Wanderlust

Our flight from Madrid to Malta left at 10:10am. So we wanted to be at the airport by 8:10am. According to Google that meant a 30-minute suburban train ride right from Puerta del Sol (with 1 transfer). Easy peasy! Yeah, it didn't go that easy. We got out of our hostel a little later than we had wanted just from packing up after being there 3 nights. Then we had to buy the actual train tickets because they're different than the subway pass we had been using. Then we missed the train we wanted by about 2 minutes. We had to wait 8 minutes for the next one. THEN, the train drops you off about a 15-minute walk from the check-in area. Long story short, we were feeling the pressure. We still had plenty of time normally but the line to check-in and drop bags at Ryan Air was moving at a snail's pace. Eventually, they told us to switch lines and we got up to the counter but we were both sweating bullets at the time (about an hour till our flight took off at this point). As ch...

We had an action-packed first day in Madrid. We saw just about everything there was to see in Madrid and we loved every second. We did that because we wanted to get out of the city and do a day trip. Our destination: Toledo. This was the seat of Spanish power for thousands of years. Because of its location on top of a hill and surrounded by water on most sides, it was easily defendable. Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived here in harmony throughout the Middle Ages. It's just a really cool place. We left the hostel decently early and grabbed pastries from La Mallorquina again. We decided to walk to the train station instead of taking the subway. We were kind of subway-ed out and the weather was nice. Plus we wanted to stop at some kind of supermarket and get some water. We were able to find a grocery store and get a few snacks. Using Google Maps, we knew that a train leaves for Toldeo every hour at:15 past the hour. We did not plan out our morning well enough and we acci...

We felt like we had been snakebitten in Barcelona. Don't get me wrong, there were definitely great things we saw and did and tasted but there were also quite a few bad things. We were hoping that Madrid would be a "reset" for our luck. And it was. Our goal was to do another patented Rick Steves Walk Around A City (literally my favorite thing to do and Lacey puts up with it lol). Then, we were just going to see where the day would take us. We started the day by..... you guessed it - PASTRIES! But these were special! We got pastries from a bakery called La Mallorquina which is a pretty famous bakery on the corner of the square Puerta del Sol. These parties were great. I couldn't stop gushing about mine and making weird noises because it was sooooo good. Mine was filled with apples and Lacey's had cream inside. Great start to the day. As luck would have it, our walk started in Puerta del Sol so we didn't need to subway around everywhere (which was a ...

Our last day in Barcelona. We definitely had some regrets. We really wish we would have booked a nicer place in Barcelona. From the unfortunate check-in process to the plastic bed, and the food poisoning paella, our hostel was just a huge miss. We felt so much better and happier after getting a good night's sleep in a nice place. The hotel we reserved was called Casa Emilia and it has a cafe/wine bar in the lobby. Kind of loud jazz music played until midnight but neither of us really cared. Yet again, we packed up our bags and left them at the front desk to get later in the day. Our plan was to see a few more big sites in Barcelona and then take the train to Madrid in the evening at 8pm. I was feeling great after sleeping again. We stopped for our customary morning pastries (we will never get tired of pastries). Our first stop was Sagrada Familia, the #1 big site in Barcelona. This a living breathing cathedral that is still under construction. Gaudi started designing an...

We won't go into all the gory details of the food poisoning of course. All that really matters is that I did not get very much sleep and the sleep I did get was not very restful. Plus there was the noisy bed situation. I'm confident it's food poisoning from the paella because I started to not feel well about 2-3 hours after eating it. After that crappy night, I wouldn't say I was in a good mood for sightseeing. But I felt terrible sitting in our stupid hostel all day so we decided to head out and see what we could see. As mentioned in the previous blog, Barcelona has two main sections for tourists. There are the Gothic Quarter and Ramblas which are part of the old city, and then there is the Eixample area that was built outside the old city walls. Eixample is known for being a little more trendy and having a grid-like street structure. We made our way over to our first stop, Casa Mila or La Pedrera. Quick side note: Gaudi is the most famous Barcelona architect ...

After a late night (didn't get into our room that wasn't really our room until after 1:30am), we had kind of a late start. But that's typical for Spain. Spanish people have kind of odd days compared to other Western countries. They typically wake up later in the day like 8 or 9 or even 10. Then have a small breakfast with a coffee. They eat lunch (their biggest meal) around 1 or 2 or 3. Then have a siesta or rest until 5 or 6. Then go for a walk later in the evening called a paseo. Dinner happens around 9 or 10 or even later sometimes. Going to bed after midnight can be very normal. Anyway, Lacey and I assessed our Barcelona hotel options when we woke up. We thought we had two options. Push the "eject" button on this hostel after the awful check-in process and get an actual hotel. Or we could try to tough it out and hope that a different room would be better and a "fresh start". We looked up hotels and knew we could afford to do a different one but we ...