When it Rains, It Pours {in Barcelona}

I am not sure how you have survived these past few weeks seeing as I have been slacking on the blogging ... but CONGRATS you have survived ... and hopefully the wait was well worth it. This last week us business kids had the pleasure of learning how to take 4 midterms in 2 days, or in my case 24 hours. Turns out caffeine can only help SO much. But I survived ... and I hope my grades reflect how hard I studied and not how little I slept...

Last weekend I took a trip to Barcelona, but before that I had one of my long lost SMS (St. Mary's School) friends come to visit here in Sevilla. Mark and his friends came here for their spring break and the poor guys did not see the sun here in Sevilla. However, we still had a great time despite the rain. What is there to do in Sevilla when there is rain? Take a 4 person bike with 5 people and go get lost in a random park ... and pray to god you survive! It was a blast. Other than that we got to see some sites, catch up, of course get a few beers for the guys, and it was awesome seeing him! I am sure there are tons of good stories I am forgetting to post, but regardless it was worth mentioning!

Me Kaylee and Mark on the back of the bike...my only pic (Read on..) with Mark.. thank god it is a good one! haha

So later that week I ventured to Barcelona. It honest to goodness started off to good to be true. Got to the metro station a tad late and the metro pulled up right as I was walking down the steps...walk off the metro to see the airport bus waiting for me, bypass a long Security line, you catch my drift. Too good to be true? Turns out ... yes. Left early Friday morning and got into Barcelona late afternoon to meet up with my roomie and SMS round two: Jordyn Ellis and Austin Scieszinski. We just walked around by our hostel and saw the marinas and Las Ramblas... a street a few kilometers long with shopping and crazy people dressed up...see below

Here are "Las Ramblas"

I loved this guy...

Kind of down by the marina and right by our hostel

After seeing what we could in the daytime, we headed down to El Palacio and saw a fountain show at night. It was BEAUTIFUL! This fountain show was by far better than Vegas' Bellagio...marginally. It was colorful and played a mixture of first opera ...not so great...and then DISNEY songs in Spanish. It was SOOO cool. There were hundreds of people here of all ages ... and this is where we met up with some more friends from UW --- you can find them anywhere around Europe! Also ran into one of my friends Tori who I met in Paris, have a class with, and who happens to live with one of my best friends from home ... SMALL world.

The fountain in front of el Palacio

From left to right we have Jordyns friend JAckie, Jordyn, Austin, Adam, me R'Taija and it was such a beautiful night...but the night was still young. After the show we were STARVING. Adam, who is a good friend of Austin and who I had met ohhh in 6th grade showed us a great place to eat. We had "tapas" so we tried potatoes, peppers, house Sangria(YUM!) and our favorite...chorizo del diablo. They were little pieces of sausage lit on fire in front of us and they had to stay on fire for 10-15 minutes and they were SO worth the wait. After dinner a few of us decided to get snazzy and head out for a night on the town. HAd a great time meeting more people and we took a metro to get to a club down by the beach...fun until I was picpocketed in the club. Happened faster than you can ever imagine and Austin even tried to track the guy down ... he was on a mission. Frankly I am glad he didn't find him because who knows what would have happened. There are worse things in this world, but man oh man that guy hit his bullseye for the night. He got my camera (hence limited pics) money keys and wallet. Silver lining? Everyone was okay and Passport/credit cards were left at home. Austin and I trooped it home later seeing as we had no money for a cab. Some guy even tried to picpocket me (for the 3rd time) and at that point I about gave him my purse since it was already empty, but Austin fended him off being the soldier that he is. He even insisted on giving me a piggy back ride part of the way since I was in heels and struggling ... I am sure we were quite the site! One American guy even approached us on the way home and Austin yelled NO NO NO GET AWAY hahaha and I proceeded to tell him to relax, the guy was honestly lost. Austin had the paranoid side down for both of us, but I have been lost in a foreign city at night (Mallorca ring a bell?) and I could sympathize with the guy. Austin set me down and we helped the lad and were on our way home ... Can't thank Austin enough but hey SMS always sticks together... Need I say more? Our class is fortunately pretty close so that if any of us would ever need help, you do not really have to ask for it. Just another reason why I am so fortunate to have the upbringing that I did ... makes a picpocket not look like the end of the world. That and the fact that mom and dad were first to assure me that it did not matter as long as I was okay and happy, and I have already received my package with an old camera and ready to play Ultimate Tourist again ... watch out!

