Sickness, Churros and Churro-sick

In case you were wondering, being sick in a foreign country REALLY sucks. I have been battling a stuffy nose, headache, sore throat combo that has now moved into my chest. Yay! Not. Nor am I capable of communicating to the pharmacist what exactly my symptoms are, nor am I allowed to just pick out my own medicine because it is all behind the counter. On the bright side, this illness has increased my medically-related vocabulary...

I also have this weird addiction to running. Usually a good thing, right? Well, not when you're sick. I am forcing myself to take a rest day today, in an attempt to give my immune system a change to catch up. And then it's back to running :)

Yesterday, we had a meeting at the CEA campus. We were going to try the Spanish world-famous Chocolate con Churros. Churros are basically deep-fried bread (not covered in cinnamon and sugar, though) that you dip in a really thick hot chocolate. I was really excited to try it. World-famous, plus chocolate? Deal.


Wrong. No deal. I spent the 24 hours post-churro consumption laying in my bed trying not to vomit. It has been more than a day later, and I still feel nauseous. I didn't really find them good enough to eat again even before they made me sick... So, churros, nice try. I don't know what tricks you have pulled on the rest of the population to win world-wide favor, but I'm on to you. I see you for what you really are: greasy, flavor-less gastro-atomic bombs.
I finally caved about bought a Kindle a few days ago. I have been against them for a while, simply because I like having the actual book in my hands... However, English books are impossible to come by here in España, and I need something to read. No job, only a handful of friends, class just two days a week... I'm a bookworm and I need my fix. Thus: the Kindle purchase. I justify it by remembering that I'm saving trees in the process.

My mom comes next week! She's bringing with her a bunch of loot that I can't get here in Spain: peanut butter M&M's, Reese's, candy corn, and homemade banana chocolate chip muffins. I'm going to have to ration this stuff out to make it last until I go home. But really.

The plan while mama Tucker is here? Barcelona for two days, Edinburgh for three days, and then exploring Madrid for four days, including: the Prado, Parque del Buen Retiro, Gran Vía, and a flamenco show! ¡Que divertido!

And now... to cook dinner! On the menu? Cajun chicken pasta. Yum!


¡Besos de España!

Ally

El Camino

No, not the car.

I walked to class this morning. (El camino means "the way" in Spanish) It was still dark when I left at 7 am, and a little bit cold outside. I made it to campus by 8, grabbed some coffee to kill some time, and then had class from 8:30 to 2:30. (Specific Grammar Problems, Discovering Spain, Conversation and Lecture, and Art in the Prado Museum.) And then I walked back home, with a rather warm sun in the sky and a slightly heavier bag (we bought our books today.) I stopped at a grocery store on the way, and paid significantly less for my groceries than I have been at the other grocery store. (I will be returning to this one.) And then I carried my three bags of groceries the rest of the way to my apartment. The walk, excluding my time in the grocery store, takes an hour. About twenty minutes of it was with three bags of groceries.

People keep asking me why I walk everywhere. You're probably wondering, too. I had a Metro ticket in my pocket. I passed ten different Metro stops. It would have been really easy to just hop on the Metro and be home in twenty minutes, instead of an hour. So, why walk?

Well, partly because the weather here is beautiful. Partly because I really enjoy walking. Partly because I am a foreign exchange student and I honestly have nothing better to be doing with my time, anyway. But mostly? Because I can.

Every day I pass people on the street, handicapped and unable to go anywhere unless someone is willing to come and help them. You would not believe the amount of poverty and sickness that exists in this city. Well, maybe you would. But I have never seen anything like it before.

I have been given such an incredible gift, here. I've been blessed to be able to study abroad, to live in another country, to learn another language. I've been blessed with two legs that work, and all the time in the world to use them. I've been blessed with a heart for this city, and a desire to walk its streets, so I can meet and pray for its people as I go. So I can honestly look this city in the eye, and love it for all its worth. So I am not tempted to ignore the 'ugly' parts of the city, but am listening to what God has to teach me in the parts of this world that everyone else ignores.

So, I think I'll keep walking.

Mi Casa

Yep. This is my lovely little room. Actually, it is pretty big. And yes, that is a little bitty balcony to the left. Downside: it is very, very, very hot. That wall bakes in the sun all day, and it is too hot to sleep with the balcony doors closed... but the street below is really loud. Dislike. Other than that, though, I like it.

Upsides: I am a block away from at least five coffee shops... And one block away from one of the largest streets/shopping areas in town. Meaning? Restaurants, tapas bars, stores, pharmacies, coffee shops, parks, theaters.... All just down the street from my house. It feels a little like I live in New York. The streets are all lit up with neon, and there are people out and stores open until midnight or so. Crazy.

