Sofia Somewhere

I've given up with the weather here -- it keeps changing like crazy! This week it's cold again and been raining on and off, but last Sunday, it was amazingly warm. So we took advantage of the great weather and went on another hike. After some Googling, I found a trekking website and decided to do a trail called Llano de la Perdiz . It was similar to the trail I did last October , so at least we had no hiking misadventures this time around. We met up with a new friend from Couchsurfing, Henna, walked past the Alhambra, and began our hike. Like before, the trek began behind the Alhambra and was in the Dehesa del Generalife (Generalife Pastures) . We downloaded directions from the website, and they were pretty easy to follow. I was also able to navigate pretty well since I had been there before, and we got to enjoy our hike. Starting point behind the Alhambra The trail starting point  For the first part of the hike, we ventured east with views of the Sierra Nevada ...

Semana Santa , or Holy Week, is one of the biggest holiday celebrations in Spain. The origins of the Semana Santa festivities go back centuries as Spain is, and has been, a predominantly Catholic country. Everybody gets the week off from work, and on most Spanish cities, from Palm Sunday up until Easter Sunday, the churches and townspeople celebrate with processions -- devotees parading around the city with a float depicting a scene from the Passion of Christ. While the processions were originally religious in nature, nowadays, they are mostly for show and spectacle. Most of the people who travel to see the processions are tourists rather than devout Catholics. The last time I was living in Spain I headed to Rome for Holy Week . This time around, especially since I was living in Andalucía (considered to be one of the places with the best procesiones ), I wanted to take advantage of that and experience Semana Santa here. Granada was crowded with people! I read in the papers that thi...

Now for the last day of my Spring Break trip... The next morning we headed to the Buda Castle Hill , yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site in Budapest. From the previous day's experience, we decided to take public transportation so as not to tire ourselves out too much, so we wouldn't have to walk in the cold, and to save time (since Lyle had to leave by noon). A bit of a note about the public transportation in Budapest: like Prague, Budapest has a metro, trams, and buses. But unlike Prague, a ticket is only valid for 1 uninterrupted journey, i.e. you can't switch from metro to tram (or metro to bus, etc.). It's a bit of a hassle, especially if your destination can't be reached via one mode of transportation. A single ticket costs 350 huf (about €1.20). The day before, we had bought a block of 10 tickets which costs 3,000 huf - so each ticket came out to 300 huf - and we used 3 of them for our metro back home. We were calculating how many we'd need that day (...

The weather forecast for our first day was rainy and cold, so we got out our umbrellas and prepared to go around Budapest. We decided not to do any walking tours and just explore the city on our own. We started the day at the Great or   Central Market Hall (Nagycsarnok) . It's the largest and oldest indoor market in Budapest, and was built around the 19th century when the outdoor markets became too chaotic and crowded. Central Market Hall - really pretty exterior The beautiful building's roof is covered with decorative Zsolnay tiles. Zsolnay refers to porcelain pieces made by a Hungarian company Zsolnay. The factory was established by Miklós Zsolnay and is apparently is quite famous producer of stoneware and ceramics. It receive worlwide recognition for its innovative frost-proof products. Fresh food produce The market consists of two floors. The first floor is primarily for fresh produce (meats, vegetables, fruits, cheeses) as well as candies, spices, and bottled...

The next morning we headed back to Old Town Square to check out the Easter Markets (velikonoční trhy) . Easter Markets are popular all over the city, though most of them are concentrated in Old Town. The weather was a little better, and we enjoyed a good morning walking around the markets. (I had attempted to go to mass that day since it was a Sunday, and even checked the schedule of the mass hours. I was in the church for maybe 10 minutes until I realized that it wasn't a Catholic mass. Oops!) Anyway, we got to spend the morning walking around, looking at the stalls and buying some souvenirs. Easter Market stalls with the Old Town Hall Tower in the back Church of Our Lady before Tyn in the back flanked by pretty pastel colored buildings The Easter Markets originated a long time ago and were naturally related to the religious festivities that happen during Easter. During the communist era they were banned, along with all other aspects related to Easter and Christianity. S...

Next stop on the Spring Break trip: Prague ! We were up and at 'em by 9am the next day. Our Airbnb was just a little out of the city center, but just one easy 8 minute tram ride away. Getting around via public transportation in Prague is pretty easy -- though once you're in the city center, everything is pretty much walking distance. Prague has trams, metros and buses, and one public transportation ticket can be used on all three. You can buy a 30 min. ticket for 24 czk or a 90 min. ticket for 32 czk or even a 24 hr. ticket for 110 czk. (€1 = 27 czk at the time of writing). All the tickets allow unlimited transfers. To get to our Airbnb from the airport for example we had to take a bus, then metro, then tram, all of which we were able to get from our 90 min. ticket. Some colorful houses near the tram station Oh, and another random story about the trams. Our tour guide mentioned that we should be careful when crossing the roads because the trams will not stop. If they s...

For Spring Break this year I decided to go to Prague and Barcelona with two friends. Julie and I were going to fly out of Barcelona to get to Prague. I took the overnight train from Granada leaving at 9:30pm and arrived in Barcelona 11 hours later. My ticket was a bit more expensive (€30) than the last time I took the overnight train. The promo tickets were sold out, and I was in the prefrente class. The seats were much nicer though than in the turista class I was in last time. They were much much more comfortable, and I was able to get a good night's rest. Fancier seats I was amused because it had controls to recline your seat and put up the leg rest We both arrived in the morning and our flight wasn't until the afternoon, so we decided to spend the few hours we had in the city exploring Parc Güell. Parc Güell is one of Barcelona's famous parks. The area was owned by Eusebi Güell and was originally planned as an estate for well-off families. Güell asked Gaudí ...