steal the stars

Day eight - back to the US - 4/24/11

We woke up extremely early. The other schools were from Boston and DC and their flight was three hours before us. Their flight was going to take them to DC. Our flight was going to take us to Miami and then we would have to have a layover then fly to Philly. It was ridiculous and we were so exhausted. We sat in that airport for hours. I have heard that one of the terminals in the Barajas airport is significantly nicer than the other terminals and lucky that was the terminal we were boarding in. First we went to see the other schools off. Can’t say we were too sad about that honestly. Isis (our tour guide throughout the whole experience) took us to our terminal. It really was beautiful and it improved my mood slightly. A few of us were desperately trying to get Senora Condo to find some way to switch flights when we saw there was one to Jersey, and even one directly to Philly. It was Easter and everyone just wanted to go home and be with their families at this point instead of spending it in an airport. Our efforts were shot down. 

We went through security with Isis because she was catching a flight back to Barcelona from the same terminal. Parting with her was so so sad. She was lovely and it really struck me at that point that we were leaving. We were stuck waiting in the airport until like 1pm I believe. (7am EST) We finally boarded the plane. I was fighting sleep really hard because I figured if I stayed up on the entire plane ride, then I would beat jet lag because I’d be so tired when I got home. It worked. I read a book through the whole flight and when I finished that, I watched dinner for schmucks. Maya and I sat together and there was an empty seat in the middle of us so we put down the arm rests and put our legs up. Let me point out that the flight from DC to Madrid was six hours. The flight from Madrid to Miami is nine. We finally get off the damn plane. There is a wall that has ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE LOVE LOVE spelled out in flowers in that walkway where you get off the plane and go into the actual airport. The people who work in the Miami airport are very funny and welcoming so that was pleasant. I forgot I still had a soda in my bag from Madrid and I got pulled aside in security because of it. I remember being paranoid because I forgot that I had the rosemary the gypsy gave me in my bag and I checked off that I wasn’t carrying plants back over to the US with me. I order some cheese fries (which has created a long obsession of cheese fries to this day lol) and we wait for our next plane to come. It was like two hours back to Philly. At this point we are all FED UP of traveling and the plane is felt even smaller than the plane we took from philly to dc even though it wasn’t. I felt so claustrophobic. I kept trying to sleep but I couldn’t. I finally got a window seat and didn’t even really enjoy it. The third narnia is on. By the time we got in the Philly airport I wasn’t even that sad. It had been over 24 hours since I left to begin traveling home and I was ready for my bed again.

The next day, missing Spain kicked in. Lol.

Over all, the trip was amazing. Honestly, I wouldn’t go with that tour company again but it was still so fun and it really did change my life.

Day seven - Madrid again- 4/23/11

We woke up today (it was a struggle) and rushed to get ready and go back to Madrid. Now we are on the bus again until we get to Madrid in like five hours.

(This was the end of my journaling in Spain so the rest of this is coming from memory)

Roberto drove slow as shit so it took us I think eight hours to get back to Madrid, but I think I slept most of the way. We got off the bus and Jess recounted this hilarious story she eavesdropped on on the bus. We went to visit the Prado museum and honestly I don’t enjoy art museums. I think Morgan, Jess and I looked at ten paintings (I just wanted to see las meninas) then went and sat in the cafe. We wasted time in there for like an hour then went outside. We didn’t really see any of our group and I had a lot of money to spend… so we did something we weren’t supposed to do and snuck over across the street where there were little vendors selling stuff. I bought more scarves cause the Spanish scarves are beautiful and I barely bought myself anything there. Then we went back and met the group while I tried to hide my bag. We walked around the city for a bit and went to our final big group dinner. I really wanted to go to topshop but it was closed so we all just kind of stood around and took our last pictures together it was quite sad. I saw men performing Shakespeare in Spanish and walked past it cause I was trying to get to topshop which I already said was closed. I wish I would have stayed and listened to them. We also saw a man playing the guitar and I wish I would have listened to that too.

