Day 46 - Dutch Lovin'

July 16 – Hello Amsterdam

After spending the night as a bum, the plane was sort of a relief for me. Lol. For most of the time I was asleep. The Dutch are the best. I swear. Even in the plane, their service (KLM) was so good. I was asleep the whole time but they still left me my snack on the seats beside me. I had 3 seats to myself! :P And I must say this was the best airplane snack I’ve ever had in any airplane. Ever.

We landed around 10am. I proceeded to buy a ticket to the city center to Centraal Station for about 4 euros. It was so weird and new once I stepped out of the station. It was just so totally different. First thing I noticed, there were sooooooooo many bikes. Everywhere. It was crazy. So I tried to just wing my way to my hostel. Lol. I had previously looked it up on the maps. I started walking towards the general direction of my hostel and Jenna’s hotel when I realized this really wasn’t gonna work too well. So I bought a 3 euro map. I was walking towards Jenna’s hotel when I realized I left my papers in the tourist store. So I walked back to get it. On finding my way back again, I see Jenna cross the street I was in! Lol. How convenient. So, I yell out her name and we got a bit excited to see each other-randomly in a street in Amsterdam.

So anyway, I checked in to my hotel and took a nap in the lobby while they were preparing my bed. I took another mini-nap when I got to my bed. This was a really good hostel – nice clean beds and supercomfy fluffy down comforters.

I met up with Jenna in her hotel which is right across my hostel around 2:30pm and met her cousin Jason with whom she’s backpacking with. We walked around for a bit. Jason wanted to go into a coffee shop so we did. He bought a space brownie (why are they called space brownies/cakes? Maybe coz they send you to space? Lol anywayyy) Jenna and I had 1 pint beers which we took to the streets so we won’t kill more time. We pretty much just walked around and took pictures and enjoyed the surroundings. We went to the Anne Frank Huis which was very interesting and depressing.

After that, I had my first box of Wok to Walk which was super delicious! ( A super relief from the bland Spanish cuisine *peace*) I ate my box in my hostel, took a nap, then met back with them around 10pm. We just walked around the infamous Red Light District which was very interesting.

See this is why the Dutch are so cool. Lol. I mean we all know that the oldest profession in the world (as my high school senior English teacher used to refer to it and jovially adds – and it’s not farming!) is alive and well. The Dutch acknowledge this fact and work with this fact. Unlike so many of us who are so prudish. You know? Lol. They even have a union for these lady workers. :P It’s a 24/7 business. The women rent out windows per shift which would cost them about 100 euros and it’s fully equipped. :| Not that anyone was wondering, but their going rates are about 50 euros for the basic services. They display their scantily clad selves by the windows under red lights. Some are busy seducing guys, some are just sitting, and some on their phones (on what I jokingly said –they may be calling their friends to see how much business they’ve had that night :P)

In case you were wondering on how masochist this setup is, they did try to have manwhores go into the business. BUT it was so sensationalized by the media that no housewife had the courage to peruse the newly introduced service the guys were offering. :P So that didn’t really turn out well. :P

Anyway, that’s pretty much it for my awesome first day in Amsterdam. :P

Day 45 - Goodbye Granada

July 15 – Goodbye Granada

Class started late today. We didn’t really have much to do except get our tests back and sing a Spanish song by Juanes. Lol. Then, we took lotsa pics. Happily, I did good in the class – got a 95 in the finals and got a sobresaliente for the whole class – which I suppose would translate into excellent. :P

I went back home to have lunch with Paco. I asked him if Ma. Luz was going to prepare me paella for tonight and he asked why. I replied because I’m leaving tonight. Haha. They didn’t know. Shoot. Good thing I asked so he made sure that Ma. Luz was going to make me paella for tonight.

After finalizing my packing, I set back out to meet the girls. I stole a short nap in between packing and going back out so I was actually 15 minutes late. We had tapas at Seis Peniques and in attempt to get rid of most of their Euros, we paid our bill in all coins. :)

Shannon was the first to leave. She already had her luggage with her. It’s unbelievable how we’ve come to an end. It seems so quick. Anyway, Liz and Courts split after we were done and the rest – me, Breanna, Julie, Amanda, and Laura went for last minute shopping.

After a good while of shopping, Laura and I bought flowers for our host moms. Then, I went home to have dinner. And I did have paella! :) It was awesome! I finalized packing some more. I went out to give Ma. Luz her flowers – which she loved – and we all took a host family picture. :P

Then, it really was time to go. I set out with my two pieces of luggage and went out of building 16 on Calle Emperatriz Eugenia for the last time. Before everything else, I made a 10 minute pit stop in the heladería in front of our building to have one last tarrina of my favorite ice cream – abrete sesamo.

I lugged some more to go down to the bus station on Camino de Ronda, got on bus 10 to the bus station. Got to the bus station around 10:45pm. Breanna got there around 11:15pm. Our bus left at 12:30am on the 16^th.

