AZ Recap: Part II

Day 5: Grand Canyon Part 1.  Got an early start on our journey.  On the drive up I was already in awe.  The scenery was incredible and driving thru the mountains was definitely engaging.  I'm not going to lie.. I was pretending like I was playing Mario Kart, you know the mountain level.  Around every corner there was a new warning sign for falling rocks, elk, cows, or a crazy decline.  To add to it, there were splattered bugs and mud all over the windshield like the MK "ghost" came and spat on me.  We drove upward some 8,000 feet of elevation.  My ears were popping.  

When we finally found somewhere to park, I ran like a giddy school girl to the rim and gasped at its pure beauty.  It was everything you couldn't imagine it being.  Note: The pictures I post will not do it justice so you MUST see it for yourself.  



Bright Angel Trail



We hiked down 3 miles on the Bright Angel Trail.  It's a pretty populated trail with all different ages, shapes, and sizes along the trail (including Mules).  Some people had camped by the river or the Indian Gardens and were on their way back up. 

 

Around every turn you can't help but revel in what's before you.  Every turn brings a new magnificent view.  

When we finished our tiring 6 mile trek, we were ravenous.  But we couldn't miss this.



The sun setting on the canyon.



Somehow there was a 45 minute to an hour wait at all the restaurants in the village, but luckily too. As we're sitting outside on a bench looking into the dark, vast, canyon, we see a comet!  So bright and so close and burned long enough that you could have taken a picture.  Simply amazing.  

Day 6: We got up for sunrise, but didn't have much of a picture-esk view.  For future reference, if you go to the GC-- Mohave Point would have had some pretty incredible views for a sunrise/sunset.  At somewhere near 24 degrees, we packed up and got ready for our day's hike.  We went west to Hermits Rest and started are 3 mile, 1400 ft descend to the Dripping Springs.  



My front row seat to the sunrise.


The first part of the trail was cold and rocky.  After about an hour into it, the sun started to do its thing and warm us up.  After passing the campground, the road got less rocky and more like red dirt.. and whole lot scarier.  I cannot express to you how terrified I was on the second leg of this trail.  The trail was about 2 feet wide and on the edge of the canyon.  

Below is a short video of one of the scarier parts of the trail.

 

There was one moment of mental weakness when I wanted to turn back, but so thankful I didn't.  Doesn't seem like much, but it was just perfect.  

So at the bottom of our hike, 78 degrees and sunny, we had our lunch on 3 rocks.  Rice cakes and Sunflower Seed Butter (heavenly) and just some okay scenery.  


This spot was actually terrifying.



 

We went from the "YOU ARE HERE" to Dripping Springs!



A few hiking tips I picked up:  Camelbacks are a necessity-- easy, accessible, abundance of water. Eat filling meals.  People who hike in jeans are ridiculous. Bring your boyfriend so he can rub your feet when you finish!



Day 7: Back to the pool.  88 degrees in the desert.  After some serious sun time, Sara, Jake and I went to the Tempe Art Fest.  It was great walking around and of course topped of with some Sangria on a patio.  After dinner, we had every intention of going to the casino before my redeye flight, but the thought of smoke smelling hair on an airplane just didn't seem right.  So instead, we picked up a bottle of Sangria, and climbed to the top of A mountain for. 

Of course, I had to make a dramatic exit by losing my wallet from the car to right inside the airport doors.  But blonde luck prevailed and I found it in time to catch my flight with Joan Rivers.

 

Final Thoughts on the trip:  Reverse happy hour is legit. Chips n salsa are an appetizer, not a meal. Everything is out to get you in the desert. Try something new everyday, even if it scares you! Must buy Sunflower Seed Butter.  G and Sara are pretty cool too. I think I'll be back.





AZ Recap: Part I

Here's all things Arizona about my trip.  

For starters, I walked thru O'hare airport from the front doors to my gate in 15 minutes.  Tell me you're not impressed.  

