It's been a little while since I've last updated, but it is because everyone that reads this says that all I talk about is going out and drinking... which is what I've been doing the past two weeks :) Starting in April, I will only have two full weekends left in Madrid due to my up and coming EXCITING travel destinations - so the past two weeks (and the week and a half ahead) of my life have been (will be) dedicated to enjoying the city for what it is best known for: its Nightlife! Some of the most exciting nights included our favorite places (Cien/Orange on Wednesdays), our typical Thursday at Joy, and our other favorite place (El Tigre). Kira has had a lot of visitors staying with us including her brother, his girlfriend, Harriet from London, and her two best friends from home - Corissa and Emily! ...yeah I have no friends :( THANKS FOR VISITING ME GUYS! Anyway, last Friday a huge group of us went to El Kapital, a 7 story nightclub that doesn't open til 1 a.m. It is literally 7 floors of pure madness... each floor plays a different kind of music (rap, techno, reggae, etc..) and the top floor is open rooftop! On the first floor, they would shoot like cold mist/air/fog from the ceiling every 20 minutes that made you feel like you were practically getting blown over (my favorite part lol) and we stayed until like 6...it was a LOT of fun! OH and St Patty's day was CRAZY! My friend Marisa and I decided to go to the strip of Irish pubs close to where I live (Dubliners, O'Connells, O'Reileys) and got SUPER decked out in all SPD attire ( ...sorry '07, no green paint :/ ) and because of our great outfits, the bartenders served us free Guinness (as if I didn't drink enough Guinness in Dublin)! Hmm...aside from going out pretty much every night, Kira and I played tour guide in showing her visitors around Madrid, so it was nice to see all the touristy sites. We also spent many days just laying out at Retiro Park (I'M TAN!!) in the 75-80 degree weather- HAH be jealousss! The only bummer was that we were supposed to go to the Real Madrid soccer game yesterday, but the tickets had sold out :'( we're just going to have to go another time. I also got my first art test back and got a 100 :) Sooo the good news is I'm still passing in school!
My next trip is during Semana Santa (Holy Week: April 4-April 12) I'm going to MOROCCO! All the girls decided to buy neon colored linen pants for the desert/riding camels, and I'm pretty pumped to wear them.. haha!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
LONDON
First I'll start you off with some background information. Kira's brother studied abroad in Madrid last year, and lived with a girl from London named Harriet...which is who we stayed with this past weekend. Now, Kira and I arrived in London at Harriet's house at like 1:30 in the morning on Thursday night. Greeted by her mom who got us glasses of water, and then took a quick tour of their 7 story home! (yep- 7 floors...absolutely GORGEOUS!) Harriet was at her university in Bristol and was coming home for the weekend to be our tour guide the following day, so we just went to bed and woke up early the next morning. Since Harriet wasn't arriving in London until 5 p.m. and Harriet's mom was leaving for the weekend, we ventured out into the city after breakfast with maps and some help of Harriet's mom's suggestions/directions. We went to Piccadily Circus, Trafalgar Square (the heart of the city) which had fountains and Nelson's Column, saw the National Gallery, Horse Guard's Parade, St. Paul's Cathedral, Leicester Square, Covent Gardens, Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross (for all the Harry Potter fans!!), shopped at Spitalfields markets, and finally Notting Hill. We met Harriet back at her house where we ate lasagna and drank wine out on her rooftop terrace that overlooks the city...absolutely amazing. Afterwards, she took us to a ¨Pubby Pub¨ (an authentic Pub where Prince Charles likes to hang out!)