Another downside: they pick up the garbage on the street below my window every morning. At 2 am. Ugh.

Upside: I managed to wake up at a normal time this morning (for me) 9am... So hopefully this means I'll be able to sleep before 2 tonight. Unless the garbage truck comes back around, of course.

I walked into El Corte Ingles. Dislike. It's the Spanish version of Macy's. 6 floor, totally American department store. Just more expensive. I'll stick to the little bitty stores, thank you very much.

Last note? I ordered coffee this morning, and went up to the register to pay for it... And they gave me another cup of coffee. I know that's not what I said, even if it was in Spanish. Oh, well. Thirty minutes later, I managed to pay for both cups of coffee and went on with my day. Oh, after noticing that 50 euros was missing from my wallet. Awesome. (That's about $65, people.) I'm about 90% sure it was the policeman who went through my wallet in Barcelona. Oh, well.

Hasta Luego.

Ally

The Wrap Up: In Photos

There are a lot more photos. You can see the rest of them here, and here.

So, here is the run-down of the last two weeks. Here wo go.

We landed in Madrid, headed to the CEA office, dropped off our stuff... and then realized that we were homeless until we could meet our couchsurfing host at seven. So, we slept of some jet lag at a park across the street.

We woke up at 5:30, because our host had to catch a plane, and then went to sleep at the train station for a few hours. We got yelled at a few times for sleeping there, but it didn't make much difference to us. We were SO TIRED.

I went to order some breakfast... I ordered "Sweet Breakfast." What I got? One piece of toast with some kind of chewy ham (which I promptly gave to Graham,) coffee, and fresh orange juice. Hmmm... Not my idea of breakfast, Spain.

We got to Perpignan, France that night. We then couldn't get ahold of our couchsurfing host to figure out how to get to his house... so we checked into a hotel. This is what the room looked like:

It was really creepy. There were weird things stenciled on the walls...And no shower curtain. Luckily, we managed to get ahold of our host, and promptly checked out of this hotel about thirty minutes after we checked in. The lady at the desk was not at all happy with us.

The next day we got on a train to Geneva. We were one stop away from Geneva, when our train starts moving backwards! Yikes. Apparently, our half of the train broke off from the other half, and ours was going somewhere totally different. Ooops. So, we got off in Cluses, France. We were stuck there for a few hours... Pretty little town. I got asked to coffee by a French man who spoke no English, and then harassed by a drunk man who kept switching between French and English.

We finally made it to Switzerland! This is the view from the top of an old castle next to the house we were staying at. It was raining, but we walked around and got to see some pretty amazing views anyway.

We got traditional Swiss fondue, got made fun of in German by our waiter, and at way more than we should have. And it was wonderful.

Next stop: Austria. It was so beautiful. We climbed with our hosts for two days, watched Mt. St. Elias, played card games, ate home made schnitzel and plum cake, and generally had a whole lot of fun. I was sad to leave Austria.

Then, on the way to Croatia, we got stuck in Slovenia for a few hours. There was a pizza place across the street, so we ate there (not bad, either.) And then on the train to Zagreb, a policeman came into our car (it was totally dark by then) and yelled "Passports!" took them outside and started talking feverishly into his walkie talkie. I thought we were going to die. This happened three different times throughout a forty-five minute train ride.

When we got off the train, we walked to our host's house, which involved a very, very, very creepy stairwell. That's Graham being a creeper in the picture above.

We slept on the kitchen floor, in about a 8x6 foot space. Not my favorite. We also didn't meet our host until a few hours before we left. We met his girlfriend, and his very scary brother right away, though.

Zagreb was a total bust. We went there to see Plitvice lakes, and for a lot of unfortunate circumstances, we couldn't go. We ended up staying in the tiniest, smelliest apartment ever, doing absolutely nothing other than making ourselves homesick. We spent the evening sitting in McDonald's. This helped.

We were both really excited to get to Venice. We walked down the Grand Canal, looked at all the yummy pastries and gelato, got some great photos, and stopped for dinner. We had bruschetta, sea bass and potatoes, tiramisu and lemon gelato. So so so so so good.

The next morning, before we left, we got breakfast. Rolls and jam (and Nutella) croissants stuffed with apricots, coffee and orange juice. Much better, Italy. Spain: take note.

This is where we stayed in Italy ^^. Our host was only 19, and was really nice. We got Turkish Kebap, Graham tried a spritzer, and we walked around the town for a bit. And we got a real couch to sleep on, instead of the kitchen floor in Zagreb. Italian win.

After the longest travel day ever, we got to our host in Nice's house... Where his couch surfers from the night before had missed their connection and were staying for another night. We managed to get five beds in this room. And yes, that is the entire flat right there. There were no other rooms, other than the bathroom. Wow.

