TravelStream™ news feed for member tweeds315 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/tweeds315 en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:34:58 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1215292980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1215292980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1215292980/tpod.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 17:34:58 -0400 Putting off the real world for just a little longer: ridiculousness in Spain

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Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands

Hola! sorry its taken me so long to update. life in barcelona has been awesome. barcelona is one of the greatest cities in the world. it is on the beach. we have been spending a lot of our time there. im burned actually. but the weather is gorgeous, its about 80s w a strong wind so you never get too hot. the water is refreshing without being cold. people walk up and down the beach yelling ´cervasa, cola´then whisper ´hash, hash´it is very amusing. but its beautiful to go down to the beach at night and drink some beers and hang out. our first night here we met up w 2 of the people i had met on the train to valencia and drank on the beach. it was a great casual start to the week. the 2 nights after taht we stayed w the american i met on the train who is studying abroad in barcelona. it was great bc he knew about a lot of local events that were a lot of fun. such as a reggae party on the beach. AWESOME


barcelona is also the home of gaudi. since this is my second time here and i went into detail about a lot of his monuments in my other blog, i wont do much. the best one that we went to was sagrada familia. its a cathedral that gaudi had worked on his whole life and died before it was finished. it is estimated that it wont be finished until the 21st century.

the fourth was very interesting. the kid we stayed w also had one of his friends up and him and i went to the beach. we decided that we would wear america colors so he wore his america boxers and i wore an american flag first as a shirt and then as a cape. not sure people liked us very much hahahha. then we went to a lil bbq on top of the hotel. it was a great fourth.


today i also visited the picasso museum. one of the best museums ive ever been to. it is housed in 2 old castles and chronicles his work. i really enjoyed it and brought home a very interesting book! tomorrow is our last night in barcelona. we are contemplating going to a bullfight or a spanish cooking class. then monday night we leave for pamplona to go running with the bulls! i will update everyone to let yall know im still alive! dont expect an update until tuesday tho. i dont want anyone to be gettign nervous. love and miss you all!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214820000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214820000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214820000/tpod.html Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:10:00 -0400 Putting off the real world for just a little longer: ridiculousness in Spain

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Valencia, Valencian Country, Spain and Canary Islands

sooo theres good news and bad news. i guess ill start with the bad news. we got robbed on the beach yesterday in valencia. sucksssss. passports, cameras, money, credit cards, everything. BUT the good news is that they found everything except the cameras. which is an absolute miracle. they said they have on average 20 people get things stolen everyday from that area of the beach alone. thats disgusting. anyways we did go to the beach yesterday. it is GORGEOUS. the sand bar extends for a really long time and the water is sooo warm and the sun is really intense. even justin got a little burned. it really is perfect. the eurocup finals was last night as well and as you all shoudl know, spain was in the finals. they won and the city went crazy. i´ve never seen anything like it. for hours afterwards we were all in the city square, thousands of people, yelling, jumping, screaming, singing, chanting. it was unreal. it didnt stop until around 4am. tons of fun.

the food in valencia is very good as well. apparently paella originated here and their version is unreal. they make it w chicken and rabbit and its sticky rice and yummmyyyyy. valencia is also a beautiful city. not like seville, but maybe im just pumping it up a little bit bc im sooo excited about the beach. we are going to the beach today and prob tomorrow and then we leave for barcelona. i had met some great people on the train ride here(it was a night train, miserable), they were going to barcelona, while we were going to valencia. all americans. one is studying abroad in barcelona and offered us a place to stay which might be very nice. who knows. free is always nice. i hope everyone is in good health. love to you all
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214668380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214668380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214668380/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:07:59 -0400 Putting off the real world for just a little longer: ridiculousness in Spain

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Granada, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands

so after 2 wonderful days in Granada we woke up at 7am to catch an early train to Valencia. we missed it. the next train isnt until 10pm and we had already checked out of our hostel. basically, we have been shleping our 20 pound packs around the city with us and are not in good moods. but it has given me time to write to all of you!!! it has also given me time to beat justin 7 games in a row in air hockey. (he hates me hahahahahaha)

