Semana Santa: Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow (Part 2)

I'm baaaaaaaaaack!

In the spirit of completing the deadlines I give myself, I'm here again to tell you about the second part of Semana Santa. Side note: I didn't make this deadline. Oops!

I think I left you in Paris (sorry about that... I hope you speak French).

Well, from Paris, we flew to Dublin.

That flight wasn't great. I usually like to make small talk with the person next to me. I need to exchange at least one kind word or witty remark with them. I mean, we're stuck in a plane together for a while. Might as well be pleasant, right? The woman next to me was having none of it. On the contrary, she insisted on jabbing her elbow into my side the entire ride. I fit perfectly in those seats. They are like a little cocoon of Kirt. Yeah, that happened (and I'm leaving it for your entertainment). Oh no... she had to take up her seat and half of mine with her stupid elbow. I eventually took over the arm rest and refused to let her put her elbow back into my seat. If she would have looked my way, she would have received a smug look of victory.

We made it to Dublin and ate lunch at the airport before catching our bus to the hostel. Did you know they have curly fries at McDonald's in Ireland?!?!

More importantly, the UK has Diet Coke. None of that "Coke Light" business. God bless the United Kingdom!!!

I might have hugged this machine. I'm really not at liberty to say.

This is the face of a happy Kirt. 

We made it to our hostel (which was a terrible place to stay, but with the free airport bus, the place paid for itself), and got ready for a walking tour of Dublin.

New Europe tours are great! Our guide was great. Shout out to Sean in Dublin! I really love walking tours here in Europe. Take them every chance you get. 

Afterwards, we found the Molly Malone statue. I learned the song when I was in third grade choir. It has stuck with me in the years since then (I have no idea who my music teacher was, but thanks for teaching me that song!). 

I tried to get a selfie where our faces were together. Turns out, I'm really short and couldn't get next to her face. Ah, well...

I felt like it was obligatory to try Jameson while in Dublin (since I don't care for beer [Guinness]). It was pretty good, I suppose. 

We went to bed very reluctantly that night (questionable hostel). 

The next day, we toured St Patrick's cathedral. We also stopped by the Guinness factory (which is actually quite a walk). It was interesting to see. We didn't tour it. 

Stained glass in the back of the cathedral. The entire thing has very rich history. It kind of felt like the entirety of Ireland wanted to memorialize their loved ones here.

We then picked up our luggage to fly to Edinburgh (pronounced "Edinburra" by locals). 

Our hostel there lived up to its name "KickAss Hostels." It was new, modern, super clean, and the wifi was great! We briefly talked with the girls in our room before going to sleep.

When we woke up, there was only one other person asleep. The girls from the night before were already gone. So, we quietly started to get ready for the day. Right as I went to unzip my suitcase, a voice from the bunk above said, "No way!!!!" I looked up to see Diana! We knew that we were in the same city. But not the same hostel, and definitely not in the same room. 

When the shock wore off, we decided to go for a walking tour. We met with the Spanish tour group first, so we decided to join them. The guide was convinced that we were guiris that just thought we spoke Spanish (seriously, I had to keep convincing him that I understood him perfectly, like a constant Spanish test [I almost offered to show him my teaching license that says I'm a Spanish teacher]). The tour was somewhat lackluster, so we bailed halfway through to go eat lunch.

We went for lunch at a place called Oink. They do one thing, and they do it well: pulled pork sandwiches.

Being from the Southern USA, this piqued my interest. I have high expectations of pulled pork. They were met. It was amazing!!!

After lunch, we decided to hike Arthur's Seat. 

We were hopeful at first. 

The going got rough.

My hair was escaping the pony tail. I finally decided to embrace it. Diana got this shot and said, "You're going to love this!"
And I really do. 

We eventually made our way back down. We found a lake filled with these giant swans. Seriously. These things were huge. I was nearly accepted as an honorary swan, but we decided finding our way back to town was more important than my initiation. Next time, swans!

SCOTLAND HAS DIET MTN DEW!!!! Excuse the crazy eyes ;)

We went back and cooked dinner. Then, we decided to get a few drinks with our new roommates (special hello to Ana, Ludmila, and Max: the best new roommates I've ever had!). There was a ping pong table, so I decided to teach everyone how to play Jungle Pong. Yes. That happened. I also slipped in someone's spilled beer and landed hard on my knee. The bruise just now faded (this is nearly two [okay three] weeks later!!).

