As we waited for the elevator to come to our floor, we found ourselves jumping and high-fiving over and over. For what reason, we have no idea. What I do know is that time is very bitter sweet for the both of us. Tonight, we prepare (and pack) for our return to our home sweet home of Poway, California. True, we only live 3.5 miles away from each other and we will probably see each other every day anyway, its not the same. No more waking up next to each other, sharing every meal, sharing clothes (well that will happen anyway), traveling around, sharies stories and everything else that goes along with traveling. Our parents have even discussed getting joint custody! But this time has truly been astounding, and who greater to share this experience with than a best friend?!
After 5 months, we have reached the end of our journey. Who would have thought that a random winter text message about boycotting the real world would turn into some crazy adventures to last a life time. My eyes are burning because I am so tired. My body aches from walking around all the time. My chipped nails and splitend hairs have seen better days. But I wouldnt trade any of that for this amazing time that Ally and I have shared. Sure we've been best friends for over 17 years, but whats a few more Euro stories to add to the mix :)
Thank you to everyone who has made this trip something special for the both of us. From Switzerland to London and all 11 countries in between (13 if you count the Vatican City and Monaco), it's time to go home. We of course did not get to see everything or do everything, but that just means that we will have to one day return. Hopefully sooner rather than later!
A travelers motto to share: Be a traveler, not a tourist!
For now, goodnight from London. We fly home in the morning!
Love,
Amanda and Ally
p.s. Moms, try not to cry! We'll be in your sweet loving arms soon enough!! Love you guys!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
1 Week left...
Hey everyone!!
Right now we are sitting in a little coffee shop called Black Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland :) Sorry we haven't been up to date on our blogging...we're just trying to enjoy our last few weeks over here and now we are down to only 7 days!!
A couple weeks ago, we were enjoying our time in Spain. Sevilla was so much fun since we had a new travel buddy- Lindsay! The second night we were there, we celebrated her birthday! The hostel set up a little party for her filled with wine and chocolate :) We spent the night celebrating around the city! The next day, Lindsay had to go back to Milan. Matt, who we met at the hostel, joined Amanda and I for dinner and a free Flamenco show. Amanda's friend Matt (not the same one we met!!) from TCU studied abroad here last year and told us some great things to do and see, including Flamenco! All in all, Sevilla was an amazing city to visit!!
Then we headed over to Lisbon for a couple days!! The hostel was awesome and in a great location. Since we took a night train there, we were exhausted after arriving around 9am. We took a nice nap then walked around the town for the evening. At night, we met up with our friend Ricardo from camp!! He took us around the town and we had a great time catching up with him :) The next day, we went to a flea market! It was huge and seemed like it went on forever. That night was Halloween, and we were taking a train back into Spain! The hostel let us use their kitchen and showers even though we already checked out, so after eating dinner we go on our train and headed to Madrid, our last stop in Spain!
We got to Madrid around 8 in the morning and went straight to our hostel. Even though we were tired, we left our backpacks there and went to the flea market, El Rastro. We thought the one in Lisbon was huge...this one was way bigger!! We spent a few hours browsing around all the booths, then headed back to the hostel where we rested for a while. The next day we walked around the city and through El Parque del Buen Retiro. It was beautiful!! My little, Maggie, studied abroad here last year and told us of a great place to get churros- so we did that!! Churros are sooo different in Spain. They aren't covered in cinnamon sugar, and you dip it in melted chocolate! Then we went to dinner at a restaurant she recommended. It was delicious! We wrote down the dishes we ordered so we can try to cook them when we get home :) The next night was free entrance to the Prado Museum so thats what we did! Lots and lots of artwork. After the museum, we tried to meet up with our friend Virginia from camp, but again, not having a cell phone made things difficult!!
This past week we were in Ireland where we stayed with our friend from camp, Saoirse! We spent a good number of days wandering the streets of Dublin (after, of course, going on the free tour!), took a day trip out to Kilkenny, baked cookies, visited the Guinness Storehouse, went to the local pubs, and met up with our friend David from camp a couple of times. We had a great time in Spain and Portugal, but it was really nice to change gears a bit and come to a country with some new scenery...and its nice to hear English again :)
In our last week abroad, we are hanging out in Edinburgh, Bristol, and London. It's still hard to believe that the past 5 months have gone by so fast- but left us with tons of memories, new friends, and tons of laughter :)
Cheers,
A&A
pics chose not to upload, we will try again later!