...we didn't see him :( haha. The next morning, we woke up bright and early to go around London and see the tourist attractions of the city. Starting at Saatchi Gallery (really cool modern art collection- my favorite was wax old men on motorized wheelchairs!) then Buckingham Palace, we watched the hour long CHANGING OF THE GUARDS! It was sooo cool and I've never seen so many people in my life! We got really lucky and somehow ended up right in the front among THOUSANDS! Next we walked through St. James' Park and headed towards Westminster's Abbey (a giant cathedral where all the kings and queens are burried- beautiful). Next to it is where Harriet went to high school so she showed us around, and it was also where part of the DaVinci Code was filmed! On our way to the London Eye, we saw Big Ben, Houses of Parliment, and crossed the Thames River. We then bought tickets for the London Eye (London built the world's largest ferris wheel as their Millenium project) which is a giant ferris wheel overlooking all of the city - it's about a 35 minute ride :) and it was awesome. Afterwards we headed to Chinatown and had really good Chinese food for lunch (Don't worry Alycia...it was not as good as Number 1 =] miss you<3) Moving onnn.. we saw Bank of London, Tower of London (Castle where they used to keep people before they were beheaded), and the Tower and London Bridges! Still more! Then we did a little shopping at Primark and fiiiinally ended up at Harrod's (a massive/gorgeous department store that has anything and everything you could possibly imagine) At night, Harriet took us to Brick Lane - a street that has tons of curry restaurants where the owners haggle over you to come to theirs, and you pick one depending on the best offer - we chose free bottles of wine and a birthday cake for Harriet's birthday that was a week from that night - and obviously ate curry. We stayed there pretty late due to the fact that we could not go to sleep. Kira and I had to get to a bus station at 3:30 to take us back to the airport for our 6:30 a.m. flight. Everything went A LOT smoother at the airport this time around, and we were back in Madrid at about 10 a.m. Obviously I immediately went to bed :)
The exciting part is that Kira's brother and HARRIET are coming to Madrid to stay with us this weekendddd!
The exciting part is that Kira's brother and HARRIET are coming to Madrid to stay with us this weekendddd!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Dubh Linn, Ireland
As most of you know, I just got back from my weekend in Dublin, Ireland and it was awesome! Because so many things happened on this trip, I figured it would be easiest just to list things...so here it goes:
- Left Wednesday after school, arrived in Dublin at about 11 at night. Took a bus to Isaacs Hostel (Shared a 16 bed dorm, everyone was sleeping, and had to find our beds in the dark) Dropped our stuff and headed to O'Connell Street. Sadly mistaken because there were no pubs/clubs open at 12:30 at night..apparently we later found out we were in the wrong area. Finally found "Q" a club where we bought our first Guinness (only beer we had to buy while we were there) and met a group of 5 Irish guys to hang out with.
- Thursday woke up and went on a 3 hour walking tour of the city: saw City Hall, Dublin Castle, Viking Remains, Christ Church Cathedral, Parliment, St. Stephan's Green, etc. Went to go on the tour of Guinness Factory and found out the top floor (Gravity Bar) was closed for a private party so we decided to go another day. Went to dinner at a Pub, and began pub hopping. Started in The Quay's (strip of pubs in Temple bar area) and met the Ireland and Milan rugby team (not the professional one) Then headed to Arlington Lounge and saw live Irish music and the Celtic dancers - absolutely insane! Went back to Temple bar area to THE Temple Bar (most famous pub in Dublin) met 2 Irish guys and had more Guinness.
- Friday took a bus tour to Wicklow Mountains/Glendalough Valley. Saw the area of 7 churches/cemetaries. Walked through the Glendalough Valley "Valley of Two Lakes" and took in the beautiful atmosphere of the 2 biggest glacial lakes in Ireland. One of which was in a scene from the movie Excalibur, and the area between the two lakes was the wedding scene from Braveheart! We then went to lunch at a pub in the valley, and continued on to see Lough Tay and Sally's Gap. The view was so spectacular, there is no picture that could show how truly unbelievable the view actually was. I also go to see the bridge from one of the scenes in PS I Love You :) Back in Dublin, we found out that earlier that day there was the biggest bank robbery in the history of Dublin (7 million euros) haha WAS NOT ME :) Anyway, then Kira and I went to get some Irish dinner with two French girls we met in our hostel, then went back, got ready (in freezing cold/not constantly running showers by the way), and headed back out! I couldn't really explain Friday night to you, because Kira and I counted and realized we went to 7 different pubs/bars/clubs in the city of Dublin! Overall, it was a really fun night!
