Roma 3 - Vatican

Picture uploading isn't working on the Barcelona Internet... so you'll have to click the links for pictures.

With plans to take Johnathan's 1:00 pm tour of the Vatican, we were able to sleep in a bit. We decided to head toward the Vatican via METRO a little early so we could take some photos outside before the tour. It was especially hot and it was my birthday! As we headed to Termini we noticed a guy in jorts (jean shorts). These are commonplace in Europe - there hasn't been a day that went by without us seeing some. But I snapped a quick photo of the guy walking in front of us for real proof.

We boarded the METRO headed for Ottaviano - the spot nearest the Vatican, but still a few blocks walk, unlike at the Colosseum.

We were hungry and decided to find a nice spot to grab breakfast - American breakfast. If you want standard bacon, eggs, and toast, you need to find the rare restaurant that has an American breakfast menu. Italian breakfast is a sweet pastry to go with some coffee/cappuccino. We found one. And although the egg yolks were nearly red in color, it tasted just like home-cooked breakfast. Not too bad.

Then we headed over to St. Peter's Square for some photos. The street that leads there is littered with little hut/trailers that are selling souvenirs to tourists. Anything miniature that could have to do with the Vatican - they sell it.

With still about 45 minutes before out meeting time with the tour group, I suggested we grab some ice cream. And we did. Happy birthday to me

Ice Cream - http://instagr.am/p/JKg9z/

fThen, back to the METRO stop to catch up with Johnathan and others from our group. We had met a family of four from New York at dinner the night before and strongly suggested Johnathan's tour, as they were also planning on the Vatican for the day. They took his card from us and low and behold, they were waiting at the top at the METRO stop when we returned. They had contacted him and booked a spot too. So we saw Johnathan and followed him to the office to complete our payment and then enter the Vatican museum.

Once inside, he had us wait in the gift shop for about 15 minutes. I suspect that much like the day before at the Colosseum, this is our 'waiting in line time' so we can avoid the main line outside. We used the bathroom and lingered around for a bit. You might already know, but the Vatican is its own country, has its own police, fire dept, post office, and currency. So if you want to buy something within, Euros won't do the trick.

Rachel at Ottaviano - http://instagr.am/p/JN1lk/

Johnathan led us into the Vatican museum first, we would meander through hall after hall of artwork by Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Rafael, Da Vinci, and others. He had tidbits about each. I was particularly happy that his knowledge of the subjects was on par with the day before, since we had gone out of our way to recommend him to the family from NYC. He didn't disappoint. A couple of the works that stood out were a work by Rafael and a giant copy of the last supper by Da Vinci.

RAFAEL WORK: http://www.adolphmenzel.org/upload1/file-admin/images/Raphael36.jpg

He had made a comment the day before that if anything of value is discovered in Rome, the Vatican snags it up quickly. I think he was speaking jokingly in a sense, but also a partial truth. There is a room that contains $200 Billion worth of marble (red in color).

Marble anyone? - http://instagr.am/p/JN4J3/

There are too many rooms to count, each full of paintings, sculptures, artifacts, etc - all priceless. One of my favorite rooms contains about 20 large maps painted on the walls. All maps of different regions of Italia. They were from hundreds of years ago, and almost impossibly so, they are extremely accurate - according to Johnathan.

Ancient Map of Italia - http://instagr.am/p/JN4ii/

As many rooms as the tour took us through, there were that many that we either skipped or just sped through, and I'm sure many more that are not open to the public. It's truly like a fortress unlike anything I've ever seen, and it's hard to imagine anything more secure, even the White House.

The tour is wrapping up and next is the grand finale - The Sistene Chapel. Of course they save it for last. Before we entered, Johnathan took us to a large garden - where all the other tours congregate as well. There are probably 14-18 areas for tours that have placards of the Chapel ceiling and give the guides an opportunity to teach you about what you are about to see with your own eyes. Obviously, they can't very well chit chat with the group while inside, as it's a type of crowded that I've never experienced before, and supposed to be a quiet place. Johnathan used the time outside to talk about the ceiling and explain about the different sections. Some of the nuances of 'The Creation' were that the Adam's leg is actually Eve's body, that Michelangelo included himself as a corpse being held by LOOK IT UP, and more commonly known, that he included the Cardinal that he disliked from the Vatican in Hell with a serpent wrapped around his body, biting his 'man region.' It's so much to try to look at all at once.

