Southern Spain...

Niki and I managed Madrid and Barcelona on our own but thought it would be nice to take a guided tour of southern Spain so we could relax and let someone else do the planning. Of course we hoped that the group would be young, lively and fun (like us!) but not so much. Don’t get me wrong, we loved the Australian family and the two Australian women who left their hubbies at home to travel for three weeks (Niki and I in 20 years) but the group wasn’t exactly a bunch of 20’somethings out on an adventure.

Aña – our tour guide was too cute! She would always say “Hello Beauties” when we hopped on the bus and ask us if we were going to the discos today? She must have thought we’d been partying a lot because every time we rode on the bus we both crashed the entire ride! What can I say cars make me sleepy!

Our first stop was La Mezquita mosque in Córdoba. It was built in AD 784 and is an amazing place – inside there are 850 columns supporting the arches. Later a Christian chapel was built in the mosque and caused a big stir. It’s hard to believe something this gigantic and intricate was built thousands of years ago.

Next stop Seville (Sevilla)

After dinner Niki and I set out in search of Sangria! We didn’t make it very far before we spotted a park. You know me and parks - there is no waiting we had to go straight there. It was pretty, small, and not very complex. It ran along the main road of town and had a large fountain in the middle. When we reached the other side we had gone completely the opposite direction of our original destination so we just kept walking. Pretty soon we were passing restaurants and shops then we rounded a corner to see a beautiful round fountain next to a tram rail and it was gorgeous in the evening lights. Seville is a very charming and romantic little city that we both loved.

Wow, by now we are glad we ventured out and didn’t crash right when we got to our hotel. The best was still around the next corner though and we had no idea.

I’ve found this to be one of the best parts of traveling, you don’t want to be overly prepared and know everything about a town before you get there because it takes some of the fun of the surprise out of nights like this! We snapped a few pics and started down the main shopping street.

The streets of Sevilla -

It couldn’t have been 30 seconds before we both realized we were walking towards the 3rd largest cathedral (its named Catedral – original I know) in the world! OMG, it was amazing! The next day we toured the cathedral with audio guides (we love those things!) and learned all about the 44 chapels and Christopher Columbus’s tomb which is held there. They finally have DNA evidence to prove this!

Niki finding our way home... :)

Christopher Columbus's Tomb

View from the top of the cathedral!

The Amazing Alcázar gardens! – Seville, Spain

The audio guides were all out when we reached the Alcázar which was a bummer since we missed some of the cool history that goes along with the oldest European palace…but I didn’t mind because who cares when you have gardens like they did. I would have just lived outside. I have to say the Jardines de los Reales Alcázares might be the most beautiful gardens I’ve ever seen. I’m having a hard time on this trip picking my favorite garden because they are all simply unreal! Inside the palace walls the garden held fountains with ducks afloat, gardens with peacocks roaming, painters standing with their easels painting the amazing scenery as tourist ooh’ed and ahh’ed at its beauty. I was in heaven once again and we stayed for a long time just taking it all in.

Pics of the Alcázar gardens so you can see what I mean!!

Last stop on our southern tour – Granada!

We went straight to the Alhambra, there is an age old saying about the Alhambra “Si mueres sin ver la Alhambra, no has vivido.” (If you die without seeing the Alhambra, you have not lived.) I am here to assure you that in fact you will be ok if you aren’t lucky enough to see the Alhambra with your own eyes…here are some pics.

I actually didn’t get to see inside the Alhambra myself because our lovely tour guide didn’t check the tickets before hand and we were 4 minutes late for our scheduled tour. They are very strict here and turned away over 20 of us without a second thought.

Needless to say, we were all thrilled with Carlos or whatever his name was as he showed us around the gardens and the Alcazaba (fortress) where we climbed up the Torre de la Vela (watchtower) for an amazing view of Granada and rang the bell (which apparently will bring along a nice guy to sweep me off my feet, or that’s what I heard anyway).

That night we could have gone back and gotten the inside tour but we heard it wasn’t that great anyway so we joined our group for a tour of the Albacín and for an authentic flamenco show! Besides the fact the Costa Rican girl on the tour had to translate our tour guides English it was really cool. We got to see the Alcazaba at night which was amazing!

The flamenco show was really fun, by now we were buddies with a bunch of people on our tour and we crammed in a tiny cave to watch them dance. These women were amazing and must have very strong legs!

That was the end of the tour for us and the next day Niki and I jumped on a flight to Barcelona to finish out our Spanish Adventure!!

A couple random last pics from Granada...

One of the reasons I love Europe so much is because they are ridiculously energy efficient! In our first hotel room we couldn't figure out how to turn on the lights...Aña said don't you have your room key? yes?? You just put it in the slot! No one can ever leave the lights on here..all power turns off in your room until you put the key back in!

Me and an enormous door at one of the churches we visited!

