Late night tour in Europe... scary!

Having problems getting to the internet lately, sorry about that. The following is what I wrote yesterday:

Okay, so I am on the 7th day pf the trip. Sorry, no much time for writing. I am mostly walking endless miles to find another amazing thing or walking to find my way back to the hostel. I thought I was getting better with the whole map situation, but obviously I am not! In fact, I give up sometimes and burst out the iPhone for internet. 

My last days in Barcelona were great. Went to Park Gundel and realized that there is not a better tour guide, than a local. I saw a sweet old man at the super packed place and he offered to walk with me the last part of the park telling me lots of information about the area and my new favorite arquitect, Gandi. I also made it to beautiful views from Barcelona at the Museum of Musica Catalana before making it to the beach. 

Barcelona's beach quickly became one of my favorites because despite the drunk americans embarrasing our country around the beach, and the italian who interrupted my experience to stalk me and offer to take me home to cook for me, it was an amazing experience! With a beer in hand, sitting on my improvised towel (a.k.a my jacket) and listening to great music, I was zoning into the view of the water.

Later that night, I took advantage of the local help again and basically had dinner at a hole in the wall sharing my oversize and under-priced tapas. I arrived alone and hated it, but thankfully I quickly made friends with a couple. Just in time, or else the Cava (sparkly spanish wine) glasses were still gonna be coming to me to keep me company since the food was so amazing and I was not willing to give that up just because I was alone. Ooohh no! 

Traveling alone has been a great experience. For the last days I have done everything for and by myself. It's rewarding when you realize you have the power over every decision based on what you are up for. The downside are the weird guys that see you alone and what you have to do to stay safe. One time I even had to tell a dude that my husband was on his way. Another time I tried to avoid a dude by entering the first store up ahead, and it happened to be a sex shop with stripper shows on the back. Welcome to Europe! That's my luck! 

On Tuesday morning, I left Barcelona's beautiful airport... With new Spaniard boots and 4 new blisters due to a jog I had to do around the city at 6AM trying to figure out how Spain's "Detour" system works. Apparently they paint a yellow line guiding you to the new route... Great, but how do you know on which side did the long line started? Did anyone think of that? 

Anyways, an hour later I arrived to another world, Granada. The airport was probably the size of the Best Buy by my house in Charlotte. At the door, there was JUST ONE big bus that departs every 30 minutes only to take people to the main Granada area. I honestly felt like I was in Mexico through out the drive. 

In Granda I met up with a friend of a friend from back in Charlotte. He was amazing showing me around and giving me tips. I had the best time with him and his friend... or maybe it was the weird drinks we were having. At some point, the guy put 10 different things in our drink. Either way, it was fun! Great thing about Granada is that you order a drink, and they automatically give you a tapa (small plate of food)  with it.

Sweetness! Also, Spanish breakfast is super cheap and good! 

My main goal in Granada was to take a tour inside the Alhambra, which is a national monument now, but Queen Elizabeth lived there and that's where Colon came to ask for money to go discovery America. So much history behind it.

I got the amazing tour the last day, but the night before I got a VIP tour and it wasn't exactly throught the palace, but through a mountain in the middle of the forest behind La Alhambra!!! It was soooo dark and all we had were a few lights. We were going uphill, and the warnings were: "Once we start going up, you cannot come back down! It will be hard and really dark. You will have to use your hands and be on your knees climbing rocks uphill, but it's worth it at the end!"... well, that was a great selling point, so I did it! ha,ha,ha. Scared off my butt, but it was one of the best experiences of my trip so far! The view in the dark from the top of that mountain was incredible. We even got to go through a tunnel underground from one side to another. I was just praying that this locals guiding us were not killers and that some kind of animal wouldn't show up to join us. 

Now... riding on a train for 3 hours to get to Sevilla, land of the Flamenco and Bullfighting! :)

My first days in Europe...

My trip so far?.. INCREDIBLE! 

Let me tell you about it as I patiently try to type on this weird keyboard at the hostel's computer which, by the way, is in Catalan. uugghh! I am bilingual and have attempted to speak French and heard Italian before... even know how to say a few words in Mandarin... but Catalan?? What in the world is Catalan? ...That is a whole other story.

I am currently in Barcelona after spending a couple of days in Madrid. I was so nervous before departing, but once I got on the plane, it hit me and I realized I was about to have one of the best experiences in my life. One that I would talk about for the rest of my life. I know I will be back to Europe, but this is the first time and I am doing it alone, so it's definitely a milestone. 

