OMG Kevin!

My bus pulled into the Barcelona station at 7am. The last I heard from Kevin was that he was on standby for a flight that would get in at 7:50am. I was planning on meeting him at the airport, but first I had to go to the hostel to drop my bags. By 7:45 I was waiting for a bus that took about 40 minutes to get to the airport so I texted Kevin to see if he arrived, nothing; I texted my brother to see if he could check online for me about Kevin`s flight, nothing; I texted Tony, nothing. Ok, everyone got together and decided not to text me back, thanks! I got to the airport and saw the flight was delayed until 9:35. Well the a-hole at the hostel, trust me he was an a-hole (ask Kevin, he got to meet him too), told me to be back at the hostel at 11am SHARP to get a room. So that means, if Kevin doesn`t get in until 9:35, it takes him 30 minutes or longer to get through security, we wait for the bus that takes 40 minutes to get us back. Uh, yeah, that`s cutting the 11am deadline a little close. So I paced around the airport, hoping for a gust of wind to push Kevin`s plane along a little faster, read some trash celebrity magazine in the gift shop, found out Linsey Lohan aka LiLo is a lesbian, ditched that mag to read some stuff about Barcelona (much more appropriate), and axiously waited for Kevin at 9:35. A little premature, I know, but I was excited! The arrivals section of the Barcelona airport has automatic sliding doors, like a grocery store, except you can`t see through them. So every time they start to slide open, it`s like a celebrity is about to walk through. Not soon enough, Kevin made his appearance, with a look of ¨ayudame!¨ This means, help me! Since he never texted me back, I assumed he didn`t get my text and had no idea I was there waiting for him, well I was right, and he was relieved to see me. We jumped on the bus and made it back to the hostel to get a room. I`ll spare you the details on the receptionist, he was a..you know. So I guess I wasn`t receive any texts and mine weren`t sending, so it turned out that my friends didn`t start any conspiracy against me! Kevin and I headed straight for the beach and had a very realxing afternoon while he commented on every girl to me. I love being Kevin`s wingman, hah. Back at the hostel, we couldn`t help but notice the 2 for 1 happy hour that consisted of 2 litres, LITRES, of beer for 3 euro. Maybe it`s just me, but having 2 litres of beer sitting in front of you is a bit intmidating, so Kevin and I each drank one and then went back for our second. We met three guys from Birmingham, England who were going on a pub crawl that night. Well, I was feeling pretty happy after my beers and of course Kevin wanted to go out, so pub crawl it was. The organizer would take us to three bars and then a club. At the third bar they were telling everyone to go outside so we could walk to the club, but I couldn`t find Kevin. It was a small place and it wasn`t like he was hiding under a barstool (or was he?) so I was asking the organzier if she had seen him. She started to describe who she thought I meant, and after sort of agreeing that yes he is tall, and yes he is American (we were clearly doing a good job), she said he went back to the hostel. What!? Why would he leave without saying anything to me? Great, Kevin`s first time in Europe and he is probably lost somewhere in Barcelona. We had all just been talking about how we didn´t even know where our hostel was from that bar. I asked the girl how to get back and she said it was really close, so I practically ran back and Kevin wasn`t in the room. I ate some crackers and went to sleep. I was woken up a couple hours later by, yes, Kevin. Too tired to talk about the night, I went back to sleep and a couple hours later, now 11am (check out time), I tried waking Kevin up but it wasn`t happening. He just asked for a blanket. No Kevin, we have to check out and see if they have another room for us. See, when we were checking in the first night, we didn`t know if we were going to stay, so we had to check out at 11 the next day and check back in, if there was room. There was, we just had to change rooms and again, like idiots, we didn`t reserve a third night so the next morning we were doing the same thing. I realize now it would have been a lot less stress if on the first day we said, ¨we would like 3 nights, thank you. ¨ After Kevin finally got his act together :) we rented a scooter and zipped all around town. It was so much fun! We ended up on some one way streets and a taxi/bus lane only, but hey, we´re still alive. Before we knew it, it was happy hour again, so we met our English buds and started on our litres. That night we had a couple propositions for some parties, such as: six clubs with a pool in the middle, it`s going to be awesome! Hmm..not too sure about that one. We ended up just going out on our own and it was fantastic. We went to the same club that they went to the night before. You know, when I ran home to find Kevin, but he was already halfway to the last stop on the pub crawl, the club. So it was new to me, and it was super duper. The next day Kevin and I dragged ourselves to the beach again but it was a little cloudy and plus, happy hour was nearing again. See, this is what I mean about wasting the entire day. We got home at 6am, slept until 11 when I had to figure out if we could stay another night, took showers, got going around 1, ate, scootered, beached, and now it`s 5:30 and happy hour is at 6. What did I do with that day? Absolutely nothing, which should be fantastic since I`m on vacation, but for some reason it`s worse when my body hates me for drinking 2 litres or more of beer and the sitting around until I do it again. Anyway, the third and last night in Barcelona was another pub crawl and this time I wasn`t running home. This picture captures the guy`s favorite saying of the weekend, or whatever days I was there. If you have seen Borat you can appreciate, ¨no no gypsy, do not play your tricks on me.¨The other picture is a reinactment of the night before at the same Irish Bar, with a very Harlequin-like band, where Andy split his rum and coke on me from across the table about 37 seconds before going to the club. Nicely done Mr. Williamson! Kevin had a great time with Andy, Paul and Rick (our English amigos), who were not shy to join in on the making fun of Kelsey routine. They love making fun of the American accent by saying ¨oh my god,¨ so every time they would make fun of me it would involve, ¨oh my god Kevin,¨ and me nagging him about something. It was all in good fun, right? :) It`s so great meeting people from other lands and really hanging out with them rather than just the small talk, ¨where are you from? Where are you traveling to? Why are you traveling? Ok, have a nice life.¨

