Post Rachel: Algeciras and home.

Rachel flew out on Sunday January 2 and after going to the airport with her and saying goodbye I hopped on a bus towards Algeciras. I spent my last week of break there hanging out with my aunt and uncle and cousin and had an awesome time.

Along with Christmas, Spain celebrates Three Kings Day, which is on January 6. It is just as big of a holiday as Christmas and it is a common practice to give gifts for it as well. There are also parades that happen throughout Spain on the night of the 5th. They contain decorated floats with people throwing out handfuls of candy, and at the end, like in a typical Holiday parade in the United States where there is Santa, there are the Three Kings, each on their own float throwing out candy. Me, my aunt, and her mom, and my cousin Daniel went to the parade in Algeciras. We first went and ate some churros for dinner and walked around the center, and then went and watched the parade. Check it out:





I mostly spent my time relaxing with my family, but along with the parade I went to one of my cousin Daniel’s swim lessons. They were at the municipal pool and it was fun watching him do laps. Check out the pictures and the video of him diving at the end of the class. I love the wetsuit and swim cap.

I also watched some football with my uncle. I consider myself to be an avid college football fan, and I follow it very closely, but when it comes to the NFL my uncle might even out do my knowledge of college with his knowledge of players and teams in the NFL. Spanish television actually broadcasts 4 games live every weekend, a 1 o’clock game, a 4:30 game, the Sunday night game, and the Monday night game. With the time difference those games are on at 7 PM, 10:30 PM, 2:30 AM and 2AM respectively here in Spain. With the first round of the playoffs the first game was on at 4:30 that Saturday, or 10:30 Spanish time. My uncle and I stayed up and watched the entire game—the Seahawks upsetting the Saints. My uncle also has DVR so he was planning on DVRing the second game, the Colts and Jets, but when we woke up Sunday morning we found that the DVR didn’t work. That was disappointing because I was planning on watching the recorded second game before I left for Motril later that afternoon.

Overall, my post-Rachel vacation was fantastic and relaxing, but it was coming to a close as I headed back to Motril that Sunday afternoon.

However, I had an unfortunate surprise waiting for me when I arrived in Motril. I walked in the door and was greeted by Michael Lynn who told me Emily was at the hospital with our friends Bern and Pablo. I had talked to Emily earlier that morning and she said she was really sick and was probably running a fever. I told her I had a thermometer in my room so she took her temperature and it was over 102 degrees. She ended up having other problems (“digestive”) along with that high temperature and thought it would be best to go to the hospital. I checked my phone and I actually had a couple of miss calls from Emily’s mom too. Not a good thing to come home to, your good friend in the hospital because she was so sick. I ended up connecting with Bern and talked to him. He said to hold tight because there wasn't much going on at the hospital, and a couple hours later Emily was home. The doctors weren’t too helpful but did prescribe a few medications, and after a couple more days of a high fever and other symptoms she eventually recovered. Not fun though. Luckily ML and I didn’t catch whatever it was, probably just an old fashion flu.

Anyway, I’ll keep this entry short and sweet and post another later this week about my brother Jay’s arrival in Spain.

Until then, happy winter from sunny Spain.

Barça con mi amor.

Barcelona.

Many consider it the most enchanting city in all of Spain.

And for this reason it is probably the most visited city in all of Spain.

From its architecture and history, to its proximity to the water and iconic soccer team, it did not disappoint.

We flew out of Seville early on the morning of December 29 and arrived in Barcelona in the early afternoon. We took a bus towards the center of town and found our hostel. After checking in, doing some grocery shopping, and having a quick lunch, we decided to head out and do some exploring.

Our ultimate destination for the day was going to eventually be the Picasso museum. However, we wanted to see some sights before we made it down there, most notably a couple of Gaudi’s famous houses. We were successful. Check them out.

After seeing the houses we browsed past some shops, doing some window-shopping and gawking at the prices in the high-end stores. We finally determined that shopping wasn’t our thing and began walking towards the Picasso museum. However, we kept our heads up and anything that caught our attention we took a detour and checked out. This included one of Barcelona’s most famous theaters.

And the Barcelona cathedral.

We eventually made it to the Picasso art museum and enjoyed the exhibit. After the museum we decided to continue our exploration and walked down towards the port. On our way to the port we stumbled across another large church, which we later learned was a basilica. We stepped inside and their was a choir singing. We found a seat in one of the pews and enjoyed a free concert. It was an incredible experience, listening to a choir sing in a church over 400 years old. The church.

