I asked my friend Alejandro to send me some Spanish slang phrases:
Colega (friend)
Estar criando malvas (to be dead)
Dormir a pierna suelta (to sleep very well)
Echar una mano (to help)
Perder aceite, tener pluma (to be gay)
Dormir la mona (to sleep after to drink a lot of)
Pelar la pava (to make advances)
Faltar un tornillo, tener una gotera (to be crazy)
Flipar (to be amazed, to hallucinate)
Modorro (silly)
Dar de comer margaritas a los cerdos (to give something to somebody who don´t konw to value it)
Our Portugal Trip-Lisbon
Kristin, Lynsey, Alli, and I in Lisbon, Portugal
Friday, November 25, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
London-Second Day of Sightseeing
On the next day, we went to Hyde Park and walked around it some more. We saw a ton of beautiful swans in the ponds there which had some really beautiful statues and walkways. We also saw the Peter Pan statue there. It's not much, but the grass in the park felt really good to walk on. In Spain and just any big city we went to, there's only pavement to walk on-so to walk on something so soft felt really nice.
We also went to Harrods just to walk through to see what they have. Harrods is a very expensive store...sort of like a Nieman Marcus, but bigger. They have a grocery store including a bakery with eclairs, a 4ft chocolate egg for Easter that cost 795 pounds, huge sundaes, gelato including Melon and Pineapple flavors, Krispy Kreme..there was even a decorated pig cupcake that I really wanted to get but didn't want to spend the money for it. I kind of regret not getting it-I wish I would've tried the different foods that I wanted to, but was held back because the price seemed a little bit too high.In the marketplace, they had a variety of fish and meat. Even the fish was alive in tanks. There was also expensive jewelry, makeup, purses. In their bathrooms, there was a worker to give you soap, mints, perfume, what ever you needed, and even a place to put tips for the worker. I felt very out of place in Harrods-it had rained that day so everything we had with us was soaked-my hair was a frizzy mess, plus we were just tired from walking around all day.
We also went to the British Museum which had a huge Egyptian exhibit and also had the Rosetta Stone on display. We met a girl from Baraboo, WI with her friend who knew Egyptian and so he translated some of the hieroglyphs for us. We also visited Trafalgar Square that night and took a lot of fun pictures.
On that day we also visited and toured the Globe Theater (just the replica). I really enjoyed the tour a lot-Our tour guide was really good and quite funny. Afterwards we walked along the Thames River again and got some dinner. That night, there was a rock band playing...again, it was tricky going back to bed that night.
We also went to Harrods just to walk through to see what they have. Harrods is a very expensive store...sort of like a Nieman Marcus, but bigger. They have a grocery store including a bakery with eclairs, a 4ft chocolate egg for Easter that cost 795 pounds, huge sundaes, gelato including Melon and Pineapple flavors, Krispy Kreme..there was even a decorated pig cupcake that I really wanted to get but didn't want to spend the money for it. I kind of regret not getting it-I wish I would've tried the different foods that I wanted to, but was held back because the price seemed a little bit too high.In the marketplace, they had a variety of fish and meat. Even the fish was alive in tanks. There was also expensive jewelry, makeup, purses. In their bathrooms, there was a worker to give you soap, mints, perfume, what ever you needed, and even a place to put tips for the worker. I felt very out of place in Harrods-it had rained that day so everything we had with us was soaked-my hair was a frizzy mess, plus we were just tired from walking around all day.
We also went to the British Museum which had a huge Egyptian exhibit and also had the Rosetta Stone on display. We met a girl from Baraboo, WI with her friend who knew Egyptian and so he translated some of the hieroglyphs for us. We also visited Trafalgar Square that night and took a lot of fun pictures.