Goodbye Granada.

Day 44 - Last School (Mon)day =)

July 14 – Last School Monday and Last Test (for a good while)

We took our final today for Adolfo’s 10 day class. I think it was ok. :P I was ready to get it over with with subjunctive and pluscuamperfecto compuesto chuva choo choo.

The afternoon was a blur. In honesty, I don’t recall what I did that afternoon. :/

Now that I think about it, that test I took was the last one – well for a good long while. I’m done!

Day 43 - Gaudi

July 13 – Park Guell

They were gonna go to the beach but I def. didn’t wanna go. I felt like I didn’t really get a chance to know Barcelona so I said I’d rather walk around the city. I was going to walk with them to the beach so I know where to find them but we saw these cool mosaic-tiled statues. We stopped by one of the tourist stores in the Ramblas to look up the place and we all decided we’d rather go to the park. Breanna had the grand idea of going inside a hotel and ask for directions. Fortunately, they were really helpful and didn’t seem to care if we stayed in that hotel or not. LOL. So we made our way up the hill and hiked up to the top. It was a beautiful park and definitely worth skipping the beach fo sho.

After that, we had to go back down to the city to catch the 3:30pm bus back to Girona. We got back to Granada around 7pm.

Day 42 - A Conocer Barcelona

July 12 – Hello Barcelona

I wake up to some commotion. It turns out that the vomiting girl didn’t even belong to our hostel. The real girl arrived and said someone was in her bed. So they tried to wake her up quietly but that didn’t really work out. The vomiting girl went out with people who were staying in our room and apparently was too drunk off her mind to have gone back to her own hostel. Anyway, it was sooooo gross. The bunks were really close. So, the backpack of the girl who was under the vomiting girl was full of just maggot-looking soup of vomit. (To paint a picture for you :) )

When we went outside, we were really close to the Las Ramblas – the main walkway with all the shops, artists, etc. First thing we did was go to Picasso’s Museum. This one is bigger than the one in Malaga. I love Picasso’s work. I still can’t comprehend how something can be so broken and incongruous and be beautiful and sane at the same time. My favorite sala was their temporary exhibition – which had various artists’ study of Velasquez’s Las Meninas.

I loved it. After that, we just walked around the Las Ramblas. I saw another Starbucks. So after we walked around for a while and took in all the usual plaza craziness (painters, statue people, magic people, etc.), we stopped by Starbucks so I could buy another mug. We’re collecting city mugs and I must say buying $18 mugs is getting a bit expensive. LOL.

Anyway, we dropped off our stuff at our hostel to get ready for our Fat Bike Tour. The meeting point was really close to our hostel which was good. I had not been on a bike in so long. I seriously cannot remember the last time – wait – I do. Haha. I bought this bike last summer but returned it coz I didn’t really want a mountain bike. (I found out I’d prefer one of those cruiser bikes) Anyway, the bike tour was awesome. It was so much fun. I think I spaced out too much when the tour guide was talking because I was just so psyched about being on a bike, driving something, going more than 2 miles per hour, and not walking! LOL We hit the Cathedral (under construction), the steps where the Catholic Kings received Christopher Colombus, square where the Romans executed all these people from way back when, the Gaudi Park, Arc de Triomph and promenade, the Gaudi park, the Sagrada Familia, and the beach. It wasn’t a good day for the beach. It got very windy and a bit chilly. We made a drink stop there. Some had beer and sangria. When it started to rain, we pedaled back to the bike tour’s shop where we kept our stuff and to pay for the tour. :)

For dinner, we went back out in the rain. It was miserable. We were walking forever under the rain and they could not decide where to eat. We finally found this one sorta Italian restaurant who had an offer of 3 courses for 6.95. Shannen finally got her paella. Breanna, Juile, and I got spaghetti, chicken with fries, and flan. I was going to order sangria but Shannen already had sangria with her paella package so we made a deal coz she only wanted water. When the bill came, our jaws dropped. Julie’s and Breanna’s drinks were 5.10 each. Ridicuhlous. Good thing I only ended up getting water. 10 oz. for 2.10 euros. LOL.

We went back to the hostel and had this 2 hour conversation with a girl from New Zealand and 2 British girls. After that got into the wee hours of the morning, we decided to call it a night. :P

Day 41 - Wanderpul Adventure

July 11 – Adventureful Travel to Barcelona

I started to pack today. :) I knew I didn’t have time because we had to rendezvous for our Barcelona trip (with Breanna, Julie, and Shannen) at 4:30 but I started packing anyway. After a shower and dropping by the internet café to try to check-in, we met at Gran Via to catch the airport bus.

