Thursday, May 24, 2012

The final trip: Lagos, Portugal and a 20th birthday

Lagos is a trip I've been looking to and dreading for the past few months. Looking forward to it for obvious reasons, but dreading it mainly because I knew it would mark the end of my 5 month period of traveling around Europe. So with mixed feelings, I woke up at 6 am Friday morning to catch the 7:30 am bus to Lagos. After a quick breakfast of cornflakes, and Pilar waking up cause she "couldn't sleep" (We're fairly certain we woke her up and so she came in the kitchen to snoop on us...it was very odd. She drank a juice box, mopped the floors, and fluffed the pillows....at 6:30 in the morning. Things have been slightly odd at home to say the least and we're not exactly sure why. But I will tell you one thing: I'll be glad to get back home to my real house with my real parents in two weeks!), we caught a cab with 2 other girls to the bus station.

After a slight mishap with one girl who lost her ticket and ended up having to buy a ticket for the 4:00 bus, we were on our way to Lagos. Five and a half quick hours later, we had arrived. I eventually tracked down the lady we were renting a guest house from. Kevin had recommened CasaAmarela as a great place for a big group of us to stay in while we were in Lagos. The only problem was that this lady was very slow to respond to emails...a problem that grew more and more annoying as I was trying to organize a trip for 12 people. But with out too much trouble, we found her and got the keys to our house. It turns out we had all the rooms rented out for ourselves and even had a pool and terrace to enjoy!

Once we had picked our rooms in what reminded me of racing my siblings to pick rooms at a beach house during the summer, we all headed down to the beach to take advantage of what was supposed to be the best weather day we would have. I ended up staying out for four hours or so. I can't tell you how relaxing it was to just lay in the sand and listen to the waves. There really is something special about beach vacations.

Some of the girls!
With Priyanka and Gabi
Beautiful water and cliffs
Later that night we all made a group trip to the grocery store. Two euros a person later, we had all the materials for a gourmet feast: chicken, mounds of pasta, tomato sauce, mixed veggies, cheese and bread....plus some wine for good measure. Rachel and I put ourselves in charge of cooking the chicken. I quickly realized I know very little about charcoal grilling so we had to resort to cooking them on the stove. Not to worry, they were still delicious.

Trying to be manly grillers
After dinner, we went out to enjoy Lagos's infamous nightlife. Drink specials surrounded us and we definitely made the most of it.

Splitting a "fish bowl"
The next day, the weather was cloudier so I spent most of the day relaxing at the house with everyone. We also tracked down this little place my friend Lauren had told us about that had a 3 euro breakfast that consisted of 2 eggs, 2 pieces of toast, and bacon. Then for only 50 cents more you could get a pancake. Breakfast food is definitely something I've missed while in Spain so, needless to say, I went 3 times while we were there....I mean whats not to love about a cheap breakfast place that also has fantastic milkshakes?
At the hole in the wall breakfast place

For dinner that night we all went to a restaurant called Nahnahbah which has been ranked as having one of the 50 best burgers in the world. I'm starting to drool just thinking about it.

Delicious burger
After dinner we took advantage of having a house to ourselves and had a "friendly" game of flip cup. With cheeseburgers and a house party, I truly felt like I was back in Chapel Hill.

On Sunday 9 people left to go back to Sevilla, but Colleen, Marissa and I decided that spending an extra day in Lagos was easily more important than going to our Monday classes. We spent the day at the beach soaking up all the sun we could. We had a movie night at our empty house and woke up early on Monday to spend the morning at the beach. I really didn't ever want to leave. Not only is Lagos absolutely beautiful, I knew that once I was back in Sevilla, my next trip would be home. I have such mixed feelings about this. I am so excited to see everyone again, but at the same time I know that after a few weeks home I'll wish I could be back in Europe traveling around.


Never seen anything like this beach!


Toes in the sand and a new seagull friend

Colleen, Marissa and me

The city of lagos



Yesterday was my 20th birthday…a birthday I honestly kept forgetting was coming up. Pilar had mentioned at least 3 times that my birthday was May 23rd and had even pulled out a cookbook to show me what cake she was planning on making for me. Now I know birthdays aren’t a big deal in Spain (as I saw firsthand with Luis and Maria), but once she said she was making me a cake, I thought there would at least be some sort of mini celebration at home. Turns out she forgot…a fact I quickly realized when no one in our family mentioned happy birthday to me and there were no signs of a cake to be found. I didn’t want to let it get me down, but I must admit it got to me. I don’t think I’d ever had a birthday without a cake or some sort of special dinner….but Spain is different. I ended up eating a ham sandwich for dinner. Quite different from the filet mignon we normally have. But I have decided that my real birthday will just be celebrated in two weeks when I see my family and have a chocolate chip pound cake. Now I don’t want to pain the picture that my birthday was all bad. I did get to get some drinks with most our program the night before and again at around 6 on my actual birthday. Then Colleen and I went on a late night icecream run to McDonalds to act as my birthday desert. Plus tonight I’m going out with a big group of friends (we couldn’t last night because we had a final this morning). So all in all it turned out alright.
Some of the group celebrating my bday at Cien Montaditos (On Wednesdays everything is a euro!)