Granada has been a big rollercoaster. the main tourist attraction here is once again a palace. however, the palace here, the alhambra, is supposed to be one of the most magnificant in the world. tickets sell out very early. justin and i reserved our tickets a week before online for a night viewing. the palace is on top of this HUGE hill and we decided to be cheap and walk it and not take the bus. we were huffing and puffing when we got to the top (you all know how good i am at walking up hills and steps) we get to the ticket window and lo and behold they have no record of us purchasing tickets. we were confused but thought hey maybe we just got the date wrong. we went down the hill, ate some gelato, drank some beers, hung out. the next night we made the same trip, and what happens? grAnada decides to screw us again and say we dont have tickets. i had checked my bank statement earlier and they had already charged me for them as well. so word to the wise do not buy tickets online. we met a really nice holland couple who were in the line behind us who talked to the lady at the ticket office and we were able to buy tickets at the widow. anyways,the alhambra is beautiful. its very intricantly detailed and the courtyards were gorgeous. we had a limited viewing so we didnt get to see much of it.


needless to say tempers have been flaring a little but justin and i are still friends i assure you. we are soon to be on to valencia where we will do nothing but sit on the beach all day for 3 days. i cant wait. i have some ridiculous tan lines right now. our train leaves at 10 tonight and we get into valencia at 5 in the morning. lets hope our hostel lets us in! must go but i love and miss u all!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214397060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214397060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214397060/tpod.html Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:51:33 -0400 Putting off the real world for just a little longer: ridiculousness in Spain

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Seville, Spain and Canary Islands

Seville has by far been my favorite city so far! we saw the cathedral here and although it wasnt as cool as the one in cordoba...it was still very beautiful. it was also where the remains fo columbus are held in a really ornate tomb held up by 4 statues of men.

My roomates here are 2 english girls who studied abroad here last year so not only do i get to have some girl time, but they have also been showing us some local haunts...we went to a flamenco club last night. it was an absolute dive but awesome bc it was a local spot. adalusia is known as the birthplace of tapa crawling so we have been doing a bit of that. last night i had this tapa which consisted of tomato and mozzerella covered in a sweet pesto sauce. sooooo good

today we went to a beautiful palace which was a spanish and muslim concoction as well. there are beautiful gardens, mom that you would love. i have decided that i would like to live in a palace. not sure how im going to go about it but thats waht i want!

it is extremely hot right now..in the 100s and we are dyinggggg. its so hot that we stay inside from 1 to 5 and take naps or read or something. but i have gotten a nice tan. even justin is getting some color. so u know its intense when a black kid is getting tan.

we leave for granada tomorrow and our hostel does not have internet so i will not be going on for a few days until we get to valencia. granada has a world reknown palace that we are visiting tomorrow night. it should be beautiful.

we are havign a great time but miss everyone very much. thank you for your emails and comments!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214258160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214258160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214258160/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:06:20 -0400 Putting off the real world for just a little longer: ridiculousness in Spain

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Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain and Canary Islands

Today we left for Cordoba and Seville. cordoba was an interesting city. we visited the cathedral there which is the major attraction of the city. the cathedral is interesting because it has had so many different cultures of influence on it that it is very ecclectic,. the muslim and catholic influences are the most prominent. there are hundreds of arches inside painted in red and white stripes. there is also some arabic written on the walls. but throw into this mix is traditional catholic statues, columns, etc. the light is so so that it filters in thru the windows and highlights certain aspects of the cathedral. it is very beautufl.

