Sofia Somewhere

From Córdoba, it was off to Granada! This was actually the one city I wanted to visit the most in my trip. I was really dying to see the Alhambra and all my planning revolved around this city. Anyway. When we arrived in Granada it was almost 9. We took the city bus from the bus station which was supposed to take us to the Cathedral (which is near Plaza Nueva, which is near our hotel) but for some reason, it took a different route. We ended up having to get off at the city center and walked uphill to Plaza Nueva. It wasn't so bad though and we found our hotel without much problem. We checked right in because the boys wanted to watch the basketball game. So after settling down a bit, Ange and I went out to buy dinner. We found a cheap kebab place nearby and bought some for all of us. Then we headed back to the hotel and watched a game with the boys. The next day we slept in a bit since we would be waking up quite early the day after. We looked for the Alcaicería and almost it! ...

Before I begin let me just say that Córdoba is such an underrated city. Whenever I (and most people I know) hear Andalucía, they always think of Sevilla and then Granada for the Alhambra. But Córdoba is just gorgeous and it's become one of my favorite Spanish cities. On our last morning in Sevilla, we didn't do much. Just slept in, packed and then checked out. Bel went to see the Alcazar early in the morning. Ange, Quintin, and I had breakfast at Cien Montaditos and Javier went to mass at the Cathedral. After mass was done we walked back to our hotel and took a taxi to the train station. Bel was waiting for us there and we made it 7 minutes before our train was scheduled to depart. (Hehe.) Our train ride to Córdoba took an hour and twenty minutes. When we got to Córdoba we took a bus as instructed by our hostel, but we didn't know the stops and ended up going down like 3 stops after we were supposed to get off. So we just decided to walk (uphill) to the Plaza and from t...

On day three of Sevilla, Bel came to join us! We started the day at around 11, after Bel arrived. We walked to Plaza de España first. We walked around the Plaza a bit and then reenacted the scene of Star Wars. (Yes, I memorized my lines and everything). It was pretty fun, and it only took us about three takes. (Tin says the audio can't be heard that well though because the mike isn't strong). Pretty cool, right?

The next day, we slept in. We left a bit before lunch to go to the Torre de Oro (Tower of Gold) before it closes. It took us pretty quick to get there and the tower was small so we were done in no time. The tower

Now we're in the south of Spain, in sunny Sevilla! Wednesday morning, Bel and I got up early to go to the bank (where she helped me withdraw our tickets for the Alhambra in Granada) and we bought cough syrup for Javier in the pharmacy. Then she went to school and I went back to the apartment to pack. We left the apartment at about 12 and took the metro to Atocha Renfe, the train station. In the station we bumped into Javi, a friend, who was with his relatives (and also heading to Sevila!). Then we boarded our train which left at 1:30. The train ride was about two and a half hours long. We passed much of the time playing pusoy dos (Quintin kept on losing), then we bought some food, and I spent the remainder of the trip reading up on Sevilla. We arrived in no time and took our taxi to our hotel. Our hotel was in Plaza del Duque which I originally thought (based on the map) was quite far, but we later found out was only 15 minutes from the Cathedral. Since the boys were hungr...

The morning after, I woke up at 11. 'Twas quite late but I don't know why the others didn't wake me up. I must ave been really tired from my lack of sleep. I huriedly changed then out we went. We still had some ime before our 1:00 bus to Avila. We stopped by at a small cafe for breakfast then headed to the university. Salamanca has a really good university (especially for Spanish language programs) and since the city is small, it's really populated with students. Anyway, we headed to the main buiding of the university. Here, you're supposed to find the frog. Supposedly, if you're a student at the university, you can't graduate without finding the frog. We tried to look for it, but then this woman selling postcards right outside the university pointed it out to us. Oh well. the University of Salamanca

Sorry for the short hiatus, but I'll try to update a lot now before our flight to Barcelona this afternoon. So back to after the game: Since I went straight from the game go the apartment to the airport, I landed in Madrid still in my Barça jersey. Needless to say, I got a lot of funny and dirty looks from Madrileños. Oops! Haha.

Sorry, I won't be able to post for awhile because I have no computer to use. I still owe you all pictures and entries! Bye for awhile :-)

(Sorry for the lack of updates; had no internet connection nor computer for the past few days) When I couldn't sit still anymore, I left the apartment and walked a bit before I had to meet Maya's friend. We were going to meet outside the metro, so I went to the station and waited outside. I sent her a message saying that I was wearing jeans and a Barça shirt. I looked around and realized that everyone was wearing jeans and a Barça shirt. Haha. So I added that I had sunglasses on and that I was reading a book. She came at exactly 6:15 (on time, not bad for an Española!) and we walked to Camp Nou together. She was very friendly and we got along well. We arrived at the stadium, found our seats (Thank you, Pol! - We used the season tickets of Pol and his dad) and settled down. Since it was still early we saw the players -- I spotted Messi easily -- warming up. The game started at 7 (actually pretty early for a Spanish league game) and it was a bit hot at first. But by the seco...

