EuroTrip 2010: London, Paris, Rome, Venice, Barcelona & Madrid

Exactly a year ago, on March 31st, 2010, my boyfriend and I were on our way to our first Euro Trip. We had been together for only 4 months and we were both nervous about traveling for 20 days. I believe that traveling really shows the best and the worst of us. The best because you are on vacation and if you love traveling you are happy. The worst because you have to be together for 24 hrs a day and you will be present at moments when you are tired, cranky, hungry, and uncomfortable. We were lucky enough to come back from that trip in love and happy to have been to the old continent for the first time in our lives with the best company we could ever wish for. He told me later that he expected me to be more "difficult" during this trip. I was not offended because I knew that he enjoyed my company for 20 days BUT what is difficult suppose to mean? Is difficult complicated? or maybe spoiled? I know I am strict with how I like my things done. I am picky with food, I love going to the spa, buying nice clothes, going to good restaurants, and getting what I want. My answer to him was: I have to try everything once to at least have an opinion and only after that I can say if I like it or not. Traveling is the time where I really let go and just enjoy the new things around me. I love playing tour guide when I know the place and telling you if there are places worth the time or not is part of the guide's job. I'm not close minded when I travel to a new place. I don't think I will be trying fried roaches or other insects when I get to go to Asia but, as far as sight seeing I will go everywhere. 

We packed a big suitcase with half of it occupied by 2 sleeping bags. We also took 2 backpacks and a small hand bag with emergency clothes just in case the suitcase did not make it. Packing was not easy since we needed clothes for cold weather and also for warm weather. We were able to do laundry in Paris otherwise we would had been shopping for more shirts. The weather was nicer than we expected except in London. 

Ready to see Europe

There is a Juan Valdez at JFK. I LOVE their cappuccinos

We flew from Tampa to New York to London. We left on March 31st and arrived April 1st. We stayed in London until April 4th. We knew that my cousin was living in a small place in London. We were ready for it and brought sleeping bags with us from the US. We had no idea how small his room was. Now that I think about it he was to kind to let us stay with him. I have 2 friends living in London that offered me to stay with them if we needed it. They live outside the City but the transportation system is so good that they basically live in London. 

After London, we were headed for Paris for 5 nights and we took our sleeping bags with us. A friend of mine that lives in Paris let us stay with her. We knew that her apartment was a small studio and we were ready for the floor. We ended up not needing them, she had a nice futon for us. She was also very well located in the City. We could even see the Eiffel Tower from the main street. We left the sleeping bags in France with my friend just in case she needed them for her next guests. 

Italy was next on the itinerary. We had hotel reservations in Rome and Venice. No friends or family to stay with. After Italy, we flew to Barcelona for 2 nights and stay at a hotel in Las Ramblas. The last stop was Madrid where a friend of my boyfriend let us stay with her for 3 nights. We almost had to stay longer in Spain because of the Volcano ash coming from Iceland had most of Europe's flights canceled. We were worried about getting back to work but, at the same time we wanted to stay and go to a Real Madrid Soccer match day after we left. After waiting hours at the airport for cancellations we were told that our flight was delayed a few more hours for mechanical reasons. We lost our connection in Miami, we had to take the next flight to Tampa which was also delayed. They offered us to spend the night in Miami and fly to Tampa in the morning. We decided to wait and finally arrived to Tampa at 2:00 AM when we were originally supposed to be back around 6:00 PM. We had to go to work early the next day. I was exhausted and still in shock to be back at my desk when less than 24 hours ago I was living a dream.  I can't wait to return to Europe. I love history and seeing at the same places that I've heard about my whole life was unbelievable. I will happily repeat the Cities that we visited but, I know that we will go to new Counties on our next trip. At the top of my list are Greece, Germany, Czech Republic and, the Netherlands. 

PD: Basic packing tips when traveling to Europe are a nice fleece to keep you warm, a waterproof coat to wear on top of the fleece and, a nice scarf. I ended up buying lots of scarfs. Now that my memories are fading, the scarfs are my way to know which days we took the pictures (specially in London and Paris).

Wedding Updates

I haven't done much this past month for my wedding. My mom is my official planner and she is back in the US until June. In the mean time, a friend is doing the invitations for us as a gift. He sent me an initial design and it looks nice! We still need to decide a few minor things: exact time and if we want to add our parent's names to the invitations. Small details but the date is getting closer. I also called my ex personal trainer to ask her to train me at least once a week since I am getting nervous. We will start in 2 weeks. She asked me to do lots of spinning to get my endurance up. I know she will be tough and I need that especially for my arms. I will write more updates as I get things done.

