End Credits

So I'm finally getting around to my last post! Its kind of sad and crazy to believe that just 4.5 months ago I was writing my first post talking about how nervous/excited I was to be going on this trip. January seems ages ago and I think I've really accomplished a lot since then. I'd like to use this last post to kind of sum up my feelings about my semester in Europe and also thank all of you who read my blog! Seriously, it meant so much to know that I had loved ones at home still thinking about me

So the first thing I'd like to do, I guess you could say, is brag a little bit about myself. I'm so proud of everything I've done this semester.

• I have visited 8 countries and 14 cities
• Spain (Sevilla, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada, Madrid, Barcelona)
• France (Paris)
• Ireland (Dublin and the country side)
• Italy (Venice and Rome)
• Germany (Berlin)
• Czech Republic (Prague)
• England (London)
• Portugal (Lisbon)
• I no have the confidence to get around in any city in the world no matter the language or transportation. Whether its a metro, plane, bus, taxi, boat or by foot with only a map in my hand I KNOW I can get around. Something I NEVER would have known how to do before this trip.
• I have overcome the obstacle of not always having the choice/say in the things that I want/need to live comfortably.
• Not being able to chose what I was fed (hotdogs, hamburgers, fries, pizza, every night for dinner)
• Not being able to chose when I ate (11pm dinner every night)
• Not being able to do my own laundry or ask to have it done. Having to go 2-3 weeks with dirty clothes.
• Not being able to say, mom, unclog the sink, thats disgusting. Or dad seriously, do not shave (or smoke) in the clogged sink.
• I have lived thousands of miles away from my family and friends for 4.5 months by myself in an unknown and different city and have discovered what it means to truly be an independent person
• I can now speak Spanish fluently. Even if I don't know a word (which there are still lots of words I don't know, I have the ability and high level vocabulary that I can successfully talk around the word and describe it until my listener understands what I am talking about.
• I understand and comprehend the worst Spanish accent there is (Andalusian!...Ask ANY Spanaird and they will salute you if you can understand Andalusian dialect). They cut off their "s" and "t" and say "th" for "z" and "s". Instead of hasta luego, its said "aa lue", another example is when they say "ya esta", it is pronounce "yata"
• I can even pick up a few speech impediments that a normal listener to Spanish couldn't. (Alaina couldn't hear any difference when a Spanish girl obviously was slurring her "s")

I also thought it might be fun to do a fake award ceremony and tell you my favorites/worsts/tops/and bottoms of everything I was able to see in Europe. I do this because people always ask me what my favorite city was. There is NO answer to that because they were all different and unique in their own way. I really don't have a favorite, but I thought I'd share my favorite aspects of each city.

Best Hostel
1. Dublin
2. Rome
3.Berlin

Worst Hostel
1.Prague

Best Nightlife
1.Barcelona
2.Prague
3.Madrid

Best Church
1.Basilica San Marco-Venice
2.St. James-Prague
3.St. Peter's Basilica-Rome

Prettiest
1.Venice
2.Prague
3.Paris
(Runner Up- Madrid)

Best Parks
1.Madrid
2.Rome
3.London

Best Touristy Attractions
1.Paris
2.Rome
3.London

Best Food
1.Prague
2.Paris
3.Italy

Worst Metro
1.Rome
2.Prague

Best Metro
1. Sevilla (one year old, only one line)
2.Paris (best biggest metro)

Friendliest Citizens
1.Paris
2.Dublin
3.London

Rudest Citizens
1.Rome
2.Prague

Best people met in the hostels
1. Barcelona
2.Rome

Yay! I can't believe I'm done with my semester abroad already! It has gone by so fast and I had such a wonderful experience. I've caught the travel bug and already have 2 future trips planned out. I want to see the world now and these past 4.5 months have really given me a step up to get out in the world and do so!!! It was the semester of a lifetime and I am so thankful to have been given the chance to travel abroad!

Venice!