We ended up playing Jenga until about 12:30. At that point, Diana wanted to go out for "just 30 minutes" to hang out and chat with Max and Jamie. The group consisted of two American girls, one Scottish/Spanish guy, and a Swedish guy. We all had very different ideas of personal space. The awkward dance between the four of us in a booth was utterly amusing. However, it was great company. We ended up staying out until three thirty in the morning (which is way past my bedtime, but well worth it).


The next day, Aliyya and I packed up, took a few photos, ate at Oink! again, and set off for Glasgow.

Can we talk about how much I enjoy the trains in Scotland? Yes.

The train was wonderful. It was a high speed train from Edinburgh to Glasgow. The train only cost ten pounds. It was an hour long trip. The train was clean, comfortable, had free wifi, and reasonably priced snacks. And we haven't even mentioned how stunning the Scottish countryside was. Seriously.

Best train experience ever!

Getting to Glasgow was super easy. I wouldn't recommend our hostel to anyone. I've decided that any hostel is survivable if you compare it to summer camp! Seriously, though. Yikes.

We walked around part of Glasgow to see the city. There wasn't much to it, to be honest. I wish we had more time to give it a better chance, but a day and a half didn't impress me much.

We kept joking that someone must put an "i" in "To Let" signs as a prank. We found this a few days later!

We went to Kelvingrove park the next morning. The park was lovely and had a great museum! It was full of the town's history and tons of information about the UK. It was my favorite part of Glasgow (besides the crazy amount of Diet Mtn Dew I consumed).

Musuem

This was too funny not to take a photo. This place exists in real life... 

After our adventure to the park and museum, we gathered our things to head to Rome. Which was one of the most interesting journeys I've ever endured. I look forward to telling you all about it!

XOXO,
Kirt

PS I feel like I've rushed through this post. I have so much that I want to add. However, that would be an insanely long post. Sorry xoxo

Semana Santa: Valencia and Paris (Part One)

Confession: I'm writing this post from the Metro. It seems like every time I sit down to write about Semana Santa, I inevitably fall asleep for hours (and wake up in a panic thinking I slept through work)

So, with that out of the way, hey!! How's life? I hope all is well with y'all. I'm still recovering from the insane adventure that was last week.

What was last week? Bless your heart. If you just asked that question, you're new here (Hi! I'm Kirstyn. You can call me Kirt. It hasn't really caught on in Spain, but people really call me that back home.).

Semana Santa was last week. For all the non-Catholics, it's basically spring break. That's a bit of a lie. It's Holy Week. But for Auxiliares, it's spring break!!

The wonderful Aliyya planned the trip. And it went something like this: ValenciaParisDublinEdinburghGlasgowRome... Which was a bit crazy, but incredible!!! We survived, and had a blast! By the way, if you disagree, Aliyya, please don't ever tell me. Ever.

I got all packed up on Thursday night. Ten days in a carry-on is a challenge. Guess who conquered that!

Someone else.

I haphazardly packed a bag with what looked like enough and set off on my journey.

Friday morning was a blur. I woke up early, but my goodbyes with the girls made me almost miss our ride to Valencia.

BlaBla Car!
After discovering that the train was MUCH more expensive than we thought, we opted to catch a ride to Valencia on blabla car. It's basically carpooling with a website. The driver was a wonderful Spanish man who didn't seem to mind that I was late. He put my suitcase in the car and we all set off!

The ride was perfect.

Sorry.

I lied again. I've gotta stop that. I'm normally such an honest person...

There was some sort of audible leak in one of the tires. I don't speak fluent "car" in English, much less in Spanish. Unsure of what was happening, I got back in the car and hoped for the best.

All's well that ends well! We got to Valencia and easily found our hostel. We checked in and went exploring.

I had never seen the Mediterranean, so we went there first. It was just as stunning as I expected.

We spent some time enjoying the beach before a rain shower sent us into some shops. (Pro top; don't drink the coffee at AleHop!!!!!)

After the rain cleared, we went to the iconic museums of Valencia.

If you're reading this, El Corte Inglés, you need to work on your maps. They suck. We got miserably lost. I asked a lady on the street for help and she told us we had walked nearly half an hour in the wrong direction. Oops. We took a bus and found our way.

The museums were stunning. Sometimes tourist photos make things look a lot better than they are. The pictures of Valencia don't do it justice. 

We thought about walking all the way back, but the coffee left me with a terribly sick to my stomach. Forty minute walk with a stomach ache or ten minute can ride? TAXI!!

Our taxi driver was great. I love talking to cab drivers. Always fun. He said he could pick us up at five the next morning to take us to the airport. Perfect! We head to bed and prepare to go to Paris.

