(start from bottom and read upwards)
a blog about my adventures in the spanish capital, where i am teaching english and trying to live the life of a typical madrileño. will also include entries about my travel around spain, and europe with a stop in morocco hopefully.
i realize it has taken a month, but here are the photos and memories from the month of backpacking i did before returning to the us from spain…
the first city we visited was budapest in hungary. this city was beautiful and had that great eastern european charm. we experienced all different parts of the city. this included abandoned soviet-era factories at 2am after being dropped off there from the airport bus, without any idea how to get to our hostel. another great part was that our hostel was located in the middle danube river on an island. we had a blast hanging out with our friends from the hostel at hungarian baths and dancing the night away to techno. i am very glad vanessa joined me from spain, and grace flew over from florida so that we could visit our friend victoria who was studying in this very interesting city.
i’m coming home!
spending the day and night in dublin before my flight back to orlando on wednesday night. cannot wait to be back in the sunshine state!
bags are packed
today begins my month of traveling as we go to budapest, hungary. our hostel is located on an island in the middle of the river with a roof top terrace so we can get cool views of the city. i am pretty excited. not sure how often i will have access to a computer to update, but i will be taking lots of photos to share with you sometime later.
this last weekend began with my final night on the sandwich route with church. it was difficult saying bye to the guys on the street i have spent time with on friday nights all year. i look forward to, hopefully, getting more involved in homeless ministry when i return to the states. while we were talking to a homeless friend of ours, gigi, we encountered two friends from pba in sol. they were in spain after a mission trip and spanish-moorish travel study class. it was great running into them, the world is not as big as it seems.
after the route i went to meet up with some friends for a surprise engagement celebration (that i had planned) for my friends josh and antonia who got engaged friday evening. we had a large group that ended up at this underground karaoke bar trying our best to sing 80s and 90s spanish pop songs we had never heard before. they are most likely getting married in november if everything goes to plan, near washington dc.
saturday morning i got up fairly early and went to the real madrid soccer stadium because there was an nba event in town. i had previously discovered that dwight howard was going to be in madrid and i wanted to get the chance to meet him. we went to a meet and greet, and he signed one of my magic t-shirts. it was pretty exciting. after the meet and greet we watched some spanish youth participate in a dunk contest, which was actually very good. the picture is of one of the spanish guys jumping over dwight to dunk, if it was better quality you could see vanessa, yamika and i standing at the other baseline directly next to the guys in the light blue.
saturday night was my final oasis church service, my pba friends also came. after church we went out for indian food and then to a going away party for some friends of ours. it is weird having to start saying goodbye to people i´ve only known for a year and probably will not see again anytime soon. spain has been good to me this year and i will miss living here when i´m home.
july travel preview
budapest: june 29-july 1
vienna: 2-4
salzburg: 5
southern germany: 6-11
back to madrid: 12
paris: 13
england: 14-16
scottland: 17-19
northern ireland: 20-25
ireland: 26-27
orlando: 27
went to barcelona a second time with a large group of friends from madrid and my friends victoria and hays. we had a great time. our hostel was on the beach and we enjoyed spending the afternoon in the sun. we rented some bikes and rode around the city, and saw all of the sights. it was a good time.
on another note, pickpocketing is quite a problem in barcelona. one that we experienced first hand by hays getting his wallet (w/passport) stolen. luckily the us consulate can print a new one in a hour for emergencies. all is well.
FLIGHT BOOKED
i will be in the sunshine state on the evening of july 27th. i am very excited.
its winter again on june 1
Hasta el cuarenta de mayo no te quites el sayo
the above quote is an idiom used here ever since the beginning of spring. people say it very often and it translates to mean ‘until the 40th of may, don´t put away your winter clothes’. considering that today is the first day of our summer hours at school, because it’s too hot to have classes in the afternoon, i thought this was a joke. i was wrong. this morning as i walked to school wearing a long-sleeve shirt and a sweater i was cold. i should have worn a jacket too. i understand even more why people left this ice continent for the americas. this is the weather on june first in sunny and warm spain, i don’t want to find out what its like in the north.
my new hours at school (try not to be jealous) are from 9 to 1 mon-wed and 9-11:15 thurs with a 45 minute break in the middle for breakfast. such a hard life i live.
my good friends hays and victoria visited vanessa and i this past weekend in madrid. it was hays birthday on the 25th so on their last day staying at my house my amazing landlady decided she would cook us lunch to celebrate. we had a delicious salad with tons of fruit and a homemade dressing and a vegetable lasagna made from mostly zucchini and eggplant. for desert she made us a lemon tart. it contained no sugar or eggs and was delicious. we had a great time catching up and hanging out in madrid. they are now in morocco and will be meeting vanessa and i plus 7 of our friends here in barcelona next weekend.
victoria (blue) and hays (red) arrive in madrid in the morning for the weekend. i am very much excited to get to see some good friends and share this spanish experience first hand with more people. victoria is my friend who will be studying in budapest and vienna in june-july, and i will visit her there in july.
photo in new orleans 3 years ago
more pictures from beautiful granada. the town view from the alhambra is of the old muslim section of the town. each of the houses has a courtyard with a fountain and trees, plus all of them are painted the same with the same tile. it is very beautiful to see. in the old part of the city you get a good view of the alhambra and the surrounding mountains. enjoy.
here is the first set of pictures from my trip to granada. i spent nearly 5 hours in the alhambra, wondering around its gardens and palaces. it was quite the site to see, on of the most important historical sites in the world. this castle/fortress was where the last moorish sultans lived in spain. it was built upon a mountain top, aganist the sierra nevada mountain range (with spain’s tallest peak very close behind).
i will post more pictures and more information later on, probably tomorrow.
on last friday i spent the day in the south of spain in the coastal town of málaga. its the 6th largest city in spain, and the whole area is called the costa del sol (sun coast). i mostly just wondered around, and took a two hour nap on the beach listening to the waves. it was very relaxing. málaga is a very old city and was founded by the phoenicians 770 BC. the roman theater and a few other parts are remains from the ancient times. if also became a moorish city and was conquered by the catholic monarchs in 1487. the castle/fortress is reminiscent of these times. this city was taken five years before the fall of granada, the city i visited next…
