Let the good times roll...en Espana 2006

2006-04-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Here's the link to my pics as well...didn't separate the people from the sights...enjoy...

http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=35481144507930442/l=90656072/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

What I miss the most from our trip:

-fresh squeezed orange juice
-cafe con leche
-my "family"
-walking, hiking, walking, walking some more (anything's better than buses)
-the constant variety of mullets - we really didn't take enough pics of them
-fireworks all the time (just kidding!)

--Suz

See it to believe it

2006-04-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been back in the nation's capital for a few weeks now, and enjoying every moment spent in the shower. Ahhhh, to be clean. The American Way.

Let it be known that the Cherry Blossom festival has nothing on Las Falles!

Like everything else in their bizarro lives, Kim and Em consolidated their pictures as well. We separated them into (1) pictures of us and (2) pictures of the sites. Here is a link to round 1. We've consolidated round 2 (the sites), but are working on uploading them at the present time.

Enjoy!

Pics of Las Gringas en Espana

Home Sweet Home

2006-03-21T04:55:00.000-08:00

So we saw Valencia burnt to a crisp, then we hightailed it to Madrid through the night.

(Before)

(During)

(Where did the statue go? We could not see anything for a few minutes.)

(And, then, it was set to fire and burnt to the ground. After a few seconds of looking at it, we could not see anything because the particles from the statue were falling on us and the ashes were fall all over us. After a few moments of staring at the fire, everyone made a mad rush away from it. It was complete anarchy. Suzanne even found ashes in her purse the next day on the plane.)

We made it to the airport around 6 am and never had a chance to check into the hotel we reserved. We spent the next couple hours dealing with the car rental, checking in, and wandering around the airport, then finally took off on a 9-hour flight to Miami. Claimed our luggage there, did all the customs jazz, shocked our systems with fruit smoothies, caught up on the NCAA tourney, and boarded another plane to home. Around 8:15 (2:15 am in Spain), we arrived back at National Airport.

Stay tuned for our photo links and perhaps a few more stories that we have yet to write.

And we´re baaaaaaack

2006-03-19T11:33:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Sorry for the delay in posting - since we last posted we´ve gone many miles and consumed a few bottles of wine. So tonight is our last night in Valencia (also known as ¨The Big Orange¨). Right now the Fallas are assembled and the city is about to be set a blaze. After that , we are hightailing it out of here, back to Madrid to catch our plane home to the good ole U.S. of A.

A few words about Las Fallas - basically it´s a Mediterranean festival to welcome in the spring. It was originally celebrated in honor of St. Joseph in the Valencia part of Spain. Basically, huge cartoonish figurenes are assembled in the streets. Today, the last day, they are burned as the clock strikes 12. As the figurines burn, winter is left behind. The figurenes are as tall as buildings and really intricate. We´ll post some pics later on

For the month of March, the entire city celebrates with fireworks every day at 8 am and 2 pm during the month of March. Small children are given fireworks to light on the street. Coming to this festival, we definitely underestimated the Spanish love of things that go ¨boom¨. Walking on the streets has been an experience, as every step you take, a small child is nearby with their lighter, throwing firecrackers into crowded areas. The daily afternoon firecrackers don´t even make sense, because they barely show up during the sunny day. It´s been great.

Also, in Valencia, there are 300 marching bands (per our guidebook, although we´ve estimated the number to be closer to 9,000) that rove the city from dawn to dusk, welcoming in spring by playing their hearts out.

In the past few days that we´ve had a chance to enjoy the sounds of Valencia, between the fireworks overheard, fireworks underfoot, and bands roving the crowded streets around huge cartoonish figurenes. It´s been an interesting cultural experience, however, a definate shock to our nervous systems.