We took the metro one last time and went to the hotel, which thankfully was a different hotel than the last time we stayed in Madrid because the Chamartin sucked! This hotel was called like high tech hotels or something and it lived up to its name.. There were these really cool showers and laptops in every room. There was one big bed and a bunk bed so I called the top bunk because no one else wanted it. However, there was no railing and I really thought I was gonna fall off lol. So I put the mattress on the floor and slept there.

Day six - Sevilla - 4/22/11

We got to wake up a little later today. We all were extremely happy about this. We went to breakfast and then we went off to see the city. We went to see Seville’s palace. (I know this is a palace definitely and I’m pretty sure the place I talked about in the post prior to this is too, I just don’t remember the names.) This was a very pretty palace. We didn’t go inside though. We left and we were trying to go to a garden but Condo was feeling sick and it started torential downpouring. We told the other schools to go on and we stood and waited for Senora Condo to come back from the bathroom. We stood in the rain for like an hour and yeah it was pretty miserable. So eventually we did was girls do best, sucked it up and went shopping. 

We went to this really delicious chain restaurant called Cafe + Te. I got the best burger I have ever had there. The other schools were going to take the bus with Roberto back to the hotel because they were all going Flamenco dancing. Condo went with them because she wasn’t feeling well but the rest of us stayed behind cause we didn’t pay for the excursion of flamenco dancing. We just shopped and stuff and Jess and I sort of snuck off to try and find this store we saw when we first entered the city that was out of the radius we were supposed to stay in when we all split up. We couldn’t find it and had to turn back and practically run to the meeting spot so we weren’t late. We took the bus provided by the hotel back and chilled until dinner.

That night, Morgan, Katie, Jess, Kelli-ann, Zahara and I played a huge game of capture the flag with pillow cases across the entire hotel. Jess, Morgan and I lost. We decided to go to a dougie dance-a-gram outside of Condo’s room because Maya taught me how to dougie and we were bored. Me and Maya decided to leave after that and go chill in her room while everyone else hung out in Condo’s room. When Morgan and I went back to our room, the Taylors told us that Celina was boozing it up in the piano bar, so me, Morgan and the Taylors went to sit in the lobby outside of the bar and creep on her until she came out. Of course she was the last one to leave  the bar. We snuck up on her (surprisingly she was with our other really shy chaperone, Zahara’s sister Amanda) and she didn’t even get mad at us for creeping because I think she was a little gone hahaha. Then my roomates and I decided to do what we do best and go annoy the shit out of everyone. We kept buzzing the doorbell on Jess’s door, which we pretty much did for the entire stay in that hotel. We would just have doorbell wars. They got mad at us but Jess came over to hang out in our room. We called her mom and Lisa and caught up with them and then we went to sleep when Jess left.

Day five - Sevilla - 4/21/11

As with all of my other posts, this was written in a journal at the end of this night.

We woke up and tried to get showers, but I am pretty sure I broke the shower so we had to call in Celina to fix it. We got ready and then went to breakfast, which we quickly learned in Spain is just breakfast, nothing special. We finished Packing and got our last glimpses of Cordoba before Roberto came to pick us up. Everyone loved Cordoba and we were so sad to leave it, but very excited for Seville.

(I didn’t write about what happened on the bus so I’m guessing it was nothing exciting. I don’t really remember…)

So we get to Seville and literally the first thing that happened was I almost got killed by some crazy in the streets. She came up to me and gave me some rosemary then read my fortune. She wanted five euros for it. This whole conversation went down in Spanish so I was pretty proud of myself…

Gypsy: You have a long life line and you will have three kids. You are very intelligent and will be very successful and happy.

Me (thinking she was just being nice): Oh thank you very much! (starts to walk away)

Gyspy (grabbing my hand and pulling me back): Five euros please.

Me: I don’t have five euros. Sorry (still trying to walk away)

Gypsy: Five Euros.

So I gave her one and she seemed mad about it but I booked it before she could really say anything. We went to Starbucks and I completely misunderstood the barista when she asked for my name. I was just like “si….” and she looked super confused and then when I get my drink I see that it says Zi and I  realize she was asking for my name. So I pretty much felt like an idiot.

