Venezia with the Parents

Making my way over to Venice wasn't exactly a piece of cake. I left Tuesday morning at 5:00am from Granada to start my long journey to Italy. I took a 5 hour bus ride from Granada to Madrid then hopped on a plane to Rome. I had a 12 hour layover in Rome before my next flight to Venice. I spent the night in the airport and at first I thought I was going to be the only staying there. It turned out I was one of many. They closed the departure section of the airport because they were remolding in the middle of the night so they kicked us to the arrivals section where there was no heat and disgustingly dirty. I couldn't sleep longer than an hour. Once it was time for me to check into my last flight I was told my luggage was over weight and I had to throw out two bottles of Portuguese Green Wine I was having my parents take back as gifts for people at home. I got on the 45 minute flight to Venice and the weather conditions were really bad so we couldn't land at the airport. They flew us to the next closest airport with reasonable weather and there we sat. We waited a little over an hour before they arranged a bus to take us back to the Venice airport. The bus ride back to the airport took 3.5 hours only to find out that I had to take another hour bus ride from the Venice airport into the city of Venice. The whole trip took 28 hours but seeing my parents for the first time in 5 months was priceless.

Here we are getting ready to have our first dinner together.

My mom and I in San Marco Square.

My dad and I in San Marco Square.

A Gondola ride.

The other Gondola had a musical entertainment...luckily we were right next to them the entire ride.

Group picture on the Gondola.

Our first dinner and my dad had a HUGE beer compared to my mom.

Walking back to the Hotel after dinner we stopped for a quick picture.

My dad and I being silly as usual.

Waiting for our Hotel stop on a water taxi.

Probably the best picture of all time! hahahaha

Having midnight pizza and beer...we had a lot of fun this night.

Getting pampered by my mom in the hotel room.

Playing some cards during the Italian siesta time.

Venice was short but sweet and I miss my parents so much! Arrivederci!

A Beautiful Day in Ronda

Ronda was normal city with amazing views. The entire city is surrounded by mountains and open land. It was a little chilly but the sun was shinning and everything looked beautiful. We only stayed in the city for the day and then headed back into Granada.

A view from one point in the city, but everywhere you look there is a view similar to this one.

The main park.

In the park.

The view from an old homeless shelter. They told us that everyone wanted to stay in this house...I wonder why? To this day it's only a museum.

The town.

The bull ring.

Goofing off in the bull ring!

Amsterdam

Amsterdam was the most beautiful city I've been to. I expect the city to be dirty with all the talk about drugs and the red light district but it was anything but. We had really bad weather while we were there so we didn't take very many pictures. My favorite part about Amsterdam was the Anne Frank house. It was amazing and a little creepy walking through everything. We only had half of one day with sun and that's the day we rented bikes and rode around the center of the city. On the last day I ended up getting a tatto with 2 other girls. I love it! The whole trip was a little long and wore all of us out but well worth it.

The Famous I Amsterdam sign on the only day we had sun.

We went to the Van Gogh Museum and had an automated tour. It was nice to see but not my style of art.

The city center.

All the homes were built along the channels that ran through the whole city. They have some of the coolest homes.

Dutch is the weirdest language. this sign was on the local bus.

Having a Heinekin on our last day.

Semana Santa / Easter Week

Easter weekend was a lot of fun. Hillary came out here from San Fransico and styaed with me for 9 days. Our Andalucia excursion started in Malaga/Nerja, then we took a bus to Sevilla, and back to Granada for the last few days of our trip. I'm sad she's gone now but we had a lot of fun!

At the beach in Nerja. The weather was perfect and we spent the entire lady being lazy on the beach. We look cold in this picture but it was 6pm when we took it!

Just lounging around in the eighty something degree weather in Malaga. Those sweatshirts came off shortly afte this picture was taken! hahaha

Our first night out in Nerja. We went to a local bar and had some Tinto de Verana (red wine mixted with lemon Fanta) and had some shrimp tapas (appetizers)

Our 3 hour bus ride to Sevilla.
We rented bikes in Sevilla and rode around for a couple hours before it started to rain on us. At least we had good weather for a couple hours! We're in Park Maria Luisa.

We stopped to enjoy the little kids park for a few minutes. Whom's to say we're too old for this?!

