Wednesday, July 28, 2004
SPAIN – May 12 to 18
After a sad day of saying goodbye to all of our friends at the dorm and at school, Kristin and I took a 5 day trip to Spain before she left for the US. We took a late flight and arrived in Girona, about an hour outside of Barcelona, around midnight. Since it was too late to find a taxi, the driver on the bus from the airport to the train station offered to drive us to our hostel in his car. We were a little unsure but felt a lot better when we saw the baby seat for his child in his car. So that was really nice and helpful. We went straight to bed and got up early to begin a long day on trains.
Gandia
Thursday we got up early and left to begin our long day on trains. We went from Girona to Valencia to Gandia, our ultimate destination – about 6 hours south of Barcelona on the Costa Blanca, eastern coast of Spain. We had chosen the small town of Gandia for its beaches, and had found a really cheap hostel supposedly right on the beach. We got there and found out the hostel was closed for renovations, but we ended finding a great little, family-run hotel a block from the beach. They knew no English, and we knew no Spanish, but we somehow settled on a good rate for 2 nights. The sun stayed out really late, so we went to the beach until about 9 that night. Then we went to a tapas bar for dinner. From what I understand, “tapas” means you order several different, appetizer-like dishes for your meal. The waiter took the liberty of ordering us the “house tapas” – a huge assortment of plates of appetizers. He just kept bringing out dish after dish – salad with corn, meat & cheese, mussels, raw calamari, friend calamari, spicy sausages, stuffed mushrooms, potato wedges with hot sauce, cheese filled peppers, bread … it was soo much food! Then our waiter bought us each a flower and served us free digestifs – Tia Maria coffee liquors. We spent several hours at dinner and didn’t spend much money at all … another advantage of Spain – cheap costs of everything compared to France! We met an old English couple at dinner who lives on a barge in a river in France in the Rhone region, who had decided to randomly drive to Spain to escape the bad weather – they were fun, but of course brought up the George Bush issue with us!
Friday was supposed to be our huge beach day, but it was cloudy and rainy the whole day. We tried to lay out in the morning but just ended up coming back to the hotel and watching the royal Danish wedding all afternoon on tv. We were told to try Paella by the locals, so we went for a late lunch. Paella is a seasoned rice dish, and we had one with beef, chicken, and mussels. It was pretty good, but it made Kristin sick for a couple of days. We were hesitant to try more local dishes after that experience. Friday night we went to the shopping center and bought hair dye to highlight my hair – nothing drastic or even noticeable – we were just bored.
Saturday was gorgeous so we spent the day on the beach. I don’t know what I thought would happen when I decided to spend 8 hours in the sun after a very sunless winter, but I, of course, got quite sunburned. It resulted in an interesting trip to a Spanish pharmacy where we tried to describe the medication we needed. In the late afternoon we got a pitcher of Sangria on a beachside café – probably the most relaxing couple of hours I’ve had in months! We were enjoying the city so much that we decided to stay for a 3rd night.
Valencia
Sunday morning we left our cute hotel in Gandia and took a train to Valencia, a quick stopping point before getting to Barcelona. We had several hours between trains, so we were able to explore Valencia. The city was very pretty with large palmtree-lined boulevards, fountains, great buildings everywhere. Then we got on the 4 hour train to Barcelona, which wasn’t horrible because all they had left was first-class seats.
Barcelona
Another “small world” experience in Barcelona – ten minutes after arriving in the city, I ran into a friend from my business program at IU who has been studying in Barcelona this semester! We found our hostel, which was right off of La Ramblas, the huge entertainment street in Barcelona. The city just seemed so alive everywhere – tons of peole outside, bars and cafes everywhere, endless places to go. We wanted a break from the Spanish food and actually ate at the Hard Rock Café. Monday we spent the day shopping and sightseeing around the city – walked the Ramblas, saw the Gaudi church and apartments, and just enjoyed being outside in the sun.
Back to Girona
Monday night we had to go back to Girona in order to catch our 6am flight the next morning. We had an unfortunate experience due to the language barrier on the train – somehow we were charged 17 euro for a train that’s normally 3 euro, so that was frustrating. In Girona we chose a small café to go in and noticed that they had Breaking Away on tv in Spanish (the movie based on Little 500 at IU). We thought that was pretty random and crazy!
The trip to Spain was the perfect way to “end” the semester and “start” my summer in France. And now I am very interested in trying to learn Spanish!
After a sad day of saying goodbye to all of our friends at the dorm and at school, Kristin and I took a 5 day trip to Spain before she left for the US. We took a late flight and arrived in Girona, about an hour outside of Barcelona, around midnight. Since it was too late to find a taxi, the driver on the bus from the airport to the train station offered to drive us to our hostel in his car. We were a little unsure but felt a lot better when we saw the baby seat for his child in his car. So that was really nice and helpful. We went straight to bed and got up early to begin a long day on trains.
