Barcelona, harmonica and sangria

Hello Everyone,

Webmail is down again so if you, mom and dad, don�t mind forwarding this to the family, I would appreciate it.

We are in the fabulous city of Barcelona! It was a hard journey but we got here. We had a night train experience, but it wasn't in sleeping cars but on seats that didn't recline. Paul, Marissa, and Emily sat by each other and a guy that smelled pretty bad.
I sat next to an older French woman and we didn't say a word to each other. I took a sleeping pill that night and was alright except for a group of people that got on the train at 4 am and decided to play a card game. They quieted down after they saw that they had woken me up. That night for dinner was pretty funny. We sat on our back packs in the train station and ate a block of ice cream and croissants.

Today, the train was delayed because it had rained and flooded one of the tracks that they were doing construction so we didn't get in to Barcelona until 10:30. It was still raining so we dropped the bags off with the girls in a parking garage and Paul and I found this sweet hostel with free Internet and free breakfast. We are in bunk beds with some finnish girls. After we dropped our stuff off, we went to discover the city. We went to the cathedral and fed the geese in the courtyard. We also went on a tour of the roof and got to see the cool city scape. We then went and had lunch and the waiters were pretty busy and ignored us because we just got sandwiches and rice pudding. We then went to a church that was nice to fall asleep in. We then took off to the beach but couldn't get in the water because the rain washed in all of the rubbish. It also smelled pretty bad. We then got empanadas and palmeras and I played my harmonica. As I was playing, a brittish woman threw 2 euros out of her hotel room balcony at me and asked me to keep going. I got kind of stage fright but played some songs for her. She then asked us if we wanted something to drink and then I said that we didn't drink. She told me that it was just lemon juice and grape juice "sangria" which I remembered was alcohol, but in Mexico has no alcohol in it. Paul went and caught it and I told him to take a swig and say "cheers." Well it actually had wine in it, and Paul did what I said so I told him the sin was on my head. We then went on a walk to find churros and chocolate but every store was closed. One restaurant got offended that I even asked them if they had it.

We are back in the hostel and getting ready to sleep. So good night and I will try not to get Paul too drunk tomorrow. I just wanted to write a couple of funny things that have happened her in Spain so far: Marissa said, "I can�t breathe real good, I think that it is the latitude (she meant altitude)" We are off to see the Gaudi architecture.


While in Barcelona, we went to the Gaudi Park unfortunately they were filming a Woody Allen movie so we didn't get to see the whole thing.



We also saw the Sacrada Famila, which is probably the coolest cathedral in the world because it has a lot of modern art type architecture. They had to keep rebuilding the cathedral because some people who were against religion would burn it down. It is still not completed but it will be pretty remarkable when it is.