We got to the airport and found out that the airport we’re flying into in Barcelona is Girona – a nearby city – an hour bus ride from Barcelona. Then we found out that only EU citizens can check-in online and that we had to pay for our boarding pass. 5 euros apiece. Ridicuhlous. When we got to Barcelona, we found out that the 3 euro bus ride the lady was talking about in Granada, turned out to be a 21 euro round trip ride. As if our luck couldn’t get any worse, when we were in the Metro, we bought tickets from the Renfe not the Metro itself. So, we jumped over the ticket thing. Hahaha. It helped that it was around 1am at this time. We didn’t really have for real directions to the hostel because I was in a hurry this afternoon coz I started packing when I shouldn’t have. I thought just the address would be enough. So, when we get off the Metro, we start walking towards “our street.” Nope. There was nothing there. Everything was closed down. Good thing we bumped into some policemen. It turned out we were in city limits. Like the other side of the street was another city. LOL. So, the police radioed control office and sorted us out. We still ended up shelling out more money because we then took the taxi. Furthermore, the taxista didn’t really know the street of the hostel. Not that he was a bad taxi driver, it’s just that the street is one of those really narrow ones. Imagine when Aladdin escaped from stealing that apple? Well, the streets were like those except that this was at midnight and instead of fruit vendors, there were prostitutes and drunk people. We finally found our hotel after a super long ass trip. As if it couldn’t get any worse right. I wake up in the middle of the night to a very strange sound. Like someone is throwing up. I was in the lower bunk. So I look left and I vaguely remember the girl on the top bunk to our left just puking her brains out. I was too sleepy and tired to care. It was like raining vomit. LOL. So I just turn around the other way and keep on sleeping. Hahaha.

It occurred to me that many of you might not know what a hostel really is. It’s cheap accommodation mainly used by backpackers, student travelers, people who are tight on budget, people who don’t mind not-so nice place so long as it’s a place to stay. Usually you share a room with people you don’t know but usually people who stay there are young and chill and mind their own business. It’s actually a cool place to meet people. Depends on the hostel but possible features could be internet access, lockers, AC, and kitchen. My opinion: I think it’s genius. :P I don’t mind the other people. Sometimes I do mind the cleanliness and the showers. Sometimes I don’t take showers and wait till I get back to a nice shower. LOL. But it does the job. :P

Day 40 - La Ultima Cena

July 10 – Bye-Bye Dinner

Since some of the girls haven’t seen the Puesto del Sol from the Mirador and we were having our dinner at the Albaicin, we all went early to the Mirador to watch the sunset. The view of the Alhambra was amazing as always. Jose and Veronica came up to meet us there and we all went to this nice restaurant called Casa Torcauto. We sat in a patio. It was the best dinner I’ve ever had since coming here. It may be one of the best dinners I’ve ever had in my entire life. For starters, we ordered drinks. From then on, there was a steady flow of jars of water, Sangria, and Tinto de Verano. Then, Veronica ordered 3 plates of salad for appetizers. Here, they don’t have dressing for salad like we do in the States. There’s no such thing as Ranch, Thousand Island, or Blue Cheese. There’s only olive oil and vinaigrette I think. Here, they use olive oil for everything – for toast, frying, boiling stuff, salad dressing, everything. Anyway, we ordered our main course. I ordered calamares a la plancha. In English, grilled squid. When my plate came, I was in awe. They were so pretty. All six of them. The sauce was a light garlic-flavored olive oil. The salad was amazing. It had a tropical flavor. There were lots of purples and greens and I saw some pineapple slices in it. I rarely rave about food and I’m not a big salad eater. So for me to say that the salad was amazing, that’s a big thing. I tried to eat as much as I could but all six of them were just too much for me. I quit after 4 and a half. The whole time I was enjoying my food, all the other girls were wondering what I was eating and were eeeww-ing and making faces. I don’t really care. For me, it’s their loss. LOL. I finally made them try it and they said it wasn’t as bad as they thought it would be. They just said they would never go to a restaurant and order a plate of grilled squid.LOL. I understood. Touché.

Next in line: dessert. :P Most of us ordered cheesecake. Their cheesecake is different but was good. As with almost everything I’ve had here, it seemed less processed. It was more cheesy and less sugary. Then, the champagne came. We made a toast; to our amazing Spanish experience and Juanes. LOL. As if we hadn’t had enough, we were given glasses of bailey’s on the rocks. It was amazing. I loooove Bailey’s. It was like drinking milk, only better. I finished Breanna’s and Amanda’s because they didn’t really want theirs and gave it to me instead.

It was a fabulous dinner – all 3 hours of it. :)

After that, we went to El Camborio. Although every inch of my body and every cell in my brain didn’t want to, I went anyway because I didn’t wanna be the lame-o to split and go back home. I had a paper due the next day and I knew it wouldn’t be fun. Boy was I right. We were there till about 3am and it was boooring. Half the time, I was falling asleep. The other half, I was freaking out about my paper. When I got home, I wrote a few paragraphs from the notes I wrote on a deposit slip while we were in Camborio. LOL. I was soooo sleepy by 4am so I slept. I intended to woke up at 6:30 to finish it but we all know how that went. :P I only had 15 minutes of spare time to work on it and I suppose I used it well. By the time I got to class, I had no choice but to turn in what I have. I did have a couple of sweet lines in there though.