Next stop, San Sebastian, a food lovers paradise! Kevin and I painfully sat through a 7 hour bus ride and got in around 10pm. We started walking to the hostel that was recommended to us (except again, like idiots, we didn`t have a reservation) and there were thousands of people in the streets and everyone was eating gelato. We wanted to ditch our bags and join the festivities, but it wasn`t that easy. We got to the hostel and I asked if Tony had been there yet, because he was getting in before us. The guy say no way jose, but he does have two beds for us, and then..gunshots! Ok no, it was just fireworks. The guy ran up to the roof to watch the show and we stood there trying to figure out how we were going to find Tony. We told him we didn`t want the two beds because we needed three and asked where the internet cafe was. First step in the door to get on the internet and find Tony, and Tony himself is sitting at one of the computers. Shoot! He was on facebook, writing me a message, hah. He said he got in around 5 and was just walking around. I guess August 15th is a huge holiday so all week long they celebrate Semana Grande (Big Week). Tony said he found a place outside of the old town so we stayed there the first night, but spend hours the next day finding a new place. We turned our brains on and reserved the third and fourth night at a hostel inside old town for Tony and I, since Kevin was leaving for Sweden. Semana Grande was pretty fun, just super crowded and a lot of weird druggy people around. There is a guy who, to make money, sets up a board on two legs and puts nails in the board and gives you 4 chances to hammer the nail all the way in. It costs 3 euros and he gives you a litre mixed drink if you do it, and I thought litre beers were intimidating. We watched a couple guys do it but they were so drunk they either missed or just bent it sideways. We discussed how much this guy actually made in a night and decided it must be worth it to him to stand there all night dealing with drunk people and probably go home with less than 25 euros, after the cost of alcohol. This snazzy little place was exactly that, little! But, we did have a TV that played family guy in Español, bonus points. So the day Kevin was leaving, Tony and I moved to our new location in old town and met a girl from Germany. She accompanied us to the beach and at that moment I knew we were best friends. Joking, but she was a nice girl. On our last night we got pinxos (like tapas) so I could get to true feel for a night out to eat in Spain and bought a bottle of the local fizzy wine that they drink after the pixos. We went back to the hotstel and hung out with Kathi (German), and Jackie, a girl from Australia. The next day I said au revoir, or adios to Tony and headed to the bus station to close my eyes and point at the map. I was actually planning an overnight bus to Valencia, but there weren`t any that night, so I took a bus to Zaragoza, spend the night there, and the next day I made it to Valencia. I spent two nigths here, went to the beach yesterday, got some good bocadillos (mini sandwiches), practiced my speed walking a bit and I`m getting out of here this afternoon before all the crazies come in for the formula racing. I have a flight to Stockholm, Sweden where I will be reunited with Kevin, but my main reason for going is to see Sara. Sorry Kevin but it`s not like you came all the way to Europe to see me when you can meet all the foreign girls you want, let`s be honest. My 3 month traveling anniversary was two days ago, that means I have two more months of whatever it is I`m doing out here. I feel like the average age of travelers is 19, but I guess the 92 year old granny that was at my hostel in Panama brings that average up quite a bit :)

I almost booked with Spanair out of Madrid, this was before the bad news of course. I am flying with Ryanair out of Valencia leaving at 7:30 tonight (Aug 22), arriving at 11:30 in Stockholm (Skavsta Airport). Can`t say I`m thrilled about jumping on a plane today. Yeahh..so this is awkward. Ok, ciao!

