So much food!!

After spending the weekend with Carlos I can say that he was a pretty good host! I got lucky because he loved food as much as I do, so he took me to all these great restaurants where the food was just amazing!! Since he was from Mexico we went to a Mexican restaurant where besides the great food I had the best mango margarita ever...it was just mind blowing, almost too much to handle! After having that huge Mexican meal we went salsa dancing which didnt go very well as Carlos got an asthma attack and I got sick because I had eaten too much. What can you do, shit happens!

The next morning we woke up around 2 pm and I went for a walk alone because Carlos had to do some work for a couple of hours. I ended up sitting at a coffee shop sipping my ice coffee and enjoying the sun. It was one of those moments where I could say "Damn, life is good!". Later on I met up with Carlos again and we went out to have a drink with Michael who is the friend of my friend and he happened to be in Madrid at the same time as me. Once again Carlos took us to an amazing Spanish restaurant where we had some super tasty tapas! Not to mention the strawberry-vodka cocktail we had earlier...delicious!! The guys wanted to have some more drinks so we went to some bars, but suddenly Carlos had to leave because he got an emergency call from work and he had to leave in the middle of the fun. Either way me and Michael continued our way to the busy streets of Madrid and eventually had an early night and decided to go home....blaah!

On Sunday Carlos took me to an American diner to have hamburgers (we did eat quite a lot in case you were wondering). The food was pretty good, but what amuzed me the most was when the waiters gathered all together and started dancing to some Elvis song. It took me by surprise, but it was definitely fun to watch! After lunch we headed to Plaza España and from there went back home as I had to pack my stuff and find my way to the airport. I said goodbye to Carlos and thanked him for the fattening weekend and the great times!

Once I got to the airport I went to do the check in and it turned out I had to pay 45 euros for my backpack...meh! Once I paid that, I went through the security control, which I had to do twice as they hadn't told me that I had to put my camera and tablet seperatelly, ugh! Once I got on the plain, I fell asleep for the whole ride and the next morning I met my friend Foteinh with whom I spent the last couple of days in Athens. I hadn't seen her since our trip in Sevilla last year and it was so much fun hanging out again and being all crazy and weird, ha!

Now I am in Volos and it's so good to be back home! The first thing I did was put laundry as all my clothes were getting pretty disgusting! Today I am sleeping in my own bed, hallelujah! :D

Karoliina

Living la vida loca

Hello there! I am still in Madrid wandering around and meeting cool people. Today I am going to do some couch surfing again and I am going to stay with this guy Carlos who seems to be nice. Once again I have to pack my stuff, but I have become pretty good at packing my things after a month of practising, ha!

Last night I finally got to do some salsa dancing with the Finnish girl Enni, who works at the reception here and boy it was fun! Every time I go salsa dancing I know I am going to have a great time, even though sometimes there are weird men staring or coming to talk to you, but oh well! I actually met some really funny guys and gladly they were dancing very well as well, so there you go! I also keep meeting people in random places lately. I met two people on the metro the other day and some people just on the street. When I am in my travelling mood I tend to talk to strangers more easily and gladly people dont think I am a total weirdo. I was also very lucky to meet John because we spent a lot of time getting lost in the city and it was so nice to have someone to talk to while walking rather than just being alone. We also went to a Picasso exhibition with a Polish girl whose name I cant pronounce and  then went to have some montaditos. Me and John went a little too crazy and bought so many montaditos that we couldnt finish after all, but shit happens! 

Today I am not planning to do anything specific, but hopefully its going to be something fun. After all the walking and dancing yesterday my body is saying "NOOO", but my mind is saying " GET OFF THAT COUCH YOU LAZY COW!". Sometimes you just need to give your body a rest...or maybe its just me feeding excuses to myself. Either way I wil give my body a rest and later on go back to being all active and fun! That sounds more like it!

Okay, I am going now otherwise I will stay on this couch for too long! Hasta luego! :)

Karoliina

Wander around

Hola! Here I am in the magical land of Madrid, wohoooo! I still cant believe that I actually made it all the way here with bla bla car and buses from Berlin. I can say its been quite a ride, sometimes interesting and sometimes not so interesting lets say.