Oh and the best present of all (besides the great box of chocolate my friend Jess gave me) was that my exam that was supposed to be on my birthday was switched to be a take home exam. The Spanish students have gone on strike to protest increasing tuition and have called for an academic stop in classes and exams from may 24th to june 7th….which believe it or not passed. This country is absolutely ridiculous, but it is working out in my favor right now! Hopefully my exam that was supposed to be this coming Monday gets moved or cancelled too. We’ll see! Tomorrow Colleen and I are off to spend the day sitting on the beach at Cadiz. I'm going to miss this!

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Weekend of Freedom

I'm not sure what it is about a weekend with no one home that gets Colleen and I so excited. Maybe it's because we've only had a handful of days since January of a house to ourselves. But most likely it's the fact that we don't have to wake up to Carmen screaming in the morning. Whatever it is, having an empty house from Saturday to Tuesday made for a fantastic weekend.

First things first we headed to the grocery store. Our list consisted of all the makings for perfect study food: guacamole and cookie dough. We also picked up instant coffee (which made for much more enjoyable breakfasts), spinach (a real salad for once), bread and cheese. As I might have mentioned our family doesn't eat cheese, so the first chance I saw at a grilled cheese, I jumped.

The weekend itself wasn't too crazy. In fact, I don't even think I have any pictures to post for it. Mostly we just slept in as late as we could (although in a house with no air conditioning and Sevilla's temperatures outside in the 90s, we couldn't really sleep in too much). We cooked and watched movies and lived like queens for three and a half days, but in the blink of an eye it was over. Pilar and Luis just got home from Pilar's 40th birthday trip to Prague. She really doesn't seem to be very excited about turning 40 and keeps repeating that she's 39...to which Carmen keeps correcting her. Speaking of the devil (quite literally), Carmen just ran in to our room to tell us that she, Luis and Maria all got presents from Prague, but we didn't. I don't think I've ever met a child with such sass!

This weekend we are off to Lagos, Portugal...a beach destination that is only a 5 hour bus ride away. I organized the trip, and all 12 of us will be staying in a guest house that Kevin had highly recommended when he visited. The only bad news is the whole weekend is showing a 60 percent chance of rain....lets just hope the weather channel isn't very accurate in Portugal. 

When I get back, I'll be in finals mode. Of course here it won't be as intense as finals week at UNC (since I only have to get a 5 out of 10 to pass the class). But I'll unfortunately have a final on my birthday and the day after...so I'll be celebrating my 20th birthday this weekend in Portugal. Can't beat that! I'll no longer be the age I've always wanted to be, but I figure if 19 has been so great, 20 can only be better!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Less than a month left?

The original purpose for me writing this blog was to keep track of my thoughts, worries, expectations and reflections. I obviously realized the benefit it would have in being able to keep in touch with everyone, but I must admit my main motivations were far more selfish than that. I wanted to have something more than just pictures that I could look back at. Something to help me really remember these past few months. I'm not sure how successful I've been, but I've tried my best to really encapsulate my thoughts and feelings while I have been here. So, if you'll bear with me, I want to take a second to reflect on what has truly been the best 4 months of my life.

I've been looking forward to studying abroad ever since my dad told me I only could if I went to UGA. I thought I had given up this dream when I decided to go to UNC. Luckily for me though with a little research, my dad was quickly persuaded when he realized that studying in Sevilla for a semester was half the price of Chapel Hill. It's an experience I would not have traded for anything in the world. I've met so many people, been so many new places, gained so much knowledge and learned so many life lessons. I've learned to live with younger siblings in a household very different from the one I grew up in. I've adapted to a new culture and way of life. I've improved my spanish far more than I could have in a classroom at Chapel Hill. I can't tell you enough how lucky I feel to have had this opportunity. I'm so grateful to my parents for allowing me to come to Spain and to Pilar for opening up her home to us. 

I spent a few minutes earlier today reading over my earliest blog posts, and it really started to dawn on me how long I have been in Spain for. Thinking back to first meeting Colleen and our first few interactions with our family members feels like years ago. But at the same time this whole experience has flown by. With only 25 days left in Spain, I can't help but to think that soon I'll be saying goodbye to this beautiful country. In less than a month, I'll spend my last night sleeping a foot away from Colleen. My last night eating dinner with our family. My last morning waking up to Carmen screaming. And my last day walking around a city that looks like a postcard.

