Málaga, Spain & Torremolinos, Spain

My first views of Spain were of deserts and mountains. Málaga is a city on the coast, with desert, mountains, and beach. We are in a hotel (Hotel Parasol) in Torremolinos, on the beach, just outside of Málaga.

Class began today, and the first adventure was the textbook. Apparently, the professor had told Elvira (the coordinator) that we should buy our books ahead of time and bring them with us. She, however, did not tell us the names of them, and said we should just get them when we got to Málaga. Naturally, they did not have them in Málaga. So, we had to make Xerox copies of the entire textbook. This is not only unwieldy, but also super-costly, so we only made two copies and are sharing them between us, which is a hassle, but what do you do.

Before I forget, let me tell you about the elevators in the hotel. Yes! Actual elevators! But before you get too excited, let me clarify. These elevators are phone booth sized, and go in order of which button was pressed first, not in numeric/spatial order. So, if you are on floor one and call the elevator and before you press floor three, someone on floor 10 calls the elevator, guess where you’re going. Yep, from 1 to 10 to 3. (And if he pressed 8, he goes from 10 to 3 to 8.) And so on.

I ended up rooming with Ula, and we got up around 7:15 this morning and headed downstairs for breakfast at 8 before class at 8:30. Unfortunately, the 8:00 breakfast didn’t start until around 8:15 (I guess we’re on Spanish time) and we were worried about being late to class. The professor rolled in to the classroom a good 10 minutes after we did (he’s from Spain, so I guess he’s *really* on Spanish time) so it wasn’t a problem after all.

After class, Ula and I took the cercanías (local metro-style train) to downtown Málaga so I could reserve my train seats for my post-semester travels. As Murphy prophesized, this did not go down as planned.

First of all, I was transferred from cashier to cashier until someone could help at all. Next, they said they could only reserve tickets to/from Spain, so only 3 out of 20 tickets were reserved. Next, the fee for those 3 reservations was $170. Yikes! Finally, after all this, they don’t take credit cards, so I had to dash to the ATM in order to complete the transaction.

After this adventure, we went and got ice cream and cappucinos at an outdoor cafe. Ordering the cappucino was a little bizarre, because the waitress asked, “With or without milk?” Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought a cappucino was an espresso with milk. So if I got it *without* milk, it wouldn’t be a cappucino anymore, it would be an espresso, right? Maybe it’s different here. In any case, I smiled and said, “With, please” and dug into my ice cream, which may very well be the best ice cream I’ve had in my life. I ordered caramel, and it actually came with lots of tiny cubes of real caramel embedded in caramel ice cream! (Not the goopy processed “carmel-flavored syrup” in your average US cone.) Way yum.

After this nutritious and delicious lunch, we wandered around downtown for a bit, then got on the return train. At one stop, a woman got on with her daughter, intending to go to downtown Málaga. I told her that she had gotten on the wrong train, as this one was heading *away* from Málaga. She thanked me profusely and got off at the next stop. It wasn’t until the following stop when we realized that *our* stop was the one where the woman had gotten on, and we missed it because we were being helpful. So, we got off at the *next* stop, only to find out that the return train had just passed, and it would be another half hour until the next one. We decided to hoof it back, which turned out to be an exceptionally bad idea. Our plan was to walk to the beach and follow the coast back to the hotel, but none of the twisty residential streets seemed to lead to the beach, and anyone we asked for directions just said, “Wow! You’re really far away!”

An hour and a half later, (yes, we should have just waited for the next train), we finally catch sight of our hotel, just in time for the last 10 minutes of dinner. I had gazpacho for the first time (cold veggie soup) which turned out to be pretty good!

After dinner, Ula and I went to the beach, where I waded in the water of the Meditteranean Sea and saw lots of breasts. (Yes, breasts.) Spain is apparenttly very clothing-optional, because when we were at the outdoor cafe tables, the woman next to us spontaneously began to breastfeed her baby. As for the hotel pool, all I’ll say is that I saw a man with an extremely sunburned rear end.