Gandia
Thursday we got up early and left to begin our long day on trains. We went from Girona to Valencia to Gandia, our ultimate destination – about 6 hours south of Barcelona on the Costa Blanca, eastern coast of Spain. We had chosen the small town of Gandia for its beaches, and had found a really cheap hostel supposedly right on the beach. We got there and found out the hostel was closed for renovations, but we ended finding a great little, family-run hotel a block from the beach. They knew no English, and we knew no Spanish, but we somehow settled on a good rate for 2 nights. The sun stayed out really late, so we went to the beach until about 9 that night. Then we went to a tapas bar for dinner. From what I understand, “tapas” means you order several different, appetizer-like dishes for your meal. The waiter took the liberty of ordering us the “house tapas” – a huge assortment of plates of appetizers. He just kept bringing out dish after dish – salad with corn, meat & cheese, mussels, raw calamari, friend calamari, spicy sausages, stuffed mushrooms, potato wedges with hot sauce, cheese filled peppers, bread … it was soo much food! Then our waiter bought us each a flower and served us free digestifs – Tia Maria coffee liquors. We spent several hours at dinner and didn’t spend much money at all … another advantage of Spain – cheap costs of everything compared to France! We met an old English couple at dinner who lives on a barge in a river in France in the Rhone region, who had decided to randomly drive to Spain to escape the bad weather – they were fun, but of course brought up the George Bush issue with us!
Friday was supposed to be our huge beach day, but it was cloudy and rainy the whole day. We tried to lay out in the morning but just ended up coming back to the hotel and watching the royal Danish wedding all afternoon on tv. We were told to try Paella by the locals, so we went for a late lunch. Paella is a seasoned rice dish, and we had one with beef, chicken, and mussels. It was pretty good, but it made Kristin sick for a couple of days. We were hesitant to try more local dishes after that experience. Friday night we went to the shopping center and bought hair dye to highlight my hair – nothing drastic or even noticeable – we were just bored.
Saturday was gorgeous so we spent the day on the beach. I don’t know what I thought would happen when I decided to spend 8 hours in the sun after a very sunless winter, but I, of course, got quite sunburned. It resulted in an interesting trip to a Spanish pharmacy where we tried to describe the medication we needed. In the late afternoon we got a pitcher of Sangria on a beachside café – probably the most relaxing couple of hours I’ve had in months! We were enjoying the city so much that we decided to stay for a 3rd night.
Valencia
Sunday morning we left our cute hotel in Gandia and took a train to Valencia, a quick stopping point before getting to Barcelona. We had several hours between trains, so we were able to explore Valencia. The city was very pretty with large palmtree-lined boulevards, fountains, great buildings everywhere. Then we got on the 4 hour train to Barcelona, which wasn’t horrible because all they had left was first-class seats.
Barcelona
Another “small world” experience in Barcelona – ten minutes after arriving in the city, I ran into a friend from my business program at IU who has been studying in Barcelona this semester! We found our hostel, which was right off of La Ramblas, the huge entertainment street in Barcelona. The city just seemed so alive everywhere – tons of peole outside, bars and cafes everywhere, endless places to go. We wanted a break from the Spanish food and actually ate at the Hard Rock Café. Monday we spent the day shopping and sightseeing around the city – walked the Ramblas, saw the Gaudi church and apartments, and just enjoyed being outside in the sun.
Back to Girona
Monday night we had to go back to Girona in order to catch our 6am flight the next morning. We had an unfortunate experience due to the language barrier on the train – somehow we were charged 17 euro for a train that’s normally 3 euro, so that was frustrating. In Girona we chose a small café to go in and noticed that they had Breaking Away on tv in Spanish (the movie based on Little 500 at IU). We thought that was pretty random and crazy!
The trip to Spain was the perfect way to “end” the semester and “start” my summer in France. And now I am very interested in trying to learn Spanish!
Nice and Monaco – April 28 to May 1
We didn’t have classes the week before exams, so I went to the south of France with a group of about 8 other exchange students. Wednesday morning we took the TGV from Paris to Nice and arrived to awesome, sunny weather. Going through the beaches on the train was beautiful, and we decided that we would just get to the hostel and then straight to the beach. Our hostel was very cool – an old monastery that is in the process of being turned into a hotel/hostel. We all slept in the old chapel that is now a huge dorm room with 25 beds – a little strange actually. We went straight down to the beach area, and although Nice’s beaches are just rocks, we still had to lay out, although it was pretty cold and windy at this point. After buying a few bottles of wine from the hostel owners, we went downtown to dinner and a jazz bar afterwards.