Now, being the thinker I am, and thinking about what we were planning to do the next day, we passed a La Caixa ATM. We were going to go to the Sagrada Familia the next day, and after witnessing the line at the Picasso museum, I remembered reading at some point that you could purchase tickets for the Sagrada Familia at a La Caixa ATM. So, I told Rachel I wanted to check it out and after exploring the options on the ATM found a way to purchase two tickets for an 11 AM entrance into the famous Gaudi church. More on this later.

After purchasing our tickets we found the end of the famous La Rambla (a famous street in Barcelona) and decided to follow it back towards the center of town towards Plaza de Catalonia. Along the way we experienced the street performers and tourist shops (as well as restaurants) that made this street so famous. We were beginning to get hungry, and after checking out the outrageous prices of the restaurants along La Rambla we took a side street and checked out a few different places. We finally found one, and were planning on only getting tapas, but once we were seated and had ordered drinks, we were told tapas could only be ordered while sitting at the bar near the front of the restaurant. Nuts. We ended up ordering two of the cheaper things on the menu, which were good (we had spent a lot of money in Seville and were going to try and keep it cheap in Barcelona. Our hostel had a kitchen so we were planning on doing breakfast there each morning and only doing low-key meals while out and about).

After dinner we were exhausted from traveling and walking around, so we headed back towards our hostel. But we first stopped in Plaza de Catalonia and snapped a few pictures.

When we arrived I got a text from my roommate Emily and her boyfriend Connor. They were going to be in Barcelona during the same time period and had just arrived. We planned on meeting them tomorrow afternoon at some point.

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed towards Sagrade Familia. We decided to buy an underground pass, 10 trips (5 each) that we could use all day. The stop we got off at was located right on the corner of the Sagrada. We came above ground, looked up, and BAM. There it was.

Absolutely incredible. However, the other thing we noticed was the extremely long line that wrapped around the block. I was hoping that since we had bought tickets from the ATM the night before we could bypass the line and get in. We began walking past everyone in line, although not very discretely—Rachel tripped on the curb and fell (she was alright, just had a large bruise the rest of the trip). We eventually made our way to the entrance. Sure enough, we got right in with our prepaid tickets (therefore, if any of you ever visit the Sagrada Familia, find a La Caixa bank ATM and purchase tickets ahead of time. You can do this for the Alhambra in Granada too). After getting in we were blown away. The exterior was incredible, but the interior caused a jaw drop experience I have never had before. Pictures don’t do it justice, but enjoy:

After over 3 hours of wandering and going to the top of one of the towers and touring the museum in the basement, we were off to connect with Emily and Connor at Park Guell, one of Barcelona’s other famous attractions that contains much of Gaudi’s work as well. We ate lunch in the park, which overlooks the city. Enjoy.

We were all pretty exhausted, so we planned on meeting again at the Sagrada Familia for some night pictures, and then hang out and do dinner afterwards. Rachel and I went home to take a nap. After we connected with Emily and Connor again at the Sagrada. Night pictures? Night pictures…

We then headed down towards La Rambla to find some dinner. We ended up just finding an Irish bar (lame, I know, but we were feeling hamburgers) and eventually just walked around La Rambla. Tired, we went our separate ways and Rachel and I went back to the hostel.

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed out the door for our final day in Barcelona. It was New Years Eve day and we had a set itinerary of things to see before we were going to celebrate the arrival of the New Year in Plaza de Catalonia. First on the list: Camp Nou, home of FC Barcelona, arguably the best soccer club in the world (it sort of helps that they have half of the Spanish national team on their roster and the best player in the world, Messi…). The stadium tour was 19 Euro a person, and with our funds running low Rachel and I decided to just walk around the stadium and go into the team store. Check it out.

Next on the list was Olympic Park, where the 1992 Summer Olympics were held. We were going to meet Emily and Connor there to check it out.

After walking around Olympic Park, we made our way towards the Barcelona/Catalonia art museum. The museum sits on a hill that overlooks Plaza de Espana. It was a pretty cool building with a pretty cool view.

Afterwards we hopped on the subway to the Arc de Triomf of Spain. It is the second largest archway after the original, which is located in Paris.

