B and Z’s Excellent Adventure

Hello friends and family,

            Bryn has been very busy this weekend and has given me the task of writing a blog post about my trip to Spain. I am very excited about this because I like to talk a lot and this is just as fun. I must warn everyone that hasn’t heard me tell a story before that I tend to go into a lot of detail. So let me take you through our day-by-day adventures through Spain.

Day 1 – I flew from New York to Madrid Thursday night the 19. I was a little worried about my flight, mainly who I was going to be sitting next to. I was more worried for them because I was so excited that day and I was ready to talk their ear off. I ended up sitting next to this African American guy named Al. He was about 30 years old and was going to visit his girlfriend also. He and I developed a newfound love of the movie The Secret Life of Bees. It ended up being an awesome flight and he was laughing really hard when we were walking to the baggage claim because he said I looked like I had butterflies taking over my body, which I did. I got my bag and went to go meet B, and when I saw her she started yelling at me to walk faster.  We had to wait in the airport for our flight to Alicante and we didn’t really know what to say because it all felt so unreal. We flew back to Alicante and had a meal at Aurora’s house. She made us paella with chicken and other stuff. I could hardly eat anything because I felt like I had eaten so much that day. I checked into my hostel for the first night and the whole room was pink. The curtains, walls, sheets, and comforter were all pink. It was disgusting. We met up with Aurora and Pedro for dinner that night at some restaurant that was one of their favorites. We ate snails, fried sardines, clams, shrimp, chicken, and some lima beans. I have never had a meal like this. I ate all of it and actually liked it. Neither of us had energy to go out so we called it a night after dinner.

Day 2 – We got up early Saturday so that we get on the boat to Tabarca. Tabarca is an island that is off the coast of Alicante. There is just a little town there with dirt roads and it kind of looks like Cuba.  The other half of the island is just grass and a couple old buildings. We were able to walk around the whole island in the time that we were there. The one building had cacti all around it so I was very excited to touch them. Aurora told us we had to eat Caldero(I think that’s what it was called). We found a restaurant that had it for a decent price so we went for it. It ended up being a four-course meal and the Caldero was these two giant fish that were just cooked with everything still in them. We just dove right in and it ended up being delicious. We went back to Alicante and we got ready to go out that night. I have been waiting to meet all of her friends since she talks about them all the time. We went to the barrio and had a couple drinks with her friends. Everyone seemed to have their visitors, Xenia’s boyfriend, Lauren’s brother, and someone’s parents were there. She showed me Carpe and I made her get me a Duff because it was designed straight from the Simpsons.

Day 3 - We got up early again to get on the train to Madrid. We ended up sitting face to face with this elderly Spanish couple and it was so awkward because there wasn’t a table between us and our legs were touching and they had all these bags. I don’t like staring at people that I can’t communicate with at all. Luckily we both fell right asleep. We met up with Andrea and Mike (my sister and her boyfriend) in the train station. They were supposed to go to Alicante but decided to stay at our hostel and hang out with us in Madrid. B and I went to the Real Madrid game after we checked into our hostel. Walking into the stadium was unlike anything I have seen before. It was HUGE! It holds 80,000 people and it was full. The game was a blast and I will never forget how fun of an experience it was. Thank you B for buying the tickets for us. We got back to the hostel and woke Andrea and Mike up so that we could go out. We walked around Madrid looking for somewhere to eat and we ran across this little sandwich place and ordered a sampler plate for all of us to split. We were still kind of hungry so we kept walking around and looked for some place that was crowded with locals. We found one and ordered a couple tapas and a bottle of wine. They were delicious.