Day 39 - Juanes!!!!

July 9 – Juanes

We went to Juanes’ concert at the Plaza de Toros today.

For those of you who don’t know him, he’s a popular singer from Colombia.

We were about 3 rows away from the stage. He was simply amazing. There are singers who are amazing but don’t sound really well in concerts. Well, Juanes is not one of them. The sound system was great as well. He performed amazingly. Grabe! He was so guapo and so charming. I loved his spiels and I loved how I understood every bit of it. He’s such a good person and you can tell it from his songs. His songs have meaning. It’s heartwarming. I got a clear view of him the whole 2 hours he was singing. And guess what, when he threw a Colombian flag into the crowd, I had this gut feeling that it was going to our general direction. Well guess what. I didn’t catch it. LOL. I made a reach for it and it had already been caught by the 6’1” Shannon standing beside me. It was so not fair!!! Anyway, it was all fun nonetheless.

As we were walking back home, Liz, who’s a fanatic asked Veronica, our director where could Juanes be possibly staying in Granada. Veronica replied he could be staying in Gran Via ( the street we were walking on). She then pointed to this sweeeeet 5 star hotel and said he could be staying over there. Then she added, in fact I seriously think he may be staying there because of that van. Then, Liz shouted, “That’s him!!! It’s Juanes!!!” Then all 10 of us rush across the biggest road in Granada without any hesitation whatsoever. Good thing we didn’t get hit by a car. It was Juanes!!! We saw him in front of the hotel and took this awesome picture. I touched his arm! LOL. It was all too dreamy. We were all in awe and shock after that.

Anyway, it was a super sweet night and we couldn’t have asked for more.

Day 38 - Baños Arabes

July 8 – Baños Arabes

Today, we went to the Arab baths. This may be my favorite out of all the things that I’ve done here in Granada. For a reasonable fee of 24 euros ( 20 for students), you get to enjoy very relaxing and tranquil baths for an hour and a half and you get a 15 minute leg and back massage. It was amazing.

Day 37 - Capilla Real y Puesto del Sol

July 7 – Capilla Real y Puesto del Sol (Sunset)

I finally got around to going to the Capilla Real where the Catholic Kings are buried. It amazes me that I pass by the Cathedral and the statue of Isabel La Catolica every single day on my way to school and then realize that that queen is buried right there by the Cathedral. The same queen who conquered Granada. It’s coolness. :P

After tutorials, we went to El Mirador de San Nicolas to watch the sunset from the Albaicin. It has an amazing view of the Alhambra. When the sun was setting, we realized that we couldn’t really see the sunset because it was to our 3 o’clock if we were facing the Alhambra. So we set out walking around Albaicin to look for a place where we could see the sunset. It was then when we came upon these walls. Omg. We climbed these 8 foot walls. I was scared shitless. I couldn’t stand up on top of it. I never knew I had a fear of heights. Maybe I don’t but I was just really scared then. Breanna and Amanda on either side of me were stomping, dancing, and shaking their butts and I could barely stand normally to take one picture. LOL. Anyway, the view was great and that’s all that matters.

Day 36 - Cordoba

July 6 – Cordoba

I woke up really early to take a shower. We met around 9am to eat breakfast. Breakfast was good. Better than the magdalena – café con leche combo. Anyway, we left to go to Cordoba after that. In Cordoba, we went to this important ruin place. Apparently, it’s the second most important ruins in Europe next to Pompeii. I don’t know for what reason. :P Anyway, that was cool.

We then made our way to the city. We were left to wander for lunch. I was craving a French fries-sundae combo from McDonald’s. The nearest one was like a 25 minute walk. We made our way there and 6 of them dropped out of the race. Lame-os. Whatever. Shannon and I hustled our butts to the far-off mall and got what we wanted. We then walked back to the meeting point – the ex-Mosque Cathedral of Cordoba. It was amazing inside. I really don’t consider it a Cathedral. LOL. It’s got Islam written all over it. It’s tacky coz they converted the center of the place into a Cathedral. Whatever.

Went back to Granada after that.

Day 35 - Sevilla

July 5 – Sevilla

We left Granada for Sevilla around 8:30am. We got there right before noon. We first went to the Alcazar. It’s the only other royal palace in Spain that is currently used and owned by the royal family aside from Palacio Real in Madrid. It was beautiful. It still gets me every time our tour guide explains something so significant from the past that happened on the same land we were stepping on. In those gardens, there used to be royal weddings - some weddings that significantly changed Spain’s history.