Rachel and I had wanted to get back to La Rambla and visit the famous market that is located off of the tourist trap street. We had peaked through it earlier, but really wanted to check it out again. We left Emily and Connor with plans to get together later that night for New Years Eve made our way to the market.

The first shop you see in the market is a sweet shop. Rachel’s eyes grew the size of two apples and she looked at the goodies. She then got a bag and went goodie hunting. Pictures? Pictures.

After indulging herself (I actually bought some sweets too) we went and bought 4 bags of 12 grapes. The tradition in Spain is to eat 12 grapes during the last 12 seconds of the year. If you finish them in time, before the New Year hits, you will have good luck (I think you are supposed to make a wish too…). We bought bags of grapes for all of us, walked around the market looking at all the fresh fruit, veggies, fish and meat (including several animal heads, sheep I think, and plucked chickens with either their legs, head, or both still attached. Yum) and made our way home to get ready for the night.

We took off for Emily and Connor’s hotel around 9-9:30 and after arriving decided it was time to go out and find some dinner. Easier said then done. Thousands of people had the same idea and after trying several restaurants we settled on bocadillos from a shop right off of La Rambla. We brought them back to the hotel where we ate and hung out until we decided we should head down to Plaza de Catalonia. This is where we, and thousands of others, rang in the New Year, stuffing out face with grapes and celebrating.

We eventually made our way back to Emily and Connor’s hotel and hung out for a while. We did not become adventurous enough to try the New Year’s bar scene because we needed to check out from our hostel mid next morning and catch a flight to Malaga. We eventually headed back to our hostel around 2.

Thanks to some software flaw the alarm I had set on my iTouch did not go off and Rachel and I woke up at 11, the exact time we were supposed to be checking out. After politely asking the front desk for more time we hurried and gathered our things and made it out the door around 11:30. We stopped and had some coffee before catching a bus to the airport and our 3:30 flight to Malaga.

Everything was on time and after a 5 minute, 20 Euro taxi ride to our hotel in Malaga we settled in to watch my Wolverine’s play their bowl game. However, before the game started, hunger set in and we made our way out to Burger King to grab some dinner, and while we were out made sure we had enough cash for a taxi ride back to the airport in the morning. We made it back watched the game, and enjoyed our last night together. Did I mention what Rachel wore during the football game?

I am slowly but surely converting her from her Michigan State roots… GO BLUE!

The next morning we were up at 4, and had a taxi ready to bring us to the airport at 4:45. It was difficult to say good-bye…

But, I can’t wait for her to come back in April for a week!

On with the show: My tour of Seville with mi amor.

Well, I don’t know how many people I still have following me through this blog, but to those of you reading this, thanks! I’ve really been neglecting the blog since mid-December, and I am hoping that this weekend I can get all caught up.

To say the least, it’s been a rather busy month, and I am planning on just staying in Motril this weekend to catch up on the blog and relax. I am going to first finish Rachel’s visit. Here we go.

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The morning after Christmas my uncle brought Rachel and I to the bus station. We were going to start the next part of our travels and our first destination was Seville. We arrived at the bus station about 25 minutes before the bus was to leave, and when I went to buy the tickets I found out the bus station did not accept credit cards, and neither Rachel nor I had enough cash to cover the 24 Euro total bill for the tickets. With no ATM at the bus station my uncle, who also didn’t have any cash on him, raced me to the nearest ATM (about a 5 minute drive) to take out cash, brought me back to the station, and luckily we had a few minutes to spare before the bus left. It was an adrenaline rush to start the morning.

The bus ride from Algeciras to Seville was about 4 hours long with all of its local stops. It took us north along the Atlantic coast towards Cadiz and then back inland and further north towards Seville. We arrived and took a taxi to our hostel that was located near the river and Plaza de Toros. We wanted to get out and see some of the town so we left the hostel and walked towards the centro (what the historical center of Seville is called). I was super excited to take Rachel around Seville since I had spent over a month there earlier in the year and know the town well. With that said, I knew all the places I wanted to visit and the places where I wanted us to eat. Our first destination was a tapas place near the centro. We ate some croquetas (fried balls of mashed potatoes and ham), carne con tomate (a meat and tomato sauce dish) and another tapa, which I don’t remember. After enjoying our first Sevillian tapas we walked down to the Cathedral and the Giralda. Rachel was pretty impressed. We were even able to step inside the Cathedral for a few minutes and Rachel got her first taste of what was (more on this later in the Barcelona post: two words, Sagrada Familia) the most incredible church building I had ever been.

