I'm back!

It is odd being back. I can't say I like being back or dislike it.

Having my room, different clothing and being able to exercise is nice but going on this trip made me realize that there are a lot of important ppl in Edmonton that I care about. Too bad I couldn't bring everyone on my trip, then it would have been perfect!

I know that there will be more trips and this one was so much fun and a great experience that I was glad to share with so many ppl. I'm going to miss the food (esp the bread), exploring and the care freeness of traveling but there is something about being back home that makes being back ok. There's a lot to look forward to and it's been a fun 3.5 weeks even though it only felt like an hr since I left. Anyways, that was definitely a fun and successful trip!

Thanks for reading my blog. Hopefully I'll have another travel blog in the near future.

Picture: From Kaylee :)

The last leg of the trip

Once in London, Devonne and I traveled to her dorm without too much trouble. She definitely has a knack for direction and figuring out how to get places, which I was super grateful for during the trip. We had a shower which was super refreshing and after a few phone calls we headed for supper.  The evening with Devonne went by fast, just like my whole trip,  so before I knew it we were heading to see my aunt.

My aunt picked us up from the station and we went back to her place where we chatted, watched some of Margaret Thatcher's funeral and visited with my cousins. We also had tea. English tea is delicious. I can never make it taste right. The last time I had tea that tasted that good was when my grandma made it. I had fish and chips for lunch. It doesn't taste the same in Canada either. So, sitting in my Aunt's family room drinking tea and eating fish and chips brought back the memories from when I was there 8 years ago. I felt so comfortable and relaxed. I felt like I was home.

After Devonne left, we decided to go to a pub where I had a couple of drinks and then we headed back to my Aunt's place where we had supper. It was really nice telling stories and having lots of good laughs. The saying "Home is where the heart is" sounds sort of cheesy, but I felt like I was at home because I was with family.  I wouldn't have wanted to end the trip any other way, except maybr staying longer with my Aunt.

All good things come to an end, and this ended too fast. The next day my cousin, David, took me to the airport and I boarded the plane back to Canada. 

Lisboa

The last fullbday in Portugal found Devonne and I checking out as much of Lisbon as we could.

It did not take us long to get away from the touristy streets and to find buildings and people depicting a story. The buildings in Lisbon,  from what I saw, were a bit more run down, but more beautiful and moving than the areas I have seen in my whole trip. I felt like there was more of a story here than any other place I had been to. The buildings reminded me of sn elderly person- cute and quaint but gone and lived through a lot. It would be interesting to know about Lisbon and about Portugal for that matter.

Devonne and I decided to take a peak at St. Jorge's Castle but decided not to go into it as we wanted to head to Belem. The security guard at tbe castle told us nobody walked to Belem from where we were but we decided there was nothing to lose and so much to gain to do the 7.5 km/ 1.5 hr jaunt through Lisbon. It was a nice day and got to feel more of the Portugese culture through this walk.

We finally reached Belem and snapped photos of this and other places. Knowing a bit of history before seeing these places would have been a good thing for me to do, but alas I did not, and will have to Wikipedia stuff when I'm back home. We caught the train back as we were pretty tired from all the walking we had done. Going to a cafe and having coffee and a nata pastry while reading our books was relaxing and the perfect way to end our afternoon in Lisbon. Of course we dined on delicious Portugese food, octopus rice, before heading back to the hostel to pack our bags so we could head out the next day.

I just scratched the surface of Portugal but hopefully I can experience more of it one day.

Where are the forest fairies?

Devonne and I caught a cab to our hostel as we got in at 8pm and needed to have supper still. The cab ride went well, and after being shown our rooms we headed out for some good Portugese food. We found some! The waiter was sort of a jerk, but the rice with fish was delicious. I don't know what kind of sauce they use, but it's amazing. I could definitely eat more back in Canada if I can figure out how to make the sauce!

The first full day in Portugal found us doing a day trip to Sintra.  I felt like I was placed in a magical forest. Everything was blanketed in lush greeness.

