Advertisement
Published: July 30th 2006
Hey All, another update for you :D
So after the Italian adventures it was off to France. Nice was our first stop, and what an excellent first stop it was. There we watched 2 more world cup matches, one where France won! (which of course lead tomayhem and partying in the streets). We also indulged maybe a little too much in the amazing chocolate crepes and waffles haha. Next, we headed over to Monaco to see princess Grace´s tomb, the formula 1 track, the infamous casino, every unbelievably expensive car you can imagine, and of course the harbour filled with some of the most luxurious yachts I have ever seen (Kelly and i considered stowing away on one just to see where we would end up).
From there we headed further west to Marseilles, where we had yet another awesome host who just handed us the keys to his flat then headed off for the weekend to Belgium. From here, we explored the region . We visited the quaint town of Aix en Provence which we both fell in love with. We spent our second day basking in the sun
at one of the many beautiful beaches surrounding the
city, followed by hiking up to the top of the highest hill to see the cathedral of Notre Dame, which had the most unbelievable view of all of Marseilles. Of course our visit to the south of France wouldn't be complete without watching the world cup finals (which sadly they lost, but somehow made the best of it). By random chance we also ended up making it out to Avignon for the theater festival, so we were entertained by street performers all day and night.(unfortunately this came at the price of having to sleep in the train station illegally...yikes)
From there we caught a train down to Barcelona and then had quite an adventure getting on our ferry to Ibiza, which included stowing away in a friendly Spaniards car and staying up the rest of the night dancing in the night club on the boat. Ibiza was a blast, a whirlwind of relaxing days on the beach, nights spent dancing to all hours of the morning, and some of the best people watching so far.
From Ibiza, we headed back to Barcelona, which ended up being the best place we could imagine to recover from our sleepless nights
in Ibiza. Our hosts there were awesome, and we actually arrived just in time to celebrate Ivan's 31st birthday which included an all night guitar, kazoo, and shaker jam session at the beach, complete with a flamenco singer and guitarist as well. During the days we explored all the city had to offer, which included the undeniably beautiful and interesting Gaudi architecture. The still unfinished Sagrada Familia was by far my favorite place in the city.
Madrid was our next stop, and although everyone warned us it would be veeeery hot, it turned out to have some of the best weather of the trip so far, thank goodness!! In Madrid, we definitely took advantage of the world famous art collections housed there by visiting the Prado and the Reina- Sofia museums, which both had a special exhibits on Picasso on display (seeing the Guernica was unbelievable). We munched on all the excellent tapas throughout the city as well.
From Madrid, we took a day trip to the highly recommended city of Salamanca, which turned out to be as beautiful as everyone told us. All of the original Spanish architecture still remains in this university town, giving the feeling
that nothing has changed in the last 200 years. It was an excellent change from the fast paced feeling of the larger cities, and we both could definitely imagine going back and spending lots more time there :D
Sadly, we are heading out of Spain now, buuuuut we are headed to Ireland so we really can't complain hahah.
Hope all is well with everyone at home and we will see you all soon!!!!
xo xo
Elizabeth
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0639s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
