A (Spring) Break from Reality

So sorry this is quite late. I plead guilty!

Spring break 2015 was one for the record books! We took a while and planned out all of our tickets and reservations then left the rest up to whatever we wanted to do once we got there. We settled on traveling less but being able to spend more time in each place. The places we chose were partly planning, partly dreaming and partly guesswork! In the end we decided on Seville, Ireland and Nice. We knew before studying abroad that we wanted to go to Ireland. That was always the main plan.

We added Seville because of the amazing and well-known Semana Santa festival celebrations. We had a great hostel located right by the Seville cathedral and 5 days to explore one of the only major cities in Spain we had not explored yet.

Packing for this trip was a struggle beause we were going to be in 3 different climates. Combine that with the fact that I thought the bag max for Ryanair was 8kg instead of 10kg leading to a frantic unpacking and repacking. It was stressful and a lot of hoping that we wouldn’t have trouble at the airport. I ave never had trouble at airport before but the budget airlines are tricky.

We took the train to Valencia from Alicante at 3 in the afternoon. This was our 4^th and last time in Valencia. The flight to Seville was cheaper from Valencia and also very early in the morning so it made sense to spend the night there. The hostel arranged for a cab to pick us up at 4am. That means a 3:30am wake up for a 6am flight. Way too early for my tastes.

We spent our first day in Seville walking around and exploring but also being total zombies all day. Later that night we met a girl from our hostel, an American who is living in Madrid and teaching. All of us decided to go to a close by Mexican restaurant because it is one of the foods I crave most here. The food was supposed to be good and they lured us with coupons for free margaritas. Of course they were mini margaritas half watered down. The lies of advertising! It was a fun night and it was very nice to meet new people. We gratefully went to sleep and slept in the next morning to get over the exhausting day.

Day 2 we did more walking around and explored Seville. We went to the old jewish quarter and saw some gardens and ducked into all these little shops, some touristy and some not. Many of them sold the same tourist related items and sadly very few had the little old fashioned out of the way shops I had hoped to find. Seville is very beautiful place and seeing all the processions throughout the day was very cool because it embodied the traditional culture of Spain!

Day 3 we went to the Alcazar. It reminded me a lot of the Alhambra in Granada. The Alcazar has been used in lots of movies and TV shows, namely Game of Thrones where the Alcazar is the setting for the water gardens of Dorne. So it was very cool to be able to see the one of the settings of my favorite TV show in real life. We treated ourselves to an amazing Italian lunch at a local place followed by a visit to the Sevilla cathedral. The cathedral is very beautiful with a lot of ornate metalwork. We got to see Christopher Columbus' tomb. They really love him here. 

Seville was very fun but we were especially excited for Ireland. It was the first time we were going to be leaving Spain and on top of that we were going to the place that we had always dreamed of when deciding to go abroad. IRELAND. We flew into Dublin from Seville and dropped out stuff and immediately went out to explore and have some food. Walking around we found a little pub with a menu that looked good so we ducked in to have some food and have the classic pub experience. Since in Spain the dominant meat is ham, it was great to be able to go to Ireland and have some good comforting beef! I had a burger first and was able to try the beef stew Mike ordered. SO GOOD. Delicious food and great beer. We threw up our hands when the waitress asked what we wanted and so she introduced us to some of her favorites. Good meat, good beer. What more can you want out of life?

That night we stopped into a local bar to listen to some live music. The duo was great and my favorite  was when they played Sweet Home Alabama and I sang every single world at the top of my lungs while everyone watched on and laughed at the crazy American!

The next day in Dublin Mike and I both got some long overdue haircuts. Due to the food at Bankers Bar that blew us away we decided for a repeat round of amazing food. This time I got the beef stew with homemade Guinness brown bread. So so good. One of the best meals I have had abroad. I also discovered by favorite new beer. Smithwicks Irish red ale. Very very good. We then went to the St. Patricks Cathedral and sat on the lawn outside of it and enjoyed the sun and watching all the children laugh and play soccer and tag and generally enjoying life. It was a beautiful day of bliss topped of with a wonderful meal of delicious burgers. 

Our last day in Dublin was really just a morning. We did the typical touristy destination, the Guinness factory. It was interesting to see how this beer was made as well as getting to try it for the first time at the source, the factory! It was a fun way to finish Dublin before leaving for Galway!

Next is Galway! Galway was good but it was not that exciting. Pretty countrysides with lots of newborn baby sheep prancing around being adorable. We spent about one and a half days there before taking a bus to Shannon to spend the night before our 6am flight! A very early morning. 

Next up we went to Nice, France! We stayed in an airbnb and got to stay in this great little place for 7 nights. Nice is beautiful and it was great to be able to cook and hang out eating baguettes and just relax. 

From our position in Nice we were able to travel to Cannes, Villefranche de Surmer, Éze, and Monaco very easily by train. We had a great time and loved the easy relaxing time we were able to have in Nice. It was great to be able to just relax and enjoy the last part of our spring break. It was a great way to reenergize before before going back to school.  

A goodbye pastry from our favorite bakery at the airport the day we left. The next day school started and it was quite the reality check from the relaxing time in Nice cooking, drinking wine, eating brie and baguettes and enjoying the beautiful place that we were in to the early mornings of school and homework. 

Now tomorrow is my last day in Alicante and I cannot believe it. I still will be traveling until June 11th, but it is crazy that tomorrow is my last day in Alicante. 

Next we are off to see our good friends Brent and Marilynn where we are going to road trip to Andorra! After that about 5 days in Belgium and then MY MOMMY COMES TO VISIT. I am so excited because then we are going to Paris, Rome, Siena, Florence and Venice! 

Spring break was amazing and we still have another month of abroad left. 

Time has flown by.