Spain Diaries: The Beginning

My housemates from last semester wanted to have an Ireland Reunion. We decided on a place nice and warm. We went to Murcia Spain to stay with Ana. While planning our way to Ana’s I got the brilliant idea that I could make a grand tour of it and see Spain. Turns out it’s super cheap to travel within Spain. So after we bought our tickets to Aicante I started looking about for cheap ways to see everything. Ana had given me a list of cities to see and I set myself a goal. See as many as I can, tickets must be less then €20.


My hop about costs are as follows:
Alicante > Madrid €6.48
Madrid > Santiago De Compostela €15.12
Santiago > Seville €15.99
Seville > Cordoba €10
Cordoba > Murcia €33

Now the bus from Cordoba to Murcia was the most expensive…. But I just had to swing back by Ana’s to annoy her some more since I won’t see her till the spring. And How did I get back home to France? I swung by Milan because it was cheap but that’s a later post.

Damien and I got up at 3h00 to catch our bus in Metz to Frankfurt Hahn airport. After a coffee we were off to Spain! And when we walked through the gates Ana, Lenka, and Candice were there to welcome us. I have to say seeing my friend outside of Ireland was such an odd experience since in my mind when I think of them I think of Ireland and no where else, it’s like they don’t have a home they just float around in the thought that is Ireland. But they were indeed in Spain and we kicked off our stay in a grand fashion.

We arrived at Ana’s house and were greeted with Spanishness. And by Spanishness I mean food. If I were to move to Spain I might very well become obese and die from eating so much amazing food. Spanish Ham is one of my all time favorite foods. I wanted to feast only on ham while I was in Spain but there was yummier food to be had. Like Paella. Ana’s mum cooked us paella for lunch on the first day. It was beyond amazing it had huge shrimp like I shit you not the size of my hand shrimp. They were tasty and I wish I could have eaten more. But we had tapas before. Tapas are pretty much appetizers so we had Spanish ham, olives, sea food, and other yummies before we even ate the paella. It was like that with every meal tapas before an epic main dish. And so much food. I ate till I was so full and there was still so much food. I loved it.

I think the best part of my Spain visit was staying at Ana’s house and actually getting to “be Spanish” I got to eat home made Spanish food and pretty much lived on a Spanish timetable. Get this they eat dinner at like 22h00! And they have siesta in the afternoon. And they eat lunch late too. It was really cool to experience it all.

So the first night we’re in Murcia after napping for a few hours Ana informs us we’re going to do Botellon. What is this? It’s drinking on the streets. We met up with a few of Ana’s friends and found a nice place in a park to do some drinking. I stuck with orange juice as traveling most of the day and no sleep didn’t sit too well with me, so yeah I was lame. Ana’s advise for the night “If you see a cop run.” Botellon is illegal, but everyone does it. And we saw a lot of people in the same park as us drinking just like us. Midnight rolled around and the Spanish were just getting warmed up.

Since dinner is late you leave to bars late like midnightish then you go to clubs around 2 or 3 then you get home around 6 in the morning. Thank god we didn’t do the whole deal otherwise I might very well have died of exhaustion. We only went to a bar and stayed till around 3 I think. Then we made our way back to Anas to eat yummies (aka ham, cheese and bread). Then finally I was so relieved to get to bed since I’d only had about 6 hours of sleep since 3am the day before. The lack of sleep was worth it though since I got to “be Spanish” and drink on the streets.

The next day we were off to the coast town of Cartagena.

It’s only about an hour from Ana’s and it was so pretty. Ana’s parents came with us and showed us around the city. We saw the Roman Theater that’s there.

It’s restored so that’s why it doesn’t look so old. It dates back to the first century AD (if I remember correctly). While we were walking back to the car we saw epic graffiti. I was a huge fan of it.

After we ate a picnic lunch in Cartagena we started driving. Ana’s dad took us to some really pretty places where you had an amazing view of the Mediterranean.

I got to put my feet in the Mediterranean for the first time ever. And the beach had black sand! How cool right. Or last stop of the day was Faro de Cabo de Palos. It’s a lighthouse that was built in 1865.

And there was a cute cove right by it too.

We made a little stop on the way home.It's the church Ana's parents were married at and it gives her her middle name. It's so pretty. And while we were there there was a wedding about to happen so there were a lot of people all dressed up then there was us in our jeans and tanktops. It was quite funny.

