The Mediterranean: Cruzando en un Crucero!

It's hard to to capture in words how very excited I was to see Peter, Jessie, and Aunt Serena in the Barcelona train station and to board our ship, the Norwegian Epic, for an 8 day journey around the Mediterranean.  They had quite the travel-extravaganza arriving to Barcelona, and many times as we my mom and I sat in the station we thought we may be going it alone for another 8 days.  When they arrived, we were thrilled to see one another and to start out on our vacation!  *Please note, that while traveling has been above and beyond thrilling (and in this case, extremely luxurious), there is a difference between travel and vacation.

We headed to the port, picking up a t-shirt and underwear for Peter on the way in Las Ramblas, because his luggage had been lost on the way.  This shirt would be the one in each of the photos that we took for the next 4 days until we arrived in Rome and the underwear, Superman and Batman designed will live on forever. Somehow his suitcase magically showed up on the cruise, making Norwegian the best cruise line ever. Amazing really!

But back in Barcelona, we strolled down Las Ramblas and then we quickly got aboard the nicest cruise I have ever seen.  The ship is new this year, and was voted the top entertainment ship, featuring the Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, a dueling piano bar, pool tabels, two bowling alleys and more.  So just in case Florence, Rome, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, and Barcelona did not have enough to offer- we were covered!  

Honestly, the days on here were amazing!  I have so many great stories to add here, but for now will tell them through photos and a quick blurb (each of these photos comes with a story).

Atop the Duomo, the 442 stairs were worth it!! 

A four-course dinner with that view wasn't so bad!!

Enjoying the rest of the Italian wine before boarding for Rome! There is an actual story here in which Peter and Jessie had me buy a bottle of wine to drink on the train, accidentally got separated, drank the wine with strangers, and showed up back at the boat happy as could be; while in the meantime I stood for the hour long train ride surrounded by sweaty strangers and NO wine.  I'm not bitter; I'm just also not the one smiling in this pic! :) 

Enjoying the huge funnel slide on board!  One of three slides :). 

Where Jessie learned here best, and most frequently used Spanish phrase, "Yo gané".  

Strolling the streets of Capri!  Life is pretty darn good. 

We rented bikes in Mallorca!  My favorite day :). 

Park Güell

   

The endless journey to chocolate and churros at Cafe Laitana (that didn't exist) 

Heading back to Madrid on the Ave! 

Paris: Take 2

So, as it was our last night in the City of Lights, we mustered up the courage and strength to go into Paris to see at least the Eiffel Tower!  Well, the truth is I begged my mom to go and she said (VERY RELUCTANTLY) yes.  :)

The train ride is was easy, minus the two drug deals and non-stop pot smoking going on around us.  I just looked out the window and tried to take it all in, looking for the positive.  As we arrived at night fall, it was really wonderful to walk up to the Eiffel Tower all lit up.  I ate a crepe from a food truck, snapped a few photos with my mom, and then as we were about to walk back the tower began to sparkle.  It had a little bit of a magical feel to it, and despite the last week in Paris being so awful, I liked it for this moment.

After enjoying the magic of Paris for about 3 minutes in 3 days, we decided to head back to the hotel.  As we rode our train back towards the airport, it came to an unexpected and very LONG stop.  We looked at one another, a bit concerned as it was almost 1 a.m., and then she attempted to ask the man across from me if he spoke English and knew what was going on.  Quickly, everyone seemed so eager to help!  "Amazing!" I thought,  "here are all of these Parisians making up for the bad reputation."  My mom began to explain where we were going and talking like she does, a million miles per hour.  Everyone looked a bit confused, but still willing to help.  "Slower, mom", I told her.  She explained again, and that is when everyone looked a little discouraged/disappointed/I am projecting because it was how I felt- who KNOWS what they were thinking honestly.  

Well, the train stops running at midnight, and so we would have to take a connecting bus to get to the airport.  The last one was to leave in about 10 minutes and we would need to get off, walk a block in the dark, in some RANDOM neighborhood in Paris, in order to make it back.  The fact that I am writing this now means we made it.  But really Paris?  Really? 