After walking around we decided we were going to go into another restaurant. It was Sunday and I was itching to watch some football with Rachel. We made our way over to Tex-Mex, a restaurant I had discovered with my friends back in September where they show NFL games on live on Sundays. Sure enough, the bar had the Chicago Bears and New York Jets game on and Rachel and I ended up staying for the entire game eating tex-mex, having beers, and watching football—all in Seville, Spain.

The next morning we were out the door by 11 am. A little late, but no problem, I knew what I wanted to see and had the itinerary all planned out. We first took off towards the area of Seville where I lived when I was there. Our first stop was going to be in this area, Basilica de Macarena. After passing my old flat we arrived and entered the famous church. Rachel was pretty impressed.

After the Macarena we walked back towards Seville’s art museum. However, when we arrived we found out that it wasn’t open on Mondays. I decided that we would save the museum for the next day and we walked towards the centro and to the Real Alcazar. Check out my previous post on the Alcazar for details, but here are some pictures of Rachel and I enjoying the old Moorish and Spanish palace (Note: there is still a part of the Alcazar that is an active residency for the Spanish royal family, they just rarely use it).

After exploring the Alcazar we were hungry and I had the hope of bringing Rachel to a little place I had picked out back in September, unfortunately it was closed, so we walked around for a while before we found a nice restaurant to get a late lunch (by late I mean a 5 o’clock lunch…).After lunch we decided to head towards Plaza de Espana, one of the main attraction in Spain. Check it:

After the plaza we headed towards the main shopping areas of Seville, Teutan, and did some shopping. A few purchases later we headed to our hostel to drop off our bags and headed across the river to Triana for tapas. Seville at night is beautiful, but it is even better while sitting on the river in Triana. We found a restaurant that had a heated tent along the river walkway and indulged ourselves in some enormous tapas. Afterwards we made our way back to the hostel after a successful first day in Seville.

We woke up late again on the second day, but again, no worries because I had our itinerary planned out. First stop, Plaza de Toros. We took the tour and afterwards Rachel made a pose.

After the bullring we made our way towards the centro and got in line for the cathedral. It was time to blow Rachel our of the water, and when we walked into the main part of the church I made sure to take a mental snapshot of Rachel’s face. It was something like this :O

We spent 2 hours walking around the cathedral, taking pictures and talking about what we saw. We then hiked up the 35 plus flights of ramps in the Giralda and enjoyed the view from atop the famous bell tower.

After the cathedral we made our way towards the art museum, but on the way stopped for some bocadillos (sandwiches made from baguettes, basically a cold sub). We arrived at the art museum and took in the centuries of art, mostly centered around Catholicism (images of Mary and baby Jesus, as well as Saints). The art museum was an old monastery and I wanted to show Rachel the old chapel, which had some amazing pieces of art work done by a local artist as well as an incredibly detailed painted ceiling. Rachel and I thought about just lying down in the middle of the floor and staring up at the ceiling, but we decided not to. Unfortunately you can’t take pictures in there, so that means you all have to travel to Seville to see it yourself!

After the art museum we headed back into centro to do some more shopping. Rachel wanted to buy some Christmas gifts. While doing this we came across a marching band that was playing all types of Christmas songs as well as Disney movie theme songs. It was pretty awesome. After doing some more shopping we headed back across the river to Triana to get some tapas. We went to a place we scouted out the night before that said they were going to have a free flamenco show. We arrived around 8 because we wanted to eat early because the next morning we had to get up around 6 for our flight to Barcelona. Unfortunately, the flamenco didn’t start until 10:30 and we didn’t want to be up that late. However, we did get to seem them practicing near the back of the restaurant as we ate.

While walking over for tapas we had passed a street vendor who was selling churros. Churros are basically fried dough in the shape of long tubes. They are delicious when dipped in sugar or chocolate. Rachel was eyeing them and I had promised her that after tapas we could come back and get some. So, keeping my promise, we stopped by and destroyed an entire plate of churros in less than 5 minutes. After the churros we went back to the hostel, packed, and went to bed. We had an early bus to catch to the airport and an adventure in Barcelona to start the next day.

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I am working on the Barcelona post now, and hope to finish it today. I just don’t want to do a blog post overload so I will wait a day or two to post it. I am going to do the same with what I’ve been up to since Rachel left and my brother’s arrival too.

So, adios for now.