Madrid, Barcelona and Off to Paris…

We checked out of our Hostel on Friday morning and went walking around Madrid and on one of the main shopping streets there were lots of prostitutes standing around.. we thought it was a bit late in the day for them to be out in the streets..  We had some lunch then headed off to the airport. We waited there for a few hours before we flew off to Barcelona.

When we arrived we collected our luggage (ours was in the first 10 pieces to come out, very unusual for us), we then found our way to the bus, so we could get the train to the city. The train took ages to leave, and it was pretty crowded. We missed our stop as we didn’t realise that they called it something else in the book, so we got off at the stop after which was quite creepy. We had to wait half an hour before the train came to go back in the other direction. It was 12.15am before we were at the metro station. The train station connection to the metro was closed so we had to walk outside in the dark and find the metro. By the time we had got to the hostel it was 1am. We were really exhausted. The guy on the desk was new and he took ages to check us in. When we were finally given our keys we headed to our room. We thought that everyone would be asleep, but instead we were the only ones that were actually in the room. We got our beds ready and jumped into bed. At about 2am we went to sleep. Some people came into the room really late and turned on the lights… We got up at about 8am and went out to get some breakfast.

We then headed out to the city centre and went to the markets and had some lunch. There were little pet shops in stalls along Las Ramblas, they sold gold fish, tortises, turtles, pigeons, birds and baby bunnies. We also organised to go on the Tapas and Flamenco Tour that night. We then came back to the hostel and made some dinner (incase we didn’t like the tapas). We arrived at the Travel Bar (our meeting point for the tour) and watched a bit of the Scotland Vs Ireland Rugby match. Scotland Won!! At 8.15pm we were taken down to another bar where we were getting tapas and Sangria. There were 8 of us in our group, 4 Americans and 2 other people (they didn’t really talk to anyone). The first round of Tapas was cold tapas, (baguette topped with different foods), there was salami, prawn, cheese and a potato fritta/quiche thing. Neither of us had the prawn ones, the other ones were pretty good. We had unlimited jugs of Sangria, I only had half a glass, I didn’t particularly like the taste of it, Kath had a bit more then me, but neither of us drank as much as some of the American girls… We then got our “hot tapas”, pretty much we got 2 plates of prawns, 2 bowls of scallops, 2 bowls of baked potatoes, a bowl of mushroom and 1 bowl of beef. The beef and potatoes were nice. It would have been better if we liked seafood. One American girl ate one entire plate of prawns and scallops to herself, she also had many jugs of Sangria! About 4 of us didn’t eat seafood, so it was quite disappointing that all we got was seafood, what if someone was allergic?…. We then went to the Flamenco show.. The walk there was full of dodgy people hanging out in streets so we were very careful of our stuff. The Flamenco show was in a bar/theatre. There was a 3 piece band, a singer and 2 dancers. First there was a lady who came out and did 3 dances. Towards the end of her 3rd dance she was looking very tired and sweaty. There was a 5 min break and then the singer sang a song, he was very talented. Then a male dancer came out and performed. We thought he was better then the female.. He also was very sweaty. It is amazing how fast they move their feet. It is certainly a good work out. I would have enjoyed it more if the lady was wearing a bright dress and the man was wearing a bull fighting outfit.. A bit of theatrics.. haha.  After the show we said goodbye to the people in our group and headed back to the hostel, it was about 1am when we got back, we were really exhausted.

At about 6.30am, 3 inconsiderate girls came into our room and turned the lights on (despite there being light from outside)… They woke up a fair few people in the dorm.  We were very unhappy. Yesterday we went out to the Chocolate Museum. We saw the Arch de Triumph on the way. It is huge and had cool sculptures on it. There were scary looking bats on the side. We also saw part of a soccer game going on. They were playing on turf (very unusual for soccer). When we arrived at the museum we had to wait in line for ages to buy our tickets. We didn’t mind though because you could see some chocolates and smell it all. Our ticket was actually a chocolate bar, it is 73% cocoa, it is very very strong. The chocolate museum showed the history of chocolate and how it arrived in Europe. There were huge sculptures, and scenes of different things. My favourite was one of a knight slaying a dragon holding a princess, the giant Wall-e and the Homer Simpson astronaut figure. After we saw all the movies and sculptures we headed back to the hostel.