from Ghana to Granada part 1

Hello Everyone!Finally my email is working again. The webmail server was down for over a week and so I couldn´t email. So this one is going to be pretty long!
I went to church in Ghana with the missionaries that I was staying with. Church over in Ghana was so amazing because the people are alot more religious than we are in the states. They had a very in depth conversation about tithing. Everyone was citing scriptures and trying to figure out how to live the law more fully (they were talking about tithing on gifts etc.) The missionaries than fed us pot roast and it was the best meal that i had had for over a month. I took a taxi to the airport at 1200 am because my flight was supposed to leave at 4 and they told us to be there at least 3 hours early. The great thing about Royal Air Maroc is that every flight is usually delayed a couple of hours and this flight didn´t come until 9 am. Meaning instead of sleeping on a bench with some of the brittish kids that I met at the airport, I could have slept in a bed in the missionaries home. Our flight went to Benin (I found out while on the plane) and then flew to Morroco meaning that my 8hour layover in Morocco was cut to one hour and everyone else on the flight missed their connections to other places in Europe. It was a frantic mess trying to get things sorted out in the airport. It was pretty ironic that I wanted to go to Morocco and couldn´t because of the delay and everyone else that didn´t want to be there were stuck for 24 hours.
When I got to Madrid, my backpack didn´t come. (I think that it traveled more African countries than I did) because it finally came three days later. That night I wandered around Madrid looking for a hostal because of sorting out my luggage it was midnight. I luckily ran into a man from Mexico who directed me to a cheap place where the Hyers, Paul, and I stayed for the remainder of the time. I had the next day to myself and I have to say that I am so glad that these guys are here because I was pretty lonely and all of my pictures were of buildings with no people. The only human contact was asking people for directions. I was very productive and saw all of the sights in the lonely planet (the guide book.)
The next day, I took the metro to the airport (which I am now a master of the the Madrid metro). I waited for Paul and the Hyers for 3 hours while they went through customs and was pretty excited to see them. We then took the metro back to the hostal. It was pretty funny because Emily was in flip flops and she flip flopped onto the floor because it was so slippery. We then got chorizo, bread, and pastries and ate in the plaza de Espana. It was pretty fun. We went to the templo de Debod, an egyptian temple that they had brought to Madrid because they were flooding the area to build the Azwar dam in Egypt. It was pretty cool and then we got in trouble for touching ancient artifacts and using flash. We then went to the cathedral but it had closed and they were pretty jet lagged so we went back to the hostal and slept until it opened again at 5. We then went back to the cathedral, royal palace and walked around the Puerta del Sol and the plaza mayor which is a huge plaza with eating and ancient roman arches. We then listened to a Peruvian band playing Andean music. So for their first day they saw Roman, Egyptian, Peruvian and a little bit of Spain!
The next day was Emily´s Birthday and what a birthday it was! We got Dia yougurt, magdelenas, juice and ate in the plaza de España again. We then went to the Prado and commented on our favorite peices. Paul didn´t have his student ID and I am over 26 so we paid full price but Marissa and Emily got in for half price. We then went and had lunch in another park and bought fresh bread for our sandwiches. We then went to the Parque del Buen Retiro and took a nap in the park because of the jet lag, food, and looking at art for 3 hours wears you out! At this park, it was built in the 1700´s during the Romantisism time period of Spain so there were many monuments and fountains and a big lake. We rented a row boat and went out on the lake. We got pretty wet and each person would take a one of the two paddles and so it was entertaining to try to coordinate the strokes to get us to go around. We then split up, the Hyer girls went shopping and Paul and I went to see the houses of Lope de Vega, Cervantes and some other authors that are masters in spanish lit but for other people it would be pretty boring. We met back up and went and had paella and tortilla in the plaza mayor. Our waitor was pretty scary, but the food was great and then we got some ice cream for dessert. It was a pretty cool day just a little pricey. We then went back to the hostal and hung out on the balcony over looking the street. And tried to sleep because we had to get up early for our next day to Toledo..........

from Ghana to Granada part 2

I am copying parts of marissa´s email from my journal points that i have made so it might make sense or might not. We are leaving tonight at 945 to get on a train all night to go from Granada to Barcelona. Everyone is happy and healthy exept for blisters on everyone´s feet but mine. I don´t know if Marissa and Emily knew what they were in for when they signed up for this "experience."
August 3, 2007 - Toledo