We first headed to Quinta de Regeleria which was suggested to us by many ppl. It was not a disappointment with beautiful green grounds, tunnels that made you feel like you're in a story and smells that transported you out of Europe. I'm not exaggerating. This area was so picturesque and smelled so fresh, words cannot describe it. I would defInitely go back to this place.

We had delicious Portugese pastries (travesseiros and queijadas) and coffee (best coffee I've ever tasted was from Portugal) after Quinta. We checked out a few shops which had so much hand painted porcelain, and Devonne found some neat pieces, but sadly nothing caught my eyes.

In the late afternoon we headed to Pena, another palace which was bigger than the last, but also more of a touristy thing than Quinta de Regeleria.  We got there pretty late, so we opted for walking around the park which were actually the grounds for the palace. While walking to the highest Sintra hill, Devonne and I felt like we were back home, walking in Jasper or Banff. It was very refreshing to be surroundes by so many trees and green. The view from the top was awesome and worth the trek up to Pena --- oh yeah, Devonne and I walked for about 45 min to this place when we thought it would only take about 20 min. We got some nice photos from this location, but it was getting late and we were ready for some good Portugese food!

Back in the town we went to a restaurant that was recommended to us called Apeadeiro. It turned out to be absolutely wonderful,  with such nice waiters. Actually,  when we asked for the bill, the waiter first came by and let us try some port. Yum! I really enjoyed that stuff.

We hopped on the train back to Lisbon where sleep got the better of me. I was definitely tired but didn't want to accept we only had one more full day in Lisbon.

Side post: Hostel in Barca

Our hostel was fantastic! We were allowed to switch to a private room at no cost, which came in handy as we were there for 7 nights.  What truly made this hostel so nice was how comfortable they made it feel. The lounge area was small and was never filled, the kitchen area was spick and span and I swear someone was constantly cleaning it. I was able to have relaxing, private showers because they had a bunch of little bathrooms scattered in the hostel rather than a big room with many showers. The showers were also very clean and I didn't feel grossed out, which I sometimes feel if change areas and bathrooms are open for many ppl to use.

The staff and owners are what made the hostel the most relaxing and comfortable place to be when Devonne and I needed a rest. They were super welcoming when we came in. Thet sat us down and went through a map of Barcelona, showing us good restaurants and places to see. They looked up things when they couldn't answer our questions and were always available if we needed help with anything.

Barcelona hostel definitely felt almost like a home.

When Devonne and I got to our hostel in Lisbon, we only planned to sleep in our beds there and not stop in during the day if we could help it. This hostel was big, felt impersonal and didn't have a comfortable atmosphere. We were in a mixed room with older ppl (~40 yr olds) so that was really good-- I think one night everyone was in bed by about 11. It wasn't a bad hostel in Lisbon, but it definitely wasn't our Barcelona hostel. It wasn't horrible though, so I would say we still had a positive experience.

Pictures 1-3 : Barcelona room and balcony/ terrace from lounge area

Picture 4: Lisbon room

This is gonna be a long post.

