Day Eighty-Six

Tuesdays are always sooo long. They aren't the beginning of the week and they aren't the end of the week, and I also have four two hour classes, and nothing to look forward to afterwards except the loving pillow of my bed and spanish dinner.  Finals are rapidly approaching and so is Semana Santa and Feria.

The tourists have arrived.  I've realized that since I've been living here for so long, I now consider myself a resident.  Not a native, that would be silly. But at least a resident and no longer a tourist/student that doesnt know what she's doing with her life. And because of this, the tourists are getting on my last nerve.  When I'm in a hurry to class, they are sauntering along in the middle of the road which means I cant get around them (keep in mind the roads are only two meters wide in some places..) They stop unexpectedly in places that are clearly not meant for stopping, and the are creating serious congestion in the center of the city. But I guess thats what you get for living in a place as beautiful as Sevilla.

Heres ten ways to accurately spot a tourist:
1. are they wearing tennis shoes?
2. do they have anything that resembles a fanny pack?
3. are they wearing a floppy hat?
4. are the men in shorts and/or any type of sandals?
5. are the women wearing tank tops with shorts?
6. are they carrying their purses/bags not in front of their bodies?
7. are they staring at a map with a confused look on their faces?
8. do they stop and talk to the gypsies? (bad plan. never do it!)
9. are they walking with a purpose or are they sauntering along?
10. do they talk wayyy to loudly to the store clerk in hopes that if they just yell a little louder he will understand what they're saying?

Picture of the day 1: how many can you spot in this line?

Picture of the day 2: Semana Santa = a REALLY big deal.

Day Eighty-Five

So about that staying out till five yesterday...? and having to volunteer at eight which means leaving my house at six fifty in the morning... yeah. bad plan. But overall not a bad day, just a lot of homework to get done and projects to figure out. As well as travel plans to make!

Picture of the day: ran across this on the way to the cafe tonight.. these are ice cream flavors, Kinder=the German word for child/children.. thats an ice cream flavor?!

Day Eighty-Four

Got home at five.

Woke up at nine.

Left the hotel at ten.

Rode in the bus for 7 hours..

Got home to Sevilla at six-ish

ahh Rest.

Picture of the day: although not actually taken today, its pretty. and I like it.

Day Eighty-Three

Got home too late.. and had to get up too early.  After breakfast at nine we again piled onto our beloved bus and rode out to the little town of Sintra, which is about half an hour outside of the city.  Sintra is a little community on the top of a hill that overlooks Lisbon and is probably only in existence because of the castle that is there.  Which we visited.  After we got off our bus in Sintra, we were then coerced into getting onto the city bus to ride up to the top of a mountain.. on the most windey road I've ever experienced, which was amplified by the fact that I had to ride standing up the whole time, and its never been my forte to balance well on moving busses.. SO up we went to the top of this mountain where we finally reached the Castle... well kind of.. we still had to hike up another small mountain to get to it since the bus couldn't run up there.  

It was fantastic! kind of a mixture of a whole bunch of different styles and colors, not quite how you would imagine a normal castle.. One of the very first things our guide says as we're all admiring the giant intricate building is "don't get too excited, this is just the 'summer home'." ...oh yeah, I have a summer home just like this one back home.. what?!  One of the different and interesting things about this castle in particular is that instead of wandering through it and trying to figure out what each room is actually supposed to be, this one is furnished so when you walk through you can actually see what it might have looked like.

After we hiked back down the hill, rode the bus back down the cliff, and got some lunch, we were off to part two of the day.  We were traveling with two interest groups this weekend mine and another one, so for the second part we split up and dropped the other interest group off in some random park along the way.. but we continued on to the 1998 Expo.  Unlike the Sevilla expo which is just a cluster of random buildings and semi-cool bridges, this expo included an aquarium, a tram like thing that took us over the water, and an OMSI like museum. TOTALLY FUN! so we spend the whole afternoon just re-living our youth.. riding the tram and playing with all the science experiments and looking at fish.

