Veni, Vidi, Vici: Rome

"I came, I saw, I conquered." -Julius Caesar

We came, we saw, but we definitely did not conquer Rome in the six days we spent there. We did manage to see quite a bit of it though, and it was all AMAZING.

On our very first day in Rome, after a long and uncomfortable train ride overnight from Venice, we set off exploring. Our first stop was the Spanish Steps, the widest staircase in Europe. 

View from the bottom of the Spanish Steps

Next up was the Trevi Fountain, which turned out to be one of our favorite places in Rome. Legend has it that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you're destined to come back to Rome some day. 

Absolutely breathtaking!

Throwing a coin in the fountain; he's definitely coming back to Rome!

Since Patrick and I had 6 full days in Rome, we were able to take our time and see most of the major sites; we even revisited some sites more than once (Five times for the Colosseum...it really is that impressive!). It was pretty amazing seeing the Colosseum; you always see it in movies and on TV, but you never actually think that one day you'll be standing inside it. 

Pretty impressive, huh?

Inside the Colosseum

Some of the other pretty great sights we saw were the Pantheon:

The best preserved Roman monument

A very impressive view of Rome from Trastevere:

Rome is such a beautiful city!

Many, many beautiful churches:

The Vatican:

And to top it all off, we even saw the POPE!

Can you see him?

That's right, we've been blessed by the Pope. We've never been able to say that before!

All in all, it was a great trip, and probably our favorite place that we have visited so far!

As for that announcement I told you about...

For all you lucky people back in the States, Patrick will home sooner than later, as in January 10th! We decided it would be best if he went back to try and find a job, since the job prospects are basically non-existent for him over here. Get ready to welcome him back with all the good food, friends & family he's been missing over here! :)

Hasta luego!

Ciao Venice

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately; it's been a busy month filled with traveling. Like I've said once before, Spain loves their 'holidays', so I had an extra long break from work (I may or may not have skipped a day or two, but that's beside the point...).

 We were first only going to go to Venice, but Patrick really wanted to go to Rome too, and it didn't take too much convincing for me to agree. Like everyone here has told me, I have to 'aprovecharme', or take advantage of, living in Spain and being so close to all of these fabulous countries. And that's exactly what we did.

Welcome to Italy!

As soon as we stepped off the plane, Venice greeted us with rain and freezing temperatures that we're not quite used to in Spain. We didn't have a map and weren't quite sure what to do, so we just started walking. That was what we did for the majority of the trip, and it's actually quite charming walking through the many winding streets and canals in Venice. 

Over the Grand Canal

Since it was pretty rainy and cold the whole time we were in Venice (note: don't go to Venice in December!), we did quite a bit of "indoor sightseeing", a.k.a. we visited A LOT of museums. It sounds boring, but most of them were actually very interesting. Although we both enjoyed Doge's Palace, my favorite was the Palazzo Mocenigo, a fashion museum with dresses and costumes from the early 20th century, while Patrick's was the Museum of Natural History (who doesn't love dinosaurs?!).

Doge's Palace

Patrick and I definitely enjoyed ourselves in Venice, although it would have been a bit more pleasant had it been warm and sunny instead of cold and rainy, but hey, we were in Venice! We took advantage of the time we had there and explored basically the whole island. But let's not forget about the food; I think we ate enough pasta, pizza and gelato in Venice to last us a very long time, and it was excellent!

This post would get way too long if I included our trip to Rome, so I'll save that for the next post. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. :)

Gondolas

In front of the Rialto Bridge

Finally some sun in Venice!

Over the Grand Canal

The canals were very charming :)

Patrick on one of the many bridges in Venice

Next up: Rome and a little announcement...

Hasta luego!

The Unknown Beauty of Portugal

This past weekend, Patrick and I took a little jaunt to our beautiful neighbor to the west, Portugal. We lucked out with gorgeous, sunny weather, which only added to the allure and elegance of the country. 

Fountain in Rossio Square, in the heart of Lisbon

We spent our weekend in the capital city of Lisbon. Lisbon is a very refined and sophisticated looking city, and gave me a much different feeling than I've ever had from Spain. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and has a certain charm that makes you fall in love. The buildings are so ornate and are exactly what I picture when I think of Europe. 