Day 4 – Andrea and Mike left for Alicante early in the morning so B and I spent the day sightseeing in Madrid. We first went to the Palacio Real and we got tickets for really cheap because we were students. I wish we could have taken pictures because the rooms were so elegant. The king even has a room for his dressing ceremony. Our next stop was Parque de Buen Retiro (Good leisure park). Apparently row boating on this pond was a big deal. She kept telling me how she has dreamed of doing it her whole life. I am glad your dreams came true. This is also when we realized I am a better photographer than she is. We saw this guy who didn’t know how to row his boat, so we laughed at him the whole time.  Unfortunately we didn’t walk to the other side of the park so we missed a couple buildings that are supposed to be amazing. Eventually we just started wandering around Madrid and walking towards things that looked cool from a distance. We saw Plaza Mayor and the Royal Cathedral. There were so many statues of random chicks and dudes according to Bryn. You know like the virgin Mary and Pope John Paul II. We took the train back to Alicante that night and I slept the whole way but some couple was talking real loud so B couldn’t sleep. We didn’t do much that night after going back to Aurora’s.

Day 5 - We met up with Andrea and Mike and went and ate some churros. They were pretty good I must admit. Andrea and Bryn were wearing practically the same thing, these long dresses with sweaters. We took the tram to a little town called Campello I think. We just walked up and down the beach the whole day and out onto some rocks that extended out into the ocean, which I found very fascinating. My grandpa would have loved to see them. B let me have the camera for this time and I took like twenty pictures.  We sat down at this little restaurant at the end of the beach and had some tapas. The best were the bacon wrapped dates that cost 1 euro apiece but were so worth it. We got back to Alicante and B and I went to Auroras for a little bit while Andrea and Mike hiked the castle. We met them at Austin that night and had a few rounds with some guacamole.  The guac was very spicy but delicious. We went to a couple different bars with them and just sat and talked about tons of stuff. My sister and Bryn are probably my two favorite people in the world to hang out with so this was my favorite night of the week.

Day 6 – Bryn and I started off the day with a hike up the castle. It was so amazing seeing the whole city from so high up. We tried to take the elevator down but you had to pay money so we could only go down like ten feet and we walked the rest. We went down and walked along the beach for a while. Then we walked back toward Aurora’s and stopped by McDonald’s so I could see what it looked like and I got some weird Canadian burger. We stopped by a vendor and bought a couple flags to bring home. Aurora made us lunch and it was amazing. She made a Spanish tortilla and then another soup dish that is specific to Alicante. We were able to communicate a lot better with what Spanish I had learned in the week.  We then went to Armando’s class where it was apparent that Bryn is the best in her class at understanding Spanish. We walked around the city and found some cool shops to kill time before we went to dinner. We then went out to a pizzeria for dinner. It was hard to come to the reality that the week was over. We went back and I packed up all my stuff and we just sat in her room and talked for the last hour we had together. Finally we made our way to the bus station in which I need to start a whole new section for the bus ride.

Departure – It was hard to say goodbye but I finally boarded the bus and found my seat. As soon as I sat down some guys were asking to see my ticket. We had the same seat number. It turns out that even my amazing girlfriend has some mind slips sometimes. My ticket was for February 26, not March. She knew something was wrong so I tried to get off and tell her but the bus driver made me get back on. I found an empty seat and figured I would be fine. We picked some people up and 3:00 in the morning in some random city and the bus started filling up. Finally it was discovered that I had a bad ticket so everyone was yelling at me and I had no idea what was going to happen, especially because I don’t speak any Spanish. I was getting kicked off the bus and thought I was going to be stranded forever. The bus driver was nice and got me a ticket for another bus. I had to ride in a fold down seat next to the bus driver to get to that bus though. So I got on the bus and when I got to Madrid realized that this bus didn’t go to the airport. Luckily I was an expert at Madrid’s metro system so I made it to the airport after some tram rides. I flew to New York and during my layover I met a lady who went to law school with Barack Obama. I figured all my liberal friends and family, especially Bryn would be really excited about that.

My trip to Spain was an amazing experience. I was very sad to leave but looking back on it I was so lucky to be able to visit Bryn. I am a little less worried about her because she is a very smart girl and she is in really good hands with Aurora. I hope my post wasn’t too boring, it was hard to not write pages and pages about how much fun we had together. I can’t wait for Bryn to come home, but I hope she enjoys the rest of her trip.

-Zeiter

 

Also, he wanted me to add that I’ll be making a snapfish album so you can print off pics (even thought I don’t know how!) It wont let me upload images right now, but check back soon!

Bryn