Sistene - http://instagr.am/p/JKe4l/

Your neck hurts as you struggle through a crowd of people getting bumped from every direction. Thankfully it is quite cool inside - I presume to help preserve the painting. You're not supposed to take pictures, but it would be nearly impossible to try to enforce that rule, aside from simply not letting cameras inside, but that would make the already long line, intolerable. I snapped a few, and a video.

Frankly, it almost seems like the entire day's tour is just a long line waiting to see the Chapel ceiling, but with plenty else along the way. Johnathan had mentioned that we should wait for our group just outside the door on the stairs, as it's impossible to stick together in the free-for-all in the chapel. I definitely had no idea where Rachel was. But, I was betting on her having heard that instruction. She did not. There I stand outside the Chapel with almost the whole rest of the group, Rachel not there. So I leave with everyone else and hope to see her on the outside. What made me less worried was the fact that the NYC family was also not around. She was with them, safe and sound outside in St. Peter's Square. I yelled at her for not following directions and providing me with 10 minutes of conjecture as to her whereabouts and pondering how I would find her. It was a fun moment. She responded well to my sarcastic yells, I'm sure you can imagine. But it all worked out. Exhausted and having produced a half liter of sweat - we're becoming quite accustomed to metric over here - we entered the Vatican Post Office with every great intention of buying and mailing a post card that would have the Vatican Post Office stamped on it. Well to do this would require waiting in line to change your money to Vatican Dollars (they're not called that). Then you would need to wait in line to buy the post card. Write the post card - something inspirational, and religious of course. Oh and don't forget waiting in another line to mail it. Sorry to say we didn't have it in us. Too much waiting and too much pressure to write something great.


4:00pm
We spent another 10 minutes admiring St. Peter's Square and snapping these photos. But it was time for a much deserved siesta.

Rach and I - http://instagr.am/p/JN3tX/

9:00pm
We learned a valuable lesson from the dinner the night before. Our neighborhood has great restaurants that are only two blocks from the hotel. There's no reason to take the METRO to a cab to a restaurant all the way across town. So, we hit it out of the park with Trattoria Gemma alla Lupa, only 60 seconds walk from the hotel.

I generally like to have waiters recommend things at restaurants because I assume they know better that me. So I narrowed it down to two different pastas for Primi Piatti and asked him to choose one. I was very happy that he did not hesitate at all and recommended one. I can't recall the name of it, but it had part of the name of the restaurant in it - makes perfect sense.

The menu described it as rigatoni with tomato bacon sauce - kind of weird. It was awesome. It was pretty salty, but I didn't mind. The sauce was chunky tomato and sure enough, there were chunks of thick bacon in it. Loved it!

Primi Piatti - http://instagr.am/p/JME2c/
Vino - http://instagr.am/p/JMEVz/

Secondi Piatti was a baked chicken leg and roasted potato chunks. Also delicious. This meal rivaled the one from the first night for best meal of the trip. I might pick this one - I think Rachel would pick the other.

Secondi Piatti - http://instagr.am/p/JMG5a/

Dessert of course, it was my birthday after all. We ordered ice cream and tiramisu. The tiramisu was not like in America. The top was not crusted over really at all, like we are used to. It was good, but the ice cream was better.

Dessert - http://instagr.am/p/JN2la/

We ordered a bottle of wine and got it corked to take home with us to the hotel. Great day, great night.

The next day we would check out of the hotel in Rome and take our train to La Spezia - the south end of Cinque Terre.

Preview:

http://instagr.am/p/JY7jl/

Roma 2 - Colosseo

We woke up around 10am, quite exhausted from the early and lengthy previous day. Rachel had a granola bar breakfast, and we hit the METRO for the Colosseum. We had no tour reserved but I was pretty sure we wanted one, so someone could tell us what was in front of us. The previous day had been mostly an exploratory day and while it was great, we were just looking at these things without any understanding of what they were, why they were there, or how old they were. I wanted an expert.

When you leave the METRO station at Colosseo you exit to the Colosseum RIGHT in front of you. Stevie Wonder sees the Colosseum when he exits the METRO. And we didn't have to put forth much effort to get a tour. You are basically bombarded with offers for English tours - we must look American. We just agreed to the first tour that was offered, didn't look around to haggle or compare prices. Glad we did it that way, more on that later.