Our hostel advertised a free walking tour, so we made sure to take advantage of it, as we didn't know too much about the city. We weren't expecting much, but were pleasantly surprised; it was fantastic! We saw so many beautiful places and were able to learn all the different stories behind them, things we wouldn't have known about without our savvy (and somewhat shaggy) guide. 

Our travel partners for the weekend :)

Santa Engracia Church

Looking out over Lisbon

We did A LOT of walking during this trip, but it definitely paid off. The views, statues and monuments we saw were incredible! We even stumbled upon the local's entrance to a high viewpoint of the city, for which most people end up paying 5 euros to take an elevator to the top. We nonchalantly walked right up there from the back, and enjoyed the views for free.

See what I told you...great views!

On our last day in Lisbon, we took a taxi to a little suburb called Belem. While there, we sampled the famous Pasteis de Belem, toured the Jeronimos Monastery and explored the Belem Tower. It was a great day trip with some beautiful sights.

Extremely ornate monastery

In front of the Belem Tower

Very narrow pathways in the Tower

Overall, it was an amazing trip with great views, great company and new sights.

Praca de Comercios

I'll leave you with this photo gem of Patrick, sampling the famous pastries of Belem. He was definitely our source of laughter the whole weekend, ensuring that there was never a dull moment. :)

Cute, isn't he?

Hasta luego!

        

     

What's Not to Love?

In just a short week and a half, this will be us:

Going on a romantic gondola ride through the canals of Venice, while the gondolier serenades us with his song (that is if Patrick doesn't beat him to it!).

That's right, we're going to Venice, Italy!!

We get to explore this famous sinking city for 3 or 4 days, taking in the beauty of St. Mark's Basilica, walking through the Piazza San Marco, and getting lost in the winding streets and canals. Let's not forget eating many delicious Italian pizzas, gelato and pastries. I honestly can't figure out what I'm the most excited about!

Did I mention that we're only paying about $60 round trip for our flights, and our hostel is a short 3-minute walk from the main square? And that we might end up going to Rome as well?What's not to love?!

Until then, I'll have to struggle through these next two weeks as I wait to embark on our journey to Italy. It should go by fast, especially considering we're going to Lisbon, Portugal this weekend! :)

Anybody care to join?

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Nobody says it better than Bing Crosby. I really am dreaming of a white Christmas. All I can think about right now is sitting around with family in a warm, cozy house (with carpet!), eating Christmas dinner, opening presents next to the Christmas tree, seeing my house lit up with twinkling white lights, and so much more. 

Although I've had some pretty great experiences here, the homesickness hasn't quite gone away. My job isn't going quite as I expected it to; I was the 'lucky' one in Merida to be placed in the 'dangerous, ghetto school' according to one of the families I give private lessons to. Fantastic, right? Don't get me wrong, I do love some of my classes, like my Primer ESO students (11-12 year-olds) who are always so excited and actually participate when I'm there, not to mention their English is great, and I love my business classes, which consist of students all older than me. However, the majority of my classes are not-so-nice teenagers who could care less about learning English, not to mention their extremely low level of English makes me wonder if they've been sleeping through their classes for the past 8 years... 

What makes it harder is that the teachers all expect different things from me. Some expect me to plan the lessons for them, while others simply want me there for speaking exercises. Having 16 different classes with varying levels of English makes it quite hard to plan lessons, so here's to hoping I'll make it through the next 7 months without a meltdown.

I know I'm ranting a bit, but the last couple weeks have been a little rough. It's getting colder here and our apartment building has not turned the heat on, I'm getting bossed around by a (spoiled only child) 5-year-old in one of my private lessons (seriously), and I have yet to get paid after working for more than a month. All of this leaves me wondering what else could go wrong.

That being said, I'm seriously contemplating going home for the holidays. I have a little over 3 weeks off of work, so it would either mean a lot of time at home, or a lot of traveling time throughout Europe (Paris, Germany, Italy, etc...).

 Now comes decision time, because no matter what I decide, there's a lot of planning to do. Do I really want to miss Christmas in Paris, a crazy New Year's Eve Party in Berlin and a week of traveling with my partner-in-crime from home (shout-out to Sam!)? Then again, how could I miss seeing this face during Christmas...

Oh hey, Dad :)

Not to mention the rest of my family's smiling faces as well?

Decisions, decisions...

Out with the Old, In with the New

Instead of planning my lessons for tomorrow, I decided to give our blog a facelift. I'm still working on adjusting a few things, but I hope you all like it! It seems to give the blog a different vibe, and I'm pretty pleased with it. If anybody has any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the 'Comments' section. :)

Hasta luego!

