Travel Dilemmas Solved

Last month, I was ready to book 2 tickets to Paris using our Delta miles. One of my good friends from childhood lives there and she offered to host us (again) for a few days. The plan was simple, we would just spend one week in Paris and enjoy the City at a slow pace spending as very little money as possible. We were already making plans and looking at places that were close for short day trips. We even extended this simple trip into a 2 week trip to go to Berlin, Prague, and Budapest with my parents. They will be in Germany celebrating my dad's 70th birthday in May. The perfect excuse to visit new places.

When I went online to book our tickets, there were no more seats available for 60,000 miles. The same flights were 75,000 or 90,000 miles each. Sadly, we only had 60,000 miles each. As much as I've complained about American Airlines, their award program is the best! I found tickets to Europe for the same dates for 40,000 miles!

I was frustrated and disappointed until I saw tickets to Santiago, Chile available in May. Andre and I have never been to Chile. We booked our tickets on Sunday night! I have been reading Emily's and Kyle's blogs for a while to know that Chile is a beautiful Country that I want to visit. After all of those pictures it is time to see the places in person. We will be there in May for 11 days. Actually, we will be in Santiago for a couple of days and then we will fly to Buenos Aires for a few days. We will probably also make a short trip to Uruguay!!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

When I started traveling Buenos Aires was number 1 in my list of places that I wanted to go. I have 2 childhood friends in Buenos Aires. We might stay with them a few nights. Most of my best friends live far away!! It is almost a karma that I have. Thanks to the internet is easy to stay in touch. When I finally get to travel where they live and hug them is the best feeling in the world. I expect that most of this trip will involve many bottles of Chilean and Argentinean wine and great food. I just have to start counting days and try to wait (patiently?!) 

Lessons Learned from our First trip to Europe

One of the things I love most about traveling is planning the trip. I love to do the itinerary and decide how many days I will stay at each place. Europe was perfect to stay for a 6 month trip but we only had 20 days. It was the perfect length for this trip. I was exhausted by day 15 and living out of a shared suitcase can be hard. Most of the people I asked for travel advise said that I should to take it easy while we were in Europe and enjoy the places that we were going instead of rushing to see everything. I wanted to do this; however, how could I waste time if I had never been there? It was impossible to take it easy. I was fascinated to be there and the people that advised me to "take it easy" it was because they lived in Europe. On the other hand, I only had 20 days and my working schedule does not let me get away too often for so long. 

I have been buying multi-City tickets for a long time. I think it does save money when you are planning to visit more than 1 place.  Flying into one City and return from another just makes you buy 1 one-way ticket instead of a roundtrip ticket to return home. Traveling around Europe is very cheap thanks to all of the low-cost European airlines available. We flew easyjet and vueling to travel between France, Italy, and Spain. There are also good travel deals with RyanAir and depending on which county you want to fly you can find good prices flying AirBerlin for Germany, Turkish airways for flights between Turkey and the UK and so on. Be careful with the baggage fees since many of these airlines have a strict policy with bag weight and size.

We looked at train passes but they were very expensive compared to flying. The only inconvenience that I found from flying was that the airports are usually outside the City and many hours of your traveling days will be spent getting to and out of the airport. The security process was relatively quick and painless all over Europe. I will definitely consider buying a rail pass next time at least for some of the itineraries.  The stations are usually centrally located in the City and hopefully the scenery should be a lot nicer. The only train that we took was the EuroStar between London and Paris. It was 2.5 hours versus the 1 hour flight but, if you consider the travel times to and from the airport it does take you a lot more than taking the train.

Trains between France and Italy or Spain are usually overnight rides. If this is the situation, a 2 hour flight plus transfers from the airport would be a lot quicker (and cheaper). However, if you consider spending the night in the train it would save 1 night of hotel it might just be the same.

On my future trips to Europe, I will save 1 day at each destination to "take it easy". This probably means that I will sit at a cafe for a while and people watch or, if the weather is nice go to a nice park and do a picnic. I can't take it slow every day when I'm excited to see a new place. The double deck bus is also a good option because it facilitates getting to the top attractions without getting lost.