Wow, wow wow! Venice was seriously the most beautiful city I have ever seen. I was just so fascinated by it. Picture 150 canals, 117 islands, 400 bridges and 0 cars. Then listen to the sounds. No motors, no honking, just the chatter of people and birds throughout the island to be joined by the tantalizing smell of the ocean, fish and amazing food. Venice was the picture perfect city. I think I took a bajillion pictures of the similar subject, canal, bridge and cute little houses. All so different in their own way that you can't help not to take a picture. Here are some examples :)

Once we checked into the creepy hostel, A Venice Museum, we decided to make our way to the main attraction in Venice, San Marco Basilica. I have to admit that I was pretty confident that I could succesfully get around any city in the world after my 5 months in Europe. However, Venice, like el centro de Sevilla was filled with skinny little nameless streets that twisted and turned and then ended up being dead ends. After about a 1/2 hour of trying to use the map, we just decided to use the "go in the general direction" and "follow the people" plan of action, and it worked pretty well.

While Rome was the most crowded city and hustle/bustle city I've been to, Venice was the laziest. There are probably less than 6 big attractions to see with 4 of them being museums, which we didn't want to do. What we did go to, as I mentioned before, was the San Marco Basilica which was my favorite church ever (and I've seen about a bajillion). We couldn't take pictures, but I'll steal some off the internet to give you an idea of the fabulous golden interior that was San Marco.

Prettiest outside annnd inside!

Literally the reast of the day we did nothing but get lost in the narrow streets of Venice, have a long relaxing lunch served by a man named Fabio, and go to the park and read/ Although I felt that we should be going, going goin, we had a good full day set up for Thursday and decided to "do as the Venetians do" (as Alaina liked to say) and enjoy the city the relaxing way.

Thursday was such a fun day. We got up early and jumped on a bus (which is actually a boat!) and headed out to two of the more popular islands off of Venice. The first one was called Murano and is really famous for their glass making. (If you didn't know, Venice sells the most beautiful glass pieces ever! Alaina and I bought all kinds of jewelry from the different stores in Venice.) Murano was built a lot like Venice with canals and such, but definitely wasn't as pretty. I think of the island as more of a factory island. There were a few little factories and glass blowing shops which we got to see, but it was more industrial then anything else.

The next island we headed to was called Burano and was about a 45 minute boat ride from Venice. It was the cutest island I have ever ever seen! Every single building was brightly colored. Pictures do not do this place justice! It was just so cute!!! It is also famous for their lace making, so lots of lace stores were all over the streets, which was really neat.

As you can tell, Venice was just the all around cutest city ever! While there wasn't much to do and I definitely wouldn't suggest staying more than 2 days (or even a day), it is still a city everyone HAS to see!!!

When in Rome, do what the Romans do!

This great quote was used every five seconds. Now, I'm not really sure what exactly Alaina meant by saying that we need to do what the Romans do (since she thinks that this is a common quote everyone uses), but it kind of gives you an insight to all of the funny things I got to hear her say. I'm sure the girls at the bank can appreciate this as well :) Alaina was also EXTREMELY confused at the euro system. She just didn't understand how it could be different than the dollar. Also, she loved to break out in an English accent (since we were in London and all) about every other conversation we had.

So as you can tell just by my little introduction, Alaina and I had a great time in Rome! Sure, we fought to the point of no return at least once a day, but in minutes we were best friends again laughing non stop. It was great to travel with Alaina. Other than her, my family, and my two closest friends can I ever really be myself and show my bad side when I'm frustrated or my weird goofy self when I choose to be. I don't think I've laughed so much the entire time I was in Spain as I did with Alaina.

The first day in Rome, we literally hit EVERYTHING! We heard the Vatican was a half day affair and since we didn't get started in Rome until 2:30, we decided to hit as much as possible on Monday. Here are pictures from the major sites we hit on Monday!

Alaina posing in the Piazza del Popolo (A little disappointing because of all of the construction going on!)

The Spanish Steps! Beginning of the Via Condotti, the street with the best stores ever! Dior, Burberry, Gucci, LV, Armani, Jimmy Chu.

Alaina and I at the Piazza de Venizia

Trevi Fountain. Prettiest fountain ever!

Colosseum!