<p dir=ltr>I have a lot to talk about from my days in Barcelona. Figuring out where to start is the difficult thing because I was able to see so much of the city. </p>
<p dir=ltr>On Tuesday, Devonne and I decided to explore the "left side of the map", as I called it. We saw a big building called MNAC, which we figured must mean "Magical National Authenticity of Catalunya". It was really neat, but the multiple gardens beside and behind this building is what I really enjoyed. While walking through the gardens, I felt like I was in mini oasis'. They were so beautiful and peaceful, which was a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Las Ramblas (downtown Barca busy with tourists). After venturing through the the gardens we decided to find the free castle. We were helped along by a nice biker who gave us good directions.Most ppl took a funicular (side note: this word was new to me but was used so much as a landmark while I was in Barcelona and Lisbon I had to look it up) but Devonne and I decided to walk up. The road had quite a few switchbacks and I definitely broke a little sweat but it was a nice walk to the castle. The castle had an awesome view or the water and of Barcelona,&#160; maybe even a better view than from Parc G&#252;el. After snapping some pictures we headed to Mussol for some delicious food (that's where I tried ponnet which I mentioned in my food post). </p>
<p dir=ltr>On Wednesday,&#160; after visiting Sagrada Familia, we headed to the flea market. Alas, the type of shopping I wanted to do (the other stores were just typical clothing stores). This was the place where locals went to shop. So many little stands with so much stiff. I don't know how they put this stuff away at the end of the day because it was pretty disorganized and the vendors just had stuff everywhere. Anyways, it was really fun looking through everything and if I had room, I woulda probably have bought something a bit bigger, so maybe it's a goos thing I just had a backpack. After rifling theough stuff for a decent amount of time, we decided to head back to the hostel for some tea. We decided to watch the Barcelona vs. Paris Saint Germain match (Champions League quarter finals game) at the hostel instead of at a pub because we loved our hostel so much. What a game! Messi didn't start due to a hamstring injury, but they ended up putting him on in with about 30 min left in the game and he set up a beautiful play for a goal. It was mainly staff from the hostel and a couple of their friends, but what a fun thing to do in Barcelona!</p>
<p dir=ltr>Thursday was a pretty relaxing day because we had done basically all the big tourist things and we had walked everywhere so we had seen quite a bit of Barcelona already. We stopped at a cafe that had delicious hot chocolate which was literally just liquid chocolate, so maybe a tad bit rich. After that we walked along the water front and decided to check out a second hand store called Humana, which the owner suggested we could check out. We meandered back to our hostel for some tea and, for me, a siesta. In the evening we watched a flamenco show. There was such intensity in the dancers and the musicians. It was really fun to see and the lady who did most of the dancing was so talented! Kudos to her. </p>
<p dir=ltr>Friday morning we saw Casa Batll&#243; and went to the flea market again because it was just that neat. We tried to find the beach aftet that, but just ended up plopping ourselves down on a grassy area and relaxing in the sun. We decided to go to the "Magic Fountain" in the evening which is basically a big fountain that is played with music and lights. It was really neat and super busy. We then headed back to the hostel to pack our bags as we were heading to Lisbon the next day.

Saturday,  the day we leave Barcelona and enter Lisbon. We didn't have to leave until 4 pm so we wandered around a park we hadn't checked out yet. I really appreciated these times when there were lots of trees because there really aren't a lot of untouched or green spaces at the places I had been to. When we finally said good bye to our amazing hostel staff, and arrived at the airport, the airline said Devonne didn't have a ticket,  but we fixed that up super quickly. In the airport we had Catalana Creama Brulee and coffee as a farewell to Barcelona and then boarded our plane to Lisbon.

The end of the trip was fast approaching and neither one of us were ready to be done with Barcelona and to be heading to Lisbon quite yet.

Lovin Gaudi

Gaudi is a pretty cool guy, well his artwork is anyways. Devonne and I have seen 3 of his major pieces in Barcelona: Parc Güel, Sagrada Familia and Casa Batlló.

Parc Güel

We first went to Parc Güel which was super cool and free, which is always nice. We got a little lost getting there but once we arrived, we spent a few hours wandering around. The park is situated on a hill and Gaudi designed the area after it failed as a housing decelopment. The mosaics, colors and detail was beautiful. Being around lots of trees and eating lunch in nature was something that I have missed in Edmonton (I'm looking forward to seeing the river valley when I'm back).

It has been nice not being limited by time so we can stay as long as want at certain places. In this park we happened upon some musicians (Microguagua) who were super fun to listen to so we stayed for a bit to watch them and ended up buying their CD. It was pretty warm out so after listening to the band we decided to head back to the hostel to relax a bit before supper.

