valencia.

(apologies for the long haitus in blog posts. getting access to a computer, when you're not staying with friends, is harder than we thought it would be! we have some serious catching up to do.)

after having such a fast paced long weekend in madrid with tyler and sara, it almost seemed like a blessing that andrew bailed on meeting up with bryndia in granada and instead, they got to enjoy a long week in valencia with chrissy and caitlin. these girls are the epitome of perfect hostesses. what was initially going to be a two night stay turned into a week - and they were so gracious and welcoming and wonderful about it. especially after letting bryndia crash out during las fallas! these girls are the best.

bryndia has gushed about valencia a little bit before, but that was when they went during las fallas, the craziest time in the city all year. this time, bryndia arrived to a really quaint city. beautiful tiled squares, huge fountains on every corner, lots of old stone churches looming over the pink sky. the city is a hidden gemstone of spain. honestly.

when bryndia arrived, caitlin was in barcelona, seeing her mama off, so it was just chrissy who met them. chrissy took bryndia out to the most amazing spanish meal they had had thus far, at a tapas bar called Bodeguilla del Gato. the waiters greeted chrissy with kisses and jokes, and bryndia sat back and let chrissy do the ordering. fried cheese with blueberry sauce, wine soaked chorizo, fresh tomato and mozerella smothered in olive oil. and lots of wine. delicious. the tapas way of eating is a favorite of bryndia - they're real into sharing the goods.

the next day, chrissy had to go to work, teaching english to the high schoolers of valencia, who all had really bizarre hair cuts and a major attitude when bryndia walked past them on the streets. to entertain themselves, bryndia took chrissy's advice and went and rented some bikes. they rode their orange cruisers to the big indoor market and stocked up on bananas, oranges, apples, pita and hummus, and then took off for the river, the long park that, weirdly enough, used to be an actual river that ran thoughout the entire city. bryndia rode for miles (or, kilometers, because that's what they measure with over here,) and discovered gorgeous art, huge buildings, lots of trees, and an endless amount of puppies playing in fountains. at the end of the river, the park opened up into a huge white mosaic area called, someting like, arts and sciences city. here, the equivilant of the OMSI, the childrens museum, and the aquarium were, all looking like giant spaceships, really modern and bright and bizarre. an attempt to find the beach was foiled, and bryndia gave up and picniced at the end of the park, played some cards, took a nap in the sun, reveled at how SPRING HAD FINALLY ARRIVED, and loved valencia for it.

the next day, caitlin returned from barcelona, and chrissy welcomed her brother brendan visiting from seattle. san diego, seattle, portland. they were like some sort of west coast gang. that night, they overtook the irish bar in town, drinking pints and cheering on the football game with a bunch of british bros. after, they made their way to a restaurant where when you ordered a drink, you got a free slice of pizza. while munching down, chrissy and caitlins fellow bilingual friend angela pointed out that the table of teens sitting behind us was badmouthing us in spanish. when the group stood to leave, angela waltzed over and, in perfect spanish, asking snarkily "so, are you visiting from mexico?" apparently this is a bigtime burn for spaniards, hinting that they have a mexican accent. the west coast crew left with their heads held high. feeling on top of the world, the group headed to la claca a club, where the dj bought them shots and played every song they requested. they stayed there till closing time once again then left for the Radio City, they continued dancing til 6 am. this became a nightly occurance.

bryndia kicked their hangovers with hardcore runs in the river every morning, stopping at a halfway point for a drill of ab workouts & pushups to keep the 12 pack aka cheesegrader aka washboard otherwise known as hardbody in tact.

the week passed quickly, the days full of bright sunshine & activities, the nights of red wine & goodtimes.

one day, the group rented bikes again, since brendan had yet to see the park and cycled out to the beach, this time actually finding it with help from chrissy and caitlin the best hosts ever. avoiding families on the boardwalk & nigerians selling there "real" guccis & louis v's they made it! the bike gang enjoyed the miles and miles of clear ocean and they braced themselves against the wind while picnicing in the sand eating grapes and cheese. the men indulged in spicy mustard & meat filled sandwiches. bryn, energized from the meat(that's what she said) climbed all over the jungle gym like a monkey, almost plunging to his sandy death 30 feet below.

after a long day of biking, cafe con leches were needed and enjoyed by the ancient gates to the city, when valencia was surrounded by a wall. the whole bunch climbed the towers and had a good old fashioned americana photo shoot on top to conclude massive bike trip around the city.

bryndia decided that a visit to Valencia would not be complete without a trip to the giant cathedral that housed the holy grail. yes! the holy grail! montey python! indiana jones! the fritzin holy grail. no big deal, jesus just drank out of it. Errbody at the last supper gettin tipsy (uh oh, bryn's trying to freestyle again) although bryindiana jones thought it was amazing to see it was sort of difficult to tell when its displayed behind thick glass, fifteen feet behind velvet ropes. but what the duo thought was even cooler were the infamous goya paintings that adorned the wall. moments of these 'i didn't know this was here' revelations have been frequent and appreciated during the journey.

