17.- UVM Espanish

Hi everybody, I'm back with my tales once more and quite better (at least on how late am I on publishing), some might say. This time I'm to talk about the last adventure in Europe with my buddies from Vermont living now in Spain: the crazy "espanish".

A little bit of our background is that last year we studied together in the University of Vermont, as part of the international exchange students and actually lived under the same dorm for 6 months (one was even my roomie so we shared even the same roof for a while). Along with around 30 other internationals we spent a really nice time together and now that I came to Europe my visit to them was pending. Eva lives in Madrid, while Alberto and Miguel live in Pamplona and that's why scheduling something together started to seem like an impossible task and so far (almost 8 months since I first arrived to this continent) we hadn't done so.

It all changed due to the lovelly Eva, who started sending some messages through Facebook trying to arrange a date for us to meet. After some weeks of writing stuff back and forth, I decided to go and visit her even if we couldn't meet the others in Pamplona. It was a crazy way to go, but hadn't it been like that stuff wouldn't have happened; so before you know it I was on the bus to Madrid and went to see Eva. First couple of days I stayed at her place having a wonderful time exploring the city and enjoying her and her parent's hospitality for which I'm more than grateful. We even planned about going to some beach or doing short one-day-trips to nearby areas so I could do a little bit more of my travelling along my friend. However things changed when we finally got to talk to our pamplonian friends.

Once more the principle of "do it and think later" applied and also before you know it we took the car and drove 5 hrs to Pamplona to meet this guys, although they were kinda busy working (that's what happens to people on reality, not to crazy Mexican guys on an exchange program in Valencia) but we were determined to meet them. Actually they also did a big effort to host us and they did an awesome job staying with us, showing us around and even partying once they finished their shift and chores.

Quite a bad thing we were there for only a couple of days and we all have to return to normal life, which is why on the last day we woke up really early and drove back to Madrid so I could catch my bus back to Valencia, ending then this wonderful trip. However, this didn't happen before arranging one last adventure once again in Pamplona for July and we all agreed on joining and enjoying it as much as we can. Can't wait for it!

16.- Paris 2008

Welcome back to "Here and back again" (that's the blog's title on its English version).Today's post is about one of my last trips during my Europe adventures. Although people might think that since I'm on this side of the puddle travelling is easy, I definitely will reply that actually it is, though is not for free and therefore a limit on the amount of trips and adventures is required (damn it, I wish I didn't eat so I could spend that on explorign Europe and visit my friends).

Anyway, to start with my post I might say that this has been definitely the most spontaneous trip I've ever made. It all began one day while diving on a couple of beer jars at "La Bodega" with my friend Jano and the lovely Jelena, talking about future/desired travels around the world. Both my friends had already booked up a cheap Ryanair flight to Paris on a date 2 weeks ahead and they said I could joined them if I wanted to, and since I actually did wanted, the very next day I booked my ticket (although not as cheap as my friends'). Just ask for permission at work and my destination for 3 whole days was already determined: Paris!

Obviously nobody noticed time flying by and before we noticed it was already the day we should fly away (quoting my man, Lenny). I might add that this Ryanair things are weirdly precise and in less than 2 hours we were already taking the bus from the airport to center of the city, giving the "lunch in Spain, dinner in Paris" feeling. Even finding the place of our beloved host, mon cherrie Cecile, was surprisingly easy which even more gave us the feeling of a warm welcoming Paris. Anyhow, since we arrived quite late to the city it was just a matter of having some dinner and going to sleep kind of plan, saving the whole city for the next couple of days.

On day one we doscovered that we could rent bikes for as cheap as 1€ and then taking them over the city as long as we returned them to certain electronic stations. Although it was a tricky system we all manage to grab one ride and fly along the channel towards the center of the city. This proved to be quite helpful, cause we lived somehow far away from the "tourist" area, and by taking the metro we wouldn't have seen many things we got to catch by riding a bike. Once in front of Notre Dam, we met with my friend Anna Olson from UVM (another UVM/Valencia crossover in our story) nad we got to hang out together the rest of the day. Champs Elysses, Arc de Triomph were also covered by our long biking trip but quite worth it because of time saved, distance traveled and the very nice weather we had.

Next day was destined to do more like indoor activities and resting from last day's riding adventure, so we took everything a little bit more lightly and taking more time to enjoy life. Anna was with us once again and since we could take time to chill out, girls went out shopping and me and Jano went out for a snack and beers along with other cultural amenities we found along the way. Regardless of the "time waste" it was to go shopping/beer drinking, Monmartre, Mouling Rouge among others were this day's turistic covered spots,enough isn't it?.

Our only regret about taking it slowly is that we didn't get to climb on the Eiffel tower on time to catch sunset, which is why we decided then to wake up early and catch the first place to Eiffel's tower entrance line. It was quite schocking to see thata even though we arrived quite early, it was a big line to go in, but only on the entrance where there was an elevator and a short one which people have actually to climb up there (and evenn for less money). so we actually took this way up and then bought a ticket for the last section of the tower and we were on the top almost 2 hours after the time we woke up. Not bad, huh?. The problem that day was that our flight was to leave that very night and we had to take the bus in the afternoon (to have time for checking in and all those things) so the list of the activities we could do was somehow limited. Jelena decided to squeeze as much time as she could to visit some places and try to catch on some shoes she saw, while Jano and I decided to buy a bottle of wine and some cheese with bread to have a full Parisienne lunch on the gardens right on front the Eiffel tower. Again good weather favoured us which did help our enjoyment of our different plans.

The same way this adventure began it ended, because before we could even think about it we were already on the plane back home and suddenly in Valencia back on our flats. To be honest we arrived to Elodie's farewell party which felt also like a welcome back party with our beloved valencian-erasmus friends. Well that shall be all for today, hope you've enjoyed today's edition and to see you soon around here. Bye!