but here comes my embaressing story...while walking in the cathedral, i was trying to sound superior to justin and tell him how to take a picture when i missed a downhill and my feet flew out from under me. luckily i was wearing a backpack and that kept my head from hitting the floor. a crowd of people swarmed around me to make sure i was ok. it was not an empty cathedral. justin was laughing histerically. i have bruises alllllll over my arms bc i landed on them. and to make it worse, i was dead sober. nto even a good drunk story. soooo embaressing

we got to seville tonight. our hostel is unreal. i recommend it to anyone. it is the picasso backpackers hostel. we're right in the center of teh old city and it is soooo beautiful. if i hadnt studied abroad in rome i would have definately come here. its a university city so there are lots of kids. the food is amazing. we went tapas crawlign tonight and our waiter was awesome. the weather is beautiful and we are having a great time. we are only supposed to stay here for 2 ngihts but we might extend our stay! mom i want to come back here!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214170200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214170200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214170200/tpod.html Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:37:41 -0400 Putting off the real world for just a little longer: ridiculousness in Spain

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Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands

still in madrid today. justin and i went to the prado museum this morning. IT WAS AWESOME. so much art it was huge. we wound up spending about 5 hours roaming around. thank god justin is a guy who likes museums. i was a little dissapointed bc i thought there was botticelli there bc the guide book advertised it. turns out there were 3 paintings. had my first starbucks in spain. yes im retarded its ok. got our first paella tonight for din din. deliciouso! we leave tomorrow for cordoba and seville. i have to admitt, madrid is not my favorite city so far but i am really looking forward to seville. im sorry this entry is kinda lame, if you cant tell i dont like madrid that much. havnt even taken a picture yet! only cool thing is that spain played italia today in the euro cup and i was wearing my italia shirt early and i got some mean looks. but it was cool to see how such a huge game effects europeans..theyre obsessed!!!! if u cant tell by the title of this entry, i am loving spain bc of the siesta. for about 3 hours every afternoon everything shuts down and everyone sleeps. this could turn out to be my favorite country soley for that reason. love and miss everyone!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214048640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214048640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/2/1214048640/tpod.html Sat, 21 Jun 2008 17:53:44 -0400 Putting off the real world for just a little longer: ridiculousness in Spain

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Madrid, Madrid, Spain and Canary Islands

Hi everyone!!

just a quick note to say that Justin and I are alive and well so far in Madrid. We got here this morning and just walked around the city. Madrid is a beautiful city but not my favorite. Our hostel is clean and seems to be very safe. No worries for the parents! I could see you mom and Mrs McIntosh getting sad when we left! Our plane was actually delayed almost 3 hours so we didnt get in until around 10am. we´ve been up for a very long time and all we want to do at this point in time is take a nap.


just another quick update before i crash for the evening. i woke up at 7 tonight finding out that justin adn i had slept for 4 hours. oooops. we got cervasas and tapas tonight for dinner. the tapas we got was a potato omlette w chorizo sauce. very good. there is a mexican festival going on right now in one of the squares and we went to that as well. lots of singing and dancing and mexican food which was delicious.

oh our walk down to plazo de sol we walked downed this street at around 8pm and there were literally 30 hookers standing on the sides of the sidewalks. i have never seen anything like it!

we have 2 other roomates tonight, one a chinese girl (who surprisingly i spoke chinese to dad!) and the other is a man from finland. both very friendly. i am actually surprised at how friendly everyone has been so far. the language has been a bit of a struggle but we are making it work so far. I am actually speaking a lot of italian but that hasnt been getting me anywhere. we are going to the prado museum tomorrow morning. I am very excited to go because there are some pieces by botticelli there. the hostel has free internet so i will be able to write another update tomorrow! love and miss u all!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1174328820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1174328820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1174328820/tpod.html Sun, 21 Oct 2007 13:11:53 -0400 Study Abroad to Rome: one girl's quest to find the world's best gelato. (that was a joke, im really here for the booze)

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Dublin, Ireland

So Ali and I headed to Dublin this past weekend to celebrate St Patty's day. It was unreal. First off, Dublin is very americanized so i had my first bagel since ive been over here. I also got to have smoothies, muffins and starbucks. I was in heaven! It was also nice to be able to hear english everywhere. On friday we made our way to the guinness factory, and because yours truly reserved tickets online, got to skip the 5 hour line and go right in. because it was st patty's day they had live bands and lots of samples of other beers on every floor. Guinness is sooo good over here. surprise surprise i really think it tastes like chocolate. Ali has a friend studying abroad in dublin so we stayed at his house and he took us out. that night we went out to a few pubs. Big change from rome but a welcomed change. tons of people at the pubs but its just such a different atmosphere from the uppity clubs in rome. Ali and i also had the pleasure of sleeping on the floor that night. so funny story, ali and i sleep on the floor, no blankets, no pillows, nothing. so we curl up, i wake up in the middle of the night FREEZING. i go looking around the room for something to throw over myself and lo and behold ali has taken every article of clothing in the room and thrown it on top of herself. incuding MY JACKET. ahha that bitch.

