One last time...

Hey all,
So this will probably be the last post from Europe. The more I think about it, the more glad I am to be heading back to my own bed and seeing you all. Ive loved it here so much, but it will be soothing to be back home. Like I was telling Amy earlier, its just more peaceful to be home. Plus I miss you Mom and Dad, like crazy amounts. Oh and Jeff and Brian and Anna too (but I dont know how often jeff and brian check this... :]) I will get to see you guys soon!

And for the sake of it, one last city update:
Madrid.
I have enjoyed Madrid pretty well so far. Ok a lot. Despite hearing stories of gangs of people doing... bad things. No worries, that has NOT happened to us. Madrid, madrid, where to start? We have walked around the city quite a bit in the few days we have been here. Of course we hit up the parks and gardens, it just wouldnt be possible to not. They do have some nice gardens- though I prefer Sevillas. Amy and I went on the free walking tour while Rachel did some much needed laundry... Im still a huge fan of them! I felt bad because I literally had about 1 euro 27 on me and couldnt really tip the tour guide, but I figured thats why they make them free anyway. At the end of the day we went to a flamenco show. I loooooooveee flamenco. I wish life could always move to the rhythm of the dance. On the way home from the show we saw a fire on the street. Of course we had to stop and watch.... at first we thought it was a car fire, but eventually it became evident that it was just a dumpster and not going to explode... which was disappointing but probably for the best. The popo came and put it out, and as far as I could tell there was no real damage done.

Next day (because Im tired because it is 140am and we need to get up in about 5 hours to get to our flight). We walked around some more, this time with Rachel so she could see the town. We went into the Palace, which is the largest palace in Europe with thousands of rooms in it (literally). We didnt get to see every room, for which i am thankful because we probably wouldnt ever escape it, but my oh my was it beautiful. I think, hands down, this place had the most ornate and interesting art work and sculptures I have ever seen. Every ceiling was covered in frescos, every trim was carved out, and sometimes it looked as if the two were intermixed and part of the painting were popping out of the wall. We couldnt get pictures- I wouldve snuck some if there werent guards in every room. But look it up and maybe youll find some. I dont remember the name of it, so youll have to do some investigation...
Then we went to the Prado Museum for free (because it was 6pm) and wandered it for a few hours. What can I say, there were lots of paintings... some of them lovely, some of them average, some of them repetetive, some of them ingenious, some of them plain gruesome. I liked it. We went to the museum with a couple of parisian girls who are in our room, who have officially offered to show us around paris next time we come... I hope they dont mind when I honestly take them up on that offer. :)

Ok I have to go to bed. See some of you tomorrow (well... I guess thats a relative term in this case) and see others of you later than tomorrow.

