Across the pond

July in the home country, how fantastic!
I left Madrid in the early morning of June 30th, flew into Paris, and headed home to New England. Now I'd love to say that everything went off smoothly, but like always my connection in Paris was awful. The airport was under construction and the signage wasn't so great. But on to more pleasant things: A can of Mountain Dew was waiting for me at the airport!!!...oh and my parents. Haha! I have to be honest, going through security and customs at Logan was horrible, uhh hello? I'm an American citizen! Don't make this difficult for me!
Being home was definitely surreal, not having been in an English speaking country for over nine months was quite the challenge. The first thing I did walking into my big, old, blue house was to make sure my parents didn't change anything, they have a nasty habit of doing that. Everything was the same, with the exception of a few storage boxes that made their way into my room. Even better was the three shopping bags of CVS supplies awaiting me on my bed. Yay for American beauty products! Now, the three most important things that I needed to get done were all schedule for the next morning after my arrival. I'm happy to report that my license has been renewed, I now have an international driver's license, and I took off in my little blue car as soon as we left the parking lot. The next appointment was with my doctor. Unfortunately it was unavoidable, but Dr. Carol made a joke this time! What is the world coming to? And finally but definitely as important as the first two...I got a haircut and color!!! No more split ends and NO MORE GRAY!! Life is good. Oh, and my favorite hairdresser filled me in on all the gossip, she's wonderful. With all that accomplished I was finally ready for my month in the USA.
First weekend home was the Fourth of July. As expected I woke up very early in the morning and headed down to the Arnold Mills Road Race. Let's be honest, Mr. Kenwood never even doubted that I'd come home just for that race. Everything was the same; same confusion at the sign-up desk, same lack of change, same questions answered, same old mistakes made (I'm not naming names), and same old aggression felt towards the late arrivals. No puke in the chute this year so really I have no complaints. Afterward the pool party and food were delicious as always, and seeing the family was fantastic. Headed over to the second family (the D'Ambras) for Amanda's graduation party. Caused some trouble over there, nothing new.
Second weekend home was Lindsay's wedding. Britney came home for it so we had lots of catch-up time...NOT. (this comes into play later) The morning of the wedding my mom and I went for manicures and pedicures, me for the wedding and her for fun. Well I think its pretty lucky on my dad's part that we've never done this before because we milked it. Drinks we served to us, dvds were turned on, and blankets put over our feet all for the sake of keeping our nails perfect. The wedding ceremony was at St. John's so I got to talk with Father Ray again, nice to catch up. The ceremony was beautiful with the groom crying throughout the entire thing. With some time in between the church and the reception Nick and I headed to the bar for some pregaming. We were completely overdressed, but the attention got us free beers so I'm not complaining. Being the last to arrive wasn't a problem because we were at table #2, which was right on the dance floor, with the bride's family. Johnson & Wales made the food so it was absolutely amazing and the bottles of wine on the table were great. The Djs were good, with the exception of their ban on 'line dances', they kept the crowd moving and the songs were great. What a great weekend!
Third weekend home wasn't really at home, I flew to DC to see the college kids. I still have a few friends living down there so I stayed with them. We did the usual, gossip, drink, and play around the city. It was nice and chill, and I had a great time seeing everyone again. Now, as I said before Britney and I had no time to catch up on life so I booked an impromptu ticket out to Los Angeles. I flew from Baltimore to Nashville (wow, a whole new world down there) to LAX...wooo my first time in California. Britney was an excellent tour guide. On the first night we did Santa Monica Blvd. and the pier. It was great just comparing the beaches to ours, so much bigger. At night I met some of her friends at her dinner party. We attempted to teach them High Low, but really only one caught on.
On the first full day we did Hollywood Blvd., the Chinese Theater, Venice Beach, and sunbathed at Hermosa beach. I did develop a horrific burn but such is life. We even got to watch the Red Sox game at one of the local Boston sports bars on the beach.
The next day Steve met me in LA before his class and took me to some of his favorite places. I even met his sister and got to experience his favorite Mexican restaurant. At night Britney took me to the La Brea Tar pits, the USC Coliseum (former Olympic site), and to a great wine bar with her friends. The night was great and the trip was FANTASTIC! The trip home was a little chaotic after a delayed flight but I made the connection, had a good seat companion, and was too tired to care about anything else.
The fourth weekend was my grandmother's birthday party. Tons of family, tons of food, and tons of fun. (You'll notice I don't write too much about family events, really its because the majority of you reading this blog were there!)

