Turkish Food!

This post is going to be all about FOOD!!! yum. I realized as I was writing the post for Istanbul that I had so many things I wanted to share that it wouldn't fit in just one post so I'm writing a separate one for the food because it was just that yummy.

dried fruits in a spice shop

What You're Missing in Croatia: Part 1

Our last hurrah in Europe! Well, hopefully not forever, but for the time being. We had some time so we escaped for a week to do a tour of Croatia. We flew into Dubrovnik and rented a car to drive up the coast, and then flew out of Zagreb. This is only part 1, so be sure to keep an eye out for part 2 and part 3!

Our first view of Dubrovnik, on the way in from the airport.

It's Istanbul, Not Constantinople...

For our spring break this year, Hector and I decided to head off to the biggest city in Europe....can you guess which city that is? Actually I think I've already given it away, but it's Istanbul!

Giving Barcelona a Second Chance

This Semana Santa, or Holy Week (spring break) I decided I wanted to try Barcelona again. I've been before, two years ago, but it was a whirlwind fast trip as we passed through on our way to Italy. This time we had plans to stay for five days and I wanted to see EVERYTHING!!

What-uh? Couch Surfing Adventures in Florence and Pisa

This is the final segment of my 2012 spring break trip to Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Pisa and Venice! We had two days to see both Florence and Pisa, which is no time at all. I would have liked just one more day.

Dear Rome, I miss you!

Today I have another reminiscing post for you! I've been dreaming of Rome lately, so I decided it was time to break out the pictures from when I actually went. It was so long ago I barely remember anything. I do remember the pizza though. This trip was part of a crazy spring break trip in 2012 where we went to Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Venice all in ten days! In the end I was able to check all those cities off the list, but I left so much behind that I wanted to see in every city, so I don't know if I would do another trip like that again.

A town called "Bowls"

A traditional Spanish tazón, or bowl. We visited a town called Tazones. 

It's just one more of Asturias' creatively named towns. (source)

Birthdays and Bodegas

This weekend it was my friend Steph's birthday and so my friends who are spread out all over Spain reunited in Logroño for the weekend to celebrate. On Friday we went out to dinner and surprised her with cupcakes and trick candles!

Reminiscing about Paris

I've got a bit of a travel bug lately. I miss going somewhere new and discovering new foods and exploring back roads. But this year, I've decided to go visit my family, and I can't afford to explore new places and buy a plane ticket home! So, to try and tackle my travel bug, I'm going to write some posts reminiscing about trips I've taken that I haven't written about yet. So to start off this series, I'm going to tell you about my trip to Paris!

Prague in "Summer"

This summer my brother's girlfriend was doing a study abroad program in Prague. So of course, since she was in Europe, I had to go on a quick trip to visit her. My brother was visiting her also, so it was all four of us and we had a great time, even though we could only be there for a few days. Unfortunately, we hit a bit of bad weather-it rained almost the whole time! Even so, it was a great excuse to stay indoors and enjoy ridiculously cheap beer, and lots of meat and cabbage.

K and I enjoying some delicious beer! 

Ghent, Brussels, Bruges and more food!!

Now that I have given you all of the information I possibly can on Antwerp--or I guess, detailed all the food that I ate--I'm going to do it for every other city we visited in Belgium! Yay!! Luckily Belgium is small and has a great train system, so it's fairly easy to travel around inside the country. We spent one day in each Ghent, Brussels, and Bruges.

Ghent

This was my favorite city behind Antwerp. It has a rich history but it's not over touristy like other cities in Belgium. (cough, cough, Bruges!) There is a little walk around the historical center which encompasses most of the scenic points.

Stuffing my face in Antwerp, Belgium

One of the girls that I lived with last year is from Belgium. At the end of the program she moved back home and I haven't seen her since. One weekend she tried to come back to Spain to visit but she ended up being too busy and wasn't able to. So, for Semana Santa (spring break) we decided to go visit her on her home turf. She lives in Antwerp, so that was our first stop. From there we also visited Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent.

Sleeping Dragons and Inland Beaches

Two weeks ago I discovered a hidden dragon lair in Asturias. 

Venice- the city otherwise known as a labrynth

Last year for spring break, two of my friends and I decided to go on a crazy, action packed vacation and visit Rome, Florence and Pisa, and Venice, plus Barcelona, in ten days. Needless to say, running around the Italian peninsula was exhausting, and a little expensive.

By the time we got to Venice, we were completely worn out, and dirt poor. Even so, Venice was still my favorite city that we visited on the whole vacation. Maybe that I've visited so far. It's just so unique.

Lost in the Basque Country

When my family came to visit over Christmas in 2011, we spent a few days in the French Basque country. We rented a tiny little farm house in the middle of the countryside. From this area, we were able to drive around and visit several small towns right along the edge of the border between Spain and France.

Countryside!

Before we got to this little house, we had been visiting cities non-stop, from Madrid (plus a hundred museums there), to Toledo (more museums) to Burgos. We were wiped out, and getting tired of the city life. It was time to relax a little bit and get a taste of small town life in southern France.

Boa Viagem- Lisbon

Last weekend was Carnival in Spain, which for me means puente! So my boyfriend and I decided to jet off to Lisbon, Portugal for a quick visit.

Praça do Rossio

My dad mentioned before I went that the city was like San Francisco...I can see a connection- the city is full of huge hills! It also has a red bridge, and trams to go up hills. Besides those things, it's got a charm of its own. I really enjoyed the visit and the city is beautiful! Here's my list of cool things to do here: 

Home Sweet Home...Gijón Version

Hi everyone, I'm back!! I know it's been an incredibly long time since I've written anything, and I'm sure most of you forgot that I even had a blog! Lets just skip over all of my excuses and just say, I'm glad to be back. Also, I forgot how hard it is to keep something like this going. I've been gone so long that I'm not even sure how to begin! But let's begin with the most recent. 

This year I moved to a different city, this time on the northern coast- right on the beach! It's called Gijón, and it's in the region of Asturias. This map shows the region, not the city. (source)

Partilho a tentação com quem mais gosto- Portugal!

Partilho a tentação com quem mais gosto- this is from a sugar packet...sometimes you find great tid-bits on sugar! This one says, "I'll share temptation with those I like the most."

Felices Fiestas Part 1: Madrid

Puerta del Sol- everyone together now!

Since I found out that I was accepted into this program to live in Spain for a while, my family has been really excited to come out and visit me...and they finally made it! I know I'm a little late on the uptake, but this is part of our journey, starting on Christmas. The three of them flew into Madrid on Christmas day, so I took the bus down to meet them. We rented a piso for a couple of days and from there we discovered Museo del Jamon, the Puerta del Sol, the Palacio Real, Parque Retiro, Plaza de Torros, and way too many museums!

Amor por el mar- Cantabria

Here in Spain there is a thing called a puente. They have a lot of holidays that are on a Tuesday or a Thursday and they take the days off in between. So if there is a holiday on Tuesday, they will take the Monday before that off and call it a puente (bridge). In the beginning of December, there was a week where we had two puentes in one week! Actually, most schools took only one puente and worked two days in the week. I was supposed to work two days of the week, but I somehow weaseled out of it and ended up having to work only one day- and got two puentes! So two of my roommates and I went on a road trip up to one of the northern regions of Spain- Cantabria. We had had a few girls from Santander come visit and stay at our place a few weeks before hand so we figured we would call them up and see if we could stay with them and explore the area. My one roommate has a friend native to the area, so we had a list of awesome villages around Santander that we needed to visit.