McDonalds.... the root of all evils

so this past weekend i traveled to spain's lovely capital of madrid. i had been before for only a night to travel for oktoberfest, but this trip was to do and see everything madrid has to offer. basically ella and i wrote up a list of things we definitely wanted to see and managed to do tourist's guide to madrid 101 in one weekend. i'm actually pretty impressed by how much we accomplished. ella and i winged everything from the start. we bought our bus tickets right before we were going to leave thursday and managed to get them all and get right on a bus. we got there late thursday night kinda hoping to chill out with everyone, but that was not the expectations of the madrilenos. so we have about 1000 tulanian friends in madrid right now and we were lucky enough to stay in beds in an apartment of theirs cause of other people traveling. it was actually really nice they have quite the set up over there. so we got to the apartment and immediately rushed to get ready to pregame and go out.

we went to a pregame at jess's apartment and got to see nicole who was visiting owen from tulane! also lana, who graduated and is now working in italy, was there for the weekend staying with hunter in that apartment with us so we got to see visitors from everywhere. it was awesome to have so many tulanians in one place, always love when that happens. so we stayed at the pregame for a very extended amount of time and finally made moves to this place called cave bar. cave bar made these infamous drinks where milk comes out of the ceilings and into the drinks and is notorious for making people vom. so naturally i opted out of having one. after being there for a little bit it was decided that everyone was really tired from traveling and we should all just go back and hang at the apartments. clearly the next step was to hit up the local mcdonalds. apparently only hunter, wylie, and i were down for mickey d's but it was whatever i was so excited obvs ordered a big mac medium combo with sprite. yum. as we were walking back to their apartment a block away, hunter and wylie were on either side of me as i peacefully and quite happily enjoyed my medium french fries. once we turned the corner we noticed these group of guys running full speed at us, and usually when someone is running at you that fast you think okay they're in a hurry they'll go around me. i've noticed when i usually try to play chicken on the streets with random spanish pedestrians they don't move out of the way ever, but i didn't realize this also applied to grown men in a full sprint. next thing i know i had gone flying in the air and had been completely knocked to my ass. i smacked my head on the pavement and my food went everywhere. when i came to, my first thought was of course "MY BIG MAC!!!" ....it was covered in sprite (as was i) and all over the ground ...(as was i). so as the boys are trying to get me to my feet i vaguely remember them arguing with these spanish men. the one line that stuck in my head was when all the guy could say was "perdon" and hunter's response was "perdon?! I don't give a FUCK about perdon" i didn't want the boys to start a fight with these spaniards so i just said esta bien and we kept going. in hindsight definitely should have made them buy me another big mac. also still considering emailing the traffic department of the madrid government if that exists to see if they have footage of this because a video of me actually being trampled and thrown back about 5 feet would go viral in a heart beat.

aftermath of my collision the day after. poor fries brushed to the side like they ain't nothin'

so in madrid i got a concussion!!! great start to the weekend. slept like a baby that night which you're not supposed to do but whatever i'm alive, got up the next morning bright and early (at noon) to brace some art museums. ella, lana, and i decided that without knowing the city really at all we should definitely walk to the prado even though its not that close. we got lost. and then it started raining. its funny cause that happened in real life, you just can't make that stuff up. despite my efforts to hop on a metro, no one wanted to cave. so we kept walking. then we got to a building that said "Museo del Prado Casa del Buen Retiro"... the building was pretty small so i was a bit confused and thinking.... this is it? and we walked up to the door and it said it was closed and we were like wtf the prado is never closed this is absurd why is it still raining on me. we pouted for a little, laughed cause we were delusional, kept walking to find shelter cause we were cold and then boom! the real prado appeared. thank god. we got our carbo-load on at a local cafe and brace the enormous art museum for a day of culture. on the real though it was actually one of the coolest places i have ever been. i am a sucker for a good museum and i studied a lot of the spanish art like velazquez and goya in my intro to spanish culture class last semester so it meant a lot more. we saw goya's black paintings like saturn, el dos y el tres de mayo, velazquez's las meninas, a few paintings by el greco and many more. it was unbelievable to see them in real life. we were then rushed out of the prado (after 2 hours) thinking we were going to a bullfight with the boys, but alas we just met them for burritos. we then went on a little walking tour to plaza del sol and plaza mayor. it was a holiday so they were absolutely packed. then for dinner we got drink at el tigre which were huge and came with so many tapas. seriously they wouldn't stop bringing us tapas and i was full but couldn't help myself. after we went back and got ready for round 2.

soaked and ready to prado bitchez

plaza del sol

so at this point i'm exhausted, have a headache, and can't really see straight but everyone was like we're going clubbing!!! yaaaa pacha!!!! and i just physically, mentally, and emotionally did not have it in me. so after faking it at the pregame until 3 am, when everyone walked out the door of the apartment i made my way to the bedroom to catch some shut eye. clubs aren't exactly my scene anyway so i was pretty pumped to get back into bed. the next morning while everyone was asleep i thought it would be a nice gesture to go get bagels for everyone cause they're hard to come about here. i googled and found a place and mapped it out. i then stealthily snuck into bretts room, took his keys from his nightstand table, and snuck back out, only to not so stealthily smack my head directly on my bump on the wall protruding next to bretts door. and to top it off when i went traipsing around madrid to find this bagel place..... it didn't exist. oh well it was nice to take a walk alone. then ella and i started our touristy day once again.

