I've been meaning to write and publish a detailed version of all that's happened in the last few weeks during my trip, but when I actually began to write it, I could see it would take too long. I spent about a full hour yesterday trying to write about my first day in Dublin, and I haven't gone past the first half day!! Isn't that excessive?
So I decided to postpone my book-like narrative ambition for a later time, and right now publish a more practical summary of the past events. Luckily, I just wrote an email to my first couchsurfing hostess, and my description of what has happened to me since seems very conveniently blog-like as to mostly copy-paste. So... here it is (it skips the Dublin part, but I'll add that in later on):
Sorry for the long delay in responding - this last week has been a nonstop sequence of walk, walk, walk, eat, walk, walk, take pictures, take pictures, sleep, eat, walk, walk, walk, train, sleep, walk, walk, walk, walk, take more pictures, airport, fly... it's been awesome!! :D
Madrid IS amazing!!! Its monuments are HUUUUGE!! And they're EVERYWHERE!! It's like they built a huge park with statues and everything and THEN paved all the streets between them! Speaking of huge parks, isn't Parque del Retiro HUUUUUUUUUGE??????
After leaving Dublin, we flew to Madrid and stayed there with a couchsurfing contact from Ecuador for 3 nights, from April 24th to 27th. She was great and very kind, and one night in Madrid we went to eat Tapas and drink Calimochos at the La Chueca area. We were amazed with almost everything we saw: the Parque del Retiro, Puerta de Alcalá, Plaza de Cibeles (although always surrounded by buses), all of the huge palace-like ministries, the Atocha train station, the Metro rail network!, the Palacio Real OMG!!!, the Almudena Cathedral OMG!!!, and the Museo del Prado WOW!!! Every time we thought we had reached our maximum awe level when seeing one thing, something else raised the bar even higher!
While in Madrid, we bought night train tickets to Barcelona for 41.50 euros each, and got there on the 28th in the morning. When we got there we were kinda lost because everything was written in Catalán, and though it's very very similar to spanish, things are not as intuitive as in plain Spanish. There we stayed with another couchsurfing contact, this time from Russia, who let us to stay in his living room. He was also very awesome and hospitable, and though he had to work during the week, he told us the key points in the city to go to and the best ways to get there.
While in Barcelona, we focused on visiting the architectural uniqueness of Barcelona: the Gaudí buildings and Parc de Güell. Those buildings are AWESOME - I hadn't ever seen buildings like that before: bizarre though natural. We also saw the cathedral called Tibidabo on the top of a mountain, from which you can see all of Barcelona. The origin of the name is pretty cool - it's a biblical reference to when the devil and the Jesus were at the top of a mountain and the Devil was tempting Jesus to worship him and, in exchange, own everything that he saw from the top of the mountain. Here is the Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I also met a friend from college who is now studying in Barcelona, and my sister also met an old friend who was living in Vic, a town near the French border, and who took us partying to another town called Figueres with some of his friends from yet another town called Girona. The party was awesome, and we returned to Barcelona only to sleep a few hours and then see the remaining main checkpoints in the city.
Then on May 2nd we took a plane from Barcelona to Lisbon, Portugal, where a friend I met in February this year offered to host us if we visited the city. He and his family were all super-hospitable and kind, and since luckily one of the days we were there was a sunday, we were able to drive all the way to Sintra, a protected town marked as "World Heritage" by UNESCO, where several old palaces, castles, and convents still survive pretty much intact. Very impressive. That day we also drove to Cabo di Roca, the western-most point in continental Europe!! That place is on a cliff with beautiful views of waves hitting the jagged rock cliffs, and it's even more impressive when the sun sets! (on the west, conveniently :P)
We spent the next two days walking around Lisbon, taking pictures of pretty tilings everywhere (on the sidewalk, walls, ceilings, signs, plazas, everywhere!), another castle, a few parks, the Lisbon oceanarium (it's a pretty good oceanarium!), the Cristo Rei statue, and other main checkpoints of the city. Lisbon also has a REALLY long bridge, 14 km long, called the Vasco de Gama bridge, but I didn't go see it :(. I really wanted to go see it, but we quickly ran out of time and it was kind far away, so I only saw it from far away. Even so, it's pretty impressive.
We then flew to Paris on May 6th, and confirmed what everyone says: Paris is EXPENSIVE. It cost us 8.60 each just to go from the airport to Paris downtown, and the smallest meals are not cheaper than 10 euros where we looked. Even so, it was very cool to walk around Paris for a while. We got to see the Notre Dame cathedral and the Louvre, and then we had to find a place to stay the night.
But we didn't have a CS contact or any hostel reserved, so we decided to just wing it. We tried to sleep inside a Metro station, but we got kicked out about 40 minutes after having snuck inside. We then found a nice little bench in front of the Notre Dame cathedral. It was about 5C outside, but hey, it was hard to beat the view! :) The next day in the morning we met at a local McDonald's with our other sister who has been living in Orleans for 7 months now, and after breakfast, she took us to see the Arc de Triomphe and the Tour Eiffel, both packed with hundreds of tourists and keychain sellers.
We then took a train to Orleans, FR, where we have been staying at a friend's of my sister since May 7th. Very luckily, we got to see the "Fetes de Jeanne d'Arc", the festival of Joan of Arc, who historically reconquered Orleans on May 8th. These days have been very festive! Joan of Arc parades, hundreds of people dressed in medieval French clothes, I saw kings, peasants, buffoons, queens, gypsies, soldiers, horses, and flags of all kinds all around! Very colorful, a lot of local pride! The bad thing is that the stores closed and it was kinda hard to get the food and supplies we wanted to buy for these days. But we're good now.
So from today until wednesday, my sisters and I are driving to the castles that are built next to the Loire river (Les Chateaux-sur-la-Loire), which everyone says are quite beautiful. We made a car rental reservation, but it's also possible that Olivier, our current host in Orleans, will agree to lend us his car for our little day trips. He says it's no problem, as long as his insurance company agrees. I hope it agrees - it would save us 200 euros!
And as for my plans after Orleans, we're going back to Paris and staying at a youth hostel for about 3 nights until the 17th, getting to know the famed Paris as much as we can. My sisters are then going back to America (as in the continent) on the 18th, and I'm left to keep traveling on my own. I just bought a global eurail pass too, which should arrive on the next few days, and with which I plan to travel for 3 weeks around continental Europe!
Yay! Finally!! Now, at 4:58AM, I can rest :).
P.S: I hope the original recipient of this message does not get upset at my usage of my message to her.
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