Sooooooooo we're super duper late on the blog. We've been home and busy working, planning parties, getting ready to move, and working on the wedding for about two weeks now. Sorry!
Lets wrap this thing up!
Our first day in Barcelona was spent visiting the famous street of Las Ramblas and the maze that is the Gothic Quarter. The area reminded of of Paris and the Champs-Élysées. We had some decent Shwarma for lunch and then headed to the Picasso Museum.
We lucked out with the Picasso Museum. Not only was it surrounded by the rich architecture of the Gothic Quarter, but it was also displaying it's temporary exhibit featuring works by Salvador Dali. The exhibit held Dali's and Picasso's works side-by-side, displaying their similar influences and time learning from each other. The rest of the museum showed mostly early works by Picasso, showing his growth as an artist and works with multiple artistic mediums. Disappointingly though, there were few iconic pieces in the exhibit.
The rest of our time in Barcelona was spent hiding from the scorching sun and teaching Kaylea to play chess. To her own surprise, she loves playing and ended up beating Aaron by her sixth game.
Our time in Madrid was much more adventurous than our time in Barcelona. Aaron's good friend from college, Warner, flew from Munich (where he's taking German language courses for the summer) to meet and hang out with us. Its worth noting that our hostel was brand new and fantastic. Our first afternoon was spent exploring the city, strolling though a giant park, and searching for a way into Madrid's observatory. After a few hours of sweating through our shirts, we retreated back to the hostel for a late-afternoon ciesta. Here we met our hostel mate, Cyrus. A cool animation and film grad from NYU.
For dinner we paid to join other hostelers from dinner at the hostel bar. Drinks (beer and Sangria) were unlimited and free for all who paid the 10 euro for the meal. It was surprisingly decent for its low price! After that we joined the pub crawl, though none of the four of us paid the additional $10 for the wrist band that would get us an hour of free drinks and into the night club. We walked the group of about 30 young adults to a square where one of the hostel leaders had everyone say their name and why they joined the pub-crawl. It was silly.
We made it to the first bar and were glad to have not paid for the crawl. The bar was packed and skeevy. It was doubtful that you could get two drink orders in within the hour with how packed it was. We handed off our free shot vouchers to the nearest party-goer and headed back to the hostel. By this time it was already past midnight and each of us had already had a fair amount to drink from the open bar. We would find out the next day that many people stayed out until 6 in the morning! Man, did we feel old and mature.
Our first full day in Madrid was dreadfully sweaty, but we made the most of it. We had brunch at this little cafe with delicious quiche and empanadas and then made our way through a street flea market to find something to do. On the way we found an "American Goods" store. It had American craft beer, Jiff, Arizona sweet teach, Cholula sauces, canned food and bagged sweets, and many other American candies and goods. Kaylea laughed almost the entire way through the store.
We decided to head back to the hostel to escape the heat. On the way, a baby bird was hopping around the crowded sidewalk. It came perilously close to being squashed under multiple feet. Finally some guy picked it up an threw it onto a market tent. Worried that it might fall and find itself under a boot, Kaylea was able to get someone to gently push it off the tent with a broom handle. It jumped right from the tarp into Kaylea's hands. She carried it back to the hostel, only to find that the nearest garden was a 15 minute metro ride away. Aaron and Warner volunteered to take it back outside and find a safe place for it, even though it's chances of survival were slim. They returned about 15 minutes later and swore that they set it somewhere safe and didn't kill it.
After another ciesta, the three of us invited Cyrus to see Jurassic World in English (Warner hadn't seen it and we wanted to see it again). We watched the movie, witnessed a strike in the streets, and then had a delicious dinner at and Indian restaurant next to the hostel.
Our last full day in Europe was spent with Warner and Cyrus. We had an American style breakfast at a dinner we'd seen the day before (it wasn't very good) and then hopped a bus to the small town of Toledo. Toledo is about two hours away via bus and is located on the top of a very steep hill. We walked this hill in 107 degree weather. Apparently the town is famed for it's production of swords used in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, so there were Middle Earth shops all over. The town was cute, but boy it was hot. We stopped for a lunch consisting of chips and and a variety of tapas, which is basically a bunch of different snack foods and dips. It was goooood. After a bit more sight seeing and a little bit of souvenir shopping, we hopped another bus back down the hill. We soon realized that the bus was destined for the train station instead of the bus stop, but we were able to talk the bus driver into driving us there so we wouldn't have to walk a mile in the heat.
We made it back to Madrid in time for another ciesta (nap, if you were wondering)! All four of us got cleaned up and followed Cyrus to a popular restaurant for dinner. The tapas were weird but tasty, and the Sangria was strong. We finished our night and a small piano bar with a pitcher of Sangria and good conversation.
The Journey Home:
The trip home was hellish. We made it to Madrid airport in good time, but the flight was an hour late and people were pissy. The flight wasn't too awful. Babies screaming and the attendants running out of food. Pretty standard stuff. It was getting though customs from Canada back into the States that made us grumpy. The line was the most unorganized three-part system (actually it was 5 parts but only 3 were listed on the directions) that we'd ever experiences. Some lady yelled at Kaylea when she accidentally cut in a line that didn't look like a line, and the attends were openly yelling at and berating people. Who every designed Toronto's US customs needs to be fired immediately.
We made it back to Texas around 9 in the evening, July 30th was a 32 hour day for us. Mike and Rachel picked us up and we came home to most of our books and wall hangings turned upside-down. Thanks Mike!
After all was said and done, we traveled over 15,000 miles to 11 countries and 32 cities and towns. 64 days spent on the go. It was the trip of a lifetime. Thank you for everyone who kept up with the blog and supported us on our travels.
Again, sorry for the two week delay.
Now for our next adventures of moving, graduate school, and soon-to-be marriage!