Then we drove back to Murcia to take a siesta before dinner. I think we had tortilla for dinner. Tortilla is Spanish Omelet and it’s so amazing and tasty. The next day we were heading off to Granada!
 
Cheers,

Paris

So I’ve been missing lately right? I meant to post this before my grand travels but it turned out to be one hell of a huge post and I didn’t finish it till today. What epic travels you ask? That’s another post… or should I say another half dozen posts. So stay tuned!

What have I been up to lately you ask. Not much really… I just went to Paris this weekend. No biggie right? Hahaha just kidding it is a biggie. At least for me. I was so excited to go, I was like a little kid on Christmas. I was jumpy and excited. I think I was annoying my boyfriend a bit on the train ride to Paris. We took the train from Nancy to Paris, it’s only 1h30! So weird to think that I’m so close to such a famous city and now I’ve been there!
Now to the fun stuff. What did I see? Where did I go? And a bonus of fun facts and history… today is totally your day!
First stop of my epic Paris trek… Notre Dame
- broke ground in 1163 and was completed in1345
- French Gothic architecture
- Full name Notre Dame de Paris translates to Our Lady of Paris
- It suffered desecration in the 1790s during the French Revolution and later after restoration it was returned to an ‘original’ gothic state
- it was one of the first building in the world to use flying buttresses (arched exterior supports)
- During WWII the stained glass windows were removed, for fear German bombings would destroy them, and they were replaced at the end of the war
- There are 5 bells at the cathedral
- Emmanuel (the largest bell) is located in the south tower and weights 13 tons
- In 1450 the Wolves of Paris were stoned to death on the grounds
- 2 December 1804 coronation of Napoleon I and his wife Josephine

Then we were off. It was exploring time! We wandered to Place de la Bastille. This is a monument that marks where the Bastille stood. Epic right. We ended up wandering back by the square and ate lunch there. It was an amazing lunch by the way and as I sat eating lunch it popped into my head that if the Bastille were still standing I would be inside of it. It boggled my mind.

- in the middle of the square stand Colonne de Juillet (the July Column) it commerates the july Revolution
-The column is composed of twenty-one cast bronze drums, weighing over 163,000 pounds (74,000 kg); it is 154 feet (47 m) high
-It’s engraved in gold with the names of Parisians who died during the revolution
-It’s topped with a statue of Mercury
-The Bastille was built between 1370 and 1383 as part of the defenses of Paris, the structure was reputedly converted into a prison in the 17th century by Charles VI of France
-the marina that’s in the area is converted from an old defense ditch for the Bastille

Then since my boyfriend, Damien, is an Dinosaur lover we walked down to the Natural history museum. It was rather funny, he’s French so a citizen of the EU which mean he got into the museum for free… I paid €7. But it was totally worth it! I have to say it was one of the coolest museums that I have ever been in. it was in an old building and the floors were wooden and rickety and the first floor had literally thousands of skeletons.

Epic right. I could have spent all day down there trying to look at everything. We did spend quite a lot of time wandering. But the signs had the proper names you know the genus and species so I had to guess at what some of them were.
Then it was onto the second floor and the dinos!! Again it was totally cool. I thought it was super cool when Damien reads a sign by a t-rex skull and asks me if there is a natural history museum in New York. I said yes and he’s like the sign says the real one of these is in New York. I don’t know why but I thought that was so cool! There’s a copy of a t-rex skull that I’ve seen the real one (years ago) in NYC!!

Hotel De Ville was our next stop.

Fancy place right? Guess what it is… the town hall!
- it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357
-it can multi task as it houses the local administration, the Mayor of Paris (since 1977), and also serves as a venue for large receptions
-Reconstruction of the hall lasted from 1873 through 1892 (19 years) since the old one was rather unchanged for years and getting run down (to summarize events I’m too lazy to summarize properly… google can help you if you’re interested)

Now our next stop gave my brain a huge over load of thinking. Now every one has heard of this place…

The Louvre. I knew it house a lot of famous paintings and what not but I was completely unprepared for what was really inside. And again Damien got in for free. It makes me really envy EU citizens. But again it was worth the price. I saw the Mona Lisa

And three paintings by my favorite artist ever, Jacques-Louis David. It literally made my life.

And I saw other famous things that were uber cool.

