Toulouse, France

My first stop in France was delightful. The people at the hostel were fabulous. We easily chatted despite the cultural differences, I'm American, John an Englishman, Dea from Berlin and Massimiliano from, you guessed it, Italy! Lovely town as well, I was sore to leave but there was more of France to explore.

The first day I just did my initial walk around the city, as you read from the excerpt from my journal day 20, I had crepes. Last night i had a meal to remember. A girl from the hostel and i went to "le mason du cassoulet" and had the cassoulet. It was INCREDIBLE. Cassoulet is the dish of south west france, so this was definitely the place to have it. For 20€ we had a delicious glass of red wine, a small salad, a giant portion of cassoulet and to finish it all off, a perfect molten chocolate lava cake (or the French version thereof). I was in heaven for every delicious and mouthwatering bite of it. I left there so happy, satisfied and full i never thought I'd eat again... Silly me. I'm in France! Of course i was going to eat again, in fact, i ate so much today in Montpellier that i had no choice but to return to my hotel and put on "stretchy pants" and lie down for a nap. Food coma. Epic food coma. I ate an entire baguette, followed by a pain au chocolat and thennnnn a crepe filled with nutella and bananas. Not even remotely healthy. But do i care? Nay. I will continue to eat this way for the rest of my trip. (I'm not living in reality right now, so why eat like it?)

Tomorrow is off to Nice, a part of my journey I'm especially excited about. I've done loads of research ( even more than for the rest of my travels, if that can be possible) and have found some restaurants that people rave about that seems to be in my price range.

I'll be sure to update soon.

À voutre santé.

Kendall

Day 21 - Heading to France - excerpt from my personal journal

"Day 21. Train to France. 26 March 2011

It's 7:45 in the morning and I'm sitting on the train to Hendaye, France at the Eusko Train Station.  Got out of bed at 6:40 to walk the 20 minutes to the station that leaves every half hour.  I believe the journey will only take about an hour.  I'm really excited!  I wish they could stamp my passport... It's my first time in France.  Hopefully I can look back at this one day and have returned many times.  Okay, the train is shaky.  Must stop writing for now.

8:30. Well, I made it to France!  I have also booked my train to Toulouse with a stop over in Bayonne.  Right now I'm at the bar across the street, Case José, enjoying my first real café au lait.  The owner surprisingly (or maybe not so) speaks French, Euskera, Spanish and English.  Well done, sir.  I have roughly two hours to kill but walking with my bag is not an option, so I'll enjoy my café and then go read.

First meal in France is at a creperie called Le Sherpa on rue de Taur.  I had two crepes- "island" with smoked salmon, creme fraiche and herbs and the other, with a name I'll never remember, had cheese, mushrooms and pesto.  Yummy, but too much,  plus it was 13€, too much money for me."

 

Paint on the wall at Le Sherpa

Day 20 - San Sebastián - excerpt from personal journal

"Day 20. San Sebastian 25 March 2011

 Hiking up a mountain

 A cute little fountain in a park

Some boats a the port

Second and last day in San Sebastian.  Today it's 17 degrees outside and sunny and wonderful.  I'm sitting in this café by the bridge that divides the city (well, there are actually 4 bridges and it's the inlet that divides the city). Anyways, today I plan on hiking a mountain, walking along Zurriola Surf Beach, going to the aquarium and visiting the Mercado de San Martín and maybe going to the Naval Museum, but it depends on how much money I have.  I'll write later.  It's time to explore.

1:15. I suppose there could be worse things than a lunch of napolitanas with chocolate and a Coke, sitting out on a terrace in 20 degree weather with a bright sun and plenty of people to gaze at.  Happy girl.  :)

8:00. Unparalleled beauty,  the force of which was so strong it pulled me off my path and forced me to sit and stare and bathe in its beauty.  I cant stop smiling.  There are yellow lights glowing in the just dark city.  The sky a dark blue, fading into an almost Robin's Egg blue over the ocean.  The mountain is black but the lights shining up from the bottom is perfect.  It's the perfect scene.  There is water just before me, for maybe half a mile leading into the other side of this gorgeous city.  Palace miramar perhaps has the most adequate of names.  I can't decide if the quiet of being alone makes this moment perfect or if the only thing that could make it better would be if I had someone to share it with."

Eurail Adventure - Day 1 - San Sebastian, Spain

Hello dear readers! I had no idea that people would read this, but it makes me very happy that you do. :)

Today was day one of my adventure on the trains of Europe. Armed with my Eurail Pass my mother gave me for my graduation present(thank you, mom) I set off for the train station at 7am. I hopped on the train and we set off at exactly 8am. 4 naps and 5 hours later I arrived in San Sebastian. It was actually nice out. A little overcast but for the most part sunny and a beautiful 16 centigrade. It took about a half our to walk from the train station to the hostel but I found it pretty easily and after checking in, set out to find some food. I hadnt eaten since 7 30am and you know how I get when I dont eat...

