Barcelona

Well, dad and I have surely lived it up as tourists for the last three days in Barcelona. We got to meet up with Granny, go on the cheesiest tour bus ever, and see some amazing sights. It is safe to say that we are completely worn out, toured out and ready for some rest. I'm currently reading a mystery series by a Spanish novelist, and the books are set in Barcelona. Needless to say, I had a nerdgasm getting to see some of the places mentioned in the books. We stayed on "Las Ramblas", a famous street that is mentioned often, saw Castell Monjuic and Park Guell, rode the tour bus past Tibidabo, and ate in the very picturesque restaurant, Els Quatre Gats.

Granny on the cheesy tour bus that takes REALLY long routes around the city (I suppose you could call it the scenic route). 

A bunch of tourists taking pictures of the Sagrada Familia from the bus. It's really funny/obnoxious how people swarm like bees around any tourist attraction and snap thousands of pictures that they will definitely need to sort through later. R-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s. 

Given the picture above, it's understandable that the locals who live outside of the Sagrada familia would put up signs that say "tour bus out". (the stop is right across the street and tour buses that are full to the brim stop all day). However, the tourism also helps fuel Spain's economy. Where is the balance between locals wanting space but also needing the revenue from tourism? (feel free to comment your opinions!) (Also, side note, they speak Catalan in Barcelona, which to me is like Portuguese, Spanish and French all together, but I'd have to do some research to know its real linguistic roots). 

Crowd of people at Park Guell. It is such a gorgeous location, but is really hard to enjoy with so many people there. As dad and I would say "GAAAAAUUUDDDD-IIIIIIII". 

Park Guell

Dad and I at Castell Monjuic

Well, dad and I took a train back from Barcelona yesterday. I've decided that trains are AWESOME! So comfy/relaxing. Besides boats, they may be my favorite mode of transportation! In the afternoon, dad and I finally went to the OLDEST restaurant IN THE WORLD! (El Sobrino de Botín) and had an excellent meal (dad had lamb and I had La Ensalada Rioja, which has tuna, asparagus, artichoke, peppers, olives, and egg). The waiter was super friendly and told dad some of the history as well as let us go down into the wine cellar and brought dad a free (and really strong) drink at the end of our meal. For dessert, was lemon sorbet for dad (which I guessed he would order like a boss!) and caramel ice cream with chocolate sauce (dad guessed that I would order something else...I forgot what) for me. 

This morning, dad left for the states, and I walked to that awesome park in Madrid (El Parque de Buen Retiro) and stationed myself on a bench to read for the morning/afternoon and went back to the hotel in the afternoon to get my things together for tomorrow, when the study abroad program begins!

Hasta Pronto, 

Katie

Morocco & Torremolinos

Well, it's been a while since I've written and much has happened since then. Two days ago, dad and I woke up bright and early for a day trip to Morocco (yayyyy Africa! 4 of 7 continents have been achieved...if you can even call seeing on city in the Northern tip seeing "Africa"). We took a two hour bus ride to Tarifa, where we took the ferry across to Tangier, Morocco. I was so tired that I fell asleep without knowing minutes after sitting down on the ferry and woke up when we got to the port on the other side. 

The tour was really neat! It started off with a driving tour through various international neighborhoods (ie: Spanish, Italian, French, British and American). We then set off on foot through narrow alley ways which were made for two purposes: 1) They provide shade and a cool breeze to provide relief from the hot summer sun, and 2) The narrow, complex alley system provides protection from enemies, as only locals are able to navigate them. Our first stop was a Moroccan restaurant for lunch. It had gorgeous decorations and we had a four course meal of soup, kabobs, couscous and chicken, and baclava. This is when my taking a Portuguese course came in handy because I heard one girl explain to another outside of the bathroom that "Não há papel", or "there's no toilet paper". So, little old Katie went back to the table to grab some kleenex before venturing in. After lunch, we had many sales pitches from locals for rugs, oils, and aphrooodiiisiaccs. Joke of the day goes to the rug salesman: "We beat our rugs very well, because we can't beat our women anymore". We didn't buy anything, but the vendors follow you around EVERYWHERE trying to push you to buy things. When our Scottish friends didn't want to purchase anything, one of the guys said "Ok, that's fine. But I will keep talking to you guys because we're supposed to do that". One of the merchants in the first shop fell in love with my shoes (vibrams, 5 fingered toe shoes) and asked if he could take a picture of them to show to his daughter. He said he had never seen them before. Just think - Katie Odens, she who brought the stylin' vibrams to Morocco! After the shops, we piled back into the bus and drove along the coast. We stopped and I rode a Camel, which was kind-of-sort-of-absolutely terrifying because they are so tall and there's no strap and the hump goes up a ways above their back. It didn't help that the guy helping me was super grumpy and trying to handle three camels at a time. 

We also stopped at a cave and then drove back to the ferry. It seems that dad and I have spent a majority of our time barely making it in our travels. When we got to the port, our tour guide couldn't get through the gate and then argued with the guard, hence getting locked by himself on the other side of the gate. Eventually, the rest of the tour was allowed through, but we were at the back of a large group of people and our tour guide was arguing with ever other possible human being around about who knows what. At one point, I heard him say "Si no caben, muevan los coches", which means "if they don't fit, move the cars". I'm guessing that meant that the ferry had been over booked, or something along those lines. Dad and I, along with the Scottish couple that we befriended, joked about having to swim back or just being stuck in Morocco if/when our tour guide got us all kicked off the platform for his rowdy behavior. Anyways, long story short, we got on the ferry, much to our relief. 

