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 m
y 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.
y 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 tree
s 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....
s 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 di
dn`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..
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 di
dn`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 sp
lendid 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?
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 sp
lendid 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?
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