After the Alcazar, we went to the Giralda – Sevilla’s Cathedral. Guess what we did. How’d you know we climbed yet another Cathedral tower? Nyehe. Anyway, as usual we had a perfect view of the whole city. The inside of the Giralda was beautiful. The altar was cuhrazyyyy. It was all gold-covered from floor to ceiling. It was just like a huge wall of goldenness.

After the Giralda, we went to our hotel. Since I forgot to bring my swimsuit, I took a nap while everyone else went to the pool. That was kind of a bummer but my nap was awesome anyway. After the nap, Shannon, Julie, Breanna and I walked around for a bit. That was when we came upon the most awesome plaza we’ve ever seen since being here in Spain. LOL. They had Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Burger King all in one plaza. Haha! Anyway, I bought a Starbucks Sevilla mug. We headed back to the hotel and didn’t eat anything coz the buffet dinner was about to start.

The dinner was awesome. They had good croquettes. LOL. Other than that, umm it was alright. The watermelon was rocking. I do remember that. After dinner, we all went back out to walk around the old Jewish area. Then, we all made our way to the Plaza de España. On our way there, I saw another Starbucks. I bought a drink. I freaking messed up my drink! HAHAHA! Shame on me! I made my favorite hot drink into an iced drink without realizing it. I never do that. Ugh. No wonder it was toooooo sweet. I said that like a hundred times. It really was too sweet. :( The worst part? It cost me $6.46 for a grande. Whatevs. I’m over it! The Plaza was beautiful. It was quiet and relaxing – it had the perfect ambiance for us to marvel at its grandiosity. A scene of Star Wars was filmed here and the beginning of Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress is set here. Cool huh?

We all went back to the hotel after that. I watched TV till really late. I was watching Snow Dogs in Spanish. It was pretty entertaining. Mom called me around 1am and I got to talk to Ate Kaye! They were packing and selling stuff coz we’re moving. I mean they are. I fell asleep soon after that.

Day 34 - American Day

July 4 – American Day

To pay homage to America, :P we all agreed to wear something red, blue, white or all of the above and eat at Burger King – the most American food Granada has to offer. :P

To make good on my wish of avoiding taking a siesta, after class, I went to CLM1 and got on a computer for a few minutes. After that, I started heading out and realized I had to eat! So, I stopped on a bench in Plaza Isabel La Catolica and ate my bocadillo like an 8^th grader on recess. :P

After that, I started to make my way towards the Science Museum. It was a freaking long walk! Anyway, I got there around 3:30pm. After having gone through 2 exhibitions, Breanna and Amanda found me! It was pretty cool coz I was getting bored. That was a fortunate coincidence coz we definitely didn’t plan on meeting. The Science Museum was pretty cool. The Butterfly Sanctuary was very pretty and the Planetarium show was pretty interesting. We left there and went to BK! I only had fries coz I had to be home for dinner coz I forgot to tell Ma. Luz ahead of time.

Tomorrow, we’re leaving for another weekend trip – Sevilla and Cordoba.

Day 33 - Siesta Inevitable

July 3 – Inevitable Siesta

Every time after I have lunch at home, I swear the minute I get back to my room, siesta fever hits me like crazy. So, what can I do right? Urgh. So today I didn’t do anything productive again. I meant to go the Science Museum but instead I slept from 3:00 – 5:30pm. I had to wake up coz we had another meeting with Veronica and this man from Central College. We went to Café Futbol for a drink and to talk about the program. After that, I went back home, had dinner, same old. At the dinner table, I told Ma. Luz that from now on, I will pack lunch and not come home anymore so I can avoid the siesta! LOL They laughed but said that was exactly what I needed to do. :P

Day 32 - Start of New Classes

July 2 – Start of New Classes

I suppose I passed the previous class coz I’m now in the next level. :P We now have Adolfo for all 4 hours. For the first two days, we’re having subs coz Adolfo had other things to do or something. The subs were actually cool. Other than the subs, it was pretty much the same old class stuff. Our new class is pretty cool. We have Rachele from Italia, Daisy from Brasil, Tania from Greece, Lenka from the Czech Republic, Shannon, Zach, Sarah, Tom, Candy, and Marissa from the USA. And yours truly from the Philippines. :P It’s a cool mix.

Anyway, I skipped lunch for some reason and went to tutorials at 5pm. After tutorials we went to get tapas at our regular place – Seis Peniques on Calle Pavaneras – and attended by our regular waiter, Hisham (Angel in Arabic). Shannon and I didn’t order anything but he insisted to take our order. So, I tried Tinto de Verano (Wine with Fanta Limon or Lemonade). It’s super good! It’s very popular here. It literally means Summer Wine. It’s very refreshing. I will definitely make it when I’m back in the States. Hisham gave our 2 drinks for free. So, all 5 of us just split the whole tab to be fair.

