Photos - Thanksgiving, Marbella, Seattle, Barcelona, Road Trip

Okay, so there's a mix of everything in here. Begins with Thanksgiving (2 photos), then Marbella (2 photos), Ronda (2 photos), Marbella (1), Seattle (4), El Escorial (1), Coca castle (1), Valley of the Fallen (2).

France, Italy, and San Jordi

Hola familia y amigos!

Hace muuuucho tiempo! I have quite a bit to catch everyone up on, so I’ll try to slim it down and give you the Reader’s Digest version. First off, I am very happy and proud to announce that just before leaving on vacation, I finished learning the Spanish conjugations! Haha, it definitely feels like quite the accomplishment because learning conjugations seemed never-ending. Now, I just need to practice the frustrating subjunctive and improve my vocabulary and start speaking in more complicated sentences.

Also, I uploaded a bunch of new videos onto my youtube page (WTLB8). Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/WTLB8

And I also have tons of photos to look through from my facebook page. I decided that flikr took too long to upload photos and wasn't very organized. The links to those albums are at the bottom of this post.

--------------European (France & Italy) Vacation Travels--------------

Biggest update: my European vacation! Before coming to Barcelona this last October, I had never been overseas and had only been outside of the States once to visit Victoria, B.C. with my university choir. My main hopes for my experience here were to learn the language, make friends from all over, soak in the culture, and travel. I’ve done pretty well learning the language, meeting tons of people, and taking part in and observing the interesting cultural happenings here, but I hadn’t done much traveling. Linnea, my old roommate and great friend, contacted me a while back asking when she could visit and travel with me. In January, we decided on the weeks surrounding Easter because my host family was going on a trip to New York during that time.

Time flew by and Linnea arrived in Barcelona on Thurs, the 2^nd of April. We had lunch together at my favorite Barcelona restaurant and and then went back to the airport and flew together to Paris, France a few hours later. We stayed in Paris for four whole days in a hostel located in the Latin Quarter of the city that had a really cool, young vibe with tons of good places to eat. Throughout those four days, we visited the Louvre Museum, Orsay Museum, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumf, Catacombs, a popular and historic mall (that had a Barbie fashion show!!!), The Moulin Rogue, Sacre Coeur, Monmontre, Pantheón, Tuilleries gardens, countless crepe stands (crepes with Nutella and bananas are amazing and addictive!), and wandered other various areas of the city. We made a day trip to Versailles on Sunday, April 5^th and picked up a random Canadian (Montreal) guy at breakfast in our hostel. We ended up hanging out with him all day and then most of the Monday. That was a lot of fun and he spoke French, so he was able to translate and talk with people for us, plus he came up with the idea of having a French picnic under the Eiffel tower consisting of wine, cheese, and baguettes. That picnic night was my favorite night in Paris. On our last night in the City of Lights, Linnea and I met up with two people from our hostel and climbed the Eiffel Tower to watch the sunset and experience the view during the day, dusk, sunset, and night. It was beautiful and a great end to our stay in Paris.

We left Paris on a 6 AM flight to Rome on Tuesday, April 7^th. That whole day was spent in transit with busses and trains until we finally arrived in Cinque Terre, Italy at 5:30 PM. Once there, we checked in and watched the sunset, sipping on wine. We stayed in Cinque Terre for one full day and two nights and absolutely loved it. Cinque Terre in Italian literally means “5 lands/cities”, referring to the fact that there are five towns located along the Italian coast and connected by footpaths and train tracks. Cinque Terre is famous for its hikes (both hiking from town to town and up into the hills where all of the vineyards are), foccia bread, white wine, and pesto sauce. Linnea and I can attest to nearly all of those. The Cinque Terre is also rich in culture and history but lacks a bit in gastronomy (aside from what they’re famous for). We had a very restful time in Cinque Terre and found it to be the perfect transition between our busy stays in both Paris and Rome. This was definitely my favorite city of our trip with Paris coming in close second. We left on the morning of Thursday, April 9^th on train to Pisa.

The only reason we decided to stop in Pisa was because it was on our way to Rome on train. It was fun, but really the only thing to do there is walk, see the tower and “field of miracles” and then leave. That is exactly what we did, but we did have a bad experience in a restaurant with an Italian Mama cafe owner. She yelled at us in Italian for not including the €2/person required service fee for eating in the café even though we weren’t informed of it (or maybe we were, but it was in Italian, so we didn’t understand) and had horrible service. Linnea and I laugh about that now.

Anyways, after a few hours in Pisa, we left for Rome and checked into our hostel. We then stayed nearly three full days in Rome, touring all of the main sights such as the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Vatican City, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Spanish steps, the shopping area, peeking into random churches, many gelato (ice cream) stands, and wandered the random and winding old streets of Rome. We really had a great time in Rome and really enjoyed the food and wine. I found it really funny when Linnea started complaining about the overabundance of pasta, pizza, and carbs in general. Isn’t that what Italy is known for? It was a very culturally enriching experience and we really enjoyed the amazing history of The Eternal City. It was also pretty exciting to be there during holy week and Easter. We were going to try and see the Pope during our stay and go to the Easter Sunday Mass, but found out too late that pre-ordered tickets were required for admittance. So, we decided that in order to avoid the crowds, we would avoid the Pope altogether and visit the Vatican when he was doing the Stations of the Cross in the Colosseum. That worked out very well. We left for Barcelona on Easter Sunday night and arrived just in time to catch the last trains to my house for a restful night.