On that day we also visited and toured the Globe Theater (just the replica). I really enjoyed the tour a lot-Our tour guide was really good and quite funny. Afterwards we walked along the Thames River again and got some dinner. That night, there was a rock band playing...again, it was tricky going back to bed that night.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sightseeing London-First Day
When you live in hostels, you never know what you are going to get. I guess I actually ended up hitting my head on the top bunk 3 times that night-ouch. Each hostel room above the bar had 12 people in each..and about four rooms altogether..so with 48 people in close capacity and only about 5 showers..we had to get up pretty early to get ready for the day. We had some strange roommates too-one was talking to himself-just in the hallway all by himself. The Steam Engine provided a pretty good breakfast-toast w/ jam, peanut butter, or butter..a choice of cereal, hot coffee/tea and juice/milk. In the mornings we always met someone different. One morning we met a girl from Australia and another girl from Oregon.
The girl from Oregon was quite interesting, in a different way. She wore bright eye shadow and overall a lot of eye makeup-long pigtails from either side of her head. Whenever she could get money to go travel (through student loans or any other way), she would just leave her college, hop on a plane and leave. Adventurous yes-but we all had a bit of concern of what her future would look like since she was spending all her money on traveling. Don't get me wrong-I love traveling and want to do more of it when I graduate from college, but school is one of my top priorities. Once I graduate, have a better idea of exactly what my career is/get a job-then I will plan on traveling.
For that morning-we went to Hyde Park. I was really excited to see the park since it's where the Live 8 concert in London took place. It was really pretty with plenty of trees, ponds, and friendly critters. The squirrels there are quite well fed by passerbys and are not the least bit shy. In fact, they tried to climb on us for food. Ken was all game for it, but I really was not. This went on for at least 10 min. of Ken trying to coax the squirreles) to climb up his leg to try to get a picture of it.
Hyde Park would be the perfect place to go for a run-when I'm back in London someday, I definitely want to go for a jog through it. After the Hyde Park squirrel fiasco, we made our way to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. We were right by the gate, but had a couple of people in front of us. It was like a concert, you had to nudge your way to the front to get a good view-especially when it started to rain. It was only sprinkling, but people put up their umbrellas anyways, ruining our view. It's only a bit of water, and it's London-what else should tourists expect?
That day, we also saw Big Ben in day time along the Thames River. We went to The Tower of London-and had an awesome tour guide. I loved every minute of being in London and seeing all of the history that has happened there. We also saw all of the famous bridges-got the chance to walk across Tower Bridge-it was cold so we also bought roasted chestnuts-sooo good and they really hit the spot. Walked across the Millennium Bridge and all I could think of was how it was featured in Harry Potter and that made it all the more exciting for me.
We saw the outside of the Globe Theater, but came back another day to see more of it. We saw the outside of the HMS Belfast on the Thames River, one of London's naval ships. We could take a tour inside, but we decided not to do it.
I can't remember what we had for lunch that day-I remember seeing a fish and chips vendor so I might have gotten that...either that or we probably stopped at a grocery store and bought some sandwiches. For dinner we ate at a restaurant near our hostel called The Three Stop. Some of the people sitting near us had gotten done with a competition-I cant remember what sport it was..I think it was coed..futbol/soccer..rugby..maybe just running? either way they had medals on and were celebrating something. A lot of the items on the menu, we had no clue what they were but as we were discussing, some nice locals helped us out. I ordered Mackerel with kale, rice, tomato jelly, and chips.
The girl from Oregon was quite interesting, in a different way. She wore bright eye shadow and overall a lot of eye makeup-long pigtails from either side of her head. Whenever she could get money to go travel (through student loans or any other way), she would just leave her college, hop on a plane and leave. Adventurous yes-but we all had a bit of concern of what her future would look like since she was spending all her money on traveling. Don't get me wrong-I love traveling and want to do more of it when I graduate from college, but school is one of my top priorities. Once I graduate, have a better idea of exactly what my career is/get a job-then I will plan on traveling.
For that morning-we went to Hyde Park. I was really excited to see the park since it's where the Live 8 concert in London took place. It was really pretty with plenty of trees, ponds, and friendly critters. The squirrels there are quite well fed by passerbys and are not the least bit shy. In fact, they tried to climb on us for food. Ken was all game for it, but I really was not. This went on for at least 10 min. of Ken trying to coax the squirreles) to climb up his leg to try to get a picture of it.