I found a pintxo bar in my street called Ganadarias. First, I should maybe explain what a pintxo is. A pintxo is like tapas but sort of the Basque Country version of it, spelled with their favorite letter combination, "tx". I tried two pintxos for a total of 4€. They were incredible. The first, a Solomillo, which is sirloin. It was the most tender and very rare and delicious slice of meat ive had in a while. This was followed by a brocheta with shrimp and bacon and some really fresh onions and peppers and flavors i cant describe. Yum! I was a happy happy girl.

I took a few hours and walked around the town sort of aimlessly. Walked alng the beach and saw breath taking views. I hadnt seen water nor beaches in a while so i took off my shoes and walked a mile along the beach. After my journey I went home and took a siesta until dinner where I again enjoyed pintxos, this time salmon, croquetas, and some identifiable meat called basatxerri (letter combination! Euskera would kick ass at scrabble!). I enjoyed a basque favorite, cider and then had some Ferraro Rocher gelato on the bridge looking back into the lovely city of San Sebastian.

All in all I would say I had a lovely first day in San Sebastian. The hostel is cute, with s great location and a very helpful receptionist. Tonight I will plan out my day tomorrow and start figuring out how to get to destination number two, Toulouse, France.

I'm going to put up pictures on facebook. I can't add pictures to my blog with my iPad. Sometim technology doesn't make sense...

Anyways, there will definitely more to come... Wish you were here enjoying this with me.

Sick in Spain

So yesterday sucked.  There is really no other way to put it.  I woke up at 5AM in the hostel and felt incredibly ill and ill I most definitely was.  If you have a sensitive stomach, skip the rest of the paragraph.   For the next 4-5 hours I vomited every 15 minutes.  It was terrible.  I would sleep for 15 minutes in the bathroom stalls, the vomit.  I tried to drink water and mint tea and immediately would expel that.  I was so dehydrated I couldn´t stand and to make it all worse, I had to check out of the hostel that morning.  It took me 6 attempts to get all my luggage out of my room and to pack up.  I could only stand for like 10 minutes before needing to run to the bathroom or sit down because I thought I was going to pass out.  At around 8:30 I decided to just go to my friends apartment, litteraly a block away.  So I mustered up all my strength and walked down the flight of stairs and down the block to their apartment.  I got as far as their corner before vomitting, then as far as their foyer before vomitting in a trashcan.  As soon as I got into their apartment, they took one look at me and immediately got me anti-nauseau medicine (which I immediately threw up).  Needless to say, I went straight to the doctor, Doctor Borras, a South American born, Texas raised, doctor in Spain who has a deal for university students NOT from Spain.  (for 42€ he will see you and give you a perscription or whatever)  He diagnosed me, in perfect English, with what most likely was food poisoning. 

Thank god I got better, I finally could keep down some food, and today I am 100%.  In fact, Ollie and Kaitlin and I went to Retiro Park for a picnic.  We made out own tortilla española and bought chips and chocolate napolitanas and cokes and it was awesome! We took a nap in the park right by the Palacio de Cristal, which is beautiful. Sort of looks like a bird cage house, made of glass.

Tonight, I think we might go get a drink outside in the plaza near where we live, Plaza Dos de Mayo. However, they were not feeling so well when I left them just a little bit ago.

Tomorrow I will go to the train station and figure out my Eurail pass, I needn't activate it before my trip and since I'm leaving Thursday, I need to get on that!

Miss everyone!

Segovia

I went to Segovia on the 13th of March with my friend Ollie.  Ollie lives here in Madrid with Kaitlin, one of my closest friends.  Kaitlin was away for the weekend for a school trip so Ollie and I took Saturday to go an hour north-west of here to Segovia.  Segovia is an incredibly old town mostly know for its aqueduct, which was constructed in the 1st century and carried water to an elevated city come 15km (about 20 mi) away.  It has 163 arches, some reaching 29 meters in height. 

It took only an hour and 12€ by bus to get to Segovia from Madrid.  When we first got there we did just a quick tour of the city and then stopped at a supermarket to get the makings of a bocadillo.  A bocadillo is basically just a sandwhich.  Typically, they are filled with Chorizo and cheese and sometimes a bit of olive oil.  So for 4€ we had lunch and just sat right about the information place you see above, right next to the aqueduct.  We walked around Segovia for basically 9 hours and saw some incredible things.  Segovia is incredibly old and the city demonstrates its age with many buildings like the Cathedral and the Alcazar Fortress, all being walled in.    We ended up hiking around this mountain that we stumbled upon and ended up outside the walls of the city looking across to the Alcazar Fortress. It was one of the most breathtaking views I have ever seen.  Despite being a very rigorous hike, especially in my very inadequate shoes, it was very much worth the effort to be just dazzled by the city.  Pictures may help, but honestly, do not do it justice.