Day 31 - Málaga

July 1 – Málaga

Shannon and I got to Málaga last night, we hopped on a bus and got off around the city center so getting a taxi will be cheaper. We had dinner at McDonald’s (read: this is a big deal for us, ok?). LOL After that, we got into a taxi. Turns out our hostel was only like a 5 minute walk. Dagnamit. Anyway, we had no map or anything so we really couldn’t have found it ourselves. Plus, it was like 11pm.

Anyway, I slept in. Shannon went to the beach. I didn’t want to go to the beach just cause. So, I finally woke up around 11:30am and started walking around. I went to the Málaga Picasso Museum. That was cool. He’s such a genius. Then, I had a date with myself and ate a campero (a big, round sandwich) con cerveza. After that, I walked around some more and headed back to the hostel because Shannon and I were going to meet there at 3:30. I got back around 3:00pm. When she still didn’t get there around 3:50, I went out to go to the internet café. She actually called me while I was there but didn’t wanna answer coz she was using her US phone calling my US phone and I had left word at the hostel of where I was going to be at. So, she found me at the internet café anyway. I stayed there for 40 more minutes to finish my time then we went back to the hostel to get our stuff.

We then made the hike to the bus station – 30 minute walk under the hot Spanish sun, carrying our backpacks. It wasn’t as bad as I make it out to be. :P We were waiting for our 6pm bus when in attempt to find out what time it was, I realized I didn’t have my US phone with me. :( My poor N75 got left at the net café when Shannon called me. I was pissed! I called the hostel and the nice lady went to the net café for me but she didn’t find it. I felt horrible for losing it. To console myself, I just thought it was about to die on me anyway. The front LCD was already broken and it would always hang or something. I wasn’t really sorry for the phone itself. Rather, I felt bad for losing all my contact info and pictures and music and videos. :(

We got back to Granada around 8:30pm. I went home, had dinner, y ya.

Day 30 - More Vatican

June 30 – Back at the Vatican

As if yesterday wasn’t enough, we made our way back to the Vatican. We had the Vatican Museums to visit, and the Basilica’s dome to climb. The Argentinean girls said they were also going to the Vatican and so we all went together. We definitely bonded quickly and during breakfast decided to go together.

There was Macarena (like the dance), Carla, Brenda, and Sabrina. They had worked in Wales for 8 months and saved up money. Now they’re backpacking all over Europe and some Middle East countries. They’re a cool bunch. We went through the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel with them while Macarena read her guide book. It was very fun. We split with them because Shannon and I were pressed for time and still needed to go climb the dome. So, we walked to the Basilica. Luckily, the line wasn’t very long. This was around 2pm. First off, we took the elevator because we were pressed for time. It costed 7 euros (2 more than taking the stairs/ramp). When we got there, we still had to climb about 230 steps because we had to climb the dome itself. The stairs were ridiculously narrow. When we got to the top, it was breathtaking. Zarpada! (Awesome!) :P

When we went back down, we exited back into the church. This time, there were definitely less people. :P So I took pics near the altar and we bumped into the Argentinean girls again. So, again, we said our goodbyes and goodlucks (we exchanged email addresses) and Shannon and I had to leave to catch our plane back to Spain.

We made it to the airport 2 hours before takeoff. We couldn’t risk another heart attack-inducing trip to the airport.

Ciao Roma. Till next time. :)

Day 29 - A Special Sunday

June 29 – Sunday at the Vatican

Shannon and I woke up early, had breakfast and got ready to go to the Vatican. We knew there would be Mass there so we thought it would be cool to go. So off we go. We used our Roma Pass to use the subway for free. We got there around 9 something. The lines were not too long but the heat made it feel painfully long. Anyway, we got in the basilica and I was just in awe. It’s ginormous, beautiful, elaborate, magnificent. Simply amazing. Then we found out the Pope was giving the Mass. I was exciteddd! The place was packed. The middle part of the church was cordoned off because Mass had begun. So, the sides were supercrowded. Shannon is 6’9” so she didn’t have much trouble trying to see the altar and such. I had given up hope so we kinda wandered off to the church bookstore where I bought a few stuff. We were walking around for a long while and taking pictures and such. I sat in one corner and started writing postcards. Then I realized Mass was still going on. LOL. Ummm so I abandoned my writing and got back on with the program. The Mass was in Latin so I really had no clue what was going on except for the “peace be with you” part. :P Anyway, we had been there for a while and so we started to head towards the door. Then, I realized I really really wanted to see the Pope. My camera lens had seen him but I said that doesn’t count. I had come all the way here and I ain’t leaving until my naked eyes see the Pope! So, after long stretches of tiptoeing and neck-craning, I finally caught a glimpse of the Pope who was probably a kilometer away from me. So, we started heading towards the door when we agreed to just finish Mass. That was definitely a good call. Next thing we know, it was Communion already. That place was packed. I’m telling you. I never thought that I would be able to receive Communion because there were so many people. Good thing though there were so many other priests that they were dispatched all throughout the church. A curious thing – when they give you the body of Christ, there are people who make sure you eat it. I don’t know why that’s so. I’m thinking maybe there are people who sell those on eBay or something? Haha. Idk. Anyway, when I received mine, I seriously almost cried. It was such a good feeling. I was beyond belief that I just received Communion at St. Peter’s Basilica during the Pope’s Mass. To add to the excitement, we stayed until the whole Pope entourage walked down the aisle for the exit. It was cuh-razyyyy. There were probably 6 people in front of me but I couldn’t be shot down. :P I was going to see the Pope and I didn’t care for how much longer I needed to be on tiptoes. But boy did that hurt. LOL. It must have been 15 minutes before the Pope finally passed by. Luckily, my camera has a continuous shoot mode so I just held down the shutter button while I savored the Pope’s presence with my own eyes. It was incredible. The Pope was literally 2 meters away from me. I could say that must have been one of the most important moments of my life. :P

