summer!! & july travels!

"Little by little, one travels far." - tolkien 

After traveling for the past 3 and a half weeks, I am finally back in Madrid and sleeping in my own bed for a few days. It's nice to finally be home long enough to wash clothes, go to the market, run errands, and take naps!

I think this was one of our first pictures together, from a freshman rush party at TCU

My 2 week trip with Rose was SO MUCH FUN. We just had the best time. It's nice because Rose and i know each other so well because we lived together forever (in every sense of the word) we shared a room as roommates in a dorm (freshman yr of college), for the rest of college when I basically lived at her apartment too, my last summer as an undergraduate (after sevilla) i camped out in her room/shared a bed for 3 weeks bc i was in summer school and "homeless," and then i lived at her parents house one summer in grad school. So we know each other really well, and we've been best friends through a lot of different stages of our lives at this point. Anyways, I love her very much and I'm so glad she got to come and see this world, because we did some really awesome stuff and just had the best trip.

Our first night in Barcelona together! So happy to see each other. 

On top of the towers at Sagrada Familia

go frogs!! at park guell. #mytcusummer

We met in Barcelona, and Sharlar and I got to explore the city for a few days. We went to Casa Battlo (the fish house), went to a jazz concert on the rooftop of Casa Mila, spent the morning at Park Guell, ate tapas, went to mass at the cathedral, saw Gaudi's crypt (from afar) at Sagrada Familia, and went to the picasso museum.

in pamplona

On our last day in Spain, we hopped a train to Pamplona and got to be part of the running of the bulls festivities. We definitely didn't run, but it was super fun being there while everything was going on. We wore white pants, red/white shirts, and red scarves to look the part. It was so much fun, but it was cold though!

Speaking of being cold, it rained on our travel day from Barcelona to Florence and sprinkled a little in Florence while we were there. And it was overcast on our first day in Rome. I'm glad that the summer heat wasn't awful, because I was expecting it to be sooo hot.

gelato! 

the david 

the duomo

this is why we're best friends...

Florence was a lot of fun too. I had been to florence, 5 yrs ago!!, with a guy friend, but only for less than 48 hrs, so it was nice to have a different experience and have some time there to explore. We went to the duomo, the gallery of the academia (and saw the david of course), went to the Uffizi and saw medusa, went to pizzale michelangelo with a view of the city, the galileo museum, and got to eat AMAZING italian food and lots of gelato at this gelateria called Perche No!. In Florence, we had the best caprese at La Spada and had homemade pasta at Buca Mario. Shar and I had this great idea that we would eat caprese everywhere in italy and compare. It got old after a few days because it's a lot of mozzarella.

sorrento

pompeii

positano

After that we headed down to southern Italy. We spent one day doing a tour of Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano (the Amalfi Coast!!). Pompeii was fun to see, I'm glad that we did it. It's one of those things you should do in your life. also like seeing rome. Sorrento was really fun, super quaint. A lot like cinque terre but on a cliff. I think i'm partial to cinque terre though because of the hiking and cliff jumping, and i think the towns have better beaches and are more accessible. But i'm still really glad that we went to sorrento and the amalfi coast, because i've always wanted to go there. We had the best lunch in Sorrento and got to go shopping for lots of lemon goods. At lunch, we had fried zuchinni flowers w mozzarella at this super quaint place on one of the side streets, and of course limoncello to finish our meal. I'm bringing home lemon biscotti and lemon candy for dad (that's how much i miss him!!). After lunch, we went to Positano and explored. Positano was super touristy and kind of pijo (high class/snooty, for super rich old people). It was fun to put our feet in the ocean and collect sand glass on the beach though (even though it was pretty rocky).

 on the boat

that sign says no swimming in the blue grotto...

the blue grotto!!