Day 1 (which is really just 10pm at night):  Greg, Sara & Jake picked me up from the airport and took me onto Mill Ave in Tempe (which is where Sara & Greg live) and checked out an outdoor bar followed by some late night outdoor Mexican.  The streets were very lively and there were street performers everywhere.  I really felt like I was back in Barca.  Very cool.

Day 2: You already saw pictures from my amazing hike.  After the hike, we watched some NCAA games and had drinks & lunch (outdoors!!)  It wasn't until 3:00pm that they finally took me to pool.  Greg played some water polo and I passed out in the heavenly bliss of the sun.  Later that night we went to Four Peaks Brewery which is the largest brewery in AZ.  Of course, I tried one of every kind of beer they offered ;)  After lots of chips n salsa, I was pretty satisfied and tired, but couldn't resist ordering when we went to G & Sara's fav restaurant, The Pita Jungle. It's a VEGAN restaurant so naturally I could eat most anything.. so sad I wasn't hungrier.

Greg & I at the top of Camelback Mountain.

Day 3: Finally a pool day! See, it took me 3 days to get to the pool.. I'm not a sun worshiper. Being on the ASU campus at the pool made me wonder why I didn't go away to a warm state school.  Probably because every day would be spring break and I'd have failed out of college.  We went to a late dinner (of course, with an in between course of chips n salsa at Boulders on Broadway.  Let me tell you what Tempe does.. Reverse Happy Hour.  That's right.. from 10pm to close bars have deals on all drinks and food items.  If this happened in Chicago, all establishments would be out of business.  While we waited for Sara for dinner, we played bags where G & I ran the boards winning somewhere between 9 and 12 games straight.  (These randoms thought I was God's gift to the game because I had a couple good rounds, but G was really equally dominate if not better.)

As you can see.. thus far in the trip I had been slacking on my picture taking.  I start to show a little improvement here! 

Day 4:  Pool. Happy Girl.  Champagne.  Happier Girl.  Took the Light Rail (electric train) to the Suns Game. in Phoenix. 

Tickets for the Light Rail

Here I had my first ticket scalping experience. (And by me, of course I mean Greg & Jake negotiated and I watched) These scalpers are cut throat.  We ended up getting 3 tickets for $50 and sitting in whatever seats and section we wanted.  That would definitely not happen at the United Center.  I also walked in unsearched and my purse unchecked.  I don't know if I felt safer or not.  It wasn't until inside the stadium that they actually served Stoli vodka.  Win!  The Suns lost, but we got to see Shannon Brown light it up with 32 points & who could forget the World's Limbo Queen.  I thought I could limbo. She went under a pole on top of two beer bottles with two trays of drinks in her hands.  Impressed is an understatement. 

Scene of the Scalp: Outside the stadium

We met up with Sara and a couple of their friends at District in the Sheraton in downtown Phoenix for some more reverse happy hour.  

Sneak Peak of tomorrow's post:

My very first look at the Grand Canyon. (The picture isn't nearly as good as the real thing.)

Up Hill Battle

My first morning in the valley I woke up for a 3 mile run.. unaware of the 2 mile up hill adventure we were going on after.  Welcome to Camelback Mountain.  Summit: 2,700 ft

Just a little leap of faith right here.  The fall wouldn't be so bad.

That DISCOVER commercial was playing in my head right here.  Feeling so accomplished =)

G- On the way up.

Sweet Home Chicago

Well United Airlines did not make this easy on me. They stuck me in DC for 7 hours instead of 3. Thanks a lot! If I had known that, I would have left the airport!! At least I got to use my cell phone, which was really weird. But I would soon find that almost everything normal would feel weird.

Of the first few weird things included: Being able to order tap water at a restaurant, paying in dollars & paying tax, sending a text message (though I have not lost my skills), hearing people talk to me in English. When I ordered my salad, I forgot that I could actually customize it because they can understand me!

I finally boarded the plane, and easily passed out in the first few minutes after takeoff. When I woke up, I was seriously delirious. (Mind you that when we left DC, my body felt like it was 230am, and it had not slept yet.) I heard the pilot say, “We will be beginning our descend to Chicago,” and I had no idea where I was, and why this man was speaking English to me. I have also been on so many planes this past month that when I realized I was on a plane, I didn’t know where I was flying to. As soon as I regained consciousness, the most genuine smile spread across my face and I was so excited my heart was racing.