We spent the afternoon hanging out in the hostel and watching movies in the cinema they have here. We had dinner quite late, then headed up to beds. When we went to go to bed the 3 rude girls came in and were really noisy, and despite us being in bed they wouldn’t turn off the lights or be quite.

We got up this morning and packed our bags. We checked out and went to the post office. The que was huge… We had to post some of our souvenirs home, they were weighing our bags down too much. My bag feels really really light now… We are just hanging out in the hostel until our bus to Paris at 9pm.

We don’t think we get wi-fi in our hotel in Paris, so we may be delayed with some posts.

The weather is only looking nice for the next few days up north, hopefully it turns around for the end of the week as well.

Love Cindy and Kath

Lisbon Continued…

We got up fairly early on Monday morning and headed out to a small town called Cascais, on the Coast of Portugal. When we got off the train we found the bike hire place and managed to get 2 bikes for free. We weren’t given a map of the city, so we just decided to ride along the water until we found something. As the bike’s were hire bikes they were only one speed, so it made riding up hills pretty hard. Cascais is a very nice town, people were very friendly. We rode our bikes all the way along the water to The Mouth of Hell (Inferno something in Portugese), it is caves in the side of a cliff. Really amazing views. There were lots of fishermen there… We then kept riding around the water until we reached a hill which we decided we wouldn’t go down (because we didn’t want to have to go back up), so we turned around and took our bikes back… We were starting to get sore legs and hungry. We tried to find the beach, but there was no real sign of one, there was a really little one, but we didn’t think that it was the one they were talking about. When we arrived to take our bikes back, the lady wasn’t there. 2 Irish ladies came up and starting chatting to us about our trip and talked about theirs, they were really nice.  We then went looking for something for lunch. All the pubs we went into didn’t serve food and the restaurants were really expensive. We had a look in some small shops then decided to look at some other restaurants. We’ve been told to eat where it is busy, as that means it is the good food, but we found a place that was next door to a really busy place, and the price was right so we ate there. The food was really great… both of us had problems finishing our meals (but we did). A few people came to look at the menu but got turned off as we were the only people in the restaurant. The waiter/door guy was chatting to us and saying that he is in a bad spot and he is the only one in that area that has a licence to sell food. The food was really good and really well priced, we felt bad for him as the guys in the restaurants next door were stealing all the customers and noone had a chance to go past to his. After our lunch we headed back to the train station as it was getting late. When we got back to Lisbon to hung out in the common room and chatted to the Aussie guy Tim. We then made some dinner and had a few drinks. That night we watched a movie in the hostel common room.

On Tuesday we decided to head back down the road to Belem to see a castle we missed the day before. This time we were going to take an old tram even if we had to wait all day.. Or go somewhere else. We found a tram that went near where we wanted to go, a bit out of the way, but at least we got to ride the old tram. The tram was really fun. It looked like the driver had a dial that she used to speed up and slow down. We got really close to some cars parked on the road, it really amuses me how close cars park to tram lines..  We had to walk about 2km to get to the Castle.  This castle was practically in the water. When we went to buy tickets we gave the lady out Youth Cards (there was a youth price on the wall for 1.60). So Kath gave her a 10euro note. She then gave us back 2euros (adult tickets were 4 euros each) . Kath said to her no we are youth and showed the lady her card again. So Kath gave the lady back her 2 euro and the lady gave Kath back then 10, and Kath said 2 tickets, and the lady started shouting at us and pointed inside and kept going on. So we got in for Free… We still aren’t really sure why…Nonetheless we were in. The castle was really cool and quite large. It had one of the most narrow stair cases I have seen yet. It was quite dark in the staircases and there was only one, so people were going up and down and there was barely any room to move. We had a fair way to walk out there so we were quite exhausted (and sore from riding the day before), so we headed back to the hostel, we had to change hostels as the one we were in was booked out. So when we got back to the hostel we collected our bags and headed around the corner to “Home” Hostel. This hostel smelt a bit funny. We were in a 4 bed mixed dorm, we had an old man that was in our room and he snored really loudly.. It was an awful nights sleep for me. The mattress’s were also springy… They did however offer free washing service, so we put in our dirty clothes and they were washed and dried for us in the morning.

