the shade.

Yep. Nikki is moving to Colorado. She just doesn't know it yet.

You can never go wrong with some good finger guns.

"Quick, pirates!"

"Wait, what?"

When Vic chooses the pose.

Aaaand the real pose didn't get better.

We always knew she was royalty.

Taking life from every angle.

I'm basically the Hulk. Just kidding. I did nothing, but I like the credit.

'Sup ladies.

After we captured the scenery and the moment in the only way we are capable, we made our way back to the city, where we finished our evening with some delightful naps on the beach. Final week in Coruna, here we come!

More pictures from this week:

Tahona, our favorite cafe, is good for everything. Eating, working, and sleeping, all in one afternoon.

Yep. I bought a scarf. I couldn't help it. I have a problem.

Sarah and Vic are basically the cutest.

I said basically. It's really us.

Beach buds!

We have the best group. Like, ever.

  

Quote of the week: "Hey Vic, I'm wearing my fluffy butt socks" *pets flamingo socks* - Lauren. If there's any part of my closet that I'm proud of, it's my sock drawer.