On Monday I used bla bla car again, even though my previous experience was horrible, to come from Bilbao to Madrid. I got lucky this time as the people who were sharing the ride were pretty cool and I got to have some interesting conversations with them...or at least I tried to keep up since they were speaking really fast in Spanish. Once I arrived to Madrid I looked up for my hostel and basically spent the rest of the day just being lazy and boring, meh! I had been walking the whole weekend with my hosts in Bilbao so I deserved one day of just being my boring self. Gladly I met some really cool people later on and my evening got a lot more interesting. Once they kicked us out of the hostel because we were making too much noise, we went out with a small group of people and I got to speak some Finnish with the receptionist who is from (drums rolls....drrrrrrrr) Finland! Who thought I would meet Finnish people while travelling!? I am quite amazed by the fact!

I decided not to party too hard since I wanted to do the walking tour the next day so I came back around three in the morning and tried not to wake up all the people in the 12 bed dorm. Trying to find all your stuff in the dark without making too much noise can be quite a challenge! Gladly I made it and I even got up early the next day, took a shower, had a crappy hostel breakfast ( It was really bad...) and went to the tour on time, score! John from Australia and Andrea from Costa Rica also came along to the tour which was really nice. Andrea went to the Spanish speaking tour and I stuck to the English speaking one with John. I kept complaining of how hot it was and John just seemed to be amuzed by that for some reason. Gladly a girl in the group gave us some sunscreen so I didnt come back to the hostel looking like a tomato. After the tour we just hung out in a park and rented a boat in a small lake kind of thingy ( I dont really know how to explain it) and just layed there under the hot sun. I ended up coming back around eight and then left again for a drink, but then realized I was too tired so after a couple of hours came back again and got some sleep. That was pretty much my full day in Madrid and it wasnt too bad :)

Today I didnt plan anything so I ended up wondering the city with John again, who is a pretty funny guy. On the other hand I havent met any Australians that I havent got along with so it must be that they are just awesome people! We actually got a bit lost on the way and we didnt get to see the things that we wanted to see, but we saw plenty of other stuff so it was okay. Then had a huge beer and some montaditos and our city exploring ended there as John had to get his stuff and go to his couch surfing host here.

Now I am being again my boring self and planning to go to bed early as I have some stuff that I want to do for tomorrow. There wont be any partying tonight but I am definitely planning to do some salsa dancing one of these days! I will end this lame post with a buenas noches and sweet dreams!

Karoliina

Pinchos and beer

I keep reading my previous posts and the mistakes I have made are just horrible. My tablet is not letting me correct any mistakes so if you see sweaming instead of swimming or similar stuff just ignore it :)

But yeah, back to the travelling! On Thursday I arrived to Bilbao which is only an hour away from San Sebastian and I did it by bus this time ( at least the bus was on time!). I stayed in a hostel the first night as I couldnt find  a host straight away. The people I met at the hostel were really nice, so at least I got to make some international friends once again. I met Mara and Chris from New Zealand and Scotland, Linda from Denmark, a Finnish girl ( whose name I dont remember -_-), a Polish guy ( whose name I also dont remember) and Alex from USA. We had a nice dinner together and as I was too tired to do anything that evening I went straight to bed and hoped to get a good rest since in hostels you never know who is going to be snoring or talking in his sleep ( happened many times during my travels).

Me, Chris and Mara were actually talking before going to bed, how horrible it is when you are in a big dorm full of people and there is this one person who will be snoring and keeping everybody up. Unfortunately, that happened that night! As I was about to fall asleep this horrible snoring started and it kept going for a while. I was thinking "Oh crap! No sleep for me tonight I guess" till the snoring just suddenly stopped! Hallelujah! I dont know how someone can snore so loud for twenty minutes and then just stop...but I didnt mind at all!

The next day it was a beautiful day so me, Mara and Chris went for a little walk around Guggenheim museum and had some beer and pintxos in the sun. I think I got a bit sunburned that day, but what can you do! I have been lucky with the weather because it hasnt rained at all almost and the temperature has been around 20-25 degrees! Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to Chris and Mara since they had to catch their flight so I continued by myself to the old part of the city known as Casco Viejo or Las siete calles. 

