Paris.. also a leeettle bit late.

Okay so two weekends ago a few of my friends and I headed to Paris. Little did we know that is would be such an action packed weekend. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you every detail. I would love to be able so share everything with you, but I think we may have done everything you can do in that city in three days so I will condense it into as few words possible and put up more pictures. DAY 1.. we flew in on a Thursday night and found our little hostel in Bastille. Caroline, my wonderful navigator, got us safely around on the Paris metro, and we were switching trains and hopping turnstiles like pros after 30 minutes. We grabbed some Subway (side note. I have somehow managed to eat Subway in every city I have visited so far, kinda sad) and realized how little French we really know.. and by little I mean, none. After Subway, we headed up a few train stops to meet up with our friend Molly and her friend, Sarah, who is studying in Paris. She has a cozy little apartment and we hung out with them for a little in typical French fashion, eating bread and cheese and drinking wine. DAY 2. The next day Carol and I woke up early, met up with Liza and went to the Eiffel Tower to go on a Fat Tire Bike Tour. It was pretty freezing outside, but it was one of the things my sister said I HAD to do, so I knew it would be fun. Our tour guide Andrew was awesome and we had a blast. We saw so much of the city in 4 hours that I really started to feel oriented and felt like I knew my way around a little bit. After the bike tour, we went down Champ Elysees and walked in Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton, and ended up next to the Arc de Triomphe. We then went to a little bakery and got more bread, cheese and coffee while we waited for Grace to get in. After meeting her at the hostel, we took a little nap then went to the Lourve because on Friday nights, students get in FREE! There weren't that many people there at all so we got to take our time looking at things which was nice. After the Louvre, we went to a delicious little restaurant tucked back in one of the streets near our hostel. The street was highly recommended by our bike guide and he said to just pick a place that didn't have any English on the menu and it would be good. And it was so gooood. DAY 3. So Saturday morning, we woke up and went up to Sacre Couer and Montmarte, which I think was my favorite area. I got some really delicious gelato. After, we walked over to Marais (the Jewish district) and got some really great falafel (again, recommended highly by Lauren) and stopped in a cupcake shop (just to add to the 10 lbs I have already gained whilst studying abroad), then walked around in the Latin Quarter. Next we headed to the Luxembourg Gardens, then to Notre Dame Cathedral, and then to Shakespeare and Co. (a great little bookstore near the Cathedral). For dinner we ate a delicious Mexican place where the owner gave us free margaritas because we spoke Spanish to him! That night we went to a fun bar, Polly Magoo's and listened to some live music. Another successful day. DAY 4. Our flight on Sunday didn't leave until 4 so we had some time to kill. We got up and went to the Rodin Museum (my favorite) and then to Musee d'Orsay. Orsay had a really long line so we actually didn't go in. Then we were kinda beat so we went to get some crepes and hang out in the garden next to the Louvre before catching the RER to the airport. All in all in was a GREAT trip.


Liza and I in front of la Tour Eiffel


During our Fat Tire Bike Tour (it was freezing)


FINISHED!


Arc de Triomphe


Champ Elysees


Notre Dame (sorry they are crooked, I couldn't fix them!)


Inside Notre Dame


Shakespeare and Co.


Caroline and Grace in the Luxembourg Gardens


THE Mona Lisa


Louvre at night

Me, Grace, Liza and Caroline


Rodin's 'The Thinker'


Rodin's 'The Kiss'

Barcelona.. one month later.