we went to the reina sofia first which is the modern art museum. i loved this museum it was insane so much art that you could stare at forever and still have no idea what it means. there was also a couple exhibitions on photography and propaganda as well as extensive collections of dali and picasso. some of you may know that i spent the majority of the end of sophomore year studying guernica by picasso and making a huge project on it for my spanish class. it was one of the hardest projects i've ever done but to actually see it in real life was so rewarding. after we stopped for a doner kebab, duh, and met up with lana to galavant around the palacio real, or royal palace. that was also pretty mindblowing cause there is just so much history in one place sometimes its hard for my little peabrain to wrap my head around it. we saw the armory and got a little tour of the inside, saw some drawing rooms, bedrooms, dining rooms, and even a chapel. ella played this game with herself, how many pictures can she take before she got yelled at so that was fun. after the palacio we met up with everyone else at parque del retiro and lounged for a little while before enjoying some churros con chocolate.

ladies at the palacio

the armory... comfort was not a concept back then

ella sneaking a pic of the porcelain room in the palace before getting yelled at

parque del retiro

scobb and i imitating statues in retiro, LOL STUDY ABROAD IS FUN!!!!!

that night we made dinner at the boys apartment. correction: ella made dinner and we ate all of it and it was delicious. we sat at the table and had a nice little family meal it was lovely. after we were pretty stuffed but managed to motivate to pregame at owen and jess's and check out the madrid botellon. it was very different than the granada one which is more or less a glorified parking lot turned drinking/pregame haven. in madrid its actually in a park and much more spread out but it was still really cool. after we had had our fair share of the botellon we went back to warm up cause it was pretty chilly and watched some videos including the art of flight. apparently i was the last one to see this short film but it literally blew my mind. look it up. 

on sunday we had basically conquered all our touristy excursions but made one last trip to el rastro which is the huge market only on sundays where you can buy a lot of really cheap crap. i'm not good at shopping with other people so i didn't get anything but ella got a coat and a shirt for 7 euros total to give you an idea of how cheap it was. we then lounged around with the guys for the rest of the day until our bus later that afternoon. it was a nice lazy sunday after an incredibly fun weekend. i loved madrid so much and i know i'll be back. it was certainly my most cultural weekend yet with all the sightseeing, i was personally pretty impressed by ella and me's determination to see it all. hopefully we can take this attitude with us this weekend to dublin, ireland! it's crazy cause i actually leave in two days for another trip but i actually could not be more excited to be visiting both dublin and galway. i'm about to go p.s. i love you on all your asses next post so be sure to check it out for an update on my irish wedding!

gypsy land

last night, ella became a real gypsy. los gitanos are everywhere in Granada and we often aspire to be as sly as them. personally, i am not a good enough liar or suave enough to ever accomplish such a feat but before my own eyes last night ella transformed into a real life gitana. when we were out at a local discoteca, i watched her go beyond a roped off forbidden staircase, and downstairs to the abyss. when she returned she had a new drink. she had snuck down to the off limits downstairs bar where no one was, climbed on the bar and filled up her drink and came back up. later, a man approached her asking her to go outside. ella, thinking this was just another random creepy spanish dude, gave attitude. he then told he was a security guard and they had her on camera stealing the drink. she was honest about it and gave pouty eyes to this intimidating security guard. she asked for my keys (and this is why i could never be a gypsy) and i tried to get the guy to let her stay by giving him 'tude. i gave ella my keys to leave knowing she had something up her sleeve. next thing i know not only had she convinced the security guard to let her stay, but somehow got all of us a round a free drinks through this security guard. it was hands down the sliest and most impressive act i've ever seen. performed like a true gypsy. salu, ella

portiMEOW, portugal

hola todos! so like i said in my last post i'm traveling every weekend until second weekend in november. this is only problematic for me cause i have a feeling i'm gonna get really lazy with these posts. hopefully not but we'll see. SO! this weekend we went to portimao, portugal. this was an optional trip through our program so we paid for it but for what it was we really did not pay that much at all. It was also fun because it was all of us traveling together, and now that we've all started traveling its gonna be rarer to be spending our weekends together. on friday we left by bus for a 7 hour ride before dawn. i slept almost the entire way waking up every few hours to find myself drooling all over my travel pillow. it was a pretty easy bus ride there until they started playing the dubbed version of sideways in spanish at full blast. we also picked up two strangers off the road and claimed they were our tour guides for the weekend. Pretty sure they were hitch hikers but thats fine. one was a fat old spanish man named pepe who had a knack for making really unfunny comments about drinking and girls etc. and one was ricu who was this young dude from finland that chain smoked the whole time and came out and partied with us.

at around 1 we arrived in Faro, Portugal which is the capital of the Algarve province. we got a nice little tour from an adorable portuguese woman i think pepe tried to hit on. we saw some old cathedrals with some big crazy organs, but we also saw these creepy chapels that were covered in human bones. no joke real human skulls and bones lining every inch of the walls. pretty cool looking. we took some pictures on the bell tower, saw the marina, and went on our way. we ate lunch at this super swanky restaurant that already had everything set up for us. this trip was filled with the finest dining i will have on my entire trip i think. we had a 3 course meal (casual) including some yummy apps, delicious pork, salad, rice, fries, and then ice cream and coffee. ugh so good. after that we were on our last leg of the bus ride to get to portimao to check into our hotel.

