I'm in love with the Flamenco

Another FAB day in Madrid!

We started the day by heading to Palacio Real but the line was unreal and with the thought of a long wait in line we decided to save it for another day.

We then headed to the Museo Sorella who was one of our favourite painters from the Prado. This beautiful collection of stunning paintings are housed in the original house where he and his family lived.

This was my fav piece:


What else to do with a Sunday afternoon... we decided to head to the Parque del Retiro. We were not the only ones; families made it very lively and it really is a beautiful park with a lake in the middle. We got some snacks and headed to a comfy grassy spot to enjoy the warm sunny weather (in the shade!)



After catching a quick siesta we headed back to hotel and I had a long nap! We hit the awesome veggie buffet for dinner which was very tasty.

While I was sleeping, Anna discovered a awesome bar (Sala Juglar) that for 10 euros we could get a drink and see a Flamenco Show. I was not prepared for its awesomeness! The dancers were so powerful and inspirational. These are the dancers:







The video is awesome but sadly, I tried to upload a couple of the videos but either the hotel or blogger would have none of it :(

Today we are off to the Centre de Arte Reina Sofia and a second attempt at Palacio Real.

Day Three - Prado

Another fabulous day! Madrid is fantastic... a comfortable city.

We slept in again :) leaving the hotel at 11am walking through the town to the Prado. We stopped for some Spanish Omelettes and coffee. The Spanish Omelette is an omelette with potato! Very tasty!

The Prado was amazing!



So many beautiful paintings, sadly they are strict about no photos even without a flash. Hoping the gift shop would have some awesome photos / postcards we were sadly disappointed that none of our favourite paintings were available. I guess you will just need to be go!

One of my absolute favs was:



We then shopped our way back to the hotel. I stopped to get outfitted in some Real Madrid gear... I'm completely set! I also got some fab leather accessories (better than it sounds!) but still no new shoes yet :( I still have hope!

We stopped for a late lunch which were slices of bread, we got one with calamari, another with leeks and brie and the last with roasted veggies and mozzarella. We washed it all down with glasses of cava (Spanish sparking wine) It was heavenly.

We are now off to get some curros with hot chocolate. Can't wait!

P.s. I hope to include a few more photos next time :)

Yes, Oui, Sì

I arrived in Barcelona exhausted! But thought going into town was too good to resist. I checked out the harbour and the market, having a yummy shake made with fresh fruit. The only downer was that I was literally falling asleep standing up... Not wanting to fall asleep on a bench in Barcelona (hello danger!) I hopped on the bus to bring me back to the airport. I was able to catch an hour sleep in the airport but I was hurtin´ not having slept in nearly 30 hours!

But the night got AWESOME! I jumped on the plane to Madrid and arrived in what so far seems to be paradise! I arrived, headed to Terminal 4 to meet Anna coming in from Copenhagen and then we caught the Metro into downtown Madrid. It was so great to be with my BFF again!!!

We found our hotel 2 steps (literally) from the metro stop next to a giant open air market. We settled into our awesome hotel (with a bathtub!!!) and headed out to explore stopping first at the ice cream place right across from the hotel (seriously best hotel EVER!) Picking up a yummy thin crust pizza to eat in our room on the way back.

I promptly passed out from exhaustion. And slept in to 11am! YES!

We headed on a self-guided city tour (yeah Anna!) and ate breakfast / lunch at a yummy pastry place! Coffee is FAB!!! We then toured around seeing some government offices (yeah... I could work there... our diggs are so disappointing in comparison!) and the cathedral and palace (we will visit the insides later on...) We then visited a converted market for some tapas and some Cava (Spanish sparkling wine... so yummy!)

Then it was off to see if we could get Real Madrid tickets! Fingers crossed we talked with this awesomely helpful ticket guy who suggested we try buying online... but ONLY from RealMadrid.com. Heading right back to the hotel (they have free internet in the lobby) we consulted the hotel front desk and the told us to stay away from a few sections (we did not want to be mixin´ with the drunk hooligans!) and then we narrowed it down and bought the only two tickets we could find together! HOLY CRAP we are seeing REAL MADRID LIVE!!! And the seats are decent... third level center!

I SO LOOOOVVVEEE MADRID!

Hangin' at the Airport!

Spain is so close I can taste it! Although right now it tastes mostly like the yummy beer and burger served at the airport D'arcy McGees. It has become at bit of a tradition before I leave for my trip... Only this time I'm going to MTL first instead of straight to Europe! Just a little anticlimactic...

Although firmly set on leaving my iPhone at home... When it came time to leave it behind I just couldn't do it! Not that I will be reachable by phone or would even consider using the crazy pricy euro data plans... Just being without music, my apps, and the possibility of wifi... Not even sure why I would consider going without it!!!