And Chicago returned the smile to welcome me home:

I literally raced through through the airport (though it was pointless because the bags weren’t out yet.) And finally got to kiss Giorgio for the first time in 20 days. =)

Sadly, on the drive back, I realized how dirty and unpretty this city is in comparison to the rest of the world. That’s okay though, that’s what vacation is for, and this is home.

Seville a Madrid a D.C.

Saturday, I had plans to go see a couple of the sights and check out the pool. Due to the extreme heat and tiredness from lack of sleep, I spend the morning and afternoon at the pool. For lunch, I found another Fresc Co. (same as Granada) to have lunch at. This Fresc Co had similar but different food options. I think they change a little bit everyday, but I’m not sure. Still super tired, I decided to try to siesta in the sun by the pool. It was so hot, I coulnd’t fall asleep or even stand to be out of the pool for more than 5 minutes. Though it was 97 degrees.. there is no humidity, so instead of Chicago temperatures where Saturday was 90 something degrees but feels like 110, it was 97 degrees but feels like 94. Still extremely hot.

For dinner we decided we would return to the restaurant from the previous night. This time, instead of sangria or Verano de Tinto, Jen and Tony ordered red wine! It was fantastic. Since my attempts to find wine cellars or shops in Spain, we asked if we could buy wine from the restaurant. Just our luck, they did happen to sell wine! In fact, I accomplished one of my tasks for Europe—wine tasting. It wasn’t exactly in a vineyard (so I guess I will just have to go back), but they poured me several tastings of wines.

I bought 4 bottles to bring back! (Hopefully they aren’t cracked in luggage as we speak!) They actually only had one bottle of the red wine from dinner left, and Kaitlyn and I each wanted two bottles. The owner told us he thought he had some at his house, so he said to give him 10 minutes and he will go check. He literally drove off on his Vespa to his house for the bottles of wine. While we waited, they gave us a complimentary bottle of champagne. (We were regulars after all—considering that was the second night in a row we ate there, and Jen & Tony’s third time in 2 days!) The owner came back with a case of the wine in hand, and then gave me one of the bottles for free. (I guess the curse of the gypsy is no match for the power of the blonde =).

Tired and exhausted, I stumbled over to the Seville Cathedral which is the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world. (Only smaller than St. Peter's Basillica in Rome and St. Paul's in London.)

These random drunk idiots decided they just HAD to come talk to me. I am just trying to take pictures of this place, and these boys would not leave me alone. I swear you would have thought I was a celebrity the way they were acting. Only one of the 3 boys spoke English and it was hardly understandable, and what I could understand was just vulgar. Then they kept coming over one by one, wanting to take a picture with me. They said they were 21, but they couldn’t have been a day over 18. When I finally escaped them (though they were really just harmless drunk adolescents) I randomly found Jen and family on their horse carriage ride.

In conclusion: Seville is awesome. There are a lot of cute tapas, enough site seeing but not an overwhelming amount (like Rome), and hot. No beach though, that’s a downside.

Saturday we began our last road trip to Madrid. Our final destination. It was about a 5 hour drive from Seville. We stayed at the hotel airport in Madrid so we wouldn’t have difficulties with our flight the next day (which worked out great.) The kids swam, and I packed up my belongings for the final time, and hoping to secure my bottles of wine so they don’t crack. We tried to let the heat die down before exploring the city, but it was no use. It was hot. In the whiney words of Frankie, “There’s no shade anywhere!” There was lots to see, but we were all very exhausted so we saw what we could, a few major plazas, some popular streets for restaurants and bars, and so on. For future reference, this would be a very fun place to go bar hopping. There are a lot of cute taverns all in a row.

A quick stop in Madrid was a little taste of home for me. Madrid was very Chicago esk minus the fact that they have streets where vehicles are not allowed.

By the end of the night, I think we would all agree we were ready to go HOME.