The next day, we slept in until 11:30, which is super impressive for Padre, the king of the early birds. Maybe it was the lack of sleep from our excursion the day before ;). We spent the day lounging on the beach, where I almost completed reading my book (AKA more weight to send with dad and less for me to carry for 4 months!!) 

(my view from the relaxing day on the beach)

This morning, the alarm was set for 5:10 a.m. to get ready for a 5:40 taxi to the Malaga airport, en route to Barcelona. Needless to say, dad and I both slept through the alarm, and as I lazily rolled over, I glimpsed at the clock and my eyes popped open in true alarm, and I said "DAD. It's 5:30!!!". We jumped out of bed, quickly packed and made our flight. Everything is A-ok and we have had a wonderful time exploring Barcelona on foot today. 

One last food for thought: Being here has exposed me to so many different cultures, especially that day of the excursion to Morocco. There are so many different languages (the tour guide spoke 5) that speaking only three (two, comfortably, one still a little mediocrely) really humbles me, and I've decided that if I could have any super power in the world I would definitely choose the ability to read, write, speak and understand every language in the world. That way, that awkward moment trying to figure out how to communicate with someone who speaks no mutual languages with you wouldn't exist. 

Anyways, off to siesta and then meet up with my grandma (who coincidentally is in Barcelona on a cruise - ¡Qué casualidad!) for dinner. 

Un abrazo,

KO 

Yesterday, on the train from Madrid to Málaga, a young man on his Mission in Spain sat across from us. When I asked him what his favorite part of his experience had been so far (he has 2 years in Spain and has completed 5 months in various locations), he replied "Huh, I haven't really thought about it that way (in terms of favorites). I kind of see it all as just one experience".

The one thing that I love about his perspective is the laissez faire kind of attitude; it evokes the whole "let your experience be your experience", "whatever happens, happens" kind of mentality. Instead of seeing it as an experience broken into pieces of "when I was in Morocco", etc. I can see my time in Spain as one collective memory. There will be ups and downs, but I'm just along for the ride, baby! But as to the whole "no favorites" thing -well, we'll see about that. ;) (photo of beach in Torremolinos at dusk)

Día dos: El Museo del Prado y El Jardín Botánico

Padre outside of José Luis

I guess my new name "Kety" will be the start of my new, Spanish identity

Museo del Prado: Inside there are a lot of religious paintings and one of them was of the crowning of Jesus with the crown of thorns and he was very pale and I thought to myself "oh, he must have been feeling pretty sickly by that time", then read the interpretation and realized that the whiteness of his body was supposed to represent his purity/innocence and helplessness. 

Dad forgot to pull the shirt down. Statue copy foul. 

Yay, Spain!

Una flor en el Jardín Botánico

The kittay botánico 

Creeper botánico

Travel

 ¡Por fin hemos llegado!

The end of the most hectic travel day has finally arrived! PHEEWWW! Let's just say that we left at 7 a.m. Colorado Springs time (3 p.m. in Madrid) YESTERDAY and arrived to Barajas airport in Madrid a whopping 24 hours later and to our hotel a large chunk of time after that. 

Here's some reasons for el viaje MUY LARGO with a few noteworthy moments of stress mixed in: 

1) Flight in Houston delayed about an hour due to air congestion in Newark. 
2) Flight in Houston delayed for "15 mins" (curse those words!) multiple times due to the thunderstorm that rolled in as we waited for the go ahead from air traffic control. 
3) When we finally got the go ahead to depart from Houston, our runway was closed down because there was a back up of  flights trying to depart - another delay of, roughly, "15 minutes". 
4) SO, we left Houston around 6 p.m. Newark time and had a connection in Newark that was to depart at 8:30 p.m. The flight takes about 3 hrs. You do the math. 
5) We arrived at the Newark airport around 9:15 p.m. (after being held in a circling pattern while an emergency aircraft landed), to receive the wonderful news that our next flight was delayed until 9:40 p.m. The catch - the gate wasn't ready for our flight from Houston yet. The wait to the gate (which led to a very important date with another plane!) would be...oh, about...none other than "15 minutes"!
6) At about 9:45 we deplaned and frantically ran about Newark (quite possibly passing our gate multiple times without noticing...ahemm....OOPS) trying to locate the flight (if it was even still there)
7) To our luck, the pilot for the flight to Madrid happened to be on our flight from Houston. HOWEVER, the air conditioning/heating for the plane was broken and maintenance took 4 hours to fix it. I think we departed around 1:30 a.m., Newark time. 
8) We finally arrived to MADRID! And guess what!? Our gate was ready for us and there were no further delays! ( :)
9) BUT WAIT! The adventure continues! Our hotel is on a "calle peatonal"(street for pedestrians), which means no taxis allowed! So, the taxi driver dropped us off by Plaza Callao and pointed us in the direction of the hotel. Let's just say that dad and I walked back and forth down "Calle Preciados" to find the "Hotel Preciados", following the mistaken directions of hotel staff from Best Western, a guy from the information booth, and even the local police. We finally asked a very personable street cleaner who outdid all of the aforementioned entities in giving accurate directions. WHO WOULDA THUNK?!

Well, after all that mess it's time to relax with the padre and gloat in the glory of having to survive only an afternoon instead of the originally scheduled full day (We were originally supposed to land in Madrid at 10 a.m.) on less than a quarter tank of energy . Oh the joys of travel delays working out in your favor!

Hasta pronto y un abrazo fuerte,
KO :)