The One Where We Went to Africa

Thankfully the Spaniards are pretty serious about their religious holidays, so I ended up having a 5 day weekend. So, logically, we went to AFRICA!

That's right. Africa. More specifically, we went to Morocco, but still, AFRICA! I never imagined I would have the opportunity to go there, so this weekend was a dream come true. We took the easy way out and booked a trip through a company called We Love Spain, and it was probably the best decision we could have made. Everything was taken care of and planned out for us, including all of our meals and excursions.

The first destination on our trip was Gibraltar. Who knew Gibraltar was actually a country? Not us, that's for sure. It's so small that you have to cross the airport runway to get into the country. It was slightly unimpressive in general, except for one little thing in particular. Did I say little? I meant HUGE. 

There she is, folks. The Rock of Gibraltar. How many of you have actually seen it in person?

After leaving Gibraltar, we hopped on the bus again to Algeciras, where we caught our ferry across the Straight of Gibraltar to Ceuta, a Spanish city in northern Africa. From there, we crossed the border into Morocco. Our first impression? Well, it was cool to say we were in Africa, but it was dark, so we didn't see anything...

After crossing into Morocco, we made our way to M'diq, a cute little fishing village. 

Love the all-white buildings

Right outside our beachfront hotel

Happy to be near the Mediterranean

We had a nice dinner, a glass of wine, and then passed out from exhaustion. We woke up bright and early the next morning, had breakfast, snapped some pictures, and off we went. Next stop in Morocco: Chefchaouen.

Chefchaouen is now one of my favorite places. It's a quaint little village tucked high up in the Rif Mountains. Doors, walls, homes, and even streets are painted sky blue to keep the insects away. It. Was. Beautiful. Here are the pictures to prove it:

We had our very own Moroccan guide to show us the city!

There is blue everywhere you look!

Our next stop was the city of Tetouan, which was not my favorite, but interesting nonetheless. We went into the Medina, the old city center, and walked through street after street of people selling everything from fruit to old cassette tapes. 

After a long day of touring, we made our way to Tangiers to our second hotel. There was a fantasy dinner planned for us and for the other hotel guests, so while we ate dinner, we were entertained by a Moroccan band, child acrobats, a man who played with fire, an African dancer, and last but not least, a belly dancer. That was it. Nothing exciting.

JUST KIDDING! The most interesting part of the trip happened during this fantasy dinner. Patrick was the"lucky" guy who was picked by the belly dancer to go up on stage. The next thing he knew, she took his shirt off and dressed him up in a hot pink top and long skirt. Well, being the good sport he is, Patrick worked the crowd as he spun around, shook his hips and stomach, and even threw in a few jumps. The crowd loved him, and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

My boyfriend is such a pretty belly dancer ;)

Since this post got pretty lengthy, I'll leave you with some pictures of my favorite part of the trip; camel rides!

Hasta luego!

Basking in Badajoz

This past Saturday, Patrick and I, along with a few of our friends, traveled to Badajoz.  Badajoz is the largest city in Extremadura, and only a short train ride away from where we live (not to mention the train station is right behind our piso...Score!). We spent the day wandering aimlessly around the city and happening upon many beautiful spots. The weather was perfect, and so was the company. 

While exploring Badajoz, we happened upon this beauty, Las Jardines de la Galera.

It's an enclosure around an old fortress surrounded by Arab gardens. Painters often come here for inspiration, and let me tell you, there is plenty of it to be found.

We also were able to visit the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Saturday, and being that it was the "Dia de los Catedrales" (who knew there was such a thing?), there was no fee for entry. We're budget travelers, so naturally, we took advantage of this. It's a very old cathedral, having been built in 1270, but not finished until the 16th century. It was beautiful in some parts, and pretty cryptic in others. We don't have much to compare it to at this point, but were slightly unimpressed. 

Some other highlights of the day were exploring the old Alcazaba, eating a solid breakfast of champions of churros and cafe con leche (serious craving right now!), and enjoying some  1 euro cervezas in the sunny Plaza de Espana.

King of the Castle

Something else we discovered on this trip...Contemporary Art is definitely NOT our thing. I mean, how are we supposed to interpret pictures of telephone poles and paint-by-number looking art? Seriously.