As soon as I start to think about how little time I have left, I try my best to push the thought out of my mind. It's sort of like that feeling of sadness you feel when you realize you only have a few more chapters left of a great book. For these last couple of weeks, I'm going to try my best to read as slowly as I can. To wake up early and truly appreciate this beautiful city I have come to call home. I know I'll come back and visit Europe again one day, but I know it won't be the same. Sure, I'll probably have more money and won't have to stay with 15 other people in one hostel room, but I know I'll never again be given 5 straight months of vacation to  live in Spain and travel around as I wish. But, for now, all I can do is enjoy the little time I have left, and that's exactly what I plan to do!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

London Calling

Back in March, I decided to tag along with a group of girls who were planning a trip to London. Originally, I hadn't planned on visitng london because I had already been there before and because of how expensive it is to visit (dollar to pound is 1 to 1.61 right now). My mind was quickly changed, however, when my friend Marissa mentioned they would be staying for free at a friend's flat in London. Before I knew it, I had booked yet another RyanAir flight.

We left our house, salami bocadillos in hand, at 7 on Thursday, but thanks to a uncharacteristly slow Sevilla bus, a 45 minute flight delay, having to sit through English customs for 2 hours, and finally taking an hour and a half long bus from Stansted airport to London, we didn't end up getting to the flat until 3:30 in the morning. Colleen and I cuddled up on a tiny couch, Willy-Wonka style for a not so great night of sleep.

After getting in so late, we all agreed it would be nice to sleep in late and have a more relaxed day. When we woke up we went to my favorite destination in any city: the grocery store. It has truly amazed me how much money you can save by cooking for yourself while traveling. In Italy, I had to spend a ton of money on the food because of how delicious it was, but for a country like London, it seems silly to waste money on mediocre food when you could have fun cooking great meals together. We ended up buying all our food for the 4 days in one trip, and only spent about 15 pounds a person. After our grocery run, we decided to take a long walk to tour a couple of things within walking distance and avoid buying a metro pass for the day. We stopped first at the British Museum...mostly because all the museums in London are free. Much to my surprise, the British Museum is home to the Rosetta stone. Who knew!




Traveling with all girls has had its benefits…not only in cooking and movie watching, but also in the abundance of touristy pictures. We spent the rest of the day, walking around acting like complete tourists. Thus, I’ll share with you guys some of the phone booth pictures we took.


Colleen and I were sad to find out that touring the Harry Potter studios would cost 27 pounds (something that certain wouldn’t fit into our 20 pound a day budget), so we settled on taking a few pictures with Platform 9 ¾ in the train station.



After our picture taking tour, we walked home and made a chicken salad with more veggies than I’ve seen since I’ve been in Spain. If you had asked me back in January what food I would miss from back home, I probably would have said cheeseburgers or pizza. Never in a million years did I think I would miss vegetables as much as I have…but when you are served kids food (fried things and French fries) every day, you start to miss your veggies! The night was brought to a fantastic end when we found out that 3 of the roommates were leaving and we could sleep in their beds for the night. Definite bonus.

Their beds were so incredibly comfortable that in the morning when Marissa came in to wake us up by saying “rise and shine”, I thought I was back at home in my big bed with my mom coming in to wake me up. After realizing where I actually was, I woke up and made one of the best breakfasts I’ve had while abroad (with the exception of my mom’s oatmeal when she visited). A simple egg bagel breakfast sandwich tasted a million times better than our typical cornflakes. After breakfast, we headed to the local “tube” station to buy an unlimited day pass (I learned the hard way that people don’t understand what you’re talking about if you refer to the tube as the metro). On the way to the metro, we stopped in a theater ticket stand, and after finding a relatively cheap tickets for a play (23 pounds), decided we would work it into our spending budget....a decision that turned out to be a great one.

The Wizard of Oz was too expensive to see, but Toto is a westie in this version!
Trying our best to optimize our unlimited tube passes, we headed straight for Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. There was a huge crowd, but we stayed for a while to try and get some good pictures. Oddly enough, the royal band was playing Lion King's "circle of life" when we left.


Outside Buckingham Palace
From Buckingham Palace, we hoped back on the tube to Westminster Abbey. We took all the touristy pictures you would expect, but did not go in to tour anything (not in our budget). The weather while we were there was not optimal to say the least, but I suppose London never has great weather. 


Outside Westminster Abbey

With the policeman outside of Big Ben

Big Ben!

London Eye
We stopped inside a coffee shop to escape the rain and eat our sandwiches we had made. While there I ordered a cinnamon latte that I will most likely be dreaming about until I get back home. Coffees in London were big like back home (instead of the small, espresso-like cafes con leche in spain). We then walked around Trafalgar Square some and saw the official countdown to the Summer Olympics.