bryndias last night in valencia was celebrated with pad thai and drinks at the corner bar, laboratoria, where the mojitos were cheap and the bartenders knew their names. they kissed goodnight and goodbye to their lovely hostesses that evening and woke up at the crack of dawn to catch a train to barcelona. twenty four hours back in their spanish starter city were spent playing cards in a cafe during a thunderstorm, visiting the barcelona cathedral, and watching some sweet street performers breakdance hard. the following morning, they hopped the cheapest flight to italy they could find.

to venice? sure! wherever the wind takes them.

madrid.

trains are awesome. especially when they´re high speed trains in europe. bryndia took one direct from barcelona to madrid. it went so fast, around the curves it felt like the whole train was tilting to the side. the spanish countryside whipped past them in a blur. in about three hours, they had arrived in the spanish capital city.

bryn´s good friend from high school, tyler andre, is living in madrid with his wonderful spanish girlfriend sara, in a ballin apartment right in the heart of the city, and they were generous enough to give up part of their living room to let us stay with them for four nights. bryn and india feel so lucky to know so many people all over europe who have opened their homes to them. tyler and sara were fantastic hosts, sharing their favorite little bars, museums, parks, and burger joints with us. being from madrid, sara was also an excellent tour guide, spouting off history about all the buildings and memorials they passed on their long walks.

madrid is a very international city. on their first night out on the town, tyler took bryndia to his friend´s flat in sol for a little pregame. (though in spain, you must remember, pregaming doesn´t start until about 11 pm and the actual party doesn´t start until about 2 am.) the party was hosted by a croatian girl and her visiting boyfriend and attended by multiple nationalities, including a german girl, an australian girls, a french girl, an italian boy, many spaniards, and a few americans as well. lucky for bryn and india, the language that most everyone seemed to speak was english. a couple of glasses of sangria in, and their host pushed the kitchen table to the side, cranked the ipod speakers, and let the dance party begin. india taught bryn how to salsa dance. when the group was good and going, tyler introduced everyone to chatroulette.com, a website in which you are randomly linked with another video chatter from somewhere around the globe. note: this can be dangerous. but also fun. definitely check it out. when the group got too sweaty from the dancing (and the roulette), they moved to a club down the block and got sweatier to some techno music. it turned into another one of those 6 am spanish mornings. you know, the kind where walking home, you pose for photos on random mopeds, and then make six quesadillas in your kitchen and pass out real hard.




the next day, sara and tyler took bryndia to the caixa forum, a modern art museum, where they saw an exhibit of miquel barcelo, an artist who had a variety of work, all of which bryndia enjoyed... some more than others. that night, they met up with india´s friend lucy mckenzie, also teaching english in spain, and wandered around the gay neighborhood, stopping to munch on chocolate and churros.

once again, bryndia was blessed with beautiful weather, so sara and tyler took them to parque del retiro, a big park that used to be the private gardens for the king of spain. the four of them wandered for hours, eating ice cream, and oogling over the ridiculous amounts of cute babies and puppies. when it started to cool off, they headed to the reina sophia, the modern art museum in madrid, and saw picasso´s, dali´s, and learned about the spanish civil war from sara. that night, bryn and india got taken to tyler´s favorite americana restaurant, the burger bar, where they ate burgers with goat cheese and blueberry sauce and were, again, puzzled by how restaurants in europe don´t do tap water.


after a little siesta post dinner, tyler and bryndia headed out on the town, tracking down lucy and india´s other friends, amy ulmer and jane clark, in a bar in bilboa. there´s something really special about meeting up with long lost friends in foreign countries, and the group of them got silly until the late night, hanging out with a spanish rugby team and singing along to the jackson five.

on bryndia´s final day in madrid, tyler and sara again played tour guides and showed them all around the latin quarter where the four of them drank mojitos on rooftop terraces, visited the prince´s palace and gardens, saw ancient egyptian ruins, and heard some very romantic stories about sara´s grandparents during the spanish civil war.

madrid was a blur of walking, drinking, eating, art and sunshine.

barcelona and las fallas.

time has a funny way of disappearing when traveling. what seems like last week was actually last month. all of a sudden, bryndia has been in europe for almost two months. it feels like two days.