Spanish Cuisine

I am Ashley, lover of fresh fruit, vegetables, whole wheat bread, banana pancakes, kashi cereal, gelato, PB&Js are my staple, and I don’t eat much meat. My first taste of Spanish food (which I know is not the same as Mexican but I must admit I still had hope it would have some of my favs, beans etc.) was interesting. It was really fun because of the great company, George and Marisa – new friends I was introduced to before I arrived in Spain, they we very gracious hosts who took me to different places around Madrid and ordered different dishes and drinks at each place. Thank goodness they did the ordering since I couldn’t read the menus! Tapas sounded like a great thing but it turned out that many of them were fried…not my thing. I tried everything and sampled different dishes along the way. Turns out my favorite Spanish food was the tortilla. A tortilla in Spain is simply an omelet! They have Spanish omelets (potato and ham) or French omelets (plain).

I enjoyed many jamón bocadillos (ham sandwiches) the sandwiches in Europe are much better than the States for some reason…


and countless café con leches throughout the trip! Niki and I must have stopped for café at least once a day! It was a great time to rest and pick our next destination.

Barcelona has a famous market – La Boqueria (Mercat de Sant Josep) Oh My God! It was amazing! The colors alone when you walk in are too die for. In every direction all you see in luscious ripe fruits, delectable veggies and even I checked out the amazing meats! I was in heaven! I was leaving for Germany so I couldn’t buy anything but I had one of the yummy pre-

cut fruit packages to go!

My favorite meal in Spain was actually at a Pan Asian place WagaBoo in Madrid! George and Marisa took us; it was in a great shopping area and reminded me of a trendy place you’d see in NYC. The food was delicious, they made the pasta upstairs from scratch and you could watch them stretch the dough through the glass! The prices were great too! Overall I loved Spain and would move there in a second! I might even take up eating fried food to stay in España!

Us having tapas on Easter after a day shopping on el Rastro (a huge flea market in Madrid)

Never Trust Your Itinerary - the Joys of Travel

Does it make me a terrible person to say that the thing I miss most on this trip is my iPone? Ok, so I miss my family and my friends too; but, thankfully two of my best friends were able to join me on different parts of the trip and I’m planning to see a few more, plus with the internet it’s like I never left. So that just leaves the trusty iPhone. But actually I don’t really even miss that anymore…it’s nice to be out of touch and doing whatever you feel like everyday without having to ask/tell anyone! And that is exactly what I’ve been doing!

Let’s go back to the beginning of the trip – Niki and I were both scheduled to arrive from the States around 8:15 am March 20, 2008. I was delayed a few hours, no shock there, I was on Continental Airlines through Newark, NJ on a rainy day. When I arrived I collected my enormous bag – on a side note - I had been worried about my bag being overweight before the trip and it was of course. They were really nice to me at the counter when I tried to remove as many granola bars, 1.5 pairs of shoes, and a book from my bag to get closer to 50 lbs. I think the trick is to try to get your bag to down to the right weight in front of them and if you are still over they pretty much always let you go! This worked again already on this trip because of course I was over by 6.5 kilos in the Barcelona airport but after trying to lighten my load he let me pass too!

Likely the reason I can't get my bag down to the allowed weight - a girl needs her shoes!

I took my bag and assuming Niki was already waiting for me at the hotel or somewhere in Madrid, looked around just incase and headed out of baggage claim. I found a board listing all the Arrivals and realized Niki wouldn’t be there since she wasn’t scheduled to land for another 5 hours?!?! What? I talked to her 4 hours before I took off and she was already on her plane…she never called to say they were delayed. This was very strange but since it was so going to be a while I made my way to the hotel alone.

To get from the Madrid airport to the main part of the city where we were staying I had to take 3 subways...ahh, this meant I had to transfer a few times carrying my 52 pound bag, a 20 pound backpack, a big coat, and a purse. Not fun. Thankfully, at the second station when I was struggling pretty badly a security worker at the Metro saw me and came to my rescue. He helped me up about 4 flights of stairs/escalators. After a while he turned right towards a long escalator and I went left following signs to the #1 Metro line. I told him Gracias, gracias… I was so thankful and turned the corner alone. I didn’t get far before I stopped dead in my tracks and looked down in horror…two steep flights down to the platform. No one in sight I started to un-wrap my backpack from the top of the suitcase and pick up my long black coat. All of the sudden my friend from before was back, he must have realized just as he was about to go up that I was going to be in trouble when I turned that corner. You have no idea how thankful I was to see him back to help me on the final stretch; I only hope that he knew how thankful I was by the look of relief on my face. I made it the rest of the way no problems and checked in at the hotel.

I took my time getting settled in and freshening up from the long overnight flight. Still thinking I only had a few hours before she would arrive I got out my new Madrid map and with the closest green section in mind headed out the door.

A few hours passed, I had lunch in Plaza de Espaňa and walked around but checked in at the hotel around 2:30 then 4:00 and finally I gave in and pulled out my European cell. I didn’t know how to make calls yet but text my little sis to check the flight for me. I waited, missed her call because I didn’t know what my ringer sounded like, typical, then got a text she lands at 9:30 pm. WHAT?!?!? How can this be, she was on the plane in Atlanta at 6:45 pm on Thursday. This is crazy, I text back call me again. When Bri calls she tells me that Niki’s flight was diverted to St. John, New Foundland (I think). I’ve never even heard of this city before. The website just said it’s been diverted and should land tonight at 9:30 pm, keep in mind this is 13 hours past her scheduled arrival time.