Laura

One day I will move back here

Sevilla is one of those beautiful cities. Just looking at it, it plain looks nice. There are palm trees and plazas with fountains around every corner, rivers and bridges, and sculptures. Its also hot, but its a dry heat so I loved it. On the first full day in Sevilla, we walked around town a bit, and wandered through Alcatraz... ok not really, but I dont have the name of the place in front of me, and it sounds very similar to the prison. If town itself is beautiful, you might say that this place was heavenly. You can see I liked it a lot there. Part of Alcatraz was the building, which was similar to some of the castles in France (except more spanish) with ornate decorations and trims, tiles and mosaics, carvings, things that make buildings look nice. I preferred, though, the outside gardens. Oh my I could wander those things for days and be happy. Parts were more foresty, parts were more grassy (with trees), there were fountains and ponds and small sculptures here and there, and paths going every which way so you could get lost if you arent careful, and PEACOCKS! Babby peacocks too. And they tried to attack us. At least we were convinced they were going after us. Have you seen their beaks, they are sharp. Not something I want in my leg. Eventually we were thirsty and hot enough to drag myself out of there (oh another nice thing about Sevilla are the student discounts... this place normally costs 7 euro, for students it is free. Thats the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh). I dont remember much else we did that day, but Im sure we walked around a little more and ate some food. Probably used the bathroom a few times. Maybe some other stuff.
The next day we met up with Rachels friend Bea, as Amy mentioned, at the semi-circular building in town... again I dont remember its name. I am not good with specifics such as that. Sevilla is beautiful. So was this building. With Bea we walked through the Maria Louisa gardens (ah ha! I remember a name! but only because Amy likes to call them the Marisa Louisa or Maria Lucia gardens), through town a bit, and then grabbed some food at a bar. A resturante is where you pay a lot for food. A bar is what you call a place you get cheap food. I like cheap food. And then! we headed down toward Cadiz, about an hour away, to stay at her familys flat near the beach.
The night we arrived in Cadiz, we stopped by the beach for a little while, just long enough to see a horse race along the coast. It had cooled down a bit by that point, only around 23 C, so much cooler than we have been used to that Amy in fact turned PURPLE. Her entire arms were bluish. This is not uncommon for Amy. Her body tends to do this when she is cold. But, 70 F is not THAT cold, is it? Apparently when you are used to 100 it is. The air was very humid too, and after about 10 minutes outside my arms were sticky and wet. I was just grateful that it wasnt hot out. That wouldve been un-fun.
I dont know if yo u all know this... Im assuming most of you do, because most everyone who reads this knows Amy and I, but Amy has taken French and is pretty darn good at it. She has also taken approximately 6 months of spanish, approximately 6 years ago. Her speaking spanish is the most hilarious time I have had on this entire trip. She is not bad at it... actually she can speak better than a lot of people who have studied it for much longer than she has. I dont know how to describe it other than we spent hours sitting around on the balcony, the four of us laughing until our sides hurt, and then laughing some more.
The next day we spent at the beach. I have an amazing tiger pattern on my back. No it wasnt intentional, but if I HAD thought of it, I probably wouldve done it on purpose. We all got a little sunburned, you could say, other than the spanish one. She tried to convince us that she is white by showing us the inside of her arm, but we didnt fall for it. That was about the color of the "tan" on my outer arm. The beaches in southern spain, by the way, are just as gorgeous as you would imagine. And the sand is very soft. And the water warm. Oh I think I got stung by something in the water because my arm... got... stung. My underarm area. Dont fret too much though, it stopped hurting after about a half hour or so. After hours at the beach, we drove back home. I mean Sevilla. Oops. I want to move to France and Sevilla. We will see about the whole visa thing.... so far our investigations show that its not that easy to move here.
Today we have transfered from Sevilla to Madrid, our last and final and NO MORE AFTER THIS ONE city. Eek! This was our LAST train day. I miss you all out there, but it has been nice to be here without worry other than what to see in the city or when we will catch our train.
I would tell you what we have seen of Madrid so far, seeing as we got to the city around 2pm (and it is now 11pm) but all we have done is sleep and eat. What can I say, we were tired. Tomorrow though, we will start seeing the city. I hope. That would be really bad if we were here for two days and didnt see anything. Naw that wont happen... we still have to see Flamenco!
Hokay, Im going to go back to the room now. Despite not wanting to leave, we do in fact miss you out there. Three more days until we are back in Edmonds, eating Taco Bell and sleeping in our own beds. (Except those of you who are reading this for Rachel... three more days until she heads up to England...)

Adios!
Laura

Towards our last city....

Tomorrow we take our last train day to Madrid, our last city before we fly home on the 3rd. It is very weird and scary to think that well be leaving and that we wont be in Europe anymore. However, were very excited to see everyone!!!

Im thinking of you Max. :)

In Seville we were able to meet up with Rachels friend Bella, who had an apartment on the beach so we took a mini vacation out the beach for a day and a night. It was gorgeous and fun and a nice change of pace to have a "home". She is really fun too so that helps. And I have for sure decided that spanish will be the next language I learn, very fun and beautiful! Laura will update you more about Seville, because it is beautiful and fun and deserves more writing.

On a sad note, the cleaning lady threw away our food, a souvenir :( and all of our sunscreen EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ON OUR BED. Im upset, but thats me.

Time to go! Adios.

Quick update

So were now in Seville, where we plan to stay for four nights. It is crazy hot here, around 117 degrees. Meaning that well be napping by day and seeing the town by night! ;)

Rachel and I just found out that one of her friends is here, so we may end up meeting with her. Well keep you updated!