those are all skulls and bones, how edgy and creepy and cool

our hotel was also unnecessarily nice and spoiled me on all trips to come. ella and i had a waterfront room with a nice little balcony overlooking the beautiful praia de rocha beach in portugal. we put our stuff down and immediately headed down to the beach. the water looked atlantic to me, but i guess it was somewhere between atlantic and mediterranean but was so amazing. my next idea was obviously to purchase a soccer ball and organize a game of world cup. as always, beach world cup is a blood bath. my baby toe may have been broken in the process and my team did not win, but we fought hard. greatest beach game alive. we then went and hung in the pool a little bit before dinner (sidenote to all you cape codders we played trivia and i pulled out my hardest nlb trivia question: which president was the only one to serve two non consecutive terms? winner gets a prize i stumped everyone in portugal). dinner was a buffet, ugh no self control. ate my way into a mild food coma and invited everyone over to our room to pregame before going out. ella and i thought we were the shit cause we had a waterfront room, then annie and erin were like if you guys wanna come over to our place we have a big patio. they were not joking. their balcony/patio was bigger than our room and i'm embarrassed we even invited anyone. but nonetheless it was so fun having everyone together. we all hit the clubs together like some linebockaahs. killed it on the dance floor as usual god any ounce of alcohol makes me think i'm miss new booty or something but whatever.

tulane ladies (and brandon) pre club

so we continued to bar hop a little. our hotel was on a strip with a ton of bars and clubs so everything was walking and so convenient. we were over the clubbing and decided the next logical step with the night would be to go skinny dipping in the mediterranean sea, cause por que no? if you've never gone skinny dipping in your adult life i pity you because it has to be the most liberating experience in the world. the water was unbelievably clear and warm and ideal skinny dipping conditions. passerbys probably would have thought all of us were wearing bathing suits by the extreme tanlines but lucky for us there was no one on the beach to judge. trekked back to the hotel in our now soaking wet clothes and took the best showers of our lives and invited everyone over to cuddle with us. it was glorious.

next morning we woke up for breakfast and out boat/grotto tour. it might have been cause i was slightly hungover but the seasickness that ensued from the boat ride out to the caves was no bueno. came pretty close to tossing my cookies but once we anchored and were able to jump in the water and be stable i felt like 100 dollars as ella would say. we went swimming off the boat and then got tours of the caves and grottos in lagos in mini motor boats. there we some amazing views and it was unbelievably tropical. definitely the highlight of this vacation (i can't really call it a trip cause everything was planned for us and it was the most tropical place i've ever been it was unreal) they served us lunch before we took off but once again the rocking made me quite motion sick and got rid of my appetite for the most part. we got back to portimao around 5 or so and went to shower and get ready for more sight seeing.

cave that looks like an elephant.... woah

this was real life.. how? idk but i saw it glow like this

boatz n hoez

we took the bus to a couple sights including a fortress in sagres, and cabo sao vicente which was what the europeans thought the end of the world was when they thought it was flat (stupid idiots). they had really great ice cream at the end of the world and some really scary cliffs you could walk along that made for some nice scenic photos. we then made our way to lagos to get a little walking tour. we saw the slave market and the center of town and the marina and headed to dinner. another huge meal with a huge group that was delicious. after a few hours we headed back to portimao for our last night of our vacation.

cool artsy panoramic iphone shot with sam chillin on the cliffs in cabo sao vicente

hey look its me at the end of the world! selfies are just the greatest

we went out again not as crazy as the first night but i did step foot into my first casino. it wreaked of cigarettes and all of our friends lost a lot of money so i still just dont really get it but maybe i will some day. the next morning ella and i woke up at the crack of dawn, ate breakfast before anyone else, and went to the beach. we got in a few hours before we had to say goodbye to portimao and our vacationland.

so portugal wasn't exactly the most culturally rich place but it was unbelievably beautiful scenically and just the beach vacation i needed. it was my last beach weekend of this abroad trip and we certainly went out with a bang so i couldn't have asked for anything better. the bus ride home was filled with would you rathers and deep conversations to the tune of the most depressing movie to ever revolutionary road dubbed in spanish. a lovely trip with some lovely people. this weekend, madrid! more tulane shenanigans!

conejo, conejo

rabbit rabbit, its october! so we've officially been here more than a month. it's actually crazy how fast time flies. this week was spent with a lot of recovery time from oktoberfest as well as our final exam for our intensive class (i passed mom and dad, whooo! level 7 here i come). honestly though, so happy to be done with that class. 4 hours a day 5 days a week was getting really old really fast. this past weekend was my last weekend in Granada until the second weekend in November. pretty crazy stuff. Jess and Shale came to visit which was great cause we got to spend time with them but it also made us do a lot of Granadian things. 

On Friday when they got here we met them at their hostel in the albaycin near Plaza nueva. i had recommended it to them cause i saw somewhere it was rated top 10 hostels in the world, which according to them was certifiably true. After that we went tapas bar hopping including Bar Sevilla where Garcia Lorca and Hemingway used to hang out. it was cool but Ella and I complained about how an 18 euro bottle of wine is outrageous, which I swear for Granada it really is! it was rainy and gross out, for the first time since april in Granada so we stuck to indoor activities that really only ranged from beer to wine. after a few hours of great company, great wine, and great conversation we went our separate ways for dinner and getting ready until meeting up later for the botellon. 

ella and i made our way to poe where everyone was before the botellon only after leaving a series of embarrassing facebook videos on our friends walls who are on other continents. from there, i'm not sure who decided to make the move on this one but we went to the chupeteria which is a shots bar (chupitos is shots in spanish, a very valuable vocab lesson) where all chupitos are a euro. aka my demise. i was actually pretty tame at the chupeteria but by the time we all left the botellon pregame was not looking so necessary. but we went all excited to show jess and shale what the botellon was all about.