Roman Forum. A huge area of ruins near the Colosseum

Pantheon

Piazza Navona

We seriously did all of these sites in one afternoon! Although Rome is big, a lot of the main sites are reall pretty close to each other. There are two metro lines, but they are horrible! For a capital city so populated and big, I've never heard of it only having 2 metro lines. Paris, London, Madrid and other big cities I've visited have all had at least 10 lines. Also, the metros in Rome were always SO crowded. I mean, I really don't like crowds anyways, but being packed into the metro like sardines really wasn't the most enjoyable thing

Speaking of crowds, I just have to comment that Rome was the most crowded city I have ever been to. I've been to famous Paris, London for the wedding of the century, and still haven't ever seen anything like it. No matter where you went in the city, you were behind loads of people on the streets, all walking really really slow and not letting you get by. The Italians are no different than the rest of the Europeans who literally have no clue that you are trying to pass them or that they're in your way or if they just cut you off. It's quite frustrating, especially in a big crowd.

We went to bed pretty early our first night since we hadn't slept for 38 hours, but woke up Tuesday morning refreshed and ready to hit the streets. When we got off the metro near the Vatican City, we were stopped by tour guides who were advertising a tour of the Vatican for 40 euro. At first we were like no way, but to get into the museums with an audio tape, it costs 26 euro, so actually 14 euro for a tour guide who was great, took us through everything, explained all parts and areas of the painting in the sistine chapel and made sure to hit the important paintings and sculptures in the Vatican museums. I'm really glad we signed up for it because the Vatican museum is HUGE! It's only 2nd in size to the Louvre in Paris and would've been first if Napoleon wouldn't have stolen artifacts from the museum in Rome. It's so big that if you were to spend 5 min on every object in the Vatican museums, you would be in there for 7 years!

The Vatican museum is host to the famous Sistine Chapel. It was so gorgeous and mind blowing, but kind of frustrating because you literally only had 3 minutes in there. The guards were moving everyone out almost as soon as you got in and also kept yelling at people to be quiet. I didn't take any pictures because it was prohibited, but it was definitely something everyone needs to see!

Even the Pope gets the Baby Schabe feeling :)

Vatican City. Smallest Country in the world! 

St. Peter's Basilica. Gorgeous!

The big fortress that used to guard the Vatican City

We then headed to the beautiful Villa Borghese, which is a huge, heart shaped park that used to be some man (named Borghese's) estate. We started at one end of the park and headed to the opposite end where we were searching for the Museo e Galleria Borghese that is housed in the old Borghese Villa. I had read about it in my handy dandy travel book, but wasn't informed that it was "pre-booking" only. The tickets were sold out for this museum until Friday, 4 days in advance! I've never heard of a museum being prebook only and was really surprised at how popular it must be. Alaina had really wanted to go in because she had taken an art class last fall and had learned about many of the artists (Bernini, Carvagio, Raphael, etc) and their sculptures and paintings featured in the Borghese museum. We were a little bummed since we had walked all the way there, but for me, once you've seen one museum you've seen them all. However, luck was on Alaina's side because some lady from Seatle came up to us as we wre leaving and said she had two extra tickets if we'd like them for free (20 euro value!) So we said yes and went into the museum, saw the big artists Alaina wanted to see then headed to dinner.

view from the park

pretty cool shaped park!

There wasn't much variation to what we ate in Italy, but no matter what, it was all delicious. Pizza, pasta, pizza, and gelato was our main diet. We ate different kinds of pizza every time and loved them all. Our favorite was Capriccio that had eggs, artichoke, mushrooms, bacon, ham and olives loaded onto it. We got that kind probably 4 times.

We were happy with every meal except the lunch after the tour of the Vatican. We split a pizza (10 euro) and got two soft drinks. Most of the time, a can of coke (NEVER any refills in europe) is about 2.50 each, so we weren't planning on anything expensive. When I got the bill and saw we owed 28 dollars (when it should have been closer to 15) I was appalled. The cans of coke cost 5 euro each and the man charged us EACH 3 euros for 1 basket of rolls (which all the other places gave it to you for free) and a 2 euro service charge. I asked the waiter if it was correct and he said yes. We were pretty frustrated and upset, but we had already eaten and there really wasn't much we could do. We learned our lesson and next time will make sure to ask for the prices of everything!

At the end of the day, we headed back to the coolest hostel ever (with a restaurant and bar on the bottom floor), The Yellow and met our really cool roomates. I love traveling because you meet so many cool people .There were two guys from Singapore (did you know the official language there is English!??!) who were traveling for 5 months, a 30 year old man who was already divorced, a 20 year old guy from Alabaaama, and a girl from New Zealand.

