irlandoooo

Where do I even begin...

I was waiting at the bus stop to catch the bus to the bus station to go to the big bus station and eventually to the Malaga airport. As I was waiting at the bus stop, I heard Molly calling my name and looked over at Kristen, Leah, and Molly were all in a cab headed to the bus station so clearly I hopped in. I have never seen as much traffic in Granada until of course we are on a time limit. We asked the cab driver how much further to the bus station and he asked if we were on the 7 o'clock bus and we said no 6:30 and he said we would have "to fly" if we wanted to make it on time. We call Stina, the responsible one out of our friends who had like 45 minutes before we did, and she bought our tickets. We FINALLY make it to the bus station in the nick of time and head for Malaga. Not 5 minutes into our adventure our bus gets in a wreck. NO JOKE. Who has ever heard of someone getting into a "bus wreck" so we are stuck on the side of the road for AN HOUR. I look to my left while at the scene of the crash and there are prostitutes, standing on the side of the road, in broad daylight. Kristen and I were like what is there excuse going to be when the police come, just waiting for a ride? So we finally get on the road and make it to the bus station in Malaga and then have to take a taxi to the airport. The ride is only an hour and a half from Granada to Malaga but it took us 2 1/2 hours. We get to the airport at 9:20 for our 9:45 flight and every single check-in kiosk is closed. We run to customer service and he tells us that the flight is already closed and that there is nothing that we can do. We were super nice to him, explained to him that we left Granada at 6:30 and that our bus got in a wreck, he makes a few phone calls and tells us how lucky we are and writes us handmade boarding passes. And we're off...

We finally make it to Shannon, Ireland at 11:45 Thursday night and take a taxi to our hostel. We woke up the next morning and went to Bunratty Castle which was one of the coolest things I have ever done. They think it is the castle where William Penn was born and had it all set up like it was when the Earls lived there. There is a whole little village around Bunratty depicting Ireland 300 years ago. It was really cool! We hung out in Shannon for most of the day and then went to Limerick to catch a bus to Dublin. We got to Dublin around 9 on Friday night, cooked dinner, and then in typical hostel style went out to a local pub with some boys from our hostel. La Mez was a really cool Irish pub with a live band and what do you know? Carlsberg, probably the best beer in the world. Molly told the lead singer that it was my birthday and he not only sang happy birthday to me but the entire pub started singing happy birthday to me! 

Saturday morning (my birthday!) we woke up and took a train to Howth, 30 minutes outside of Dublin. There were the coolest cliffs that we walked along on the coast. It was one of the prettiest things that I have seen in my life. Running a close second behind the mountain I climbed in Malawi. We hung out in Howth for a little and ate the best sandwich I have ever had in my life. When we got back to Dublin we went to the Guiness Storehouse. It is like a 7 floor museum that explains the history of the beer and how it is made. It is of course included with a free pint of Guiness at the end of the tour. Once again Molly (she loves birthdays as much as a do) told the bartender that it was my birthday and they gave me another free pint of beer with 21 drawn in the foam. We went out to dinner after the factory and then the other girls went home because Ireland is ridulously expensive but Molly and I decided to hit the town...

We seriously went to one of the craziest clubs I have ever been to. We were standing in line and the girls in front of us who were from Dublin told us that the guys in the club were kind of creepy. We kind of shrugged it off because hey, they were from Dublin and were still going. When we got into the club Molly and I were just hanging out, dancing by ourselves when some boy came up behind me and SMELLED MY HAIR. WHO DOES THAT? I was so creeped out that Molly and I just decided to keep a constant movement around the club so that no other boy had the opportunity to smell the scent of my shampoo. 

It was soo much fun though and Ireland is absolutely gorgeous! Christine is coming to Granada this weekend, I have midterms Tuesday and Wednesday next week and then I head to Greece on Wednesday for Semana Santa--woop woop!

love, love, love,

grayson

Roma

pictures from barcelona

                                                     on the beach in march, i love it!
parc guell
la sagrada familia
after our hike up montjuic, overloooking the port
pretty sailboats in the port

barca

Travel was not smooth, although Mary didn't lose her luggage...