Tags: food, lost, lost in translation, trains, travel tips

Paris, France to Málaga, Spain

Here I am on the last flight of this seemingly never-ending day. I am dead tired and my head is vaguely pounding. On the flight from JFK to CDG (Paris, Charles de Gaulle) I had an aisle seat in the center, so unfortunately I did not get to look out the window at Paris getting closer. However, I have a window seat on this flight, so I´ll get to watch Paris disappear and Málaga appear!

The CDG airport does not have food once you are through security for international flights. Eat first, or have plenty of coin Euros for the vending machines. I went through customs (who, disappointingly, did not stamp my passport neither arriving nor leaving), disdainfully passed by a McDonalds, went through security, and headed to my gate.

On the previous plane, at first I sat on the wrong side of the aisle. (I make mistakes at least once a year.) I blame it on the soporific effects of Dramamine and lack of sleep. I sat next to two youngish black women from France. I turned to the one next to me and asked (in French), “So, where in France are you from?”

She blinked and responded (in French), “I´m sorry, I don´t speak English. Could you ask me again in French?”

Well! This was a serious blow to my French self-confidence, let me tell you. What I *wanted* to do was fall into the bottomless pit I was hoping would appear any moment to swallow me whole. But since that failed to hapen (and since she´d asked so nicely) I tried again, this time enunciating as clearly as I could. “Where. In France. Do you. Live?”

This time, she smiled and answered, “Oh! In Paris.”

I returned the smile, told her it was my first visit, and retreated to my proper seat, resolving not to poison the air any more with my apparently incomprehensible French accent.

Tired as I was, I couldn’t seem to fall asleep. That´s when I started ordering the wine. (Come on! Free alcohol is one of the joys of an eight hour international flight, and besides, it comes with every snack/meal just like Diet Coke.)

After I was halfway throught the second bottle (There´s only one serving in each bottle. Really.) I was totally knocked out for a good hour or two. I kept waking up because they kept showing up to feed us. First, a snack (pretzels and wine) then dinner (there was no vegetarian option because the school forgot to forward the information, but they did come back around to give me another bread roll).

This morning (aka midnight EST) they fed us breakfast – some kind of pastry, peach yogurt (Dannon la créme), coffee and OJ. (No wine for me, although the guy in the row in front of me got a Budweiser, breakfast of champions.)

Tags: airplanes, airports, lost in translation, wine

International Flight

Here I am on Song, Delta’s new airline branch. So far, I’m favorably impressed. The seats are colorful and comfortable, with TV screens on every seatback, and I absolutely love the flight attendant uniforms. My first thought when I saw them was, “I want to be a Song flight attendant so I can wear that outfit!”

I got to the airport and through security and made a beeline for the Starbucks, where the slowest family in the world was in front of me ordering milk and breakfasts for themselves and all four of their kids. (A lot of eye-rolling went through the ever-growing line. It’s a coffee stand, not a Waffle House, for pete’s sake.) The woman next to me in line glared at them for 10 straight minutes (without them even noticing) then muttered darkly to her daughter: “Looks like there’s gonna be a smackdown at Starbucks.”

My first adventure of the day was at check-in. The orientation documents I received said that the suitcase had a maximum weight of 75 pounds. This may be, but apparently anything over 50 gets an automatic $25 fee, and mine weighed in around 55. The joys of travel…

The best thing about the Song flight from Tampa to JFK (NYC) was that I was unbeatable for several rounds of the Trivia game. (Yeah baby! The winner is: Erica in 15A!) That is, until Mike in 6B beat me by just a few points. Geek. But I am still listed as #3 overall in my particular airplane’s all-time top 10! (Song is so new that this probably doesn’t mean much, but let me have a moment of pride.)