All in all Rome was such a great city! It was definitely a city I wish I could have spent more time in, but with only 2 days, I think Alaina and I were champs at seeing everything we did. I loved how there is SOO much history and background that is still standing thousands of years old and then modern things sitting right by it. Rome is just a really neat mix of old and new and it was the perfect city to start off my trip with Alaina!

Alaina Comes To Europe

So as you can tell by my title, Alaina came to visit me in Europe! She came Friday morning right after my final exam ended Thursday night. I ended taking a train to get her in Madrid because she only had an hour to go through customs, security and get to another terminal that was a bus ride away. I'm really glad I was so familiar with Madrid's airport because I knew exactly where she would have to go and that there was NO way she would have time to make her plane to Sevilla. Once I found her with a Sorority sister's sister, I took her back to Sevilla happy as could be to finally see my little baby sister :)
 
It was amazing seeing Alaina after 4 1/2 long months. In the past week, I had been getting very anxious to leave my host family and see my family. In the past month that I had been staying in the apartment, we had been served a steady diet of hotdogs/hamburgers/pizza with tuna/ or chicken nuggets for every meal. Also, our sink had been clogged since I got home from the Prague trip. When I say clogged I literally mean that the water only left through the hole near the faucet. It was made worse when after his shower, David would shave his chest and put on makeup, all the while smoking and depositing the ashes the sink. YUMMMMYYYY.

Although I still missed my parents terribly, a little bit of that anxiety was quelled by seeing Alaina. On Friday, I had a touch of home after what seemed like a lifetime ago. It was also the perfect way to end my stay in Sevilla. I got to walk and tour all throughout Sevilla and once again, really apreciate its beauty, rather than walking to and from class everyday. I made sure Alaina got to see and do some of my favorite things in Sevilla. While some of the activities were touristy (like the catedral and alcazar), I think it is so cool that I was able to show her a different side of Sevilla only someone who lives there would know. I took her to a bar (only identified to locals by its red door in a back alley) called the Carboneria where they have free flamenco shows and a popular drink called agua de Sevilla. (Here's a video of flamenco. I don't think I ever showed you all a video of it :))

I think Alaina also made me realize how much I've learned in Spain. I guess I never really paid attention to how well I speak Spanish because I just do it every day. Whenever I had conversations with the locals/waiters/my family, I just kind of assumed Alaina understood but of course she didn't. I felt pretty cool.

When Alaina and I dropped off our luggage at the Madrid airport on our way to Rome, my new language ability really hit me. A Londoner was in the room with us and very frazzled. Her husband had had a stroke on the plane and she was trying to store her bags and then run off to the airport. Unfortunately the man working only spoke Spanish and she only spoke English. I could tell that they were having difficulties, so I finally asked her if I could help and ended up being their translator. It was so cool!

Alaina and I stayed in Sevilla from Friday until late Sunday night then took my last ever torture 6 hour bus ride to catch a plane in Madrid for Rome the next morning! Leaving Sevilla was very uneventful. I didn't even say goodbye to my family (who I thought were going to drive us to the bus station). I told them what time I was leaving, but I was home an hour before I left and a few minutes after when we were going to leave. I left them a note saying bye, but still haven't heard anything from them on facebook. O well, most everyone from the program was disapointed with their homestay. Most families do it for the money. Its just different then in the US. In America, we'd take them out to eat, include them in our every day activities and would never think of not saying goodbye to someone who had lived with us for 5 months. Also, I was a little frustrated because we spent quite a bit of money on the family buying them thank you gifts and Laura's shirt was too big and she flat out threw a fit yelling that she didn't want it and hated it (in front of me, my sister annndd her mom). Oh well, its over now!

We had gorgeous weather the entire week!

Little Lainy finding a comfy pillow face first in my backpack

Changes

Hi! So I know I said not another blog until I came home, but I didn't promise, and I didn't take into consideration how much I was going to hate studying this week. Seriously! Its everyone's last week in Europe and they expect us to study?! Yeah no.

Anyways, I thought I'd jot down some of the changes that have happened recently/will be happening.

1. I decided to switch up the picture on my blog (yeah I know a little late in the game huh?). But that was a picture of El Plaza de Espana en Sevilla. I've lived in Sevilla for 5 months, but I've also seen the world. I think the new background is a little bit better at depicting my European adventures.