Since I wrote about Mexico last week I decided to share the wedding information that I collected when I was considering doing my wedding in Mexico. Maybe this will help other brides looking for the perfect place to get married. The idea started because we wanted a laid back ceremony at the beach. We live in Florida but the prices at the beach front hotels are too high to even consider doing it here. Plus I loved the idea of a destination wedding: a week of vacation with our favorite people and our wedding at the same time. We had been to Playa del Carmen before and we both loved the place. We didn't go together but we agreed that it was the most beautiful beach we had seen.

A coworker got married in Playa del Carmen a few years ago. I remembered looking at her beautiful wedding pictures a long time ago. I asked her for the details and she still had some valuable information. She recommended some places and I also contacted others for prices and information. She also advised me to get married in the US before. You have to do a series of things if you want to get legally married in Mexico that you shouldn't need to do if you don't live there. The list was long but I remembered a blood test, doctor's appointment, and arriving so many days before the wedding. Just make sure that you don't forget to read through if your plan is to marry in Mexico. I thought the best option was just to do a symbolic marriage.

My favorite place was Al Cielo Hotel in Xpu Ha Beach. Al Cielo is located just 20 minutes from Playa del Carmen. The reception site was for only 50 people but considering not everyone would make the trip we could maybe make it. I have a large family. I only have 3 sisters but we are close with our cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course we also have lots of friends. Probably 30 guests would be family and only 20 friends. Inviting 10 friends each was going to be though. The cost of the food and open bar were about $120 per person plus a $2,000 fee for the ceremony set up at the beach. It was around $8,000 plus the cost of the transportation, the photographer, and of course the week of vacation. When I contacted Al Cielo they were very friendly and sent me information right away. They also sent me this link with a full gallery of a wedding that took place in their hotel.

My coworker recommended this local photographer who did her pictures: Claudia Rodriguez . I contacted her but never heard back. I really liked her work. I would had tried harder to contact her if we had decided to do the wedding in Mexico.

One of Claudia's pictures

My favorite photographer Kyle Hepp will travel just about anywhere in the world to do your wedding. Make sure that you ask her. I had to stay on a tight budget to be able to afford our honeymoon but, if you don't need to worry about that please contact her.

I was also looking for hotels that offered wedding packages and they are very affordable but for smaller weddings (up to 30). Plus I didn't want to force our guests to stay at a particular resort. Most of the resorts charge a daily fee if any of your wedding guests are not guest of the hotel. I would feel really bad to invite someone to my wedding and tell them they need to pay around $100 to get in.

One of the most important issues when deciding our wedding date was that we had to either get married before May of 2011 or after November because of hurricane season. I know that they only happen once in a while but I did not want to be watching the weather channel non-stop the days before my wedding. Besides, I already heard a similar experience with weddings and hurricanes. My cousin got married in Cancun right after hurricane Wilma. My parents went and their pictures at the beach are sad. It was cloudy and the beach was dirty. Their hotel didn't have any damages but many people had to cancel their trip. It is very important when planning a destination wedding in the Caribbean to NOT do it between June and November.

My boyfriend and I decided that May was too soon and that it was going to be difficult for his family to travel from Ecuador to Mexico. Then we looked at the options in my hometown in Colombia. We looked at prices and we were going to pay about the same but we could invite more people. His family only needs to take a 1 hour flight to Colombia. Cali is not a tourist destination and, it will be more difficult to entertain our out of town guests the days before the wedding. I'm still thinking what we will be doing those days. I love my City and I have an idea of good things to do in Cali but, I'm afraid that they will get bored.

I'm getting ready to start to blog about the 20-day Euro Trip that my boyfriend and I took last year. Starting on March 31st since that is the day that we traveled last year. I will try to post things exactly on the date that we were at those places. By the way, I will always call my fiancé my boyfriend. In Spanish we are boyfriend and girlfriend until we are married. There is a word for fiancé, prometido, but people never used it.

Sunset Sunday

This picture was taken at a sandbar close to Anna Maria Island, Florida. One thing I love about Florida's west coast are the sunsets. This day was one of the prettiest sunsets I've seen in my life. The colors of the photo are not retouched.

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 4 & Last

On our last day in Mexico we woke up early to take a last walk at the beach. It was sad to say good bye  to Playa del Carmen so quickly. After these pictures were taken, we got back to the room to get ready and left for the airport. 