The next day we could not get to the train station early enough to head to Spain!  We arrived about 4 hours early.  I told my mom, as it was the middle of the day and I was in the center of Paris, that I was going to at least peek around a bit.  I found myself strolling the streets, checking out Notre Dame, buying a key chain (dear God, who knows why!?!?), and then heading back to the station to sit with my mom and her new British friends she had met during the hours sitting there.  At this moment, I am SO looking forward to meeting up with Jessie, Peter, and Aunt Serena and enjoying the Mediterranean by boat.  

Au revior France!!!  Au revior!! 

Paris ain’t much of a town. -Babe Ruth

Oh, the allure of going to Paris, on the map seemingly so close to Switzerland, and "on the way" back to Spain all seems a bit under-analyzed at this moment.  My mom and I have spent the past THREE of our four days in Paris in the Hilton hotel at Paris Charles de Gaulle by the airport.  I almost don't even want to write this story, because looking at it now it seems as though so much here could be prevented.  

After a 9 hour train ride from Interlaken to Paris, we arrive at Gare du Norde (one of the busiest train stations in the world) at 5pm on a Friday.  Needless to say, it was a little busy.  I normally remain pretty calm and collected in crazy travel situations, and after asking 3 information desks for help (in Spanish because no one would speak to me in English) and standing in the longest line of all time to purchase a ticket to head to our hotel (almost 40 mins outside the city) with no success, I began to feel a bit frustrated.  So my mom and I decided it was best to grab a quick bite to eat in the train station, just so that we could take a moment refuel and recollect ourselves.  Who knows what I ate, a quiche of some sort; but my mom went for pizza (a strange choice for a French train station, no?).  It was a French looking pizza (whatever that means- I've been in France for 3 days), but it was.  We ate, and then tried again to purchase our tickets.  

With the help of a kind stranger, we managed to get our tickets and navigate our way to our train.  Now, at about 6pm in madness of the train station we got on the line to take us out of the city towards Charles de Gaulle.  With suitcases in hand, we hopped on quickly to squeeze in before the doors closed.  Sure enough, I hear a man's voice behind me say "pick pocket".  In this moment I look down and see a young girls hand in MY bag!!!  She quickly takes it out and  I yell back to my mom, "Mom, put your hands on your stuff!!"  In my moment of overwhelmed panic, knowing that this girl was inches from my passport and wallet, all I could think to yell was "YOU SHOULD WORK!!!"  Yes, I know it wasn't clever, wasn't in French, and honestly, she probably thought to herself, "I AM working".  In that moment I remember feeling so violated, so overwhelmed, and like I wanted to go home.  And in that moment, my mom and I got off at the next station just to re-group.  My mom's initial reaction was "Let's go to Spain!!"  Which I thought was cute that she felt more at home and safer in Spain than France; but I had just rode 9 hours to get to Paris and one little punk ass pick pocketer wasn't going to ruin that for me.  After calming down a bit, we decided to get back on the train and head to the hotel.  

Upon arrival at the Hilton (have I mentioned I like traveling with my mom?), we checked in to the room.  The front desk worker informed us that we had been upgraded to a "junior suite".  This we felt like was God's way of saying "sorry you had such a hard day, here rest your pretty heads in this luxurious space with awesome white robes and a view".  I mean, it's a lot to imagine God saying, but still, I could have swore I felt it was the modern day version of those verses in Ephesians chapter 1 about rich blessings.  Sure enough we check-in and the room is HUGE, for American standards let alone French ones.  

There my mom mentions that she isn't feeling very well and that her stomach has really began to act up a bit.  For the next THREE days, she is ill.  Oh that damn French pizza!!!  Because of the pick pocket incident on the metro, she feels extremely uncomfortable with me going into the city alone.  Fear isn't rational.  I stay in the hotel and eat at the airport for all of my days in Paris.  I just keep wondering what the workers at the two hotel restaurants (that were outside the terminal) think when they see me there for 2-3 meals a day.  Even more, I keep thinking, "Paris is overrated!"  