Here are some of the other things we saw:

The super market-- very similar to the one in Barcelona and Valencia

A super cute bookstore

Plaza de Mayor

View from near our restaurant for dinner

And JenJen's Restaurant in Madrid

And now that I’m on the plane. I really, really, really just want to be home. Especially because I’m sitting next to this crazy, nauratic girl. I say girl but she is at least 20 something years old. She is literally throwing a temper tantrum because the movies/tv’s in our section of the plane are not working.

Anyway, by the time you get to read this… I will already be home. So, hi Friends. I missed you =)

Xo Kel

Seville-- exceeding expectations

100 miles from Africa is right! This place looks like Africa, feels like Africa, but there are zero Africans in sight. I kind of feel like I’m in the Lion King being in this part of Spain, as I am currently driving through the quasi desert to Madrid.

We arrived at about 1pm into our gorgeous hotel. It wasn’t my favorite overall, but it was just beautiful. It felt like we were staying in one of the ancient churches. It was built in 1928 and built to look older even then. Our room was enormous. There were two wings attached by a common room (living/ dining area). If you were in one wing of the hotel room you couldn’t hear anyone in either of the other rooms.

Our hotel was in the middle of all of the major attractions in Seville (which are not too far apart from one another.) But I decided to wander to a more local area, across the bridge, away from the attractions. I thought I would save the attractions for the full day, Friday. I don’t know why I haven’t figured this out yet, but going out to wander in an un touristy place during siesta is just dumb. The streets are dead, and the stores are closed. Check out this major street at 3pm:

I wandered back to the other side of the river and stumbled upon Palacio Arzobispal. I literally was just walking to find a place to eat, and ran into a church. Running into a church or palace in Europe is as common to them as seeing a skyscraper in Chicago. To them, it is nothing. But to someone who doesn’t see that every day, it is amazing. I have to admit, after being here for a month, I already have slightly less appreciation for these things. (Which makes me sad, because I was too tired to walk to the Bull Fighting Arena.)

Anyway, I found a restaurant called Falaney’s, or something, that sat across from the Palace and ordered a salad and a strawberry daiquiri. The daiquiri did not compare to Cap D’Ail’s, but it was refreshing in the heat and suprisingly strong. I asked my waiter, Julien, what there was to do at night. He told me a few popular streets of nightlife, and then asked me if I wanted to go out for a drink with him. His English wasn’t very good, but we were able to communicate just fine. I told him that I would call him if I was going to make it out to the area that he was going to ((Betis)). (Important for random info later in the night.)

I tried to return back to the hotel after lunch, but got lost wandering the streets. A guy (Bernard) came up to me and start spitting some Portuguese at me very quickly. I was very confused and he couldn’t understand me either (this happened a lot on this trip). His friend Miguel came over on a bike came up and translated in English. Anyway, these boys asked me if I wanted to have dinner in the park with them. They drove here from Portugal for a long weekend getaway and were camping out in a park in their van. They had rented these bikes, which are all over the city(ies). (You pay 5 euro for 1 week, and you can take them and drop them off whenever you’d like.) They literally had these bike baskets full of food—bread, wine, meat, and gin.

Turns out they were camping out in their van right behind my hotel, so I felt a safe enough. Plus they were like college kids looking to party. Miguel also gave me his iPod to take to the hotel to charge and return for him. He clearly trusted me more than I trusted him. They seemed legit so I agreed to meet them so I had friends to go out with at night.

The family and I took the scenic route to dinner. We went to trip advisors #1 ranked tapas restaurant Vinerio San Telmo. Fantastic food. We had these grilled mushrooms with fried onions. Potatoes with 3 different dipping sauces: Pesto, red semi-spicy sauce, and something white. Also, they serve Yuka with with most dishes. Not to be mistaken for Yukka. Yuka is a sweet potato that is cooked to look and taste similar to a potato chip. Everything that was ordered amongst the table was devoured and delicious. (Again, most by word of mouth and not from my own experience.) I, however, did order the duck. I had eaten duck in New York and had been wanting to try it again. When it came out, it did not taste anything like I had had in New York. It looked and tasted like red meat. I immediately felt nauseous and passed it along to the rest of the table.