We paid for the tour, 25 E each, which includes the admission, and allows you to skip the line. We had to wait around for about 15 minutes for it to start. It was hot - we found shade. Finally time to begin and our guide introduced himself as George, Clooney. No, but really, his name was George - looked and sounded nothing like Clooney - in his dreams. The tour started with an introduction, which I suspect was our 'wait in line time.' The intro was extremely informative and included visual aids - a book that would show comparisons of what it used to look like at different times. Most know the original use of the Colosseum from 'Gladiator,' but I didn't know that there was a two-boat naval battle inside, and that at one time, it was an apartment complex of sorts. George knew his shit. He did, however, have a thick Italian accent, making it tough to understand him at times. Sadly, it's already hard for me to recall the glutton of facts that were given to us, but it ended up being well worth the money for the tour. After our time with George was complete we had 90 minutes of free time before the 2nd tour would begin - the Palatino and Roman Forum. Now when we purchased this tour in the morning, we were promised two tours: the paid one of the Colosseum, and a 'free' tour to follow. I'm realizing now that the 2nd free tour was a sales pitch, but that's ok.

So we spent our free time wandering through the museum portion of the Colosseum. There is currently a special tribute to Nero going on, so much of the exhibits were about him. Artifacts, sculptures, and written placards led us through to the exit, and it was time for lunch.

By pointing through the glass at "that one, and this one," I ordered a panini for me and for Rach. I added a Heineken; she was craving a Iced Tea – peach, I think it was. We found a nice spot on the steps near where the next tour would start to eat our lunch. Mine was excellent - pretty sure Rach was jealous.

Johnathan arrived to lead us through the Palatino and Roman Forum. I didn't really know what either of those things was, and we almost skipped the 2nd tour, as we were sweaty and tired - one of us had a major backache. But, we soldiered on with Johnathan and his British accent. He was much easier to understand.

The Palatine is sacred ground that began the entire Roman Empire. It's the place where the orphan sons of Mars, the God of war, were found. They were raised by a mortal until adult age. You have probably heard of Romulus and Remus. Romulus would go on to battle his brother and kill him - after the initial truce, Remus entered into Romulus' territory. In order to begin his settlement, Romulus needed to steal women away and produce children, which he did. This was the first use of a 'roofie.' He threw a party and got all the women drunk. Then he and his men stole them away, ran back to his gated city and locked the doors behind them. All ancient Romans believed they were descendants of Romulus.

The Roman Forum is basically what was the ancient 'downtown' of Rome. And now it's partial buildings and so many artifacts, you almost trip over them. Rachel actually did.

Johnathan ended with us perched high up above the Forum with a beautiful view. I took a panoramic. He brought us into the shade and gave the sales pitch for the other 2 tours that he does: the Vatican and the Roman Mysteries. We were already planning on heading to the Vatican the next day, so it was perfect luck that he was guiding a tour there too. We signed up for the next day, knowing that we were in for a great tour, as long as he had 1/5 the knowledge of the Vatican as he did of that day's subjects.

We headed home, first stopping off for some water and a shady resting spot.

I'm not going to bother mentioning the dinner from night 2. We made a mistake and shouldn't have strayed from our neighborhood. Lesson learned. When in Rome: eat at a place where the menu looks like it was a kindergarten art project.

Vatican to come...

Roma Day 1

The plane from Madrid to Rome was scheduled for takeoff at 7:05 at gate D71. The responsible Hurley children gave themselves plenty of time and security was a breeze - around 20 minutes. So, we were sitting at the gate for some time, waiting on a plane to arrive. About 30 minutes til boarding time, and still no plane, we heard an announcement in Spanish - closely followed by a mass exodus of the other passengers waiting at gate D71.

Investigation ensued.

I left Rachel manning the baggage while I walked to the nearby screens to search for info. Madrid airport decided to move our gate. The new destination? C57. These aren't exactly neighboring gates. About a 7 minute walk and we arrived in a much more crowded area of the airport with others waiting in line to board our plane. Still no sign of our plane mind you. We stood in line for what seemed like forever and it eventually became clear that this plane was not taking off on-time. Finally the line began to move and we made our way to the front, were scanned in, and entered the jetway only to realize that we are being shuttled by bus from there to where the plane sits - elsewhere. The shuttle bus ride seems way longer than it should be. Why was our gate not close to where the plane was? A mystery.

Finally getting on the plane

We finally take off - about 60 minutes late. None of the flight attendants seemed too hurried or concerned by this.

Ciao Roma! We waited at one carrousel for about 15 minutes for Rachel's checked bag - containing about 2lbs less than it should have (I suspect she covers that part in her blog). But, that was not the right carrousel. Next we tracked down and waited at the correct carrousel for another 30 minutes, which is where we discovered our 2nd character of the trip, "the Unabomber." It looked just like Ted Kaczynski. I swear. Only this guy looked meaner, wore a cowboy-style hat and spoke Español.