You know what's fun? Realizing your taxi driver stood you up at five o'clock in the morning. It's truly an awesome experience. Luckily, our hostel called a cab for us and getting to Paris was smooth sailing, er, flying.

Paris!!
Never ever ever fly into Paris BVA. You will pay €17 each way to and from Paris. It's a little over an hour bus ride. And you pay €17 for it. Ouch. Unless you save over €50, fly into Orly. Just do it. Please. -- If you don't heed my advice, I hope you hear my voice in your head saying, "I told you so," the entire bus ride to Paris (you can even decide how condescending and southern it sounds!!) --

The line at the metro station was crazy. One ticket machine, three busses of tourists. No thanks. We opted to go to the next station. Easy enough to find. I bought my ticket, and then the printer was out of tickets.

Screw it. We walked on without a ticket. Sorry, Paris. I'll give you two euros when you get your act together. I didn't scan my ticket in an act of solidarity with the other travelers who had already tried two stations.

Paris was my first experience couch surfing! Marie-Emilie an Olivier met us when we got off the metro.

They were the perfect hosts. We chatted for a bit before heading into town.

Once in the heart of Paris, we did a little shopping and stumbled upon Notre Dame.

Woah. Disney didn't do this place justice. The outside was beautiful, but the inside took my breath away. I've seen a ton of cathedrals since arriving in Europe. I don't know enough about architecture to explain what exactly appealed to me. I just wanted to sit inside all day and take it in.

We headed home pretty early. Our hosts cooked dinner for us and we tried cheese and cider from the farmers market.

Paris, day two!

Day two in Paris is when we decided to hit up the Louvre (which I still can't pronounce!) and the Eiffel Tower. Fun fact: the Louvre is free to European residents!

I have never been that into art. I have never regretted my lack of artistic knowledge so much. We went through the museum and saw some stunning and famous paintings and went on our way to the Eiffel Tower!

To be completely honest, I thought it would be overrated. Most tourist places are.

Despite the food stands and obvious touristy things about it, it was amazing. We took so many pictures!!

We stood in line to go up for what seemed like hours. They close the entry to the top from time to time to regulate traffic up there. If the sign says the top is closed when you purchase your tickets, it just means you'll have to stand in line again to get a "supplement ticket" to the top. While the tour of the Tower included a lot of waiting in line, it was worth the time and money.

We went for dinner before returning to see the tower at night. It's pretty when it's illuminated, but it is awe-inspiring when it sparkles at night.

"It's a beautiful night for a romantic walk," I thought to myself.

Oh, yeah!! I don't have a boyfriend. Oops.

Once I realized how lucky I was to be sitting and appreciating iconic Paris, I felt a lot better.

How could I have time to worry about such trivial things?! I'm at a global cultural icon. 

The next day, we decided to go around to some other touristy places in Paris. We set off in the morning to find the Shakespeare & Co bookstore. Fun fact: Google Maps sucks in Paris. Sorry, Google. You're wonderful, but you took me in a complete circle around Notre Dame that was completely unnecessary. I could have, and did, give better directions than Google.

We stopped by the Arc de Triomphe. It wasn't much, really. We had already been to the top of the Tower, so we didn't see the point in going to the top of the Arc. We took a look and left. 

The highlight of the day was going to a park by the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Sacré-Cœur Basilica). We ate cheese and had drinks in the park. When the sun went down, we went into the Basilica and then sat on the steps to see the sun set over Paris. 

Hanging out with our wonderful hosts watching the sun set over Paris. 

From there, we went to Moulin Rouge. We just stopped by and took photos. The walk between the Basilica and Moulin Rouge was great! It was exactly how I pictured Paris: winding streets filled with people and soft music. 

After our picnic and walk around the area, we went home early to settle in for our early flight the next morning.

I can't begin to explain how great our hosts were!!! Thanks for making my first couch surfing experience so great. I hope to meet y'all again someday. 

Well... From there we went to Dublin, but I've got to get to sleep. Bite size pieces work better for me anyways. This much took a week to write. 

I'll leave you with some fun facts!

FUN FACTS:

1. I'm convinced that the French don't eat. Finding a grocery store was crazy! 

2. I don't speak French. Not. At. All.

3. I never realized that they speak Valenciano in Valencia. I don't know how this never came to my attention until roaming the streets of Valencia.

4. French people are really put off when you don't speak French. I wanted to point out that I have two other languages from which they could choose. Unfortunately, I couldn't explain. You know, since I don't speak French and all.