We´ve gone to a few other places, including Piles and Gandia, which we´ll post more later on about. Just a side note, we´ve had some issues with showers, and are looking forward to the following things;

- hot water
- cold water
- showers that drain
- shower that don´t leak onto the floor below
- showers with curtains
- showers without a toilet next to them
- water pressure
- showers that you don´t need flip flops for
- showers that don´t require holding the shower head
- showers that don´t turn off automatically because they are on timers
- showers that have more than two temperatures (ie. not ice cold or scalding hot)
- showers that will provide enough warm water for three consecutive showers, rather than just the first one
- showers that don´t require pushing of buttons on water tanks located outside of the building

Okay, so we´re dirty. But we´ll shower before we see all of you again.

Keep checking back, we´ll post some more stories and the link to our photos.

Now, we are off to celebrate Las Fallas with the city of Valencia. See ya later winter!!!!

A few quotes from Denia...

2006-03-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

Regarding crosswalks...
Em: Do cars stop for people on crosswalks here?
Suz: Why would they? We don´t in the States.
Em and Kim: Yes they do!
Kim: Maybe in MARYLAND they don´t.

Regarding kebab places...
Suz: There are a lot of kebab places here.
Em: Just like back home in Courthouse/Clarendon.
Kim: Yes, Denia is the Clarendon of Spain.

Regarding the bottled water...
Kim: This water tastes a little skunky.
Em: What? From the faucet?
Kim: No, the bottled water we just bought.
Em: Awesome.

If you were to ask us what we did on Wednesday...

2006-03-17T01:33:00.000-08:00

We would say, ¨We climbed a mountain.¨ And that´s exactly what we did.

In the morning, Kim and Emily joked about this alleged ¨hike,¨ because we presumed it would be a leisurely walk along a well-paved path for a few hours. We were wrong.... so wrong. What started off as a nice nature-esque walk turned into to full-out rock climbing adventure (we have pictures to prove) . It was aweome and well worth it. The view from the top was breathtaking, and unfortunately, those pictures cannot do it justice. 7 1/2 hours, approximately 20 kilometers, a few ¨short-cuts¨ that resulted in cuts when the rocks slipped out from under us, 3 granola bars, and 6 sore arms and legs later, we arrived back from our venture.

We´re slowly teaching ourselves how to walk again.

Here are a few pics of the mountain we climbed:

And here are a few pics of the spectacular view we enjoyed as we climbed (note that the pictures do not do it justice):

(See the little plot of green land in the back? That's where we started, and this picture was taken about 1/3 of our way into the journey up the mountain.)

Feliz ´primer dia en Denia´ dia

2006-03-14T09:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to let you know that we arrived in Denia after a 6am wake-up, 3 hour train ride, and 2 hour bus ride. Today, we went out for tapas and wandered around. Tomorrow, we are going on a hike and to see a castle. We´re looking forward to being in a smaller city (one that does not have a Starbucks every 10 feet).

Kim, Em, and Suz

A few of my favorite things (in Madrid) ...UPDATE

2006-03-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

(I updated this with a few additions from my original posting)

On our endless trip to Denia today, I jotted down a few of my favorites of Madrid. Here goes...

Spanish cuisine - mushrooms on bread tapa or shrimp on bread tapa. Basically anything on bread. Let it be known that vegetables were never an option.
Pick-up line - Suzanne: ´¿Hablas ingles?´ If yes, ´Here are my American friends.´ If no, ´Hola, Me llamo Susana....´
Advertisement - ´Mujeres Desperado primero en Fox´...Desperate Housewives´ ads were all over Madrid!
Game to pass time - Where´s Waldo
Roommate - the second one (first one was shady and slept all day, the third one arrived in the middle of the night)
Landmark - statue of a bear, signifying the center of Spain. Haha, bears.
Comical haircut - mullet (profesional in the front, fiesta in the back = business in the front, party in the back)
Drink - vodka y limon´ (basically a glass of vodka with a splash of some lemon drink on top) Crazy delicious!
Non-alcoholic drink - fresh squeezed orange juice
Favorite machine - Machine that squeezes the oranges for the juice
Saying - Padre de emilia esta un vespa!
Borrowed item - Chrissy Li´s backpack! Thanks, lady. It has worked like a charm (and for those of you that remember the procrastination of packing, I threw everything into the backpack at 10pm on Thurs. night).
Mode of transportation - NOT a bus!
Practical purchase - purse/bag After keeping a change purse, camera, keys, and gum in separate pockets for two days, I finally consolidated. I´m such a wreck.
Accomplishment - Making it around the city with only Kim and ordering lunch (en Español) while Suz visited her family. If you remember from an earlier posting, Kim and I only speak Spanish like we´re in a Spanish soap opera (Diego!).
Restaurant name - Museo de Jamon (Mike/Carlos, you were right! I did not order anything there). You literally walk into a room complete with hams strung up on the walls as far as the eye can see.