Cathedral - 16th century, late gothic period

Stairs in the Poets Garden

The countryside of Segovia, outside the walls

Ollie and some cool steps.

Arco de Fuencisla, leaving Segovia, on our hike

Alcazar, from the mountain we hiked

Close-up of the Alcazar

City of Segovia from Mountain

One view of where we were hiking

So that was Segovia.  Again, I have a zillion more pictures and if you´re interested in seeing more, you should go here, my facebook photo album.

Another blog to come soon, I promise.  But it´s St.  Patty´s day...  :)

The Drunken Hungarian and the People I Live With

So I´ve been completely sick for the past couple days but decided to go enjoy a night out with a few people from the hostel.  Afterall, it was free admission and a free drink to a local reggae club and I rumor has it that whiskey is quite good for a sore throat... :)  So we arrive like typical Spaniards at 12:30(in the morning, sorry Mom...) and ít was kind of overwhelming.  After grabbing a drink with this English bloke Matthew Snape (Yes, like the Harry Potter character.  According to him, his family is/was the inspiration for the Snape character.  But can you really trust an Englishman?  The answer is "no" by the way...).  We ended up talking for a while, hanging out, talking to native spaniards and enjoying the live music and DJ.  After a while the drunkest Hungarian comes up to us.  Now, I´ve only met one other Hungarian and he wasn´t drunk at all, but for the sake of the story, this particular Hungarian at the bar was THE DRUNKEST HUNGARIAN I EVER MET!  And he was pretty drunk.  He didn´t speak English and his Spanish was at the 202 level at best and made even worse by the incredible slur and thick Hungarian accent.  Being as sick as I was, I could barely stand being in the bar let alone being clung to by an insanely unintelligible drunken spanish speaking hungarian.  Fast forward 2 hours later...

The Drunken Hungarian (from here on out to be referred to as The DH) wanted to dance.  Mierda.  How do I get myself out of this one?  It seems that the only thing The DH wanted more than a dance with yours truly was a cigarrette and I happened to know just the place for him to smoke- outside, without me.  So I led him gently to the exit.  Close one.  Fast forward 6 minutes and one cigarrette later...

He´s baaaaccckkk.  And so the night went.  I´ll spare you the details of how amusing his dancing was but finally it was 4:00(again, sorry Mom) and this American needed sleep.  So I get rid of The DH tell Matt it´s time to go and leave.  But who comes running up, seemingly out of nowhere... THE DH.  Fortunately, I am a ninja.  And in the DH fled for his life after threatening his life.  Apparently he was smart.  :)


Aside from this event, Spain has been very laid back.  I´ve been trying to sleep a lot and just eat delicious food.  I´ve been meeting some fabulous people here in the Hostel and basically just throwing myself into hanging out with people.  Lots of different cultures and backgrounds.  It´s just really interesting to sit around the kitchen and chat and stuff.  I suppose I´ll list the most important characters if you will of my story so far...


1:  Mary, Adriana and Alice:  They were here when I first got here.  Americans studying abroad in Dublin.  We got along famously for the time they were here and they have invited me to Dublin!  Which, of course I´m taking full advantage of. 

2:  Rachel:  Also an American, studying in Madrid though.  She´s a long term-er like I.  She´s been here a month before I even got here. 

3:  Warren:  An English guy, who is a bit older than the rest of us, I´d say... late 30s?  He´s fabulous and I´ve been spending tons of time with him.  He lives in Madrid but is sort of transient and is waiting for his apartment to become available.  I may end up renting his apt. from him.  He´s fabulously gay.  :)

4:  Jessica:  American, from Arkansas doing a Eurorail trip all around Europe.  She´s incredibly loud but she is so nice and is kind of an angel- she works with kids who were like victims of rape and stuff.  It´s incredible.  Today was her last day. 

Those are the main players.  There are others but I haven´t spent much time with the rest. 

Okay.  Want photos? 

Family Dinner Night at Kaitlin and Ollie´s

(Fajitas)

Cafe con leche and Brownie with ice cream :)

Puerta Alcalá



Warren and I in Plaza Dos de Mayo

Love and miss all of you.  Sorry the entry was so long.  :)

Los gatos and the theory of mañana...

