Backpacking Part I: Madrid

Remember all those times in high school Spanish class when we said --

"WHEN will I EVER use this?"

When you visit Spain, that's when.

Luckily, I managed to retain a good amount of important words and phrases:

"Cuerta" means "bill."
"Cambio" means "change."
"Pollo" means "chicken."
"Mas" means "more."
"Cerveza" means "beer."

(The last two being of special importance.)

For me, that was probably the coolest thing about visiting Madrid. I've had the opportunity to speak in Spanish to native speakers before, but never out of necessity. Let me point out, though, that all in all... there really isn't that much necessity. At least half the restaurants we went to had English menus, and we probably only met a handful of people that didn't speak English at all. It's everywhere.

Nightclub promoters on the streets would approach us speaking English, right off the bat. We later determined it was a combination of Colin's Red Sox cap and Connor's Lil' Wayne hat that gave us away (as without the boys, Ali and I were approached by people speaking Spanish - we were delighted.)

The food was delicious, and sometimes containing small bones (so watch out). The paella was incredible. The cervezas were never dark or stout or very rich... but cheap and available at McDonalds.

McBeer - photo courtesy of my friend Ali

Tapas!

Some American things you can never escape.

Desayuno Completo - breakfast

The boys' favorite part of the whole trip was probably running into and briefly meeting (in their words: "spending the night out with") Bam Margera of the Jackass movies.

He was very friendly, and said he was working on filming new episodes of Punk'd!

My fellow backpackers. (Last 2 photos from Ali)

The Museo del Prado was probably my favorite part.

The Prado was free for students and filled with 12th - 19th century European art. The most interesting exhibit is a collection of Francisco de Goya's paintings, notably the Black Paintings. Like:

The scene outside of the museum is equally entertaining, with art for sale, musicians performing, and even some "free haircuts" by interesting characters.

Colin got a 5 Euro portrait done in 5 minutes, after which the artist pointed to me and said he wanted to paint me because I was "bonita" -- pretty sure he just wanted more business (and it almost worked). 

Madrid was full of talented street performers, from violinists to glass players, which seem to be particularly popular.

Some more scenes from Madrid:

Spain seems to have a thing for lions.

After a few days Ali and I packed up our bookbags -- all we brought for the trip -- and shipped off to Berlin. Blog post on that trip up will be up soon!

Adios, Dublin! Hallo, Madrid & Berlin!

A while ago, I decided I wanted to visit every country that I have ancestors from.

I've always liked history and been a little obsessed with my genealogy (the reason I'm in Ireland). The list (as far as my research has gone) is Ireland, England, Scotland, Germany, and France.

I knocked out England and France when I went on a student ambassador trip with People to People when I was 12. I visited London, Bath, Oxford, Paris, and Normandy. I'm lucky enough to have this extended stay in Ireland, the country I'm probably the most interested in. That leaves Scotland and Germany. 

My mom's maiden name is Zimmerman and I'm not sure you can get much more German than that. So when I heard the film club at our school was taking a trip to Berlin, I decided to invite myself (and my travel buddy, Ali) along.

We have the whole week off of classes, so why only visit one place? My roommate and his friend are going to Madrid, so we also invited ourselves on that trip. So Madrid, then Berlin, then back to Dublin.

I'm not quite sure what we're going to be doing in either of those places, I'm just picturing some very interesting and foreign Spanish food,Sangria, parks, a trip to the Berlin Wall, sauerkraut, and delicious German beer. We'll see what else we can find.

Let's see if I can make my Spanish teachers proud. I don't speak a word of German (that's a lie, I threw one in the title of this blog) but... English a Germanic language so how hard can it be? Right? Right??

When I get back, it's going to be all about planning my Scottish adventure. I need to convince some friends to come with me first --  maybe I should remind the girls that Gerard Butler is a Scot.

Don't trip! Cliffs of Moher

I don't think I'll find a more scenic place in Ireland -- these cliffs rise 390 feet above the water. They're on the west coast, in County Clare, on the edge of the Burren.

You can only walk so far along the cliffs with the comfort of a wall between you and the drop. After that, you're on your own walking along a narrow, muddy trail. It had just rained when we got the cliffs, so it was extra muddy. Thankfully we had some sun -- a rare commodity in Ireland.

The view of Inishmore from the Cliffs of Moher.

The boys, feeling (or acting) brave.

Me, a few feet from the edge, freaking out. Nice poker face, right?

The reason I was freaking out.

Felt a lot nicer to have a wall there.

The view away from the cliffs.

There's a sad side to this beautiful landscape. While there have been accidents over the years -- people getting a little too close to the edge -- the cliffs have also become a popular place for people to end their lives.

O'Brien's Castle. This was actually just one part of it -- the other part was pretty far from where we were.

It appears to have been renovated, as it's got pipes and windows and things. Pretty nonetheless!