On my list of places to visit in Europe are Berlin and most of Germany, Prague, Turkey, Greece & the Greek islands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy (Milan, Florence, Pisa, Tuscany), France (Bordeaux & the French Riviera), and Southern Spain. I would go back to all of the places that we visited if only I had enough vacation days and frequent flyer miles!

For now, our next trip is to Colombia in less than 4 months to get married and to Hawaii for 10 days for our Honeymoon. We are still deciding which island will be our Honeymoon destination but planning is one of my favorite parts of the trip. I will be gone from work for 3 weeks. If I don't get fired for asking for so many days off, our following trip will be to Ecuador to visit my boyfriend's family. He hasn't been there in almost 2 years and if it was me I would be homesick. It does not matter where I go I have the same problem every time I go on vacation is that I come back more tired than when I left. Maybe the vacation I need is an all-inclusive resort with nothing to do but tan and read in a hammock. Maybe in 2012 for now I will be thinking of all the things to do in Hawaii :)

Return to the US

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 were delayed several hours at the airport because the airport was going to be closed. The gate attendants sent us to get a hotel voucher and we were called back to the gate. Nobody knew if the airport was going to remain open or closed. There was no free wii-fi at the aiport. I payed the 6 euros that they charged to log in for 30 minutes, check the news, and send an email to my family. After waiting hours at the airport for cancellations we were ready to go just to find out that our plane was delayed a few more hours due to mechanical reasons. We were upset, but not surprised that American Airlines has mechanical problems. We met other passengers that had driven or taken trains across Europe to fly from Spain. Spain was one of the few Countries that were not affected by the ash clouds. We had a multi-city ticket that allowed us to fly from the US to London and return from Madrid to the US. If the price of a round trip to London was significant lower at the time that we purchased we would have had to stay in Europe for at least one more week. It does sound like a good excuse to extend a vacation but I was taken non-paid time off at work and, my boyfriend had a new job waiting for him. It would have been a not so good way to stay in Europe longer. 

Needless to say, 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 for our already delayed flight. We finally arrived to Tampa at 2:00 AM when we were originally supposed to be back around 6:00 PM. We were lucky to be back on Sunday since we had to go to work early the next day. I was exhausted the whole day and a few more days after we were back. The jet-lag was not as bad as I expected it to be. It is worse when you fly the opposite time zone because you are not ready for bed. When you return from Europe you will be already 6 hours past your bed time. 

Euro Bills

Pound Sterling bills

Y El Paseo se Acabo (and the trip is over)

Day 3 in Madrid - Last full day in Europe

On our last full day in Madrid we had our friend take us around the City. We asked her to take us to Juan Valdez Cafe for a good cup of Colombian coffee. I have no idea which way we walked but it was not a short walk. We got to Juan Valdez and it was CLOSED!!!

Our personal tour guide took us on a walking tour of the Serrano and La Castellana neighborhoods and to Plaza Santa Ana. We had lunch at Lateral, a restaurant right across from the Plaza Santa Ana. This is probably one of my favorite restaurants now. The food was delicious and the Sangria too. The service was not great but this was true for ALL of the restaurants in Madrid. They treat you like they are doing you a favor. I believe it is because tipping is not a custom so servers don't have to work hard for their money.

There are always shoes hanging by electric cables - no matter in which City

Love Bocaditos (small bites)

Plaza Santa Ana

After lunch we walked to La Puerta del Sol and took some pictures around. We got in the train to another of Madrid's shopping districts. The problem with walking with a local is that I don't pay as much attention to were we are going. I asked for some shopping time since we were done with the sight-seeing that we had planned. I bought a carry-on bag especially for the "damage" that I was about to make. I had heard that shopping in Madrid was amazing. I ended up just buying the bag and a book!!! The bag was very useful for the following day but I was disappointed. I did not shop for a lot of things that I wanted earlier in the trip because I was afraid that I was going to run out of money or that we wouldn't have room in the bags for it.