Eze
In the morning a few more of our friends arrived from Rouen, so there were about 12 of us all together. Thursday it rained the whole day, but we just got just to being soaked and did what we had planned. We took a short bus ride to the tiny village of Eze, up a huge cliff overlooking the sea – it was amazing. We walked through an Exotic Garden on top of the mountain – such an incredible view over Nice and Monaco. It was pouring and very windy at this point, but it made for some funny pictures.
Monaco
From Eze we took another cool bus ride down into Monaco, which was very glitzy with lots of nice cars everywhere. We saw the Monte Carlo Casino and the Monaco Grand Prix track. It was still pouring, so we didn’t stay too long before taking a train back into Nice, where we made a huge pasta dinner at the hostel before going out for the night. A guy at the hostel recommended an English bar to us, where it happened to be Ladies’ Night. When we got there we found out we only had 30 minutes left of free wine for Ladies Night, so we definitely made the best of it. After that night we had a 45 minute walk back to the hostel because the buses were shut down and we’re just too cheap for taxis.
Antibes
Friday it was finally sunny and really warm, so we decided to try another beach and took a train to Antibes, which is a really pretty old town on the beach. There’s this huge wall going all the way along the coast, between the ocean and the town. We didn’t have beach towels, so the girls ended up laying out in a parking lot for a few hours; we got some sun, anyway!
Nice v. Monaco Football Game
Friday night we bought tickets to the Nice and Monaco football (“soccer”) game; the stadium was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel, so it was perfect. That was my first European football game experience, and it was great! The crowd was very rowdy and fun, and the sport in general is just so much more enthusiastically received than it is in the US. I’ve already purchased a couple football jerseys and scarves for various European teams. Hopefully I’ll get to more games before I leave, and I’m also interested in seeing a rugby match sometime.
The trip was great because we were able to see 4 different cities, which were all very close together on trains. And, of course, sun and beaches are always welcome after a semester in Normandy!
We didn’t have classes the week before exams, so I went to the south of France with a group of about 8 other exchange students. Wednesday morning we took the TGV from Paris to Nice and arrived to awesome, sunny weather. Going through the beaches on the train was beautiful, and we decided that we would just get to the hostel and then straight to the beach. Our hostel was very cool – an old monastery that is in the process of being turned into a hotel/hostel. We all slept in the old chapel that is now a huge dorm room with 25 beds – a little strange actually. We went straight down to the beach area, and although Nice’s beaches are just rocks, we still had to lay out, although it was pretty cold and windy at this point. After buying a few bottles of wine from the hostel owners, we went downtown to dinner and a jazz bar afterwards.
Eze
In the morning a few more of our friends arrived from Rouen, so there were about 12 of us all together. Thursday it rained the whole day, but we just got just to being soaked and did what we had planned. We took a short bus ride to the tiny village of Eze, up a huge cliff overlooking the sea – it was amazing. We walked through an Exotic Garden on top of the mountain – such an incredible view over Nice and Monaco. It was pouring and very windy at this point, but it made for some funny pictures.
Monaco
From Eze we took another cool bus ride down into Monaco, which was very glitzy with lots of nice cars everywhere. We saw the Monte Carlo Casino and the Monaco Grand Prix track. It was still pouring, so we didn’t stay too long before taking a train back into Nice, where we made a huge pasta dinner at the hostel before going out for the night. A guy at the hostel recommended an English bar to us, where it happened to be Ladies’ Night. When we got there we found out we only had 30 minutes left of free wine for Ladies Night, so we definitely made the best of it. After that night we had a 45 minute walk back to the hostel because the buses were shut down and we’re just too cheap for taxis.
Antibes
Friday it was finally sunny and really warm, so we decided to try another beach and took a train to Antibes, which is a really pretty old town on the beach. There’s this huge wall going all the way along the coast, between the ocean and the town. We didn’t have beach towels, so the girls ended up laying out in a parking lot for a few hours; we got some sun, anyway!
Nice v. Monaco Football Game
Friday night we bought tickets to the Nice and Monaco football (“soccer”) game; the stadium was about a 5 minute walk from our hostel, so it was perfect. That was my first European football game experience, and it was great! The crowd was very rowdy and fun, and the sport in general is just so much more enthusiastically received than it is in the US. I’ve already purchased a couple football jerseys and scarves for various European teams. Hopefully I’ll get to more games before I leave, and I’m also interested in seeing a rugby match sometime.
The trip was great because we were able to see 4 different cities, which were all very close together on trains. And, of course, sun and beaches are always welcome after a semester in Normandy!