Hyde Park would be the perfect place to go for a run-when I'm back in London someday, I definitely want to go for a jog through it. After the Hyde Park squirrel fiasco, we made our way to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. We were right by the gate, but had a couple of people in front of us. It was like a concert, you had to nudge your way to the front to get a good view-especially when it started to rain. It was only sprinkling, but people put up their umbrellas anyways, ruining our view. It's only a bit of water, and it's London-what else should tourists expect?
That day, we also saw Big Ben in day time along the Thames River. We went to The Tower of London-and had an awesome tour guide. I loved every minute of being in London and seeing all of the history that has happened there. We also saw all of the famous bridges-got the chance to walk across Tower Bridge-it was cold so we also bought roasted chestnuts-sooo good and they really hit the spot. Walked across the Millennium Bridge and all I could think of was how it was featured in Harry Potter and that made it all the more exciting for me.
We saw the outside of the Globe Theater, but came back another day to see more of it. We saw the outside of the HMS Belfast on the Thames River, one of London's naval ships. We could take a tour inside, but we decided not to do it.
I can't remember what we had for lunch that day-I remember seeing a fish and chips vendor so I might have gotten that...either that or we probably stopped at a grocery store and bought some sandwiches. For dinner we ate at a restaurant near our hostel called The Three Stop. Some of the people sitting near us had gotten done with a competition-I cant remember what sport it was..I think it was coed..futbol/soccer..rugby..maybe just running? either way they had medals on and were celebrating something. A lot of the items on the menu, we had no clue what they were but as we were discussing, some nice locals helped us out. I ordered Mackerel with kale, rice, tomato jelly, and chips.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Semana Santa-First Night in London, England
Finally found my journal! I thought I had written/finished 2 of my journals but I only found one so far. It took quite some time to find it. I searched my room about 3 times and was considering looking in our basement and attic for it. But finally found it today as my mom as organizing a shelf in our living room. She had picked up a container from a sweet shop in Toledo which once held marzipan and told her she should look through it. She said, "Okay, but it's my stuff." However, after shuffling through, what did we find? My small tan journal!
What I had written was about the trip during Semana Santa (or Spring Break) that I took with Kristin and Ken. We went to England and Italy. I kind of wanted to see the Easter Sunday events that take place in Valladolid, but missed out on it this time. I had been talking to a friend of mine Raquel about it and she told me she had only been to the festivities once in her life which really shocked me. If I lived in Spain, I would want to experience it every year like any other US Holiday. Here is some more information on Holy Week in Spain:
For our trip, I had written down everything before we left to be organized. Scheduling out this trip, finding the best deals, and suitable hotels was quite the headache. I wrote down what hotels we would stay at, directions to hotels, flights, metros, prices-anything to cause the least amount of stress.
So the first part of our trip to London, England started on March 26, 2010 and we stayed at The Steam Engine Hostel until March 30, 2010. The airport was far away from the city and we had to take a bus to it. I thought this would be a very short trip, but it was not. It was quite long but along our way we saw the construction for the 2012 Summer Olympics and that was neat to see. We arrived early at night, but late enough that some restaurants we starting to close. We were starving so we ended up eating at an Indian restaurant and I had fish curry for the first time. It was pretty good! The place was very tiny though and a little sketchy looking, but all we cared was that we had edible food to eat. Throughout the rest of the trip, we were picky about where we ate so we could save some money which resulted in tiny meals.
That same night we did a lot of walking around the city to get the most out of our first night. We walked along the Thames River and saw the House of Parliament all lit up. It was really beautiful. I especially liked all the detail put into the benches and walkway-I remember that there was fish on either sides of the street lamps. We also walked to the other side on the House of Parliament side. Saw the London Eye all lit up in the background-took lots of pictures of us with the London scenery in the back. At this point, it was getting quite late so we walked back to our hostel. The rooms were located right above the bar of The Steam Engine and it was a tiny room with 4, triple bunked beds. I took the bottom/the floor bed to sleep on. We got along ok with our roommates while there and it changed every night.
One night we had some Chinese students who I don't think knew much English..another night there were two German guys who we ended up watching Lord of the Rings in German on one of their computers. I can't really remember their names, but they were really nice. We also had a brother-Alberto and sister-Marta who are originally from Salamanca, Spain as roommates and spoke a lot with them. We even went out for dinner once with them (being the Americans we are, we were craving some greasy burgers and went to a fast food place with them..looking back I wish we had gone somewhere else,but we were on budget and hungry and it really wasn't that bad) and got breakfast the next day was well.
