The Average Afternoon

I'm sure you're wondering what I do on the average afternoon after 5pm when Esperanza (Espe) is home from work and I'm FREE! Well, even if you're not wondering, I'm going to let you know anyways!

So after a long relaxing day at the pool or hanging out inside, we get to explore! Sometimes during the day we ride our bikes to the cousins house because they have a pool too and it's more fun to be together. (I realize that I hadn't posted these pics and thought I should. We do this during the day with the kids and not after we are free haha. We prefer to be kid free when the parents get home)

Alejandro (Alex) riding Darah like a horse. It's probably the cutest thing I've seen all summer. He takes the straps like the reigns. HA!

Mara and Adriana diving into the pool.

It has been super nice having Darah to go around and explore with. I'm sure that I would get out of the house anyways by myself, but it's still nice to have someone with you.
Depending on our energy that day we either make the trek into Madrid or explore around Rivas. There isn't much to do in Rivas, but we did find this!

Darah taking a turn

then me. I wasn't too sure I would get on all the way or fall off because you sort of had to jump to get on, but I made it!

When Rivas seemed like not enough we would head into the city. To get into Madrid is about an hour trip including walking to the bus stop, taking the bus in (30mins?), and then taking the metro to wherever we are trying to go.  Last week was Darah's last week before her family headed out to the beach house so we made the trek in a few times. They went a week before Espe, Mara, and Me because Espe already took a week vacation earlier in the summer.

Oh yea, have I mentioned that in Spain they get 4 weeks of vacation?!! and I hear in Germany 6 weeks. Espe was shocked when I said that if you're lucky you get 2 weeks of vacation. (this doesn't include all those fancy computer companies that say take all the time you want, even though they're doing it right). So basically August is the month of vacation and Madrid practically shuts down. I of course will not be observing this deserting factor because I will indeed be on vacation at the beach house in Oliva, Spain, which is about 70km south of Valencia.

Here are a few shots from Darah's last week near Madrid.

Drinking in the streets! One of the major differences from the US to Europe. You can drink in the streets here! So we had to document it. Note: we also took a selfie but you couldn't see that we were actually drinking in the street, so it was useless.

visiting one of the most famous churro places of all time. It was ok, but I think I've had better.

Eating the churros with a cup of chocolate sauce. They call it hot chocolate, but I'm pretty sure it is nothing like our hot chocolate.

Then I dragged Darah to the roof top bar. At this point we were pretty pooped but when else are you going to make it to a roof top bar in Madrid?!

pretty lit up buildings

on top of the bar next to some creepy photo

After a few nights of going into Madrid, and trying to see the Prado museum which we did not end up getting in to because it closed at 8pm (who knew!) we had one last night with the families in Madrid. Darah wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, so that's what we did!

As we arrived in Madrid we saw the largest flag in all of Spain. It was in the Christopher Columbus monument. Personally I think it's pretty hilarious that Spain has a monument of the man who found New England in 1492 and we don't. There probably is a monument somewhere, but I haven't seen it and I have lived in Mass almost all my life. 

A nice pic of Mara and I in front of the monument.

Cool reflecting pool!

When we got to the Hard Rock Cafe at 9:30 they said there was going to be an hour wait. So we went down the street a little ways and found a place to get a drink. A man came around with roses and so Mara proposed to her Mom! *note the rose in her mouth*

Bernard giving Alejandro kisses!!                 Darah, Susa, Espe, and Me getting more drinks while     waiting for our table.

I found these girls in the bathroom playing with the super crazy next century sinks. You can see there the little wing that comes out of the faucet was the hand dryer. As I was walking into the bathroom I saw the water spray up and hit the mirror because they turned on the hand dryer while the water was still going. A small flaw in their design I think.

Then we got this super cute shot in front of the sign. Also we finished dinner at about 12:30am. SERIOUSLY. I'm not kidding. and to top it off, people were still waiting to get seated! While I can say I have somewhat adjusted to this change in time, I still think it's a little bit weird!

T&T Birthday Extravaganza Weekend!!!

I can name three couples that have their birthdays within 1 week of each other. It's creepy and kind of makes me think I'm going to marry a Leo, which scares me. Taylor and Tristan's birthday's happened to be the week that we were hanging out with them in Spain! Coincidence? I think not. What a better way to spend your birthday than to hang out with the bestest of friends in a beautiful beachside town! It really doesn't get any better than that!

