Spain

I didn't arrive to Barcelona until pretty late at night, almost 11 p.m. I think. As usual back then, I had just written down a couple of hostels and directions to them (rather than making an online reservation first), so I took the metro to that area of town. I found the first one on my list, and it was full, so I went down a couple of blocks to the next one, and it was full too! This hadn't really happened to me before, so I kept my hopes up and went to find the one that they recommended, on a main street, that had 400 beds. Initially I couldn't find it, and had to walk back several blocks to ask the guy for better directions. Once I found it, I thought of course a hostel with 400 beds couldn't be full, right? Wrong! It was completely full! That is when I officially started to get worried. It was a Wednesday night in May, for goodness sakes! It turned out that there was some big music festival in town that I didn't know about. I then began what seemed like an endless search for a bed to sleep in. I ended up in the Las Ramblas tourist area, where I had stayed four years ago, and asked at probably 7 different hostels, and they were all full! By that point, it was almost 2 a.m. and I was near tears. To make it worse, as I was walking down the sidewalk one time, a guy just ran into me, as if he didn't see me there at all (thankfully the streets were pretty full at that time of night, so I never felt unsafe). Also, when I was standing outside of yet another full hostel, someone dropped a plastic cup full of beer from a balcony above, and beer splattered all over me. I really began to wonder if someone was trying to tell me something, like that maybe I wasn't wanted in Barcelona and it was time to go home?! There were a few times that I saw homeless people settling down in their doorways, and I had the thought that I might have to join them! Of course I would rather spend more money than sleep on the street, so I was on my way back to take a private room in a hotel where the receptionist had told me that he would give me a bit of a discount since it was after midnight, and at some point I was just standing in the middle of a street - I think I was trying to remember exactly how to get back to that hotel. I looked up and there was the hostel that I had stayed at 4 years earlier! I hadn't asked there yet since I hadn't actually seen it, so I figured why not? I went in and would you believe that she had a bed?! I couldn't believe it. It definitely seemed to have deteriorated since I had last been there, as far as the cleanliness, but otherwise it was exactly the same. So I took a shower, said a little thank-you prayer that I was safe, and went to sleep for all of 4 hours until I had to get up and head back to the train station. Although I look back now and think of the experience as a good story, I definitely don't want something like that to happen again!
The next morning, I took a high-speed train to Madrid, where I was to meet up and stay with my friend Kim. She is from Colorado and is studying in Madrid, but we actually met in Kenya when I was there in 2009. It was so nice to see her - she was the first familiar face I had seen in 4 months of traveling! She was great, and right away I got to do laundry (clean clothes, especially when obtained for free, are a real luxury when traveling on a budget), relax, eat regular food (also a luxury since most of the food I was eating was fast and cheap street food) like a salad and an apple, and use her laptop for free! It really felt like I was in Heaven! I doubt you even have time to read this, Kim, but if you do - you rock! I slept at her place that night, and then the next few nights I stayed around the corner with her friends Coree and Lyndsey, who are also from Denver. They were awesome as well, and it was fun talking about home (especially restaurants) with them. At their place, I actually had my own room, which was also a major luxury, and I enjoyed sleeping through the nights for once. On my first full day there, I walked around some of Madrid - I went to the big and beautiful Parque del Retiro, where I recognized the same strangely pruned trees (they look like something from Alice in Wonderland) from when I was there several years earlier. Then I went to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Museum, because it was free admission that day, where I enjoyed the rather strange artwork of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. I lasted only about 2 hours there, although I could have walked through the exibits all day - it is so huge. Then I went to one of the city's central and main squares, Sol, where there was a "tent city" full of peaceful protesters that had been there for weeks. There I had a life-affirming, in Coree's words, napolitanas de chocolate, which is basically a chocolate-filled pastry sprinkled with powdered sugar that was heavenly. That night, the girls took me out to a fun local bar, one of the only places in town to get free tapas with each drink order. It was a small and packed place, and we just stood and enjoyed the heaping plates of free food along with some tinto de verano, or wine of summer, which is red wine mixed with lemon fanta. Sounds odd, I know, but it is really pretty good! The next day, Coree and Lyndsey, and some other friends of theirs, showed me and a couple of other visitors around Madrid a bit. We first went to a fun flea market, which I am sure I recognized from my visit 4 years ago as well, when I bought a dress for my then-newborn niece. Then we went to a really awesome indoor market, where I wished I could try everything - so many tapas and cheeses and olives and the list goes on. I settled for some delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice, one of my favorite things about Spain - they have it everywhere! Then it was time for a snack, so we went to the famous Chocolateria de San Gines for some coffee and churros con chocolate - deep fried dough, long and thin, similar to Mexican churros but without the cinnamon, and you dip them into thick hot chocolate. Then they took me to a couple of other places, including a nice lookout point. Although I could have stayed a lot longer, both in Madrid and with my new friends, I knew it was time to move on.
