London 2018

April 20-22, 2018.

April 20.

I'm going to skip Madrid 2016 for the time being and go ahead and get to my London adventure from last weekend, since I'm trying to stay as on top of my trips as possible from now on.

This was a weekend trip we'd booked back in February or March or so when the flight deals were crazy cheap.  We figured a weekend in London with no time off work would be fun because most people wouldn't even consider it, but we're pros at A. traveling on a budget and B. traveling while short on time.  Neither of us had been there in years: 18 for me, ever since a layover from Spain back to the US when I was 14 and it was our first time going back to the US after spending 2 1/2 years in Spain.  So a long time.  I've always wanted to go back because it's London, and why not?

Little did we know the actual adventure we were about to have.  We've now decided that anytime the two of us travel together (my friend/travel buddy will be referred to as "S" from now on to make it easier) it'll be an adventure.

Barcelona 2016

Barcelona 2016.

August 25-30.

August 25.

So now for the entry that you I have been waiting for.  This was my first trip back to Barcelona in a little over six years, and it was a long time coming, especially considering the love I have for this city that I haven't made any attempts to hide in the amount of time I've had this blog.  Barcelona is one of my all-time favorite cities in the world for various reasons, and I wasn't about to let any chance to go back go.

My time as an au pair had come to an end, as school was starting for the kiddos at the end of August, and I think the family was getting kind of sick of me in the end anyway.  I'm not good with kids, and I didn't speak enough English with them as was expected, and even though I did leave on good terms (I believe), it's not an experience I'd go into again.  It was a great learning experience, and it did teach me patience and how to be a better guest, but I'm just not cut out for those kinds of environments.

Anyway, the family dropped me off at the train station in Castellón, where there were some tears on the kiddos' parts (which I'll admit was really nice, because they were sweet kids and the family was definitely one of the better ones I could have been with).  I bought my tickets to Barcelona, where I had booked a hotel for four nights right by the Estació de Sants.

If you're not familiar with Barcelona, there are two main train stations: Sants and França.  França is generally the one geared toward European destinations and Sants toward domestic/Spanish ones.  I've never actually been to França, which says a lot about how I travel, but what can you do.  [I should mention there's another train station, Catalunya, right underneath the Plaça de Catalunya, but it's for regional trains within Catalunya, and I've been through that station; when I went up to Terrassa in 2010.]

Sevilla 2016

July 15-18, 2016.

July 15.

One of the great things about spending that summer in Spain was being able to see my best friend more often than I would normally, being based in the US and all.  My best friend had notified me early on that she'd be in Sevilla during the third weekend in July, my second week in Castellón.  The family I was staying with had a wedding and were going to be off of work, so I asked if I could go to Sevilla to spend some time with my best friend, whose husband was also going to be in town since some friends of his were going to be in Sevilla, and since it was the same country that my best friend is in, they met up there.  They had a long-distance relationship, her being in Bilbao and him being in Paris, so any opportunity they got to be in the same country for whatever reason they took.  And I really wanted to meet him, so I was so glad to be able to make this trip.  That and the fact that I hadn't been in Sevilla in over eight years, since my family left in 2009 and I was last there in 2008.  Win-win.

The family dropped me off at the train station in Valencia where I could spend the night before getting on the next AVE to Sevilla first thing in the morning.  It was my first time in Valencia and it was only for a few hours, but it worked out.  I stayed at a really nice Airbnb that was a bit of a hike from the train station, but worth it, because I got to see a little bit of Valencia that way.  Not a whole lot, and I'm sure one day I'll go back, but so far so good.

The Airbnb was basically a kind of guest house/hostel situation, but it was nice, and the hostess was glad to have another Spanish speaker, but once she left I got invited to dinner with two of the other renters for the night, two guys from Germany and Austria who were taking a van trip across Spain for a few weeks for funsies.  What made it really interesting was the fact that it was the same night of the coup in Turkey, and the guy from Austria was of Turkish descent, so he had a legitimate freak-out, and we also discussed current events in my home country.  I always feel like I'm tooting my own horn or thinking too highly of myself when I talk about my conversation skills with Europeans, but the fact of the matter is, Europeans really enjoy talking to Americans who know their stuff.  After the madness in the news died down a bit, I went to bed, since I had an early train to catch and wanted sleep.