We went to another church (Christopher Colombus is buried here) and climbed to the top of the tower in it. It was a pretty rainy day but the views were still lovely. We also went to a palace and saw this old wall (? I really don’t remember this). We went to a bull fighting arena and Morgan and I were pretty much thoroughly grossed out by it. There were bull heads everywhere! It poured as we were walking back to the bus to go to the hotel. The hotel is super nice here. Our room has two floors. Theres like a loft and up there there is a big bed and a bathroom.

We just hung out and roamed the hotel until dinner. We got there and hated the groups from the other schools some more (they all liked  each other and hated us lol) It was Celina’s birthday so we tried to get some candles for her. Jess struggled through a conversation with a spanish man trying to get some candles and he was so so kind about it. He even tried to get us candles with her age on them but they didn’t have any so we got some sparklers. Somehow, we were as slick as humanly possibly and got a desert with lit sparklers over to her without her noticing. I think we had Maya be a distraction. Our group decided to go explore the city at night by ourselves for Celina’s birthday. We took a bus into town. It was POURING and there was a huge thunderstorm but we still had fun. We came back to the hotel and we were SO hungry but there was no food anywhere it sucked. We went and hung out in Condo and Celinas room until they kicked us out. Me and Morgan went back to our room and this time we were rooming with Taylor and Taylor so we pranked called all the bitches from the groups we didn’t like because every room had phones and the Taylors stole the room list from Condo. And we played ding dong ditch on Jess’s room because all the rooms had doorbells too. So entertaining.

Day four - Córdoba - 4/20/11 (PART TWO)

I ran out of room for pictures in the other post so I had to split this one into two!

After regrouping in the hotel, we went to go visit the mosque that is inside a church. This is a really big deal in Cordoba. Basically there was this gorgeous mosque and during the inquisition it was too beautiful to be torn down so to preserve it, they built a church over it. It was so lovely but we were so so tired. I think I briefly fell asleep on a pillar. Then we had a very brief free time.

After this we headed to a restaurant to make tapas. On the way we got caught in a procession, our first one yet. In Spain it was holy week which is huge over there so they have these giant religious parades throughout the cities. It was really cool and I’m not even into religion. We finally got to the tapas making place and it took FOREVER. They only even picked like three people to make tapas so the rest of us were so bored. Me and Maya just sat there and stared at this couple from one of the other schools traveling with us. The food was really good though it came in very small portions!

We were gonna have more free time after this but we got stuck in another procession. We were bummed because we only got one night in Cordoba so we wanted to explore as much as possible! We had to go straight back to the hotel to be on time for dinner. When we got there Celina realized that she needed a new converter to charge things so, being me and not wanting to miss out on an adventure, I volunteered to go with her. So did Maya and Zahara. We walked to the other side of the city where it was like the suburbs kind of and there was a mall. We briefly split up and Zahara, Maya and I were trying to act like we were natives so people didn’t come after us. However, the only phrase any of us could think of was NECESITA COMIDA so lets just say that little plan didn’t work… Then we spotted a real sketchy man, got scared for our lives, and waited anxiously for Celina to meet us at our spot we agreed to meet at. We assumed we missed dinner so we went to the Mcdonalds. By this time we were all kind of missing American food so it was very welcome. Spanish Mcdonalds tastes healthier than our Mcdonalds I have to say. Celina couldn’t get a converter so we began the trek back to the hotel and got stuck in ANOTHER procession. Turns out our group pretty much held up the restaurant to save us dinner so I forced myself to eat out of politeness and I’m glad I did because even though it was cold it was probably the best food I had in Spain. Most of us gathered in me and Morgan’s room and we had a little dance party until we got yelled at for being too loud and had to go to sleep. Morgan and I turned on the tv so there was noise while we slept. Spanish tv is strange but very very nice to fall asleep to.

Day four - Córdoba - 4/20/11 (PART ONE)

Written that night in the hotel!