The next day, we missed our train because we couldn't figure out the crazy bus system in Nice. We had been doing so well, too! Oh, well. We got our tickets changed, and got into Barcelona about the same time we would have anyway.

We were walking around at midnight, trying to find a hotel for the night when this lady walked up behind us to ask for directions. She was a little sketchy, but we did our best to point her in the right direction... And then two men come running after us yelling, "STOP!" One of them flashed some sort of badge to Graham, and then they proceed to take us off into an alley. They kept asking us if we had just sold or bought cocaine, and then proceeded to examine our passports, go through all of our stuff, looking for cocaine.

Yeah, that's right. We got stuck in the middle of a drug bust.

He told us that we were in a very dangerous part of town (only five minutes from the train station. We had no idea...) and that we should go to our hotel asap. That's Graham sitting in the hotel room ^^, where we were just thankful to be alive.

We caught the train back to Madrid today, got our stuff from CEA, and are now moved into our apartments! (Pictures of that to come later.)

It was a lot of fun. And exhausting. I'm glad to have a place to call my own, and wear something other than the same two shirts. :)

France: We Meet Again

So, it's been a while since I updated you. Sorry. Here is the quick rundown. I will give you the real play by play (if you really want it) when I get back to Madrid.

We spent two days climbing, eating lots of schnitzel, and trying our very first schnaps in Austria. It was wonderful, and we didn't want to leave. But, we had a train to catch. So, we headed to Zagreb, Croatia. Well, that was the idea, anway.

We got stuck in Dobov, Slovenia for a few hours. Fine, right? There was a very quite pizza place across the street, and we killed a few hours eating (very salty) pizza. When we got on the train to Zagreb, however, our train car door was thrown open and a very aggressive looking policeman yelled, "Passport!" and proceeded to take our passports out into the hallway, stare at the for at least five minutes, all while talking into his walkie-talkie. I thought we were going to be arrested, or thrown off the train, or murdered or something. He threw our passports back, and left. Then five minutes later, another policeman threw open the car door and did the same thing. Terrifying.

We got the Zagreb, and our plan was to go to Plitvice lakes the next morning. Didn't happen. For a lot of unfortunate circumstances, we ended up staying in Zagreb, sleeping and doing absolutely nothing but making ourselves homesick all day long. Remedy? McDonald's for dinner. It actually helped quite a lot. Sad, huh?

The next morning, we hopped on one train and a bus and went to Venice. Much better. We had dinner on the Grand Canal, took lots of pictures, and got harrassed by a lot of men trying to sell fake Prada bags. The next morning, we had croissants and Nutella, cappacinos and fresh orange juice, while we watched the people go by. Oh, and don't forget the tiramisu and the gelato. Yum. I like Italy. :)

I would have stayed, but again, we had a train to catch. So we literally have been on the train all day, and just got the Nice a few hours ago. (That's in France, everybody.) We are sleeping for the night, then hitting the trains again all day tomorrow. And then? A few days sitting on the beach in Barcelona. Then, back to Madrid for class! We are tired, tired of trains, and significantly more well-traveled than before. Ready to be home, and enjoying our last few days of traveling.

Pictures, and more thoughts to come.

Ciao,

Ally

Cow Pants

Cow pants, Swiss music, sexual jokes made at my expense (in German,) and more food than you could possibly eat, a crazy Swiss waiter, a giant cow bell, a lot of Asian tourists...

And when I say "cow pants," I literally mean black and white spotted, cow-patterened pants.

That was our evening last night. After a day spent hiking around Interlaken and Lauterbrunnen, Switzerlan (which I will put pictures up of when I get back to Madrid) we took the bus back to town and met up with our Couchsurfing host Ava. We went to dinner at place called Bebbi's, where we were literally served by a crazy man. With a heavy Swiss-German accent. Hilarious. He also came over to "show us" how to do the fondue... Which involved him demonstrating the "proper technique" and then having me blow on it to cool it off. To which he made a lot of jokes (in German) of which I could easily guess the nature... All while Graham, Ava, and I laughed histerically.

Ava was the best. I cant even begin to explain her. Least of all, she sent us away with real Swiss cheese, Swiss chocolate, and little wooden cows (it was a running joke.) I was sorry to say goodbye to her today. However, she may come stay with us in Madrid, and I may need to make my way back to Switzerland later this year to ski anyway :)

Then, this morning we hopped back on the train and headed to Innsbruck, Austria. Whoever said Austria and Switzerland were almost the same was on crack. They are completely different... Austria is a much darker kind of green, and the houses are significantly less cheerful. However, they do have the beautiful Persian-esque towers and decorations on buildings. It really is quite charming. The dialect of German is also quite interesting. Not that you really care, but I was convinced it was no longer German for a while.

