Ohhhh transportation.

Ok I never really realized the glorious value of Harry Potter's ability to apparate until today. Good Lord. Dad and I woke up at the crack of 10am (whoops) ready to rent a car online, go pick it up, and take on the journey to northern Spain. We found a great deal on Priceline.com and snatched it up, and ran right over to the rental car place laughing with ignorant bliss over the "only metro pass we'd have to buy all day"!  Then the fun began. First we arrived to find that the rental car place closed in half an hour, so the cranky man at the desk put a rush order on the car from the airport that should have already been at the station to pick up like it said it would be online. But oh well, right? We grabbed a coffee across the street, talking about the great scenery we were bound to see on our drive. Then we returned eagerly to the car rental agency to find that our car still wasn't there. Oh well! We can wait a bit! The Currans are patient folk! Lo and behold, about 20 minutes later, there it was. A dandruffy scruffy little man pulled up with our beautiful Spanish vehicle. We beheld it, eyes brimming with tears of excitement and joy. 

Then.. The dreaded Spanish words came out of the desk clerk's mouth... "Manual? Qué me has traido?! Ellos no han pedido un manual!" Aka... He brought us the wrong car. Well.. We weren't brought down easily! We would wait some more. Another half hour of sitting later, FINALLY our Spanish chariot arrived. It was automatic, and it was perfect. We began the hour long process of writing up paperwork with me translating car things as best I could, when we came to insurance. We'd gotten a deal on insurance online, and explained this to the clerk. "Uh no... I don't see that" he said. We insisted that we had a copy of the order to prove it, but he wouldn't budge. We either pay another 1000 euro for THEIR insurance, or we drive at our own risk and at the cost of the car if anything happened. Uhhhh yeah no. So we had finished everything, had a GPS in hand and the keys to our adventurous northern journey, and we had to cancel everything out. Which of course, took another half hour.

We were extremely bummed as disappointed, but we returned to our old hotel and asked to the use the computers for another half hour to search for other options. At this point in the day however, prices had skyrocketed and we were out of luck. Sooo I sadly went to my old pal renfe.com and searches for a ticket. There was one train left in the evening and we had to get on it. Everything was going well, until our credit cards didn't go through the system. So that was it, we were going to the station to buy them in person. A forty minute Metro ride took us to a small train station where we bought tickets to the main station and cofusedly walked around it until a nice lady pointed us in the right direction. Okay, so far so good. We got to the main station and found the office. A little crowded, but how bad could it be? We pulled a number to see we were #594 in line... And they were currently serving customer #512. We bought a sandwich and sat down, getting sliiiighty more bummed out. Only about 45 minutes later, we got to the desk to talk with a very nice, very patient desk worker (considering the fact that his job must have been like working at the DMV except with crazy Spanish women). I explained our situation and he said he had only a few priority seats left and that was it. We said screw it, we'll pay the extra cost at this point. He then cringed and told us the train was leaving from the train station across town.... In 15 minutes. We could hurry if we wanted, but our tickets would not e refunded if we missed it. My adventure-seizing gut reaction was to grab the tickets and sprint out the door, but dad said nope. Probably smart. Anyway, our only other option to get to the north at all wouldn't be until the following morning. Defeated, we bought the earliest tickets we could get and got the heck out of there. We got some food, booked a hotel online, and found the very simple - looking metro map to get there. All would be well with a night of rest! Wrong. I made the horrible mistake of forgetting the massive construction happening on madrid's central metro stops. SO. One more HOUR of confusing navigating with two giant travel backpacks, a very hard time fido g the hotel itself, and a lost reservation in the computer later, FINALLY we are here. Obviously lots of ice cream was required to ice my feet.  Everyone's gotta have one of those travel days on vacation, I guess. We are praying for a better day tomorrow!

San Fermín - patron saint of all-nighters.