Sagrada de Familia

This is definitely the highlight of Barcelona. It is the thing to see if you're here. We got there 20 min before opening and there was already a little line and by the time the doors openes the line was quite long. Anyways, I got the audio tour which allowed me to gain a bit of insight into what Gaudi was trying to create, although it's still a lof guessing as to what all the details meant. As the Cathedral is still under construction even though Gaudi is dead, the pictures I got weren't the best.

I first saw the Cathedral at night and the one side of it was so detailed and I remember being in awe, but the other side gave me an eerie feeling and I wasn't sure why that was. I found out in the audio tour that Gaudi wanted to create this eerie tone on the front of the Church because it depicted the series of events that lead up to Jesus' crucifixion, so he did a good job in my opinion. The inside of the Cathedral was stunning and my pictures definitely don't give it justice. 

Casa Batlló

Gaudi rennovated this house into something spectacular. It had an ocean/ water feel, but also seemed to be based around a scaled dragon or something of the like. There are no straight lines in the house, just rounded corners and rolling waves almost. He focused on the smallest details, like making sure the oak banisters fit the hand, designing cast iron door knobs that could be easily held, simple slats to create ventilation and making windows smaller as they got higher up because they would receive more light. The outside of the house and the the rooftop were decorated in mosaics. It was definitely a fun place to visit.

My thoughts

I don't understand how someone can think up these things.  It was all so intricately mapped out and every detail thought out so it all worked together. It was so beautiful and shocking. I wanted my pictures to capture what I saw and felt but they don't do it justice. I understand why he is so famous. He did some great pieces in his life.

Pictures: The pictures are in the order I mentioned in this blog

The food.

I thought I would make a blog post on the food and drink, as my Sis pointed out in a comment, a lot of this trip is about the food.

Devonne and I have had gelato every day while in Barcelona and of course that a requires a picture. It has beeb really warm out, so it's been perfect. Mt favorige is Catalana Cream and Maria Biscuit.

I have enjoyed these simple sandwiches they make which they put this tomato stuff and meat, cheese or a Spanisg omlette on a baguette.

For breakfast I've enjoyed museli and this thick yogurt (if you can even call it that because it's so thick). I have no picture of the yogurt stuff but I'm going to miss it when I'm back in Edmonton.

For supper here, paella is the popular thing. It's a rice dish with a sauce and spices and usually seafood. Everything here is with seafood. They have hardly any chicken dishes, so I've been trying lots of seafood. Anyways, besides paella, they have tapas which are just small portions of whatever. Kind of a fun idea considering they eat at about 9 or 10 at night.

Devonne and I got to try ponnet which I guess is a dessert wine common in farming areas. It was super good and the bottle it came in was super neat. The Catalana Cream Brulee was also super good!

The food here has definitely been satisfying,  even though I haven't quite gotte used to their eating routine.

FC Barcelona

April 6th, wake up at 3 am with only 3 hours of sleep to catch the train to Amsterdam airport. It was a quick and easy train ride to the airport and a nice flight to Barcelona.  I was asleep before the flight attendants finished talking about all the safety stuff for the flight and continued to sleep for the 2 hours to Barcelona (Devonne was awake for all of it and said the ppl on the flight were quite noisy).

Arriving in Barcelona was sort of surreal. I have always wanted to go to Spain and now it's happening!

I napped for an hour after arriving to our hostel where we got to switch to a private room (yay). Afterwards we walked around Las Ramblas which is fairly close to our hostel.

That night we had our football match, Barcelona vs Mallorca. We decided to have supper close to the stadium just to make sure we had enough time to get get there. We thought the game was at 10 but when I checked my phone it said 9 so we walked over at around 730. Ppl were gathering around entrances to underground parking lots to wait for the players to come. It was so exciting because you didn't know who was pulling in but ppl would cheer anyways. One vehicle came in and ppl said it was Messi, but I think it may have been wishful thinking. It was still so much fun waiting, bur at about 830 we decided to go find our seats because the game was about to start...or so we thought. The game was actually at 10 so we had time to grab coffee and check out the big fc barca store. I also got a couple of good pictures with the stadium fairly empty (it holds about 80 000 ppl).