really its a time warp where you always meet a ton of friends and speak a fair amount of spanish. i met a great spanish friend in the bathroom area who seemed really cool but she talked so fast i just kept saying si not having any real idea what she was talking about. then we all made the move to mae west at what i believe was around 3 am. so mae west is this very exclusive spanish club and half of us got denied from it. sam made me try to get in about 4 times and every time they denied us. i've never faced such discrimination for being a rubia (blonde) but they were not having it. also ella and i got in another fight at mae west cause she wanted to leave even though she had already gotten in and i wanted to stay just because it was the principle of being denied so many times i felt like i had to make it in there once. screw mae west it brings out the worst in everyone and they're mean racists. so point of story never made it into mae west and pretty much solidified my hatred for the clubbing atmosphere in general. not my scene, thanks but no thanks.

the next day somehow but the grace of god ella and i woke up at 11 am to meet jess, shale, and brandon to go to the cave museums in the sacromonte. the sacromonte is a really cool ancient neighborhood that has a stereotype of being home to the gypsies once the christians invaded Granada. it was actually very cool we got to walk around and see different set up quarters of what a typical cave bedroom, kitchen, and barn would look like. they also had a lot of history about the caves, the gypsies, and the culture of flamenco. 

jess fraternizing with the cavemen

mirror pics in a cave cause thats cool

me and jesus christ just chilling taking selfies in a cave bedroom

so saturday night we continued with our cultural exploration of granada and went to a flamenco show! also in sacromonte. sooo saturday was a lot of uphill walking but that was fine we got some lovely views and i also discovered the panorama setting on the new iphone update so i was killing it up there. all the walking led to some talks about what makes walking uncomfortable and was i the last one to find out that jess shit his pants in bruff freshman year? i think i actually keeled over laughing so hard (sorry for publishing this on the internet jess but you said everyone else knew). anyway so we bought out tickets to the flamenco show at la rocio around 8 or so and left for dinner to come back for a 10 pm show. we later discovered that la rocio is one of the most famous flamenco bars in granada and plenty of famous celebrities have come in and out of there to see them perform. it was in a cave so to give you an idea of what it looked like.... well very much like a cave but hallway shaped almost and we all sat around the edges, the seats were all filled and the dancers performed up and down this strip for us. along with the dancers comes the amazing flamenco music and rhythm. its characterized by the passion they use when the dance and sing not necessarily skill but intensity. it was amazing and we got a free drink with the show as well and it was certainly the most stereotypical spanish thing we've done so far. also when invited by sexy flamenco dancer to dance with her, i obviously obliged and killed it up there. just kidding. i tried to imitate her oh so natural and suave dance moves and i definitely looked like an awkward white girl (no really i'm being modest, i think in reality i should quit school and live in the caves and dance flamenco i was that good).

cave acoustics

the sexiest flamenco dancer to ever live

wait just kidding i'm the sexiest flamenco dancer to ever live (how cute we match)

so after our amazing show i was all fired up and dancing flamenco in the streets. i'm so talented! but after we got a gelato (duh) and went our separate ways and said goodbye to jess and shale our first and probably last visitors. it was great having them around cause they made us do so much and we had a lovely weekend with them. ella and i went straight to bed after cause we had to get up at 8 am to catch a bus with our program for a trip they organized to nerja for us. nerja is a beach town in malaga which we had tried to go to before for a beach day but bus tickets were sold out. once we got there it was very obvious why everyone would be going there and there were no tickets. it was actually breathtaking. first we went to the balcon de europa and saw the amazing view of the mediterranean sea. i've never been anywhere tropical in my life and this was easily the closest i have ever gotten to it.

view from the balcon de europa (is this real life? idk..)

me and my gf at the balcon de europa, probs gonna be our xmas card, thoughts??

so from the balcon, we went and ate lunch as a group which was like 40 something people. a lot of people and a lot of paella. since i still have not conquered my fear and disgust of seafood i had chicken (god i am so embarrassingly american and i cant shake it) the huge roasted chicken came with a heaping portion of french fries of which i proceeded to eat every last bite of....cause i'm american get used to it. then they gave us ice cream bars for desert which i proceeded to spill all over my white shirt!!! chocolate stains on my shirt for the rest of the day solidified my #fatgirlprobz. oh which reminds me i forgot to preface that fat girl problems hashtag.... that morning when ella and i were eating breakfast i looked in the cabinet and saw a cinnamon bun, i decided since i was going to the beach, fine jill, some self control wouldn't hurt, have a yogurt. ella and i took our bocadillos that lola had packed us out of the fridge and went about our day. we get to the bus to have a snack out of them and ella has an extra piece of fruit.... what does jill have? a cinnamon bun #fatgirlprobz.

anyway, from the group lunch we were free to explore. we went to the beach and of course couldn't be at the beach without going in the water. for the mediterranean sea it was frigid, but apparently that was cause of all the rain from earlier in the week. later on after some lounging, ella, sam, dash, brandon and i went exploring down the beach. we got to some rocks that of course we had to climb. we made our way to this little cove/beach/cave area which was like i said the closest i have ever come to a tropical place. i was like a kid in a candy store swimming around these rocks climbing up to the view to see the caves and all. also there's not a chance in hell there's a shark in the mediterranean sea but i just could not shake my cape cod paranoia and needed someone to be in the water with me at all times (so they would get eaten and i wouldn't) but being out there was truly unbelievable. we had to be back at the bus at 3:30 to go to frigiliana which was a typical white architecture town built in the caves for the moriscos to take shelter in while the christians we're conquering andalucia. it was very interesting and the tour guide was very passionate about spanish history but after the beach we were all so tired and ready to head back.