The next day we woke up to begin what may have been one of the worst ever days to tour a city... but we made the most of it. Literally I have never seen constant rain in Europe like we did in Barcelona as it NEVER stopped raining once on that Saturday. Jordyn and I went to the ATM... and that was no treat. We got splashed on the road a few times and were already soaked before our day had began ... and we saw who we think was a homeless man wearing a garbage bag with a hole in it with his head sticking out and it looked so funny we were laughing hysterically... read on.

AFter getting money and trying to make plans for the day, and after hording as many free muffins as possible (I think that is the only thing that got Austin out of bed before 10am) we decided to take a tour bus around the city becuase HEY, it would be dry and we could see everything..right? WRONG AGAIN. We paid 30 euros to have to sit on TOP of the tour bus and have the rain come pouring down on us on wet seats. We did not want to sit down because then our pants would be wet, but it took about 5min before we got yelled at and were not really given a choice. Granted the lady did give us a SHEET OF PAPER to sit on, how nice... That is when Jordyn and I (well mostly me...this is worth taking credit of) to buy trash bags like the homeless man we saw earlier. I will never forget buying those bags and trying to poke holes through them. Kayla-- think Ace Ventura and the Rhino... what I would give to be able to post that picture of Austin making a hole with one on the wrong side of the bag... he had like a cone head the whole day as well as a hunch back. Easy to say we were making a HUGE fashion statement that day...and Jordyn and her friends are Fashion majors but at that point who cares.

Before getting back on the bus, now that we were prepared, we decided to grab a sandwich. We figured we could stand INSIDE the shop.but NO. The lady kicked us outside since there were not enough tables. Again, there were pictures but not yet posted, of us sitting outside a little sandwich shop like wet dogs not allowed inside. We had to tell her what we wanted on the sandwich from outside. Where did we eat you ask? An alley...under an awning we could find. We saw some fine art while eating...or grafiti. Like I said, always have to make the most of the situation you are given.

After lunch it was back on the bus we went. Prepared with our trash bags, we went site seeing. Mind you, "sight seeing" in cloudy, rainy environment was interesting to say the least. We would take a corner and have wind and rain in our faces that even our trash bags could not save us from! We were informed that on top of a certain mountain was the greatest view of Barcelona, well, it was a great view of a cloud! Then we went to the Olympic Stadium where they were held in Barcelona in 1992. It was really cool to see the stadium and it could hold about 50,000 people.

Me, Jordyn and Austin inside the Olympic Stadium!

Me outside of a cathedral.

After we had toured the city by bus we were all hungry, cold, and more or less ready to be done touring for the day. We decided to head for a bite to eat. Just when we thought things could not get worse, a car came by us on the side of the road and completely drenched whatever part of us was not already soaking wet. Hiloarious to them I am sure, and funny to look back on, but at the time all I could do was nod and think What Next? We got dinner and called it a night and woke up to a BEAUTIFUL morning ... and I only had 3 hours to take it all in since my flight was so early.

Austin and Jordyn being the troopers that they are, even though they had all day, got up early with me and man oh man did we make every minute count. First stop -- most touristy spot of all -- Sagrada Familia. This is a church whose original architecht died and so Gaudi took over, and the construction of it is still being done today. Gaudi is an artist that is extremely famous throughout Barcelona but this is his best work.

We did not have time to go inside and tour, so up next was Park Guell which also has Gaudi influence throughout the entire park. In my opinion, it was like a big kid Candy Land!!!

the beautiful view from the park ... you can see Sagrada Familia in the distance!!!

Me in front of the park. You can go up and admire the artwork and mostly just look out at the beautiful city ... quite a different view than I had the day before.

Right by where you walk in... so beautiful!

The crew by the park.

After we had headed in the COMPLETELY wrong direction (my bad!) which was a major uphill mistake, and after nearly dying because I walked in front of a cab (yellow ones don't stop) we finally found the metro and wanted to make one last stop before I had to leave for the airport (Was on a strict time limit...you better believe I was late!) While on the metro we were planning on taking a gondola ride and seeing some palace thing ... instead we did a DEAD SPRINT to the Fenicular ... a tram more or less and MADE it ...to have the doors shut in our face and then tease us by sitting there for a solid minute while we had no choice but to wait .. Go figure! Oh well, like I said being with good company makes it much more bearable. We had to wait like 15 min. for the next one to come and at this point we were not really sure what we were taking or where we were going; turns out we had another beautiful view of the city. We ran outside, literally took a few snapshots (See below) and sprinted back to make the tram we just had taken up and made it BARELY!! take that karma.