The next three days we spent touring Barcelona with me playing the tour guide since I’ve seen most of the sights already. It was a lot of fun showing Linnea the city that I’ve come to call home these last six months. Linnea left early in the morning on April 14^th and I got back into my school/work schedule. It was so great to be with a good friend for the first time in six months and to be able to talk about anything, everything, and nothing. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back home and being with family and friends.

I have to say that the most helpful things during our traveling were the two travel books by Rick Steves that Linnea bought. I hadn’t heard about him and his self-owned company until Linnea told me about him. Rick Steves is a man in his 50’s from Seattle who started his own travel company a couple decades ago. It started very small with him publishing a few books and making low-budget movies available for free on TV stations like PBS. Eventually, as word got out, Steves and his company began growing in popularity because his travel books are top quality with great maps, directions, advice, and suggestions. Rick Steves is well known for encouraging the readers (mainly directed at North Americans) to travel off the beaten path and see the more rustic sights that Europe has to offer. Linnea and I are big fans of Rick Steves and made great use of his books and free audio guided tours of popular tourist destinations (Louvre, Notre Dame, Pantheon, Roman Forum, Sistine Chapel, and historic walks through neighborhoods). So, if any of you are planning on traveling soon, I would highly suggest Rick Steves. All of his books are written by people who have actually visited the countries and researched everything for themselves which is very evident through the quality of the products offered. Steves’ company is based in Edmonds and actually has a store with his books, audio guides, tour information, clothes, supplies (the money belt is very useful), and extremely helpful and knowledgeable staff. Haha, basically, Rick Steves is pretty awesome.

--------------Día de SAN JORDI--------------

This last Thursday, the 23^rd of April, Barcelona celebrated the day of Catalunya’s patron saint, San Jordi (Saint George). I mentioned this earlier in a post about Valentine’s Day and its lack of excitement and any commercial presence in Barcelona. This is because San Jordi is the much more exciting Catalan version of Valentine’s Day. I have to say that I prefer San Jordi to Valentine’s Day because it is so exicting and is much more of a festival than just a holiday. On this day, the main streets and plazas of Barcelona are filled with rose stands (some with the most creative colors and arrangements), book stands, and radio stations. Authors make appearances and take part in book signings, drawing huge crowds of people. The tradition of this holiday is for men to give women roses and for women to give men books, though in more modern times, books are being bought for both genders. The background on this holiday is quite funny. The myth of San Jordi is that he slayed a dragon, saving a princess from being eaten and from the dead body of the dragon grew a beautiful rose. Therefore the tradition of rose giving was started. The tradition of giving books began because April 23^rd is also National Book Day because authors Shakespeare and Cervantes (a Spanish author and therefore national hero) both died on this day. I found this to be a very beautiful holiday especially since both tourists and locals take part in the festivities. I am very glad that I was able to experience it.

--------------Almost finished--------------

Right now I’m preparing for my long weekend trip to Switzerland. The main reason of my trip is to attend a wedding at the oldest church in Switzerland, located about an hour north of Geneva. I met my soon-to-be-married friend, Mike, at a summer camp in 2006 when we were both camp counselors in Santa Cruz, California. When he found out that I was in Europe, he told me that I needed to see Switzerland and that I was more than welcome to attend his wedding. That summer of 2006 was the last time that I had seen him, so I was very surprised and excited to be invited. So, this is going to be an exciting trip both to see Mike again and attend his wedding and to test my map and travel skills while touring Geneva and Lausanne all by myself for three days.

If you’re still reading, I congratulate you. This post became much longer than the Reader’s Digest version I was hoping for. But I guess after a month of nothing, this huge novel of an update isn’t too overwhelming, I hope. Haha. Anyways, I have really enjoyed hearing from all of you through your e-mails and comments on the blog. Thank you for that. As always, I hope everything is wonderful with all of you back at home in the States. I miss you and am counting down the days until I return home… which is almost exactly three months from now.

Abrazos,

Linnell

P.S. I am still waiting on a response from the English teaching program and should probably find out about that sometime in the next few weeks. So, my plans for next year are still pretty unknown, but I’m okay with that. I’ll be content whether I get to stay another year here or go home.

P.P.S. PHOTOS!!!

Paris: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2409858&id=10707115&l=097816eb13

Paris & Cinque Terre: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2409865&id=10707115&l=672a2165a9

Cinque Terre & Pisa/Rome & Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2409941&id=10707115&l=179fa47112

Barcelona: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2410221&id=10707115&l=fe76530749