Yesterday we headed out to Sintra for the day. The plan was we were going to get so tired that we would just fall asleep on the train really easily. So we caught an early train out to Sintra, it took just over 40mins to get out there. When we arrived we got a map of the town and decided which sights we wanted to see. The lady in the information area told us to take the bus, but we decided to save money and walk. It was about 1.5km into the city. The first thing we decided to do was walk up a mountain to see the Moorish Castle at the top. We thought the climb might have been slightly easier then what it was. It was a bit of a challenge at times, it was about 1 km of stairs and gravel. When we reached the top we were exhausted. We got our tickets into the Castle and realised to actually be able to see anything you had to climb about 100 stairs. So we hiked up the stairs. The views from the top was amazing, you could see all the way across Sintra and all the other palaces and castles around. It was quite hazy so the pictures don’t really do the area justice. We then climbed back down that tower and up the one on the other side. This also offered amazing views of the city.. It was really high up there. After recovering from our hike up the hill we decided to start our decent down. It was much quicker going down the hill then it was coming up. When we got back into the town, we went towards the  Quinta da Regaleira. This was one of the most amazing sights I think I have seen yet. There were gardens that had a palace, chapel, grotto, caves, waterfalls, fountains, a lake and more. As I am a big whimp of dark places we didn’t go through all of the caves that went underground the entire area. The caves that we did go into were amazing, one led to the bottom of a well, one to a waterfall and the other to an unfinished well. We had a great time exploring the area. One disappointment for me was that there was meant to be a aquarium, but all the glass had been smashed (we don’t know if it was on purpose or if someone vandalised it). Kath dragged me into some of the tunnels and I am glad she did, it was really worth it. The Palace had great detail on the outside and the inside was full of sculptures and paintings. On the 3rd floor, we entered into a library room, and the rest of the floor was pitch black except for a information board in the rooms. It was quite scary and we didn’t understand the purpose of it being so dark. Needless to say we didn’t spend too long on that floor, it was just creepy! After we were completely exhausted from exploring the gardens and palace we walked back to town and had a sit in a cafe and had a juice. It was enough to get the energy levels back up to walk to the train station. The train ride back to Lisbon was quite relaxing. Kath nodded off a few times. We picked up some dinner from the supermarket to cook in the hostel before we went to the train station that night. We made our dinner when we got back because we were starving from all of our hiking.

We hung out for a few hours then went to the train station. Lisbon train station is full of creepy old men and dodgy looking people. We had 3 hours to kill at the train station so I thought I would sew up our pencil case as it broke again, on the otherside this time. This old man came and sat down near us and stared at us. He watched me the whole time I was sewing up the pencil case. So we packed up our stuff and left the waiting area and went to our platform. When we reached outside Kath told me that the guy was winking at her and blowing her kisses. I’m glad we got out of there…dirty old man!

We watched some trains get washed and hooked up to other carriages. Our arrived quite early, but they had to stock it, so we got on about 40mins early. We were in a crampy train again. We set up all of our stuff and then got ready to sleep. The police and immigration people came on the train to check everyones passports. Noone got hauled off this time.

Neither of us got much sleep, so when we finally arrived in Madrid, we were glad to be going to a private room. We found the hostel and they let us check in early. We found an Irish pub that we decided to eat at. We had a huge meal for lunch. Then on the way back went to the supermarket to pick up some supplies. We are now in our room, Kath is having a nap, I will wake her up soon so she doesn’t stay awake all night…

We are taking a plane tomorrow night up to Barcelona, then we have 3 days there, then Monday night we are off on a bus to Paris.. I’m looking forward to going there, I am especially looking forward to seeing the Moulin Rouge, Eiffel Tower and tasting some French foods.

We hope everyone is enjoying themselves and taking care of each other.

Love Cindy and Kath

Mallorca comes to an end… Madrid begins..