In my mind Paris is: a nice hotel room, a stomach flu, a pickpocket-punk-ass-girl, and LOTS of expensive airport food.  Bienvenue! 

Guten morgen, Tour de Suisse and the hostel extravaganza: A few days in Switzerland

Upon arriving in Iseltwald, we made our way down the quiet streets to our lodging for the evening.  We were both EXHAUSTED!!  The night before we slept in Milan, in which we arrived at about 1am in the rain, checked into our small hotel situated on what sounded like the road itself, and then decided to stay up until about 3 am chatting.  At this moment in Iseltwald, tired defined both of us (which for two Close girls is NOT a good thing).  So, as I was saying, we made our way to our lodging, Lake Lodge.

Lake Lodge, while by no means the Hilton in Venice, is a quaint little spot.  It is a four-story lodge where a friendly man greeted us at the front desk and within moments we were in our room and ready to rest up for the night!  I hadn't shared with my mom that the place was found on hostelworld.com and that we may have to share a restroom with others before this arrival, thinking there was no need to give such details, and that she would be happy with the somewhat economical choice (it is Switzerland after all where sneezing costs you about 12 CHF) that it wouldn't matter too much.  Well, as I settled into the low Ikea bed in our room and quickly fell asleep, it wasn't quite the same experience for my mom.  She had arrived at that point of overtired.  Overtired, in an Ikea bed, with neighbors who may or may not have been smoking pot, a fly that had come in through the window and buzzed around her head while she tried to sleep and my poor mom just couldn't sleep.  She also quickly awoke me to inform me that she couldn't stay at this place either.  As she sat in the corner, exhausted and overwhelmed, I wanted nothing more than to tell her to go back to sleep because everything feels better with sleep.  It didn't happen.

So, after explaining to the kind front desk man that we would not be staying this evening, WALKING through Iseltwald with our luggage to find a new place to stay (that would definitely not on the same economical scale as our little Lake Lodge), we did indeed find something.  And yes, the view was PRICELESS.  I will try to capture it here with photos; but know that no photo can handle the goodness that we saw as we walked on our porch for the first time.

This is what we saw as we ate bread and cheese from our balcony!
Wow, I'm glad Lake Lodge didn't work out.  

 The next day, after some great rest we decide to go into Interlaken.  As touristy as it could be, we hopped aboard this little train to get the experience of this amazing place from this local Swiss man (whose beard was so cool I felt great in supporting financially).  It was a gorgeous and informative tour- and he eventually dropped us off to explore Interlaken a bit better by foot.  So as we strolled down small streets, which were impeccably clean, we saw flowers, small shoppes, and sure enough out of nowhere- the Tour de Suisse!!  We were in a small shop picking out a Swiss pocket knife as a gift, we we began to hear and see news cameras.  Sure enough, at that very moment, hundreds of cyclists were passing through the very street we were on for the race.  What a very great moment to be in the right place at the right time!

Strolling through Interlaken 

Our Swiss Engineer! 

Tour de Suisse

The days in Switzerland were filled with meals in our favorite place, the grocery story cafe where we ate like 4 out of our 6 meals, an evening stroll through Iseltwald where we came across a traditional Swiss percussion performance, and even met a nice American couple while having dinner.  Although the visit was short (only 3 days), the images and moments from this place will forever be in my mind.

*********************************************************************************
It must be shared, that while we were only here for 3 days, this was about the 9th day of our trip.  For my mom, 9 days without being able to communicate in her own language to just about everyone but me, is like taking a cute little fish out of water.  She wanted to chat so badly with people we met; and while they probably would have understood her English, at this point in the trip she had just kept quiet.  That is of course until our last morning in Iseltwald.  As we were making our way to the morning bus to the train station we passed two men in the street. "Guten morgen" they greeted us with- and from the 3 useful phrases I learned before this trip- "guten morgen" was there for me as a quick reply.  So as I walked on I heard the men greet my mother who was about 20 ft behind, and because I don't speak German it's hard to tell what they said- but sure enough I heard my mom respond "grehg ehrhgjen erheh".  I turned around quickly to see that she had just passed the two men in the street and decided to mimc whatever it was that she heard them say.  We both flashed each other a ridiculous smile- and then as she caught up to me she said "I just CAN'T keep quiet any more!"  My mother decided that making any random noises was better than not talking at all.  Maybe this is where I got my gift for language??  It's hard to say, but now I know that no matter where we go- I've got myself a translator!  :)