Don't you dare go in there...

We joked about that guy a bit, until he removed his sunglasses and revealed a stare that belonged in a Wes Craven film. Couldn't wait to get out of there!

There it is! Rachel's bag! Thank God. Now to the next adventure. Locate the prepaid shuttle that is to take us from airport to hotel. There were probably 70 people waiting for the arrivals as we all left the secure area. Of those 70, probably 20 were guys holding signs with names of who they were supposed to pick up - most of those names ended in an "i". I was convinced we were never going to find this shuttle. But, we did. Lucky occurrence #4. They piled us into a van/bus thing - about 12 people in all - and we tooled around Rome dumping 2 at a time at their respective hotels. Of course, we were 2nd to last to be dropped. We did get a nice tour of the city, albeit without knowing what we were seeing, and with a lot of unwanted motion sickness included.

2:00pm

Safe and sound at the Royal Court Hotel. Checked in and on the WiFi. That's when you got a flurry of updates from us - probably around 5:00am on July 31. The hotel was cozy, but very adequate with a kind, helpful staff that spoke excellent English. And Rachel was so concerned that we wouldn't be able to communicate.

After a 2-hr siesta we set out for food - had not eaten since the granola bars and generic gushers at the airport. Recommendation from the guy at the desk was to grab pizza at the little joint down the street.

Whenever I return to Rome, I will definitely stay in a hotel in the same general location. It was perfect for travel by METRO, as we were just 100 steps from Termini - a huge train station that doesn't have an American comparison. It is closer to the likes of a small airport in the US than a train station.

TERMINI STATION in the background

Back to the food. After bland and underwhelming Spanish food - big things were expected in Italy. Quoting myself to Rachel, "if they don't have the best bread I've ever tasted, I'll be disappointed." In this case, "they" was all of Rome. Lofty expectations... We ordered pizza with spinach and garlic; and bruschetta with garlic and olive oil - no tomatoes. First bite was amazing.

Our Pizza and Bruschetta

No disappointment here. It was an excellent little family-run pizzeria with a great staff, one was the eldest daughter of the owner, or so we figured out. She was quite attractive and spoke excellent English.

We asked for some advice on our way out, as we only had a partial day left. She pointed us to the Spanish Steps...

The huge crowd at Spanish Steps

Us at the Spanish Steps

She also mentioned wandering down Corso (something or other), which was a shopping area with very expensive stuff, but interesting to see. We meandered our way from that area over to a roundabout with a nice fountain and a Basilica (one of 900 churches in Roma). It was Sunday, and we entered the Basilica - with many others - and mass was going on. We didn't stay long, but it was cool to see. We grabbed some holy water and made the sign of the cross.

The Basilica

Took a bunch of pictures. You have already seen most. And we walked through the roundabout and peaked at little shopping carts on the street.

One was really cool and had a copy of Hamlet from 1912. The condition was terrible, so I decided against buying it for Mom. Oh yeah, and it was in Italian.
We found our way back to the METRO and home to Termini with one thing on our minds - dinner.

We had read that Italy is much the same as Spain with late dinners - around 9pm. What is largely different from Spain is that dinner is an event, not just a small snack. Dinner is antipasti, primi piatti, secondi piatti, dessert, and/or coffee, and for the bold, even a liqueur. Well, we were feeling quite bold, and the 70 EURO bill shows that. We ordered prosciutto and fresh mozzarella with oil for our bread - Antipasti. I had spinach and cheese ravioli with a tomato, basil cream sauce - fresh pasta and the ripest tomatoes for the sauce - primi piatti. You're drooling on your keyboard.

Now you see it...

Now you don't

A beef filet would soon arrive as my secondi piatti. Like I said, bold. By the way, we are already on drink #4 of glass #2 of house red.

Beef Filet and mixed veggies

No dessert for us, but we inquired with our waiter about Grappa. I was curious. Have you heard of it? Have you tried it? I had heard, but never tried. The waiter told us that he doesn't like it, but he wanted us to try it.

Grappa and Limoncello

And it arrived - one shot of Grappa and another of limoncello for Rach - on the house. Grappa is strong, and tastes somewhat like scotch to me. I think I sprouted about 20 new chest hairs on the spot - the last thing I need. The limoncello was very strong too, but after one sip of the Grappa, it seemed like lemonade. And these sips were like the size of a large raindrop. Key takeaway, Grappa is not for everyone.