5. Except that I'm pretty much fluent in French now. I can understand quite a bit of it. I could mimic it and get by in a few weeks, I'm sure.

6. The Palace of Versailles is closed on Mondays. Don't plan your visit on a Monday like we did. Oops.

7. The Mediterranean is cold in April. 

8. Crepes are a gift from above.

9. Crispy M&Ms are a thing in Paris (and I later discovered that they're totally normal in the UK!). 

10. I sang karaoke last night. I sang in English and Spanish. It was great!

11. I took a night bus for the first time last night. Super convenient! Why have I been leaving early to catch the metro?!

12. Today was the perfect Sunday. 

13. I hope to know where I'll be teaching next year within the next few weeks. I'm so nervous/excited!!

Well, it's far past my bedtime. I finished typing this post on my computer. I promise I'll finish writing about Semana Santa soon!! I still have four cities to write about. 

I'm heading to Barcelona on Thursday! If you have suggestions on where to stay, please share. We still don't have a place booked!!

Until next time

XOXO,

Kirt

Oh, Salamanca...

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

These past few weeks have been crazy. I need to get you caught up on my life.

A few weeks ago, Alli and I decided to venture to Salamanca for the day. Two and a half hours by train each way. It's about two and a half hours from Madrid. Easy day trip!

We arrived at Chamartin bright and early to catch the train. The train was late, but that allowed us to grab some breakfast before the ride.

Tortilla sandwich. I'm going to miss these

Bright-eyed and hopeful on the train 

The train ride was gorgeous. We rode through snow capped mountains, foothills, and eventually the plains. Suddenly, Salamanca popped up out of nowhere. We got off at the final stop near the center of town.

What's the first thing you should do in any Spanish city? Having a relaxing cup of café con leche in the plaza mayor of course! 

Mmmmmmm

From there, we walked around the central part of town and found a few cathedrals and a library to explore. 

The view of one of the cathedrals from inside the library

After that, we ventured down to the river to see some famous statues and a roman arch bridge.

I was having nature withdrawals prior to this trip. I walked right over to the water! 

Spanish literature coming to life for Alli!

Salamanca was a gorgeous town. It was a great trip to take in a day. 

Although, if you go by train, be aware of which station to go to when it's time to go home. Salamanca is the major train stop (you'll know where it is). The train stop we were at was the last on the line (where we got off!!). Salamanca is next to last on that line. 

Unfortunately, we ended up missing the train back to Madrid. We figured we could easily get on the next train back. Turns out, the next train was the last one to Madrid for the night and it only had one seat left. We scrambled to find another way home. Fortunately, we bought the last two tickets for the express bus back to Madrid!

A serious change of emotions since morning.

Sorry this post is late! It has been ridiculously crazy here in Madrid.

I hope all is well with you, friends!

XOXO,

Kirt

Sorry for my Silence

I just left the airport.

Well... by "just left," I mean, I just mentally left after physically leaving hours ago.

Part of my family came to visit me in Madrid this week. Here's our week in photos.

They must have been the very last people off the plane. I eagerly stood at the luggage pickup awaiting their arrival. They finally made it!

They came bearing gifts.

Some Spanish fast food at 100 Montaditos

Kyle created his own bed despite having a place to sleep.

We did a quick visit of Sol and Plaza Mayor. We had to get a pic at Km 0

I was still in shock that they were with me in Sol!

It was raining on Monday. Atocha and Reina Sofia!

Kyle has a ton of "this is art" photos. Goof. 

He acquired a taste for Coke from a wine glass.

We went to see the Real Madrid Stadium on Wednesday. 

The others went for coffee while we toured the futbol stadium.

Thursday was sunny! It was a perfect day to go to Retiro. 

Carson isn't shy!

We also walked up through the heart of Madrid. This is Puerta de Alcala

Carson was tall enough to block the gardeners out of the photo. 

The boys at the building whose identity always escapes me

Mama met some Red Cross volunteers in Sol. 

We visited Egypt (Temple of Debod)

We went by Moncloa

Thursday night was a special treat! We went to see the ASU Choir at a cathedral down the street.

Kyle said he'd take a photo with me, but he wouldn't smile. That worked out for him ;)

We visited Plaza Mayor (and didn't have a relaxing cup of café con leche there, sorry!])

It isn't an official trip to Madrid without a picture with the official symbol of Madrid. 

I have a more photos and a million memories, but here's a taste of what our week was like. We did so much in the week they were here. I can't wait to see them again in June!!!