After that whole pilgrimage, we were so spent. We decided to head back to the hostel. We got back and I took a long nap. I didn’t go with Shannon to go back out because I wanted to sleep more. I finally left the hostel around 5pm to walk around some more. I hit up a few plazas and went to the Pantheon but it had already closed. I didn’t care though. :P I was a happy trooper that day.

We went back to the hostel where we met 2 Mexican guys who were also backpacking. We went to a restaurant to watch the Eurocup 2008 Finals between Germany and Spain. I never doubted that Spain would win. And so we did, 1-0. Goal by Torres. It was such a shame we weren’t in Spain for that. I can only imagine how crazy things got in Spain. Pssh.

Anyway, we all went back to the hostel and we were a full house – 4 Mexican guys, 4 Argentinean girls, Shannon, and me. We talked in Spanish for the longest time and it was so much fun. The Argentinean girls definitely had so many stories to tell. Even though, I didn’t really understand it fully I still got the general gist of it. It was so much fun just talking to them.

Today was a good day. :)

Day 28 - Touring Rome

June 28 – Touring Rome

Laura, Breanna, and Amanda left at 6am for a 130 euro, 9-hour, ubercomprehensive tour. Liz and Courtney were still asleep because they went out with their friends from last night. Shannon swore I snored so badly that night. So weird coz no one has ever told me I snore. I’ve been on the tennis team for 3 years and trust me I would have gotten hell if I snored. LOL. Anyway, so Shannon and I were together. Since we had more days ( we had 3 full days; they only had 1.5), we opted out of the 130 euro tour.

We walked up to Stazione Termini to claim our Roma passes. The Roma Pass is actually a really good deal. It costs 20 euros and gives you 2 free entrances to places of your choice and discount to other places. It only makes perfect sense to pick the Colosseum as the first one because if you just buy the ticket at the Colosseum without the Roma pass, it costs 11 euros plus you have to fall in line for a long time. With the Roma pass, you can avoid the line and go straight to the entrance. Also, the Roma Pass gives you free access to public transportation for 3 days.

Anyway, after getting our Roma Passes, I convinced Shannon to do a Sightseeing Bus with me. I’ve never been on one and really wanted to experience it. We got a day tour for 13 euros. It was pretty cool. We hopped on one right outside Stazione Termini and got off at the Colosseum.

The Colosseum is enormous. Thus, it’s named so. Duh. Lol. Anyway, we rented an audio guide for 4.50 euros. We were there forever. It was a very cool place. Again, it’s one of those things I can’t really explain. :P Oh btw, have I mentioned it was burning hell in Rome? It was superrrrrhot! Anyway, it was so cool while we were up there, there were newlyweds taking pictures with the Colosseum as the background. How romantic eh?

After exiting the Colosseum, I was dying of thirst. I was parched like never before. So, of course they have these little mobile stores. I come up to the guy and ask how much. A 12 oz. bottle of water cost 2.50 euros! Ridiculous! In the words of Paco and Ma. Luz, “İQué barbaridad!” So I sucked it up and continued dying. We hopped back on the red bus and I told Shannon I was getting off at the next stop to get water. Luckily, the next stop had one of these things. I love it! The water was cold too! It was heaven! Anyway, right after we replenished our bottles, another red bus stopped. So we hopped back on. We finished the tour around the city and hopped off around Tritone to hit up Fontana de Trevi.