Next Stop: Switzerland

So my mom and I had to leave Venice, both of us feeling as though we could have just canceled the rest of the trip and stayed here for the next few weeks (honestly, maybe forever).  Although it's not too bad leave Venice when the next stop is Interlaken, Switzerland!

We decided to schedule the train for mid-day so that we would be able to see the beauty of the Italian and Swiss Alps as we entered.  The woman next to me on the train was Italian, and can I say that despite all of the hype about beautiful Italian women, this one in particular while rather pretty did not wear deodorant.  Phew.  The Swiss Alps now have a smell memory attached that I was NOT planning on associating them with.

After arriving to Interlaken by train, we had to catch a water ferry to Iseltwald.  From the first steps off the train in Interlaken, it almost reminded me of some sort of movie setting.  EVERYTHING was pristine; the grass so well manicured, the buildings clean, the sidewalks without a piece of trash or gum on them.  While I had looked at some photos of Switzerland before, what was before my eyes in terms of nature was something that I could not have prepared myself for in any way.  The water was the deepest turquoise, the mountains provided this gorgeous greenish contrast, and in every direction there was some sort of flower or plant that was like a reminder of God's incredible creativity!  WOW!!  Words really cannot capture the beauty that is Switzerland.

                                           On the ferry ride over 

"Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go." --Truman Capote

Ahhhh- Venezia.  Well, well.  I am enamored.  Truly enamored.  I am not sure that my words will do this place justice.  Every aspect of Venice is captivating and I am dreaming of coming back already.  Wow!  It is hard to imagine a place can be so romantic while traveling with my mother.  It is though.  From the hotel to the small water taxis, to the 3 gelatos in less than 24 hours- I am in love.  The words I put on the page just can't do it justice- so after a night of strolling the streets of Venice, taking a gondola ride, and watching Italian men entertain a plaza full of people with live music- pictures will have to take over from here!  Ah, la dolce vita.

Milano: Due Aeroporti

Buonasera!  It's fun just to think about being in Italy!  A new country on my list, especially one I have always wanted to travel to in my life.  It's amazing the lessons you learn when you travel.  Arriving to Milan provided us one of those "lessons".

So my mom helped to book the hotel for Milan, a contribution that she was really excited about making.  I can tend to be the one who likes to organize and get things together- so when she was wanting to help pick out our hotel I was a tiny bit nervous- but thought "oh, it's the 21st century with Google and maps galore- what could possibly go wrong?".  Well, as we called the hotel to ask where the "free shuttle service" that came with our stay was, they said that it stopped running after 11pm.  It was about 11:20.  We decided to take a cab to the hotel (well, decided is a loose term here).  We got in the cab, and had our big moment to practice Italian.  I managed to say something, half in Spanish I think, and sure enough we were off!  It wasn't until about 16 minutes in that we realized we were really going far on a highway for a hotel that was within 5 miles of the airport.  I managed to pause the driver, who was excited to be practicing his English, and was rattling on about his family.  "Mi scusi, ma dov'è questo hotel?"  (well, let's be real here, I think I asked him in English).  He told us that it was located next to the other airport in Milan.  "WHAT????"  The "other" airport? There are two?  "due"??  He then told us it would about 120 euros for the cab fare and we would get there in about 40 minutes.  Let's just say this was NOT the highlight of arriving to Italy.  My poor mom- she swore she would never book anything alone again (not the travel-spirit I was hoping to promote here).

We arrived to the hotel, a bit tired, a bit depressed, and a lot poorer- but hey- we're in Italy!!  :)  Quale sarà SARA '.

