Europe 2009 - Part 1

Actually - it's really part 2 because I'm doing these entries a little backwards. I went to Europe for thanksgiving yet again! I flew into Lisbon, Portugal and then headed to Spain! I'm blogging about the Spain portion first.

We relied quite a bit on Rick Steve's for our trip. I never really plan that much before these European vacations so a book always comes in handy! What I loved about Ricks Steve's book is that he has all these self-guided tours in it so you don't need to pay extra for the tours when you go places. Just follow along in his book. We used it quite a bit.

So - we took the night train from Lisbon to Madrid. I've done night trains before but never paid for the bed. The beds are such a good decision. Got to Madrid rested enough to actually do something!

Here we are are Km Zero in the center of Puerto Del Sol...pretty much the middle of Spain.

Puerto Del Sol

This was the BEST pastry shop ever. We stopped here just about every time we walked by.

Me and Mckay eating delicious pastries!

Plaza Mayor

I thought this guy in the Plaza Mayor was hilarious! The things people do for money.

Walking around Madrid.

Mckay and me in front of the Palacio Real

Attempting to be Egyptian in front of the Temple of Debod (an egyptian temple)

The colors of the trees were amazing! I love fall!

I travelled with Candice (a girl I knew from BYU) and Mckay, my friend from CT. And then Candice's boyfriend met up with us a little later in the trip. This is us with the Palace in the background.

Madrid's very own leaning/twin towers....

Day 2 in Madrid was much more relaxing. This was about the middle of our trip and we were getting a little tired so took advantage of the fact that we had to be in Madrid for 2 days to relax. Mckay and Candice went to the gym of our hotel and I went for a run outside. I ended up finding this awesome park. It had a 1600 meter track that went around the park. In the center was a couple of driving ranges, futbol fields, and parks for kids. They even had a "stretching" zone with these cool structures for specific stretches. If I lived close to this park, I would probably go just about every day.
Eating Paella in Madrid somewhere. I was not a fan. I don't know if I just happened to have bad Paella or it's just not as good as I thought. I've had some in the US and loved it - but it was different. This was hands down probably our worst meal. Oh well..

Mckay decided to get a European haircut.

Candice and I just hanging out and waiting for Mckay to be done.

The finished product!

We needed to rent a car because the next day we were heading down to southern Spain! So, we found this great deal for a car online from SixT. I read some reviews online and they were horrible!!!
But we decided to chance it anyway because it would save us a ton of money if it worked out fine. There were all these reviews online about people getting charged ridiculous amounts of fees. But we didn't have any of those problems. Everything worked out great! And our Volkswagen was great!
The best part of Madrid was being able to go to a Real Madrid game! They played Zurich and won of course. It was so much fun to be there. We had great seats (9 rows from the field).

Mckay was of course in heaven!

And I made sure to wear the appropriate attire. :)

Day 3 of spain (day 6 of our whole trip) - we were on the road headed towards Granada.

We made a little pit stop in Consuegra to check out the windmills.

How cool are these things?

Then we made it to Granada and went to the Alhambra! Very cool place. It is massive. So much to see. Unfortunately, this was also our worst weather day so our desire to be outside for long periods of time was not the greatest. It was so rainy.
One of the rooms in the palace. If you stand in one corner and whisper, then the person standing in the opposite corner can hear your whispers! There is a place in Grand Central station that also does this. We had a little fun whispering to each other.

Love this picture

A view of the city from the Alhambra

Walking around Granada. Such a quaint little city. I really liked it.

The next day we headed south to Tarifa, Spain (very souther tip of Spain). This is also where the Mediterranean sea meets the Atlantic Ocean! So - to the left of me is the Mediterranean and to the right is the Atlantic Ocean! We didn't go touch the water, but apparently they are different temperatures. Pretty cool.

Those mountains behind Mckay and me is Africa!

On the rooftops of Tarifa, Spain

The ferry we took to Morocco! Just a quick 40 minute ferry ride!