My second adventure was when I arrived at the JFK airport. I had a massive 4 1/2 hour layover, so I wandered around the tiny terminal about 75 times before I caved and checked out the massage parlor. (Yes, there’s a massage parlor in the airport. I don’t know either.) My massage therapist was a tiny woman from Malasia. I have never had an asian massage before this day, and since I just signed up for what sounded like an ordinary back massage, I was in for a surprise.

My first surprise was that the concept of privacy was utterly foreign to her. As I was undressing, she came in and out of the room multiple times, the last of which I was stark naked. Then, I lay face down on the massage table and the next thing I know, she jumps on my back! At first I had my misgivings about her crawling around on my back, kneading my muscles with her elbows and knees. But from the first swirl of her knee, my spinal column loudly clicked into place, right up the line. (Kinda makes you wonder – who was the first person to dream up this kind of massage?)

Then she ran out of the room. I had no idea why this was – maybe I have a frightening back? The next thing I know, she bursts back into the room and tosses a scalding hot wet towel on my bare back, then leaps back on top of me for more knee-kneading.

To say I was a bit surprised would be a big understatement.

She followed up the massage with random hand gestures, which I completley misunderstood until she spontaneously french-braided my hair. (Apparently, I was a wreck.)

I left a good tip–she totally deserved it. After all, I was just walking past and she used her powers of persuasion (albeit in broken English) to hustle me in to the most bizarre yet entertaining massage of my life. (Oh, and relaxing too. Really.)

Tags: airplanes, airports, lost in translation

Portland, OR

Today, Todd made breakfast (pancakes, yum!) and then we set off for a hike in the Mount Hood National Forest. It was freaking cold up there, Mr Bigglesworth – I could see my breath. But it was a lot of fun and extremely scenic.

We came across this massive Y-shaped tree and I managed to crawl up it and wedge myself into the Y as if it were some kind of hammock – that was fun.

We walked around Mirror Lake and saw lots of snakes in the grass! I got one of the snakes on film, and Todd got some pretty amazing photos.

Once we got back to Portland, we ate dinner at Montage, a Louisiana-inspired restaurant with lots of artwork on the walls and a laid-back atmosphere. Our doggy-bags were actually our leftovers wrapped in aluminum foil and crafted into elaborate designs – Todd’s was a crab, mine a jester hat, and people seated near us got roses and swans.

Tags: food, hiking

Columbia River Gorge

Today we went out to the Columbia River Gorge and the Bonneville Dam, where we saw lots of salmon and shad, and a guestbook where somebody wrote: “I love lamp.” which cracked me up. (If you’ve seen Anchorman with Will Ferrell, you know why this cracked me up. If you did not see the movie, yes I know “lamp” was short for “lamprey”, although abbreviating a 7 letter word by 3 letters is pretty funny too)

Next we checked out a ton of waterfalls – Horsetail Falls, LaTourell Falls, Multnomah Falls, Wahkeena Falls, and more. I saw another slug, and would you believe it, a giant snail! It was lots of fun (slooow fun, but fun) to watch them cross the paths to get to the foliage on the other side.

Todd and I wrapped up the evening by checking out the view from Crown Point and having dinner at Greek Cuisina, where I had spanakopita, my very very favorite.

Tags: animals, food, hiking

Seal Rock, OR

Today we went out to breakfast at Shari’s (Shari like sherry, not Shari like sorry) and I got some sort of mozzarella-and-marinara omelette, which was pretty tasty.

Next, we headed out toward the Sea Lion caves, and since that was so far away, we made plenty of stops along the scenic view car pull-off areas. Due to the wind and rain, I got lots of wild pictures of tall waves crashing against the massive sea stacks rising from the water, which was really neat.

Another cool thing was that just before we got to the actual Sea Lion Cave area, we hit the Seal Rock pull off, where we looked down over the cliff wall and what do you think were just kicked back, relaxing on the rocks below? That’s right, a bunch of seals just hanging out! They were stinky, but very cool.