Our amazing Italian breakfast!  Yum!
*with what I can say was my first "real" cappuccino 

Madrid: "Estoy cansada"

So I had a blast with my mom arriving to Madrid.  She officially learned the phrase "estoy cansada" after her first red-eye flight!  She said it about 1.000 times as we made our way through the airport and off to the hotel.

We checked in and decided to stroll around the area a bit.  Most of Spain was still on siesta, but we were excited to be there so off we went!  I am kinda sad to say that I had my first "jamón" today.  Sad because, well, it wasn't all that wonderful- and also because this is my 4th trip to Spain and I really was supposed to have eaten it before.  I suppose this new step into meat eating takes some time.  I guess I will try again- and I can just hear the voice of my friend Carolyn telling me that I ate the "wrong ham", and "how could it not be wonderful?!?".  My vegetarianism has taught me to love foods like tortilla española and paella con verduras and let's be real, nepoletanos de chocolate.  It's hard to change what you love.

After strolling around this far side of Retiro that I have never seen before, we decided to "lay down for a bit".  I had a "quick" call to try to make to my university after getting an email that said I no longer qualify for my scholarship money and will be un-enrolled if I do not call within three days to update my information (yes, that was a fun call to make from a pay phone in the middle of the street after not having slept in 48 hours).  After that pleasant interaction, we went up to the hotel to take our rest.  And yes, with the amazing "Lost in Translation" style curtains that made our room pitch black- we slept.  We slept until the phone rang.  The voice on the other side of the phone asked my mom if she had planned on checking out that day.  "Excuse me?" she responded, waking me from my slumber.  The man at the front desk informed her that check out was at noon and that the room was available for another night if she wanted.  She quickly said no thank you and we jumped out of bed!  It was NOON!  We had been sleeping for almost 16 hours!!  After gathering our things, making ourselves barely presentable for Spanish standards, and "checking out" (we were able to leave our bags so we could spend the day in Madrid.  We then explored La Plaza Mayor, strolled the streets, ate ice cream in Retiro (the part I recognized) and got a bit lost.  Then before I knew it, we were off to the airport to catch our flight to Milan.  So much for "two days" in Madrid :).

Hasta luego y abrazos.

I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane (with my MOM!!!)

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

I'm leaving on a Jet Plane...
Somehow my body has already managed to get into "travel mode". I was up last night until 2:45 and then woke up at 4:30am just to get ready for this big trip. So much for a well rested start. Really, I am more excited for this trip than I can remember being in the past. I am traveling with my Mom! A total newbie to travel. We embark for Madrid tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait to experience things through her eyes. After that- it's all new for me as well. The trip is planned to go like this: Madrid (2 days), Milan (1 night), Venice (2 days), Milan (sleeping only), Interlaken (2 days), Paris (2 days), Nantes (1 day), Barcelona (board a Mediterranean cruise!!!!).... and our ports are Florence/Pisa, Rome, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, and then back to Barcelona. Wow- no wonder I can't sleep. I have so much to do, but I wanted to set the tone- tired and excited and ready to post some BEAUTIFULLY AMAZING photos! For now- Trisha

I'm leaving on a Jet Plane...

Somehow my body has already managed to get into "travel mode". I was up last night until 2:45 and then woke up at 4:30am just to get ready for this big trip. So much for a well rested start. Really, I am more excited for this trip than I can remember being in the past. I am traveling with my Mom! A total newbie to travel. We embark for Madrid tomorrow afternoon and I can't wait to experience things through her eyes. After that- it's all new for me as well. The trip is planned to go like this: Madrid (2 days), Milan (1 night), Venice (2 days), Milan (sleeping only), Interlaken (2 days), Paris (2 days), Nantes (1 day), Barcelona (board a Mediterranean cruise!!!!).... and our ports are Florence/Pisa, Rome, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, and then back to Barcelona. Wow- no wonder I can't sleep. I have so much to do, but I wanted to set the tone- tired and excited and ready to post some BEAUTIFULLY AMAZING photos! For now- Trisha