bryndia spent a little over a week in barcelona. after jumping between cities, it felt nice to put some temporary roots down. being able to rent a room in gabi´s apartment was the best. waking up late to swing the huge windows in the living room open, almost always exclaiming what a beautiful day it´s going to be!, and stare in awe at their view of the sagrada familia. making a lot of home cooked vegetarian meals in the kitchen (because, unless you want to eat falafal every day, which, don´t get them wrong, they eat a TON of falafal here, spain doesn´t have a lot to offer when it comes to the veggie community). at night, drinking wine and watching movies and played a million card games, of which india won maybe three. turns out bryn is the king of crazy eight countdown.

during the day, the two of them wandered throughout the city by foot. because barcelona, as big as it sounds, is actually a city where you can walk anywhere in under 30 minutes. or so it seemed to bryn & india.

the first thing to note is the sagrada familia, the most amazing and beautiful church, antonio gaudi´s masterpiece that is STILL under construction, almost 100 years after it was first erected. it was literally in the apartment´s front yard, and it was so lucky to be able to just take a stroll around it, morning noon or night. the stone looks like it´s melting candle wax, the details are so natural, so unique, animals and plants blend around images of jesus and the virgin so it looks like a finger painting, all swirled together. just like everyone else in barcelona, bryn & india were engulfed with gaudi´s little touches that were all over the city.

one hot afternoon, gabi took bryn & india to parque guell, gaudi´s gigantic sprawling park that overlooks the entire city. the three of them packed a picnic, drank 40s, and stared out at all of this bright mosaic art, sprawling trees, swirling rooftop towers. india bought some handmade jewelry for cheap. bryn snapped a million photos.



another day, the two of them rented bikes and rode the entire boardwalk next to the ocean, around the huge new w hotel that looks like a sail on the horizon. bryn taught india how to ´bunny hop´ on her cruiser. after, sunburned and exhausted, the two of them took nick yerkovich´s recommendation and set out to find la champagneria, a tapas bar that serves 90 cent glasses of champagne and three euro greasy chorizo and any other meat filled sandwiches you can think of. one of the most delicious recommendations we´ve had thus far. thanks, you dirty doggy.


on friday, gabi and bryndia woke up early to catch a five hour train down to valencia for the final night of las fallas, a huge festival that celebrates the end of winter by burning gigantic (and expensive!) paper mache sculptures celebrating spanish culture. each neighborhood in valencia puts a ton of money into building their own unique fallas, most of which have to do with political satire or successful spaniards, most noteably pau gasol. when the three of them stepped off the train, they knew we were in for a crazy 24 hours. the city was packed with tourists, firecrackers going off in every direction, toddlers running around with lighters, throwing huge sparkling cherry bombs at unsuspecting onlookers.


gabi, bryn and india immediately met up with chrissy and caitlin, bryndia´s friends from univeristy of oregon, who are there teaching english for the year. both of their respective mothers were visiting from the states as well, and the group wandered throughout the curvy streets, admiring everything the city had to offer.

when it started to get dark, bryn bought a fifth of johnny walker and mixed some whiskey and cokes for the group. next thing you know, it was almost 1 am and the city was screaming for the burning of the fallas. fireworks were lit underneath the statues which all immediately went up in flames. it is an impossible thing to describe. the statue that gabi and bryndia watched was almost 20 meters high, so when it caught fire, it wasn´t going to stop without help from the firefighters who were surrounding it. the heat was incredible. a blind man would have thought he was in a brick oven. it went from the middle of the night to high noon in seconds. the whole city was doused in bright light and black smoke.


after the burnings ended, the party was just getting started. chrissy and caitlin took the group to one of their favorite clubs, la clakas. ´we´re really tired, we´ll take you to this club and have one drink,´ explained the two. but you can´t deny a good dj. and he was playing american club bangers the whole night. 50 cent. black eyed peas. kanye west. THE DREAM. bryndia and crew cut a rug until six am. and the dj was real into that, so he bought the group some beers, and some shots, and they all became friends.

when the sun rose, bryndia & gabi went to a coffee shop, where bryn took a little nap and gabi and india drank some coffee in total silence. next thing you know, the three of them were passed out on chrissy and caitlin´s floor. before you die, if you have to do carnival in rio, or mardi gras in new orleans, you also have to do las fallas in valencia. it was epic.


after las fallas, gabi and bryndia rode the long train back to barcelona and slept for about 16 hours. when they awoke, bryn had already planned the next adventure: going to a barcelona versus madrid playoff basketball game to see ricky rubio. the stadium size was that of mac court in eugene but as loud as autzen, with no loud speakers or sound bites played after dunks, it was amazing to see these die hard basketball fans cheer for, literally, the entire 40 minutes. (it should be noted that what they were cheering was not exactly family friendly either. they showed the refs no mercy.) bryn was underwhelmed with the play of ricky, but fran vazquez posterized the whole madrid team with a nasty dunk late in the first half which was well worth the 35 euro to see the spanish team ball.

barcelona was action packed and relaxing at the same time. bryn & india headed to the captial next. madrid and tyler andre awaited.