2. Its no longer pleasantly warm. Its HOT. Not humid hot. HOT HOT. Today the weather was at 37 degrees celsius, which is over 100 degrees. Try walking to and from class (45 min walk). Yeah no fun. I no longer can walk to class without having a water bottle in my purse. (Ps we still aren't using airconditioning and we don't have ice, so i'm always hot, even when I have water!!). I'd also like to point out that every time I say. "ay! que calor!" my Spanish family (or favorite ice cream lady) tell me I haven't seen anything yet. O dear! Good thing I won't be here for the summer!

3. Some other changes are coming my way in 10 days! I'll be home! I'm very excited to go home and see my family and friends. I have loved all of my experiences over here so much, but being away from home that long really makes you appreciate what you have back at home.

I'd like to share some changes that I will be glad will be taking place.
-Living with my real family and seeing my much missed friends
-Having my own room.
-Not sharing one bathroom and shower with 6 people.
-Being able to run/work out every day
-Choosing what I want to eat and drink when I want to eat drink. Aka no hotdogs and hamburgers every night at 11pm and no water all day every day.
       -Being able to eat a huge salad, baked potato, corn on the cob, any type of veggies or fruits
-Working so I can actually have an income and not an outcome
-Having heat and air conditioning. (When it was Jan and Feb I slept in 3 pairs of sweats, 2 sweatshirts a coat, gloves and a hat and still froze. Now its too hot to sleep).
-Not getting stared at/hooted and hollered at
-Sit and watch American TV
-Having my cell phone and texting!! YAYAY!
-Being able to drive, even if i despise my car sometimes ;)

Here are some changes I'll be sad to see go.
-Traveling!!! I've caught the travel bug and want to see the world now!
-Being lazy. I've gotten really good at doing nothing with my time. Something I've never been able to do. I don't want to go home and study for the GRE and visit grad schools :/
-My host family. Although at times I may have gotten frustrated, they are amazing and I'm so thankful to have been able to live with them.

Ok, well that was me procrastinating! Hope you enjoyed it!

Lauren

Feria!

Yay! So I get to write about a really fun thing that I got to participate in this weekend, FERIA!. Feria is a week long festival/celebration of (spring) (? maybe, I'm not really sure why they do it, basically now its just to have a good time). Everyone wears the most amazing dresses of all combined colors that would look foolish any other place or time and decorates their hair with big bright colored flowers. There are rows and rows of casetas (or tents) that people own and decorate so lavishly you might think its someone's actual house (chandeliers, pictures on the wall, wall paper. You name it, they have it). It takes up a whole neighborhood area. I asked my friends how many tents they thought there were. There were numbers from 1,000-2,000. You have to know the secret password to get into the private tents, but luckily there are public tents around that you can get into for free and sit, eat, drink Rebujitas (a kind of wine spirit drink that is the only drink people drink during Feria) and dance!

My beautiful Senora let Annie and I wear two of her old dresses. I had tried on a gorgeous blue/pink/white dress that looked a little newer, but her sister came and borrowed it right before I put it on to go to Feria on Friday. Thats ok, I still got to wear a feria dress and had so much fun getting ready. David and Celia did my hair and made sure my outfit was in tip top shape. Then they instructed me on how to pose (hand high high high on your hips) and with a kiss on each cheek and a "ten cuidado" I was off to Feria with my friends Brittany and Attie!

hands high on my hips, a flower right on top of my head, and a part in the middle, I was ready for Feria!

Drinking our Rebujitos

Entrance to Feria!

During the day horses, not cars are riding on the streets with the men in flat hats and ladies riding sidesaddle

Creepily taking pictures of some feria dresses. Any other time the polka dots and combo of colors would be ugly. Not during feria week

Streets lined with casetas

Its so crazy. Seriously, everyone, young and old know the dances. So jealous!

I also went to Feria the next night with Annie. This time I did not wear a feria dress because I didn't feel like getting crazy dressed up, but wore a going out dress instead and walked around feria with Annie. I'm glad I got to experience both times, day and night, because it was so pretty at night! Sevillanos definitely win the champion cup for partying though. We came home before 2 last night and were questioned repeatedly if we didn't have a good time and "que pasa'?! (What happened?!?!). Although we had been out since 830, most of the Sevillanos leave in the afternoon and don't come back until the next morning (as David has done like 5 tiems this week). CHAMP.

look how lavishly they're decorated!