Our last few days in Mallorca we didn’t do too much. On Friday we went down to Palma and wandered around the town and had lunch. It was quite a nice day, however it was quite cool in the shade.

On Sunday we went to the pub for lunch with Maxine, Kath’s Grandpa and Bill. Kath and Maxine had the Sunday lunch, which was really good and I had the pork chops and mash potato, that was also good.

The weather has been really shocking lately and you don’t want to leave the house.

Our last night in Mallorca we went out for dinner with Maxine to an Indian place. The food was really good and we had some apple schnaps at the end of the meal.

Maxine took us to the airport today.. on the way we hit a snow blizzard!! Snow in Mallorca, crazy! Our flight was late boarding, but we managed to leave on time..

When we arrived in Madrid it was 3degrees and sunny! By the time we took 3 metros and walked to the hostel we were really warm. We got upgraded to a 4 bed dorm (instead of a 6) as we said we were not willing to share with boys (since we did book a female dorm).. Apparently some male booked a bed in the female dorm! We are the only 2 in our room so we hope there are another 2 girls coming (or noone at all). They have funny keys for the rooms, it is basically a watch, but instead of the time it has a chip in it.

After we checked in we went to have some lunch and then went to the train station to  buy our tickets to Lisbon. They have really funny sounds for the pedestrian crossings at traffic lights, it makes a funny bird chirp.. we laughed a while about it… Kinda scary really… We got our tickets then went for a walk around the area and through the streets back to our hostel.

We are here for 2 nights then off to Lisbon for 4 nights, then back here for 1 night then back to Barcelona (then France).

Tomorrow we are doing a free walking tour, hopefully that is good.

Love Cindy and Kath

Walking tour and our arrival in Mallorca

On Monday morning we got up early to head into the La Ramblas to try and find the walking tour again. This time we made sure we knew exactly where we were going. We found the place really easily and then went for a walk around the area as we were really early for the tour. The tour was of the Gothic Area in Barcelona. We saw some amazing architecture and were told some great stories about the people who lived in that area. There was a whole section that was surrounded by walls to keep the Jewish people in the one area. During the tour we went to a pub which sold beers for 1euro. Kath had a beer and I just had a sip. At the end of the tour we finished off where we started and the tour guide “shouted” everyone a beer. After that we went to look for somewhere to eat lunch. We went into a few pubs and they didn’t serve food til 7, so we gave up and had a light snack then decided to head back to the hostel. We chatted to a few of the people on the tour and they suggested a few airlines that fly really cheaply to Mallorca. So when we got back to the hostel we had a look at flights, and found one that was slightly cheaper then the ferry and only took 30 mins.

On Tuesday morning we got up and packed our things and got ready to leave. We checked the weather and it claimed it was meant to rain so we put on our big jackets. When we arrived at the airport we were really early, so we thought we would try and check in. The lines were huge, so we decided to try the self serve machine. They were really easy to use, we then got to go in the express que to check in our bags which was great. When we were checking in it claimed that our flight was 35 mins late. Apparently my bag now weighs 17.8kgs. We went through security. Kath beeped on the way through, so she got patted down. We then looked through some of the shops and Kath found a really cool squishy bull, so we got that. We then found a spot to sit and have something to eat. We managed to get a bit of free internet so we checked our emails. 20Mins before we were meant to depart (our original time) we headed to the gate to see what was going on. When we walked past the departures board we saw that our flight no longer had the delay next to it. We walked really fast to the gate, there was only 2 people there and no one on the counter. We were a bot worried that the plane had already boarded. Then over the loud speaker came a voice saying that our flight had been moved to another gate (on the other side of our terminal). So Kath and I walked really really fast (we beat everyone there), and we were then the front of the que. After about 10mins of waiting someone finally turned up and was on the counter. After further waiting we were finally allowed to board the plane. The plane was pretty nice, reasonably small though. The flight was a bit rough and pretty quick. When we arrived in Mallorca we picked up our bags and then headed to the bus. It was boiling hot there. We caught the bus into Palma then from Palma we go the bus up to Port Pollenca. It was a really nice trip, plants are much more alive now then when we first arrived. When we bought the tickets the driver kept saying to Kath “there is nothing in Club Del Sol”, finally Kath just said we are staying in an apartment there and he sold us tickets. All the way through Port Pollenca he kept stopping at stops as if to say you should get off here. Finally when we arrived to Club Del Sol we got off and wandered down the driveway to the apartments… we thought it was quite funny. When we got into the apartment we left our bags and then headed over to Kaths Aunt Maxine’s place. When we arrived Maxine, Kaths Grandpa and his friend were in the car going to take them home. We didn’t think they would see us, then finally when Maxine was about to pull away Kath’s Grandpa spotted us. We had a quick chat to them then Maxine took them home and we went into her house and watched some tv. Apparently they had been watching our flight all morning and it was still saying that it was delayed in Barcelona and was over 275mins late. Maxine had no idea what time we would arrive as it kept saying we were delayed. When Maxine arrived back we had a chat and her and Kath had a drink. We stayed at Maxine’s for dinner that night.