Love always,
Kaylea & Aaron
Lets wrap this thing up!
Our first day in Barcelona was spent visiting the famous street of Las Ramblas and the maze that is the Gothic Quarter. The area reminded of of Paris and the Champs-Élysées. We had some decent Shwarma for lunch and then headed to the Picasso Museum.
We lucked out with the Picasso Museum. Not only was it surrounded by the rich architecture of the Gothic Quarter, but it was also displaying it's temporary exhibit featuring works by Salvador Dali. The exhibit held Dali's and Picasso's works side-by-side, displaying their similar influences and time learning from each other. The rest of the museum showed mostly early works by Picasso, showing his growth as an artist and works with multiple artistic mediums. Disappointingly though, there were few iconic pieces in the exhibit.
The rest of our time in Barcelona was spent hiding from the scorching sun and teaching Kaylea to play chess. To her own surprise, she loves playing and ended up beating Aaron by her sixth game.
Our time in Madrid was much more adventurous than our time in Barcelona. Aaron's good friend from college, Warner, flew from Munich (where he's taking German language courses for the summer) to meet and hang out with us. Its worth noting that our hostel was brand new and fantastic. Our first afternoon was spent exploring the city, strolling though a giant park, and searching for a way into Madrid's observatory. After a few hours of sweating through our shirts, we retreated back to the hostel for a late-afternoon ciesta. Here we met our hostel mate, Cyrus. A cool animation and film grad from NYU.
For dinner we paid to join other hostelers from dinner at the hostel bar. Drinks (beer and Sangria) were unlimited and free for all who paid the 10 euro for the meal. It was surprisingly decent for its low price! After that we joined the pub crawl, though none of the four of us paid the additional $10 for the wrist band that would get us an hour of free drinks and into the night club. We walked the group of about 30 young adults to a square where one of the hostel leaders had everyone say their name and why they joined the pub-crawl. It was silly.
We made it to the first bar and were glad to have not paid for the crawl. The bar was packed and skeevy. It was doubtful that you could get two drink orders in within the hour with how packed it was. We handed off our free shot vouchers to the nearest party-goer and headed back to the hostel. By this time it was already past midnight and each of us had already had a fair amount to drink from the open bar. We would find out the next day that many people stayed out until 6 in the morning! Man, did we feel old and mature.
Our first full day in Madrid was dreadfully sweaty, but we made the most of it. We had brunch at this little cafe with delicious quiche and empanadas and then made our way through a street flea market to find something to do. On the way we found an "American Goods" store. It had American craft beer, Jiff, Arizona sweet teach, Cholula sauces, canned food and bagged sweets, and many other American candies and goods. Kaylea laughed almost the entire way through the store.
We decided to head back to the hostel to escape the heat. On the way, a baby bird was hopping around the crowded sidewalk. It came perilously close to being squashed under multiple feet. Finally some guy picked it up an threw it onto a market tent. Worried that it might fall and find itself under a boot, Kaylea was able to get someone to gently push it off the tent with a broom handle. It jumped right from the tarp into Kaylea's hands. She carried it back to the hostel, only to find that the nearest garden was a 15 minute metro ride away. Aaron and Warner volunteered to take it back outside and find a safe place for it, even though it's chances of survival were slim. They returned about 15 minutes later and swore that they set it somewhere safe and didn't kill it.
After another ciesta, the three of us invited Cyrus to see Jurassic World in English (Warner hadn't seen it and we wanted to see it again). We watched the movie, witnessed a strike in the streets, and then had a delicious dinner at and Indian restaurant next to the hostel.
Our last full day in Europe was spent with Warner and Cyrus. We had an American style breakfast at a dinner we'd seen the day before (it wasn't very good) and then hopped a bus to the small town of Toledo. Toledo is about two hours away via bus and is located on the top of a very steep hill. We walked this hill in 107 degree weather. Apparently the town is famed for it's production of swords used in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, so there were Middle Earth shops all over. The town was cute, but boy it was hot. We stopped for a lunch consisting of chips and and a variety of tapas, which is basically a bunch of different snack foods and dips. It was goooood. After a bit more sight seeing and a little bit of souvenir shopping, we hopped another bus back down the hill. We soon realized that the bus was destined for the train station instead of the bus stop, but we were able to talk the bus driver into driving us there so we wouldn't have to walk a mile in the heat.
We made it back to Madrid in time for another ciesta (nap, if you were wondering)! All four of us got cleaned up and followed Cyrus to a popular restaurant for dinner. The tapas were weird but tasty, and the Sangria was strong. We finished our night and a small piano bar with a pitcher of Sangria and good conversation.
The Journey Home:
The trip home was hellish. We made it to Madrid airport in good time, but the flight was an hour late and people were pissy. The flight wasn't too awful. Babies screaming and the attendants running out of food. Pretty standard stuff. It was getting though customs from Canada back into the States that made us grumpy. The line was the most unorganized three-part system (actually it was 5 parts but only 3 were listed on the directions) that we'd ever experiences. Some lady yelled at Kaylea when she accidentally cut in a line that didn't look like a line, and the attends were openly yelling at and berating people. Who every designed Toronto's US customs needs to be fired immediately.
We made it back to Texas around 9 in the evening, July 30th was a 32 hour day for us. Mike and Rachel picked us up and we came home to most of our books and wall hangings turned upside-down. Thanks Mike!
After all was said and done, we traveled over 15,000 miles to 11 countries and 32 cities and towns. 64 days spent on the go. It was the trip of a lifetime. Thank you for everyone who kept up with the blog and supported us on our travels.
Again, sorry for the two week delay.
Now for our next adventures of moving, graduate school, and soon-to-be marriage!
Love always,
Kaylea & Aaron
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