Finally we went back to the hotel where my friends and I decided to order chinese food and watch Dirty Dancing Havana Nights before another night of exploring the city.  Chinese food was definitely a success, after which we all got ready and headed out for the night once more.  This time we went to the bar area of the city but ended up catching a cab to the beach to a club.. one of my friends bribed our way in through the doorman and we were good to go!

Picture of the day 1: photo op in the castle!

Picture of the day 2: I mean... don't get too excited.. it is after all JUST the "summer home"...

Picture of the day 3: Sevilla y Las Americas Grupo de Interés 

Picture of the day 4: riding on the tram at the Expo

Day Eighty-Two

Lisbon here we come!! This weekend I'm off to Lisbon, Portugal with my interest group.  We got on the bus bright and early for the seven hour (ish) drive and got to the hotel around two.  After grabbing some lunch at a nearby cafe (which we ended getting for free because the guy liked us) we went to La Universidad Nova, and listened to a presentation.. not quite sure how that fit into our interest group topic which is Sevilla y Las Americas.. but we went with it anyway.

Then we got a city tour.  All fifty-ish of us piled off the bus into a central plaza and were herded around the city.  Although being in a giant tour group is super awkward, the city was gorgeous and much more european and historical that I had anticipated.  I dont know why, but for some reason when I think of Portugal I don't associate it with Europe.  I kind of think of it as its own thing. Its attached to Europe, but in my mind it doesnt have a history like Spain or France or Germany do.. But today I actually got to see its history, and it finally found its place in my brain with the rest of Europe.

We walked up to Barrio Alto, which is literally what its name means Barrio Alto=High Neighborhood, and its literally a neighborhood on the top of a hill in the city.  But from there we could see out over the port and the city.  Its surprising how much Lisbon looks like San Fransisco.. its built on hills and is definitely a city, but still has lots of greenery, and it also has the same type of cute colored buildings everywhere.  After the tour it was time for dinner and the girls and I went back to Barrio Alto to find something tasty.

When we got back to the hotel we decided to go out and explore the nightlife a bit, so we got a little bit glamorous and first made our way to the roof of the hotel where there was a bar, and then headed out on the town around one.  What we weren't expecting was Cadiz Carnival round two (except less gross and minus the costumes.)  Everyone was in the streets and we literally had to hold hands to walk through the crowd and not get separated.  Overall it was a pretty good night except for the fact that someones camera got stolen. boo. but we went to a reggaeton bar!

Picture of the day 1: View from Barrio Alto

Picture of the day 2: Another reason it looks like San Fran.. its got cable cars

Picture of the day 3: dinner with the girlies

Day Eighty-One

Already Thursday?? that means that two papers were due.. and I had to pack for Lisbon.. and I had to clean my room.  Well I didn't have to. but I did. After class I went to get ice cream at a place called Rayas which is the best ice cream in Sevilla.  And thats not just my opinion. its a true statement, its in tour books.  But the funny part is that we just ran into it accidentally one day and found out later that its a little bit famous.

Then it was home to do homework, pack and clean.  Did I go to bed until 4 am? not so much.

Picture of the day: I cleaned off my desk (mostly) and stood all my cards and things up so that I can look at them every day!

Day Eighty

Wednesday = Presentation number two. It was all advice about traveling in Europe, and was pretty entertaining if I do say so myself.  Thats basically it for today..

Picture of the day: I got new shoes! this is only exciting because I rarely buy things for myself here (apart from food and traveling) so I'm excited.

Day Seventy-Nine

Tuesday = Presentation number one. done and done. it was for psychology of learning a second language and about the different kinds of motivation people have. pretty sweet.  So after class today Hannah and I went to buy some bus tickets and low and behold we found orks. They were just hanging out at the bus station... on roller skates.. so clearly it was necessary to take a picture with them.. We're still not sure what exactly their purpose was, but they were pretty nice guys.