After dinner, I walked to mi amigos’ van. We headed out to a strip on this street of bars & nightlife, Hercules. It was quite a walk from the hotel, so we stopped at a few places along the way for a drink.

I had some Mexican Tequilla that I took without the training wheels. (When in Spain, do like the Mexicans?) The boys took their drinks to go, which still baffles me. This struck up the conversation between the difference in law between Portugal and the US. They think it’s crazy how many laws we have, and what we can get tickets for. They said that the police in Portugal are lazy and you can usually talk their way out of minor trouble.

This night made me reflect on Europe’s lifestyle in general in comparison to the US. Europe is relaxed, laid back, and relies heavily on the honor system. There’s little to no violent crimes. Though theft is an issue here, it is still less problematic than in the US. I know Europe has their own government issues, but they are not confined by such strict laws (or maybe it just seems that way because I don’t know their laws.) People take their time, and are never in a rush here. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. The US is always in a rush it’s a wonder what we really enjoy or if we are always just trying to finish things. The obvious observation, the US is very over indulgent and extreme. We have to have more than we need of anything. Our food portions, our cars, our houses, etc. If you think about it, everything we do or have in the US is over the top and unnecessary. I am not exempt from this accusation, and knowing this lifestyle, I probably couldn’t live forever without some of the things I’ve grown accustomed to. But it does make me think, “God, I am a spoiled brat.” We all are.

The next place we went, we sat outdoors and I, once again, had a minor struggle ordering my vodka, water, lime drink. And the following bar after that, he made my drink with Schwepps soda water, so I had to order another drink after that. At this bar… my friends introduced me to the balance band. These boys had them on their wrist (which are apparently made in the US.) They have something to do with the magnetism in your body and are supposed to make you more flexible, improve your balance, and improve your life. I took the test. It would appear that I was more flexible, but I didn’t buy it. I concluded that it was mental, so we tried the test on this random guy. The test dummy was mind-blown after our experiment and would have sold his soul for my friends to give him the bracelet. They would have, for 40 Euro.

We walked and walked some more, and came up to the bridge “Puente de Triana.” This is where my friends randomly started talking to these locals hanging out on a pier trying to figure out where the party was. I don’t know what they were asking considering this was wh
at we saw:

I mean, isn’t it pretty obvious where the party was? Anyway, the locals they randomly stopped to talk to happened to be Julien from the restaurant earlier. What a small city. I didn’t talk to him—I felt bad. Whatever, they led us directly to the party.

After walking the strip for awhile, and it being 2:30am (which is an early night there) I decided I should head home. I didn’t want people waiting for me to worry, considering the situation.

I now have a place to stay in Portugal. (Miguel earns a surf shop. Smons, I think you should probably come with me.) It will be a tough decision where I spend my next summer. =)

The end isn't near, It's here

Well fellow travelers, the end of the trip is here. I'm in Madrid, my flight leaves at 11am tomorrow morning!! It has been a great ride. I am happy to come home to all of you, and sad to leave behind all the beauty, fun, and great experiences I have had. I know, I know, I haven't finished the blog. I will have 2 more posts for you when I get back and can post pictures so for you, the vacation won't be over.

Final city count.. 24

I will have to find a way to post that larger.

Ciao for now. See you all in about 33 h ours!!

Xo Kel

Granada

When we arrived in Granada we got settled in and left to eat. The hotel clerk recommended a local place, Sersera, for dinner. We wandered through small roads which were lined with shops and made our way through a few plazas and finally arrived at our very local destination.

The hostess/ server was the hardest worker we had seen in all of Spain and Italy. She was the only server for the whole restaurant. Her and her husband, the chef, opened the restaurant about 5 years ago, and run it themselves. Everything was incredible. I had the greatest salad, lettuce with fried garlic. (Thank god no one had to kiss me.) I also had some chicken shish kabobs. According to the others, the meatballs, pig’s knee, and chocolate and whiskey cakes were equally exquisite.