Taywood's birthday (Taylor) was on Thursday the 17th. Darah and I still have to work the next day, so we didn't do anything too crazy! It has been super hot here, like 100 degrees and it is the hottest from 5-8pm so basically when we were heading into the city to go hang out with them. We decided it was best to just get a few bottles of tinto de verano and spend the pre-evening drinking in their air conditioned hostel bedroom. It felt a little bit like college, but we were ok with it. That's when the photo shoot of taylor and I started haha. Here are some of the best ones. (Thanks Tristman for being our photographer :)

tinto de verano and a desperado (tequila and beer combo)

had to throw in a panorama in there. 

he made us hold our drinking pose for so long that this is what ended up happening. 

After an hour or tune of pretending we were back in college we headed out on the town in search of a mexican restaurant. When we finally made it there just before 9pm they told us that they needed 10 minutes to set up. Really? It's 9pm, why aren't you open already?!! The only thing to do was head around the corner to a bar and have a drink of Clara con Limón. (basically beer and fanta limón).

the nice bartender took a pic for us!

After we finished our beers at the bar, the restaurant was finally ready for us (and only us) to come in. We were the only ones there which was sort of nice so that we could chat. Overall Thursday night was a casual birthday night. Darah and I headed back out to Rivas around 12:30 and woke up the next day exhausted and happy to have one relaxing day at the pool with the kiddos before heading out to Salou for our weekend!

After Friday day with the kiddos we started our weekend adventure!
Our trip started on Friday night on an overnight bus. While I absolutely do NOT love the idea of an overnight bus and getting a miserable nights sleep, it's actually pretty convenient for not having to pay for a hotel for that night. I will do anything to save a few dollars :)
This bus left at 11pm and go into Terragona at 6am.
Tristan took celebratory shots every half an hour around his birthday beginning. Only appropriate for the birthday boy! Then we had a few hours of conversation (probably too loud for everyone else on the bus) and got to "sleep" (I put this in quotations only because it's the best nights sleep you can have on a bus that stops every few hours to get more people) around 2am?
While at one of these bus stops we noticed that the bus goes right to Salou but we only had tickets to Terragona. They're legit a 15 minute difference so we thought hey, let's just stay on. Well bad idea, bus driver yelled at us and we felt like we were 5 again. So thankfully there were taxis when we finally got to Terragona.
We stayed at the Blau Mar Hotel in Salou and got there around 6am. The one guy working the desk hooked us up with a hotel room that we were able to go to right then for no extra cost... this guy was our HERO!! We fell asleep for a few hours and then got up and ready to start the day!! On our way to the beach we saw this AWESOME blow up fun. (The pictures explain it all). It was 10 euros each and we all wanted to do it...so we splurged and paid the 10 euros each for an hour out on this thing. It felt like we were kids again :)

all 4 of us on the banana boat

Taylor ripping me off the banana boat thing

blurry Darah and I on the trampoline taking a rest...it was exhausting!

selfie before we rushed out to the water playground

and a nice selfie of Tristan and I. I learned that someone else takes just as many selfies as I do!!! I'm not the only one!

The rest of the night is pretty much documented via photos so here they are... it involved drinking, dancing, churros, and skinny dipping (ok the skinny dipping was not documented).

selfie of darah and I for her momma!

besties

and more seflies

group shot

awesome fountain maze thing

girls!

and a crazy cool shot

Taylor and Tristan at a bar that we went to pre club!

Ok so maybe the whole night wasn't documented via photos, but pretty much all you need to know is that we had a blast, we got permission to swim in the ocean, and I did not find my future husband.

What a fabulous way to spend their birthdays! I wish they were still going to be in Europe for August 10th! Darah and I must plan something fabulous. 

It was sad to say goodbye to these guys, but I know I will be seeing them again soon!

Meeting Up With Friends in Distant Places

I wanted to get this post in before the craziness of the week is about to begin! It's going to be a whirlwind of a wonderful weekend! We are headed to the beach on the east coast (Mediterranean Sea) this time! I'm super pumped to just spend some down time with Taylor and Tristan!

For those of you who don't know, Taylor was my freshman year roommate at UNH. Just to give you a taste of what we looked like freshman year...

Taylor, Kim, and I. 

again....see we were always weird...and yes, I still did ducky face back then. 

and there we are again, being awesome.

Anyways, a little blast from the past. Tristan lived in our dorm, Alexander, with us freshman year...but we didn't talk to him that much because we didn't know how AWESOME he was. Taylor obviously figured it out because now they're dating! So cute. 