Picture of the day: ORKS!! (well thats what I decided they were.)

Day Seventy-Eight

Monday's are killer. I have to get up at o'dark thirty to go to the school where I help serve breakfast, which is particularly hard when you get home at one am from Mallorca.  BUT on the bright side, I made it through.  This week is super hectic though which explains the picture below.  I've got two presentations, and two papers to write all before Thursday. Bad plan.

Picture of the day: although I didn't actually take this picture, I am using it in one of my presentations for this week about motivation.  Which is exactly what I need right now.  Its reached the point in the semester where no one wants to do anything, and all the assignments are starting to pile up because finals are rapidly approaching.

Day Seventy-Seven

Sunday oh Sunday.. time to go home.. After checking out of the hotel we made a small habitat in a nearby cafe and stayed there for the majority of the day. We thought about going to the beach, but when we got up this morning it was a bit drizzley outside.. so that was a no go. Instead we shopped for souvenirs and ate treats and eventually headed to the airport back to Sevilla.

Picture of the day 1: just chillin outisde the grocery store with all of our luggage

Picture of the day 2: best market/grocery store ever.

Day Seventy-Six

Today was essentially a repeat of yesterday.  We slept in and then went to the beach. Today however we went to our cute cove! I mean, who doesn't love a cove? there were some topless women there.. but what can you do?

We played in the water, Gabby built a "shelter," Hannah tried to kill the shelter, Carol got things thrown at her constantly, and I caught in the middle of the chaos.  Good times.

We went back and ate our pasta for dinner again and then got ready to go out to the tiny bar across the street.  The bar consisted of one scottish man that owns it, his daughter who was the bartender for most of the night, an elderly couple, and a drunk man playing pool who was convinced that basketball was fútbol, and us.  Despite these odds, we had a blast playing games and watching who wants to be a millionaire.. the british mothers day edition.

Picture of the day 1: view of our cove from within

Picture of the day 2: it was chilly.. but definitely worth it

Picture of the day 3: Gabby with her "shelter".. yeah she's an engineering major.. and Hannah plotting in the background

Picture of the day 4: Scottish pub.. in Mallorca..?

Day Seventy-Five

Since we had absolutely no plans for this weekend/trip we decided it would be nice to sleep in a bit and then just head to the beach. So thats exactly what we did.  We leisurely got ready and got to the beach at about one.  We spend all afternoon just lounging around in the sand, and playing in the water (which wasn't quite warm enough to be playing in yet).

Mallorca is beautiful.  The water is so clear that I could see each and every one of my toes when I was in waist deep water, it sparkles wonderfully in the sun, and looks just like paradise.  Probably because it is.  We found a great little cove right next to our hotel, but decided to save that one for tomorrow and headed to the regular beach instead.

After we got home from the beach we went to the grocery store and bought pasta and dinner makings instead of going out to dinner.  It was SO nice to make our own food for once. Not that I don't love living with Dioni, who does everything for me, but its definitely strange. I'm starting to miss doing things like the dishes.. and when and what I want to eat.  The culture in Spain is just so drastically different than the US that sometimes it still throws me for a loop. Like the fact that "kids" live with their parents until they are about thirty, the average age for a first job is 25, and its not uncommon for their moms to do their laundry, cook for them, and clean their rooms until they move out.

Anyway, we made our own dinner, had a small party in our hotel room in the process and watched movies! very successful day!

Picture of the day 1: The cove next to our hotel!

Picture of the day 2: 

"what are you going to swim in?"

"my duh-duh duh-duh"

"your what..?"

"my DUH-DUH DUH-DUH"

-Blue Crush (my inspiration in this picture.)

Picture of the day 3: Dinner party for four

Day Seventy-Four

Off to Mallorca Paradise!  well.. after classes that is. but you know.. who really does class here.  We headed out of the Sevilla airport and arrived in Palma, Mallorca at about eleven at night and headed to our hotel.