Our gorgeous Senora. 

This is my last blog I'll be writing for awhile. I have 4 finals this week and then Alaina comes on Friday then we're off to Rome and Venice! I'll be home in 13 days and can't wait to see everyone! Love you all and have a happy mother's day!

Lauren

Feria Break: Fact, Ireland is Pretty Neat

Top of the mornin' to ya!
I learned a lot of really neat facts in my 2 1/2 days in Ireland, so I thought I'd share them with you. How neat is that?!

Fact: In Ireland, literally every other person is a red head.

No explanation needed


Fact: My Hostel for 10 euro a night should be considered a 5 star hotel
The decorating is right on par with what you would think of as "Irish". Isaacs Hostel has their own outdoor beer garden attached, have awesome lounges, and to top it all off, the bathrooms are the most amazing things ever. In most hostels, you share 1 bathroom and shower that is literally about arms width big with the whole hostel. They are usually so grimy and disgusting that you feel dirtier coming out of the shower than you do going in. This is the first hostel where there is a big bathroom with stalls and really big shower areas. It's even bigger than my shower cubical in Sevilla (which I'm always hitting my funny bone).

Fact: Dublin reminded me of a historic old US town. 
Kind of like down town Lawrenceburg on Walnut street. However, there are random stone/Irish looking buildings that just pop up randomly.

Fact: Trinity College's Old Library is my favorite library ever.

Trinity College, which is located in downtown Dublin is one of the top 60 best universities in the world and also has the worlds largest library with more than 200,000 books, mainly written in latin, from thousands of years ago. Also, they are not arranged in alphabetical order, but in size from biggest to smallest. it you want to find a book, you literally have to bring a ruler and ask for its dimensions. The library is also host to The Book of Kells, which is actually 4 manuscripts of maybe one of the first written copies of the 4 gospels and is full of colorfully drawn depictions of Jesus and the stories in the gospels. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but it was so neat, so I'll have to take some off the internet to show you.

Old Library's Long Room. Can I have this please?!

Book of Kells

Fact: The official language in Ireland is actually Irish

It kind of threw us off when we saw foreign looking words on the signs at the airports with English underneath. It turns out that they actually use and can read Irish but don't speak it. Someone told us it's a dying language but still the official language of Ireland. 

Fact: there are over 750 pubs just in downtown Dublin

This fact is actually not an exaggeration. The pubs serve great Irish beer (Murpheys Kilkenny, Smithwicks, Bulmers and of course Guinness), have great food and fun entertainment! We made sure we tried all of the different Irish beers that we could (I listed all the ones we tried above). I really liked Bulmers, the cider beer, but I think I've really gotten to like dark beer too! I think I'd like that better than Coors or something like that. It was really fun getting to try every type of beer and I feel like when I come back home, I can consider myself a world class beer drinker :)

Fact: I can now pour the perfect pint of Guinness

Since Guinness originated in Dublin, Brittany and I decided to take a tour of the factory. It was really neat. We learned all about the ingredients used to make it, how they make it, advertising throughout the years, and some really cool facts. For example, did you know when Arthur Guinness bought the land for the factory, he signed for 9,000 years? They still havethe land for something like 8,750 years. We also got to do a few taste tests and learn how to pour the perfect pint. One of the keys is to have a cold glass (6 Celsius). If it's 5 degrees celsius warmer or cooler, it changes the taste of the beer by 50%. How neat is that?! 

Fact: "Neature Walks" and day trips to Kilkenny and Glendalough are pretty neat

Sidenote: for my family who might not of heard of neature walks, my roommate Annie showed me this youtube video about a geeky guy saying how "neat" everything is. At first I thought it was annoying, now I think its funny.

Anyways, back to storytelling. Tuesday, Brittany and I joined a tour that took us through the mountains in Wicklow. We got to see the gorgeous area of Glendalough and walk around their 2 lakes. Seriously, the rolling hills scattered with sheep, the still water in the brisk sun, and the green that fills your eyes for miles and miles is just the most peaceful and beautiful thing ever. I definitely like this part of Ireland better than the more run down looking Dublin!

The yellow flowers smell exactly like coconuts! Its awesome!

