Viva Espana!

The Beautiful Mediterranean: Adventures in Horta, Azores, Funchal, Madeira, Barcelona, and Malaga, Spain....


The Atlantic crossing from Ft. Lauderdale was a whirlwind of activities, performing, and lots of lots of sea days. It was also awesome having my Aunt Elaine and Uncle K.C. onboard to share in my life out here!
They were such a pleasure to cruise with...and loved seeing them in the front row of every show! I must have met about 30 different passengers who came running up to me saying, "Oh Ashley! I met your Aunt
Elaine and I feel like I know you because she was just going on and on about her wonderful niece...!" They are truly the best and I am blessed they were able to come on the ship!

Our first stop after the long crossing was Horta in The Azores, the islands just off the coast of Portugal, and referred to as "the weekend getaway of Europeans." It was an adorable little harbor town, and the
weather was gorgeous! The thing to do in Horta is to eat at this little tiny sports bar just near the port called "Cafe Sport." Apparently, it has been there forever and ever, and is one of those things everyone talks
about that you just HAVE to do. I am quickly learning not to take most people's "HAVE TO DO" advice...you end up having high expectations, and in turn don't get to experience the fun and adventure of finding
things of your own in foreign countries. Anyway, Cafe Sport was okay--the best part of the meal was the fight we saw between this Italian guy who stumbled in and started yelling at the manager for a good 5
minutes. It was great. The food was fair and the service was ridiculously slow. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the island, going in and out of little shops...and found there wasn't a whole lot to do in Horta, but it sure was cute. I said my goodbyes to Aunt Elaine and Uncle KC before heading back to the ship and setting sail for Funchal, Madeira...

We arrive in Funchal, Madeira, which is also just off the coast of Portugal. The weather was overcast, but it certainly didn't ruin the views. I thought Funchal had so much character, and it actually turned out to be one of my favorite stops in the Mediterranean so far! Lots of beautiful gardens, cute cafes and restaurants, and charming streets and walkways that go on and on for miles. We ate at a cute little garden restaurant for some Portugese tomato soup. This was my attempt to be cultural and eat at a "cute" restaurant...but in all actuality (and I will never admit this in the moment), McDonald's would have been a far superior choice. BUT ANYWAY, after lunch, we took the sky railway all the way up for a stunning view of Funchal. Another "HAVE TO DO" thing is to take the tobagen ride down the hill, where you sit in a tobagen, and two guys push you down the hill for about 10 minutes. So, 20 euros later (40 bucks!), I am sitting on a tobagen being pushed down a hill. What a life. I forgot to mention that the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees, and it is now in the 50s, and slightly raining. I was ready to kill both tobagen guys and myself for this little excursion that turned into the sleighride from hell. No, it wasn't that bad, but there it was again, one of those, "Oh you HAVE to do the tobagen ride!"

The next port we ended up at was Malaga, Spain, which we were at just 2 weeks ago before reaching Ft. Lauderdale. I didn't end up doing anything historical in Malaga, unless shopping for shoes counts.
Although I must declare my frustration with the Spanish and their so-called "siestas." Like, what? WHY?? Why is it necessary to close your store smack in the middle of the day for a nap?? Imagine finding a
fabulous pair of shoes and saying, "Oh, I'll come back for those when I don't have to schlep them around all day", then coming back to find the store is closed because of siesta. Infuriating!!! So, one less pair of
shoes later, we end up searching for another "cute" restaurant because I am stoked about finally getting to have paella. I picked one called Cafeteria (conveniently located a block away from McD's just in case..), the paella turned out to be awesome. Overall, it was a pretty low-key day, and it was worth it for my rockin paella. Upgrade: paella; downgrade: siestas.

Following Malaga was Valencia, which didn't make a huge impression on me. It was a nice, metropolitan city, and the best part was this amazing cathedral that was in the downtown region. Everything else kind of meshed with some of the other ports we had been to already, so it was just more of the same. Not to sound ungrateful for my visit, but for your reading pleasure, I'll move on to bigger & better things.

Finally, Barcelona!! I have been to Barcelona on vacation once before, but was really looking forward to spending more time there. We were docked overnight, so we had 2 days in Barcelona and it is one of my favorites! La Rambla is the famous street, just a block or two away from the port, with street performers, a flower district, shops, sidewalk cafes, and lots of great art. I could walk up and down all day. And I did. I saw some great street performers, just as I had remembered. One of the best ones was this guy dressed up like a monkey, who could actually contort his face to look like a monkey. It was freaky, but definitely worth a euro to take a picture with him. Speaking of euros, there is amazing shopping in Barcelona. The trouble is, like I have previously expressed, the dollar is so weak here, that everything is double the cost. It's really difficult not to give in to, but it's kind of silly to buy anything here! Some great stores I found for those planning to visit were: Desigual, which is a really funky designer that's really popular in Spain and has a lot of crazy prints and retro 70s style stuff for guys and girls, Top Shop: which was on a street just off of La Rambla that has really cute clothes and great jeans and the collection is designed by Kate Moss, and of course Custo: which I can't afford anything in, but it's fun to look. Again, I sampled some paella, which was good, (not as good as Malaga's), and wished I did more research to find the best paella restaurant in Barcelona. It was an AWESOME day, and I definitely want to come back to Barcelona and spend more time here and stay at the beautiful Monte Carlo hotel on La Rambla.

Stay tuned for updates on Palma de Mallorca, France, and Italy!!!

Signing off and see you all VERY soon!

xo-xo-xo,
Ashley

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