Fin de vacaciones (tres)

Well, after having such good times in Valencia and Cabra, we decided we didn't want the looming end of our trip to get us down, so we resumed our relaxed vacation time in Málaga, by spending more time at the beach. We had a very casual snack dinner our first night, as we laid in the sand watching the sunset. I should note that the sun didn't set over the sea, as Málaga faces south, but it still looked beautiful (Note; the photo is actually from earlier in our trip, but I included it here for both visual and metaphoric representation purposes...)

The next day we finally took to touring, after dropping our bags at the train station for the day. Málaga is definitely a cool town to check out. In our photo's below, there is the bull fighting arena, another castle on the hill, and just some general photos that make me want to forget about my future plans, and just live in Spain for a few years.


We also decided we had to get ourselves a menu del dia meal... it was only 8 euros, and it was 3 courses! They are pictured below :)

After our day of touring, we took an overnight (13 hr!) train up to Barcelona. We were expecting rustic bunk beds, as most night trains are equipped with them. Unfortunately, we were just given the usual train seat. Somehow we still managed about 6 to 7 hours of sleep each. We were probably just tired from walking around Málaga all day....

The next morning we arrived in Barcelona, and what a send off the city gave us. All the most beautiful sites, great culture, and more Paella that you can shake your fist at. The photos are from the Gaudi Park on the hill, the huge Basilica that is still not finished (it's been like 200 years or something) and the Olympic area. Oh, and there was a volleyball tournament. Good times.




So the next morning, we got up early, and caught our flight home to Maastricht, where with some luck we had a city bus waiting to take us back to the center. yay! Here is a video of a woman walking her cat in Málaga and a photo of a ticked off pigeon... I couldn't think of where else to put them....

Holiday in Spain (parte dos)

After a significantly long train ride (7 hours) Michelle and I arrived in Córdoba, which was almost to Cabra. An hour long bus ride finished our day of travel, as we met up with our college friend Erin.

Cabra is a much different experience then most people are probably used to when traveling. With a population of around 20,000, it's not exactly what you call a "destination" city, and yet it had plenty of cool things to offer the casual outsider. It has some cool sites, and some neat old city walls as well as a pretty sweet park.


However, since we had spent the last 5 weeks touring, we decided it would be best to take advantage of Spain's renowned relaxed life style, and just enjoy the local culture; breakfast, followed by shopping, followed by a tapas lunch, and then some down time in the late afternoon for siesta.

For those that don't know, tapas are a series of small dishes that are served with drinks and are shamefully inexpensive. Many times if you simply ordered a drink for more than 1 euro, it would come with a small snack. So of course, all you had to do was continue ordering drinks! That way you get filled up, and the walk home seems that much shorter :)

Erin was kind enough to show us around to all the good places to eat, as well as to spoil us with some home cooked, Spanish flared meals of her own. We spent our evenings and late nights hanging out at different local hangouts, talking, eating tapas, just generally having a good time with the people of Cabra.

Later, Erin also played tour guide for us on a day trip to Granada.

Granada is quite an amazing city just east of Cabra. It has an interesting mix of both Spanish and North African culture in its streets, as you can see by this mini Medina in the center of town.

Up on the hill, there is a big castle like structure called the Alhambra. Seeing this alone makes a trip to Granada well worth it.

We were very sad to end our stay in Cabra, because after being there for 6 days, we started to feel almost like we lived there, and were really getting to know all the locals. We even spent some time in class with Erin and her students. But sadly our time ended, and we headed back to the beach. This time, in Málaga...

¡Se Queremos España: Numero Uno!

As my fabulous two weeks of vacation comes to an end (sadly, I work tomorrow), I thought we should start filling you in on what were up to during that time. My college roommate, Erin, has spent the year teaching English to students in a small Spanish town, so we embarked on a trip to visit her and explore Spain a bit.

The trip got off to an exciting start: a worker strike with the Maastricht bus company caused us to arrive at aiport check-in precisely 5 minutes before check-in closed. However, we made it safely onto our plane, and took the short, 2 hour flight to Valencia.



It's pretty amazing that we could travel for so little (ticket price for our Ryan Air flight was zero, we only had to pay 25 euros in taxes and fees!), and land somewhere that is so completely different from Holland.






The buildings, the temperature, the lifestyle, and the people, all completely different. We settled into our hostel and rather than spending much time site seeing, we headed straight for the beach, stopping for ice cream on the way, and for Paella with sangria on the way home :)




The next morning, after testing out our spanish at the local market, we hopped on a train for the small town where Erin lives; Cabra (which means goat)

Dutch traditions?

So when you think of the Netherlands/Holland, perhaps a few things that come to mind are wooden shoes, windmills, and tulips.

I'll start with with the bad news first...I'm sorry to report that the only place I've seen those cool wooden shoes are in the gift shops or as gigantic shoes used to decorate Amsterdam (see below). I've meticulously observed the shoes of my coworkers, hoping for the one day they break out the clogs...but nothing. Windmills are still around, but slowly going out of fashion and mostly non-functional now. Plus in our travels to nearby countries (Belgium, Germany, even Spain) we've seen just as many windmills as in the Netherlands. It may seem like these traditions associated with Holland are simply exaggerations or even false, except for one silver lining...the TULIPS!!

During Kathy and Mike's visit, Kathy and I left Mike and Chris in Amsterdam (not sure if that was a good idea, haha!) and traveled to the nearby Keukenhof. The only way I can describe this place is as a theme park for flowers, specifically tulips. It was just as busy as a theme park too, with ten of thousands of people visiting. Set in 80 acres of wooden park, the 7,000,000 (yes that's 6 zeros!) planted bulbs make for a fantastic visual experience. Not only does the park look incredible, but smells delightful with the scent of hyacinth filling the air. The bulbs are planted in amazing arrangements, combining colors and styles in a beautiful way. Also just outside the park was field after field, as far as the eye could see, of colorful tulips grown in rows by color. My words really can't do it justice, so I'll just post pictures.

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In other news, Chris and I visited our local Friday market yesterday. The market sells fabric, clothing, fruits, veggies, meats, and other miscellaneous items. Chris and I planned to buy some fruit and walked by a stand just as a man was dancing around his fruit stand, cramming bags full for fruit and selling them for 5 euros (an amazing deal!). We were intrigued and couldn't help but buy a bag. The plastic bag was overloaded and of course ripped, making for quite an interesting bike ride home. We're gonna be eating fruit salad everyday for a while, yum!