Yell and Scream and Make a Scene

So were still in Barcelona, but I thought that there was something VERY blogworthy to tell everyone. So, we went on a day trip to a nearby town, known to be cute and have good beaches. We took the metro there of course, seeing as Barcelona is so large and very tiresome to walk. When we were walking between lines, I noticed there was a couple, mid thirties walking very close to Laura and Rachel, who were each walking in front and to the right of me. (Meaning the couple was on my right). I assumed they were trying to pass them and get through, so I didnt think much of it. However, I did noticed he was staring at Lauras black day bag. I thought this was weird, and being the paranoid, anti stranger person that I am, I took more notice of them. This is very very very good, because next time I looked over, he had unzipped Lauras bag and was about to reach his hand in. Ugh, just writing about it gives me a adreniline rush of hate. So of course I yelled at him, told him to stop and closed her bag. There was not much else we could do besides give them evil glare. Well we probably could of made a scene, but we were on automatic and didnt think of it. Boy do I wish now that when I had stopped him that I had also "accidentally" pushed him down the stairs or something. But anyway, I'm not violent at all of course so we'll move on ;). I saw that they had hung back and were going to take another route, so I figured that was that. But once we got onto the next train, Laura noticed that they were on the same train, just down a few cars. By this time my head had cleared a little and I didnt know what I wanted to do, but I needed to do something. So, I made them walk down with me, where we stood a few feet from them and glared at them for the extent of the train ride, which was conviently only one stop. (They defintely looked like they were avoiding eye contact and looked like they got out just in case we were going to make a scene). My head wasnt cleared enough to do more, like announce to the train that they were pickpocketers, which would of been smart because as we were approaching them it looked like they already had another victim.

Hindsight is 20-20 though and there is nothing I can do now. But yea, we were almost pickpocketed-which would of been a great financial loss on this particular day (had a lot of money for the day trip) BUT we werent and thats what counts. But if I see him again and Im gonna yell and scream and make a scene and hope he doesnt have a knife or something. :)

We're in Barcelona!

Our trip across the border was simple and hassle free. Once again our passports were not checked and therefore we did not get a stamp. Meaning we ONLY got stamps for entering Ireland. Lame. They don't speak normal spanish here, it is a very strange mix of french, spanish and something else. But thats ok, we're still able to get by!

We like Barcelona, but sadly its very big. We walked across town yesterday, but pretty much you have to use the metro. There is a bus tour thing overground, technically lame, BUT, it acts as a bus, and a tour, and you can rest in the wind! So we would like to do that but it costs 20 euro, way more euro then were willing to pay. So instead, we walk. Yesterday we saw a melting church, not actually melting of course but its more fun to pretend that it is. There are a lot of shops, and Im trying oh so hard to get the last of my souvenir shopping done- that means you Lindsay! The beach is beautiful, as expected, and I'm trying oh so hard to convince Laura and Rachel that they want to swim with me, but neither of them want to. Because they're lame.

Today were going to go to a cool park and read, to an aquarium (which sadly costs 13 euro but its ok) and then to the beach. Wish me luck on getting them to swim with me! I mean, how many times do you get the chance to swim in the Med Sea in Spain?

Amy

Oh, and ps. It was freaky! One of the guys in our dorm room (sharing Lauras bunk) is from Bellingham!!! And he goes to WWU. It was weird talking about bellingham things, like streets, and Mallards, and Padden with a perfect stranger, in Barcelona.
Oh, and pps. Its possible we may have someone to stay with in Seville, meaning we wont have to pay for hostel. Were not positive, but were hoping! (A friend of Rachels, not a stranger)

Hey there, long time no talk

It has been a long time without internet, which is good and bad. Good for us and not being pulled into this infinite abyss, bad for you because you dont get to know what we are up to. But I have a little time now and thought I would let you know what is up in the lives of the three of us.