When we reserved our hotel about a month ago it was 30 euros a night (total, not per person) for a 1-3 person room (but we snuck an extra person in.. shh. dont tell.) And when we checked the price yesterday just for kicks and giggles it was about 150 euros per night.  When we got there, what we got was definitely WAY more than we had expected. We were at a legit hotel/almost resort. Our room had a small kitchen with a fridge, stove, and fully equipped with everything we needed to cook.  It also had a sea view. Like I said. Legit.  It was about a five minute walk to the actual beach, and we were about 50 feet from the nearest market.

When we got into the hotel, we ate snacks, had some drinks, and watched Despicable Me (aka. best movie ever.)

Picture of the day: This is what happens when you're bag doesn't fit in the Ryan air box.  Sometimes it is necessary to put on all of the clothes in your bag in order to make it fit.  Hannah was kind enough to demonstrate this process.  (note the pajama pants over her jeans)  Once we actually witnessed a girl get on the plane wearing pants, pajama pants, a skirt, and about seven shirts (no exaggeration) 

Day Seventy-Three

Interest group cooking class today! Part of our program is to be in an "interest group" which is basically a group of about twenty to twenty five students that do activities and whatnot, so tonight we had a cooking party and learned how to make Tortilla Española! it was delicious.  We also made a lot of other things but nothing quite as interesting as tortilla.

Picture of the day 1: The cooking process. The students actually didn't get to cook, we just cut potatoes and watched 

Picture of the day 2:  We did however get to partake in the feast!

Day Seventy-Two

After a long day in the airport yesterday, today was a very long Tuesday.. basically class and homework all day long.  literally.  However since I found my shortcut between schools, I now walk past the pretty side of the Cathedral everyday and I get constantly reminded that I am legitimately in Spain. Wow.

Picture of the day: walk home from school. Cathedral Style.

Day Seventy-One

So after taking a tylenol pm we ended up spending then night in a Pastaria (not to be confused with a Pasteleria) and then having to move at 6 am to the most uncomfortable benches known to man and sleeping (or attempting to) until about noon.  When we finally got up the countdown really began.  When 6:55 finally rolled around we got on the plane (late as usual) and were on our way home.

When I got home however, Dioni was all concernicus because apparently some man had called her neighbor and told her that I wasn't coming home but that neither Dioni or her neighbor knew who the man was and what had happened.  SO apparently this wierdo guy never even told the neighbor who he was and why in the world he knew we were stuck in Barcelona. good going pal.

Picture of the day 1: our makeshift habitat in the Pastaria

Picture of the day 2: Peace out Barcelona!

Day Seventy

Today we headed out bright and early, so we could get back to the hostel by four, when we had to pick our bags up from the hold closet.  So we grabbed our bocadillos and went to Olympic stadium.. well we tried to. We couldn't actually get in, so instead we ended up hiking up a promising looking mountain.  When we got to the top, we realized we could look out over the entire city, and the sea, and that is where we plopped down to eat our bocadillos. At the top of a cliff, under a gorgeous blue sky, looking out over the mediterranean sea. does it get any better?  


After our bocadillos, we headed towards the Castle that just happened to be at the top of this mountain also. I dont know when it was built, or what it was even used for.. but it was legit.


We headed back down the mountain to pick up our suitcases and go to the beach before our flight out in the evening.  It took us forever to get to the beach.. because as we found out when we got to Barcelona, the beach situation here is not normal. Its like they carved out the beach to make the port, so the beach is actually on a jetty in the middle of the water surrounding the port? Strange I know. But a bit of a jaunt later we got there and put our feet in the sand.. and the water!  I always expected the water to be warm.. yeah not so much. At least not yet. It was almost Pacific Ocean status.. well... not quite. but it was chillytastic.