So I was able to snag almost a whole week with these 2 on their trip across Europe! They've been on the road since May 5th and they fly home next Thursday! Madness. So I am super lucky to get to hang out with them. Also, Taylor's birthday is tomorrow the 17th (technically today already in Spain) and Tristan's birthday is on Saturday the 20th so we get to celebrate BOTH birthdays together!!

Today an amazing thing happened. Espe took the day off from work so that they could go visit Mara's grandparents in Segovia where I was a few weekends ago. (Her dad's parents). This meant Mara would be with her mom and I was able to do whatever! So I headed into Madrid and met up with them at the bear statue. 

Honestly I was expecting this bear to be massive, but it was about the same size as an adult. For some reason it's a huge tourist attraction and everyone seems to take a picture with the bear... I don't get it. 

I should also mention that it was 100 degrees in Madrid today. Like WOAH. I totally started to give my speech of all the cool spots Cristina had showed me earlier. Basically they had seen a lot of european cities and they were past all the sight seeing. Taylor and Tristan just wanted to relax!! So we got some tinto de verano and headed for the park to relax in the shade :)

so we found the gardens by the royal palace :)

and here we are in front of it!

the green looked too pristine to actually be resting on it, so instead we choose a wonderful shaded area under a tree. I was thinking to myself *wow, I really wish we had a blanket* and then next thing I know Tristan is taking out a sheet to lay on! Heaven.

Before we knew it we were starving and it was time for "lunch". I put this in quotations because it was like 4pm. We started wandering and found a place that had nice outdoor seating. We tried some bocadillo, because I was sure I knew what those were! Turns out when you order a chorizo sandwich, literally all you get is the bread and some chorizo....leaves a little bit to be desired. I'm still not quite sure that I LOVE any Spanish foods yet. I have been trying a lot of foods too, so it's not for lack of trying believe me!

While we were walking around we spotted a Dunkin Coffee (basically Dunkin Donuts with a interesting name change. It had to happen. Our iced coffee was pretty much an espresso put on ice. 

it worked for us!

It was so so hot walking around the city, so the only thing we really wanted was the pool. We decided to head back out to Rivas where I live and go to the pool that was conveniently open until 9:30. We were thinking we were pretty much the master of the metro until they were doing construction one the line that would have brought us straight there. An hour later we finally made it Conde de Casal where we were able to catch a bus back to Rivas. Unfortunately I told Darah to start walking a little too early, so she was waiting at my house for 15 minutes while we made our way back to the house. I tried to send her a message *she can only receive messages on wifi* hoping that she would be able to get wifi from outside my house. Didn't work. Whoops! She wasn't waiting long so that's good!

We had a nice night at the pool and then Taylor and Tristan made dinner! wahhooo! We had a salad with some chicken on it. DELISH. 

Anyways that's pretty much it! Darah and I will head into Madrid tomorrow to celebrate Taylor's birthday and then on Friday we leave for the beach with them :)

of course before they left I made them take a selfie :)

and now let the crazy weekend shenanigans begin!!!!

Sunday- finally THE BEACH!

Saturday night we didn't go all out. No clubs....although while we were walking along the beach the next day we found the club that we should have gone to!!

As we were walking underneath we came across a club! If I ever return to San Sebastián I am for sure going to this club. Hopefully I return before I am too old to go out.

(The picture is from Saturday when it was NOT so sunny)

We woke up Sunday not too sure about the weather. They said it would be mostly cloudy, so I wasn't too sure it would work out to go to the beach. I looked out my window and saw BLUEEEE SKIESS!!! Beach day it was! We had until 3:30 to go to the beach and roam around some more.

this is how we found the beach on Sunday! Blue skies and a bunch of people! Packed like sardines.

some topless yes.

It was so nice to just lay out and get in some sun hours! I'm getting SUPER tan by the way :)

I made Darah take a selfie on the beach with me! We were able to find a portion of the beach that wasn't super packed. 

Ok so it is hard to see...but way out there in the water there is a raft that had a slide and diving board on it. I wanted to get out to that raft! I made it out there, went down the slide one time and then came back in to bathe in the sun :)

After the beach we walked around Old Town a bit more and went into the bar to find some pinchos. We had some fried food and it was very heavy in our stomachs.

On our way home we stopped at a random bus station for 40 minutes! Why 40 minutes. pointless! But we did find this cute kitten! Darah touched it, but I didn't. FLEAS!

After 7 hours of traveling to make it home I found Puchi with a hair cut. He's SOOOO FLUFFFFYYYY!!!