Arrivederci!

Madrid Day 2

In the afternoon of Day 1, Belen had helped us to book our high-speed train tickets for the ride back into Madrid the following day. Rachel and I had a hotel booked and her friends from the program were going to join us for the day to see a few sights and shop around in Madrid. We left Segovia on the 1:30pm train run by RENFE (the company that operates the train; like Metra). We arrived in the same Chamartin station that I had utilized the day before for transfer from the METRO. Then we got on a METRO train to Puerta de Sol to check in to our hotel room. Rachel’s two friends had set a meeting time and place for us to meet them that did not give us much time.

We made our way over to the Hostel, Rachel in the lead. I probably asked her about 5 times if she was sure she knew where she was headed. Fear not, we arrived at the hostel and checked in to our room. The room was probably about the size of 3 of Belen’s bathroom – still not large. But we had a shower with a door that closed and a head that didn’t require that you held it. We were perfectly happy. We also had a free WiFi connection. There was a “patio” as part of the room too, it was bigger than the room.

Then we headed to meet Rachel’s friends in Parque de Retirio (sp?). Rachel and I headed to the meeting place and tried to find the girls, no luck. We walked in a bit further and sat at a nice little café on this man-made lake and ordered dos cervezas. There were probably 30 row boats in the lake and people in them rowing around. It didn’t look like too much fun in the 100+ degree heat. Fortunately, the one girl had given us her international cell phone that would work to call them on another phone. Without this, we would never have met them successfully. So we did meet up with those girls and we headed to the Palacio de Cristal. It wasn’t much more than a large structure made up of tons of windows with a huge slide (yes, a slide like from a park) inside of it. We strolled up and walked in. Some of the girls relived their childhood with a ride down the slide – I did not.

Then we made our way back the way we had come and picked up some helado (ice cream). I had some sort of drumstick that contained a Kit Kat. Yum. We made our way over to a museum – we had to use the bathroom. We entered the museum, and much to our surprise, there were the 3 things we were seeking: air conditioning, bathrooms, and a $0 ticket price. We took care of business and cooled down.

Next, the girls wanted to do some shopping, so we made our way back near the streets of Madrid and out of the park – took a Metro back to Puerta del Sol. We walked up and down the streets and saw thousands of people shopping at stores like Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Guess, North Face, and other no-name stores, and the girls went nuts – mostly the other girls, Rachel had no strong urge to blow cash, as it was not her last day.

I was over the shopping in about 9 minutes and Rachel in about 19, so we found a cozy spot and sat with a couple of the other girls, waiting for the stragglers to finish spending their last Euros. Keep in mind that by a cozy spot, I mean a street with a small concrete ledge windowsill to sit on – room for 3 (there were 4 of us). Eventually all the girls reconvened and it was time for dinner.

Dinner #2 in Spain was another underwhelming experience. We went to a tapas place and the girls ordered 4 pitchers of sangria, and jamon (ham) and manchego cheese, served with bread. I ordered ham croquettes. Basically those are mashed potatoes mixed with a creamy cheese and very small bits of ham, dropped into a fryer and served up. Very rich and not exactly what I was craving.

Next, it was time to send the girls off back to Segovia for their final night there. Rachel and I retired back to our hostel. We had a 7:00am flight in the morning and had to inquire about transportation to the airport – we suspected the METRO would not be running at 4:30am when we wanted to leave. We came in to the lobby of the hostel – 5^th floor – to talk to the desk person. It was a guy that we’ll call Euro Doc Brown because he looked like Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future – but spoke 4 languages. He said that it would be best to take a taxi, but that we wouldn’t be likely to find one at such an hour. He would call one right away and have it here for us in the morning. He also offered wake-up call services, which we didn’t really need, but we accepted. He ensured us that those taxis are usually 15 minutes early, and very prompt.

3:45am Sunday

Our wake-up call provides a rude awakening – it’s just an automated system. A few minutes later Euro Doc called the line and asked if we were awake – nice of him. When I responded with yes, the wake-up call worked, he replied, “oh yes, I see you.” Annnnnnnnnnnd I was creeped out. Fortunately for us, we were leaving soon.

We get all packed up and head to the lobby of our floor (4^th). Doc Brown told us to wait there and not on the street and that he would signal us when the cab arrived. The cab was 5 minutes late, then it was 10 minutes late. I walked up the stairs to talk with Doc and he said he just got off the phone with them and they were almost there – so much for 15 minutes early. At any rate, we did get picked up in the cab – the cabbie had a story about being stopped for a breathalyzer by the police, which he must have passed. He seemed believable enough. We got to the airport and through security in probably 15 minutes.