fun secret cove beach we played on, does this not look like the carribean? idk cause i've never been but this is how i imagine it

so after a lovely weekend, we had no school on monday! whooooo! i had a pretty productive day, finalizing my schedule, exercising, finding my building, sending some emails, finishing the first season of newsroom, stuffing my face with churros con chocolate. great day. but today reality hit. i had my first two university of granada classes. so as a tulane student we're required to take two classes at ugr with spanish professors that only speak spanish, with spanish students, in mostly spanish subjects. so needless to say its pretty intimidating especially when everyone else gets to take less intense spanish classes with americans. so this morning andy and i met up early to walk there. i had walked there the day before so i knew it was going to be pretty long. it was 40 minutes uphill really early which was pretty brutal we were quite sweaty by the end of it. we sat in class with a bunch of spaniards and some other tulane kids only for the professor never to show up. solid first class of the day. the second class was a hispanicamerican narrative class which i swear was taught by the younger, spanish version of my pops. it was pretty weird cause pops is my grandfather who is an american/british literature professor in the states so literally this was his exact opposite professor for spaniards. but i understood mostly everything he said i just have to focus more on focusing. i can't zone out like i would in normal american classes unfortunately. but i'm excited to finally have my real schedule under my belt and move on with the month of october (which will be lucky cause i said rabbit rabbit .... or debo decir, conejo conejo jajaja). this weekend i go to portugal with my program and everything is planned for us which is actually so nice. it will be filled with all meals and accomodations paid for, lots of beach time, some sailing, some cave explorations, and some shenanigans. definitely looking forward to it! hasta luego guapas!

OKTOBERFEST

how do i even begin to describe this weekend............. you think that having two mardi gras under my belt i might have been at least mildly mentally and physically prepared for such a festival but no. nothing in the whole world could have prepared me for the shenanigans that were about to ensue the second we set foot in munich. on thursday, all the granadinos bussed to madrid where we stayed for the night before all of our early flights the next day. there are about 1,000 tulane kids in madrid so we all went our separate ways until catching them on the flip side in germany. ella and i stayed with jess and owen and went to bed early after a bit of catching up and whatnot.

we were ridiculously early for our flight the next day and chilled in the airport for a while. nicole and klausner were on our flight as well so it was nice to have a little crew there to wait with. we flew lufthansa and literally it was the best flight i've ever taken. it was only about 2 hours or so and i sat next to jess chatting it up about life the whole way but the best part was not only did we get a complimentary meal including chicken, pasta, bread, and cookies, we also got unlimited free drinks. so of course we started the german beer drinking as early as possible. after a delightful flight we got off the plane and it was immediately noticeable how fresh and clean the air was. it was still so hot in spain when we left it was so refreshing to have cooler weather. we went to the subway and also even when i was in madrid i was expecting some part about traveling on subways in foreign cities to be difficult but everything here is infinitely more efficient its silly how easy it was to navigate everything. so we were casually waiting at the subway stop for the next train when all of a sudden wheeler goes "jessie....." and by some freak chance miracle jessie who had landed an hour or so before us just happened to walk to the subway station at that exact moment. so convenient. and so we all went to our respective hotels to check in and shower and explore and then meet up with everyone later from there.

there were a ton of tulane kids at oktoberfest this weekend. i have no idea how it worked out like that but it was amazing. i hadn't seen most of them since may and it was just the craziest and most exciting thing to be with everyone in germany. a ton of people were staying at the wombat hostel so we walked over there hoping to find people which low and behold right when we walked in ran into a bunch of the madrid/prague kids. que suerte, no? seriously this whole weekend having zero communication with anyone has just made me realize everything always works out. anyway so we stayed for happy hour to hang out "just for a little"......we never left. everyone from tulane ended up coming to the wombat as well because they had a bar with a happy hour and it was just too much fun we all stayed there the whole night. going into this weekend i knew i was really there for oktoberfest and a tulane reunion so i was fine with how the weekend went in terms of exploring Germany. we walked home later in the night to rest up for a big day starting at 7 am.

the next morning we woke up super early, ate breakfast at the hotel, walked to the wombats and ran into a bunch of tulane kids on their way out. made it to oktoberfest and waited in all these random lines in dreary weather. at around 8:30 am we saw them shovel in the last big group of people that were in a line we were in before they moved us to a different one. that was the last big group of people they let into the hoftbrau haus for the rest of the day. so all of us continued to wait in a crowded line in the freezing rain for the next 5 hours. just to get an idea of how pleasant i was during this time, i was incredibly claustraphobic, a bit hungover, and feeling not so great. so at probably around 9 am or so.... i was the first person so barf at oktoberfest before any of the drinking even started (we were there the first day so the first keg wasn't even tapped til noon). great start to my weekend. so once we sat for a while, ate a bit and drank some water, we braced the completely overcrowded line again only to be yelled at in german (scariest language to be yelled at in). after about 2 hours like this klausner and i had a bit of a psychotic break and decided we would rather just get out of line find some of the boys we were with and try to drink outside. honestly timing is everything. we went to the bathroom and couldn't find the boys and i randomly ran into an australian man i had met earlier through some other tulane girls. he stopped me and was like do you wanna get in for 5 euros? (which i didnt pay) and we said hell. yes. klausner and i managed to grab segolene and rachel and the australian led us in with some workers he had paid off. i literally think that at that moment i felt euphoria. i was ready to give up on the day, completely soaked to the bone, so sick and upset, but once we finally got in it was 100% worth it. 

me being a wench during the first few hours of oktoberfest

completely delusional, soaking wet, and the happiest we've ever been, thanks australian!