The next day, we took a ferry to Capri. We got to the island and ended up doing this boat tour around the island. The first thing they told us was "there's no blue grotto today because the tide is too high." Sharla's immediate response was "I've waited 10 years for this." (she's waited longer than that really, beefa got to swim in the blue grotto when sharla was 10 so rose has probably waited 15 years).... We ended up doing the island boat tour anyways, because what else were we gonna do? The island boat tour basically just took you around the island. So we did like 45 mins of the boat tour and then end up at the blue grotto and our italian boat driver mutters something in itali-english and says that they are letting people in and that we have to wait a while. We ended up waiting like 1.5 hrs on the boat bc rowboats have to come get you and take you into the actual blue grotto. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. my sister had said the blue grotto wasn't that great. SHE LIED. and kelsey is sometimes a hater. if you ever have the chance to go to the blue grotto. DO IT. it was one of the coolest things i've ever gotten to do. basically you are in this amazing cave that the water is lit up by the light coming in and it is SO BLUE and so clear, it's beautiful. and our rowboat guy was super cool and let us jump out of the boat and swim!! when we got back to the island, we kind of just hung out, shopped, and layed on the beach. there was a really fat italian baby that kept trying to lay on sharla's towel next to me, sad day.

at the top of st. peter's basilica (the vatican)

throwing money into the trevi

bike riding

when in rome, eat cesear salad at hard rock cafe

After being in southern italy, on Sunday, we headed to rome on another train. Sunday was really busy. We went to the vatican and climbed to the top of the basilica and let me tell you, they have warnings like if you have heart or health problems don't climb it. Pay attention to the warnings. It's definitely a endurance climb with lots of steps, small stairwells (definitely in Four's fear sequence - bc of heights and small spaces, yes divergent reference). OH and we also saw the pope give his blessing from the window at noon. that was fun, bc i've never done that before and it was fun bc sharla is catholic and wanted to see the pope. He did not however do a mass on Wednesday morning which was a bust - bc it's summer and apparently he just doesn't do them every week in the summer. SUCH A BUMMER. and the Trevi fountain and the spanish steps were under massive construction. like the Spanish steps... me da igual (i could care less about). they are great but they aren't the trevi. i was really disappointed about the trevi fountain. it was completely drained. and it is one of my FAVORITE things in the world. so i was bummed. Rome was beautiful like it always is and it was so much fun to be back there again. Rose and I did super fun things like we went on a bike ride through villa borghese and on our last night in rome.... we saw the lumineers. the concert was at a horseracing track, so it was a pretty big venue / stage. but bc the lumineers were once a really small indie band and used to play for like 50 people, they were like oh at our bigger venues we like to come out into the crowd to make it more intimate. and then they were 2 feet away from me. and it was life changing. i mean every time i see them in concert, it.is.life.changing.

honestly, i saw them almost 2 years ago at the fonda theater in LA and i hadn't listened to their whole album yet. and i was in a bad place, broken hearted, and just having a rough time. and bails had an extra ticket to their show and asked me to go. and they were AMAZING. it was the first time i had felt myself in a long time. and that's how music should be, it should be healing, and intimate, and pure joy, and it should just make you feel alive and yourself and healed. anyways, i had been dying to see them again. and rose and i just love them. and they were just as amazing. it was the best and most fun way to end my trip with sharlar. it was such a fun memory, like some day when we are old and best friends still we'll have to tell our kids about our spain/italy trip and what awesome things we got to do.

tommasi cantina 

verona bridge

in the colosseum in verona

arona

From there sharla went home on an early am flight, and i woke up and wondered if it had all been a dream. and the next day I headed to Arona, Italy, where one of my friends from grad school lives, Elizabeth Gates. Arona was so fun, and so green! and had a lake in the middle of the town. It was so pretty. It is about an hour outside of Milan and Elizabeth and her husband are there while he is working as an engineer for an American company and she is raising their daughter. I got to hangout in their town, eat gelato, play with their daughter Julia, and eat amazing italian food for a few more days. On Friday, we drove to Verona (near Venice), which is the town that Romeo and Juliet is based on. We went and saw Juliet's house, the colosseum, and just explored the town. We also went to the Tommasi cantina (wine cellar / store) which was super fun. There is a Tommasi red wine that Elizabeth and Tyler love, that I actually really really liked. (I don't usually drink red wine.) After that, we went back to Arona and I had one more day with them in Arona. Elizabeth taught me how to make mushroom risotto and eggplant parmesan, so now I will have to practice and cook more things for myself in the coming year. It was so much fun to be able to spend time with Elizabeth, Tyler, and Julia.

Finally, I headed home to madrid. I was literally in Madrid for less than 24 hours. I basically just dropped off my bags and packed a new one (with clean clothes) and jumped on a bus to sevilla the next morning. I was in sevilla hanging out with Manoli (love my manoli SO MUCH) and elli, and eating my favorite foods for the weekend and finally headed back to madrid on Saturday evening.