Overall, my trip home was great. It was nice to see friends and family after such a long time. Being able to sleep in a big bed, not worry about buying groceries, and have my car to take me everywhere were somethings I didn't realize I would miss so much. Oh, well those and my parents' cooking...incredible.

Negative: Raining almost the entire time I was home.

Positive: Trivia guy remembering me on my first night back and asking how Spain was treating me.

Buda y Pest

It's nice to leave college and still get the perks of a Spring Break. Here in Spain they like to celebrate every holiday to the maximum potential, which means I had eleven days off for Semana Santa, or Holy Week. After much debate I finally chose Hungary as my destination. At school I was met with many confused looks and questions: Why Hungary? Well, quite frankly, Why not? My only stint in Eastern Europe has been to Tallinn, Estonia and I loved it. Besides, Budapest was the cheapest flight I could find. I booked my flight and hostel about a week before leaving and that was that.

My flight landed in Budapest a little after midnight on the Monday. After reading lots of material stating that taxis were not safe and were a rip off, I chose to do the smart thing and get a ticket on the airport shuttle. As promised the shuttle took me from the airport to the address of my hostel, which turned out to be a construction site. The driver told me, through hand signals, which way to walk in the deserted area. After some help from the Kebab shop owner I made my way to the address. Pressed the buzzer for the only hostel listed, even though it was a different name, and stared at the scary door. The answer I got on the other end was less than pleasant while informing that he was closed and that it wasn't the right hostel and he couldn't help me because I had woken him up. Right. I asked the casino owner next door if he knew the hostel and he did not. So I wandered the deserted streets of Budapest after 1 am without a clue. I tried to call my friends with internet for help in getting more information, but was unsuccessful. After awhile I found a Best Western and asked for a room there. Holding back both the impulse to cry and punch the concierge in the face when he told me "You might want to find someplace, ahem, more in your price range..." I eventually got a room. After being so scared, the next emotion that follows is anger so needless to say getting to sleep was a hassle.

The next morning I went in search of the hostel to no avail so hopped the metro to the city center. I hit up information first and then found a nice office in charge of getting people places to stay. The woman offered me a loft with a German girl for three nights which would be cheaper now that there were two of us. The girl was extremely nice and I lucked out because the place overlooked the water and Buda. We were on the same schedules so getting up early was easy and then we'd go our separate ways. At night we'd recap and share interesting places for the other to check out.

Recapping my trip is a little difficult only because I'm not the museum type. [With the exception of Brussels where I went to two chocolate museums.] I do a lot of exploring on foot and take many pictures. I did enjoy the city very much and took in many of the classic things. I love to get lost down side streets because that is where most of the hidden things can be found. Both Buda, which is where the Palace and Fisherman's Bastion are located, and Pest, the city center, were wonderful. So much history involved in all the buildings and sights.

Budapest was great and I defintely recommend it. No matter what the trouble was in the beginning the city made up for it. Great people, transportation, and weather all made for a great vacation!

Negatives: Three hour plane delays on the way home.

Positive: Langos (typical Hungarian flat bread)

"Your English is better than most Portuguese people."

As any normal school I was given a winter vacation that lasts about three weeks. To be honest, because I've been so go-go-go, I didn't really have time to sit and wait for this vacation. I planned to leave the Saturday after my last day of school and head to Oporto in the north of Portugal for a little rest. However, it all seemed to sneak up on me because I was enjoying my time at school and in Madrid (maybe even a little too much because my last Friday was spent living it up in Rivas, and as usual packing the morning before my flight). Well Saturday morning (the 20th) comes real early when you have to get out to the airport, but somehow I managed. For the first time in my traveling career I flew Ryanair. They are great in theory because they have wicked cheap flights, but they have very strict regulations on luggage and that can cause problems. I anticipated a smooth two hour flight so I wanted to take advantage of naptime...however, the lady across the aisle had different plans. For the next 15 minutes she proceeded to pitch a fit because her luggage was too big and needed to be stored, so we took off late. Wonderful.