One last shot of the SMS crew.

At this point my friends had already left me because I was late, and the "connecting Metros" HARDLY connected and we had to sprint (no lie) from one to the next, probably a 1/2 mile, and I still managed to be very late. Like I said, they were troopers for hangin in there with me and it was worth every minute of it (well, at least to me!) Finally made it back to the hostel, said goodbye, and I was on my own to get to the airport with some time to spare. Got to the bus, paid for a ticket, turns out was on the wrong bus, sprinted to the other one, he said no I was originally on the right one, the guy on the original bus shut the door in my face and drove off ... you catch my drift on how the trip went, right? I pity the fool who had to sit next to my sweaty self, but oh well, I had my free muffins that we horded so I was content to be on my way to the airport *FINALLY*. I saw enough on that last day to know that I want to return, and so my tickets are already booked to see it with my girlfriends in MAy and I could not be more thrilled!!

Have many more adventures to tell about Gibraltar and tomorrow I am Switzerland bound so stay tuned for more!

Peace, Amor, Espana
Ana :)

PS -- Since last post, would like to say have been saying extra prayers for Aunt Mel, the people in Japan, and everyone involved in Lybia events !!

37 hrs of traveling for 48 hours in Germany: Totally worth it!

So as the title indicates... I had an extremely long weekend, but definitely a weekend I will never forget! The adventure all began on Thursday night when we had to leave from Sevilla to take a 6 hour bus ride to Madrid. I figured for 20 Euros I could do a bus at 11pm...I would sleep in the window seat I paid for..right? I should have known it would be a travel disaster from there..a guy stole my seat so I had to "sleep" or should I say toss and turn for 6 hours in an aisle seat...in an oven! I really don't think they have heard of AC or heating here... but we finally arrived in Madrid at 5:30 am and then had to take the metro to the airport. A simple task you ask? Nope...took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport to wait for our 3pm flight.. couldn't help but wonder if the day would ever end. Colleen, Nina and I were travel partners in crime from here on out. We got through security and had one jar of peanut butter stolen, but no worries, we still had another to get us through the 7 hour airport wait... Until a few hours later when the girls said we had to switch gates. Little did we know, this meant we had to go through security AGAIN... where our 2nd jar of PB was stolen. We begged them to let us keep it, or at the very least that they should keep it because it killed us to watch a second jar go to waste... but no such luck..figures. Turns out, we did not have to switch gates, and had to go back through security AGAIN.. to find our plane was delayed 2 hours. Let's just say thank god we enjoyed each other's company because at this point we had been traveling for 15 hours and still no plane...but we FINALLY arrived in Frankfurt and the story gets much better from here!

We get to Frankfurt and meet the boys, Jake and Paul, and my good friend Marle who lives in Frankfurt! It was so great to see her again, and quite honestly just great to be in Frankfurt in general. From the airport we had to head to the hostel ... in the Red Light District much to Colleen's chagrin ... but it was all an adventure in my eyes! Heck I was only asked to join a private party like twice ... I said "ya" in German and started walking in... KIDDING! Made it to the hostel, changed, and the six of us went to our first German pub!

MArle and I in the German bar #1!

She bought us these little shot things. On the bottom there is a number. You have to tap the table with the bottle X amount of times, as indicicated, open the bottle, take the shot..and then...

You put the cap on your nose! IT tasted so great by the way..like strawberry banana.. between that and our Apple Wine that is native to Frankfurt I was already in love!

After that pub we went to a few others, had a few other delicious drinks, and decided to head back to the hostel to call it a night around 2am...afterall traveling had gotten the better of us! So we get back to the hostel, 3 bunks for the 5 of us, and we all sit down on our beds. Two boys on the bottom, other two girls sleep above them, and I take the bottom bunk closest to the door to fight off any intruders..it was the red light district afterall, someone has gotta man up. Now why am I telling you where we slept? It is important to know for the next story. You see, we were all just talking and I got up off my bed to do God knows what. I look at the other 4 people, glance towards my bed, see a movement, look back and count 1,2,3,4,5 (BAD words run through my mind) and realize YUP we are all down here so what the heck is above my bed? (Mind you..this all takes place in a matter of 3 seconds...) If you know how I react to sudden movements at all (Abby, Becca you two have a fairly good idea) I grab the person nearest to me and literally just hit the ground or whatever is closest. In my case, I literally leaped onto the nearest bed and jumped on poor Paul, apparently screamed "There's a bird" and made the other girls scream too and the boys jumped despite what they say! Then, this little Chinese girl sits up on the bed, says something unidentifiable, and goes back to bed. WOW it was one of the funniest moments of my life ... and we could not stop laughing and talking about it. Then we wondered aloud, do you think she understands us? Just incase, Paul adds "If you can hear me ... I am really cool!" I guess we will never know ! She was gone before we woke up the next day... and that was the last we saw of her..thank god because I don't think my heart could handle another moment like that! I hope you can somehow see how I reacted and get a kick out of it ... I am laughing my head off just writing this right now. Let's just say if there were cameras, I would be a $100,000 winner on America's Funniest Home Videos.