That´s about it with my favorites for now. However, I made a few other observations while in Madrid:
1) the Surgeon General´s warning has not quite made it to Spain yet. Phillip Morris is sitting pretty thanks to the number of smokers over here.
2) For those of you that know Suzanne and how much she likes to talk about Spain when in the US, you should see her in Spain! I seriously think this is her home.

- Emily

Feliz ´tercer dia de españa´ dia*

2006-03-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

* Happy ´third day in spain´day

So, here is the much awaited blog entry. It turns out that blogging is a pretty big commitment, especially when you are spending the majority of your time galavanting about. We´ll try to keep up with it as best we can, but we are not promising spectacular things.

So, our third day in Madrid has come to a close. Here are the highlights -

- Seeing the sights of Madrid - Plaza Mayor, Plaza Sol, Plaza de Oriente, Palacio Real, the Parque Retiro
- Learning that Kim and Emily are native spanish speakers after a few vodka y limon´s. Classic example, Kim said ´Padre de Emilia esta un vespa¨(Emilys father is a vespa). She meant to say he owns a Vespa. He really does not though.
- Playing an endless game of ¨wheres waldo¨with the city of Madrid. Red and white striped shirts are very in vogue here.
- Suzanne jumping behind the bar to pick up the slack when our peanuts and gummy bears dish got empty
- Learning that Pennsylvania is ahead of its time - mullets are very in as well
- A never ending bus ride/test trip to Legantes in the afternoon of day 2 to ´pick up´ tickets from a ticket office that didn´t open until 5 pm (boooo to the bus driver who said he would tell us which stop it was and didn´t. We really enjoyed the two hours we lost because of him)
- Seeing Jack Johnson in concert last night in a bull ring in Legantes
- Kim and Emily referring to every small child as ´Guillermo´ for ease of reference
- Sharing our blog address with everyone we have met (again, after a few vodka y limon´s at El Chambao -- hola Erik!).
- Having discussions about lack of posting and then hopping on the blog to write ´will write more later´
- Suzanne giving Spanish language lessons to Kim and Emily. Favorite translation was when Emily asked, ¨so how do I say that I am temporarily not a sack of potatoes?¨
- Learning that they don´t serve vegetables in Spain (Sarah - you will love it here)

And the best two parts......
- Suzannes visit to see her familia española (including the real Guillermo who will some day play for DC United) from when she studied abroad ages ago.
- Fresh squeezed orange juice machines everywhere!!!!!

Tomorrow we head off to Denia. Keep checking back and ´we´ll write more later´

buenos nachos - Kim and Emily
(Suzanne says ´buenas noches´)

2006-03-13T01:07:00.000-08:00

Hi All,

Kim here. Just a quick post ... we went to see jack johnson last night and it was awesome. we´re soaking in the sights of madrid and will write more later.

Happy 1st Day in Spain Day!

2006-03-11T08:36:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you all know that we arrived in Madrid safe and sound ...and exhausted after 20 hours of traveling! We have been out and about in the city already, soaking up as much culture as possible with Suzanne as the tourguide. We will write more later.

P.S. The new Madrid airport looks like it was furnished by IKEA. We wonder how long it took to assemble it with those stupid thumbwrenches.

And so it begins...

2006-03-10T06:27:00.000-08:00

3 days left and we have yet to begin to pack

2006-03-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

So we're leaving in three days and we have not yet begun to pack. Due to our stellar packing skills that we've obtained having been on travel for the past three months, we are certain we can pull it together the morning that we leave.