At five I met up with my hosts Xabi and Heloise, who are really nice. Xabi is from Pais Vasco and Heloise is from Normandy in France. We played board games and had a nice evening together. Yesterday I went inside the Guggenheim ( which was only 6€ euros) and I stayed there for three hours and went throught all te things they had there. There was one Brazilian artist whose art was really interesting and I can say that it was one of the rare times that I enjoyed it. There was also one part of Yoko Onos art which sucked so so baaaaad! For example there was a canvas and it had two condoms filled with water hanging...it was called "You and me" (wtf?!?). I just dont get it how something so stupid can be called art these days...but I guess if you have a name you can sell dog poop and call it art! But thats just my opinion.

After the museum I had some pintxos (again) with Heloise and she showed me around some cool buildings, so we walked a lot! We also went walking to the Casco Viejo and as we were walking this huge groupe of people filled the whole street and started singing. There must have been 100 people at least...probably more. When we asked a woman if they were celebrating something she said no. I mean, why not? I was a cool experience to see all these people singing in Euskera.

In the end of our long walk we sat to have a beer in the sun ( I seriously need to get some cream on my face) and then came back to Barakaldo where my hosts live. We also went out for beer and pintxos around nine and met up with their friends and started our night going from one bar to another. Thats what they do here! You go have a beer in one bar, then the next one, then another one and it goes on and on till you dont remember in how many bars you went. Not to mention pintxos...which are so good! 

We came back a bit late, but it was a fun night. After the fifth beer it was time for me to stop and for the rest of the night I drank coke...I dont understand how the others could drink anddrink without any problem! Spanish genes I guess!

Today we are going to the mountain so I need to get ready! Besos!

Karoliina

An adventure to remember

¡Hola amigos! I am finally in San Sebastian in Pais Vasco and how I got here is something that I will remember for a long time.

As you all have noticed so far on this Eurotrip I have mainly used bla bla car and buses. As I was in Bordeaux it was cheaper to come to Spain with bla bla car than bus or train, so I looked for a ride on Sunday and luckily I found one. I contacted the driver which seemed to be an endless process since it took him a while to respond and finally he called me and we arranged a meeting at four-five o clock at the main station. On Sunday before four he sent me a message that he was driving to Bordeaux, but he was still three hours away. At that point I was like WTF??!? In the end I thought, well alright I will just wait at the station for three hours. The clock was seven, I hear nothing from him so I start calling but nothing. Then he sent me a message that he was going to come in thirty minutes, so once again I was stupid enough to wait. When that time had passed, I started calling him in panick but no response, surprise, surprise! At that point I was about to go to buy a train ticket and not wait anymore, when hallelujah the phone rang and he had finally arrived after four and a half hours!! He couldnt speak english and his spanish was really bad( on our conversation on the phone I couldnt notice that well). Gladly his girlfriend was really nice, but what he did WASNT COOL at all!! I was so upset the whole time that I was just crying at the station and hoping to find a way to Spain.

By the time we got close to San Sebastian, it was midnight and my poor host was waiting for me all that time. In the end the guy just left me in some random station in France as he didnt even know where to cross the border, because his bloody GPS was giving him wrong directions ( never trust those things...they are just evil!). Gladly my host Jon is so, so, so nice and he drove thirty minutes to come pick me up from that random station. Without him, I would have been stuck in the middle of the night, all alone, in the middle of nowhere. My faith in humanity is restored thanks to Jon, but that motherfucker Carlos from bla bla car aint getting any good references from me at least! Sorry for the harsh language but some peopke dont have any kind of respect towards otKhers! Thats all about my little adventure coming here

As about San Sebastian, I am already in love with this place! On Monday I woke up being happy to be still alive and took the train from Andoain ( a village close to San Sebastian, where my host lives) and somehow I got to the city center of San Sebastian. Once I got to see the sea I was so happy that all my worries from the previous day were gone! The weather was nice and warm and peopke were sweaming or just laying in the sun. I walked a lot around the city and later after Jon finished work he took me to some really nice placeswith the car. Evrything so green and beautiful...this place is like from a movie or something! After all the big cities I habe visited so far being in a small place with lots of nature around is perffect!

Today as well I went to a smaller city further away from San Sebastian and once again I just walked and enjoyed the sea! Later on I met with Jon again and he took me with him to his music class where they were playing this weird instrument I had never seen before and later on we went for beer with some people from the class. So far so good! I really enjoy my stay here and I really hope I will be able to come back some day!