And the Louver itself was cool. The place it’s in used to be a palace and the medieval defenses are on display under it.
So a few cool Louvre facts to keep with the cool facts trend
-it’s the most visited museum in the world
-it opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property
-The Venus de Milo was added to the Louvre's collection during the reign of Louis XVIII
-It was named the Musée Napoléon when Napoleon was conquering and gathering art (most of which was returned to the respective countries after Napoleon’s defeat)

Are there any Phantom of the Opera Fans about?

Recognize it? Yes that’s right it’s the Opera House of Paris the setting of my favorite Broadway play and movie. I was totally excited to see this! And I was lucky enough to snap a few pictures of it’s front as we passed it on the way toward the president’s house. I didn’t get to go in but I want to go back to Paris again and go on a tour of the Opera House! Because the picture s of the inside look so amazingly epic!
-it’s official name is the Palais Garnier
-it can seat almost 2,000 people (1,979 to be exact)
-was built from 1861 to 1875 for the Paris Opera
-The Palais Garnier was designed as part of the great reconstruction of Paris during the Second Empire
-The selection of the architect was the subject of an architectural design competition in 1861, a competition which was won by the architect Charles Garnier
-The 7-ton bronze and crystal chandelier was designed by Garnier (On 20 May 1896, the falling of one of the counterweights for the grand chandelier resulted in the death of one member of the audience. This incident inspired one of the more famous scenes in Gaston Leroux's classic 1910 gothic novel The Phantom of the Opera)

After walking past the president’s house we turned our weary feet toward our hotel. I won’t lie it was a bit sketchy… but it was cheap. And we climbed 86 stairs to our fifth floor room where we napped and rested a bit while the sun went down. And as our tummies started to grumble Damien had the amazing idea to walk to the Eiffel Tower. So off we went. On the map it didn’t look too far but it kind of was. On the bright side we found a yummy restaurant to eat in. And when we got to the tower it was really pretty. For me it was an amazing second in my life because I’ve seen probably hundreds of photos of the Eiffel Tower and have heard about it and so on and I got to see it, at night. We sat on the Champ de Mars for a while just looking at the tower. It was really pretty all lit up.

We hopped the metro back to our hotel and snuggled in for the night! The next day we had more time to sight see before our train left at 18h30 so I started with dragging Damien to the Catacombs. Now let me preface this with the fact that I’ve wanted to see the Catacombs since I first learned about them. I did a report on the in French class during high school. And I was so freaking excited that I was finally going to be able to see them! We get to the Catacombs and… they’re closed Mondays. I felt like crying. But it gives me an excuse to go back to Paris.

Shaking off my depression Damien wanted to see the Tower Montparnasse since he wanted to send his sister a picture (they’d seen it in a movie). On the way toward the tower we went past an epic looking cemetery. And I just had to go in.

It the Cimetière du Montparnasse. It was cool how all the graves were squished together with just enough room to walk between them. After snapping a few pictures of the tower we hopped the metro to the Eiffel Tower!!

-it was built in 1889
-it stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall
-Named after its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair
-was built between 1887 and 1889
-Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit
-20,000 flash bulbs give the tower a sparkly appearance every hour on the hour at night (I saw this it was nifty)

I text a friend of mine that I was walking down the Champs Elysées. She said that sounded familiar and asked if it was a lake or something. I laughed a bit at the Damien just shook his head. It is not in fact a lake but an avenue. A very nice one at that, lots of big name shops and the whole deal. And at the end $10 to anyone who knows…. Right The Arch de Triomphe! As we got to the arch I saw people walking around it and obviously it’s in the middle of a huge round about and there are no stop lights and I didn’t see people dashing across the street. Turns out there’s an under ground passage to it.
-Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile is the official name
-it honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is underneath it
-The monument stands 50 metres (164 ft) in height, 45 m (148 ft) wide and 22 m (72 ft) deep
-It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes

Our train left in a few hours so our next stops were on the way toward the station. We stopped by the Galaries Lafayette which is a huge department store. It reminded me of Macys in NYC on 34th street. Apparently it’s the most visited store in Paris. It was huge and it had pretty clothes but it was expensive. Then we walked back past the Opera House

And finally got to the train station. By the time we got on the train my feet and legs were killing me. We did a ton of walking. It was the first time I’ve done a massive amount of walking while in Europe so I guess I deserved it. I saw most of Paris but there’s still things I want to go back and see… a second trip is called for.

Cheers,