Busy taking pictures 

At La Puerta del Sol

One of Madrid's symbols

The plan for the night was to go to a tablao to watch some typical spanish dancers. Flamenco is from the south of Spain but I there are shows everywhere. We took a nap and nobody woke us up!! When we woke up it was already too late for the show. I will have to keep singing the song just at Ceviche. Ceviche is my favorite restaurant in Tampa. They serve tapas, great sangria, and they have live music every night including flamenco.

The other song that I was singing all the time while we were in Spain was "El Toro y La Luna". I sing it all the time not just in Spain. Besides, Gypsy Kings is one of my favorite bands and the sing a version of this song. I added the song just in case anybody else likes it.

While we were in Madrid, most of Norther Europe flights were grounded due to an ash cloud coming from Iceland. If you do not remember the news, a volcano eruption in Iceland produced an ash cloud that moved towards Europe. Spain's airports were not closed but most of Europe's airports were. We went to bed not knowing if the cloud would be moving south. We wanted to stay to watch a Real Madrid soccer match the following day but, unfortunately we were worried about getting back to work. We had an early wake up time for the next day and I was guilty to waste the night but at the same time we needed to go to sleep for the long day ahead of us.

Madrid Day 2: QUE VIVA ESPAÑA!!

We had 2 full days in Madrid but there was a lot to see. We stated our day going to El Parque El Retiro. I was not to convinced to go see a park but after seeing it I know that this is a must see in Madrid. La Puerta de Alcala is right by it as well as El Museo del Prado. It was a nice warm day in Madrid perfect for walking. We decided not to go into any more museums and just enjoy the City. We just walked by El Museo del Prado, towards la Plaza de Cibeles. The street right before the plaza, Paseo del Prado, was full of yellow tulips. It was a beautiful sight. Someone (with a nice camera) asked us to take a picture of him and his family by the tulips. We asked him to do the same for us. I think these are the only 2 decent pictures with the 2 of us in it. Most people that you ask in the street don't take it well.

La Puerta de Alcala

A fountain at Parque el Retiro

Parque El Retiro

Parque El Retiro

Museo del Prado

Coolest trees ever

Museo del Prado

Obelisk by the Paseo del Prado

Tulips

Plaza de Cibeles & Palacio de Cibeles

Banco de Espana

After walking by la Plaza Cibeles, I was distracted and fell. I twisted my ankle and it made it difficult to walk at the same pace.  We kept walking towards la Plaza Colon when I saw a sculpture of one of my favorite artist: Fernando Botero. The Hard rock cafe was also by the plaza Colon. I bought my pins and we had lunch at a nearby place called Cafe y Te. It was not good and I definitely not recommend this place.

Cristobal Colon

Fernando Botero statue

someone got burned for doing that!!

After lunch we stopped by starbucks to have a coffee. We walked towards Plaza Espana where the statue of Don Quijote and Sancho and also the statue of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. From here we walked to the Templo de Debob. We took a break before walking to the Palacio Real. The palace is so big that was hard to get it in a picture. If I ever return to Madrid I would like to see it inside.

Plaza Espana - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Don Quijote & Sancho Pansa

Templo de Debob - Gift from Egypt to Spain

Palacio Real from Debob Temple

Taking a break

Palacio Real

Palacio Real

Catedral de la Almudena

Plaza Villa

We ate at El Museo del Jamon by la Plaza Mayor. We bought some souvenirs and headed back to rest for a while. We stayed home talking we couldn't walk anymore :)

Plaza Mayor

If you read the Venice post a few days ago, I had a song in my head all the time. In Spain I had a song too. Actually 2 songs. One that I love and wanted to hear live, and another one that is just a song about Spain that I've heard all of my life. It is a pasodoble that my parents love to dance and it is always played at the bullfights. I started singing them as a joke but, they are stuck in my head. The bad part is that I kept singing the same line and driving my boyfriend insane. Besides, I do not have a good voice!!! Plus I only know the chorus (minute 0:35). This song is very famous if you have never heard it and are planning a trip to Spain you will hear it.

VIVA ESPAÑA