My last class on Thursday was cancelled which I took as some sort of positive sign because I was planning on skipping the class anyways to make sure that I didn't miss my flight to Barcelona. I was wrong. Stina and I began our adventure around 5:15 Thursday afternoon, hopped on a city bus to try to make the 6 o'clock bus headed to Malaga, where the airport is. After completely missing the first bus, 15 minutes later another bus finally arrives, we hop on it, and head to the bus station constantly checking our watches as the time is quickly passing. We run into the bus station at 5 minutes until 6 and wait in the long line to purchase our tickets only to find out that the bus has been delayed until 6:30 (somewhat of a relief, I guess). So we take the 1 1/2 bus ride to Malaga and get off the bus 20 minutes away from the airport not really knowing what our next move was. We walked around trying to find a bus stop because we knew which bus we should take but a bus stop was nowhere to be found. It was nearing 8 o'clock and our flight left at 8:45, we finally find the bus stop but realize that it takes 20 to 30 minutes by bus to get to the airport. We decide that we have to take a cab or else we were never going to make it to the airport. Instead of paying a 1 euro bus fare, we end up paying an 18 euro cab ride. BUMMER. Finally make it to the airport, on our flight and we are off to Barcelona...

Get to the Barcelona airport at 11:30 and have directions to get to our hostel that say take the train from the airport. As we are walking to the train station a very nice boy tells us that the last train already left and that he is either going to try to take the bus or get a cab into the city. He offers to help us out, so we follow this strange boy through the Barcelona airport, he asks someone where to get a bus (he luckily spoke Catalan). We get on the bus and he tells us which stop to get off and points us in the direction of our hostel. He was our lifesaver that night and saved us probably 30 euros from not having to take a cab. We finally get to our hostel and it was awesome. It was so clean and everyone who worked there was super nice. We went out to try to find tapas but everywhere was already closed so we ended up going to this Irish pub for a beer before turning in for the night. Went to bed around 2 to only be woken up by the 4 Portugese girls who were also staying in our room at 7:45am. They were literally talking in a normal voice, laughing, eating, knocking on the door, blow drying their hair. IT WAS AWFUL. But we were in Barcelona staying at a hostel for 16 euros a night, what can you expect.

Barcelona is beautiful! Interestingly enough, Stina and I had just done a project on "A Day in Barcelona" so we kind of knew a couple of things that we wanted to do. We walked down one of the main streets in Barcelona, La Ramblas and into the marketplace that is really famous. There was fruit, vegetables, and meat for sell EVERYWHERE. We unfortunately found ourselves in the meat section the majority of the time where I saw the most disgusting things ever, if I wasn't already a vegetarian I think this would have convinced me to be one. There was whole rabbits, skinned with eyes and teeth still attached; stomach lining, brains, and intestines of various animals all on sale. It was foul to say the least. We quickly left the market and walked down to the port which is one of the biggest ports in the world (second according to dad), it was so pretty there were all of these sailboats anchored in the water so we just sat on the dock and enjoyed the warm weather and sunshine. We then walked up Montjuic, which is this hill that offers some of the prettiest views of Barcelona. It was really cool! After our big hike we were pretty hungry so we found an awesome little hole in the wall restaurant. In Spain they offer "Menu del Dia" where you choose from a list of appetizers, main courses, red or white wine, and a dessert for like 8-10 euros. It was delicious, by far my best meal in Spain. I ordered pasta alfredo, fish with vegetables, white wine, and fruit. The waiter brought the fish out and it was a whole fish with eyes, he immediately offered to clean the fish for me when he saw my face. The fish was delicious though but I'm really glad I didn't have to skin it myself...

The next day we woke up early again and walked over to La Sagrada Familia which is this really big, beautiful church designed by Gaudi. Construction of the church began in 1882 and it is still being built today. From there we decided to walk to Parc Guell which is also designed by Gaudi and is one of the most famous parks in Barcelona. A lot of it was being renovated but it was really cool, there are all these intricately designed paths and mosaics everywhere. Stina and I found a grassy area (it is really odd, in Spain the majority of the parks don't actually have grassy areas to sit in) and took a nap. The park was about a 45 minute walk from our hostel so we decided to take a bus back. It was really nice our hostel had a kitchen so we chose to eat big lunches out and then cook dinner to try and save money and because I miss cooking so much. We made delicious pasta on Friday night and then vegetable stir-fry on Saturday night. On Saturday, we went out to the oldest bar in Granada with Kristen and some of her friends who are studying in France and Italy. Then we went to this bar called Dow Jones which is designed to be like the stock market. They have screens up all around the room with different drinks and the price next to them. Every couple of minutes the prices change so you have to decide when the best time to buy your drinks is. It was pretty cool.