On Wednesday Maxine took us out to the supermarket and we did some grocery shopping. We had a really good burger for lunch. On the way home we went to Kath’s Grandpa’s house and had a drink there. Then we came home and watched some movies.

On Thursday we didn’t do a lot, we went out for a walk to the water and Kath found some sticks and threw rocks into the water. And I picked up some shells. We then spent the afternoon relaxing.

Friday was pretty much the same thing, except we didn’t go our for a walk and we had dinner with Maxine.

Saturday was a lovely day so we decided we would go for a walk to the port and then visit Kath’s grandpa. It was a really nice walk, the sun was shining and the weather was great. Kath wore shorts and a shirt, and I wore jeans and a shirt. On the way we stopped at a really good Kebab place and had lunch. It was really good and very filling. We got a free drink as the guy had to warm up his bread machine and it took a little while. We spent an hour or two with Kath’s grandpa, Bill (his mate) was there so we had to chat to them about our journey. On the way back home we dropped into the supermarket. The weather wasn’t so great after the supermarket. It got really cool, Kath was freezing. When we got home we unpacked our groceries and then relaxed. We walked about 6km (I think).

We had lunch on Sunday in the Nag’s Head, a pub in Port Pollenca. We met Kath’s Grandpa and Bill there. The Rangers Vs Celtic game was on. The game was pretty tense, but Rangers won, Maxine was thrilled! The pub was really nice, I had a new Cider (I am still yet to update the page). After lunch Kath and I went back to Maxine’s to hang out. We watched the Manchester United Vs someone game. Man U one. They played a really good game.

Monday was a fiesta so there was nothing open. Kath and I hung out and watched some movies, I did some more washing, nearly done!

On Tuesday Maxine, Kath’s grandpa, Bill and Kath and I went out for lunch to a buffet. The food was great and the ice cream was fantastic.

Today we helped Maxine seed her field. I had fun.. throwing seed over the field… my sort of work haha. We are hoping for rain so the seeds go into the ground rather then just blow away.

Chat to everyone soon.

Love Cindy and Kath

Milan in a nut shell, to Barcelona…

We went out for dinner the first night in Milan to a pizza place that was recommended in our lets go book. We ordered a pepperoni pizza… when the pizza arrived it was actually a capsicum pizza! So we ate that then left, we got charged a fortune. Kath enjoyed the pizza! The next day we thought we would see the one sight Milan has to offer. We caught the metro to the Duomo, a giant church. We walked around the outside, it was very detailed. We then wandered the streets for a while then went back to the hostel and we had a new roommate, he was Mexican. We chatted to him most the arvo/night. We had a horrible salad for dinner. We shouldn’t try and be healthy, it never turns out nicely lol…

The guy had a cold and snored really loudly most the night, so we didn’t get a great deal of sleep. The next morning we hung around the hostel until check out time then went to the train station. We waited around and had some lunch/dinner in a near by family restaurant. When our train arrived we were the first to jump on, we put our bags in the rack and got ready to set off. They gave you a kids find a word on the back of a brochure, It was in Italian so we had no idea what words we were meant to find, so Kath created words then I found them. Then we played boggle with it. We are very creative!