Alright, so I am wayyyy behind on this blogging thing. Once you get a few days behind though then it just keeps adding and all of the sudden it has been a month. And it is such a daunting task to try to catch up! So I'm just going to take baby steps and start with Barcelona (weekend of Feb 26 to 28 .. This is the only trip that was included in our program fee and we stayed in a 4 star hotel (woohoo! nice change from our little dorm room). We also had a nice change in food from the dorms. Once we got there we ate at FresCo an Italian buffet with a delicious salad bar with fresh vegetables, etc. A hot commodity for us who eat patatas and bread with every meal. That night we went out for chupitos (spanish for shots) at a place called Chupitos. This little nook is one of the hot spots in Barcelona and it was packed! It was really fun though and we got all sorts of cool shots, for example, one called a 'boyscout', where they give you a marshmallow and light your shot on fire so you can roast it. After that we headed to a popular club called 'Razmataz'. All in all it was a great first day. The next day we proceeded to wake up and get on the bus for a 4 hour tour of the city. It sounds awful but it was actually not that bad. We passed alot of Antonio Gaudi's buildings and then headed up to Park Gruel (a park Gaudi made for the Gruel family.) This park was crazy. It looked straight out of a Dr. Seuss book with a bunch of mosaic and funky caves, etc. It also had a great view of the city. After the bus tour we went for a LONG walk down to the Picasso Museum which was close to the ocean. It was really fun though to walk down the streets. We saw a bunch of cool street venders and markets along the way. Finally we made it to the museum, which is hidden back in a little alley, not where we would have suspected it would be. It was really interesting though and we spent a good bit of time there. Afterward, we headed back up to our hotel and stopped in some stores where I found a perfect leather jacket. It was actually one that I had been looking at in a store in Valencia, Bershka, which, along with H&M and Zara, is a very popular Spanish store. I ended up getting it and I absolutely love it. GREAT purchase. That night I believe we went down to a bar called Shoko because my friend, Liza, had free entrance tickets. That is one thing that I really hate about clubs.. 15 euro entrance fees, then 12 euro drinks makes for an expensive night. Hence, I haven't really been 'clubbing' too much. The next morning, Gracer and I grabbed some Subway then hopped on the bus for a lovely ride home along the Spanish coastline.

Here are some pics I took along the way..


View from a lookout point before we got to the top where Park Gruel is located.

Park Gruel


Caves at Park Gruel


Park Gruel again..


Sagrada Familia (not your typical cathedral)

Doobleen! (Day 1)

So my first European backing adventure has come and gone. It was a huge success and I highly recommend visiting Dublin, actually Ireland for the matter. My excursion began on Thursday afternoon. One of my friends, Kristen, and I left for the airport after class and met up with 4 of our other friends once we got there. We hopped on a plane for Madrid, had a short lay over, then arrived in Dublin at 11ish that night. We caught a cab over to our hostel, Kinlay House, on Dame Street next to Christ Church Cathedral and ended up not getting settled until like 11:30 or 12 though. We went straight to bed to get some much needed rest for our PaddyWagon bus tour across the country to the Cliffs of Moher (west coast) at 6 AM the next morning!




Our first stop on the tour was a little castle in Limerick, located on the Shannon River. We hopped out for a quick break to stretch our legs and take a few pics. The castle was really cool and looked straight out of the Medieval times. The picture below is of my little travel group from Valencia.. Molly, Caroline, Taylor, Kristen, Me, and Joe.



Our second stop was at the Bunratty castle.. yet again, more of a pee break but it was nice to see a couple cool things on the way!



Finally we came into the little town a Doolin where the Cliffs of Moher are located. Please make note of what a beautiful day it was. Our tour guide, Don, told us that we were seeing Ireland one of the 30 sunny days in the whole year. Guess we caught a little luck in Ireland! What are the chances.



We were going to buy postcards in the gift shop, but the lady told us that our pictures were better because the weather was so beautiful. But really, these pictures don't even do the cliffs any justice. They are, as we say in Spain, 'in-cre-EEEE-ble'!







The picture below was of my first Irish meal in my first Irish Pub that we went to after leaving the cliffs!



After stuffing ourselves on turkey, mash, and veggies, we traveled along the ocean for a little bit as the sun was setting and ended up pulling over on the side of the road to check out the coastline. Our tour guide said that all of the rocks that we were standing on used to be part of the ocean floor.



The pic above was really scary to take.. it was very windy on that little slab of ocean floor. And it was like a 50 foot drop to the water below!



Saying goodbye to this beautiful day on the Irish coast line was VERY hard, but once we got back, we treated ourselves to fish and chips at the famous, Leo Burdock's! There is a huge list of celebrities who have eaten here including Sandra Bullock, Bruce Springsteen, Russell Crowe, Liam Neeson, Charlize Theron, just to name a few..



To finish off a wonderful day, we went out to Temple Bar, one of the more popular bars, which was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel. It is kind of a touristy area but we managed to have an awesome time. All in all, our first day in Dublin was a huge success!

Apologies

I am too tired to post Day 1 of my Dublin trip.. Day 2 is already posted because of the way that I have to upload my pictures. BUT get excited for the Day 1 pics because we took a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher and other fun places. There are just too many for me to sort through right now but they will be up tomorrow! Enjoy Day 2.. even though it was a little less exciting than Day 1. Goodnight!

Doobleen! (Day 2)

On Saturday we woke up and went to the Guinness Factory for a look at how Ireland's finest is made. It is a self guided tour through a 5 story building.. soo cool and interesting.