My arrival to Madrid was not bad at all. For over an hour, all I saw was Madrid's underground on the train. Once I was walking up the stairs to a random street in Madrid, it hit me. That was it!

In Madrid, I did things I never imagined I would. Since I stayd at a hostel, I was sharing a tiny room, with two bunk beds with 3 other strangers. I had the bottom bed, and for the first night, I had no idea who the other roommates were. Next day, I arrive and found out it was two guys. I saw a flowery towel on the other bad and figured it was a girl. Well, on the second night, I find out it was in fact another guy. Great. Now I can say I slept with 3 stranger guys from Portugal and Morocco in the same bedroom in Madrid. Sounds dirty... but it's literally the true. Not mentioning that in fact, one of them slept on top of me. Oh damn! My husband will have a heart attack. 

Also, one day walking down the street a few blocks from Madrid's beautiful Postal Office, I passed a hair salon. I saw the prices and they were way cheaper than in the US. I needed my roots done, so I figured I could do it there... once I was sitting at the hair stylist's chair, words just slipped out of my mouth, "I am done being blonde. I want dark red hair. Much darker." I couldn't believe what I was up to, but I was super excited and ready. I did it. Madrid made get my hair the darkest I have ever had it, and I love it!!

In Madrid I met tons of people. The first night I decided to go out on a bar crawl from the hostel and made it to my bed at 6.30AM. So fun! Met mexicans that live in Africa, Mexicans that live in Madrid, Mexicans that live in Paris. Mexicans that live in Mexico... met tons of Mexicans. WTH? We really are everywhere!! I also met people from different parts of the world. Great experience! Only downside is that when we got back to hostel, there were tons of cops, who wouldn't tell us what was going on. Different country. Different cop attitudes. Earlier, two friends I met almost got arrested during our tour for riding Don Quixote's horse and Sancho Panza's dunky. LOL! That was hillarious... I almost took a picture, but figured it was better to sleep in that hostel room with three guys, than in a jail cell in a foreign country.  

Went to all the touristy and basic places to go to and got lost as much as possible. Thankfully I speak the language to ask around for directions. One of my highlights was going to the Bernabeu Stadium. I think soccer is hot, so that was great! 

Leaving the Museo de Prado, I became part of a big manifestation in the main streets of Madrid. I kind of blew at first, but then I looked at it from a better side and joined them. Thanks to strike, I was able to walk in the streets without worrying about cars, and even got great shots from some buildings since I could do it from the middle of the road. Thanks guys!!

Flew to Barcelona on Saturday morning, and there I am doing another brave thing. I hate flying, and even my doctor gives me medicine for the anxiety. This time, I didn't care and took the flight without the medicine. I didn't care and was ready for it. I did great, but unfortunately the lady next to me didn't, as she threw up as soon as we arrived. Great. No appetite after that.

The hostel in Barcelona is super nice. I share with all women this time... but unfortunately one of them thinks it's a hotel and asks for silence after 11PM...mmmm?? lady, did you miss the letter S in the middle of the HO and TEL? I think you did. LOL! 

I have seen incredible architectures in Barcelona. I was not expecting it. One of them was La Sagrada Familia and the Barcelona Cathedral. I was super excited seeing live paintings from my favorite painter Piccasso and not so excited getting super lost in Barcelona with a horrible map. It's like a maze here! 

In Barcelona, little did I know... they HATE! HATE! HATE! anything that has to do with Madrid, Spain and Spanish. Thanks for the warning to anyone who didn't tell me ahead of time. I was lucky to not get smacked when I asked the score for Real Madrid's score, or get beat down when I asked why everything was either in Catalan or French if we were in Spain. I quickly learned, hours within arriving to Barcelona. Catalan is their first language and they learn Spanish in school as a second language. Some might not even know how to write it correctly. Road signs, maps, names of streets are in Catalan. I can understand it when I see it, but definitely not when I hear it. Barcelona was the independence from the rest of Spain. They even have a flag that is everyone and represents that. It's a hardcore subject here in town. I heard there will be a big manifestation tomorrow and they will shut down the trail for a few hours. We will see how that goes, and hopefully I won't  get stuck in another strike like I did in Madrid. 

I have been drinking cava outside the church with hundreds of other people, eating tapas, listening to catalan and walking A LOT in Barcelona and look forward doing it one more time tomorrow before heading out to Granada on Wednesday. HAPPY!!

Alright, that's a good summary of the trip so far. Some stories cannot be told online, jajaja. 

By the way, are guys required to be hot in order to be cops in Madrid?? Upps! Shout out to my husband, hehe!