So... Since I'm writing this blog post it's pretty obvious that we all survived the festivities of San Fermín 2013... Honestly though, I would've been more likely to be killed via a drunk 12 year old or utter lack of sleep before a bull. My first mistake (definitely not a mistake) was deciding that, although I'd had to skip out on a day of museum tours with the group in Madrid to drink DayQuil in the hotel all day, it would probably be a good idea to go to Kapital, Madrid's famous 7 floor night club, with my friends on the last night. Let me tell you, 15 euro and hours of walking around talking to sketchy discount ticket sellers was well worth the experience. The first floor was the main dance floor with insanely loud house music and a burst of cold nitrogen every time the beat dropped. We stuck to that one for the most part since pitbull or usher would repeatedly play every time I tried to explore other floors and my body can't resist the sweet sweet sounds of trashy sorority girl beats. The second floor was also pretty sweet though and had karaoke and a lounge. The very top was an outdoor terrace, but we got kind of drowsy and relaxed, and headed down to the main floor again until 5 or 6 in the morning. Needless to say, the late night made checking out of the hotel, catching a bus to Pamplona, as well as my recovery process very difficult indeed. Two friends and I met Luke at the Madrid airport (yay!!) and hopped on our bus decked out in white and red and ready to see the ridiculousness of night two of San Fermín. I dozed off for awhile and awoke around 12:30 at night to see approximately 4 football fields worth of people shouting along to a Spanish band and drinking in a huge public park. We got off the bus, immediately ran to buy more white clothing to look a little less like giant, out of place Americans, and grabbed a couple of overpriced beers to go exploring. The boys wanted to walk the route to raise their chances of survival in the morning run, and I made it until about 5am before needing to take a little grass nap. The streets were insane - covered in people young and old (and really really young), including people who had stepped on sharp objects and proceeded to bleed all over cafe floors were I was trying to enjoy a nice chocolate waffle. It was quite the experience. Watching the bull run from the plaza de toros was incredible. The bulls were HUGE and for some reason not slow and humbly like I had pictured in my head. Apparently the crowd was more intereste in cheering on the bulls than their fellow humans because the bulls got standing applause whenever they bowled another poor tourist over. We watched the little bulls for about an hour, then went to the train station for a lonnng hot sun nap before going back to Madrid. By that point I was insanely tired and ready to lay in a real bed. Our good family friend in android was so nice as to take us in for the night and prepare us an awesome traditional Spanish dinner, AND drive us to the airport in the morning. I definitely owe her some serious thank you post cards and probably a bowl of Cinque Terre pesto when I get the chance!! Overall it was an AWESOME experience that I wouldn't trade for anything, except maybe a hostel bed.

The boys... Not quite powering through the afternoon.

Venice and Milan... fin del programa :(

Hola todos!

Sorry for being so lame and not updating in forever.... it's been a super crazy couple of weeks!

Two weekends ago three friends and I decided to take the tall/dark/handsome factor of the men around us to the next level and venture to Venice and Milan for the weekend.  Needless to say, the beautiful Venetian gondola drivers winking at us while cruising under the bridges did not disappoint. ;)  The trip didn't get off to a GREAT start since RyanAir apologized for our 5 hour delay with a nice 5 euro snack voucher, which did not go toward any much needed alcoholic beverages or "real food" besides snacks.... that didn't stop us from having a few glasses of cheap champagne before sleeping our way to Milan on our now 1am flight.

Upon arriving in beautiful Italy, we ate our fair share and then some of pesto pizza, spaghetti carbonara, and FAR more than our share of gelato.  Although the best-gelato-I-have-ever-tasted-award still goes to Giolitti in Rome, I gave it its run for its money tasting several kinds in Venice and Milan both.  We all agreed after strolling the gorgeous, car-less streets of Venice that it was our preferred city.  We learned from our gondola driver (whose name was Fabio... not kidding) that Venice was founded in the year 421 and it still retains it's old, quiet beauty.  We loved wandering the streets without a map and honestly, maps probably wouldn't save anyone since the streets have no rhyme or reason whatsoever.

Milan was definitely cool in its own way, but the very large, VERY expensive city wasn't really our style.  We only stayed there for the afternoon and evening, and got to tour the main shopping street that offers Coach bags more expensive than the upbringing of my future children.  We also saw cars that made me drool, baristas dressed in tuxes that very kindly nodded toward the door when we entered (Wait.. my nike shorts and ripped tourist backpack aren't up to par for this place?) and, fortunately, got to tour the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.  That part was very beautiful and worth it. :)

Upon returning to our Valencian home, we only had one more week of fun and Spanish magic before most of the kiddos head back to the States on the 7th.  We finished things up at our internships, ate huge delicious lunches with our host mom and shared language-barrier-filled laughs with our Italian host brothers at dinnertime, and most importantly, we went to the beach.  Ohhh how I will miss that beach.

Yesterday we arrived safe and sound in Madrid and checked back into the hotel where the whole trip started only 6 short weeks ago.  Sara and I lost our jacuzzi room and had it replaced by a shower with no door, which makes for a lot of flooded bathrooms.  Thanks, Madrid.  We got to tour the Royal Palace yesterday which was inCREDible.  Who needs separate rooms for sleeping, getting dressed, putting on makeup, and then an in-between room to walk to the dining room, movie room, and important-document-signing-room?? Apparently Spanish royalty does.  The only cosa mala about Madrid this time around is that I'm pretty sick :(  So instead of going to the Prado Museum and the Reína Sofía today, I stayed in bed and watched Spanish-dubbed Say Yes to the Dress and CSI Miami.  A day of rest was definitely in order, but I really hope I'm well enough to spend one last night with all the cool kids on this trip before we part ways tomorrow!

Luke arrives in Madrid tomorrow night; I'm meeting him at the airport and we'll leave from the train station for the first stop on our European adventure:  Pamplona for San Fermín and the Running of the Bulls!  Pictures to come with either fun shots of the party atmosphere or Luke's mangled body as he succeeds in completing my dream of Running... ;)

Love you all, and see you after DAD'S leg of the adventure is over (on July 31)!!