On the top floor of the factory is a bar called Gravity that is completely surrounded in windows. You can see ALL of Dublin.. and they give you a free pint of Guinness! Not my favorite beer, but definitely delicious. Mind you, it was like 11 Am and Guinness is just not on my list of things I want for breakfast.



We left the Guinness factory and took a 10 minute walk down the road to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We ended up paying the 4 euro to go inside and it was SO worth it.



I wish I could remember all the interesting things I learned about cathedrals in AP Art History but I can't. All I know is that this cathedral was BEAUTIFUL. It was so fun being inside something so old. I think they said it was built in 1170. There is just so much history in one building!



Next we took another walk over to Trinity College. On the way we walked up Grafton Street which is an awesome shopping area. We stopped in a couple cool stores.. mainly because we were freezing. And there were a bunch of street musicians out which was nice to listen to. Anyways, we finally made it up to Trinity, and we were going to go in the old library to see the Book of Kells.. but it was like 11 euro and we were tired and it was getting colder by the second. We walked around the campus though and looked at the buildings.. at least we can say we've been there now! Check that off the list.





After leaving Trinity College, we looked EVERYWHERE for a seat in a bar to watch the Ireland v France rugby game. But alas, this is the favorite sport of Ireland so of course the entire Irish population is out watching this game. There literally was not even standing room in any of the bars. So, we started on our walk home, found a bar to stand at and watch a couple minutes of the gruesome game in, and then went back to the hostel for a nap. And I wish I had pictures to capture the delicious meal that we ate for dinner at Acapulco's. You wouldn't think that Mexican in Ireland would be good, but they were some of the best fajitas I have had in my life. And to top it off, we split some fried ice cream. Kind of expensive, but SO worth it. Afterwards, we went out to a find a couple clubs and bars that we were told would be fun. Some of them were too expensive, so we moved on and eventually found a bar called South Williams Street.. thanks to our new found Irish friend Angus. It was a great day in Dublin and I slept well that night. Getting home the next day was a little rough.. the last leg of the trip was a 4 hour bus ride from Madrid to Valencia and I swear, the bus was at least 90 degrees. I tried to talk the bus driver into turning the air on, but I think it was just a cheap bus. He laughed at me and kept driving.

Thus ends my weekend travels to Dublin. It was a great trip but I was glad to be back in my cozy little dorm room. Backpacking is not as easy as I thought. There is just a constant internal struggle between wanting to sleep and wanting to the the absolute most out of every minute in a foreign country. I think my next experience will be better. I am learning the ways of the cheap traveler so hopefully I will have it down soon. Hope all is well with everyone else! Love to everyone!

Past couple o days..

La Indiana

Thursday night was a BIG night. A huge group of us went out with the Spanish kids from our dorm to one of the coolest 'discotecas' in the city.. maybe even in Spain.. called La Indiana (Discoteca is just the word for dance club here.) This place was awesome. It has three floors and feels like you are underground. We all had alot of fun and danced until 6 in the morning! Sleep just isn't a nighttime activity here.. which is why they 'siesta' during the day :)

Friday was rather uneventful, a few of us went out for a gelato and then to the grocery store here, El Corte Ingles, which is actually more like a department store, plus a 'supermercado'. It has EVERYTHING you could ever want or need. All in all, though, we had a leisurely day and just strolled around the city for a little while. One might say it was a bit of a recovery day.


Valencia Club de Futbol Stadium

Yesterday a group of us got up to go shopping around the city. February is the big bargain or 'rebajas' month.. and we are all already sick of our clothes.. so we shopped. I ended up finding a very cute dress, pants and jacket for 20 euros. Very good purchases. We ate lunch at a great little restaurant, Asador Pipol, on one of the side streets and I had my first taste of the famous Spanish paella. It was delicious. We then headed home and took a quick 20 minute nap before going to the Valencia futbol game! It was Valencia vs. Valladolid (city in central Spain). We crushed them 2-0 but it should've been by more.. Valencia had some awesome shots. It got me excited for our student game tomorrow (in case you were wondering, my body has made a full recovery from the last game.. praise God)



AMUNT VALENCIA!

Adios for now, more posts soon to come. We were going to go hiking this afternoon, but it pretty overcast today so I think it might just be a homework and hang out day. I'm heading to Dublin this weekend which should be very fun. Thanks to those who emailed me! I love hearing from everyone. Hope all is well!