On our last day in Lisbon I planned for us to visit the Oceanario. We took the metro to get there; it was in another district of Lisbon -- Parque das Nacoes. This district was actually the site of the World Expo in 1998. There was this avenue of flags that had flags of all the countries that participated in the Expo. We walked along the river to the Oceanario. It was colder in this area because it was by tbe river. The outside of the Oceanarium was not very impressive looking but the actual aquarium was neat. It was cool how everything was arranged and we saw three cute sea otters!! The Oceanarium was cool but I'll have to admit that with what I've read while researching, I expected a bit more. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the aquarium and with that done, I completed my checklist of things I wanted to see in Lisbon.

This morning, Bel arrived from Madrid. We had breakfast together then left to catch the train to Sintra. We walked up to Rossio where the train station was and were able to catch the 11:01 train to Sintra - the ticket was 3,60 euros round trip, but we had to pay 50 cents for the card thing that you beep. So weird. Sintra is actually part of the Lisbon region but not part of Lisbon city (unlike Alfama and Belem which are districts in Lisbon city). It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO for its Romantic architecture. The train ride took us 40 minutes. It was colder in Sintra than in Lisbon because it was located higher up in the hills. We stopped at the municpal hall to get a map then headed off to explore. We decided to go first to Quinta da Regaleira . It's this summer estate of a wealthy family. The place was really interesting though because unlike many other summer palaces/houses I've been to in Europe, it was located on a hill. The house was actually small but ...

Today, we decided to go on one of the free walking tours the hostel offers. At 10:30 we gathered in the lobby. Our tour guide came and we walked to two other hostels nearby to pick up more people. Then we walked to Praça do Pedro where we started the tour. Our tour guide, Tara, is actually Canadian. She came to Lisbon two months ago but fell in love with the city and never left. She really knows so much about Lisbon though. Here's Tara talking about St. Christopher, who happens to be the patron saint of travelers

To get to the airport and catch our flight, Ange and I woke up at 4am. We changed, got ready, had something to eat, and were out the door. We got to the bus station at 4:30 and waited for the bus to take us to Cibeles. Bel said the bus comes every 20 minutes... we were getting nervous waiting for it! We were just about to take a taxi already when along comes to bus almost half an hour later. We took it up to Cibeles and from there took the shuttle to the airport. We were able to check in and board without problems and were soon on our way to Lisbon. We arrived in Lisbon at about 8am (it's one hour behind Spain) and took the shuttle to the city center. I was really hesitant at first to visit Lisbon; I thought that there was pretty much nothing to do here. But as I was riding the bus, I looked out the window and was getting excited. For some reason, the city gave me a strong first impression. We followed the directions given by the hostel and were able to find it without problems. ...

Today's day trip was to Toledo. Bel had school, so it was just Ange and I. We took the train to Toledo -- it was a fast trip, about half an hour. When we got out of Toledo's train station, we decided to walk to the city center. Bel told us it would be far - about half an hour or so - but we didn't realize we had to walk uphill. It was a tiring trip, but the view along the way was nice. You could see a lot of the residential and commercial areas from up.

This morning, Bel met us at the apartment before we headed off to Segovia. She told us that we had to leave a bit earlier because we had to find a place to print out our bus tickets. But as we were getting ready to go, Bel couldn't find her usb. She looked all over but to no avail. So we had to go online, find the tickets in her email, then I had to transfer them to my phone. This took up a good deal of our time so we hurriedly rushed out of the apartment. Then as we were walking to the metro stop, Bel finds her usb in some secret pocket in her jeans. (Pla pla talaga.) But anyway, we rushed and took the metro to the bus station. When we got there, we were able to talk to the vendor and he printed out our bus tickets for us. We boarded the bus and were on our way to Segovia. We were expecting the bus ride to be two and a half hours, but for some reason it only took us about an hour and ten minutes to get there! Maybe because it's a holiday and there was no traffic? Segovia...

Thirty hours after we took off from Manila, we finally landed in Madrid! It took another half an hour or so though until we were finally allowed off the plane. Angela and I passed through immigration, collected our maletas, walked all the way to the metro stop and we’re finally on our way to Tita Marilou’s house. Really random moment: when we exited the metro and turned the corner, we saw Tita Marilou! (We were originally just going to meet Isabel in her apartment). But anyway, we got to the apartment and finally saw Bel! :-) We settled down, took showers, and just spent time talking to Bel. She’s the same as ever. :-) Bel says I shrunk, I say she grew an inch. Bel and I -- all ready to go

Hello from Doha Airport's free internet hotspot. Hahaha. After an eight and a half hour flight (I think -- I'm wearing a watch for the first time and not used to it... okay, irrelevant) we are halfway there. Few more hours to go. Angela says that this airport's ugly. Well, it is small, the downstairs is crowded with people. The upstairs is more spacious though, but at least it's clean. We have about two more hours to go for our flight to Madrid. Bye now!