There were many shops near Fontana de Trevi and while we were walking down one of the alleys I hear “So Slow” by Freestyle (Filipino band). I got so excited! Hahaha. How weird was that. Walking down Rome and hearing Freestyle. Anyway, of course I had to enter the store and sing along and make little chika with the people there. All they had were glass and crystal stuff so I couldn’t really buy anything from there. Anyway, we proceeded to the Fountain. It was pretty much awesome. We took lots of pictures. Then, we walked back to the hostel. I swear this trip seemed more and more like Survivor by the minute. By this time, I was super-spent with all the walking and the heat. We got back to the hostel. I took a shower and took a short nap. We went to dinner. I had a 9 euro plate of 5 pieces of ricotta cheese and asparagus filled tortellinis. Cuh-razy. I ate it super slowly. Indeed, they’re right when they when you eat slower, your brain catches up and tells you you are getting full so you stop eating. Well, I wasn’t close to being full but that was the most I could do.

We then went to Campo de Fiori to try this amazing wine Liz and Courtney were raving about. It’s called Moscato D’(something) Shoot! I’ll have to ask Amanda for the real name coz I told her to take a pic of it coz they say it’s sold in the States. Anyway, indeed it was ridiculously good and so was the price. Haha! A bottle was 25 euros. We split it 5 ways so it wasn’t all too bad. Anyway, we stayed there for the longest time. They wanted to go out but I couldn’t take any more. I wanted to just go home. After sitting there for about 3 hours, I was like, we gotta go. So, 3 of us went home. The rest wanted to check out the bars but I wasn’t up for it. Not my kinda company. :P Anyway, I was glad to be back at the hostel. Got ready for bed and I was out!

Day 27 - Hola Roma

June 27 – Ciao Roma

We all met at the internet café around 10:15am. Some of us had already checked in the night before and everyone else checked-in there. Shannon and I bought Roma passes which will give us discounts and stuff when we get to Rome. We had no idea what was ahead of us.

We intended to catch the 12noon bus for Málaga. We had talked about purchasing our tickets beforehand but Courtney insisted that we don’t and that we would be fine if we just got it on the day we leave. Honestly, I had planned on buying it anyway but then I guess I forgot about it what with exams and all. Anyway, it was a Friday so it was no surprise that the 12noon bus was full. Málaga was 1.45hrs by bus and our flight was at 3:30pm. We had no choice but to catch the 1:00 bus which meant that we’ll get there at 2:45 if we’re on time, then we need to make it to the airport in the next 30 minutes. The gates close 15 minutes prior to takeoff.

I’ve never been so anxious and tense in my life. Seriously. We were like little ducklings sitting there in the bus station waiting for our 1pm bus. It didn’t help our morale that the 12noon bus left 20 minutes late. I was emotionally freaking out. LOL. So, 1pm finally comes and we all pile in the bus. We were all seated towards the front of the bus which was good. I had suggested that we split up into two groups so when we get off in Málaga, that we’ll all just grab taxis by our groups. It was painfully excruciating to be in the bus and seeing if we were on time or not. Miraculously, the bus was on the dot. We had a divine intervention no doubt. As soon as the bus came to a halt, all 7 of us leapt out of the bus and dashed out of the bus station and grabbed a taxi. I swear we did all that in a matter of 20 seconds. We were all freaking out. By this time it was about 2:50pm. We were freaking out like crazies. Luckily, our taxi driver was calm and told us to calm down and that we will make it. He’ll make sure of it. It was the weekend, so of course there was traffic like no other. But he took other ways and made turns and stuff and avoided the heavy traffic. 3:10pm. We stop in front of the airport. We paid him 20 euros for the 12 euro charge. We couldn’t risk waiting for change and plus had he not known what he was doing and not known how to avoid traffic, we would have definitely missed our flight. So, we all dash inside the airport and read the huge screen like crazies. We find our gates and ran like our life depended on it. We fall in line for security. After security, we ran the last leg like we were competing for the final foot race in Amazing Race. 3:18pm. We finally made it to the gate. It was a miracle. The past 2.5 hours were hell. That whole time I thought it was near impossible for us to make our flight but we made it. It was crazy. Crazyyy. We settled into the plane and were on our way to Italia around 3:45pm.

A cool thing about travelling between Schengen countries is that you travel like you would between US states. They don’t check for passports and visas. Just like travelling between US states, they don’t have border control. Or at least that’s what it seemed to me. The only time my passport was checked was when I boarded the plane in Spain. Anyway, we landed in Fiumicino Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport around 6pm. We got a shuttle and paid 13 euros each to take us to the hostel. Getting on the train would have cost us 11 euros so paying 2 more was worthwhile.

We stayed at Ivanhoe Hostel in a 12-bed mixed bedroom. There were 6 bunkbeds. The hostel was ok. There were 3 computers for internet. The bathrooms weren’t that clean but what can you expect of a hostel anyway. For me, it was good enough. It was literally a 5-minute walk away from the Colosseum, and the main station, Stazione Termini.

After looking for this one place to eat at the other side of town for 1.5 hours, we finally got to eat. We met there with Liz and Court’s friends. Anyway, that was a pain to have walked and search for “Tony’s” for a long ass time and we didn’t even know if that was really Tony’s that we ate at. Anywayyyy, we went back to the hostel and slept. :)