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

Living the French way

Bonjour! I am in Bordeaux now, but I am leaving for San Sebastian today!

Coming here by bus on Thursday was not so great as the busride took more than nine hours to get here. I also had this woman sitting next to me and talking to me in French all the time. It would have been nice to have a conversation with her but I dont think she complitely understood that I had no idea what she was talking about, I was more like "Mmmm, aha, mmm!". Gladly the bus driver was from Salamanca so there were no communication problems with him at least! At some point I arrived to my hosts home too so I survived! Phew!
Luckily, my hosts have been really nice and I have been having a good time with them. They are seven in total + the cat! For some strange reason most of my hosts so far have had a cat, is this a sign? Probably not. Living in a house full of people has bee a cool experience!  I have also learned how to make kiss loren and I have been eating lots of cheese and wine. This country is a heaven for a cheese lover like me! On Friday they had friends coming so there was a party going on and the house was even more filled with people. In the end of the night the living room turned into a live concert as they all brought their guitars, drums and whatever insturment they could find and started playing. Yesterday as well they had some friends visiting Bordeaux and I spent the whole night with them trying to learn French. I can say I did pretty well...now I know all the bad words in French mehehehe...

I have to mention also their cat because she is one of the rare cats I like and she constantly comes into my sleeping bag while I am sleeping. I keep waking up and I see her sleeping next to me. Either she likes me or the warmth of the sleeping bag, but I think its the second one.

Now I need to pack and get myself together. Once again I have become an expert on packing! One thing that I wont miss about travelling is the constant packing, thats for sure!

Au revoir!

Karoliina

Oh la la

Hi...
Okay, I admit it....I went shopping today and it was crazy as expected. Why cant I control myself? WHY? Men wont understand my pain, but you women out there you can feel me, right?

I was determined not to buy anything but then things got complicated and the rest is history. Essi had to pull me out of the store in the end telling me "You have no self control" and I guess she is right! I am not ashamed though because I enjoyed my shopping therapy and I am happy. Now Essi will carry some of my stuff to Finland so I can make space in my backpack...what a nice friend am I, huh?

Either way yesterday we did walk a lot so shopping hasnt been the only thing we have been doing. We walked probably for four to five hours and finally got so sick of the rain and cold that we came back and did nothing for the rest of the day. Just bought some treats from the patisserie next to the hotel and rested and finally slept.

Today we are still going to check out Moulan Rouge and have a walk around eiffel tower by night! Maybe get something from the patisserie later on....thats a strong maybe!

Today is our last day in Paris and tomorrow we both continue our own ways. Essi is going back to Finland and I will continue my trip all the way to Bordeaux! Thats the plan for now at least!

Au revoir!

Karoliina

Check!

Paris:

• Notre Dame ...check
• Eiffel tower...check
• Louvre...check
• Mona Lisa...check
• Boat tour ...check
• Getting lost...check
• Getting sweets from a patisserie...check (delicious!)

We havent done that much yet, but we really just want to chill out and take things easy. Paris is huge so we are doing the best we can to see all the things we find interesting. On our first day we went walking around and saw the Notre Dame which is only five minutes away from the hotel. Yesterday we went to Louvre and saw mona lisa for like a second as it was packed with people and Asians trying to take one million pictures of it. It was pretty small after all, so I dont really understand the big fuss about it. Either way, today we had Eiffel tower on the schedule and we walked all the stairs up to the second floor which had an amazing view and sat there for like an hour just enjoying the view and the sun. Now we are just being lazy, but we are on holidays so its okay! I am about to fall asleep and I dont care if this post has one million two thousand mistakes...I feel so lazy, plofff!

The good thing is that we havent met any arrogant Parisians yet! Whatever they say Im just Bonjour and Oui, Oui! Cant go wrong with that, heh

Greetings from a tired traveller!

zzzzzzzz

Karoliina

Bonjour!

 I am in Paris now waiting for my friend Essi to arrive from Finland. Its so exciting to see her again after all these months! I will have someone to be a tourist with for the next five days, yey! Girly time with my good friend in Paris...one thing is for sure, we are gonna spend a lot of money!

Going back to my last day in Brussels, I decided to do a small trip to Brugge because everybody was saying so many good things about it. I didnt get lost this time but it did take me a while to find the train station. Gladly it was a beautiful day even though it was windy. The day before I had made the big mistake to wear a skirt and I ended up walking like a penguin to hold it down...sometimes the wind was too strong and people got to enjoy my beautiful butt, thats life! In Brugge I wore jeans to avoid embarassing moments and I really enjoyed my little trip walking around and taking pictures. It was such a beautiful city, even though it was quite small (maybe thats the reason why I didnt get lost this time). I also bought some macaroons and belgian pralines and I was happy!

In the evening, I arrived to my hosts place and for my last night we talked and watched a movie. Didnt feel like doing much and I was really exhausted from walking again so many hours. In the morning I packed my stuff and my bla bla car was waiting for me at the station for Paris! All the people in the car were speaking in French for the whole ride so I cant say I enjoyed that, but at least they brought me to the right place so I cant complain.

I dont know what is todays plan, but I am sure we will find something to  do ;)

Karoliina