- Saturday we went back to the Guinness Factory: which was crrraazzzyyy ;) Seven floors of a self-guided tour through the storehouse of Guinness beer for 250 years. We learned what the ingredients were, how it was made, the bibliography of Arthur Guinness himself, tasted different kinds of Guinness, went to the Gravity Bar (7th floor of all windows where you drink Guinness and can see the entire city of Dublin), and poured our own Guinness from the tap! (even got a certificate for pouring the perfect pint) =D Afterwards, we quickly packed up, and headed for the airport. Check-in was a DISASTER! Long lines, I was charged for and improper check-in, and Kira was charged 265 euros for supposedly booking her ticket for the 28th of March instead of February!!!! Needless to say...we will never fly RyanAir again (cheap European airline) But, we both made it safely back home to Madrid - Kira and I even went out to El Tigre with the girls, because God knows Kira needed a drink!
This Thursday Kira and I leave for LONDON! No hostels and no RyanAir - so I'm pretty sure things will run more smoothly this time :)
- Left Wednesday after school, arrived in Dublin at about 11 at night. Took a bus to Isaacs Hostel (Shared a 16 bed dorm, everyone was sleeping, and had to find our beds in the dark) Dropped our stuff and headed to O'Connell Street. Sadly mistaken because there were no pubs/clubs open at 12:30 at night..apparently we later found out we were in the wrong area. Finally found "Q" a club where we bought our first Guinness (only beer we had to buy while we were there) and met a group of 5 Irish guys to hang out with.
- Thursday woke up and went on a 3 hour walking tour of the city: saw City Hall, Dublin Castle, Viking Remains, Christ Church Cathedral, Parliment, St. Stephan's Green, etc. Went to go on the tour of Guinness Factory and found out the top floor (Gravity Bar) was closed for a private party so we decided to go another day. Went to dinner at a Pub, and began pub hopping. Started in The Quay's (strip of pubs in Temple bar area) and met the Ireland and Milan rugby team (not the professional one) Then headed to Arlington Lounge and saw live Irish music and the Celtic dancers - absolutely insane! Went back to Temple bar area to THE Temple Bar (most famous pub in Dublin) met 2 Irish guys and had more Guinness.
- Friday took a bus tour to Wicklow Mountains/Glendalough Valley. Saw the area of 7 churches/cemetaries. Walked through the Glendalough Valley "Valley of Two Lakes" and took in the beautiful atmosphere of the 2 biggest glacial lakes in Ireland. One of which was in a scene from the movie Excalibur, and the area between the two lakes was the wedding scene from Braveheart! We then went to lunch at a pub in the valley, and continued on to see Lough Tay and Sally's Gap. The view was so spectacular, there is no picture that could show how truly unbelievable the view actually was. I also go to see the bridge from one of the scenes in PS I Love You :) Back in Dublin, we found out that earlier that day there was the biggest bank robbery in the history of Dublin (7 million euros) haha WAS NOT ME :) Anyway, then Kira and I went to get some Irish dinner with two French girls we met in our hostel, then went back, got ready (in freezing cold/not constantly running showers by the way), and headed back out! I couldn't really explain Friday night to you, because Kira and I counted and realized we went to 7 different pubs/bars/clubs in the city of Dublin! Overall, it was a really fun night!
- Saturday we went back to the Guinness Factory: which was crrraazzzyyy ;) Seven floors of a self-guided tour through the storehouse of Guinness beer for 250 years. We learned what the ingredients were, how it was made, the bibliography of Arthur Guinness himself, tasted different kinds of Guinness, went to the Gravity Bar (7th floor of all windows where you drink Guinness and can see the entire city of Dublin), and poured our own Guinness from the tap! (even got a certificate for pouring the perfect pint) =D Afterwards, we quickly packed up, and headed for the airport. Check-in was a DISASTER! Long lines, I was charged for and improper check-in, and Kira was charged 265 euros for supposedly booking her ticket for the 28th of March instead of February!!!! Needless to say...we will never fly RyanAir again (cheap European airline) But, we both made it safely back home to Madrid - Kira and I even went out to El Tigre with the girls, because God knows Kira needed a drink!
This Thursday Kira and I leave for LONDON! No hostels and no RyanAir - so I'm pretty sure things will run more smoothly this time :)
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