Then we left to go the airport.  This is where the problems started. We read our tickets wrong. They said our flight was at 18:55.. but instead of reading 6:55pm.. we read it as 8:55pm.. FALSE. SOO we missed our plane.  From there we had two choices 

1. Change the flight to Monday morning at 6am for 90 euro (like 130 dollars)
2. Miss class and change the flight to Monday night at 6:55 for 15 euro

So peace out Luis (our writing teacher) because there was no way we were paying 90 euro just to get home in time for class.  So 15 euro later.. we had to stay in Barcelona, or more correctly the Barcelona airport for 22 consecutive hours.  Technically we could have left, this is true.. however, we both had our suitcases, and we had no where to go.. so through security we went.  

The other problem was that I couldn't get ahold of my Señora Dioni to tell her that I wouldn't be coming home and not to worry, because the phone number that I had didn't work.  SO we tried calling the CIEE emergency number.. it didn't work.  Here's a question. Why is there an emergency number if it doesnt actually work? Is that going to help the emergency? no. I think not.  When we finally got ahold of CIEE we couldn't understand them (much harder to speak a second language when in crisis!) but we told them about the airport situation and about Dioni and asked if they could give me the phone number they had to call Dioni. They gave me two numers. The first one I called worked perfectly fine.. except it wasn't the right phone number. The second phone number was my cell phone.  After about half an hour of the man on the other end of the line (who's name we still dont know) struggling and trying to figure out where I live and why none of the phone numbers worked, he creepily somehow got ahold of Dioni's neighbor.. and told her to go tell Dioni that I wasn't coming home for the night.

Oh, and while sitting in the airport, I found a camera. Not just any camera.. but a nice one and all of its accessories.. probably over $1500 dollars worth of camera.. SO I sat and babysat it until someone called for it.

Picture of the day 1: view from the steps of some sort of palace/museum?

Picture of the day 2: is this where we ate our lunch? why yes. yes it is.

Picture of the day 3: Beach at last!!

Picture of the day 4: babysitting.

Day Sixty-Nine

So we made it down to breakfast today.. which consisted of creepy little pre packaged toast.. the sweetest apple juice I've ever tasted (not in a good way.) and a little ...muffin?  strange.


BUT It could always be worse.

The first thing on the agenda was the Picasso Museum, so after wandering down past the street vendors once again, that is where we headed.  It was an awesome little museum, in the middle of the city, but not in a giant building that stuck out like a sore thumb, it was just part of a neighborhood, and had a little courtyard and was made of stone, very nice.  It was strange though because whenever I think of Picasso, the very first thing that pops into my mind is Guernica, and abstract everything. However, as we learned, the majority of his art was actually not abstract or cubist, he only started those towards the very end of his life/career.

After Picasso, we went up to Park Guell (Also Gaudí).  There are really no words to describe what Park Guell is.. its basically just a big park on the top of a mountain in the city (no. really. we had to take escalators that were in the road because they were so steep), that was designed by Gaudí and at one point was supposed to be a little community, but that never ended up happening. Either way, its full of crazy things like gingerbread looking houses, and curvy benches around a little plaza type area, and EVERYTHING is a mosaic. I think the mosaic aspect is what impresses me the most. If you could see how much tiny broken pieces of color are all over this park, it is absolutely amazing. I cant even imagine how long it took to put it all together.

Park Guell took up a large chunk of time, so we headed home to change clothes (we have to change at night because it is still chilly at night, but hot during the day) and then tried to go to a magic fountain light show.. BUT the website lies, and it was over by the time we got there. SO instead we made an adventure out of it. We saw a giant circular building, and there was noise coming from its roof, but all the downstairs doors were locked, so what did we do? we found the outside stairs and climbed to the roof of this unknown building.  When we got to the top we still had no idea what it was, but there were people wandering around, so it had to have been something good.  We finally found a way inside, and realized that it was some sort of giant weird mall, so we explored! Then we headed home for our last night in Barcelona

Picture of the day 1: oh you know.. just riding the escalator.. up the road.