In Toledo we went to the place where they used to have Roman Circuses. They had all these dirt trails for chariot races. Paul, Emily and Marissa had a great time pretending to be chariots racing each other in the park as i filmed them. It was pretty entertaining. We then rode up this huge outdoor escalator and saw a view of the beautiful city. We went to the Santa Maria Blanca Synangogue, but on our way we got lost in the small streets and had to ask a wonderful smelling man for directions(Marissa´s comment not mine). I tried to tell him how good he smelled, but Paul would not tell him. Emily tripped right in front of the good smelling man and he laughed at her. Ha ha ha. Paul was trying to rock climb up a wall and the rock broke causing him to slide down and split open his big toe. Sick! We found some cool jewely and Paul even bought a plate while we were here. We went into this beautiful church that was simple, we were not supposed to take pictures, but Scotty and Paul were bad boys and took some (I figured we were jewish and had a right!). We went and took pictures by the Roman Gate named puerta del Alfonzo II. We kept trying to take pictures and cars kept coming. Lame!! Our favorite part was the allys, don´t worry we took lots of pictures. (We went and saw the huge cathedral in Toledo. It is hard to describe but our pictures afterwards will help to show how amazing this place was. For lunch, we had tortilla sandwiches. I am trying to get my fill while I am here. I wanted ketchup like I had when I was a missionary because they would probably get offended.) Suddenly we found out we couldn´t get a bus to Sevilla from Toledo, so we had to go back to Madrid and then we took a bus ride from Madrid to Sevilla. We thought the bus ride was going to be 3 hours long, but it ended up being about 6 hours because of an accident and traffic. We had a little break on the bus and got some treats. (Marissa) happened to get some rotten chocolate milk and some nasty chocolate donuts. There was a Volcano movie, that Emily and (marissa) didn´t understand so we just slept. (It was a pretty cheesy movie about an american who looses his wife to a volcano and her spirit communicates with an Italian girl where she grew up and they save the village from a sleeping volcano) WE got to Sevilla at 1230 in the morning. WE found some British friends and walked with them to their HOstal because we didn´t have one yet( We walked for about an hour looking for a hostal. We had one in mind but thought that we should try their place first) When we got there, there was no room at the inn. We finally found one, it was actually a HOtel in Scotty´s opinion. It was the most expensive one we stayed in, it was 25 euros. Yikes!!!

August 4, 2007 - Sevilla

In the morning we decided to find a different Hostel that was less expensive.( it was a shared room of four beds for $10 cheaper a night) Scotty made me lead us back to the Hostel from town and I did it. It was awesome! I know my way around Spain!! We ate lunch in the park after getting food (We got a bar of ice cream and shared it between the four of us. It was pretty good ). A Gypsy boy came up to us and asked us for an Orange. ( We gave it to him so he wouldn´t curse us, and he was thankful) Emily made Marissa laugh while she had juice in her mouth and spit it out all over. Thank goodness we had those wipes!! We then went to a beautiful Cathedral. Scotty didn´t want to go in because it was 9 euros. Paul never got in cheap anywhere because he forgot his student card. Emily, Paul, and Marissa spent about 3 hours in the cathedral while Scotty walked about and read his book about Spain. Paul decided to be funny and lead Marissa into the boys bathroom. Ha ha. I don´t know what those signs mean :) ( While I was waiting in the hot sevilla plaza, these gypsy women tried to read my palm and ask for money. I told them no but watched as they got other travelers that were too naive and too timid to say no) We then went to Alcazar San Pedro. This is where Paul and Scotty´s grandpa lived. (Not really our grandpa, but our ancestor Pedro el Cruel.) He killed his half brother here. It was a beautiful palace. Marissa fed the fish. They were huge and they were fighting like crazy. A duck stepped on EMily´s foot. We then at some dinner and we had a POlish waitress who gave scotty two Tortilla Espanola instead of one (Because there was a language barrier, English and Spanish weren´t here first language). We then went to Plaza De Espana where there were beautiful bridges and a huge fountain.(They had tile depictions of each state in Spain. It was cool to see the cities that I served in) By the way, it was so, so hot in Sevilla. After the Plaza we went to the bar and watched an authentic Gypsy Flamenco dancer. We absolutely loved it. The bar is the real experience!!! OUr Flamenco dancer had really big boobs and was a little on the heavy side. EMily wishes she was a little skinnier. Ha ha. The dancer kept telling everyone to not video tape, ¨Video, NO!!! Marissa had a crush on the assistant clapper who also sang a little bit. He sure was cute. The guitarist was pretty amazing as well. We went to bed around 2 am and woke up at 7 am to catch a bus. We walked for about an hour with our backpacks to the wrong bus stop. We then caught a bus to another bus stop.