The beach early in the morning

I bought this pic from the hotel photographers. It was taken from a parasail

That was our hotel in the middle

Our last pic in Playa del Carmen

Looking at these pictures makes me want to book a trip to Mexico ASAP. Jetblue suspended the Tampa to Cancun flight shortly after we returned from this trip.  I always make fun that this is an International Airport with no international flights. I think British airways now has direct flights to London and maybe Cayman Airways has a flight to Grand Cayman and that's it. I wanted to take a girls only trip before getting married. However, I have to pay for the wedding and honeymoon first before booking another trip. 

I once heard that pictures are "frozen happiness" and I think they really are. Mexico Lindo I will see you again and hopefully sooner than later.

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 3

We were only in Mexico for 3 nights but I knew that I had to go to Chichén Itzá one day even if it meant that I would miss a whole day of relaxing by the beach. The problem was that I left this day trip for our last full day in Mexico and the night before we had too many tequilas. There was no option to postpone our trip to visit the Mayan ruins. The bus picked us up at 7:00AM. The 3 hours in the bus were painful because I had the worst hangover of my life. I wont give the details of the hangover but I finally started to feel better when we arrived to Chichén Itzá. Just in time for the high heat and the walking tour of the ruins. It was all worth it, I was amazed by the pyramids. I expected them to be smaller and to be in worse shape. In 2007, the Kukulcan pyramid was declared one of the world new seven wonders. They don't let people climb the pyramids as they did just a few years ago.

Kukulcan Pyramid

El Caracol



My dad in 2006 going to the top of the pyramid


The tour that we chose also included a typical mexican lunch and a stop at one of the cenotes in the area. We forgot to take our bathing suits that day. The water looked nice even though we were told that they were used for human sacrifices.  Our tour was $99 included pick up and drop off at the hotel, breakfast in the bus, the entrance to Chichen Itza, lunch, a cenote visit, and a Corona. I can't remember the name of our tour but it was great. We booked them using the hotel's service desk. They picked up people from all the hotels in the area so if you need a tour your hotel will be able to find you a good company. I'm sure that we could have found a tour for less money but this was very nice and convinient.

One of our guides

The Cenote

We returned to the hotel at around 7:00 PM, had dinner with our other 2 friends who had spent their day in Xel-Ha snorkeling. From what I saw in their pictures this is a must do while in the area. I will definitely try to make another visit to the area and make sure that I see Xel-Ha, Tulum, and Xcaret.

Back at the hotel

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 2

On the second day in Mexico, I decided to go to the hotel spa for a body treatment. It was a massage and a scrub. After this relaxing way to start the day I went to the beach with one of my friends. We must have had oil left from the spa because we both got sun burned at the beach. After a few hours in the sun, we took the rental car to drive to Tulum. I was driving and I am used to agressive Latin American drivers, but I'm not used to speed bumps that were under intead of above the road level. When we got to Tulum it was already 4:00 PM and they didn't let us in to see the ruins. They closed at 4:30PM. We drove back to Playa del Carmen to see the town. We walked around the cutest church I've ever seen, 5th avenue,  bought souvenirs, and then stopped by Senor frogs for a drink. The bar was almost empty as well as most of the restaurants in the area. I'm sure the swaine flu had all the tourist away. We ordered one of the famous yard drink. We became friends with the bartenders and had a few more drinks that we had planned. Then we went to the hotel to have dinner with our other 2 friends and took advantage of the all-inclusive rate at the bar. 

At the beach

Playa del Carmen

The bar stools at senor frogs

Fun bar stools

This quote in spanish was in the ceiling at senor frogs: "to find your blue prince, you first have to kiss 1000 frogs"

The Yard

Our new friends

Our favorite bartender

One of many rounds of tequila shots

Playa del Carmen 2009, Day 1

Just 15 days before the following pictures were taken, I convinced 3 friends to go to Mexico for Memorial Day weekend. It was during the swine (H1N1) flu scare and the prices were very low. At the time, Jetblue had direct flights to Cancun from Tampa. We used the Jetblue website to book a vacation package. We each payed, on a holiday weekend, less than $370 for our flight, 3 nights at an all-inclusive 4-star hotel in Playa del Carmen and an additional $100 for the 4 days of rental car. We stayed at the Viva Wyndham Azteca. Playa del Carmen was about one hour from Cancun and a very easy drive from the Airport. I had seen pictures of Playa del Carmen before, but the beach that I was about to see was above any of my expectations. The first day we just relaxed at the beach, had dinner at the hotel, and went to bed early. Two of my friends went to Coco Bongo that night until 6:00AM. I wanted to use this trip to relax instead of coming back to work even more tired than when I left. 