after this we walked around the hoftbrau haus which was huge and totally overwhelming and it took everything in me to hold back legitimate tears of joy. we wandered around hoping to run into the tulane people who had been in there since 7 am and if not just finding a place to sit and have a beer when suddenly i feel a tap on my shoulder only to turn around and see brandon, from tulane also studying in granada with me, and i think this was the happiest i had ever been to see someone in my entire life. i latched onto him immediately and made him hold me until i had sufficiently soaked him from the residual rain i was drenched in. once brandon had led us to where all the tulane kids were i was ready to finally start the oktoberfest festivities. beers were 10 euros and let me tell you do you get a bang for your buck. i just found out to today that there was really 3.5 beers in each huge mug they gave you which explains why two of them were more than sufficient for me. i ordered two off the bat because i deserved it for being in the rain for that long. after about an hour everyone that we had been waiting outside with had managed to sneak in as well and we were all inside dry(ish) and having a grand ol' time. there was so much singing and dancing on tables (this was one of my favorite parts, spaniards are so uptight about being on surfaces you're not supposed to so to be able to dance on a table again was such a liberating feeling) and meeting new friends from places like norway and finland it was amazing. 

the best and the worst decision i've ever made all in one

at 3 oclock they kick everyone out of the tables because they're reserved for important people apparently. so as the scary german beer maids and security guards were rushing us out somehow a group of us decided no way are we leaving this place to go back in the rain we waited too long outside for that. so we just walked around and dodged all the scary germans and hid in the middle of the tent and in the bathrooms until everything died down. we found a place to stand at the tables without benches and continued the festivities. ella and i befriended one of the beer maids and bonded over waiting tables of course. these ladies could carry like 10 of these huge mugs at once and my hands were sore just from holding one. once we decided to find everyone and leave it was nice outside again. we went back to the wombats cause that was a safe meeting point and here and there found people coming in and out of the place. at this point we were all feeling pretty splendid and i think i must have had about 6 h2h's with different people about life and family and boyfriends and whatever seemed meaningful at the time. it was lovely did a lot of unnecessary but pretty hysterical catching up. 

as it started to get later i realized i couldn't get in contact with anyone cause my iphone didn't work and i didn't have my spanish phone. we had lost jessie and ella so katie and i tried to find them. we found ella in someone elses wombats room and went to the other wombats room looking for jessie. couldn't find her so instead just decided to try and rally everyone to have a night and go back out in munich. once i had put forth all this effort and got a bunch of people to follow me we braced the city of munich expecting something grand. almost nothing was open or nearby and finally just resorted to shawarma. went back to the wombats and had somehow lost katie but once again found brandon who was apparently my guardian angel this weekend. went back to his room with all his friends and luckily the people katie had been with came back there too. we somehow got convinced to stay there at the wombats instead of walking home so late. i "slept" on the tile floor on daniel's vest for a few hours and woke up at 6 am when someone was leaving for the airport, simultaneously katie woke up and we knew we had to get back to our hotel. we walked back at the crack of dawn and it was actually a lovely walk. when we got back jessie and ella were both there and we were all just too excited to be together again. we all showered (so necessary) and ate breakfast and made our way back to oktoberfest.

on sunday, we just walked right into hoftbrau haus at 9 am not even a problem or wait or anything. we were like this has to be a joke... we walked around hoping to run into everyone and i spotted a boston hat from across the room. it was noah and everyone, once again have no idea how all of these things worked out so perfectly this weekend. so the festivities continued. we were about half the people short from the day before but for those who were still there we made it the best time ever. started the day off right with a beer and a plate of mac n cheese, which i say with the utmost certainty was the best mac n cheese i have ever had in my entire life, props germany. we made friends with the australian girls sitting next to us on one side and played some games with them and then made friends with the scariest looking old german men on the other side of us who ended up being friendly and sharing their sausage with us. then i noticed what seemed like a whole crowd of important soldiers on a balcony above and managed to get one of their attention. he threw me a rose and a glove and i asked how we could get up their. he pointed us in the right direction and katie and i ran upstairs to hang with these german men. they ended up being some sort of riflers union that had marched in the parade earlier. all of our tulane friends came up to join us. it was hilarious interacting with these guys they were so merry and hilarious and giving us all their pins and letting us eat their food it was great. eventually everyone wanted to move on so we left but when katie and i made our way back up there later we socialized again and it was then that i realized more than half of them didn't speak a word of english. how authentically german of us to be hanging with them!

katie and i taking some selfies with the german dudes

fun souvenirs from german dudes

we met up with everyone else on the lawn behind the hoftbrau haus and just laid around and snapped pictures of passed out people and frolicked around in the grass. we were all the happiest people in the entire world and we literally just sat around and giggled for what seemed like a few hours. after a little bit of this we decided to go on some rides. we went on one that i had spotted from the lawn really far away. it swung all the way up in the air and upside down and back down again. it was the best ride in the whole place cause from the top you could see all of oktoberfest and munich and still got the enjoyment and rush of a really fun, fast ride. from there we decided to explore a few other tents where i was mistaken for a german person and yelled at in german which was interesting. in the other tents if you weren't wearing a dirndl or a lederhosen you were completely out of place so we just ended going back to the hoftbrau haus. somehow everyone got split up again and it was just me and katie playing with little kids outside of bumper cars. after a little while when the parents were probably sufficiently creeped out by us we decided to head back to the hotel because it was getting dark and late anyway. of course on the way we made a stop at mcdonald's where i managed to drop my entire tray, get laughed at, pick it all back up, and proceed to eat it. we made it safely back to the hotel probably around 10 pm. actually i made that up i definitely had no concept of time the entire weekend, but it was on the earlier side.