August 5 - Sevilla to Cordoba

We got our bus tickets, but the bus didn´t arrive til 11. WE could have slept in a couple more hours. Oh goodness... We played card games, got pastries and relaxed at the bus station. It was an expensive bus ride to Cordoba. Then we saw Mosque Mezquita. This was by far all of our favortie places. It was a little more simple than the other cathedrals. Big red and white arches. (It was a mosque that was later turned into a cathedral and is a world heritage sight as it should be.) We saw the Roman Bridge, the Roman Water Wheel and we even saw some turtles down by the river. After Mezquita we went to Alcazar Palace( a fortrace built by the christians to protect from muslim invaders), but it was closed because it was Sunday. WE sat on the bench for a little bit and played with the kitties. AFter this we got some delicious ice cream and Marissa dropped half of hers on the floor. We then got on a bus to Granada. The bus ride was shorter than we thought. The scenery on the way was beautiful, tons of olive trees. We we arrived in GRanada, it was about 10 PM we tried to find a Hostel and all of them were full. Marissa and EMily sat in a park for a little bit and made friends with some dogs. We named one of the Nintendog. Marissa saw a hostel down the way and it was actually open. Yay!!!! We loved Granada, people are so friendly. All the old ladies just hang out together. Everyone goes to bed so late and just eat ice cream. We saw babies out past 12 every night. AFter getting settled into our HOstel we decided we wanted some american food and we went to Burger King. It was delish. Scotty had his first burger in two months. Emily has had huge, fat feet the whole trip. She is retaining water and has huge blisters. Ouch.

August 6 - Granada

We woke up early this morning to go to the Alambra. This beautiful palace that is very popular. We waited in line for 6 hours to see this place and it was definitely worth it. While we waited we played card games, ate food. We got some pastries called Palmera. They were delicious. Paul and Marissa had fun watching Scotty and Emily not talking. We made up the conversation. Scotty´s favorite thing to ask us is what is our favorite part about whatever we are doing at the moment. It is pretty funny.
WE were so bored we decided to play rock, paper scissors with the consequence of getting a little slap if you lost.( A couple of the people in line watched us because it was entertaining and the line was so long and they were laughing at us pretty hard. We also played hearts and other card games.) We finally got into Alambra, it was so beautiful. Gardens and beautiful arabic writing everywhere. ( It was the home of the ruling family in Arabic times and even the christians realized that they should maintain this place. Many authors like Washington Erving wrote about the mystical place.) The palace was beautiful and we took some awesome pictures. AFter the Alambra Scotty and Paul went to the Tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella. They took illegal photos.(It was cool to see the tombs of these people that had such an important role in world history.) Emily and Marissa just went shopping and got attacked by the gypsy fortune tellers.( I tried to warn them not to talk to the fortune tellers, but they got suckered into this. Paul and I went to the Bazaar after with the girls and I talked to this student from Morocco about a blanket that I bought and then about world events. He was a geography student and my age. I had to explain that politics are not always felt the same within our country. And he had some interesting views on the Iraq war. He said that one of the Iraqi sellers just found out that his brother was killed in Bagdad by a bomb and that he would never move back to Iraq especially because all fo the doctors and educated people have left...there is no future for anyone there.) We hurried over to the train station because we had to get on our train by 9 pm. But, to our surprise our tickets were not saved and we had to get them for the next day. Paul and Marissa accidentally bought some rotten Madgalenas (spanish muffins) by the train station. Yucky!!! WE got a super cheap hostel for the night. We tried to go and see some more Flamenco dancing up in some caves, butr everywhere was too expensive. We got some delicious pizza and walked home. On the way home we convinced Emily that a bird pooped on her head and she almost peed her pants from laughing so hard. Yes!!! WE slept in!

This is Scott again and wanted to say congrats to mike and scott for thier passing their career tests, disertations, and whatever and we will be better at email in the future. I also hope you have as much fun seeing this through a 22 year old female perspective as I did.