Saturday ali and i went to the parade, stopping by a few pubs on our way over there, engaged in the traditional guinness for breakfast and proceeded to drink our way to the parade. we stood waiting for the parade for 1.5 hours, had great seats and then had to leave before the parade started because we had to pee so badly. needless to say we didnt really get to see the parade that much. then we went to a gaelic football match, and an irish hurling match. irish hurling is kind of like lax but played with wooden sticks instead and they whip these sticks at eachother. lots of blood, really cool. After that we went to a carnival, then went out to more pubs. the more famous one being stag's head.

so a couple of funny stories:

on saturday night we were out at a pub, had a dance party there, and while dancing a 70 year old man came up to us and started screamign in happiness adn his dentures fell out and onto the floor.

saturday night in one of the pubs we went into, i was looking around and who do i see? one of my highschool friends who i hadnt seen or talked to in 3 years who is studying abroad in madrid! such a small world

we met a maluchi bizzaro

ali tried to get into a fight with every person who pushed us at the parade

like 8 strangers asked to take pictures with us.

one more month to go here. most of the rest of my time will be spent in italy. im very excited to travel around italy some more. its just so beautiful!

Also, i have included some pictures from my birthday celebration.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1173642960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1173642960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1173642960/tpod.html Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:59:31 -0400 Study Abroad to Rome: one girl's quest to find the world's best gelato. (that was a joke, im really here for the booze)

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Rome, Italy

this past week might have been the most ridiculous weekend of my life. straight ridiculousness that started on wednesday with a little trip to grottapinta. it was me, susie, jen and susie's friend. now grotta pinta on wednesday ngihts has oopen bar all night. so we all decide that its a great idea to go really early before it gets crowded to take advantage of the open bar. needless to say i dont remember anything after 10 and i wok eup at 4 am and threw up all day. i literalyl was hung over until 10 the next night.

all the boys arrived on friday afternoon. the first place I took them was to villa borghese at sunset to look over rome. it was beautiful. then we went to the spanish steps and who do you think we saw there? JOHN MAYOR AND JESSICA SIMPSON strolling along via de bambuina. not freaking bad huh? so we were all in complete shock from that. after dinner at the trevi fountain we went to camp dei fiori which is a big square full of american bars. and what do you think we saw there? melinda, evan, alex and johanna from the real world (mtv). mark and i played ruit against melinda and evan and won. not a big deal whatsoever! actually, maybe we are, a little. they are actually pretty lame people. i remember i didnt recognize any of them at first and i tapped evan on the arm to ask if anyone had next game and he looked at me as if surprised i didnt say anythign about who he was. also, someone wound up punching him that night. LOVE IT

on saturday we did all the touristy stuff, coliseum, st peter's, forum etc. the coliseum tour included a tour of Palatine hill, which was where Romulus killed his brother Remus and founded Rome in 753 BC. It then became ancient Rome's poshest neighborhood.

