29 March 2011

Entry from personal journal, written a bit in the style of stream-of-conscious. Time passes without notification. Ultra swanky and literary, right?



At the train station, yet again, waiting for my train to Nice. I'm so excited. Perhaps I should stop thinking so highly of it so I won't disappoint myself. However, I hear amazing things. I have done some research and the is a great local dive bar that Princess Caroline visits for seafood- I'm definitely going there. It's supposed to rain a bit, mostly Wednesday night and I'm already contemplating staying through until the 2nd to be able to see some nicer days and maybe go to Monaco for a day, do some scouting out for the trip with the family. Its only a 15 minute train ride. However, staying in Nice means an incredibly long (6 hour) train ride on the 2nd.

There are currently military men at the gare (train station) with machine guns which is only slightly scary. It would be more terrifying if they weren't all smiling and laughing.

Random observation: Ive never seen so many... Disabled people than in Europe. I feel like every day I see someone on crutches, walking with a limp, blind, or with a foot longer than the other wearing one of those shoes with a 5" lift...

I digress...

Now I know what the military men were at the gare for: some guy was smuggling socks.
I would be laughing too.

Au revoir, Toulouse...

***

Bonjour, Nice, It's lovely to meet you...

I'm sitting at a nice restaurant called "caffe dell arte" in the plaza where the Flower Market is held everyday. M hoping tin get their formula for 17€ we will see what happens. Their. menu Is in this really beautiful gold paper.

Okay. I got the formula(fixed price menu, aka prix fixe which includes a giant Nicoise salad and a filet of salmon and and a dessert, which I obviously got the chocolate crêpe. (readers, you should know that my love for chocolate is immense and unwavering).

They should have prix fixe menus in the states. It's awesome. You just get a few choices, mix and match, and it's a set price. It may not include a drink, or dessert some vary that way, but it's wildly popular in Europe it must work...

There are these really nice men sitting next to me, asking about my food where Im from, etc. They appear to be french. The salad was amazing, it was enormous and delicious. (one of the mens name is Mimo, or something tongued effect).

Cote- Rotie 2005. Reserve
Gentleman bought me a bite of the above wine. Apparently it's a pretty good wine. I have no complaints, as it tastes better than the house wine I was drinking.

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...  :)