Paris
Paris was beautiful, like last time but now we got to explore more than just the tower. We met up with Rachel, as mentioned, late on the 13th. On the way to go find her at the metro station nearby, Amy and I ran across some amazing street performers who could do handstands and flips and hip hop like no one Ive seen. We did find her after a little bit of confusion... which is good because I wouldve hated to call her parents to tell them that we lost their daughter in Paris. The hotel we stayed at was ok... I probably wouldve had a better opinion of it if the lady who ran it werent such a b$%c& but I wont delve into that. For those of you who havent been there, Paris is pretty large and city like. Not overwhelmingly huge (at least the city center area isnt) and we did manage to walk across it in the pouring rain one night from the eiffel tower to our hotel. It was fun, but I wouldnt recommend it on a daily basis; plus, Im pretty sure my cold started the next day... just saying. Anyway, we didnt so much go into all of the sites we are supposed to go see. We tried, I promise, but I think the stars were aligning against us. The friday we were there was a bank holiday, which we didnt realize until we were wondering why a lot of shops were closed, and after searching quite a bit for the Catacombs (due to a faulty map we were directed to a prison, which is close but not quite the same thing) we found them to be closed for the holiday. The Louvre also closed early. So the next day we went back to try to see the catacombs before catching our train to Rennes. Not a good idea. The Saturday after a bank holiday. We waited in line for an hour and a half, just to have to give up once we were about 15 minutes away, because we had to go catch our train. Maybe we didnt go inside the big stuff, but we did see it from the outside and got to lay by the river eating ice cream, which to me is just as good if not better.

St Marcan, near Mt St Michel, Nearish to Rennes
Our trek to St Marcan was an interesting one to say the least. Long story short, we ended up in a town about a half hour away from the one our hotel/B&B was in with no way to get there (no trains, the buses had stopped, and no ferry). After walking around the town, and every hotel being full, we were literally talking to a car rental place to rent a car just to sleep in for the night. Luckily we got ahold of our B&B before we did that, and they told us to go to Dol (nearby) and they would pick us up. Oh holy day! The couple that run the B&B are a nice older english couple who decided to do this with their time after retiring and are super sweet, and the town that the B&B is in was barely a town, mostly surrounded by farms and fields. The buildings were quiant little stone buildings that looked like they literally came out of a movie.
Mt St Michel is a monestary on top of a random hill of metamorphic rock (i believe) surrounded by tide flats. The man who runs the place drove us out there (getting up to 90mph on small country roads... now we're talking!) and back. Lovely people! When we got to Mt St Michel we wandered around a bit, went into the monestary (where there was a service going on because it was Sunday) and decided to go to the Alligator Bay down the road (a sort of reptile zoo). You will have to ask Amy and Rachel more about that because I stayed outside when they went in... but I will tell you that there was LARGE tortoise humping going on. mmmhmm youre interested now, I know it.
Oh and one of my favorite parts- the B&B served breakfast all fancy like. In a dining room. With specific seats for each room. And juice and coffee and croissants and rolls brought out to you. Yeah. And it was the earliest we got up on the trip, other than for the 3am bus Amy and Rachael and I had to catch early on. And the 5am time we had to be off the train in Paris last time we were there. But other than those...

Blois, in the Chateaux district
France has a lot of castles. We saw a few of them. I like castles. Because Im running lower on time, I will start skimming a little more. Sorry. Anyway, we went to see the last residence of Leonardo Da Vinci, where he passed; got to see inside of his house, some of his inventions, the underground passageway that connected his place to the castle, his gardens, things like that. That man is genious, btw.
We also went to the largest castle in Europe, the grounds of which cover an area the size of Paris. The chateau is magnificent, with paintings and carvings everywhere. Lots of Kings and Queens were quite ugly. But regardless, we got to see the bedrooms of said kings and queens, as well as lots of other rooms. Chambord (the castle) has 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces, and 426 rooms... as well as lots of fields and forest with wild animals. Now thats my kind of a house.
Ack i should go soon! We also saw a light show at the Blois castle. It was cool.

Carcassonne
And now we are to our last location in France. We are staying within the walled cite, which is very cool. Walking around, the streets are small and windy and have shops on all sides. We spent some time yesterday after sunset walking around the edge, overlooking the city, and today was spent mostly inside around. We are good at killing time.

We leave tomorrow for Barcelona.

I have to go, but hope fully will have more internet later

Laura