Soon to be Olympic Gold Metalist for..

I have been slacking on the blog writing, I know. Internet hasn´t been as convenient lately, but that`s no excuse, so here I am and I`ll probably breeze through my last couple weeks because I haven`t done anything exciting or worth talking about :)

After Segovia, I went to Avila which was a lot like Segovia. Except instead of the Aqueduct, the center of Avila is built within castle walls. I walked along the top of the castle walls for great views of the city and my hostel was about 25 minutes away so I walked back and forth from there about 6 or 7 times. The theme of Avila was walking. I am seriously considering becoming an Olympic Speed Walker. Seriously, have you seen how fit they are? There was a track outside my window and I really wanted to go for a run, but after so much walking, my dogs were barking so I settled for watching the young men at futbol practice. It doesn`t start getting dark until about 10pm so at 9 when the sun is still up, I`m thinking it`s about 5 and wondering why everything is closed. I had the worst luck with the supermarket hours. They close for siesta, but a lot of shops close at different times so I would try and make it to the market every time I walkedback to my hostel, but it was closed every time and one time I got the finger wave from the lady standing between me and the fruit display. No no, cerrado! On my last night in Avila there was a craft fair with over 100 booths of really cool bells and whistles (not literally bells and whistles). I`ve never seen so many interesting adn creative items for sale. If only I had money to blow and the patience to ship things home, I would have bought some really unneccessary, but really cool things. The booths were all set up along the outside of the castle walls and the sunset was glorious.

The next morning I caught a bus to Salamanca to meet Tony Magro, my friend from Napa who was studying there for 6 weeks. He had his last exam on that Monday but I got there on Saturday so he did some studying during the day and by night, it was party time. It was his friend`s birthday, a local guy, so I brought two English girls from my hostel and we met the group at a park. It`s weird having no one care that there are 15 people sitting in a park in the middle of town, drinking rum and cokes. If only they were so relaxed in the states, ahh life would be so much happier. Probably not, but it would be more fun at least. We ended up at a disco at around 3 in the morning and it was totally dead. To the average person/American, one would think the night must be winding down. Wrong. The clubs don`t even start to get busy until 4:30 or 5am. I don`t get it. I loved South America and I love Europe, but I just don`t think I could keep up with the nightlife. It`s fun every once in a while, but I`m a lame-o and hate sleeping the entire next day away. So the next day we watched some Olympics and I got yelled at by Tony`s house mum for using the ¨services¨of her resedencia. She told me to stay in his dorm room and not be in the kitchen where the TV is. Sorry Fatima, I guess I shouldn´t use the bathroom either because it`s down the hall!? Anyway, one day I discovered a lovely little garden with grapes. I felt so at home. Meanwhile, Kevin from SB had been planning a trip to Sweden to visit his roommate from last year, Sara, a native Swede. He also wanted to make a stop in Greece, but I strongly suggested that he come to Spain instead to meet me. It all came together quite quickly, and before I could say hot potato (because I say that a lot), he was on his way to Barcelona. Of course this completely screwed up my plans of going to San Sebastian first, then to Barcelona, but I decided to selflessly sacrifice my plans for Kevin :) So I`m crossing through Spain, not exactly the route anyone would plan, but it works. I took an overnight bus to meet Kevin in Barcelona and then we met up with Tony three days later in San Sebastian. These long bus rides are seriously damaging my dreams of speed walking champion of the world.

Barcelona. Whew! What a great time...for next time..

Here I go again on my own!

