Semana Santa = Spring break madness

PART 1: CANARY ISLANDS

The crew
Our hotel
The beach

We - we being me, Pam, Courtney, Maria, Alex, Shannon, and Marco - left for the Canary Islands two Thursdays ago. It's a 2 hour flight south of Spain to Tenerife, one of the islands known for its nightlife. We were staying on the south side of the island, so we had to take a shuttle from the airport in the north. Our hotel was fantastic - We stayed at the Hotel Hesperia Troya, a 4-star hotel literally across the street from the beach. We got all-you-an-eat breakfast and dinner provided, spacious rooms, huge pool area...great accommodations all around. On top of that, we had gorgeous weather all 5 days we were there. Can't beat that now can ya?

The first night we just got some kebabs and went to bed early. Friday we were out on the beach by 11. Tenerife is cool in that the beach consists of tiny little neighboring gulfs, so it looks like there are 10 beaches all next to each other. We took in some serious rays, and went back to the hotel around 4ish. We then hung out by the pool...Maria and I took naps and when we woke up we were the only ones there. We ended up chatting until 7 and took a quick dip in the pool.
The roomies
Dinner came, then nap, then our first night out on the town! the nightlife in our area seemed like it should have been pretty happenin...but for some reason all the tourists were gone by 11pm or so. The bars were pretty much dead empty. They are mostly British-owned, so every two seconds in the street we'd get accosted by annoying promoters trying to get us to go into their bar for free shots or cheap champagne or whatever. We ended up at some bar with sketchy-ass men women who danced like they were possessed. So that was a disappointing night on the town.

Saturday consisted of more beach. Did I mention that people go topless in Europe. Well they do, especially when they shouldn't! I'll leave it up to you to conjure up grotesque images of fat, saggy, sunburned tourists airing out their upper bodies...
Saturday night was a lot of fun. We started out drinking on the beach, which is gorgeous and peaceful at night, albeit a bit chilly. The cold sand feels good on sunburned toes, that's for sure. Then we hit up a reggae bar, much to Pam's delight. Afterwards we went to Den Glade Viking, a Scandanavian bar, much to Courtney's delight. There we met Pelle, a cute blonde Swedish bartender. We chilled out there, drank, danced, a good time was had by all.
Botellon on the beach
Sunday it was a bit chillier, so we opted to stay by the pool pretty much all day.
Sunday night we pregamed on the beach some more, then went back to the Scandanavian bar, where Pelle and his bartender friend Marcus invited us out to Rags, a club that all the promoters hit up after their shifts get out. So we hung out at the bar and went to Rags afterwards. It was a cute place, played a lot of house at first but then switched to hip hop, thankfully. Pelle and Marcus met up with us later and spent most of the night dancing with us.

Monday Pam, Courtney and I went off by ourselves to Playa de las Vistas, one of the bigger beaches on the south side. It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel, but it was worth it. It was crowded, but the water was so nice and the beach was much more spacious. We were there probably from noon to 5pm. You can only imagine how exhausted we felt afterwards. Surprisingly I did not get dehydrated, because I made myself drink like 2 liters of water.
Monday night was our last night, but people were pretty tired so no one really felt like going out. Courtney wanted to keep trying her hand at speaking Swedish though, so yes, like bar sluts, we went back to the Scandanavian bar. Pelle was pleased, but he also had hordes of other women trying to impress him, which was more amusing than anything else. But we had fun, no harm done. Jattebra!!
Evening sun

Tuesday we left and didn't get into Madrid until late...and we got up at 5am the next morning for our next destination!

PART 2: LISBON, PORTUGAL
Lisbon
The Lisbon fam! :)