Right now we are sitting in a little coffee shop called Black Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland :) Sorry we haven't been up to date on our blogging...we're just trying to enjoy our last few weeks over here and now we are down to only 7 days!!
A couple weeks ago, we were enjoying our time in Spain. Sevilla was so much fun since we had a new travel buddy- Lindsay! The second night we were there, we celebrated her birthday! The hostel set up a little party for her filled with wine and chocolate :) We spent the night celebrating around the city! The next day, Lindsay had to go back to Milan. Matt, who we met at the hostel, joined Amanda and I for dinner and a free Flamenco show. Amanda's friend Matt (not the same one we met!!) from TCU studied abroad here last year and told us some great things to do and see, including Flamenco! All in all, Sevilla was an amazing city to visit!!
Then we headed over to Lisbon for a couple days!! The hostel was awesome and in a great location. Since we took a night train there, we were exhausted after arriving around 9am. We took a nice nap then walked around the town for the evening. At night, we met up with our friend Ricardo from camp!! He took us around the town and we had a great time catching up with him :) The next day, we went to a flea market! It was huge and seemed like it went on forever. That night was Halloween, and we were taking a train back into Spain! The hostel let us use their kitchen and showers even though we already checked out, so after eating dinner we go on our train and headed to Madrid, our last stop in Spain!
We got to Madrid around 8 in the morning and went straight to our hostel. Even though we were tired, we left our backpacks there and went to the flea market, El Rastro. We thought the one in Lisbon was huge...this one was way bigger!! We spent a few hours browsing around all the booths, then headed back to the hostel where we rested for a while. The next day we walked around the city and through El Parque del Buen Retiro. It was beautiful!! My little, Maggie, studied abroad here last year and told us of a great place to get churros- so we did that!! Churros are sooo different in Spain. They aren't covered in cinnamon sugar, and you dip it in melted chocolate! Then we went to dinner at a restaurant she recommended. It was delicious! We wrote down the dishes we ordered so we can try to cook them when we get home :) The next night was free entrance to the Prado Museum so thats what we did! Lots and lots of artwork. After the museum, we tried to meet up with our friend Virginia from camp, but again, not having a cell phone made things difficult!!
This past week we were in Ireland where we stayed with our friend from camp, Saoirse! We spent a good number of days wandering the streets of Dublin (after, of course, going on the free tour!), took a day trip out to Kilkenny, baked cookies, visited the Guinness Storehouse, went to the local pubs, and met up with our friend David from camp a couple of times. We had a great time in Spain and Portugal, but it was really nice to change gears a bit and come to a country with some new scenery...and its nice to hear English again :)
In our last week abroad, we are hanging out in Edinburgh, Bristol, and London. It's still hard to believe that the past 5 months have gone by so fast- but left us with tons of memories, new friends, and tons of laughter :)
Cheers,
A&A
pics chose not to upload, we will try again later!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Ally Amanda Barcelona
Well we didn't film a Woody Allen film, but we did go to Barcelona :) Haha, maybe that was lame, but I thought it was pretty clever! On the 23rd of October, Ally and I left Aix and took a train over to Barcelona, Spain. We arrived that night and checked into our hostel very centrally located right on La Rambla - the main street of Barcelona. It was weird and very sad to leave such a homey place in France, but we were back into traveling mode and ready to go. It was also very hard to switch from speaking all our French to Spanish! Ally took Spanish in high school, so that helped a bit, but we often found ourselves saying merci and then forgetting how to say thank you in Spanish... oops!
We didn't do much the first night because we had a long day of traveling, so we checked into our room, made a great dinner of popcorn and iced tea (without the ice of course), and quickly fell asleep.
The next morning we were so excited because our good friend from home, Lindsay Bracken, was joining us! We met her in the city and took her back to our hostel. We chatted and caught up talking about all of our Euro adventures thus far. Lindsay is currently modeling in Milan, so she has her fair share of adventures! We soon headed out for the day making our way all around Barcelona including the beaches and other hot spots!