Bilbao 2016, Part 2

Bilbao 2016, Part 2.

June 6.

I didn't realize how long this would be when I started writing this, but I'm going to keep going and using the same header image, because I can.

Anyway.

June 6th started with a partly cloudy day threatening rain, but it cleared up quite nicely, which worked out great because I'd told my best friend that I really wanted to go to San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, because I hadn't been there in 16 years.  And it's absolutely stunning, completely unmissable.

That morning we walked along the cliffs that lead out over the Bay of Biscay, and it's a nice walk from my best friend's house.  It has beautiful views of the sea and the cliffs, as well as the main port.

Bilbao 2016, Part 1

Bilbao, 2016.  Part 1.

June 1-15, 2016.

June 1.

I'm not going to say "by popular demand" because no one has requested it.  But I've been thinking about it, and figured I might as well.  This trip was a huge deal for me and was a long time coming, as before I started "catching up" on my travels, the second-to-last post I made was me sharing that I was going back after six years.  If you've followed this blog (and me) since the beginning, you know what I mean.

I grew up in this city.  Well, kind of.  I actually spent two-and-a-half years more or less in Leioa/Getxo (lived in Leioa, went to school in Getxo, and my friends lived in Getxo) which is a municipality northeast of Bilbao along the river.  It marked my childhood and my life in countless ways, not least of all because I met my longtime best friend here, who's still managed to be a part of my life despite so much time away.

After going through some dismal experiences in my life that I won't go into (some self-inflicted due to poor decision making and others slightly less so), I really, really needed this trip.  I was working at Toys R Us at the time (R.I.P.) and had two weeks vacation, and booked this trip before I even knew that our department was closing.  And when I found out, in made me even happier to be going.  That train ride to JFK after pulling a half-day at work was one of the most exciting experiences I'd had in recent years, and I'm one of those people who loves the lead-up and travel to the airport in general (I guess I'm weird, but whatever).

So anyway, I got to JFK, albeit a bit early, and sat, and waited for the plane to arrive, board, and take off.

Washington, D.C.

March 2-4

March 2.

Well, we're at the last major trip I've taken up till now.  After this, it'll be me talking about prior trips (I'm considering Bilbao 2016 and then Barcelona/Madrid 2016, maybe even possibly Bilbao 2017) and my upcoming/recently completed trips.

I've never been to DC, and I think it's great that my friend/travel buddy has family in cities like Boston who are more than willing to have someone like me join my friend on her trips, because I get it, sometimes having an extra person whom you don't know in your house can be kind of daunting, but it sounds like she talks about me to her family and they feel like they can trust me, so I'm okay with that.

Anyway, we booked the bus tickets and headed up after work to the Port Authority Bus Terminal to head down there.  We had some really nasty weather that day in New York; one of those really nasty sleet storms, that's half rain and half snow, plus lots of wind.  We heard rumors that down in DC it was also really bad, but no word on any cancelled buses, so we left.

Well, we got into Delaware on I-95, and we stopped at a rest area to switch drivers.  It was then announced that all traffic on I-95 by the Chesapeake Bridge that spans the DC metro area was closed off.  So we were stuck in Delaware until further notice.  It's 9:30 pm by this point, and I'm exhausted, my friend is exhausted, and I didn't have the energy to care one way or the other what was going on.  My friend wasn't having any of it after all, she decided, so she was going to do something crazy.  It's always an adventure.

Mexico City

February 2-4, 2018

February 2.

My friend and I have now decided that once a month we're going to go somewhere, anywhere, and she decided to "give" me a trip to Mexico City, and she went to Oslo the weekend prior.  I needed warmth, sun, and Spanish.  She was originally going to go with me but her flight plans fell through, so it was just me.  Thankfully I'm totally okay being a solo traveler, even though the majority of my solo travels involves me going somewhere to meet up with someone.  It helps if there's no language barrier, but I can still find my way around regardless.  Language barriers are non-existent for me in Mexico aside from some dialectal differences, but no big deal.

I had already been to Mexico four years prior on a work trip that took me to Puebla for two weeks, along with a day and a half in Mexico City.  I fell in love with it; Puebla being absolutely gorgeous, and Mexico City was just as fascinating.  I called out sick that morning while at the airport (because it was a 6 am flight), and landed in CDMX shortly after 12, local time.