Picture of the day 2: Park Guell from above, those are all the curvy benches, and when you look at the front of them, they are completely covered in mosaics

Picture of the day 3: is he a lizard? is he a dinosaur? I dont know. but he's famous.

Picture of the day 4: Main entrance to Park Guell

Day Sixty-Eight

Today was the first day I've slept in in ages!  We missed breakfast downstairs in our hostel.. but thats alright because the extra hour of sleep was well worth it.

We got up and ready and headed out.  First we walked down La Rambla towards the water. (Fun fact: if you ask someone which direction "the water" is, they get really confused.. because apparently they dont the word water with the sea) La Rambla is basically a giant popular street in the heart of Barcelona that has millions of street vendors, performers, restaurants, and lots more.  When we reached the end of it, we caught our first glimpse of the Mediterranean sea! (well from ground level.)  Then we backtracked a bit and went into the Mercat de St. Joseph. It was quite overwhelming in there.. its a giant farmers market type place but there are so many people in it that you can't help but bump into everyone all the time.  We ended up wandering around and eventually buying some cute chocolates from a local place's booth.

Once we headed out of the market, something exciting happened! We were just walking around looking at the vendors and performers minding our own business, when we paused to watch about five men doing acrobatics.. THEN all of the sudden we got lured into the middle of the circle by the performers (along with two other people) and were told to stand in a very straight line all together, tilt our heads to the left, and put our arms out.. then one man proceeded to do a running, flying, death defying leap over the heads of all four of us!  They called it "La gran salta de muerte" translated that means "The great jump of death"  It was a blast, and is definitely a great story to tell.. I just wish that I could have actually seen it happen.. the only view I got was of a guy in an orange shirt flying and landing in front of me.

So after that great burst of excitement, we were once again on our way, this time with a mission.  We headed up towards the Gaudi apartments.  If you don't know who Gaudí is (I didn't before coming here) you're missing out.. he was an artist who designed a ton of stuff in Barcelona, and was a large theme in this trip.  The apartments look like waves, or caves, or something.. but their awesome.. and apparently the balconies are supposed to look like the jaws of some creature??

Next was La Sagrada Familia (also Gaudí).  It is a giant SUPER intricate cathedral/basillica that was started in 1882 and still isn't finished being built (I think its supposed to be done sometime around 2026 or something... Anyway, It is massive, and beautiful, and strange.. most everything created by Gaudí is a bit strange, and yet way cooler than most other things. We didn't go inside La Sagrada Familia, but that is definitely on the itinerary for when mom and Heather come to visit!

After La Sagrada Familia, we headed home to our hostel. We wandered past an Arc de Triumf, through a gorgeous park, past the zoo, and saw a couple taking their wedding pictures.  We stopped off at the hostel to change clothes and then went on a mission to find some good paella for dinner... We got seriously ripped off on the paella.. but it was definitely delicious!

Picture of the day 1: First view of the Mediterranean!

Picture of the day 2: These would be the street acrobats that pulled us into their trick. The one in the orange jumped us.

Picture of the day 3: Gaudí apartments

Picture of the day 4: La Sagrada Familia. Its too big to get a picture of it from the top to bottom.. so this will have to do

Day Sixty-Seven

Last midterm, done and done.

and now.. on to Barcelona!

We left our last class a few minutes early in order to run to the bus to get to the airport because our plane was supposed to leave at eight thirty.. However, it was delayed (big surprise there) so we didn't leave until about nine thirty.  We arrived in Barcelona at about eleven and got to the hostel without any problems!  Then we were off to bed to rest up for the next few days!

Sine my plane was delayed today, I feel it is a good time to explain a few things about traveling in Europe. Its chaos.  Planes rarely leave on time, the airports don't post the gate number until about 15 minutes before your plane is scheduled to leave, they make you put your bag in the sizer box about 17 times before you get on the plane, a line begins to form at the departure gate as soon the gate is posted, why do they line up you may ask? its because theres no assigned seating on the planes so its a giant free for all... and then they wonder why they are always running late..