the happiest people to ever live

so getting up the next morning at 6 am and making it to the munich airport all on my own was one of my prouder moments but i was very sad to say goodbye to the weekend. so to sum up oktoberfest it was probably one of, if not the best, weekend of my life. we had so much fun, so much beer, so many heart to hearts, so much good food, and all around just an amazing time spent with so many amazing people. it was probably my most expensive trip but it was worth every last penny and then some. everything worked out no matter how wrong things could have gone we were all safe and all were where we needed to be at all time. we all managed to always find each other and had such a blast. this will most certainly go down as my craziest trip but i knew going into it that this was what oktoberfest was for. i promise that my other trips will be filled with more cultured experiences, but as for german culture, i don't think i could have done anything more german. and let me tell you, we killed it in germany. could not have asked for a better weekend and definitely a successful first trip! next up: lagos, portugal!

the goonies

so this week we have decided to remain active with our hiking maven, kathryn bacher, always keeping us on the go. yesterday we took another short, cheap bus ride to monachil which is a mountain town right outside granada and did a much smaller scale, much less strenuous hike after class. this time we went with more people which was great cause it was such an easy hike there were no complaints ever. the hike itself was a very defined path for the most part and kathryn had detailed directions for us as well. we wandered off the beaten path, if you will, a few times only to discover scenes straight out of the goonies. we we're climbing through caves with water falls, scaling rocks, and waiting for creatures to pop out. we made it to the top of one of the caves and found a free flowing waterfall which had it been nicer out would have been ideal for swimming.

goonies cave

after that we set out again on the right path where kathryn led us to a bridge with the instructions "no more than 4 persons allowed on bridge at a time." crossing this bridge was not for the cowardly because though it seemed quite secure to both sides it was a wooden plank bridge out of a movie that shook with every step and if you looked over the edge you could only imagine falling 500 yards to death into a rocky gorge. great image right? so for once ever kathryn was scared of this adventure and i walked the plank first (as fast as i possibly could). once we got across we kept going alongside the river through caves/woods/mountains etc. 

walking the plank, it wouldnt be so bad if this thing collapsed

once we had followed the beaten path for what seemed like too long we decided to scale the side of the mountain following adam up to the top of a cliff. this reminded me of our hike at trevenque but instead of the slippery gravel it was actually solid rocks which was nice. it was pretty steep though and we weren't totally sure of a way down. luckily once we got up there we discovered a nice little path up and down. of course, we went up higher. i realized that my fear is not of heights, but of cliffs and edges and especially watching other people teeter on them. the girls walked out to a ledge to take a picture but i was increasingly nervous about kathryn falling off the side that it drove me to the point of tears. it seems like i'm that high maintenance wench but really i'm just concerned someones gonna fall of the side. christ i don't even like it when little kids hang over the balconies at shopping malls, try being 300 yards over the side of a rocky cliff. 

i was smiling for this photo until i looked over the edge. sheer terror

once we had had enough of the cliff adventures we decided to continue on our hike. we hit a patch that was mostly uphill when we thought we were supposed to be going back which was discouraging for a little bit but hiking maven got us where we needed to go. we picked fresh fruit the whole way too, getting to eat grapes and blackberries and figs (which are delicious btw nothing like a fig newton which are gross and what i was expecting). all around lovely afternoon.

fresh fig straight from the tree (ignore small thumb)

today ella and i have packed for oktoberfest and attempted to budget out our spending for the rest of the semester. this sounds psycho but i have a document with all my flight/trip information that i have added the price of the flights, housing, tickets or whatever i spent on the trip and now have gone through and budgeted a certain amount of money i'm allowing myself to spend on every trip (which will hopefully be an overestimate) alas trying to stay on top of things organizationally and financially cause god knows how poor i'll be by the end of this. manana madrid! viernes alemania! Dieses Wochenende werde ich genug Bier für vier große Männer trinken!! (translate.google.com)

4 girls vs. wild

this weekend was a purely granada weekend. on friday, after a very relaxing day the girls went out for tapas at this very local highly recommended place called bodega espadafor. we were the only blondes and non locals in the place but it was cool cause the owner was the one running the whole place with just a bartender and we talked to him for a bit which was really interesting. after that, since i was still not feeling too hot we went home knowing we had a long day at the beach again the next day. this beach day was much smaller scale than last week. we went to La Herradura which is also part of Almunecar but is a little more secluded and supposedly "high end." it was really nice there and definitely more quiet but i didn't feel extra special being there. we went with much less people and instead of trying to cram in a million activities we just swam and laid out and hung out and it was really nice. everyone came back with a mild sunburn but nothing feels better than a good nights sleep after a beautiful day in the sun and ocean.