Then we finally made it to the actual Sea Lion Caves at about 5:30 (they close at 6pm) and on the lookout there, we saw a baby sea lion nursing on his mother. (or wet nurse. how am I to know.) The cave itself was also pretty neat, but it was (obviously) dark, so I’m not sure how well those photos will come out.

We rounded out the evening with sandwiches and beer at McMenamin’s (I got a Porter, Todd got a beer with a lemon in it, I forget what it’s called.) and headed home after another successful day.

Tags: animals, road trip

Oswald State Park & Cannon Beach

Today we got up and went to breakfast at Elmer’s (you heard right, like the glue). Believe it or not, not bad, not bad.

We headed out to Oswald State Park for a bit of hiking on the Cape Falcon trail. I got to see a giant slug cross my path, blackberry flowers, and a bunch of psycho surfers out riding the waves in wet suits and sub zero temperatures. OK, maybe it wasn’t sub-zero – but it was hovering between 48-54 and that’s waaay too cold for this Tampa girl to be frolicking in the water!

Next we headed up to the Cannon Beach which had all these crazy sea stacks including the famous Haystack Rock as well as a bunch of tide pools. I saw lots of fish and tiny crab-like things, also sea anemone (sea urchins) and by-the-sea sailors, which looked like a cross between a jellyfish and a Dalí-esque bike reflector.

On our way back to Todd’s apartment, we come around the corner and guess what we see on the hillside? A bunch of elk, just grazing and hanging out.

Tags: animals, hiking

Portland, OR

Today Todd had to work, so he dropped me off downtown so I could walk around and see what I could see. I started out at Powell’s, the nation’s largest independent bookstore, and boy is it massive. I absolutely love to read (okay, I’m addicted to reading) and I could easily spend every dime I earn in a place like this. If you’ve never been, you should really think about checking it out.

Next, I walked all around downtown, looking like the tourist I was (backpack on, digital camera hanging around my neck). I walked through most of the parks (and there were a lot more than I anticipated), by the Chinese Garden, the Skidmore Fountain, the Ira C Keller fountain, City Hall, Portlandia, the Cultural District, Chinatown, and the Pioneer Courthouse Square.

I also visited the Art Museum, which had neat Asian, European, and Native American exhibits, and even a Forgotten Mid-Western Prints exhibit. Then I went to the Oregon History Center, which was pretty cool, and I was disappointed that photography was not allowed. There was an exhibit with scale representations of every type of wagon imaginable (ice wagon, conestoga, etc) and that was really neat.

Lastly, I walked along the river (Waterfront Park), taking photos of bridges and Canada geese (NOT “Canadian” geese, as I’m informed) and wandering through the Rose Festival area.

The cool thing about that was that it wasn’t open yet. While that may sound odd, consider this: typically if a fair/festival is not open, the general public is not allowed inside. So for the first time, I got to see carnies setting up, rides being constructed, midway game booths being assembled, and so on. It was really pretty interesting. (And I saw that they had my two favorite fair items in all the world: the Zipper ride, and Elephant Ears – yum!)

That night, Todd and I went to the Crystal Ballroom at McMenamins and saw the sold-out Sleater Kinney concert, which was a lot of fun!

Tags: books, festivals & fiestas, museums, music & concerts

Tampa, FL to Portland, OR

Nic picked me up at my house and dropped me off at the Tampa Airport around 9:30 ish for my 10:45 flight, Delta to Cincinnati to Portland. The plane arrived in Cincinnati ahead of schedule, which gave me a fantastic 4 hour layover (sarcasm). Way too much time for a layover, but not quite enough time to leave the airport and say hi to anybody and still get back through security for the second leg of my flight.

I arrive in Portland at 6:30 (9:30pm my time) and Todd is there to pick me up. I get my first glimpses of the Portland skyline (which is bigger than I thought it would be) and we have dinner at an Italian restaurant (Cocina Cocina) near his apartment in Beaverton, which is right outside of Portland.

My body is really tired of all this flying around, so I’m glad to finally be where I’m going!

Tags: airports