Today we woke up. Half asleep, we ate some breakfast and then sat on some boring uncomfy bus on 3.5 hours of sleep from the night before. We were about to go on a five hour bus ride. We stopped at Castilla de la Mancha. It was this really adorable little village that just screamed Europe. There was all this Don Quixote stuff. It was really really cute and totally what you would expect of a European village. Then we got back on the bus and drove for a while through the mountains until we saw this area where you can park and go up steps and overlook all the mountains. It was a really great picture spot so we all stopped and took some photos then got in the bus. Let me just say that driving through rural Spain is scary. It feels like you’re about to fall off the mountain. We stopped a little bit later on at a rest stop with really really good Spanish food (I believe I got some type of chicken wing and some Paella but I didn’t write that down). An hour or so later, we arrived in Cordoba and the Roberto (the driver) stopped in the middle of the road to let us get our bags out and caused a lot of anger between the drivers. We went to the hotel and were told that our group was in the hostel part of the hotel. We thought this seemed real sketchy but honestly it was the best hotel yet. We had one of those typical spanish patios in the middle of the building and it was right outside of all our rooms. Me and Morgan got roomed together in this cute little room and Jess and Maya got the coolest room up on a balcony. Our tour guide for Cordoba was lovely. Her name was Lola. 

Day three - 4/19/11 - Madrid

(Again, from that night)

So we woke up, got ready, and ate breakfast. Breakfast was decent. The eggs were good and so was this pastry thing but the coffee is really strong over here. Sort of disappointing. Then we got to go off with just our group since everyone else was going to Toledo. Actually one girl in our group was going too which kinda sucked. Anyway, we got the metro to Parque del Retiro. We stopped at a cool flea market in the train station where the terrorist attack happened a few years back and we bought a lot of cool stuff. Then we went to the park. I shamefully did a facedown. We roamed the park and saw this really cool statue on top of like four steps surrounding a bunch of columns near a little lake. I can’t really explain it but it was very beautiful. Everything is SO detailed here. Even the leaves on the statues are precise. There were tree trunks growing flowers. It’s like paradise.

We we’re getting ready to walk over to where you can rent a boat to ride around the lake and we notice this shady guy standing around and just like looking at us. We kinda got creeped out but we didn’t really think it was a big deal until he walked away just as we did. In the same direction too. He followed us for a while so we walked slow to get behind him and then he started turning around and looking for us for a while. It really freaked us all out. Then senora, amanda and katie rented a boat so the rest of us walked around the park and they had this little part where old people could exercise it was so cute. We all met up again and wanted to go see the crystal palace but we ran out of time because we spent a while eating lunch.

We were supposed to meet the rest of the group back at Puerta del sol but we literally had no time so we took two metros like a pro and just met them at the royal palace. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside. Literally the most beautiful place I have ever seen. We went inside and it was crazy to picture kings and queens in elegant dresses walking up the same steps I was to go to a ball years and years ago. The throne room hadn’t been changed since the seventeenth century and it was literally the most beautiful room I have ever seen in my life. Seeing that really hit me like wow we are in Europe. I definitely teared up a little not even gonna lie. My favorite room was this beautiful green and white porcelain room dedicated to Bacchus (Dionysus) my favorite god! There were “vines” crawling up the walls it was just so cool. The rest was so gorgeous too. It was different than I expected cause the king and queen had different bedrooms and quarters and whole sections of the palace really. There was a lot of asian influence too because it was considered exotic back then to have knowledge of asian culture.

We took the bus back to the city. We stopped at the place where the Don Quoxite statue is and there was like an outdoor flea market where I bought a gorgeous scarf. After the rest of the bus tour and went out to dinner after getting a little free time to shop and such. Dinner was actually really good but I was surprised cause we got served this soup and I expected it to be hot but it was cold. It was really good to dip bread in though. The paella was fantastic and the cream puffs for desert were the best I ever had. 

Then we left and came back to the hotel and then we had a really long conversation which caused me to take forever to write this entry and some people kept calling us saying “lets talk about the palace” and something about vestidos (dresses) and now I’m tired bye.