After we left the station a ticket lady came and took our tickets and passports. We watched a movie and then I tried to get some sleep. The seats reclined so they were ok. Kath chatted to some American guys in front of us. They were really nice. They offered her some cake. At our first check point in France it was snowing. The police were in our carriage questioning some guy, after discussion over his passport he was escorted off the train, Phew it wasn’t me! The rest of the journey we both just rested and tried to get sleep.

Kath woke up pretty early and saw the sunrise, then she kindly woke me to see it as well. Nice sunrise over the coast of somewhere (in either France or Spain).

When we arrived in Barcelona we jumped off the train and headed to the Metro to go to the hostel. It was boiling! We had left 4-6degree coldness and arrived in 12degree heat! We found the hostel really easily as they gave you great directions. We checked in, but had to leave our bags in the storage room as we were early. We then headed back to the Metro to try and find the port. We found the port really easily and sat by the water and had some strawberries and juice in the beautiful sun. We saw some really huge fish in the water. People obviously come there all the time to feed the fish bread. After sitting there for a while we decided to go for a walk over the bridge to see what was on the other side. There was a shopping mall, an Imax and the Aquarium. We decided to go for a walk to find the ferry we are going to take to Mallorca. The ferry ticket place was closed, so we went to sit back near the fish feeding area. Apparently there are lots of people who come to get rid of their old bread there. There was one lady that had bags and bags of baguettes she was throwing in the water (whole). The fish were amazing they were really big, Kath wanted to sneak in a line (Look below for a video). We sat and watched them for ages then we decided to go back to the hostel and to the supermarket for dinner food. We were getting quite tired and hungry as we hadn’t really had breakfast or lunch. We cooked pasta for dinner. It was really good, we are so glad to have good facilities in this hostel. There is a big kitchen, big dining/common area, pool table, foosball table, punching bag, 2 exercise bikes, a cinema, and a terrace. We then went to bed and watched a movie.

We were woken up this morning by a rude girl who didn’t even sleep in her bed last night, she came in, turned the light on then left and didn’t turn the light off, so I got up and turned it off. We got up about an hour after that and got ready. We had our breakfast, it was packed in the dining area. Kath spoke to her parents on Skype then we headed out to do a free walking tour. When we arrived in the place we thought the walking tour was meant to start we couldn’t find anyone, so we just wandered around the street. We visited the Martime Museum and then kept walking around and came across a church, it was having massive renovations done to it. We kept walking and found a street parade that was going on. So we went to watch that. There were lots of Spanish dancers.. it was really entertaining. People in the parade were walking along drinking beer! We thought that was hilarious. Then one group came along and set firecrackers off in front of us, it was a bit scary. After the parade finished we walked along to the beach. There were lots of people doing beach sculpting. We walked along for a while, then turned back as the weather was starting to get bad and our feet were getting sore. We walked through some markets then headed back to the metro as it had started raining. The first train we caught was quite busy, 3 guys followed us off the train and through the metro. We were watching our bags and wallets. Then when we were on the escalator one of the guys stepped up onto the step Kath and I were on, so we stepped up a step then he stepped up onto that. As there were people in front of us we couldn’t move anymore. Kath had her hand on her wallet and I turned so my bag was against the escalator wall. Kath thought she felt one of the guys hand trying to get in her camera bag. When we reached the top of the escalator we walked away pretty quickly to the next train line. The guys followed us there as well, but we walked down the other end of the line, Kath checked she had everything. After we got off the next train we realised that the clip on her bag was undone. Nothing was taken, and the guy was pretty stupid to think that we would not realise if her bag was opened (it has a huge velcro strip which is hard to undo at the best of times). We are now back to the hostel and are making an itinerary for tomorrow. We are having pasta again tonight, so I am looking forward to that. Kath had a new beer called Saaz, I thought it tasted ok. I had a magners and now we are sharing a drink called a Damm Lemon (it is 6 parts beer, 4 parts lemon). Tastes pretty good.

Hope everyone is well.
Hope to hear from you all soon (comments are welcome, we are a little sheltered from Aussie life over here).

Love Cindy and Kath

PS: new photos are up in Italy and Spain!