To be continued on Roma Day 1.

Madrid - Segovia - Day 1

It seems like a week ago, but as I write this it was 76 hours ago that I landed at the airport in Madrid. From there, I had to find my way to Segovia (roughly 80 km) and meet up with Rachel without a phone to use. This must be what it was like back in the 90s. First thing off the plane and to baggage claim to get my bag (it was small enough to carry-on but contained the dreaded > 5 oz liquids). Snagged my bag and headed to the "i" booth for information. There I was greeted by a nice gentleman who spoke English, as I was not quite ready to dust off the Spanish. He told me how to take the METRO from Madrid to Chamartín. That trek required a 1€ ticket and one free transfer. Luckily, I'm well used to this procedure from the L, so it was relatively simple to navigate the METRO to the station at Chamartín. That was where I was going to pick up a high-speed train that would take me to the suburb of Segovia - leaving at 2:20pm and costing 20€. When I arrived in Chamartín, I made my way up several escalators and to the correct area to purchase a ticket to Segovia. That gentleman behind the counter did NOT speak English. So I was forced to rely on my Spanish, which I will have you know is still quite adequate. Believe it or not I got the LAST ticket on the 2:20pm train. Had I not gotten a seat, I would have been waiting for more than 3 hours. Lucky occurrence #1.

Off the train in Segovia and many many hours into my journey, and able to see the finish line, I decided to just take a taxi the rest of the way into town. From Rachel's directions, I was able to give the taxi driver a destination in downtown Segovia - he did not speak English either. I arrived in the Plaza Mayor in Segovia, just past the aqueduct, and was safe and sound, including my luggage. Great news! Butttttttt, how am I going to find Rachel?

I walked over to a little restaurant that had plenty of outdoor seating, recognizing the familiar sound of plates banging together that I frequently heard in video chats with Rachel, I figured this was the place with the free WiFi. I was right. Lucky occurrence #2. I was able to steal an internet connection and grab a few emails. I left one for Rachel stating that I was in the Plaza and awaiting her arrival. It was damn hot by the way.

I made my way over to a table and sat down for a beer and a water. Great beer, and boy did I deserve it. For those keeping score at home, from the moment I left my apartment it went like this... Bus > Train (Blue Line) > Flight to Amsterdam > Customs > Flight to Madrid > Metro #1 > Metro #2 > High-speed train > Taxi > Promised Land/WiFi. That's one helluva long day of travel. I doubt another beer will ever taste so good again. But I digress.

Literally on my third sip of the beer and guess what I see? Rachel and her friend Emily just strolling on up. She had not even received my email, but was just out looking around for me. Lucky occurrence #3. Then it was off to see the living quarters...

It took about 99 steps from where I finished up my beer to get to Belen's (Rachel's Sra.) house. We went inside and I received the tour. You enter on the ground level with a sitting room and the only bathroom. The bathroom is less than 50 sq feet, I swear. There is a sink, shower, toilet, and bidet. I don't think anyone, including Belen uses that bidet. Those Europeans must just have a hard time letting go. They know TP is better, they just want to pretend they still use bidets. WELL YOU'RE NOT FOOLING ME, EUROPE!

The tour continues, but not before I scale 14 steps. There are 4 levels that is each separated by 14 steps. That's 42 steps from ground to top, or in my case, from bathroom to my bed for the night. Another interesting fact - each step you scale, the temperature rises by 0.5 degrees. That means that yes, it is 21 degrees warmer in the bed that was mine for the night, than on the ground floor. I took a siesta. I took a loooooong siesta. I woke up around 8:00 and made my way back down to the shower. I was nearly shivering by the time I made it down stair #42 - NOT. The shower itself? It's about the size of a slightly large welcome mat. The shower head? You must hold it. The hot water? Works well. The pressure? Not bad. The catch? You must choose between one or the other, as you will not receive both.

Showered up and ready for Rachel as she returned from afternoon drinks with friends. Rachel and I spent about an hour chatting with Belen and Emily, and then we left for dinner. Dinner was unsatisfying and I ordered some melange of fried foods - complete with 5 leaves of lettuce. Food is very bland in Spain. That night we hit some bars with her friends from her program and ended our night back at home around 3am. I was exhausted, as I drifted to sleep on top of the covers for the second time in my pseudo-sauna of a free bedroom, feet hanging off the "bed."

That covers Day 1.