I`m having a hard time believing that I`m in Spain already. What happened to South America? Costa Rica? Well, I guess I better believe it.. sister. Costa Rica was great. My brother and I were lounging in the Rancho, the outdoor, covered ¨living room¨ if you will, when my parents finally arrived after their delayed flight. I gave my mom a big squeeze, then my dad, and I saw another person walking in behind them. The manager came down with my parents to show them where the house was so I figured it was her husband or something. Nope, I was wrong. It was Tony! Noooo way! I was so shocked/surprised/happy/confused/excited. How did he pull that off?? Well he did and I couldn`t have been happier. They were all exhausted so we cooked some kick ass pasta that my brother and I bought earlier and everyone crashed. Welcome to Costa Rica, with the farthest thing from local cuisine :) The next day we went to the beach, obviously, signed up for a canopy tour the following day, had lunch, drove the ridiculous unkempt roads, made margaritas, played taboo and lounged. The next morning was our canopy tour which is riding zip lines over the trees. After sitting in the back of a flat bed truck, bouncing all the way up the mountain, with our harnesses strapped on and helmet in ready position, looking like idiots we made it to the first zip line. The guides gave us instructions and told us the first line would be the longest at 780 meters (there are 3 feet in a meter, that`s pretty long!). Since I didn`t know exactly how the whole stopping thing worked at the other end, I was a bit nervous and then my turn came. Great..here I go! It was really fun, and I probably looked even more like an idiot now with a stupid grin on my face. I was getting close to the end and saw the guide signal for me to slow down. Thankfully, I stopped without crashing into the guide. You think that would be a hard thing to do right? Well, the same two ladies did it on every zip line and there were 12 lines. Good thing the guides have a way of stopping people who think they are indestructable and can fly into a concrete pilar without getting hurt. After the 10th line we hiked down to a water fall and were able to jump in. It was so hot so no one had a problem going in their clothes. We hiked back to the last zip line and hopped in the back of the truck for another amusing ride. More lounging, food, ocean, body boarding, margaritas and another successful day in Costa Rica. There are land crabs that would come onto our patio at night and sneak their way into the kitchen and the bedrooms. I guess that`s our luck for leaving doors open, but it was pretty funny chasing and/or trapping them to get them out. They have bright reddish orange legs, purple claws, a black shell and two white dots on the shell that look like eyes. Weird creature, but actually quite pretty. Unfortunately they aren`t too bright because in the mornings we would find a bunch of dead ones at the bottom of the pool :( Jason and Tony had to get a taxi to the Liberia airport because apparently when you make a reservation for a rental car and are promised that the car WILL be there, it won`t be. I guess that`s what happened when you go to a super rural area with no paved main road going to town. It was probably better that they didn`t have to navigate, but 3 hours is probably the longest cab ride I`ve ever heard of.

That morning my parents and I went on a nature walk through a biological reserve. We did the self guided tour which consisted of spotting the numbers on the different trees and reading the description on our piece of paper. Pretty difficult. We saw some cool bamboo, almost touched a tree with poisonous pin sized needles, did touch this tree with huge spikes (not piosonous), saw some monkeys, termite nests, a tree that holds water in it`s trunk so it has an enlarged ¨belly,¨ got stuck in the mud, and crossed a questionable bridge. Later, we signed up for a river boat tour and planned the rest of our time in Costa Rica. Such tourists. I`m not though, I`m a traveler! hah...Anyway, the next day we drove to Playa Samara because I heard the beach was really nice there. It turned out to be pretty similar to where we were except there were more centralized shops and restaurants (nothing to break out the champagne for), so I swam, we had lunch and we headed back. The best part was that we got to drive through a river to get there. Apparently there is a different route to Samara during the rainy season, oops. Good job 4-wheel drive, and dad! The next day was our last day in the house and the day of the river boat tour. A German couple led the excursion in their tiny, quiet electric boat so they didn`t scare the wildlife away, and made references to ¨The Govenator¨ a lot. We saw tons of different birds, monkeys and iguanas, but no turtles or alligators. Although, we did see the huge hole on the side of the river where the alligator lives and fresh tracks in the mud, so he was definitely lurking. So, back to the house for our last dinner and in the morning, it was roadtrip time. We wanted to pick a place close to San Jose because that`s where I was flying out of, but we didn`t necessarily want to be in San Jose. We chose Alajuela because it`s at the base of Volcano Poas and we had time the next day to drive up there. Poas is considered a ¨drive-in¨ Volcano because the parking lot is about 300 meters away. My dad told me about this awesome plant called The Poor Man`s Umbrella. I think that`s pretty funny, and I know if Will Wirth is reading this, he will love it! There were 500 little school children screaming and running around so we raced them to the top, beat them (obviously), and took in the sweet sweet smell of sulfur. Yuck! Other than the smell, the water in the volcano was a brilliant turquoise and there was a bright white trail of steam. We could only stare at the volcano for so long so we took a hike to the lagoon, which used to be a volcano, but not anymore, it`s a lagoon, I said that already. The lagoon was lovely and a swim sounded wonderful at that moment, but no can do, I don`t think it`s meant for people, and we were really high up. We continued the hike back down to parking lot and drove to a recommended restaurant. Chubascos! Go there if you are ever near Alajuela. I realize the chances of that are probably slim to none, but if one other person goes there I would be happy to have passed on the information :) They make these deliciously huge, corn tortillas with cheese mixed in. Sounds pretty basic, but you can get them so many different ways, it`s super! The next morning I walked into the San Jose Airport shortly after 6am for quite the wake up call....