Wow, I hope she’s ok and decide I can stop waiting around for her and start enjoying my first visit to SPAIN! I actually love it here already! I can’t help myself. Madrid has this inviting feeling and there are people all over, lots of tourists but it’s not too crowded and there are flowers blooming all around. People have balconies filled with colorful flower pots and then I see in the distance….GREEN! Lots of it.

I am not using my map, just wandering now. The amazing gardens in Europe are one of my favorite things and this park, that was drawing me in, is up there on the top of my list. It was Jardines de Sabatini next to the also gorgeous Palacio Real and Catedral de Ntra. Sra de la Almudena (that’s a mouthful). I stayed in the park a while taking it all in - there were couples loving on each other, toursist (like me) taking loads of pictures, families, and lots of people with their dogs. It was amazing and the sun was setting which gave it this dreamlike glow between the tall hedges and mazes which decorated the landscape.

P.S. Niki finally arrived that night and was in at the hotel when I got in from dinner with my new friends, George and Marisa!

Tales from SPAIN...Let´s Start at the End (or what was suppose to be).

So it turns out Europe changed the clocks last night at 2am.

Too bad that, although we were still out, they don’t exactly announce this at the discos (even if they did...it’d be in SPANISH!!). Needless to say after a night of clubbing in Barcelona with Niki and all of our newest friends, I missed my flight to Frankfurt. The worst part is, I had nothing to do today so I just walked around town. However, I did get to enjoy one last day and it was absolutely gorgeous outside, it was cloudy our whole Barcelona stay.

When I arrived at the airport, with my 70 plus pounds of luggage, I waited in a few long lines only to find out that instead of still having 1 hour and 15 minutes until my flight, it was closed and boarded. Nice. Well, our tour guide did tell us in Sevilla that “tourism is not mathematics, and sometimes 2 + 2 = 5" she was very right about that. Not terribly upset though, thankfully it has been such a great trip so far that nothing could ruin it and I still love Spain just as much.

The airlines here do things differently than in the states. I am quite the frequent flier these days but I wasn’t good enough to get myself anywhere today. I was able to get there tomorrow for free though, which turns out was quite the accomplishment. One woman told me they couldn’t get me there until April 1st (still 2 days away) and it would cost me an extra €162 Euros (aka about $235), yikes. I threw on the Ashter charm for the next airline I tried and was able to get on a flight tomorrow for free.

Phew, Niki’s book is right. It’s always better to love everyone and treat them all with your best because you’ll get a lot farther in life. I know this from lots of experience. I’ve managed to get very lucky many times and know it will continue. It’s not that only some people are lucky, it’s just that the others don’t ask for it… So I’ll be asking for a little more luck tomorrow and arriving at the airport a few hours early this time, yes I changed my watch.

I´m ready to take on Germany now

** I found out later that Niki also missed her flight back to the States…she stayed at a hostel down the road. Major lack of communication there.

I'm off to Europe and you're all invited!

Yeehaw! This is my first time blogging and I'm really excited about it! Tomorrow is the big day, my parents and adorable (but wild and as full of life as any healthy 4 year old should be) nephew are in Knoxville to see me off. I’ve packed as much as humanly possible into my lime green (of course!) suitcase. I’ve tested it and it shuts…but tomorrow is the true test when they put this baby on the scale. No worries though, that’s what parents are for and they aren’t going to leave the airport until we’re sure I’m getting in –along with all my boots, jackets, books, clothes, and yes, more shoes. Ok so I’ve packed WAY too much and I know it but 7 weeks is a long time and since I’m going to 4-7 countries along the way you just never know. I have a feeling that the last minute black and white pok-a-dot rain boots are going to turn out to be the best pre-trip purchase I made.

Tomorrow after a hefty lay over in my fav US city, NEW YORK! (unfortunately the lay over will still suck) I am meeting Niki in Madrid, Spain at baggage claim. I know it’s risky but we are suppose to arrive only 10 minutes apart so pray that for once the travel industry is running on time and we find each other across the ocean. This should happen around 8:30am Friday March, 21st. As all of you who have traveled in Europe know you have to hit the ground running, no time for naps or resting up. We have 3 short days in Madrid and a million art museums and parks to see. Plus we need hours on end to meet locals and eat tapas at the Spanish Pubs! I’ve been reading up and see that they stay out until 6am in Spain… Niki and I have agreed that we are both grandmas already (at the ripe ages of 24 and 26) so we aren’t quite sure how we are going to fare but I have faith. Like we say … “when in Rome.” Wish us luck and lots of good fortune on our quest to see almost all of Spain in 10 Days!

Our itinerary: Madrid (3days), tour of Cordoba, Seville and Granada (4days), Barcelona (3days). Then I’m off to Germany, hopefully with some great Spanish tales!!

Adios!
Ashter