Now I am going to stop because this post is getting too long and its 1:30 in the morning so try to ignore my spelling mistakes or any kind of mistakes! I will get some sleep now zzzzz

Christmas is here

As I promised on my last post, here are some pictures of the christmas lights in Sevilla! It's crazy how much effort they have put on these lights but they have done a pretty good job! I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

 The second biggest cathedral in the world

 Las setas

 More lights...

It is so pretty!

 

This weekend is a public holiday so all hostels are fully booked and super expensive. In a way maybe it's good to leave earlier as it's going to be all packed and insane. Today I'm heading to Portugal and I am really not looking forward to the 8 hour bus drive, but it's going to be worth it in the end once I get there!

 “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”   

 

With that in mind I'm going to start my trip!

 

¡Hasta luego!

 

Karoliina

 



Ultimos días en Sevilla

Hola amigos! Many things have been happening these past few days so I haven't had the time to write much about Sevilla. I have a small change of plans (as always) as I decided to quit my job at the hostel. I have also decided to do a "small" trip to Lisbon before I go back to Greece. I am really looking forward to meet up with Riley and Lulu again as they have been working in a hostel in Lisbon for a month now. It's going to be craaaaazy :D

But before that let's go back to Sevillaaaa...

About a week ago I got to celebrate thanksgiving for the first time with my American friends in Sevilla. I really liked the idea of thanksgiving and it was fun being around one table with this big group of people.
I big applause to Reina and Hilda who made that turkey! It was delicious and quite massive! (6 kilos to be precise)

 yes, there was lots of food...

and good people

 As that wasn't enough the next day we got these...

mmmmm...

On my last days here I have been going for long walks around Sevilla, snif snif

 The Maria Luisa park

 hello beautiful!

It's been great living here all this time and having the chance to get to know Sevilla so well. I am so grateful for all the people I have met because they have made my stay in Sevilla unforgettable!

It's sad to leave, but it's time to move on for new adventures in some new place! Sevilla will always have a special place in my heart though <3

Flamenco, tapas, montaditos, cerveza, paella, kebab, sangria, salsa, salmorejo, 99 cent brie cheece...I will miss you

 Spending my last day with these gorgeous ladies! Reina and Hilda :)

(bomba de chocolate)

Why am I doing this to myself? It was freaking delicious though...

Christmas has arrived, but the weather just seems to get hotter here! I will definitely post some pictures of the christmas lights in Sevilla so stay tuned!

Karoliina



20 rocks!

The 25th of November for me was a great day! I was not really looking forward to my birthday because twenty doesn't end in teen anymore. Does this mean that I have to be all grown up and responsible now? In my case I don't know if that is ever going to happen, but there might be still hope...even for me.

We already started celebrating my birthday on the night of the 24th. It was a two day fiesta and I must say that I did enjoy my special day! Without my awesome friends Montana and Luke it wouldn't have been the same though! Thank you guys for being so awesome!

Me and Luke ready to partyyy!

Montana and Luke came with me to dance salsa! Basically I danced most of the time and they just watched...oopsy!  

 

The next morning (when my actual birthday was) I woke up with a big smile on my face and had the most unhealthy breakfast a human being can have. The magic word is nutella!

 

A Scottish guy from the hostel gave me a rose for my birthday hihiii :)

 Also Montana and Luke had wopen up early that morning looking for a bakery to buy me cup cakes! I was so happy to get cake on my birthday and my tummy was very thankful as well!

 Exciteeeeeed!



After all that cake (which was delicious by the way!) we went to have montaditos! It was 50 cent montaditos again so we all got as much food as possible...damn, I'm going to miss these Spanish offers! Montana has been so in love with montaditos that we call them now Montanaditos...yes, she is quite obsessed with them hehe.

The day just got better when me and Montana did some girly stuff and went shopping for like three hours. Shopping therapy does work! I bought the blingiest dress I could ever find and I was ready to take over the streets of Sevilla!

From the Cathedral we ended up in Alameda to have kebab because life without kebab would be a boring life, right?

 Everybody should get a picture with a random guy on their birthday. Thumbs up!

The girls looking good...the guy doing his own thing

Then shots kept coming...

...and people went a bit crazy!

 

Mission accomplished and birthday was a success! A big THANK YOU to everybody for making that day even more special! I'm lucky to have so many good friends :) I think I am getting used to my new age now, but I am still going to make the same question every year...

 

 

Karoliina