Woke up this morning and went to the beach, it was amazing. I literally just napped on the beach and enjoyed the sun for a couple of hours before we had to go. It wasn't warm enough to be in a bathing suit but it was still awesome to be on the beach in Spain in March. Flew home around 7 tonight which was one of the weirdest flights I've ever experienced. We flew Ryanair which is one of the cheapest airlines in Spain, it only cost 40 euros to fly to Barcelona. You have to pay to get an assigned seat which obviously most people don't do so it is just like a mad rush to get on the plane and not get stuck with the middle seat. After finally settling into our seats and taking off, the flight attendants literally walked up and down the aisle trying to sell various products the ENTIRE flight. They were trying to sell perfume, drinks, scratch-off lottery tickets--it was really weird and really disturbed my nap time. So we finally landed into Granada and everyone on the plane began to clap as if they were unsure if we were going to land safe or not. After the clapping seized, an announcement comes on "don donno don, another Ryanair flight has safely landed." Real unnerving, might need to do a little more research on Ryanair before I take another flight with them... Just kidding! It was fun though and I can't wait for this weekend, I'm going to Rome! 

p.s. everyone should go ahead and start my birthday countdown...13 days

i'm the king of carnaval

I went to carnaval yesterday and it was one of the craziest things I have ever done. We literally got on a bus at 10am yesterday morning in Granada and started our voyage to Cadiz, a coastal town about a 4 hour bus ride from Granada. Carnaval is a mixture of Mardi Gras and Halloween. People dress up in groups and go to Cadiz for basically a really big botellon (outdoor drinking party if you don't remember from last week). In lieu of the ridiculously high smoking rates in Spain and Europe (it literally seems like every other person smokes here) we decided to do an anti-smoking campaign, why not?

75 people boarded a double decker bus and headed off to Cadiz. I knew the majority of the people on the bus and the bus ride was literally half of the fun. We had music playing, contests, and a raffle drawing on our way there. The 5 of us won the costume contest! Impressive, I know. We won free Alhambra beer for having the best costumes. People were literally walking up to us saying what a good idea it was and how they were going to dress as cigarettes next Halloween. When we were about an hour away from Cadiz there was a raffle, the bus company was giving away t-shirts, beer, rum, and 4 lucky winners won free trips to either Seville or Valencia. I never win ANYTHING but I happened to be one of the 2 lucky winners to get a trip to Valencia. But of course, I can't even go. I am going to be in Rome the first weekend of Las Fallas Festival and in Ireland for my birthday the next weekend. That would happen to me...I'll probably never win anything else for the next 5 years. But I was nice enough to have them redraw another winner so that someone actually went, I should have bartered with someone for there t-shirt in exchange for the trip. 

So we arrived in Cadiz around 4pm and immediately walked over to the beach. It was so pretty! The 5 of us decided it would be a great idea to get on this large rock structure and to take a picture in our costumes with the ocean in the background. So we all climbed up on top of this rock and were commenting on how beautiful the beach and ocean were when all of a sudden a wave literally crashes over us. Keep in mind, this rock is approximately 6 feet off the ground and I believe that was the only big wave of the day. We were all drenched and the rest of our entire group was cracking up at us. Everyone saw us! They were seriously like this made my night. It would happen to us...so as we are climbing down off the rock in our soaking wet clothes Kristen lost her grip and tumbled off the rock face-planting into the sand. Not only was she soaking wet but was then also covered in sand. Needless to say, this summed up the rest of our day. We sat out on the beach for a little while longer, trying to dry off by the sun and then we went to where the real party was. There were 100s and 100s of people all dressed in costumes drinking in front of, of course, a cathedral. The night was so much fun but it was definitely one of the longest days/nights I have ever experienced. I woke up at 8:30 Saturday morning, got to Cadiz at 4, and we didn't leave Cadiz until 6am the next morning. Needless to say, it has been a pretty unproductive days. I doubt I would ever go to carnaval again but it was a lot of fun!