Because The Steam Engine is a bar, we didn't always got the best sleep. That Friday, it was Karaoke night and though we got back late to our hostel, people kept on singing. As you can imagine, it took me some time before I could fall asleep but eventually did. I can't remember if it was that first night, but during one of our nights at The Steam Engine, I had a nightmare. I was sleeping on my back and all of a sudden sprang forward and hit my head hard on the bunk above me. Ouch. Being exhausted and a slight headache, I was able to fall quickly back asleep.
What I had written was about the trip during Semana Santa (or Spring Break) that I took with Kristin and Ken. We went to England and Italy. I kind of wanted to see the Easter Sunday events that take place in Valladolid, but missed out on it this time. I had been talking to a friend of mine Raquel about it and she told me she had only been to the festivities once in her life which really shocked me. If I lived in Spain, I would want to experience it every year like any other US Holiday. Here is some more information on Holy Week in Spain:
For our trip, I had written down everything before we left to be organized. Scheduling out this trip, finding the best deals, and suitable hotels was quite the headache. I wrote down what hotels we would stay at, directions to hotels, flights, metros, prices-anything to cause the least amount of stress.
So the first part of our trip to London, England started on March 26, 2010 and we stayed at The Steam Engine Hostel until March 30, 2010. The airport was far away from the city and we had to take a bus to it. I thought this would be a very short trip, but it was not. It was quite long but along our way we saw the construction for the 2012 Summer Olympics and that was neat to see. We arrived early at night, but late enough that some restaurants we starting to close. We were starving so we ended up eating at an Indian restaurant and I had fish curry for the first time. It was pretty good! The place was very tiny though and a little sketchy looking, but all we cared was that we had edible food to eat. Throughout the rest of the trip, we were picky about where we ate so we could save some money which resulted in tiny meals.
That same night we did a lot of walking around the city to get the most out of our first night. We walked along the Thames River and saw the House of Parliament all lit up. It was really beautiful. I especially liked all the detail put into the benches and walkway-I remember that there was fish on either sides of the street lamps. We also walked to the other side on the House of Parliament side. Saw the London Eye all lit up in the background-took lots of pictures of us with the London scenery in the back. At this point, it was getting quite late so we walked back to our hostel. The rooms were located right above the bar of The Steam Engine and it was a tiny room with 4, triple bunked beds. I took the bottom/the floor bed to sleep on. We got along ok with our roommates while there and it changed every night.
One night we had some Chinese students who I don't think knew much English..another night there were two German guys who we ended up watching Lord of the Rings in German on one of their computers. I can't really remember their names, but they were really nice. We also had a brother-Alberto and sister-Marta who are originally from Salamanca, Spain as roommates and spoke a lot with them. We even went out for dinner once with them (being the Americans we are, we were craving some greasy burgers and went to a fast food place with them..looking back I wish we had gone somewhere else,but we were on budget and hungry and it really wasn't that bad) and got breakfast the next day was well.
Because The Steam Engine is a bar, we didn't always got the best sleep. That Friday, it was Karaoke night and though we got back late to our hostel, people kept on singing. As you can imagine, it took me some time before I could fall asleep but eventually did. I can't remember if it was that first night, but during one of our nights at The Steam Engine, I had a nightmare. I was sleeping on my back and all of a sudden sprang forward and hit my head hard on the bunk above me. Ouch. Being exhausted and a slight headache, I was able to fall quickly back asleep.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Finishing up this blog sometime soon!
So even though it has been over a year, I've decided to finish up this blog. During spring break I brought little journals with me to write down what happened daily-where we went, what we ate, any crazy stories that happened etc. We'll see how it goes writing based on them and from what I can remember. I mainly want to finish up this blog on my experiences on Spain so I can look back years later and actually read about it rather than interpretating my notes (though that is what I will be doing now). So hopefully I can find those journals so I can starting writing again in the next couple of weeks.
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