Tampa to Cancun

The welcome sign at the airport

We didn't have a radio in the car but we used the ipod speakers and enjoyed the drive.

Tequila Corralejo

at the beach outside our hotel

Playa del Carmen

Looking at the Ocean

I'm curious to know how true are the news about the safety issues in Mexico. They compared it with the drug cartels in Colombia during the 1990s. Living in Colombia at that time was not easy, but we knew where to go and how to take care of yourself. There are always safe zones and places that nobody needs to see. I also believe that the media makes the news worse than they actually are. Mexicans were extremely nice and friendly during our stay. I hope that their tourism industry does not suffer from inadequate media coverage. Actually, Mexico was our first choice when we looking for places to do our wedding. One of my coworkers got married in Playa del Carmen and I loved the laid back theme and how her pictures came out. I decided not to do it in Mexico because I was afraid that our guests decided that it was dangerous to go. I would not put them in risk and since I don't live there I can't tell them where to go and how to be safe.

Jetblue doesn't fly direct from Tampa to Cancun since 2009, but I am sure that I will be back. There are many things to do and many places to visit in this area that I didn't get a chance to see during this trip.

Sunset Sunday

During 2009, Sunset beach became my favorite beach. It is close to Tampa, not as crowded as Clearwater, and Caddy's is close which means easy access to clean restrooms and ice cold drinks. When two of my best friends from Colombia came to see U2 in concert I took them to Sunset Beach. These are the pictures from that day.

Sunset Beach, Fl

At the end of a nice beach day

almost gone...

I love this picture. I think he is saying "Thank you" to the sun

The Sunshine State

After complaining for U2 having their concert in Miami on a Wednesday night, I found out that Luis Miguel, my all-time favorite singer will do a concert in Miami on a Thursday night!!! What happened to the days when the good concerts were on Friday and Saturday nights? Shakira also had her Orlando concert on a Tuesday night!!! I was falling asleep at work the next day (totally worth it but hard for a Tuesday night!!!). The same day that I found out about the concert, I received a pre-sale code for Luis Miguel's concert. When I saw the seats I could buy, I considered using 2 of my vacation days in Miami. I had until 10:00PM to buy the pre-sale tickets but I decided not to go. I can't use them in a City that I can easily go on a weekend. Furthermore, I am getting married in less than 5 months and requested 17 days off for the wedding and honeymoon. Days that I don't have which means I will be taking non-paid time off. Most people in the US (including me) only have 2 weeks of vacation and 5 days to get sick a year. There are only 5 or 6 holidays in the year!!!! Now you can understand why I refuse to spend my days in Miami. 

I love Miami, I love going there for the weekend and going out to a decent club. Tampa is nice to live, but the night life isn't good. I like the beaches, the lack of temptation during the week, and the short distances for the everyday life, but from time to time it would be nice to have a fancy lounge to go out. I'm actually planning my bachelorette party in Miami and more than a bachelorette I want to have a nice, relaxing weekend with my best (girl) friends. We will be staying at the Viceroy Hotel in downtown Miami. I heard their spa is amazing! We will be recovering at the pool and the spa during the day and going out at night. Everything in Miami looks like someone actually cared to make it unique and better than the place next door. 

Martinis @ Segafredo Brickell

@ The W hotel Bar, Ft Lauderdale

@ the W hotel (restaurant behind the aquarium)

@ the pool @ the ShoreClub Hotel

South Beach

I love getting out of town for the weekend but we have been saving for the wedding so we are very limited with our plans.  My boyfriend is taking me to Orlando tomorrow for an art show happening this weekend. The art show is actually in Winter Park but we will be staying in Orlando. We don't know if it will be good or not. I love it when he does things like that and surprises me with a plan to change our routine. This week I was going crazy trying to find an excuse to get away from our day to day. It is very expensive to stay at the beach this time of the year because spring break in Florida is THE highest season.  There are many things to do in Florida and I enjoy living here. I get bored easily but tomorrow we will be doing something different. If you need any travel advise for Florida just let me know and I will be happy to recommend some places to stay and things to do.

The Florida Aquarium in Tampa is one of my favorite local attractions

Busch Gardens, Tampa 

Epcot Center, Orlando, FL

Lesson Learned: Mojitos will fix just about anything