Picture of the day 1: aaannnndddd this is what we call the box struggle.  I'm serious when I say they make you put your bag in the box EVERY single time you get on the plane, and often more than once.

Picture of the day 2: This one is solely for entertainment.  In order to pass the time, Hannah and I tend to make up our own safety instructions on the plane.. seeing as the pictures to the safety instructions are incredibly funny.. 

FOR EXAMPLE: see the three crossed out circles in the bottom left corner? inside those circles are 1. dentures 2. high heels. and 3. glasses 4. jewelry... these are things you are supposed to leave behind?!!

Exhibit B: see the yellow door with the guy looking through the window at fire? the story here goes "if you happen to see fire outside of your window on the plane, please refrain from exiting that window.. choose a different one.."  well.. here's your sign.

Day Sixty-Six

Midterms are almost over!! one tomorrow and a few papers to do and wah lah! So basically today consisted of studying for Literatura y Ciudad: El Caso de Sevilla.. its super fun..

I also found a new secret path from my school to the real university. tricky!

Picture of the day:  Apparently here in Sevilla it is protest season.. I swear everywhere I go there is someone protesting something, with signs, or music, which is all good and well until the most obnoxious of all.. horns. I don't know what these people are protesting, but they are so annoying that I am against it. SO this picture is just one of the daily protests 

Day Sixty-Five

Class class class bocadillo.. oh yeah. and class. That is all that exists on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Picture of the day:  this is actually from yesterday, but Its the view of the sunset from my bedroom window and I love it.

Day Sixty-Four

Monday oh monday.  Hannah and I went to volunteer at a school this morning making kids breakfast.. which is always an interesting experience seeing as we cant understand a word they say.  These kids are mostly a Gitano (Gypsy) Portuguese mix.. which means that they often speak some sort of hybrid spanish-gypsy-portugese language at a million miles and hour leaving it impossible to decipher.  I went home and took a small siesta before heading to class, and spend the afternoon lazing.. something that I havent done in quite a long time!

Picture of the day: Finally got a picture of my host family! Antonio, Dioni, and their daughter Maria (who doesn't live with us, but comes to lunch on Mondays)

Day Sixty-Three

Bright and early morning to catch our bus to the airport.  And just like that (well minus the fact that they confiscated my toothpaste.) we were on the plane and out of  Ireland, on our way back to Sevilla.  We flew back into Faro aka the devil airport, luckily we didn't have to go back through security or anything this time, just though customs and back to our dodgy bus sign.

This time however, it was about one in the afternoon.  It was sunny and gorgeous, and we realized that right behind our scary bus sign that turned out to have an associated station (it was just closed when we were there before) was about twenty feet from the beach.  This time we got out of the cab looking straight into an adorable harbor filled with boats, and blue sky and waves along the beach.

We got on the bus at 2pm and rode the three or so hours home and got back at 6 (there is a time change) and when we arrived back in Sevilla it was still sunny and bright outside and the riverside was packed with people.

The day was completed by drinking a mango smoothie and planning next weekends trip with Hannah.

Picture of the day: A much nicer view of Faro than our first impression

Day Sixty-Two

First thing on the agenda was to buy tickets to tour the Dublin Castle, so right after breakfast we ran over to pick our time (our hostel was about three blocks away).  Then we wandered to Trinity to College, and down a few streets just exploring.  We headed back to the Castle at 1:40 for our tour which was amazing. We walked through a large part of the castle, but its still used as a government building so there were secret parts we werent allowed to see. Apparently the castle used to have a moat and everything. AND

Fun Fact: the castle was the only one that was never conquered because the only way to get into it to conquer it was through a tiny two-ish foot wide staircase that was SUPER steep and at the top you had to give a password to the door, and if the person at the top didn't like your password they would throw the door open which opened towards the stairs so that it hit the person on the stairs and knocked them all the way down the stairs. and let me tell you that I saw those stairs.. and if you fell down them, there's no getting up again.