We got off the train, hopped on a bus, and then found ourselves in a very wet, very small town called Goetzlen. The couple we are staying with told us to call them and they would walk down to meet us at the bus stop... except we dont have a phone. Nor did we have enough change to make a phone call on the pay phone. So, we headed into a bar and asked the old guy at the counter if he could help us. After a lot of yelling, finger pointing and barked questions, we got it figured out and he pointed us in the right direction.

So, our evening ended with wonderful conversation over a traditional Austrian meal, mint chocolates, us trying to explain what Twinkies are, and deciding that the four of us are going to go climbing tomorrow. Perfecto.

If you hadn't heard already, I had a root canal right before I left. Like, 24 hours before I left. Not fun. For the first time in months, my tooth feels like nothing. Which is exactly what a tooth should feel like. So it is great! Haha. So, for those of you wondering, it doesn't hurt at all anymore. Other than the back of my jaw being pretty sore, but I'm not too worried about that.

One of the best things that I am learning is how unified people really are. I will write more about it when I get back, but most of the six hours on the train today were spent thinking about humanity. About how we have different cultures, different languages, different lives... But that we are really all the same at heart. Its funny because you can hear that, even know it, all your life. But you never really understand what that means until you experience it. More on this later.

Much Love from the Hills of Austria,
Ally

Hello from Switzerland

If there happen to be typos in this post... I am currently typing on a German keyboard. It is not as bad as the French keyboard I tried to use last night though. So, at least I am moving in the right direction.

We have been lost. A lot. Today, we were trying to get to Interlaken (Switzerland) and it involved two unexpected trains, and a lot of time spent in Cluses, France. Was that anticipated? No. Was it fun anyway? Well... To a point. It was fun. But it also involved being harrassed by a very, very drunk man who kept switching from French to English, and then looking really confused when we had no idea what he was talking about. Oh, and it also involved me being asked to coffee by a French man. Well... I am about 95% sure that that was what he was saying... He was speaking rapid French (and zero English) and kept pointing to the cafe down the street saying "Café! Café!"

Yesterday involved an impromptu hotel in Lyon, France and a trip to the pharmacie because my teeth were killing me. I was really really angry about that.... However, the Lord is good and answered my prayers and my teeth havent hurt at all today. Yay!

I have picked up a little bit of French from listening to people for the last two days.... Except now I am in Switzerland and most people are speaking in German, which I do not speak at all. Hopefully, Ill pick some of that up too while I am here.

So far, one of my favorite places is Avignon. It is in France, and is quite beautiful. You should look it up. Otherwise, Geneva is overrated and Interlaken is wonderful. I think tomorrow we are going to do some hiking, and I think I am going to get some really good photos. I hope so, anyway. :)

Alright... Ill update you some more later.

Besos de Switzerland,

Ally

Planes, Trains and Couchsurfing

At 12:30 today, we leave for France. And then Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Italy, and then back to Spain. Kind of makes me tired just thinking about it. And really excited, mind you. 15 days on a train, sleeping on random people's couches (or a kitchen floor, in one case) and generally having one adventure after another. It certainly has been one so far...

Yesterday we got lost. Really, really lost. Note: they do not put street signs on the streetlights like they do in America. They are on the sides of buildings, and are not always there. Makes navigation a bit difficult. Other side-note: there are no water fountains. If you want free water, you better be okay with tap water from the public bathrooms that are extremely hard to find because the signs are smaller than the palm of your hand.

We had our first Spanish breakfast this morning. I have no idea what I ended up ordering, but I don't think it was what I thought I was ordering... We had to leave our couchsurfer's apartment at 5:30 this morning because he had to catch a plane, so we sat at the train station for 3 hours. Fun. Then we got Spanish coffee (yum!) freshly squeezed orange juice, and a piece of toast with some weird meat on it. I gave my meat to Graham and just ate the toast.

The lisp is significantly more difficult to understand than I expected. Hopefully I will not always find it so. :)

Something I have learned about myself already? I am capable of falling asleep anywhere when I am this tired. Yesterday alone we spent a few hours sleeping on a bench in the park (simply because we had nowhere else to be) and then still fell asleep at 8 pm. Yikes.

We have become great friends with benches. Partly because a lot of traveling is simply waiting. Partly because we are technically homeless and have nowhere to kill time anyway. But mainly because Graham is really, really good at complaining and if I can find a bench nearby it is a really quick way to shut him up :)

So, this will probably be the last time you'll hear from me for a bit. I'll see if I can find a computer somewhere along the way, but I'm not sure if I'll have the time. So, if not beforehand, I'll talk to you in two weeks!