Day two - 4/18/11 - Madrid

(Written that night in the hotel)

The plane landed. No luggage was lost (thank god) and we met with the tour group. Well really we all just stood with our respective schools at distance from each other and waited to leave with the tour guide. Her name is Isis and she’s from Barcelona. We took the bus to the hotel and then quickly got changed. I was stuck wearing a hideous outfit cause that was the one I put in my carry on in case my luggage got lost wow I did not plan that very well.Then we walked like two feet to the metro. The public transportation in Spain is really nice. We got off at Puerta del Sol which, appropriately for the name, was very sunny. It was the first glimpse of real Spain and it was beautiful. The feeling I got walking out of the metro and into the city was just like it feels when you do it in Philly but clearly a bit more exciting. Every building was beautiful and old and coated in history. We walked over to Plaza Mayor and saw this weird donkey rainbow pupper thing, a huge statue, and our first gypsy. We stopped and took pictures then continued walking around the really pretty streets.

Isis let us split up so our crew wanted to get chocolate con churros but Celina said that wasn’t a legit lunch so we went looking for a restaurant. We went in the first one we saw, which was a place called Gran Cafe de Madrid. The waiter was scary and totally hated us because we kept saying gracias to be polite and he eventually sarcastically said de nada.The food wasn’t as good as I expected, but it was decent. We then continued to wander down Calle Major and we saw so many gorgeous buildings and the Palace that was now for a post office type thing. Then I brought a 1.5. liter water for 2 euros while everyone else got this small ass bottle for 1 euro. This spanish rapper came up to us and it was really very funny. We hurried back to Puerta del Sol and got led on some unnecessary long preview walk of what we will see tomorrow. We arrived at the hotel to wait forever to get checked in. We were pretty annoyed cause we all felt so tired and dirty from the long ass plane ride and long day. Jess and I lugged our luggage up a lot of steps for no reason cause we didn’t feel like waiting for the elevator. Morgan joined us in our room since our other roomate was from another school and decided to go stay with her friends instead. Then we went to dinner which wasn’t mind blowing but that’s understandable for a hotel buffet. We chilled in Condo’s room (chaperone) and decided to go to Parque del Retiro tomorrow instead of Toledo because we didn’t pay for the excursion so we would have to take the train and it would just be too rushed to really enjoy it. We went back to our room and planned out our outfits and now here I am.

Okay I think I can finally go into detail about Spain without crying. Lol. Okay here we go. I journaled everything cause this was my grad project so I had to record everything I did. But I want to have an online version of it saved in case I lose my little book. I am pretty much writing this word for word what I wrote with a little details added that I forgot about. I wrote all of these late at night after getting back from hours of walking around so its no profound literature.

Day one- 4/17/11 - Airports & Airplanes

We arrived at the airport early and the only other person there was my friend Jess. We waited for what felt like forever for everyone to show up and it was getting to be kinda late to check in through security and two girls still weren’t there so the rest of us went through with our one chaperon and our other one stayed behind. We found our gate and waited there for a while.

Departure. Smallest Plane ever. It was kinda scary because it was so small that you could feel all the turbulence times ten. I don’t usually get scared on plane rides but it was like a roller coaster. Also, shortest flight ever… I didn’t even get through three songs on my ipod before they were telling us to turn off electronics for landing.

Departure #2 (these next parts were written while I was on the plane) There was a little bit of turbulence. The flight was delayed because of problems with the toilets? So the layover ended up being around three hours. There are tvs on the plane which are really cool because they have movies, music (albums and radio), tv (I watched glee), and now I am listening to the beatles. We had to fill out this weird form because we didn’t have European passports. It was pretty nerve-wracking. There are thunderstorms over NYC which we are flying through. Dulles airport was like Narnia. I’m sitting with Maya. I’m very tired now and am about to get a drink from the flight attendant. Everyone’s getting along so far.

fiveish hours later We are now 36 minutes away. LONG FLIGHT. Couldn’t sleep.  The sun came up really quickly as we got closer to Europe.