Europe is on the left, Africa is on the right!

So typical.

So - Tangier, Morocco! Wow! Quite an experience. Mckay hated it. I didn't. But I also didn't love it. It was interesting. Would I go to Morocco again? Yes, I plan to. But probably not Tangier. The minute we stepped off the ferry we were harassed by locals one after the other of men trying to be our tour guide for money. We were aware that this would happen (thanks to Rick Steve's) - but wow, I don't think I realized how relentless they would be. We seriously (and literally) had to run away from them. We finally lost them when we turned into a local market.

Arabic is their first language, but french is their second language. So thankfully I could understand signs and talk to people if I needed to. We walked around the non-tourist area first. And no one was bothering us which was great. We saw people selling live chickens and lots of interesting (and gross) things. Mckay hated it. We eventually found ourselves in a more modern part of town and got some grub.

FYI - shrimp in Europe (or at least Portugal, Spain, and Morocco) always comes with the head on. Gross. Thank you North America for cutting that off for us. It's much appreciated.

This was a mosque with all the muslims exciting after prayer. By the way - they announce that is time for prayer over loud speakers throughout the city.
Right beyond this point is what is called the "Casbah". There were lots of small, winding streets that you easily got lost in with lots of little shops were every bugs you to buy their stuff.
We got SO lost in the Casbah! Mckay was getting so frustrated and hating the place even more than he did in the beginning. We just kept heading downhill and eventually made it out! We then raced for our ferry because we didn't want to get stuck there after dark. We made it just in time...and I took this picture as we sailed away! So - I've now been to Africa! After next year, the only continent I will have yet to step on is Australia.

This road separates the Mediterranean and the Atlantic!

The Atlantic - I just liked this picture.

This picture gives you an idea of how close the 2 continents are!

On our way back from Tarifa, Spain to our hotel - we made a little pit stop in Gibraltar - a little piece of the UK all the way in southern spain! It's pretty much that big rock.
It was weird to just be in the UK all of a sudden. Everything in English and Pounds. Strange! We didn't really stick around...we just wanted to say we went!

Welcome to heaven (aka - our hotel!). We stayed here a couple of nights and it was amazing. The amazing part. We got it for 65 Euros! Yep - that's right folks - we got a steal of a deal!

It had gigantic chess, mini putt, a million pools, and the freaking beach!!! How amazing is that?

And this was our "apartment" as they called it! 2 bedroom, 2 bath, full kitchen, living room, washer/dryer, everything! It was amazing!

How can you not love staying here? I only wish we could have stayed here all week!
I even got to put my feet in the Mediterranean! Unfortunately it was a little too cold to put much more than that in.

We sadly left our hotel Saturday morning to head to Sevilla, Spain!

What a fantastic city! I loved this place. I only wish we would have had more time to visit! I just loved the city. The architecture and the atmosphere. Everything about it. I want to go back some day.

The Cathedral. One of the largest in Europe.

Inside the Alcazar! Amazing place.

Eating tapas and churros! so yummy.

Another picture of the cathedral

One of my favorite sites in the city - Plaza de Espana. So amazing.

We left Sevilla kind of late and headed up to Madrid because our flight was leaving the next day. We finally made it to Madrid at about 3am and decided to try the Formula1 hotels Jason and Ashley told me about. It was no beach resort...but it did the job.
It took me a while to fall asleep. The walls/door is not very sound proof. And you could smell cigarette smoke through the door. But once I was asleep all was well. And my flip flops came in handy for the public showers. I think formula 1 hotels are a fantastic idea though. Only about 30 Euros for a room!
The last day we pretty much just headed to the airport! We were going to swing by the temple..but woke up a little too late. This was the last picture of the trip..waiting to board our flight back to NY!

It was a fantastic trip! And I continue to still love Europe! I've been every single year the past 5 years. I think if I go in 2010 that I really, really want it to be Greece! Greece or maybe Norway and Sweden. Any takers?