It has been a really busy month and whirlwind. I've been in Madrid for the last 3 days and will hop on a really long plane home to my dad and my family on Thursday morning. I'm ready, I miss them a lot. Things I can't wait for: to hug my dad, to eat at gringos / la cabanita, to eat at lemonade, to drive, to see my mom, to go to dodger games, sister concerts, to go to target, to listen to country radio in my car, to go the beach, and to go to movies in the park.

semana santa with my dad: barcelona, lisbon, paris, & madrid

Never in my life have I been told more that I look so much like my dad. When he visited, both my friends here and my teachers from school, were just awed that I look so much like him. I guess it's because a lot of people here haven't seen me next to my mom in person, but I think I look like her too. A little more like dad though, especially when we are next to each other. I don't mind though, because he is one of my favorite people in the world, so being more like him isn't a bad thing.

So for dad's trip, I just have to say it was SO GOOD to see my dad and have him here. It's nice when the people you love want to know about your life and experience and see it, and know that you are happy and why. So it was just really nice to share this world him. It was nice to share not only Madrid with him, but the wanderlust travel side of my life that a lot of people don't really understand until they see it or experience it with me. AND understanding that traveling and adventuring is fun, but living out of a dirty suitcase, and running to make metros or trains, or missing flights, or eating super cheap food because you're on a budget, is not always as glamorous as it seems to be.

Anyways, so we started in Barcelona and got to see all my favorite things there. Barcelona was a good hub for us to travel out of and it's a great Spanish city to see, so we began our trip there. Dad flew into BCN from LAX and flew in that same morning from Madrid. I've been to Barcelona before (on 2 different occasions, once w mom and once with Joyce & Harold) but it's so incredible with all the Gaudi art and the beach, I didn't mind going again to show dad around. We did all my favorite things, we went to La Boqueria (awesome open air market with fresh food, some tapas restaurants, fresh juices, but also spanish fresh meat/fish/veggie market), La Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, the Picasso Museum, the Olympic stadium, Casa Mila, and the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. Dad had his share of tapas, and on our last day there we also ate at Moaz Veg which is this awesome falafel place that I love, but they are super scarce in the world.

Unfortunately, it wasn't super hot while we were there to enjoy the beach. BUT my dad HATES the beach anyways so it's a moot point. I don't really understand how you can be a Los Angeles native and Californian for life and hate the beach but, he does.

Next, we flew to Lisbon, Portugal. Everyone told me that I would love Lisbon and that it's beautiful and super small and cultural, and I love cities like that (like Prague, and like Sevilla). And I was super excited to go because I had never been there before!! Lisbon was small, and super hilly. It reminded me of a really old San Francisco, I think that Tito (MK) would like it because she loves San Francisco and will never come home. Anyways, so Lisbon. The first day we were there we kind of just walked around and explored. I made my dad walk down to the ocean with me (which was like a 10 min walk from where we were staying) even though he hates the beach. But there wasn't really a beach, it was more port ish, kind of like parts of the port of Long Beach.

Dad hating the beach

Teresa & I

Us in the GoCar

Dad driving the GoCar

If you visit me, I'll make you do stupid things like pose as a fish...

Dad & a penguin

The city was really old, not as kept up as I thought it would be. Our first night there, we met up with Teresa (my roommate from the fall in Madrid). Teresa was on Erasmus (our version of study abroad type thing but in Europe) in Madrid and she went back to school in Lisbon at the end of January. I was really excited to see her and we almost missed each other because she was going back to Braga (her hometown from northern portugal) for Easter vacation, the next day. I didn't realize how much I missed her until we were having dinner. It was soooo good to catch up with her and just talk about life, because she knows what my life is like here so it was really fun for me because she gets it. I'm so glad I got to see her, and I'm sure that I'll be back sometime to see her or we even talked about meeting up somewhere this summer.

That night, we researched what we wanted to see/plans for the next day. At the tourist office, we got a flyer for GoCar, which is actually a scooter but in the shape of a mini baby car. So the GoCar has a GPS that leads you on a guided tour, but you drive it all around. And Lisbon isn't that easily walkable because it has so many steep hills, so dad and I (but mostly dad) thought this would be a great idea to go sightseeing around Lisbon and to Belem. It was definitely an adventure, it was super fun, but we got lost a lot and there were a lot of one way or small streets that we couldn't turn on. I would only ever do something like that with my dad so I'm glad we had that experience. It let us see Lisbon in a different way which was really cool. We also got to see the Oceanario, which was huge and amazing. And it had jellies (i love jelly fish). We got to see penguins, sea otters, tons of fish, sharks, etc. It's almost as cool as the Long Beach Aquarium.