Fútbol y Más

So one of the benefits of coming with the UGA study abroad program is that we have activities planned everyday for us that are somewhat optional. We are required to attend at least 2 of them a week, but I usually want to do all of them. They range from going to a local museum or exhibition, touring a of the historic monuments in Valencia, etc and cost very little to no money. So far, I have loved all of the activities and am very grateful for the planning that goes into them. Yesterday our activity was an 8vs8 soccer game. Well, I haven't exactly worked out in a few months.. or maybe a year.. but regardless, the game was SO fun. This morning, however, was not. I woke up and could barely move. You would think that a one hour game of soccer for a 20-year-old former high school athlete would be fairly easy on the body. Wrong.

Anyways, other than the severe amount of pain that undergo with every step, I'm just living the life of a regular old Spaniard. I walked half way to China this morning looking for a book store and unfortunately never found it. It was in a new part of the city and I got a little lost, then had to start walking to class or I'd be late. On my way to class, I passed a large group of tourists all with cameras in hand, staring up at one of the old cathedrals in the city. Not gonna lie, I felt very cool as I swiftly bypassed them.. but not before giving the "uh, tourists are so annoying" look. Probably not the nicest thing to do, but I had to.. I don't feel like a tourist anymore and I needed to prove it to someone!

I'll post pics soon.. we are going to visit the Valencian soccer stadium (the Valencia team is 3rd right now to Real Madrid and Barcelona.. so they are pretty good!) on Thursday to check out the field and locker room, etc. Hopefully we will go to one of the games soon. Saturday we might go the Aquarium and Science museum.. or to a wine tasting in a little city north of here. Still undecided. Then Sunday we are hopefully going to go hiking in some near-by coastal mountains! Geez, what a life I lead. I can't believe I am actually here doing all of these things. I am so blessed. Don't forget to email me and tell me about your lives too! Love you all!

Churros, El Rio, La Playa

Firstly, I must tell you of this delicious treat that I believe came from heaven. The picture below is a hot, fresh-out-of-the-whatever-they-cook-it-in churro, dipped in liquid chocolate (the spanish version of hot chocolate). Some friends and I were walking home last night when we came upon a chocolate shop. We ended up ordering 12 churros and 2 mugs of chocolate to split.. I waddled home.



After the churros and a nap, we all went out to a local bar called O'haras and got some drinks then later went to dance at a place called Bolseria. Very fun night. Here is a pic of Grace and I with two of our other friends, Caroline and Suzanne.



And this is a picture of Grace, Laura and I at the "Rio", which is a dried up river bed that they turned into a park. It runs all through the city and is full of soccer fields, huge playgrounds, skate parks, ponds, and all sort of monuments, etc. It is beautiful and always full of people. Yesterday we walked through the Rio on our way to the Museo de Fallas, which is all about the Fallas Festival which is going to be here during our spring break in March. I don't think I can explain it well enough, so I encourage all to look it up on Google. It is supposed to be INSANE!



Today a big group of us took a trip down to the beach, which is like a 20 minute tram ride. It was a little cloudy at first but it cleared up and we had a great time.. first time at the Mediterranean Sea! The beach is huge and the sand is very fine and soft. The water was freezing.. but of course we had a few who decided to take a dip. We also got a 5v5 soccer game going and later some of us went up to get coffee and wine at a little cafe. The sun was setting as we were leaving and it was absolutely gorgeous! (The pictures don't do it justice.)





Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the blogging! Email me (britt.mack@gmail.com) and tell me about your lives!

More pichas

Here are some more pics that I stole from friends :)



I think this picture is from either the roof of our dorms or the Towers de Serrano that we visited earlier. Either way I think it is beautiful.



These are our charming little dorm rooms. However, this is not my room. Grace and I got a room without a balcony.. and our window looks out to a white wall. BUT its okay, we love our room.

This is just another view from the streets of Valencia!

Torres de Serrano

A couple days ago we went on a short 10 minute walk from our dorm to the Torres (Towers) of Serrano and we got to see all of Valencia as the sun was going down. Que bonita!

Tha streets of Valencia!

Here are a couple of pictures.. that are actually not mine.. they are collected from various friend's Facebooks. I have yet to buy a converter to charge my camera to upload my pictures to my computer.







I believe these were either the walk from the bus to our dorms in Valencia on the first day or just excursions around the city.. just wanted to give you an idea of what it the streets are like. Most of the buildings have shops in the bottom and then apartments and offices on the upper floors.