Even though take off and landing are my favorite parts of the flight I wasn't able to keep my eyes open for either. The next thing I remember is waking up already on the tarmac. Smooth transition at the airport because I only had a back pack and I didn't have to go through customs. From the airport I caught the metro out to my hostel in the center of the city. Traveling so much has made me immune to transportation woes so finding the metro and figuring out the system took all of about 2 and a half minutes. It is a relief because I was watching some people struggle and was even asked for help, so I guess I have an air of control about me when I travel. The commute was only about a half hour so I just stared out the window at the Porto countryside, pretty nice. Once in the city center I did have to get a general sense of direction because I still didn't have a map. My choice of people to ask? Two elves on Segways...I am not joking. So these two young women had me follow them, on their Segways, and they brought me to where the street was, the whole time dressed as elves. Fantastic! My hostel checked out fine, great location and clean. I dropped my stuff and then went off exploring. When I travel alone I usually just walk everywhere I possibly can. That first day I walked all over the city and down to the river just taking pictures and taking in the atmosphere.

For me this vacation was just that, a vacation. Usually, I am an "up at seven and out the door until midnight" kind of traveler. However, this trip was more about relaxing for me. I think a picked a great location because unlike Lisbon there is not as much to do as far as tourist places. I completely avoided any museums because nothing was really that interesting to me and I'd rather walk around in the great weather. I did make time to GO TO CHURCH and go to a Winery, but those were the only places I went that were inside. My time was spent wandering the back streets and sitting down by the river. Everyday consisted of getting up, finding a new path down to the Ribeiro River and being out in the sunshine while reading my book. One day I even fell asleep on the bench for an hour because everything around was so peaceful. I did enjoy two great traditional Portuguese meals, one of Bacalao (Cod) and the other Peixe cocido in these great little hidden restaurants. I will say that the smell of Oporto was incredible because everyone was always cooking something and it spread out into the streets. In the end it was the perfect vacation because I don't feel that I missed anything and I took some amazing pictures all the while getting a break from my intense schedule.

I did enjoy Oporto greatly but four days was enough alone time for me so I was wicked excited to get back to Madrid. My plane ride home was smooth per usual but when I saw the Sierras I felt a weird sense of comfort, like everything was normal again. Once I reached Goya again a half hour after landing I felt glad to be back in my city and ready to start my next adventure.

Oh and about the title, a girl at the airport asked me to watch her stuff in broken Portuguese so I asked if English was a better language for her (it was). To which she thought she'd compliment me on. Too funny.

More to come on how fun it is to get home by plane in the afternoon and leave by bus again that night for a new adventure.

Negative: Finally remembering my Portuguese the third day in Portugal.

Positive: Two new, fantastic pairs of earrings.

Boston-Madrid via Dublin

Well, I officially left for Madrid out of Logan in Boston on September 18th at 630pm flying Aer Lingus.

Talk about your cliché flights. Stuck in front of a woman who talked loudly about everything from her sciatica to her nephews who travel in a camper, to her husband who still can’t understand her accent after all these years. The woman next to me was crying, for whatever reason. And two, yes that’s right not one, but two crying babies in front of me…fantastic. Nothing a little music couldn’t fix. Wrong. Dinner comes and the selections are beef and chicken and nothing more. The piece of bread was delicious. But still no worries, no complaints out of me, I chose Spice Girls this time because no matter what they can’t get me down. We get word that we’re arriving an hour plus early, which is great because I would have only had 50 minutes to make my connection. We land. And we sit. And sit. Turns out a plane took our gate and then decided to get fueled as well. But the fuel-er doesn’t come in until 5 and it was 430am. More sitting. Finally it is time to get off! …and the air bridge is stuck. More time just flies by sitting with the competing, screaming babies. Now its official, we can get off but I only have 15 minutes to maneuver an airport I’ve never been to before. I usually brag that I’m good at traveling, and I’d still like to say that I am, but the Dublin airport is the sketchiest one I’ve ever been to. Small narrow corridors that never end and signs that blend in with the wall. I run through as quickly as possible having many roadblocks: going through customs, security, slow people, lazy people, and passengers who probably just thought I was funny with my crazy ducking in and out of people skills. So after coming in at terminal A then heading to all these places then having to loop back to terminal A I finally see my gate, A9. A woman heads toward me to rush me on and at this point it’s about a minute and a half till departure. She tells me in her great accent, no worries and that there were people coming from Dublin who still weren’t on the plane. I board the plane looking absolutely fantastic and sink into my seat waiting for the flight that will bring to my final destination: MADRID!

Negative: Not having more time to scope out Irish boys.

Positive: Getting my passport stamped in Dublin which I will now count as me having been to Ireland.