So falling asleep was a cinch, and we woke up to a beautiful day and no plans ... so exploring was a definite must! The only thing any of us really knew was what I knew .. help us all, right? Frankfurt is one of the most Americanized cities in Europe with it's skyscrapers and also the Centeral European Bank is there .. pretty cool to see! So let's start from the beginning. We got dressed and took the train downtown to get a coffee, and kind of couldn't believe our eyes. How does Frankfurt look ... well picture Germany in Disney World and that is what you see everywhere! Just a charming little city! See below for some scenic shots.

Nina and I downtown

I was informed this is exactly like Hansel and Gretel... after many eye rolls when I said I had no idea what that was!! NOW I remember..

You get the picture... this city could not be any more charming!

First thing we did was just explore the random streets and a few churches. Basically in between each scenic stop the boys had to stop and sample a beer .. educational, right?

Catedral Peter I believe this was called!

Next up we went downtown to the metropolis center. The girls went inside to shop at a store and left me outside with the boys..first mistake. Second mistake? Paul and I taking a picture of this guy with the adorable little donkey. He came over begging for 1 Euro from Paul... I told him I would pay 1 Euro for the donkey. Paul just starts talking super quickly in English to confuse the guy and I just kept begging for the donkey.. if you saw the donkey you would have too. Well, he did not get the money and I didn't get the donkey, sad day for everyone. We walked down the street and look what we ran into...

A German market! They had brats, schnitzel, beer, pretzels, you name it. Best part? Everything was SO cheap and BIG! The crew all got brats, I got a steak thing with grilled onions..to die for! Then they have home cooked pretzels..Picture Bear game pretzel style except 10X better!

Once our stomachs were full, we made a poor decision to climb 328 steps up a cathedral to overlook the city ... well worth it once we were out of the clastrophobic ramp that wound us around one too many times.

Here is a picture of what we climbed up... see below for our view!

The classic shot of me on top of the world ... seriously I must be the luckiest girl alive!

The Romer ... Pronounced Rumer.. we think. Whenever we asked where this was we pronounced it wrong so I guess I'll never really know. It is in the adorable little city center and this is the old city hall of Frankfurt.

We took this via my timer ... since nobody was up there to take a group shot of us. We know why now! I think we said some naughty words on both the way up AND down even though they were church steps ... they made us feel so sick! NEedless to say we made it down and we were happy to see the ground again. Next we went to see the Romer close up

PRetty much how you picture typical Germany..right??

One last shot of the downtown

Next we were just walking and we passed the Museum of Modern Art. Now, granted, I do not think any one of us are your typical art buffs. However, after we toured this museum it was a unanimous decision that it was easily one of the coolest/most eye opening experiences ever. The art (which will be below) was so unreal. The artist, from Spain, had many exhibits with candy...see below for the first one you see as you walk in

So you are supposed to take a piece of candy per the request of the artist. Therefore, it is an everchanging "Human work of art." I thought this was so cool! There were a few exhibits like this. There were also random stacks of paper with maps, famous people, etc in the middle of a room. Again, they are meant to be taken by the public.

The art was very exotic. There were tons of naked exhibits. Some were obviously beautiful but they displayed some of the most erotic, obscure pictures I have ever seen. However, like I say, it really made you open your eyes to different cultures and try to figure out why they displayed some of the things that they did. We understood then why little kids were not allowed to enter..

We went into a room with projectors and were looking at some art..and decided to make some art ourselves! (Well, sort of)

Pretty good art for a Miller... thank you very much!