We were told that the town of Granada wasn’t much—except for La Alhambra. I think what people meant by that was that there isn’t many tourist attractions, because the town itself makes a great 3-day visit in Spain.

However, La Alhambra is the main attraction and well worth waking up early for. I say “early”, because anything after 6am cannot be termed early for myself. For the first time on my entire tour de Europe, it was chilly. I didn’t complain because I knew the heat would come with time, but it was a brisk 65 degrees in the morning. La Alhambra is the last city that was built by the Moors before they were kicked out of Spain. It sits above the city of Granada and contains beautiful castles with insane Arabic details, gardens and fountains! We spent 4 hours touring the palace and the gardens and learning about the details from our audio guides.

(the palace)

For lunch, I discovered a place near out hotel… FrescCo. Heaven on earth. It was a buffet containing an assortment of veggies, fruits, pastas, pizzas, ice cream/ dessert, oils and spices, and most importantly… Broccoli! I think these were my first pieces of broccoli in Europe because the crazy Italians think that spinach is broccoli.

I walked around some of the shops, but after 25 days, all the stores start to seem to be selling you the same things (and lets face it, my luggage is bursting at the seems). But neither of these two things prevented me from shopping. It’s just sort of a way of life over here. Eat. Shop. Siesta. Eat. (and lots of walking in between) Anyway, this large Spanish woman tried handing me a stalk of a plant, maybe rosemary. When I refused to take it, the woman went nuts and started cursing me in Spanish. Not swearing. Literally cursing me. Maybe she will have taken all my good luck (though that happened in January and is hopefully over by now.) Another woman did the same thing. Except this woman shoved the plant into my hand, took my palm, and started telling me about beauty and intelligence as she “read my palm”. These people are some serious gypsies. Luckily, I wasn’t robbed by either of them.

After only 5 hours of sleep, I attempted to siesta since the town was dead anyway. I have no more ability to siesta in Spain than I do in any other country. So instead I was crabby, antsy, and emotional for a few hours in the hotel room—missing all of my friends and family. . Finally, after a movie (Vicky Christina Barcelona—cute after being in Barcelona, but otherwise probably not worth watching) and some relaxation, I told myself to stop sulking because you are in SPAIN! And enjoy the last few days you have left. I went to a tapas bar near the Plaza del Carmen called Los Diamontes. It was a small place on a street lined with restaurants and bars. Jen and Tony had been there earlier in the day and had a blast with all the owners. So I went there and ordered Tinto de Verano It is Spain’s Summer Sangria. Jen liked it better, but I thought it was alcohol less and tasted like juice, but yummy juice. I talked to a weird policeman (*Policemen being creepy is another universal thing), Antonio. He spoke no English. I mean literally, 3 words. He had such a strong accent that it was difficult for me to understand him and visa versa. He knew the owner who was a young spunky guy, who spoke a little English, but more than Antonio (though parakeets know more English than this guy.) Don’t get me wrong.. its fine that he didn’t know English, because we were in Spain. But seriously dude, why are you trying to have a conversation with me? Anyway, here’s the downside to not speaking Spanish fluently: The owner put down some tapas and made a comment/ joke in Spanish. Everyone around us laughed, but I had no idea what he said. From my perspective, they were all laughing at me, so I left.

Now I’m sitting in the car on our way to Seville. Apparently I will be only 100 miles from Africa. Seems so weird. (Maybe that will be my next year’s adventures, though I’d probably be scared of all the animals.)

Adios Amigos. Hasta Domingo!!

Xo Kel

Random Observation from Granada—

• Europe really loves its Coca Cola, more than Giorgio.
• Taxi cabs are clean and odorless.
• Being a taxi driver is actually a respectable occupation in Europe.
• Europeans do not J-walk. They always cross at the cross walk, and they always wait for the walk signal. Even if there is literally zero cars on the road

PS: The reason I have so much time to blog is because of siesta’s and traveling in planes, trains, cars, and boats! Also, I don’t siesta, though the concept seems glorious, I just can’t nap.