We arrived in Lisbon early Wednesday morning. We lugged our stuff to the hostel and met up with Pam's parents around noon. My first impression of Lisbon was that it was beautiful. Tiles and cobblestones everywhere, very romantic and picturesque. I also like the Portuguese language...it's extremely easy to read because it is similar to Spanish, but the pronounciations are totally different so it's hard to listen to. Our first day with Pam's parents consisted of hiking up to the Castelo de Sao Jorge and visiting the Se Cathedral. Let me just say, Courtney Carlson is the best tour guide ever...she memorized the city map and transportation routes and major sites before we even got here, and so we just sat back, relaxed, and let her lead us to everywhere. It was probably the most productive touristy trip I've ever had.
Praca de Rossio, downtown Lisbon
Tile room in the Castle of Sao Jorge
Being our silly selves
In the afternoon Courtney, I parted ways with Pam and her parents to take a nap in our hostel. Our hostel, Lisbon Lounge, was really chic. The common room had bean bag chairs and mood music, so people were really friendly and sociable, and the bathroom was really clean. Our rooms were kind of small though, and we were sharing the room with 3 other people. We woke up and took the elevator up the hill toward the main Plaza. Elevator, you say? Lisbon is built on 7 different hills, kind of like San Francisco...so there are cable cars and stairs everywhere to help climb the hills, which are practically impossible to walk up because they are made of cobblestone. I don't know how anyone would ever wear heels. That night Courtney wasn't feeling well, so Pam and I went by ourselves to explore the Bairro Alto, the main area for bar-hopping. It was a 10-minute hike up the big hill from our hostel, not too bad. Portugese nightlife is much like Madrid's - the streets were full of people drinking and socializing, and all the bars were just open and blasting music. We found a cute Cuban bar and stayed there all night.
Cable car elevator by our hostel
Antique elevator
Thursday morning we trekked out to Sintra, a neighboring town about 40 minutes by metro and train from Lisbon. It's a town where the rich vacation, so there are these massive privately owned houses and a few castles and palaces to visit. The topmost palace, El Palacio de Pena, was a 5 kilometer hike from the base of Sintra. Would have been fine if I weren't wearing sandals. But we made it up to the top totally hiking, where others opted to take cars and buses. Boooo, weaklings!
I think my favorite part of this day was visiting the Castle de Mouros, Castle of the Moors. It's just a fun abandoned fort to climb around on and glimpse the views.
Sintra - the walk up to the palace
Sintra - Palacio da Pena
Moorish Castle
The view of Palacio da Pena from the Moorish castle
The ride home was fun. We inadvertently got on a train that was shut down for the night, so it literally stopped in its tracks in the middle of nowhere and turned off all the lights. We were the only people on the train, so you can only imagine the slight state of panic we were in. Fortunately, there was a kind man who spoke English in the little office across the way who offered to take us in his friend's van to the next station. Don't know what would have happened if we didn't come across him though!
Getting stranded on the train tracks

That night I overheard this British kid in the hostel trying to teach Texas Hold'Em to these Spaniards and he was having some trouble. So I chimed in and ended up playing with them. the Brit was named Ryan, he's an 18-year old surfer bum from Cornwall, and the Spaniards were from Valencia. Ryan and I chatted up and I took to the kid.

Friday morning Ryan tagged along with us to Belem, a port area in Lisbon, maybe another city, don't know. We went to the Monastery of Jeronimo, that has this gorgeous cathedral and cloister. Then we went to the Frida Kahlo exhibit in Center of Culture oF Belem. I think that was one of my favorite parts of the trip. I love Frida's work, I think she was a genius and made the most of her tragic life. Afterwards we went to the tower of Belem, which was a nightmare to ascend because it was one small staircase for both directions.

Then we went to the aquarium. Lisbon has one of the biggest aquariums in the world. It was pretty impressive, but I haven't been to the one in Baltimore for awhile so I can't compare. It's pretty damn nice though.

Ryan and I talked to a German guy in our hostel from Munich named Josef. I invited both of them out with us, so we went to the Cuban bar again. I met a Cuban kid named Enrico who was drunk out of his mind, but he was entertaining. A little desperate though - word to the wise, if you want a girl to dance with you, it is a cardinal sin to repeatedly grab her back belt loop while she is dancing with another guy!

Saturday we took a ferry across the river to see the Cristo Rei, a giant statue of Jesus modeled after the one in Rio de Janeiro. It was beautiful and rather appropriate since it was Easter. too bad I'm not Christian. That evening Pam, her parents, Courtney and I went to a dinner and Fado (traditional Portuguese folk singing).
Cristo Rei
View of Lisbon from the Cristo Rei

That night Ryan, Courtney, Pam and I went bar hopping one last time in Bairro Alto. Pam drooled over a hot Brazilian bartender and I got relatively tipsy. Good times.

So overall, I had a wonderful spring break. Canary Islands was brainless vacation, and Lisbeon was a cultural adventure. This was very hastily and badly written, and I apologize for that! But now I have lots of homework to catch up on.

Last notes: CONGRATULATIONS to my sister and Matt for getting hitched, hope you all are having a good time in Venice. Hi Nuria, it was fun seeing you in Madrid child! too bad we didn't get to spend more time together. Next time we'll party it up. West Coast summer 2007 road trip maybe?!?!

And Antonio - Feliz Cumpleaños (tomorrow)! :)