More Normal Spanish Adventures

Well, after arriving back at the apartment Friday night, the couple we are staying (Miguel and Gemma) with offered to take us out with them. It turns out that a couple blocks from us are two festivals that come here for a week every summer. One is an "alternative" festival, meaning that everyone there is a hippie. They were dancing and selling homemade jewelry, clothes and food. Right next to this festival is the Festival of Nations, which features booths from around the world. Most of them sell different types of food, and some also sell clothes, shoes and jewelry. We had great conversation with Miguel and Gemma. They work from home and have their own wedding photography business. After stopping at every dessert stand to ogle at how good everything looked, we came back to get some sleep.

Yesterday we slept in until 10:30, which was huge for us! We went to the city beach, not expecting too much because we had been told it was not the greatest. It turned out to be gorgeous! The weather was perfect; sunny with a nice breeze. We decided to eat lunch at a restaurant on the beach and had delicious veggie paella. After waiting an hour and a half to get our food, we ate enough to feed an entire family.

Once we were sufficiently exhausted from the sun (and Colleen was crispy, of course), we went back to the apartment to relax in the shade for a while. We have been taking full advantage of the great internet connection here, so we think Miguel and Gemma think we are strange for spending so much time inside yesterday.

Today we ventured to the train station and made our reservation to leave for Barcelona tomorrow. Rachel had read that there was a 'ghost bus' that takes people from just outside of the station to an amazing beach called El Saler. We could not find the bus stop anywhere. After Colleen got directions from about five different people, we finally saw the yellow bus driving toward its next stop. It turned out to be a stop that did not even have a sign! Naturally, we ran across the street and stopped traffic so that we could make it to the stop before the bus. It took us to the beach and we had another sunny, relaxing day!

Our next post will be from Barcelona!!

Dentistry and Other Adventures in Spain

Since Friday was a rather special day, we felt it was necessary to write about it in a special format. Here's how it went...

12:00 pm  Arrive in Valencia, Spain without Long Tooth (Colleen's front tooth). 

12:30 pm  Arrive at the correct metro stop near our BnB. Begin searching for said BnB

1:00 p.m.  Still have not found the BnB even though it is a three minute walk from the metro stop.

1:05 pm    Begin asking random strangers where the apartment is. Get hilarious looks from Spanish natives since only Colleen speaks any Spanish.

1:10 pm    Find nice man in neck brace who works across the street from our apartment.

1:20 pm    Arrive at BnB. Finally.

1:45 pm    Arrive at the dentist office across the street from our apartment. Are disappointed to find that they close at 2 pm and will not open again until Monday, but are encouraged by the fact that it is very obvious what the problem is. Are pointed in the general direction of a dentist clinic that is open late and on weekends.

2:00 pm     Arrive at what appears to be a university and hospital combined. 

2:05 pm     Mistakenly walk into Spanish emergency room. 

2:15 pm     Colleen is admitted to Spanish ER and led away from Rachel.

2:15-2:30 pm Colleen explains to doctors that she did not fall, and they laugh and wonder why she is in the emergency room. Doctors direct her to the dentist across the street.  

2:15-2:30 pm  Rachel wonders how long the wait will be, so buys lunch from the vending machine in the Spanish ER waiting room. Does not enjoy food.

2:35 pm     Walk into what we thought was the dentist across the street. Are told it is further down the block. 

2:40 pm     Arrive at real dentist office! The secretaries do not speak English, but tell us to come back at 4 when the dentist returns.

3:00 pm    Find Spanish cafe down the block to eat lunch at. Order bocadillos because they are only two euros. 

3:05 pm    Learn that bocadillos are sandwiches made with French baguettes.

3:15 pm    Rachel stops crying from laughing so hard. Colleen bravely attempts to eat baguette.

3:30-4 pm   Enjoy nice stroll through a Spanish park with cool birds. 

4:00 pm     Colleen consults with 25 year old dentist and fills out medical history forms in Spanish. We are worried that she keeps saying it will be difficult to fix. We are asked to return at 5:30 for the procedure.

5:30 pm      Return for the procedure.

5:35-6:00 pm   Dentist and her assistant begin crafting a new tooth.

6:00 pm     Dentist calls friend into room to marvel at how big the tooth has to be. 

6:15 pm     LONG TOOTH HAS RETURNED! 

8:00 pm    Colleen eats soup for dinner and opts out of the free appetizer--slices of a French baguette.