The time frame in Barcelona is quite different than we are used to; and we thought France ate late! We had dinner that night around 10:30pm, and we had some seafood-ish paella which Lindsay enjoyed more than Ally and I.
We got back to our hostel just before midnight - perfect timing to shower and get ready for the evening (like I said, everything is much later in Spain). We ended up heading out around 1:30am and the streets were very much alive with people everywhere. We had no idea where to go, so we just walked towards the beach. Along the way, we were lured into one bar/club because they offered us a free drink, and who are we to turn down a free drink!
The bar that we started at would close at 3, then they would take us to another club. We decided it was kind of lame and walked around a bit more, only to find ourselves back where we started from. So we got another drink and sat down and were soon joined by some local guys who worked at the place. After a while, the time quickly passed and we had some new friends who took us to another club. In all, I think we went to 4 different bars/clubs and only had to pay for drinks at the first place! Score! We did a ton of dancing and had a great time just being girls and being together! We had a blast and before you we knew it, it was past 6am (which was really like 7am, because we had the time change) and we escaped back to our hostel!
After sleeping in well past noon (like 4pm HA!), we slowly woke up lounged around for a good part of the day. But it was great to rest and hang out! We were planning on going to park Guell, but it was getting dark, so we decided to do that the next day. A friend recommended a great place for dinner that was near our hostel so we ate there that evening. We shared some tapas and some yummy yummy sangria! We decided when we get home, we will try and perfect our own recipe of sangria! :)
Still adjusting to the time change (my bad!) we woke up an hour earlier than expected, so when we wanted to wake up at 7am, we were actually up at 6am! Since we got a little bit of a late start the day before, we decided to wake up early (extra early!!), grab some fresh fruit from the huge market and walk to Park Guell before our train left for Sevilla.
We wandered around the park for a while and saw a ton of amazing things created by Gaudi. It was really great! Then we walked around a bit more admiring all the architecture and sights.
After a grand time in Barcelona, we were ready for our next stop - Sevilla!
A&A + Lindsay
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
2 Weeks Left.........
Happy November everyone!
It's officially November, and that means our time in Europe is coming quickly to an end. On the 17th we will spend the last day of our 5 month voyage around Europe waving goodbye to London from the airplane. Its bitter sweet thats for sure, but we are excited and ready for some stability and rest and routine.
We have officially reached the part in our journey of exhaustion... Our bodies ache and I think my ankles are permanently swollen from walking around carrying 50+ extra weight on my back. We laugh uncontrollably at anything and everything. But thats probably better than fighting or losing our tempers - which we have yet to do! Just the other day, well practically every day, I trip (yes it happens multiple times a day now) and we just crack up for a few solid minutes.
Dont get me wrong, we are still enjoying everything and are so excited to see Ireland and the UK! It just takes us a little while longer to get going for the day :)
Sorry we havent been updating the blog much, we're tired! haha
But incase you were wondering, after Aix, we went to Barcelona, Sevilla, and Lisbon. We are now in Madrid and we fly to Dublin tomorrow! We will try to update this before the trip is over!
Happy Fall and Go Frogs :)
Amanda and Ally
It's officially November, and that means our time in Europe is coming quickly to an end. On the 17th we will spend the last day of our 5 month voyage around Europe waving goodbye to London from the airplane. Its bitter sweet thats for sure, but we are excited and ready for some stability and rest and routine.
We have officially reached the part in our journey of exhaustion... Our bodies ache and I think my ankles are permanently swollen from walking around carrying 50+ extra weight on my back. We laugh uncontrollably at anything and everything. But thats probably better than fighting or losing our tempers - which we have yet to do! Just the other day, well practically every day, I trip (yes it happens multiple times a day now) and we just crack up for a few solid minutes.
Dont get me wrong, we are still enjoying everything and are so excited to see Ireland and the UK! It just takes us a little while longer to get going for the day :)
Sorry we havent been updating the blog much, we're tired! haha
But incase you were wondering, after Aix, we went to Barcelona, Sevilla, and Lisbon. We are now in Madrid and we fly to Dublin tomorrow! We will try to update this before the trip is over!
Happy Fall and Go Frogs :)
Amanda and Ally
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