Adventure start T minus 1 hour 30 min!

Set for Spain!

Euro Trip 2010 is set! Spain here I come!

40 days and counting, check out the itinerary:



Cool things we are planning include:

Real Madrid Football Game (fingers crossed we can get tickets!)

Alhambra

Carmen at Gran Teatre de Liceu (Barcelona Opera House)

Can't wait!!!

Copenhagen… and Last Day

So last day… sad ☹ But fabulous day… great ☺

Yesterday we got in around noon, took the subway into downtown Copenhagen and explored to find our hotel... after a few wrong turns we found this international archery contest right outside our hotel. So after a bit of a detour around the competition we found out glorious hotel! Right beside the canal… not knowing what to expect being the second cheapest hotel (of course with a #1 rating on TripAdvisor we figured we couldn’t go wrong) our room is AMAZING! We are on the second floor and we have a BALCONY that leads out to the canal. It appears that we have the ONLY room with a balcony too! We dropped our stuff in the hotel and headed out for a lunch of open face sandwiches by the canal while we watched the Denmark Co-ed team archers take the gold medal. It was pretty cook to watch.

Holy FREAKIN’ cow everything is expensive here! Our lunch… mind you in a super pricey area was $40 (for 2 open faced sandwiches and 2 small beers)… eep! Then it was off to do some shopping. 99% of the shops are closed here on Sunday so if we were going to shop it was going to have to be today… but between the prices (apparently 25% tax!) and the money conversion it’s just plain insane to buy anything! Plus they are pretty avant garde in the fashion… it’s all 80’s skinny jeans and sweaters and tight (ick-o-rama! and no thank you!) We tried Tivoli Gardens which from the description seemed like a little Wonderland but it was closed for the season ☹

We then headed to Christiania which is a commune that was started about 30 years ago where these people just started squatting and then never left. For some reason (I’m not really sure why… I was expecting “Upper Canada Village” and boy was I wrong… it was more punk rock means “do what ever the hell you want”. It was like a total rock concert… although that could have been because it was Saturday night. We then grabbed some beer at the local 7-11 and headed back to the hotel for an aperitif before dinner. We then decided to go for something low key and perhaps take it back to the hotel. Instead we spotted the quant reasonably priced place and decided to eat there. I had tuna and Anna had curry fish and chips. It was really good but it had nothing on the dinner Anna and I had in Aarhus!

Next morning we decided to go on the river boat cruise (only one small part where I felt a bit queasy) it was very cool to see everything from the river (including the 1-2 million USD condos that back on the river which were truly beautiful… except of course that they back onto Christiania! Crazy!)

We decided to head back to the little mermaid and get some picture from land. Along the way we stopped at the Castle where the Royal Family live. They weren’t home, but they did have an interesting changing of the guard (but they have nothing on ours!)

We then headed to the National Art museum, which was FREE! So few free things in this city!!! We spent 2 hours exploring and loving their art collection. There were some particularly interesting modern art and religious art pieces that I liked.

We then headed back and decided to have a Thai dinner… something different and the prices were super reasonable (yeah!)

So tomorrow I’m off for home ☹ Sad!

Last Day in Rome : (

Time for me to go... not for a loss of an eventful morning. I walked all all over starting with Trevi Fountain (which was not on yet?!) so I hung around and watched the guy turn it on... how cool is that job... I turn on the Trevi Fountain every morning. I love doing things before 10am... there are not very many people just a few early birds. It made for some great pictures of the fountain.

Keeping with the fountain theme I headed to Piazza Navona and stopped at the Pantheon on the way. The Pantheon has been a church since 604 AD... that means it is celebrating its 1400 birthday this year... and that is just being a church it was something else before the Pope at the time made it a church. It is beautiful inside... the large cement dome is breathtaking!

I lucked out and got to Piazza Navona before there were tones of people and all the tourist crap sellers had set up. It was super peaceful and gave me some time to write some postcards. I loved the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi... I think it is my favourite fountain. I then doubled back to the Spanish Steps... by that time there were TONS of tourists so it was cool but packed with people. I loved the shops along the way. It was like I died and went to haute couture heaven. I swear if I ever win more money than I know what to do with I am coming here to shop like crazy!

I orignally thought it would be lots of walking to walk this all but as it turns out everthing is super close together so I decided to go back to the Pantheon so see about some gelato and then continue onton Campo di Fiori which is like an open market. There were a few glimpses of real Italian market-ness however the tourist crap stalls have taken some parts over. My favourite was a t-shirt shop where out of the corner of my eye I spot a Bart Simpson dressed in yellow, red, and green smoking a joint with the the words "Jamaica" undernear... yeah, I came all the way to Rome and I got you a shirt form Jamaica?!

Loved Rome... I threw some coins into the Trevi Fountain in the hopes that I will be back soon.