To kill time while we are not packed yet, we decided we would sit around and write a blog about why we are not packed yet.

All of these events occurred on Sunday evening, which was the original time set aside for packing (then relived on Monday night as we wrote about it):

Plotted college throw-back party for later in the summer, including flip cup, jungle juice, a tub full of Natty Light, black lights, iridescent empty liquor bottles on display, tapestries and unframed art on the wall, discussed which friends would have unframed art to lend, talked about how we need to go home first to get composites and paddles.
College throw-back essentials led to an in-depth discussion of how beer bonging was not lady like. Debated aesthetics of beer bongs owned by female friends in college versus beer bongs owned by males ("Even if it's a girl's beer bong, it still is not dainty.") Date of party is TBD, but you are all invited.
Realized we would not see some of our friends for 10 days, so we decided Thursday would be happy hour night. Debated friends and location of the happy hour. Still undetermined.
The following conversation took place (only, it took place over 4 hours):
Kim: What are you doing Tuesday night? Sisters of Mercy are in concert at 9:30 club.
Emily: I am not going to a goth concert with you. I checked out the schedule at 9:30 club and want to see every other band playing this week…except Sisters of Mercy.
Kim (whining): Come on, it'll be fun. Think of all the memories. It'll be a cultural experience for you. It will be comical.
Emily: I'll think about it (with no real intention of "thinking about it").
Kim: Come on! You don't even have to get dressed up; you just have to wear all black and no make-up!
Emily: Yeah, I don't think my black work pants will really blend in.
Kim: Do you think the music will have Satanic overtones?
Emily: They're CALLED Sisters of Mercy! God will totally be judging you.
Conducted extensive research on Sisters of Mercy….on dial-up (due to our dodgy high-speed that has punked out). Determined that lead singer resembled a very angry Michael Stipe with significantly more muscle and rage (not helping Kim's selling point to Emily). Thus, Kim began trying to convince herself that she wanted to attend.
Emily began to contemplate which luggage to bring, which prompted her to show her entire Vera Bradley collection from 1990, while providing the little bit of Hoosier trivia that Vera Bradley originated in her hometown. She added a personal connection about how her high school English teacher was one of the original quilting sweatshopees.
Decided that we really needed to get down to packing, so we made the following list of what to bring:
2 nights worth of clubby clothes (assuming that is our max of "clubbiness")
Towels
Mini shampoos collected from our 3 months of travel
Pumas
Uggs
Green t-shirt (that Suz bought us) that say "Everyone loves an Irish girl."
iPod converter
Swimsuit (completely aware of the fact that it is 30-degrees outside)
Travel pillows
Flip-flops
Kim realized she did not have clubby shoes to match her clubby clothes. She went shoe shopping, and arrived back one-hour later to model her three new pairs of shoes to Em; all the while, vowing she will not go shoe shopping until September.
With her new black boots, Kim began planning her outfit for the Sisters of Mercy concert, still trying to convince Emily to attend. The following conversation took place:
Kim: Come on! You are sooo going to the concert.
Emily: Um, I'll think about it. Wanna dye my hair?
Kim: Okay.
Kim dyes Emily's hair the exact same color it was, but convinces her it looks black for the goth concert.
Back to discussing what to bring.
Emily: Don't forget your passport.
Kim: Here it is.
(Kim opens up passports and realizes her Brazil Visa expires in two years)
Kim: We have to go to Brazil in the next two years. (Emily agrees).
Thus, we began to plan the trip to Brazil and South America for next January. Meanwhile, singing "Rio" by Duran Duran. Also, decided that from here on out any Spanish word spoken at our place is to be spoken as though we were in a Spanish soap opera, inspired from the newly acquired Comcast channel 17, the Spanish Soap Opera channel. Spent time tossing hair in the mirror and saying, "Diego" with an overdramatic Spanish accent.

Here we are, Monday night, and still not packed. However, we have a list and a passport.

On a side note, we decided we will NOT be attending the goth concert because we, well, "need to pack."

Meet Las Gringas

2006-03-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

___Suz___________Em_________Kim