The next day, we took a day trip to Sintra to see the Palácio Nacional da Pena and the Moorish Castle. Both the Moorish Castle and Palácio Nacional da Pena are in the Sintra mountains and Sintra-Cascais Nature Park. The National Park is a World Heritage Site classified by UNESCO in 1995. I mainly wanted to see the Palacio de Pena, which is this great big princess palace!! Seriously, from fairy tales. It was gorgeous, and medieval, and painted pink, purple, and yellow. It was really fun to go there and see the palace because I had heard so much about it from friends of mine. It was definitely worth the trip to Lisbon and the train to Sintra. Dad also wanted to see the Morrish Castle while we were there, so we hiked along this castle/defense wall up to the top of these strategic look out points. In reality, the Moorish Castle wasn't really a castle but a series of defense walls, so that was a little disappointing, but it had really cool views of the whole National Park and the Sintra mountains.

All that being said, I didn't love Lisbon as much as I thought I would, maybe because I had really high expectations, and it turned out to be an older city, not as kept up, and not as walkable, and the beach didn't really exist. Even so, it was really fun to explore somewhere new with my dad and to see Teresa.

The next city we went to was Paris. I always have mixed experiences in Paris. The first time I went, I was 18 and it was time in Europe, so it's super nostalgic and with mixed memories of high school friends and Jenna/I's crazy backpacking trip. The last I went, it was with Joyce and Harold and it was super awesome because it was our first city in our month Europe trip, and I hadn't been back since I had lived in Sevilla. So I've had really interesting experiences in Paris, the first not so great and I didn't like it and the second time, I loved the city. So this time, was nice because I still have good feelings about Paris and I wasn't rushed to see everything. Dad and I did all the things we wanted to see because we did one of those big red bus hop-on-hop-off tours. We went to the Eiffel Tower, the Lourve, the Moulin Rouge, Sacre de Coeur, the Arc de Tromphe, Champs-Elysees, Notre Dame, etc. One thing that I've also always wanted to do was take a day trip to Giverny. In Giverny, in the Normandy province of France, is Claude Monet's old country house and gardens that inspired his famous "Water Lily Pond" painting from 1899. It is a dream garden. And I had always dreamed of going, so it was definitely something I got to cross off my bucklist. Dad said the water lilies (Japanese garden) was idyllic. It was super serene and peaceful. Such a great place in a painter's heart. I loved the flower garden though. The mix of colors and different flowers was awesome, it was just gorgeous. It's one of those places you describe really, and pictures don't do it justice. It's a being there thing.

At the top of the Arc de Triomphe

 On the hop-on, hop-off bus

Dad in front of the Lourve

Eiffel Tower by night! I swear, he had more fun than this... he just didn't know I was taking a picture

Giverny!!!

After Barcelona, Lisbon, and Paris, we came back to Madrid. I love traveling, but it was really nice to finally be home. That's one of the things I love most about living abroad and getting to travel on weekends, is that you have a home base and it's nice to be grounded every once in a while. I had to go back to school on Tuesday so we had a super short time in Madrid. We went and did a few touristy things in Madrid like Mercado de San Miguel, the Crystal Palace, etc. Dad had his share of Spanish jamón (ham) and tapas including spanish tortilla de patata, paella, and other favorites. It was nice because he got to see my life and meet my teachers/friends too. It was sad to see him go but we had such a good trip!! I'm so glad that he came.

Last weekend, I was in Marbella/Gibraltar and this coming weekend I will be in Sevilla for Feria (that reminds me, I need to tell my Manoli that I'm coming). Life has been so busy so I will update you later on my beach weekend in Marbella and my undying love for Andalucía. I literally haven't fully unpacked bags for almost a month now, since I have been traveling so much -- and I am finishing this blog post as I repack my bag for Feria in Sevilla tomorrow. I can't wait to be home and see my Manoli.

Things to look forward to: LESS THAN 2 MONTHS UNTIL SHARLA COMES (!!!!). and I will be home August 1st. I can't wait for Dodger games, and my family, and the beach, and the California sun, and hiking, sister concerts, and Lemonade, and my friends.