When we made it back to our seats, the playes were warming up. It was mesmerizing.  I wanted to be playing. The game itself was amazing. The passing was so fast, the players so agile and the fans so enthusiastic. I loved every moment of it and it was everything I had hoped for. Barcelona won 5-0. What an experience!!

Because the game started at 10, it didn't finish until almost midnight. The train station was packed because everyone was using it to get home, so I didn't get to sleep until about 2. The ride back to the hostel was pretty good though, besides the fact there were some ppl who weren't so considerate of a family who had a boy who could hardly stand. Anyways, we got a little lost trying to find our hostel, but Devonne got us there in the end (woohoo).

Day one in Barcelona= Awesome

Pictures: first tapa in spain (cuttlefish), a car potentially with a Barcelona soccer player in it, the stadium, me with the stadium in the background, a picture from the game

Dutch Pancakes!

The last day in Holland was spent wandering around Utrecht. Devonne and I popped our heads into random buildings. We had a good laugh when we got stuck in the revolving doors of the UFO building because I mistakenly thought I could squish myself into the same section as Devonne,  but it was only meant for one person. The ppl in the building were very serious and not impressed. We left pretty quickly afterwards.

Next, we proceeded to get some toppings for Dutch pancakes. Dutch pancakes are flat and yummy stuff is baked inside of them. Devonne and I were unaware of what was normal toppings or that the toppings were baked inside the pancakes so we ended up buying some stuff that was a little different (ie. Salami, pepperoni,  goat cheese)  but good nonetheless.  My favorite were the ones baked with gouda cheese, with stroup stuff drizzled over top. The apple ones with sugar and lemon on top were super good too. Renee did a super job of baking them for everyone and it was way better eating it with friends than at a pancake housee. I think I may get Kaylee and Sander to have a Dutch pancake day with me when I get back.

After eating our fill of pancakes we headed over to a bday party for a girl we didn't know by riding in the back of bikes agaib (woohoo!!). While at the party I made the realization that Dutch ppl are actually quite tall! There wasn't a short person present. It was fun being a part of a bday party in Holland but a short lived one due to Devonne and I having to wake up early to head to Barcelona. Saying good bye to everyone was sorta sad. I look forward to seeing those ppl again. 

Puctures: UFO building,  Frans and I, eating Dutch pancakes

Dutch land, I'm here!

Success! I finally get to see the famous Utrecht.

Devonne and I were to meet up at the Starbucks but there's two Starbucks so of course we went to separate ones but she eventually located me. We arrived at Nienke's after asking about 5 ppl how to get there, the man with an iphone and internet access was the most helpful. Meeting Nienke and Renee and seeing Frans and Jasper again was really cool. That night (Wednesday), Devonne and I got a true taste of "being Dutch". I rode (think sitting side saddle) on the back of Nienke's bike and Devonne on Jasper's bike. Truthfully, I wasn't so sure about trying it out, but after talking to Sander about it and realizing these are the moments I love on trips,  I was soon being biked over canals, through graffiti'd tunnels, and past traffic. What a fun experience!

The next day we went to Amsterdam. The 2.5 hr tour hosted by Sandmen New Europe was really good because we got to learn a little history and see areas that we may not have seen. We visited Vondel Park, ate falafel and saw the Red Light District (of course). We didn't stay too late in Amsterdam because we didn't feel like wandering around and getting lost in deserted areas wasn't too much fun. Once we got back to Nienke's, we had apple crumble with her and her roomates which was nice.

Pictures: canal in Amsterdam, Devonne showing off the fountain that looks like it should be from Harry Potter, me eating delicious falafel, a piece of artwork placed in the ground by an unknow person and many ppl from Amsterdam think it is a good representation of the Red Light District due to the the anonymity of the hand and boob and it puts no judgement on what happens in this area.