Airline Representative: Kelsey, did anything happen on your previous flights with Continental?

Me: Umm, no

AR: Yeahh, I see here that you flew from LA to Houston, Houston to Brazil, is that correct?

Me: Yes, and everything was fine.

AR: Ok, well it seems to be showing me here that your tickets have been canceled.

Me: What!? Even the Dublin to LA flight?

AR: Yes, everything.

Me: (surprisingly calm) Can I get back on the same flights?

AR: Well our flight to Newark today is really full, but I think I can get you back on all your flights, I just don`t have a window seat for you today, I have to put you in the aisle.

Me: Who cares! Thank you!

So hopefully that`s all sorted out, but the second I get to Dublin I am going to the airport to check that I am still on my flight. I don`t want to miss the one coming home, no way! When I got on the plane, I sat in 6C just like my ticket said, but then another man with 6C on his ticket tried to give me the boot. We talked to the flight attendant and she ended up kicking me to 27C, but the only thing I cared about was being on that flight at all.

I arrived in Madrid around noon on Sunday. I had the whole metro system figured out to get to my hostel. Pink line from the airport to the last stop, Nuevos Ministerios. Change to the dark blue line and get of at Tribunal, change to the light blue line and get of at Anton Martin or Tirso de Molina. Look at that memory! Well, I did not expect the light blue line to be closed and it really messed up my flow. Turns out I didn`t have much of a flow, because I LEFT MY NORTH FACE JACKET ON THE METRO!! I am so mad at myself for doing that, but that`s a whole different story that I will skip. So I went above ground to catch a free bus since the light blue line was closed. I just like saying light blue line. I figured the bus would go in a similar direction that the metro went, but as I was looking at my map and frantically looking at street signs, it was not. I ended up pretty far from the hostel but decided to walk and not get lost on another bus. It was uphill and I was exhausted by the time I got to the hostel, and they didn`t have a room ready for me so I just sat. I met a girl from Brazil and two guys from South Carolina who were all going to the bull fights that night. I was a little worried about going, but out of pure curiousity decided I was in. I am in no way in favor of animal cruelty and after seeing the bull fights, I would have to side with the animal right`s activists on this one. I am open to hearing a proper story of why there are still bull fights today, but I haven`t yet and it was just really sad to watch. I don`t regret going, because I was curious and I would have always wondered if I hadn`t gone, but wow. They kill 6 bulls, each bull separately in about 20 or so minutes, and the matadors were 16 years old! One was seventeen..

The next day I took a walking tour of Madrid, given by a guy from Austria that has lived in Madrid for 4 months. He must really love Spain because he knew so much, probably more than some Spaniards. There was a Canadian girl on the tour named Kelsey and she was super cool. Why? I think that`s pretty clear :) After the tour I took the metro, now knowing how to avoid the light blue line, to the bus terminal to buy a ticket for Segovia. There was a train station and a huge mall connected to the metro and bus terminal so I decided to take a gander. I feel like I miss shopping, but then I walk through the mall and it doesn`t really do it for me. It just depresses me because I want Stacey and Clinton to pick out a new wardrobe for me on What Not to Wear! Oh well, I got my ticket and on my way back to the hostel I ran into Kelsey so we went to a restaurant to have some sangria and chit chat. I am in Segovia now and it`s a splendid little town. I saw the Aqueduct (built by the Romans, can you tell?), the Cathedral, and Alcazar, the castle. The town is mostly built within the castle walls but there is a lot of construction going on outside the walls. I read in a park today, talked to a couple shop owners in Spanish, and bought yet another bus ticket. This time to Avila. I leave in the morning and have no plan except to eat some good food. I haven`t exactly splurged yet so I think I deserve a good meal. I apologize for my pictures being a little out of order. I need to spread the love to the sections that don`t have pictures to go along with it. Hopefully you can figure out what is what. The only one that might be unclear is the one where I`m sitting on the stone bench and you can only see the top of the castle, Alcazar. Well trust me, it`s a lot more impressive than that but this is what you get, sorry. Google it. Well I`m off to another hot and restless night. If it`s not one thing with me it`s another, huh? Did I mention I am having the time of my life?