After the castle we grabbed some lunch and headed to the Guinness Factory!  We walked through the factory and learned how the beer was made and tasted some samples and then got to to up to the Gravity Bar which is a round bar seven stories up, and look out over the city!

Finally it was time to head out and find some dinner, which was easy enough, followed by a scoop of honeycomb and a scoop of sea salt ice cream. delish!!

DUN DUN DUN Irish Pub time.

It was so much fun I words cant even describe it!  Every single person in that pub was just excited to be there, not to mention the live music that included guitar, fiddle, some sort of electric bagpipe, and multiple types of flutes (?) I'll attach videos so you can pretend you were there too.

Picture of the day: Guinness! Fun fact: Arthur Guinness signed a 9000 year lease in 1759.. so it won't be running out anytime soon.

Video 1:

Video 2:

Video 3:

(Video's coming soon when my internet will cooperate to upload them)

Day Sixty-One

Well we made it through the night in the airport, which I consider a success.  Our flight was at 6:30am and since we spent the night in the airport we got up at about 5:30 to head through security.  So continuing with the strangeness of this already dodgy airport, the security here was unlike anything I've ever encountered.

As usual we were required to take out/off any laptops, liquids, boots, and coats however, upon reaching the front of the line (already completely dismantled and prepared to go through the line), the security woman informs us that we have the "wrong" kind of plastic ziplock bag.  I was unaware that there was a "wrong" kind of plastic bag to put my shampoo in.. but according to them my regular gallon size ziplock bag that I've used for ALL of my other flights is not going to work.  Instead they insist that we go buy the special plastic bags from the little store.  SO while Chiarra went to buy the plastic bags I continued through security with all of our stuff.

The reason that this plastic bag fiasco is entertaining is the fact that there are two girls in line in front of us that have the same problem, but are seriously struggling.  They get scolded for not having the right type, then return after buying the right ones, and then are told on the other end of security that they are only allowed one little bag per person.  This presents a drama because the bags are about sandwich sized.. and the girls had way too much stuff to fit and because of this the security guard was literally holding their lotions and potions hostage.  He wouldn't even let them touch their things to choose which ones they wanted to take with them, and just kept yelling "NO ONLY ONE BAG PER PERSON.. NO THAT CANT FIT.. NO YOU CANT SWITCH, THAT ONE WON'T FIT, NO, NO, NO!"  I was fairly certain a brawl was about to break out.

Finally we made it to our plane, where we met a nice Irish woman named Sheila, who (like us) was complaining about the "uneducated little trolls that are given security badges and told they have power"  and who just happens to be the Director at Yellowstone Communications Design in Dublin (we'll return to her later)

Three hours later we reached Dublin!!

We dropped off our stuff and began our journey.  Mostly we just wandered the city, we walked past the Dublin Castle, and St. Patricks Cathedral which we actually went in and was gorgeous, although hard to completely appreciate due to the fact that we've been in the Sevilla Cathedral which is hands down the most amazing cathedral I've ever seen.

Then we headed towards the river and the O2 Convention Center. This is where we return to Sheila.  This morning, she told us that her company had bought about twelve tickets to a large cultural event for tonight, and two of the tickets (about 20 euros each) were never claimed and that if we wanted she would leave them at the call desk for us, so of course we took her up on this offer.  Although we were unsure what we were getting into, we didn't have any other plans and figured that it would be a cool experience.  Little did we know that this event called Dublin Swell was one of the largest cultural events in Ireland..  no.. seriously.. the President of Ireland was there.  It was just a four hour mash up of famous Irish singers, poets, and writers doing their thing. A-MA-ZING.

Then it was home to get some sleep for the next adventure!

Picture of the day 1: beautiful St. Patricks Cathedral

Picture of the day 2: The O2 Convention Center where Dublin Swell was held