La Herradura

ella and i had every intention of watching newsroom when we got back but passed out before we even let the show load (btw highly recommend watching this show it is making me less of an ignorant american than being in europe is). we went to bed early because we had another early day of activities ahead of us. today we woke up at 8 am to catch a 9 am bus to go hiking in the Sierra Nevada. When you look on most tourist websites about Granada it will say it is perfectly nuzzled in between the mountains and the beach making it great for all time of year. so, we had a very Granada weekend taking advantage of the best of both worlds. ella, kathryn, rachel and i went for this hike hoping that we were going to actually make it to where we wanted. ella, kathryn, and rachel had all apparently done thorough research on this hike so i was just their clueless friend that tagged along but it was probably better that way, for me at least. they guided me and i just followed so no complaints there.

we got dropped off at the bus stop at the edge of the sierra nevada somewhere around 10 am. we had to walk a ways to figure out exactly where we were going and at the beginning i was pretty nervous cause they kept saying oh we haven't gotten to the trail yet blah blah and i was like but we've been walking for 40 minutes...... anyway, as far as my hiking days are concerned my experience pretty much ranges from the dunes at white crest in wellfleet to the fells in medford. though i do love a good climb around the fells, this was that on crack. in total we hiked for 5 hours about 16 km, half of which was uphill and not like slight incline like grabbing on to rocks for support and everyone around us had equipment and we were scaling the side of a mountain winging it. 

so as i said before, i'm sick. pretty hearty cough and infected sinuses, so all this dryness and exercise did not feel great at first but once i got over the uphill battles i recovered pretty quickly. but, in the first mile that was uphill i warned everyone about how i was probably going to be breathing pretty heavily but like i was panting. this made me nervous cause i knew we had a long ways to go. luckily we made our first stop pretty quickly so ella could make her mark on the sierra nevada. we all went to the bathroom au natural once on this journey up and down the sierra nevada and it was a pretty glorious feeling if i do say so myself. 4 sorority girls roughin' it, who woulda thunk? 

we kept trekking on not exactly sure if we were gonna make it to trevenque which was our destined mountaintop we were headed for. kathryn being the spanish social butterfly she is stopped every other person we encountered on our trek to ask if we were going the right way. luckily these two mountain bikers pointed us in the direction of the right peak. from down below i was like okay no way we're actually making it to that peak that can't be the right one its so high and steep and small. it was the right one. after another hour and a half or so hiking uphill we reached the incredibly steep part. we stopped and let rachel make her mark on the sierra nevada before we ventured up what seemed like a 90 degree angle.in reality it was probably 75 degree angle but seriously pretty damn steep in the hot desert sun.  i put my ipod on an "eye of the tiger" genius playlist to set the mood so we kept on roughin' it.

we made it up the gravel hills and to a rock with a patch of shade. we decided to sit down and eat our bocadillos and regroup from there. from that point it looked impossible to actually get up to the peak of trevenque. it was so steep and we thought we must need equipment to do it cause it looked like it was all rock. we finished our lunches and were content with going back down, except kathryn. she just haaaaaad to go to the top. so one of my biggest fears is watching other people do really dumb, dangerous stuff and watching kathryn rockclimb the side of the sierra nevada actually came close to inducing vomit for me. just in time a shirtless spanish man with ski poles comes rushing on down the side of trevenque and kathryn asked if we could get to the top. he said yes, but definitely not by scaling the rocks like she was trying to do. he pointed us in the direction of a path and we made our way up. this part may have seriously been an 87 degree angle on gravel/sand. made for a pretty interesting trek in my nike free's with no traction. 

so we kept going, rachel and i lagging a little further behind than before. finally after what seemed like an hour trying to climb 25 feet we made it to the top of trevenque! the view climbing up was amazing to begin with but our view from the peak made it totally worth it. we sat up there for a while listening to  tunes by the likes of cat stevens, fleetwood mac, bob dylan, etc. it was one of the more accomplished feelings i've ever had in my life. we were all so dirty and sweaty and disgusting and it was one of those dirty feelings you know you worked hard for so it felt awesome and worth it. after about another 45 minutes of picture taking, sayings like "we're so lucky", music, relaxing, and good conversation a random old spanish man busted up our little party so we figured that was our cue. after kathryn dismissed herself and made her mark on the sierra nevada, we took his picture for him and we were on our way. 

see that peak at the verrrryyyyyy top? thats trevenque and somehow we made it there

going down made me a lot more nervous than going up. once we were up there and expressing this concern ella threw in her carpe diem two cents saying "if we don't make it down, at least we made it up!" so we were prepared to take that one to the grave with us. at first the old spanish man led us the wrong way and we were heading down a really steep cliffside with one slip you would fall into your imminent deserty, rocky, miserable death. after a few minor freak outs on my part we turned around and went in the direction we came from. i'm sure they wanted to kill me at the time but whatever ladies you have your lives now. the way down was slippery, dirty, dangerous, a little painful, but pretty awesome. i felt pretty badass trying to scale my way around the rocks and find a way down without falling. every time we took a step it reminded me of that scene from lion king before the stampede where those rocks shake a little bit and make that ominous noise. it was freaky but kinda cool. we finally made it to flat trail land and walked on this trail most of the way down. this trail was on the side of the mountain and had awesome views of the rest of the sierra nevada on the way down. lucky for this trail i made my mark on the sierra nevada on the way back. you're welcome sierra nevada, now you won't forget the 4 girls that trekked your great peaks, as the saying goes "take only memories, leave only dirty tissues" .......right guys? 

our view on the way down, finally some flat land

once we were at the bottom we were all pretty delusional and tired. we stopped for water and fruit and then made our trek back to the bus stop. we were early and we waited there in the middle of the street cause there was no well marked stop. unfortunately for the family whose house we were in front of, our dirtiness, exhaustion, and mild dehydration got to our heads while we belted the lyrics to michael buble songs until the bus came. it was such a quick bus ride back and round trip was 3.20 euros. we had an unbelievable day for almost nothing. the day was totally priceless but for how easy it was/close it is i almost can't believe it. what was even better than the day itself was the shower i took after. only kidding but the shower was prime. so thats the story of my super active Granada weekend. as the real saying goes "take only memories, leave only footprints" and that we did. unbelievable soreness in the butt/leg region ensues tomorrow. hasta luego