The coliseum is my favorite place in rome after st peter's. the boys were blown away by the fact that it was here that gladiators met in mortal combat and condemned prisoners fought off hungry lions. i donno its a guy thing i guess. As you stand at the bottom of the arena and look up, you get exactly the same feeling as you would standing in any of today's modern arenas. It's constructed and designed almost the same way...funny how some things haven't changed over the centuries.
i took the boys to this group of clubs called tesstaccio. some of the boys were having a little trouble getting into the clubs so around 4 we decide to leave and the other 4 boys get into a cab and mark and i try to get into another one. little do we know that grater and schleicher are the ones with the hostel keys and mark cant get into the hostel. so, without anywhere else to go mark and i slept in termini, the train station next to the homeless people. i havnt slept in like 36 hours. all in all it was a great weekend, just nuts.

on a side note, i miss everyone so much. this week is my birthday week and then next weekend i head to dublin for st patties with some batesies. im very excited. love and miss everyone!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1173194100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1173194100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tweeds315/rome_2007/1173194100/tpod.html Sat, 09 Jun 2007 19:36:50 -0400 Study Abroad to Rome: one girl's quest to find the world's best gelato. (that was a joke, im really here for the booze)

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Playa Del Inglese, Spain and Canary Islands

So i just got back from spring break. we went to barcelona, gran canaria, and madrid. I had a great time, got a great tan and had some nice drama.

our first stop was barcelona. I loved it. Definitely my favorite city of the trip. The trip did not start out well due to some drama the first night. it just took 7 girls a ltitle while to get used to spending all hours of the day with eachother. Barcelona is the city of Gaudi. His architecture rules the city. We saw La Pedrera, Sagrada Familia, and Guell Park. Le Pedrera is an apartment building that Gaudi built. its so famous due to its unusual design, the large amount of light Gaudi was able to let into the rooms and the balconies which 'defy gravity'. Guell Park is a park adorned with the mosaic tiles that Gaudi is famous for. really pretty and it gives you a great view of the city. we went up at sunset so it was perfect. My favorite part of barcelona was Sagrada Familia. it is a cathedral that Gaudi started building and never actually saw completed. it has been worked on for a total of 80 years and is estimated that it wont be done until 2030. thats one hell of a church. it kind of reminds me of a sand drip castle little kids make at the beach. except every now and then Gaudi throws in a little bit of color. the church is breathtakingly beautiful. I realyl wish we had gone inside but since i didnt have money (atm card still gone) and the church still being built, we didnt think it would be worth it. the other good thing about barcelona is the night life. spaniards go out very late at night. so we hung out in our hostel until around 2 and then went to the strip of clubs on the beach called portica olympica. great place i can only imagine what barcelona must be like in the summer! overall barcelona was awesome, cheap and beautiful. LOVED IT

our next stop was Gran Canaria. we stayed in an all inclusive so it was very low key except for all the topless women. we stayed at our resort except for one day we went on a catamaran around the island. the water is beautiful, the island, not so much. but the sun was soo intense and we all got really tan. i had to stay out of the sun the last day bc i didnt want to get any darker. oh i also rolled my ankle playing soccer here. i was being posted up by a 65 year old man in a speedo and i trapped the ball and probably got distracted (who wouldnt) and it just rolled under me. so that was a big downer i couldnt really walk well after that and i still cant go running over a week later. One night Jen kelley and susie participated in the show put on by our all inclusive hotel. they were paired up each with a man and had to do some of the funniest competitions i have ever seen. the first one was the girl had a soup ladle tied to her waist and the man had a pan tied to his and they were supposed to bang them together as many times as possible. the second competition was to pop balloons not using their hands in sex positions. Jen was paired with this middle aged fat guy...soooo funny.

Our last stop was Madrid. by this time we were sooo exhuasted that we took a bus tour. Great idea. It was also helpful because i didnt know anything about what to see in madrid and this allowed me to see everything. we saw a really cool egyptian temple with cool hyroglifixs (sp?). I was also able to see connors. we met up for a few hours on sunday night and he took me to where else, a chocolateria. A big thing in spain is this really think hot chocolate type drink and you dip churros in it. so we got that. it was soooooo freaking good. i felt like death at 4am the next morning but it was sooo worth it.

id also like to add that elise and ali came to visit me before i left for spring break and elise punched an obnoxious austrailian man in a place that men dont like to be hit. it was great and he deserved it (being degrading and whipped a plastic cup at my head) this weekend a bunch of bates kids will be in rome so i am staying in rome to entertain. I cant wait to see everyone! I miss everyone from home so so much
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