A quick picture in Plaza de Espana.

Upset because it was raining so hard and we still had the bikes for a few hours. We were completely soaked by the time we returned the bikes and got back to our hostel.

Goofing off in El Corte Ingles (The English Court, Department Store) trying on Flamenco Dresses. It felt like we were wearing 100lbs dresses. I don't know how they dance in those and they were at least 500 Euro.

In Granada on a wonderful day!

Skipping through the park, happy it's not raining!

At the Albaicin over looking the city of Granada.

There's so much "art" painted all over the entire city! We really liked this wall because it was so colorful!

Hillary's last night, having a couple drinks at Paddy's (an Irish pub) in Granada!

I have midterms this week and then I'm off to Amsterdam with 6 other girls for the weekend! A good way to celebrate the end of midterms!

Goodbye Hair

IT'S ALL GONE! When I got here I wanted to get a trim, so I took a friend who speaks great spanish and went to get my hair cut. Well I showed him where I wanted my hair cut and I said the only thing I knew how in spanish, KEEP IT LONG. The only thing I saw was huge pieces of hair falling on the ground. He cut half my hair off and I hated it. Apparently everyone who went there got a cut they didn't ask for. My Spanish teacher told me that she doesn't get her hair cut here because they don't do what you ask them to do. That made me feeling better because it wasn't a lost in translation situation, that's just how they are. I spent two weeks trying to get used to it. It was at an awkward length right below my shoulders with no layers. I told myself that the only way I could fix it was to cut more off so I went in again (to a different place) and asked for my hair to be cut like this and now I love it! I never thought I would have short hair like this and I do miss my long hair sometimes when I look at pictures, but all in all I like it! The bangs are weird so I will grow those out but I do fit into the spanish fashion style with this cut! hahaha

Lagos, Portugal

Portugal was the best trip so far because we went completely for relaxation on the beach. We didn't take any tours of Palaces or Cathedrals. We spent the days on the beach and went out to dinner and clubs at night. It was the perfect 4 day weekend.

This is the car we rented for our road trip to Portugal. It was a manual car, and yes I was the only one who knew how to drive it! I drove the whole trip and it wasn't bad at all. It felt weird to drive because I haven't driven a car in 2 months.

Almost there, and can't wait!

Crossing the bridge from Spain to Portugal. I wanted to take a picture on the border but I can't exactly pull over in the middle of a bridge.
We finally made it Portugal 6 hours later and we were goofing off at a rest stop.

Our guesthouse that we rented right on the besch in Lagos. We had a huge sun patio, private rooms with bathrooms and full kitchen (that we didn't use once)

The talk of the town was a fish bowl full of alcohol with abnormally long straws, and it tasted really good!

The beautiful beach in Lagos.

The weather was perfect and the water was cold but warmer than california's at this time.

Happy to be here! I love the beach especially when the water is crystal clear and clean!

Just goofing off in the water. I like this action picture!

We took a boat ride to see some of the sea caves. The boat was really sketchy and the driver only had 3 teeth. We thought we payed for a informational tour but we pulled up to individual caves and said, "See this one, it looks like a bear." "That one over there looks like an Indian." Even though they did look like those things, it was really awkward.

Portuguese Penguins.

Inside one fo the caves, it took the guy 20 minutes to take the picture.

The water was so beautiful inside the caves.

Another beach close to Lagos.

A funny story, on our way back to Granada we stopped to get gas. This was the first time we had to gas on the entire trip. I go to the bathroom and Meagan fills the tank up. When I get back she had a really concerned look on her face. She thinks the car takes diesel but she put regualr in it. We all thought no this little thing doesn't take diesel so we hopped back in and drove off. Well, we made it about 10 minutes before the car started driving really strange. We pulled over and turned the car off. Once it was off we couldn't get it started again. We stayed at this gas station for about 2 hours trying to figure out the number to our 24 hour road side service. The Spanish Civil Service car pulled up and we got out to ask them for a phone number to a raod side service company. They offered to help us out and started checking the car out. Out of nowhere this guy comes up and tells us he's going to syphon the gas out. He startes to suck our gas out and it was probably the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. It was all over his face and he just kept spitting it out. Then we put diesel gas in and took off. Thank God we did that for us!