Next I went down to Granada, home of the famous Alhambra. To see it, you have to reserve online ahead of time, which I did while I was in Madrid, and so I stayed a night longer in Granada than I had planned on while I waited for my time slot. That ended up being ok, though, because Granada was pretty great! It took me quite awhile to find my hostel, which was at the top of a hill and through several narrow and winding cobblestoned streets. It was a cozy little place with a treehouse, and I met several cool girls who were also traveling solo there. We all took the free walking tour offered by the hostel, which was an interesting experience. She took us up into the hills that overlook the city, to show us a series of caves that people actually live in, and while we were walking, one of the owners of a cave invited us inside to see it. He was doing some remodeling work on it, and he was sure to show us that the bathroom had a lovely view of the Alhambra! The caves were interesting - originally they were dwelt in by Gypsies and other vagabonds, and they still have a bit of an unkempt look and feel about them. Now though, they are rather coveted and are passed down through the generations, so it is hard to aquire one. Later on the walk, as we were heading back downhill to the hostel, we passed an older man who was sitting outside reading. He started asking us where we all were from, and invited us into his home. He had lived in many countries and knew something like 8 languages. It was a rather strange experience that ended with him asking us to buy incense to support a cause (which we did not do, but which he gave us anyway), and then he had a moment of silence for all of us as we traveled and went on about this life. That night, 6 of us went out to a bar called Pöe, which had been highly recommended by Coree as a must-try for tapas. She did not mislead us - we all loved it, and a couple of us went back another night! The awesome thing about Granada is that the tapas are free everywhere in the city, if you order a drink. A drink can even be a small beer, or a glass of wine. It was really fun trying the different tapas offered at places throughout the city. But back to Pöe - it was definitely the highlight of the city for me. Yes, even better than the Alhambra! At most places, you were given whatever tapas they were offering that day. Not at Pöe. There you got to pick from several options of Portuguese dishes. They were literally all delicious, and they were served in small clay bowls straight from the oven! Ok, now, on to the Alhambra. You really can't go to Granada and not see it. It is one of the greatest accomplishments of Islamic art and architecture. From the 13th to 15th centuries, Granada was the capital of  the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, and today it has the greatest Muslim legacy in the country. I was fortunate to be able to go on a beautiful evening. First I walked around the grounds and the Generalife, the huge and elaborate gardens, and then I went in to the palace at my assigned time of 7 p.m. The intricacies of every inch of the walls, ceilings, and floors were truly amazing.
Next, I headed to Seville. Oh how I long for the warm and lovely weather that I had there now that I am in cold Berlin. Seville is a really beautiful city! I stayed right in the center, very close the the huge Gothic cathedral, which is one of the largest in the world. My first day there, I took the free walking tour along with probably 50 other people, several of whom were from Colorado! I met a girl from Japan that I hung out with for the next couple of days. One of the things I think is truly unique about Spain is their lifestyle - everything is done about 3 hours behind the way most of the rest of us do it. The sun sets so late there, and they stay out until the early hours of the morning, so their days get started later than normal. They have a late breakfast, and then tapas in the afternoon, then a siesta, where literally most places close so you can't get food, and then dinner isn't until 9 or 10 p.m., and then it is out for drinks until the wee hours! There was a wine and tapas place outside of my hostel, and it was so funny to see everyone out at odd times in the afternoon, and then it would be completely closed for a couple of hours, and then open again until 3 or so in the morning. One of my favorite tapas experiences there was at a place called Bodeguita Antonio Romero, which is famous for it's piri piri - delicious small sandwiches made up of meat (probably pork), cheese, and a delicious white sauce. We got a few of them, and also tried several other tapas there. Another funny experience there was that the waiters kept trying to bring to a table a plate of some strange-looking long and raw things that honestly looked like the testicles of a large animal to me. My Japanese friend, Rie, thought this was hilarious, and told me that it was actually the egg of a huge fish (the name of which I cannot remember right now), and that they eat it in Japan as well. Eventually, the waiters brought it to the table cooked, which is what they had wanted all along, and the men at the table saw me looking, and invited me to taste it. Of course, I couldn't pass up the opportunity, even though I was a bit skeptical. It wasn't bad actually - a bit fishy but nothing like I would have imagined it to taste. They usually eat it with the same white sauce that is on the piri piri, which of course masks the taste and makes it good. It was just a cute exchange, because the men didn't speak any English, and Rie and I tried to communicate with them in our limited Spanish. I also enjoyed chatting with Rie while we walked through the Parque de Maria Luisa, and saw the Plaza de Espana. Of course I couldn't go to Seville without seeing flamenco, and so one night we went to see the free show that we heard about through the hostel. It was definitely a tourist experience, and it was free because the dancers and musicians were still learning. I hadn't realized that there was so much tap dancing in flamenco. There was one dancer, and while she wore the the outfit I had always pictured - the very Spanish dress and the big red flower in her hair - the dancing was a bit different than I had expected. It was a lot of turning in circles and hip and arm movement, along with the tap dancing, and in general more sudden movements as opposed to the graceful dancing that I thought it would be. It seems like it is amazing exercise though, as is any kind of dancing, because after just one song, she would be drenched in sweat. Overall, Seville was a great city and I would love to go back someday! Spain in general has really become one of my favorite countries. Of course they have my favorite wine, Tempranillo (which I could buy a bottle of for €2-4!), and my favorite cheese, manchego (which was also cheap and in abundant supply), not to mention so many other great foods, and an interesting and laid-back lifestyle. I could definitely live there:)