Last (and most eventful) day in Paris

Today we woke up semi-early (but we would have considered it very early before this trip) to go to the Catacombs. We didn't really know what they were so it's okay if you don't either. In the 1700s one of the cemeteries in Paris become unhealthy for people to live by, so they began moving the remains of the people buried there into a system of underground tunnels. These tunnels were from an old mining quarry with rock dating as far back as 48 million years. Skeletons continued to be dumped there, so the place is now the largest underground ossuary in the world. It was definitely the creepiest place we have ever been and it was difficult to comprehend that we were walking through the remains of over 6 million people.

Afterwards, we stumbled upon an outdoor street market with shops that had all different kinds of food. We were excited to eat a French baguette with cheese and fruit, then buy a pastry for dessert. Unfortunately, this is where our day took a turn. As Colleen was biting into her baguette, it turned out to be a little overcooked and strong enough to break her tooth. (For those who may not know, she has a veneer added on to her front tooth because it is weird and set way farther up in her gums than her other teeth...long story...) So, she looked in the mirror and realized that she now looked like a hillbilly. After the initial shock, she was upset and crabby but is now trying to embrace it and laugh at how funny of a story this will be after some time.

Anyway, after we realized that there was nothing that could be done today, we headed to Notre Dame and the Louvre. Notre Dame was a beautiful, humongous cathedral (obviously) and is currently celebrating its 850th anniversary. On our way in, we saw an adorable group of nuns going on a tour. 

Between Notre Dame and the Louvre, there was a screen set up in the middle of the block with tons of people sitting outside to watch the French Open! The rest of our walk took us through a shopping district that led right up to the museum. We knew the Louvre was big, but we definitely did not expect it to be the size of a small city. We did not have the time or the energy to walk through it all, but we did walk around the grounds to see the famous Louvre Pyramid and crossed the street to stroll through the Jardin du Tuileries.  

Tomorrow we leave for Valencia, where we are staying in another BnB with a very nice couple who both speak English! They are going to take Colleen to the dentist in search for a solution.

Paris (Days 1&2 of 3)

SO! Yesterday we arrived in Paris at 10:30 a.m. after a grueling overnight bus ride from London. Let's just say London residents could probably still smell our breath.  We found our way to our apartment (that we rented on Airbnb--great site--check it out!) with NO help whatsoever from the information desk. Side note: Parisians really are helpful, just not the ones at help desks. Go figure. The flat is in a great location since we're next to a ton of cafes, patisseries, and specialty markets. Unfortunately the flat itself is no Ritz Carleton, but hey! No complaints here. We relaxed for a bit before adventuring out, but as usual had a packed day full of sightseeing! First we walked down to the Champs-Élysées, a street of high end shopping, cafes, and mini parks. One shop mixed high end fashion with Ferraris. Needless to say, we didn't buy souvenirs here. The walk ends at the Arc de Triomphe, which was actually a lot bigger in person than we expected. The best part was probably the memorial to the unknown soldier under the Arc itself. 

Next, of course, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, which no trip to Paris would be complete without. We took the elevator to the top (281m high!) and could see the whole city. Pictures will tell the story better than words. 

Today, we woke up early again--gotta stick to that granny schedule we've been on!--to take the train to Versailles. This palace was absolutely breathtaking. From the Hall of Mirrors to the Royal Gardens, the Kings and Queens of France really had it made. The grounds themselves were enormous. When there is a minitrain from one end of your land to the other, you know you're doing something right. We didn't see Marie Antoinette's chalet because it was too far, but the gardens and royal bed chambers were enough to fill three hours of our day. 

We took the train directly from Versailles to the French Open, which for Rachel meant crossing off a part of her dream to attend all four major tennis tournaments. While we didn't see any headline players, we did have a lot of fun! First we saw a senior mens doubles match, which was hilarious because even the players didn't take it seriously. At one point one player pretended the throw out the chair umpire and dragged him out of the stadium! Next, we saw a women's doubles match with four of the top 30 players in the world. We had front row seats! At the tail end of our visit we caught a few point of the wheelchair tennis tournament and watched Djokovic and Nadal on the big screens outside Suzanne Lenglen court. 

Tomorrow we'll have another absolutely packed day, and then off to Valencia, Spain on Friday morning! We changed our plans a bit in search of warmer weather, but we'll still be venturing north to Barcelona next week. 

Harry Potter!!!

We realize that this update is very late, but we have been SO busy that it has been impossible to find the time to write. We will try to catch up tonight!

If you're not a Harry Potter fan, you might want to skip this post because we are very passionate about these stories.