In front of the countdown in Trafalgar Square
Next came possibly my favorite destination in all of London: Harrods. I remembered going before when I visited with my family, but the dominant part of that memory is filled with Nathan throwing a tantrum about not wanting to shop while on vacation. I love absolutely everything about this store...from the abundance free perfume and lotion samples to the women who goes in and individually cleans each stall before going to the bathroom. Not to mention the amazing smells of the food. Everything was of course crazy expensive, but looking was free!

Outside of Harrods
After gawking at all that Harrods has to offer, we then headed over to walk through Hyde Park. We ended up having to run through it for fear we would miss our play, but we did take a moment to stop and take some pictures in front of the Princess Diana memorial.
Princess Diana memorial
After breaking a sweat in our sprint to get to the theater on time, we picked up our tickets from the box office and took our seats for "Blood Brothers", a musical (of course) about two brothers, separated at birth who become best friends not knowing they are related. The play itself was fantastic, and our seats ended up being pretty great...the theater was pretty small so there wasn't really a bad seat in the house. It was definitely one of my favorite things we did on our trip, and something I will always remember.
Outside the theater

In our seats!
To properly celebrate cinco de mayo, we had planned for a while about which mexican food to eat. I know before I said how much I've missed vegetables, but I must also admit how much I've missed americanized mexican food. You know, the kind with unlimited chips and queso dip (two things that do not seem to exist in Spain). Well, lucky for us, Colleen had planned ahead and found out that London had Chipotles....one of which just happened to be right next door to the theater. My burrito bowl was significantly smaller than in America (and significantly more expensive in Pounds), but for a one time splurge while eating out in London, it was completely worth it. After filling ourselves with burritos, chips (of which the guy gave me a free extra serving--saying I looked hungry) and guacamole, we headed over to piccadilly circus to check out the night scene. Piccadilly circus is more or less the times square of London, but was cool to walk around at night. After exploring for a while, we hopped back on the metro and stopped by the store for some late-night snacks (I found 4 chocolate muffins for 35 cents that granted were about to expire, but were delicious none the less). We then all cuddled up in a bed to watch the new Footloose. The movie itself was laughably bad, but we all had fun watching it together.

After another egg bagel sandwich and coffee the next morning, we headed off in the tube to the Tate Modern. I distinctly remember visiting the museum with my family when we were in London so I knew how weird it was going to be. There are 2 floors you can see for free and exhibits you can pay for. We saw some very "modern" art which provided an hour's worth of great entertainment.
At the Tate Modern
After that, we walked by the Millennium Bridge (as featured in Harry Potter 5) and Shakespeare's globe theater before stopping to eat our sandwiches in a cafe. We then went across the Tower Bridge (not the London Bridge as I thought it was called) and around the Tower of London. Dreary weather once again, but I still managed to get some decent pictures!

At the Tower Bridge
Our next touristy destination was Abbey Road to take a Beatles impersionation picture. No one really warned us just how dangerous this would be. There were touristy surrounding the intersection waiting for their chance to go pose, but the cars on the road really did not appreciate having to stop and wait for people to get the perfect shot. In between honks, we ran in the road to get a picture. Luckily no one was hurt in the process. Only downside was that I was looking out for cars and thus wasn't looking straight ahead like I should have been.

On Abbey Road

Signing the wall outside Abbey Studios where the Beatles recorded
After another successful sightseeing day, we headed back to the flat and played cards for a while. We cooked 2 pizzas and a delicious salad for dinner, and afterwards cuddled up for another movie (this time The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo...much better than Footloose). 

We slept in pretty late on Monday before heading to the grocery store to pick up some food for lunch on the plane. After budgeting all weekend, I had 3 Pounds left to my name. I didn't want to have to take out more, so I spent it wisely on bagels, hummus and a banana. We left a card with some money in it for the roommates and caught the 2:00 bus back to the airport without a problem. The british security stopped to check both Marissa and my's bag and confiscated her peanut butter (which was a birthday present from Natalie) and her hummus. Luckily they didn't find my hummus, so I was able to sneak it on. 

Once we landed back in warm Sevilla, I had a moment of realization that my last RyanAir flight was over with. Although this is certainly something to celebrate, I also felt a little depressed. Then came the realization that the half of UNC's program that don't take classes at the university had already headed back home. All the trips we've planned and all the good times we have had are starting to come to an end. We only have one big trip left (to Lagos in 2 weeks), and then after a week or two of finals, I'll be back stateside. I start to wonder where all the time has gone, but then I look back at my 2,000 something pictures I've taken and I remember. All the memories, experiences and life lessons I've learned here are invaluable. This semester abroad is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I can't imagine not having taken. 

Well enough of me rambling I suppose. This weekend our parents go to Prague to celebrate Pilar's 40th birthday, and the kids are staying at a friends house. I could not be more excited. I love having them here, but a weekend or two away is always nice :)