Blogs from Aragon, Spain, Europe - page 5

Day 2 – Climbing the foothills of the Pyrenees April 21, 2014 We wake up around 6 am at least I did. Kirsten tossed and turned all night. Yeah, we need to find a hotel with softer beds. I shower and I’m down to breakfast in less than 30 minutes. Updated my blog stuff and enjoying the entire restaurant to myself. Well until the rest of the guests started arriving. Wow can these Spaniards eat… Kirsten arrives and says momma and daddy are on their way. We all have a nice breakfast and create a picnic lunch for later. We leave LLEIDA and are heading north toward BALAGUER from there we pick up the C12 and head toward AGER. Along the way we find a monastery from the 11th century. Yes, like really old. We eat ... read more

Well this blog is going to be a long one consisting of the events that have taken place in my time here in Zaragoza so far that the others haven't mentioned! Before I came here I hadn't really experienced different cultural foods, been interested in sight seeing or walking the "felt like" hundreds of miles to wherever we were going. However, I have had many "first times" in the three weeks of being here! First time I.... Ate smoked salmon, drank ice tea, ate proper Spanish tapas (which I really didn't enjoy, but hey! I tried), ate parmaham, cooked my own "big" meal for 4, ate mango, .... and there are many more that Nadine has written down in her notebook! I'm not used to trying new things and I am slowly getting there and the ... read more

Well this post was supposed to go into depth detail about how starting University in Spain went ... I wish I could tell you about all the lectures we went to but the fact is we are yet to be enrolled to the University of Zaragoza. Although it's not like we did not try! We met up on numerous occasions with our coordinator this week and we are awaiting a response with our timetables hopefully attached! Next week there should be more to share on the University front but in the meantime I will let you know what else we have been up to. Wednesday evening was the Welcome Meeting for all the new ERASMUS students. The whole presentation was in Spanish with an English at times PowerPoint in the background, this meant we understood about ... read more

So as some of you may know I am an extremely clumsy person and this seems to be no different in Zaragoza. Unfortunately. On our first day of exploring Zaragoza we went to get some coffee and fresh pastries. Walking down the street, chocolate croissant in hand embracing the Spanish lifestyle, my clumsiness exceeded me. During this wonderful chocolate croissant moment little did I notice the homeless man begging for money which led to me kicking over his money. Automatically becoming one of the worst moments of my life I began to apologise, in English of course. When I realised he had no idea what I was saying I said sorry in Spanish and quickly left the staring crowd head hanging in shame. The next day we met up with our buddies who were taking us ... read more

JACA TO BERTS After the obligatory photo of all the bikes lined up we were ready to go. Our route today was going to take us up into the Pyrenees and then back down through Lleida and on to a small town/village called Ginestar where we were going to spend the night. From jaca we took the road towards Sabaniego and then turned up to Bielcas, from there the road curved and twisted passing through Boltanna until we got to Ainsa. This was a route that I had taken the previous year. It did not defraud and provided some of the best roads since we left Santander. The route is a mixture of mountain twistys and Alpine like serpentine curves. We stopped in Ainsa to refuel and then headed down the A138 towards Lleida. This is ... read more