On Sunday, we had our tickets to Warner Bros. Studios booked to see where the Harry Potter movies were filmed. We were exhausted from Friday and Saturday, so we decided to sleep in and stay in the hostel until leaving for our tour. This excursion was definitely our favorite part of London. We got to see all of the original sets and props used to make the movies. It was so much fun to be able to look at such intricate details and reminisce on all of the stories that we love so much! It is impossible to put into words how excited we were. We even got to taste Butterbeer, which was delicious!

It was amazing to see how much detail went into these movies. Even after all of the plot details had been written by J.K. Rowling, there were thousands of people planning the designs and effects that made the movies come to life. Going through this tour really made us appreciate why it took so long for each movie to come out.

As you may have seen on Facebook, some of the highlights of the tour were: 4 Privet Drive, the Knight Bus, the Hogwarts Bridge, Dumbledore's office, the potions classroom, the Great Hall, the Ministry of Magic, Umbridge's office, Hagrid's hut, the animals that played Sirius' owl, Fang, and Crookshanks, and pretty much every prop you can think of! 

The end of the tour consisted of a walk around the model of the Hogwarts castle that they used for filming. Obviously there is no such thing as Hogwarts, so they used tiny cameras to make the model look gigantic. While walking through this room, there was nostalgic music playing so of course we both teared up.

We took our time during the tour, of course. So by the time we made it back to the hostel it was time for us to get some sleep. At this point in the hostel a group of 7 Americans had moved into our room. They were very inconsiderate, loud and obnoxious in the mornings. If anyone reading this ever decides to stay in a hostel, bring ear plugs and try to be courteous so your roommates don't hate you.

Staying busy in London

We had another busy, adventure-filled day yesterday! We woke up early to get to Buckingham Palace in time to see the changing of the guards. It was really fancy with hundreds of guards on horseback, marching and some playing instruments. The whole time we were amazed that this was the ceremony that happens every day...we later found out that we had been super lucky and had shown up for a practice parade for the festival celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation!

Next we went on a tour of Westminster Abbey. The architecture alone was breathtaking, and there were tons of stories of the many famous people buried and commemorated there (including former kings and queens of England, Newton and Darwin, and several British poets). 

From there we walked to the Victoria and Albert museum. We weren't entirely sure what it was for, and it ended up being a gigantic museum to the history of pretty much everything in the world. The most

Interesting thing was probably the exhibit showing the progression of European fashion. Needless to say, we got pretty overwhelmed after some time and decided we needed to leave.

Down the street from there was Harrod's, which is the biggest and most expensive department store imaginable. We walked through plenty of luxury jewelry, designer clothes and shoes, home decorations, electronics, toys and even a room dedicated to spy equipment. As we were leaving, we took the "Egyptian escalators" that were decked out with stone and hieroglyphics and had a lady singing opera music.

When we stopped at a cafe for dinner and had wifi, we found out that there were openings to see The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe! So of course we bought tickets and went to the show. The actors were incredible and there was a ton of interaction with the audience. We really enjoyed it!!

After being so busy for the past two days, we decided to sleep in and relax this morning. Later we will be at the Harry Potter studio, so we will need our energy to get the most out of it!

Exploring London

Well we have been in London for a couple of days now, but this is the first chance we've had to blog.

We took an awesome ferry from Dublin to Wales, then a train to London and walked to our hostel. The hostel is basically a summer camp style room with 10 bunk beds and a bar/lounge/restaurant on the first floor. It isn't ideal, but earplugs allow us to sleep.

Since we've gotten used to waking up early, we went to the Tower of London first thing yesterday morning. We had a tour led by a Beefeater (Yeoman's Warder) who was very engaging. It seemed odd to us how celebrated the gruesome details of the tower's history were. We also went on our own to see the Crown Jewels! Most of them date back to the 1600s and have been passed down with the changing styles of each king and queen. They were amazing and the most expensive things we have ever been in the presence of.

Next we found ourselves wandering in search of somewhere to eat lunch. We ended up at an Anatolian Turkish restaurant and ordered things we had never heard of that turned out to be delicious! We still couldn't tell you what they were, though. 

Our walk then took us to the Tate Modern to marvel (and sometimes laugh) at modern art of various forms. There was a little girl laying on the floor of one of the rooms who was drawing the art on the walls, and we agreed that her picture was better than the originals.

After relaxing on the lawn and listening to a street performer play the violin for a while, we walked down the Thames and stopped to watch street dancers and bubble blowers. We walked until Big Ben was across the river from us, so of course we went and stood underneath and walked near the Houses of Parliament. 

We ended our night by going on the London Eye. The views were spectacular and made us appreciate how massive London really is.