Weird title right?  Yeah, I know.  Let me explain.  So un gato literally means "cat".  However, it is also has become what people call Madrileños, or people from Madrid.  It started quite some time ago, the exact amount I´m not sure of but that´s really not that important.  But I would say, at basically the start of the city of  Madrid because there was this giant wall that was built to keep people out of the city.  This king wanted to get into Madrid but couldn´t because of the wall that he couldn´t get around  One day there came this guy, who said to the king, "Listen, King.  I can get you into the city- I´m an amazing climber."  And so this guy climbed one hell of a wall and got the king into the city.  They nicknamed this guy "El gato".  After a while "gato" started to refer to people of exceptional bravery, and after an even longer time, it just refered to all Madrileños, not just the brave ones.

This is the remaining part of the wall.

Now that you have the story of  "los gatos" now I need to explain the theory of mañana.  Everyone knows what stereotypes are.  And mostly, they are pretty funny and accurate.  Well one stereotype of Spaniards is that they are lazy- they have siestas and don´t work hard.  Well the theory of mañana is this exact theory.  For centuries Spaniards have had visions of grandeur only to succumb to this inevitable feeling of "mañana, we´ll start mañana."  And then mañana turns into days, weeks, months, and even 150 years.  There are many examples of this theory at work, but one is the city hall in Madrid, which took los gatos 150 years after the conception of the idea to even start.  That´s funny right?  See, stereotypes are so funny!

Okay.  Enough history right?  I´m assuming you want to see photos and you may even have the slightest interest in my well being and how Í´m fairing in this city since you´re following my blog!  So!  Here we go...

Yesterday and today have been beauuuuutiful out.  Like 56 degrees, sunny (so it feels warmer) and packed with happy Spaniards walking around enjoying life, or "aprovechando la vida" as we say here in Spain. Yesterday I went to this amazing outdoor market called El Rostro.  It´s basically 20 blocks or so of vendors selling things from food, to clothes to hookah tubes and naked barbie dolls.  Seriously.

So after this market we did a lot more walking.  We ran into this place that used to be where Franco stored all his amunition and guns and stuff and has since turned into a public library.  It´s pretty haggard looking on the outside because it was bombed.  hmmm...

And then we found the most amazing market called "Mercado de San Miguel".  It´s incredible.  It was started a super long time ago but was just refurbished within the last decade to make it awesome.  Anthony Bourdain came here. 

The entrance...

Some wine....

Some fruit...

Some tarts...

If you want to see more of my photos, you should go to my Facebook and check my albums.

And then from here Kaitlin and Ollie left while Mary, Adrianna and I went to get some tapas right near Plaza Mayor.  And we did that for a couple hours, had a pitcher of Sangria and enjoyed an AMAZING plate of cheese...

There was Sheep, Goat, roquefort, camenbert and idiazabal.  wow...

Okay.  Well.  I don´t feel super well today, but I´m going to muscle through and get a coffee and go to the museums today because it´s supposed to rain. 

Ciao!

The First few days

Well hello there!  I can´t believe anyone would actually read my blog.  I´ve always thought blogs were for yuppie hipsters or the angsty teens that need a resource to vent their frustrations and/or emotions.  Apparently, blogs are also for 23 year olds who are traveling to europe and have people who actually want to know what´s going on in her life.  hmmm... How do I keep you interested...

Once upon a time...

The flight went well- no delays, food service was on time and the flight attendants were cordial.  I slept exactly 3 of the 7 hour flight.  Despite my attempts of putting myself in a drug and wine induced coma, I only slept 3 friggin´ hours.  Oh well...  When I got to the airport, Kaitlin and Ollie were waiting for me!  Sweeeeet!  because traversing the gigantic metro system by myself with three bags would have been interesting to say the least.  Thank god they were there to help me, the poor Ginger roaming around Madrid by her lonesome...

The first day was great but I almost passed out in my cafe con lech three times, into my tapas twice and walked into a car exactly one time.  But I pushed through and stayed up until one am.  We basically just walked around Malasaña (Google it.  But basically it´s the trendy/gay district of Madrid.  Pretty cheap, super cute, filled with lots of cafes, boutiques and stuff of that sort... :-) )  It was raining a lot that day so we ducked into a lot of stores, ate lots of things- new favorte: Napolitana con Choco.  It´s like this amazing croissant sort of pastry thing stuffed with the most delicious chocolate you´ve ever had.  It cost exactly 2€. 

Yesterday was good.  I slept in then went for a walk around Malasaña.  Found these two amerian girls, Mary and Adriana, and we hung out the rest of the day into the night.  We went on this tapas tour.  14€ and we went to 4 bars and had some delcious tapas incluuuuuding, Bulls Tail marinated in Chocolate and Red Wine.  It tasted exactly like beef stew no joke.    Then after that I met up with Ollie and Kaitlin for some gelato (Nutella flavored) and then for a couple beers/glass of rioja. 

then i went to bed.  I have a funny story for later, but right now i´m off to Rostro and getting a cup of coffee

ciao ciao ciao

Kendall