We then went to Kilkenny, which is the old medieval city and has a really cool castle. It kind of reminds me of an Irish Sevilla, or smaller Andalucian town. It was really cool and we got to have a delicious lunch at this restaurant which used to be the house of the first lady in the world burned at the stake for witchery. I had "witches soup" for lunch and it was really yummy! We also had the two beers that are made in town, Smithwicks and Kilkennys

Restaurant

Cute little streets

Fact: I had the worst travel experience ever on our trip back

So, compared to Annie, who seriously has a problem traveling every single trip, I have had the best of luck. While at times its been stressful or tiring, I've never had any serious problems. That all changed yesterday in the Dublin airport. As I showed you in a picture in my Paris blog, Ryanair is very strict with their carry on luggage requirements. Unlike most regular companies, Ryanair only lets you have a carry on. If you want to check a bag, it costs you.

Well I have flown Ryanair, or Vueling, or Easy Jet (some kind of "carry on only company) and have never never ONCE been checked to see if my bag fits. When you have 7 days of clothes and life in your backpack, it gets a little fat, but it has always fit under my seat. Well, in Dublin, they made us check to see if our bags would fit. I got a really cool gift for my dad at the Guinness factory and wasn't able to stuff my bag in the small slot. If I took out my travel book and a few other things, I would have been able to fit it, but you're not even allowed to have a purse or carry anything on. EVERYTHING has to be in the bag. Your hands have to be free. So, after spending bajillions of dollars in London (with pounds being almost double the dollar) and Dublin, I was forced to pay 35 euro, so like 65 dollars to check one little baby backpack. I was soooo mad and frustrated I could have cried. But I kept it in check.

Once we got to the London airport, we had to go through security again. Once again, this was the 10th time I have flown with my backpack and the same toiletries in it and never once have had a problem with security. I'm not complaining that they were being careful, especially after bin Ladins death, but I just don't understand how after every security and every flight I have been able to get through except for yesterday. Well, my backpack sends off all kinds of bells and I have to go to a side area with a security guard to go one by one through every single thing in my backpack and scanning it for bomb material and things like that. He finally found the problems. My MaryKay face lotion, Nutragena facewash and Renu contact solution (I had the directions on how to make a bomb out of those 3 things in my pocket, yup). So he threw them away. Just pitched them. After making my buy a 5 pound BAGGIE to check and see if they had any type of explosives in them, which of course they didn't, he still threw them away. By then I was spent and done. My stuff was sprawled out for the whole airport to see and I had now lost 2 things that you can't just buy in Spain. The third, Renu, costs about 20 euro, which is about 35 dollars just for eye drops. Those are like medicine for me. I need them. So I left with tears of frustration and hopelessness in my eyes and went with Brittany to join Annie and her friends who stayed in London the whole time

While we were walking to our gate, we heard an announcement that said our plane was going to be delayed 20 minutes (ended up being like 35). Well we really couldn't have a flight delayed because we had a bus to catch at midnight. Our flight was supposed to get back to the Madrid airport at 1020, but it takes about an hour to get to the bus station. By the time we landed it was 1050. Since Ryanair is such a 5 star plane company we didn't even land near a terminal. We had to take a bus to the terminal furthest from the metro. I'm not lying when I say the terminal was about a mile from the metro station. Brittany Annie and I SPRINTED for a whole mile to get to the metro. We sprinted up escalators and down long hallways and I have never been in so much pain in my life. When weighed at the airport, my bag was 10kg, which is like 25 pounds. Running with 25 pounds on ones back is the most painful thing in your life. We got to the metro at 11:15 with 5 minutes until the next train, when we switched trains to a different line, we ran to the next line too, once again having to wait 5 minutes until the next train came. When we finally got in the bus station exit, it was midnight exactly, we raced up 3 escalators only to watch our bus drive right by us. The next bus was at 1am or 6am, so we ran back upstairs to buy the last 3 50 dollar tickets on the 1am bus (that stupid lady wouldn't let us just switch saying it was our fault. No, its because Ryanair is a piece of mierda thats why you rude lady, don't get Spanish attitude with me.

OK! Although I had a bad ending to my week, it was all and all a great great great week and I had the best time! Feria is this weekend, so we will be dressing up in our Sevillano dresses and going to parties! yay! Pictures and stories to come :)

Lauren