Heart stopping moment number two... We were heading into what we thought was a dark exhibit. There was a little dark hallway you had to enter ... I started to walk in with the girls behind me. Yup nope wasn't about to go any farther seeing as it felt like I was entering a haunted house (again, big scardy cat when it comes to those things if you didn't know!) So PAul goes in first and I figure it is safe to follow..WRONG. Paul fails to tell us there is a scary man standing around the corner. When I turn to follow him this 6 foot 20 (okay like 6'2" ) comes out of NOWHERE and again, my instincts take over, and I FLAIL backwards and like shove the two girls into a corner. Yes, we all screamed. I literally thought this guy was supposed to be the art.. apparently he told Paul he wasn't a part of the museum. Again, all kind of a blur/heart stopping moment, but just makes it that much more interesting, right? Well, after that we needed a break so we headed out and were off again!

The day started to get cloudier and colder, so we sidetracked to the mall (naturally) and we rode Europe's longest escalator ... 90 sec from bottom to top.. fun fact ! Here she is .. what a butte!

After that we just kind of wondered along the river and took in the sites..even crossed the river a few times ... just for kicks!

Night finally came upon us and we actually were able to walk from the center of town back home. We took a pit stop outside of the Centro Banco Europeo and we saw like 7 older couples dancing the tango on the streets. Now I know I can't dance, but that would be so cool to be able to do! A guy was playing some music for them and they all just looked so happy, and it was so great to just take it all in. As it was starting to rain, we headed back to the hostel to relax, shower, and get ready to go out. When we got to our room you better believe I did a thorough check before anything else!

After our day we just went out and tried a few more beers...and in my case had a few more vinos :) The next day the boys left early and Marle came to pick us up to take us to a German castle!! We drove on the Autobahn to get there..about 155 KPH, we were flying! Was so great. Then we saw the castle.... dum dum dum

Isn't it beautiful? After seeing the beautiful countryside of Germany I couldnt wait to see this bad boy! We found out that they had private tours and our tour guide wanted us to pay 25 euros for an hour long tour in english..did I mention he was 70? Turns out Rudolf, and not the red nosed reindeer as he joked, was AWESOME. He had some wits...and some brains. We saw the ins and outs of the Solms castle. They used to be a Royal family in Germany and now they are just a normal family living there today. No pics were allowed inside, but I assure you it was beautiful as ever.. just a bit chilly. We saw so many pieces of art from the wars that are filled with so much history. Mom, you would have LOVED the interior decorations. There was even a blue and white dish that was gorgeous... but Rudolf was watching our every step.. next time! Before heading out we took a few more pics but this castle was just unbelieveable!

View from up and inside the courtyard! Marle and I

Nins and me!!!


After this we went to Marle's house and her mom cooked us a fabulous lunch that consisted of the yummiest potatoes EVER, meat, NO BREAD FOR ONCE, a parfait type dealio (Sara I know I know..I should be more specific )...and then a coffee cake with coffee to finish off the meal. WOW delectable. They were so kind to take us in for the afternoon and just the sweetest family. We went to print off our boarding passes and I happened to notice our plane was 2.5 hours delayed before we even leave her house...good lord when does the madness end? I do not want to bore you yet I Can't spare these final details. Basically, Marle drops us off at airport, we do the secuirty thing -- I kid you not -- 3 more times. Nina gets strip searched, my alcohol taken, but our PB was already taken. No worries -- plane delays AGAIN. At this point our busses that we had planned on taking were completely out of the question. The plane was to fly from Frankfurt, to Madrid, to Chile. We were half expecting to wake up in Chile. Turns out, I would have rather. The customer service in Europe is NON EXISTENT. Hours later the airline gives us nothing in return for screwing us over both ways, and we literally do not know where to go from there. flights were over 400 euros and all busses were booked. Took a quick catnap in the airport, maybe 20min long? Then had to pay for a Renfe (high speed train) just an extra 100 euros..what's a girl to do?? Got lost in downtown Madrid at 5:30 am, I talked to some boys and they helped us find the train station. MEanwhile familia, found a few spots for us to site see!! Gotta take in the sites when you can I spose. FINALLY got onto the train, sat down and passed out, and woke up in Sevilla a million hours later.

That was the short, less annoying version, believe me. But when you travel with good company like I did, actually great company, the time didn't go by nearly as slow as it could have. And getting to see Germany and MArle and have all those wonderful experiences, I would do it all again in a heart beat!!! But I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend here in Sevilla this coming weekend, and then Barcelona to reunite with SMS. Thanks for staying tuned (if you're still here!!!)

As Always As Always

Peace, Amor, Espana
Ana